Life Between Lives Session
Life Between Lives Hypnotherapy (LBL) is an advanced technique that utilizes deep states of hypnosis to access your memories of your experiences as a soul. In normal waking consiousness these memories are hidden, but deep trance permits a connection to be made so that soul memories can be re-experienced while in human form. LBL sessions are extremely profound and potentially life changing, so it is usual for the client and therapist to set a side a significant part of the day to work together. The client should expect to be in trance for about four hours. The LBL session is usually experienced as a journey, remembering the trip back "home" after a previous incarnation. Therefore, part of the preparation should focus on the experience of a past life regression to familiarize the client with this type of work. It is often surprising how quickly the journey is completed because, when in trance, time becomes very elastic and non-linear. LBL clients may choose to read Michael Newton's books in advance of the session, but this is not required.
The length of an LBL session allows for the therapist and client to really become familiar with each other and to build up rapport so that the journey to the spirit world will be one of collaboration and cooperation. It is important to ensure that all clients' questions and doubts are addressed so that the unconscious mind, which is going to do all the work, is fully satisfied and can relax and be comfortable with the process. Hypnosis is not something that another person does to you without your cooperation; it is a collaborative effort. Therefore, it is essential that your mind is satisfied concerning the safety of the procedure with no nagging, lingering unanswered questions remaining prior to beginning.
People who are already familiar with trance tend to enter into the hypnotic state more rapidly and with greater depth than those encountering this altered state of consciousness for the first time. For this reason, it is recommended that LBL clients practice and prepare with their therapist in a way which ensures that the client is able to relax into hypnosis easily. This can be achieved by practicing with meditation tapes or CDs and also by arranging to experience hypnosis with a local therapist. Obviously time and distance play a part in the practicalities of preparation and whether or not it is possible for a client to visit their LBL therapist for a session or two prior to their LBL. However, it is highly recommended that clients for LBL have experienced a successful past life regression before attending their LBL session. Life Between Lives hypnotherapy is not a journey to be rushed, or fit in with the other demands of a busy life. Clients who prepare with their therapist usually experience the most profound and life changing journeys.
You might wonder whether taking this journey into the memory store of your life as a spirit might result in dissatisfaction with your current earthly travels. Experience shows that it is usually the reverse. Knowledge and understanding of our purpose here on earth and the goals we set out to achieve makes LBL clients renew their commitment to complete the remainder of this incarnation with energy, understanding and grace. During the LBL session individuals derive an enhanced understanding of why they have taken birth, why they have chosen to face the challenges that have arisen during the course of this life, and what soul lessons are being fulfilled by passing through these experiences. Through an encounter with one's "Council of Elders" and a visitation to what some have termed "The Place of Life Selection" it is possible for clients to understand that our present human incarnation, like those which preceded it, is a precious opportunity for spiritual evolution. As a result, people return to wakeful consciousness with a deeper commitment to live out their life purpose. The unique opportunity of their current incarnation and the spiritual evolution that may be achieved can be met head on with excitement and understanding.
The Life Between Lives session will be structured to meet the clients needs, dwelling on those areas that require a little more work and ensuring that client's "big life questions" are satisfactorily answered during the course of the LBL journey. Generally speaking, the session will include a long and gentle trance induction designed to ensure that sufficient trance depth is achieved. Then clients can expect to experience a past life regression which will act a springboard to the Life Between Lives state. Therapists will usually either provide a recording or a transcript of the session for you to take home.
How to prepare for your Life Between Lives session
Preparation should be commenced well before the planned date of your LBL session. Therefore, if you have a date or time of the year in mind, it is best to contact your chosen therapist and start to make arrangements well in advance.
The most successful Life Between Lives sessions are experienced by clients who are familiar with hypnosis and who have experienced at least one Past Life Regression. Trancework at this level requires deep relaxation, the ability to allow the conscious mind to take a back seat, but still remain passively in the background to interpret the content of the LBL. The ability to concentrate for long periods of time is also a necessary skill that comes with practice. Past Life Regression (PLR) is a part of the LBL process and so experiencing a PLR helps clients to navigate and talk fluently about the their experiences while in a trance state.
Do not plan to have your Life Between Lives session when you are experiencing a time in your life of great physical or emotional stress. Your chosen therapist may recommend some other treatment for you so you can move towards your planned Life Between Lives journey at a future date.
Prepare your body by nurturing it well. A good breakfast is important to keep energy levels high during your session. Your Life Between Lives session should be a time when you shut off the outside world and your everyday life so make sure you give yourself the space to enjoy your session.
Your chosen therapist will talk you through other aspects of preparation once you have booked your session.
What to bring to your session
Life Between Lives therapists generally request clients to bring the following items with them to their session. Please check with your therapist to be sure.
A "Cast of Characters" List
This list will introduce your Life Between Lives therapist to the most significant people who have touched your life. This familiarization will be helpful for your therapist to reference should some of these people from your present life "show up" (in a different body or spiritual state, of course) while you are experiencing the past-life or between-life portions of your regression session.
