Recently I've been re-reading"Journey of Souls" by Michael Newton Ph.D. The book has been around since the 90's, and there are several other books Dr. Newton wrote about his many years of research as well. Dr. Newton began as a hypnotherapist, and as he recounts, stumbled on a patient who "re-membered", from a transpersonal state, being in the spirit realm, between lives on earth.
He, and his colleagues worked with hundreds of people to explore the subject of life between life and to help people understand the "soul purposes" of incarnation. Although Dr. Newton passed away in 2016, his work is carried on by the Michael Newton Institute, which trains practitioners in between life therapy.
I have found his books enormously comforting as well as fascinating. Over and over his subjects recount leaving their bodies at death to return "home" to their Soul Groups - groups of souls that chose the lives they will incarnate in, together, over and over. It is as if a "soul group" is a kind of collective Soul, encompassing the individualities of its members, and ever growing and learning together. For those who are afraid of death, or are suffering the loss of a loved one, I urge you to read this book. I also offer two interviews with Michael Newton that I found on UTube.
I've been interested in the work of Dr. Michael Newton for many years, and was pleased to learn that on Thursday, October 10 at 6:30pm Unity of Tucson
will feature Richard Martini, author of Flipside, A Tourist’s Guide on How to Navigate the Afterlife. Richard is also an award winning film producer
and director. His mystical experiences initiated a search that led him to study, and eventually make a film, about his experiences, past life regression, and the work of Dr. Michael Newton. His documentary, also titled Flipside, is a chronicle of his investigation.
I found his video discussion about his
journey to "Flipside: a Tourist's Guide on How to Navigate the
Afterlife." (below) fascinating, very personal and genuine, and funny as well.........there's a companion video, with Scott De Tamble doing a "between life therapy session", which is very interesting as well. Mr. Martini's book contains transcripts of between life sessions, and interviews with therapists who have trained with Michael
Newton, as well as therapists who never heard of Dr. Newton's work, but experienced similar results.
In the 80's I did some past life regression work, both individually and with a group that used the tapes of Robert Monroe. I've often speculated on the experiences I had. Perhaps what made them seem credible was the "mundane-ness" of them. I have an excellent imagination, and consciously or unconsciously I'm capable of dreaming up scenarios even the Syfy channel would like. But my experiences under hypnosis were very simple - among them, a lifetime as a young foot solder, somewhere in the Middle East, whose most important memory was drinking beer with an admired older Captain. He was speared and died at about the age of 17. Another lifetime concerned a maid/nanny, poor and treated as very expendable, in 17th Century France. Perhaps these very humble, and rather sad, certainly powerless, lifetimes were shown to me in the course of that work because I needed to address the emotional issues involved in this lifetime, as the persona I am now.
I remember only one "regressive" experience I thought was inexplicable. I seemed to be a kind of primitive tribal shaman, who lived in a hut with a lot herbs and stones. I was old, and my sex didn't seem to have any meaning, I couldn't discern if I was a man or a woman. We were visited by a tall woman who was dressed in black, and she was paler than we were. I was in awe of her. She was a teacher of some kind, and essentially she showed me that pretty much everything I believed was not true, was naive. One thing she demonstrated was to take a very large crystal, and dematerialize it, as well as herself - and then reappear in a flash of brilliant light! Perhaps the most surprising part of this "regression" was at the end of the session. I was in a room with a lot of other people, and the woman I revered so much was lying on a bed. She was dying, and I could hear her thoughts...........which were about regret that her work was not yet finished. But I myself, along with the others present, were no longer physical, so "I", the person attending this gathering around this dying woman, must have been dead myself. Strange experience............... I'm looking forward to hearing him speak.
Back in the late 80's I belonged to a group that explored past life memory through group hypnosis (using tapes by Robert Monroe and the Monroe Institute), as well as individual sessions with a therapist. Many of the "regressions" were like film clips - I observed what was happening, without entirely understanding what the meaning of the scenes I saw meant. What was convincing about the experiences I had was how very mundane most of them were. I have a good imagination, and unconsciously or in a dream state can no doubt invent colorful stories about Atlantis or ancient Egypt.
But my regression sessions were none of that. A young soldier in some middle eastern time or country, whose most treasured experience was drinking beer with an admired captain, shortly before being speared and dying at the age of 17. A life in the 1700's as a French nanny, always in service to people to whom she was invisible and disposable, never having anything of her own. (It is strange how I always found French pronunciation easy). Many of the regression experiences were, seemingly, lifetimes (as I think the majority of humanity has also had throughout the ages) essentially lifetimes with very little freedom, one way or another. It may be these "regressions" arose because of my need to work on these issues in this time. Freedom is historically a very new idea, and for women, slaves, and various ethnic groups to be included in the equation, an even newer idea........perhaps I needed to see these imprints in order to live a more empowered life. Not to sound completely grim - there were also some inexplicable, and beautiful, regressive visions as well.
I wrote about Michael Newton a while back, a well known hypno-therapist who spent many years developing his work with what he calls "between life states". One of his best known books is Journey of Souls, and his therapy is now practiced internationally. I have never experienced regression of the kind he described, but I do find his work fascinating. I was pleased to learn recently, thanks to Darren's Blog about a recent movie by Richard Martini about Newton, other colleagues, and excerpts of interviews and regressions. The film maker describes the inception of his project on his blog Flipsidethefilm.blogspot.com:
"I began this project wanting to make a documentary about the Afterlife
from a spiritual perspective, with a number of points of view. When I
came across Michael Newton's work ("Journey of Souls") I
realized that if what he was saying was true, it was revolutionary. I
set about to either disprove or prove what he claimed; that 7000 of his
clients said the same things about the afterlife during a deep hypnosis
session, before he'd published his first book. So I chose 15 different
subjects and filmed them under deep hypnosis. And remarkably; the
confirmed his research. There are interviews with a number of
hypnotherapists who practice his technique - who are now in many
countries around the world. (You can find a Michael Newton trained
therapist near you at NewtonInstitute.Org).
This is not past life regression - this is way beyond that, where a
person gets to see why they chose their previous lives, why they chose
this life and what the two have in common."
I look forward to seeing the film, and applaud Mr. Martini for his work.
I woke up at around 5:00 this morning because I heard my cell phone ringing loudly. Not fully awake, I lumbered around looking for the darn thing. When I finally found it, it showed no history of any call whatsoever. So, awake now, I crawled back into bed, and picked up the book I'd been reading the previous night, which I opened to a page about how spirit guides contact their embodied students.....and I couldn't help but think, "well, if you're going to call, can you please leave a message?" That's one "wake up call" I'll remember!
"Journey of Souls" by Michael Newton Ph.D. has been around since the 90's, and there are several other books he's written about his many years of research as well. Dr. Newton began as a hypnotherapist, and as he recounts, stumbled on a patient who "re-membered", from a transpersonal state, being in the spirit realm, between lives on earth. He, and his colleagues, have since worked with hundreds of people to explore the subject, and the "between life therapy" he's developed aims to help people understand better the "soul purposes" of why they incarnated. Now retired, Dr. Newton has founded the Michael Newton Institute, which trains practitioners in past and between life therapy.
I confess, it's a strange book, written in such a dry, academic style, that I sometimes have to laugh, considering the vastness of the subject. But impossible to put down. And my own "wake up call" may very well be about getting back to work...........
