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Our Multi-Dimensional Nature as a Soul: We have pushed science to prolong life to the last possible moment. And while death is part of the natural cycle of life, western culture has gone to extremes to avoid a glimpse of it. The elderly are placed in nursing homes, the person with a fatal illness frequently lies in a hospital bed hooked up to tubes, respirators, and whatever else ... surrounded by an antiseptic environment entirely removed from life. Dr. Elizabeth Kubler-Ross, in her 1966 classic On Death and Dying, observed that the dying person usually cycles through periods of denial, bargaining for life extension, anger and depression before arriving at an enduring acceptance ... and the survivors often mirror those stages. In short ... despite spiritual faith, many people reel away from facing their inevitable fate because death is feared as a journey into the unknown, or worse, into oblivion. And yet the hope and preparation for an afterlife was evident even back into the days when Cro-Magnon man walked the earth, some 40,000–10,000 years ago. These peoples not uncommonly buried their dead with weapons and food, suggesting that they were preparing the deceased for another existence. But, as far as is known today, the earliest system for attempting to consciously understand death through experience was rooted in the Far East. Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras, written in the 4th century BC, described a series of disciplined practices through which the aspirant could penetrate into a conscious perception of the worlds above and behind; of the divine, and of past lives. Much later, the Tibetan Book of the Dead (or Bardo Thodol), written in the eighth century AD, consolidated the collective wisdom of generations of Tibetan holy men regarding the death process as the spirit entered into the interlife, the Bardo. The sages who contributed to the book believed that dying was an art, something that one could learn to do well. The first part, called Chikhai Bardo, describes the moment of death. The second part, Chonyid Bardo, deals with the states which supervene immediately after death. The third part, Sidpa Bardo, concerns the onset of the birth instinct and of prenatal events. The Tibetan Book of the Dead is really an instruction manual for the dying, or those who wish to anticipate that inevitability, and is traditionally read aloud to the dying to help them attain liberation. It guides a person to use the moment of death to recognize the nature of mind and attain liberation. Like the Tibetans, Western philosophers and visionaries also described a separation of body and spirit at death. Predating the Tibetan Book of the Dead by over 1,000 years, Plato’s Republic addressed the afterlife in “The Myth of Er.” Slain in battle, Er returned to life twelve days later as his body lay on the funeral pyre. Upon revival, he told those present of his experience of the afterlife. First Er said that his soul had left his body and he joined with a group of other souls. Together, they went to a place where there were passageways leading into the realms of the afterlife. Here the other spirits were held and judged by divine beings who could perceive everything that the soul had done while in its earthly body. Er was not judged; instead he was informed that it was not yet his time and that he must return to tell those in the physical realm what the world beyond was like. Er was a witness to the heroes of legend making their future life choices, noting, “Most curious was the spectacle—sad and laughable and strange; for the choice of the souls was in most cases based on their experience of a previous life.” He then accompanied those souls who had chosen their future lives as they were first brought to Clotho, who ... “... drew them within the revolution of the spindle impelled by her hand, thus ratifying the destiny of each; and then, when they were fastened to this, (they were carried) to Atropos, who spun the threads and made them irreversible, whence without turning round they passed beneath the throne of Necessity; and when they had all passed, they marched on in a scorching heat to the plain of Forgetfulness, which was a barren waste destitute of trees and verdure; and then towards evening they encamped by the river of Unmindfulness, whose water no vessel can hold; of this they were all obliged to drink a certain quantity, and those who were not saved by wisdom drank more than was necessary; and each one as he drank forgot all things. Now after they had gone to rest, about the middle of the night there was a thunderstorm and earthquake, and then in an instant they were driven upwards in all manner of ways to their birth, like stars shooting.” Plato’s tale, while it is clearly mythological, illustrates the sequence of near-death events that became familiar in later centuries. Christian mystics would later describe how, when near death from illness or accident, their spirits were guided by angels through a tour of hell and heaven and their actions were weighed. Their journeys often ended in a realm of light. Emanuel Swedenborg, the world’s pre-eminent scientist and scholar of his day, experienced a series of visions in the years 1744-1745 that culminated in an awakening ... it is said that he was able to consciously exist simultaneously in both the natural and the spiritual worlds. In one of his thirty volumes of theological work, Heaven and Hell, published in 1758, Swedenborg describes his means of achieving a spiritual state of awareness in a manner similar to the methods of entering hypnotic trance ... “The first experience, being taken out of the body, is like this. We are brought into a particular state that is halfway between sleep and