The Cast of Characters List consists of a typed sheet listing the first names and relationship to you of people who have significantly impacted your life. These individuals may have had a significantly positive or negative influence; they may be alive or dead at the time of your session; they may be individuals whom you knew at an earlier stage of your life but are no longer interacting with you. Such a list typically includes relatives, lovers, best friends (or antagonists), and teachers. The list should be as condensed as possible, including only the most significant people, rarely consisting of more than ten names. Also, include four adjectives that describe their personality as you perceive them.
For example: John - First Boyfriend: Sensitive, Intelligent, Eccentric, Jealous
Audio Tapes or Digital voice recorder
It is highly recommended that your Life Between Lives session be taped or recorded. Your Life Between Lives hypnotherapist will advise you what recording facilities are available. Some therapists can record your session and put it onto a CD or MP3 format – please check before your session. Though people generally have excellent recall of what transpires during their regression session, it is always nice to have an audio taped version as well. This also assists you in immersing yourself into your session without a part of your mind worrying, "Will I remember this?"
An additional reminder... it is best to be clear headed prior to undergoing hypnotic work so coffee or other stimulants should be avoided. A calm, focused mind is essential for a rewarding regression or Life Between Lives session. Letting go of preconceptions, expectations and previous experiences or knowledge will allow you to have a genuine experience. In fact, the ability to let go and simply be with and in the experience is a hallmark of a significant session. You may wish to spend time in meditation, prayer or use guided imagery and relaxation before your LBL session.
The Historical Precedents to Life-Between-Lives Regression
For millennia mystics have accessed states of consciousness, spiritual understanding, and profound inner encounters with the Divine that were experienced or thought attainable by a rare few. For the majority, spirituality was consigned to prayer, reading from holy books, participation in religious services and ceremonies, and the hope that the afterlife would bring true and everlasting awakening. And yet, if we are all created in the same likeness, if we were apportioned a spark of divinity at the time of our creation, why is it that spiritual realization is assumed to be available only to a few, and not to the rest?
Perhaps 40 years ago it might have been difficult to find an acceptable answer to this question. But since that time much has changed. In 1977, Dr. Raymond Moody published the international best seller Life After Life which summarized his findings derived from hundreds of interviews with men and women who were revived following clinical death. His subjects repeatedly described experiences of being out-of-body, traveling through a dark tunnel to a place of great peace and tranquility, and an encounter with one or several brilliant beings of light whose very presence engendered feelings of indescribable love and comfort. Since then, largely due to advances in emergency medical intervention, tens of thousands of people have been pronounced clinically dead only to return to live and breathe again. Truly re-born, a significant percentage of these individuals retained conscious memory of their soul's out-of-body experiences. Since Dr. Moody's landmark findings other researchers such as Drs. Kenneth Ring, Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, and Gary Schwartz have also made important contributions to further understand the Near-Death Experience (NDE).
Another approach to the study of our own multi-dimensional nature has been advanced through practitioners of Out-of-Body Exploration (OBE). Robert Monroe, in his first book (Journeys out of the Body, 1971) recorded his own OBEs over three decades, providing further details about the far reaches of human consciousness. He later founded The Monroe Institute which dedicated itself to education, exploration, and research into practical methods of expanding consciousness into realms beyond the physical creation. Other researchers such as William Buhlman, Robert Peterson, and Charles Tart have offered additional theory and methods of how practitioners can accomplish self-initiated OBEs.
Paralleling these developments are the contributions made by hypnotherapists who specialized in Past Life Regression (PLR) such as Dick Sutphen, Hazel Denning, Winifred Lucas, Helen Wambach, Edith Fiore, Joel Whitton, and Roger Woolger. Perhaps the most well known of these pioneers is Dr. Brian Weiss who, in 1988, published Many Lives, Many Masters. The technique these hypnotherapists utilized, Hypnotic Regression, can be likened to a type of "psychological archaeology" that may be applied to cut vertically through time or horizontally through "layers" of consciousnesss" to promote within clients a deeper, more complete understanding of themselves as spiritual beings engaged in a physical experience. Hypnotic Regression permits access to memories that are not limited to the brief span of time that consciousness has occupied the present physical body. These include remembrance of past lives lived and of the experiences and lessons accrued in what has been termed "Between Life" states.
Regression to Life Between Lives (LBL) is a technique developed by Dr. Michael Newton and is described in his books, Journey of Souls and Destiny of Souls. These books summarize Dr. Newton's findings with clients who have been hypnotized into a super-conscious state where it is possible to "see" into the spirit world. Based upon his hypnotic regressions with over 7,000 LBL clients, Dr. Newton has described a realm of spirit which is consistent with, yet far more elaborated, than that found in the NDE and OBE literature. His writings are among the most significant, in terms of both the depth and inspiration, of any you will find in the metaphysical and spiritual literature regarding the Path of the Soul and life after death. Dr. Newton writes in the Conclusions to Journey of Souls, "To those readers who find the material offered in this book too unprecedented to accept, I would hope for one thing. If you carry away nothing except the idea you have a permanent identity worth finding, I will have accomplished a great deal."