waking. When we are in this state, it seems exactly as though we were awake; all our senses are as alert as they are when we are fully awake physically—sight, hearing, and strange to say, touch. These senses are more perfect than they can ever be during physical wakefulness. This is the state in which people have seen spirits and angels most vividly ... with hardly anything physical interfering. It is the state described as being taken out of the body and not knowing whether one is in the body or outside it.” He goes on to say that ... “We may gather that inwardly we are spirits from the fact that after we depart from our body, which happens when we die, we are still alive and just as human as ever. (I have talked) with almost all the people I have ever met during their physical lives, with some for a few hours, with some for weeks and months, and with some for years. ... I may add here that even while we are living in our bodies, each one of us is in a community with spirits as to our own spirits even though we are unaware of it.” Only recently has reincarnation and conscious entry into the interlife or our “life between lives” in the spirit world been subjected to any sort of systematic study. In 1975, 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 understanding of 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 dedicates 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 Drs. Dick Sutphen, Hazel Denning, Winifred Lucas, Helen Wambach, Edith Fiore, Joel Whitton, and Roger Woolger. Perhaps the most well known name to the general public is that of Dr. Brian Weiss who, in 1988, published Many Lives, Many Masters (which has since sold over 1.5 million copies). The technique these hypnotherapists utilized, Hypnotic Regression, can be likened to a type of “psychological archaeology” that may be applied to cut through time and “layers” of consciousness 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. Past Life Regression has been the subject of a number of popular books; there are societies of professionals who specialize in PLR but, by comparison, little has been documented of the spirit world accessible to consciousness following the death of past life until the publication of Journey of Souls and Destiny of Souls by Dr. Michael Newton. 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. The methodology employed by Dr. Newton was the use of a lengthy hypnotic induction that placed great emphasis upon “deepening” in sessions often lasting up to four hours. Through experience it was learned that the most effective means to usher a client into the interlife was through taking a past-life subject through the death of that life. Other possibilities, such as using an age regression technique—that is, taking the client back through memory to childhood, infancy, in utero, and then into the spirit world from which the soul entered the baby’s body—proved confusing for the majority of clients in the soul state. The likely reason for such disorientation is that this is not the “usual” means of spirit world entry for the soul, perhaps analogous to reading an intricately complex novel from back to front. The reports of people who have undergone Life Between Lives Spiritual Regression show remarkable consistency, but with individual differences. Major milestones of the journey—meeting with one’s spirit guide and soul group; discussions with a Council comprised of wise, elevated souls intimately familiar with one’s soul journey; preparations for future life selection—are reported by virtually everyone, yet the uniqueness of each soul’s journey is also very apparent. Without exception, however, it is reported that the spirit world is a place of love, kindness and compassion as well as one of order, planning and direction. Souls exist multi-dimensionally; that is, even as part of our soul’s energy has taken residence within our human body, the soul also maintains an active life in the spirit world. While soul memory is typically hidden from our human conscious awareness, it nevertheless influences the human brain, providing motivation for certain actions. And soul memory can be accessed in states of very deep trance; Spiritual Regression acts like a key to unlock our superconscious awareness as a soul. Once the soul joins the baby’s body, the soul mind must come into synchronization with the human brain. The soul mind and the baby have to get used to each other as partners. Under hypnosis, people report that the soul typically joins with their human host after the third month of pregnancy because by that time the physical brain is sufficiently developed for the soul mind to begin to align its own energy vibrations with the “circuitry” and wave patterns of the brain. Initially the soul is in the mind of the child, but separate, too, and melding is a delicate, slow process. The soul starts with a gentle probe, defining connections and gaps; the soul “fills in” to make the baby whole. The soul brings a comprehension of things; a recognition of the truth of what the brain sees. Gradually the baby comes to experience the soul as a friend ... a twin ... who is going to be a part of her. While beginning to fuse with the fetus in the womb, the soul “remembers” its immortal nature. But after birth, an amnesiac memory block sets in and the soul melds its character with the temporary human mind to produce a combination of traits for a new personality. A soul’s immortal character is influenced by all the attributes and temperament of the brain, which challenges the soul’s maturity. Good body and soul mergers don’t always happen ... sometimes the soul dominates and sometimes it is subordinated by the human brain. Souls don’t control the human mind; souls try, by their presence, to elevate the mind to see meaning in the world and to be receptive to morality—to give understanding. But if its inclinations and voice become over-ridden by the physical body or mind, or it is carried along on an emotional roller coaster in life, the soul can be subverted by its outer self. We are entrusted with our body to be an active participant in life, not a bystander. We must not lose sight of the idea that we accepted this sacred contract of life and this means that the roles we play on Earth are actually greater than ourselves. We are spiritual beings having a human experience. Making hasty judgments about a soul’s maturity based solely on behavioral traits has its pitfalls. The design plan of souls could include holding parts of their energy in reserve in some lives. Sometimes a negative trait is selected by an otherwise developed soul for special attention in a certain body. Yet the sheer will of our true Self has the power to rise in opposition to our weakness in character, especially during adversity. We have the freedom to remake our lives after any catastrophe if we are willing to take the responsibility to do so. More important than the events that test us in life is our reaction to these events and how we handle the consequences. By surviving different challenges, our soul identity is strengthened. The real lessons of life are learned by recognizing and coming to terms with being human. There are souls who shed their body form completely at the moment of death. However, many souls with physical and emotional scars from life carry the imprint of this damaged energy back home on the etheric body. Regardless of the specific energy treatment received by the soul at the gateway to the spirit world, most all returning souls will continue on to some sort of healing station before finally joining their spirit guide and soul group. Every human being has at least one senior, or a higher master guide, assigned to their soul since the soul was first created. These advanced souls can function effectively in a multi-dimensional sense, functioning as a spiritual guide for members of their own groups and still incarnate to finish personal lessons as well as directly assist members of their company on the Earth plane. It should be noted that spiritual regression clients do not report seeing earthly religious deities in the spirit world (such as Jesus Christ, the Buddha, Mohammad or Krishna) though it is not uncommon that souls will initially confuse their guide for one of these Holy Beings. The spirit world is reported as comprised of highly advanced non-reincarnating soul specialists who regulate the work of advancement for the souls in their care. A soul’s closest connection with the divine is with their personal spirit guide and members of a Council of benevolent elevated beings who monitor the affairs of each soul. Additionally, souls from Earth often feel and sense the presence of a God-like Oversoul or Source emanating from above their counselors. Advanced subjects talk about the time of conjunction when they will join the “Most Sacred Ones.” In this sphere of dense purple light, there is an all-knowing Presence. Typically people in deep trance do not like to use the word “God” when describing a higher Presence, which they feel more than see in the spirit world. They prefer to use such words as Source, or Oversoul, because the word God has become too personalized on Earth. Some describe the Oneness or Presence as where the energy of new souls is sparked off the Oversoul. The Presence is pluralized in their minds as a part of the many divine forces in the spirit world with infinite knowledge. It is a divinity of many who are one. What has been described here is only the barest of a sketch of the beauty, harmony, power, intelligence, compassion and love that awaits us in the spirit world. But one thing is certain ... The meaning behind the existence of each individual has been planned in advance to allow all Souls to come into their physical incarnations with a purpose. Goals are originated, in part, by karmic patterns from former lives and, in part, by specific lessons relating to the ambitions of that Soul. These objectives are established in concert with a Soul’s spiritual peers, personal guide(s) and a Council of enlightened spiritual Elders. For whatever reason, we seem to be entering a new age of spiritual enlightenment in human history in which, with increasing frequency, people are seeking different approaches to exposing their immortal minds. A significant catalyst in this process is Life Between Lives Spiritual Regression. For more information about this method of self-discovery, refer to the Society for Spiritual Regression’s website: www.spiritualregression.org or contact Dr. Roffey at www.InnervisionPC.org. Art Roffey, Ph.D. is a licensed psychologist, past-life regression practitioner, life between lives hypnotherapist and Vice President of the Society for Spiritual Regression. He is the founding Director of Innervision, P.C. in West Bloomfield, MI. He can be reached at 248-865-9416 or through his website, www.InnervisionPC.org. Michael Newton, Ph.D. has been a counseling psychologist, master hypnotherapist, and teacher for more than forty years. Now retired from active practice, he is the author of the best-sellers Journey of Souls and Destiny of Souls and, most recently, Life Between Lives: Hypnotherapy for Spiritual Regression. He is an international lecturer and has appeared on numerous radio and television talk shows and cable TV’s Discovery Channel. He is the founder of the Society for Spiritual Regression, a professional organization dedicated to furthering research and advances in the practice of Life Between Lives hypnotherapy. Website: www.spiritualregression.org. |
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