Exploring the Eternal Soul - Insights from the Life Between Lives

By Andy Tomlinson

 What happens after death?

Follow the fascinating journey of a group of ordinary people who have been regressed though a past life and into the afterlife. Using very deep hypnosis the most amazing soul memories surface of a spirit world that waits us all. Piece by piece the book uncovers each step of the journey and is full of illumin

• Language: English
• Publisher: From The Heart Press
• Release date: Dec 16, 2017
• ISBN: 9780956788764

Book preview

Exploring The Eternal Soul

Insights From The Life Between Lives

Andy Tomlinson

Contents

Preface

The Individual Section

Introduction

Laying the foundations; the reliability of between lives material; the mechanics of between lives regression; progressing between lives research; the presentation of transcripts.

Chapter 1 Towards the Light

The three realms; leaving the body; welcoming parties; the tunnel.

Chapter 2 Becoming Whole Again

Healing; delayering; dealing with trauma; special rest; reintegrating soul energy.

Chapter 3 Reviewing Past Lives

Soul perspective; solitary reflections; spirit guide reviews; the library of life books; reviews with the Elders.

Chapter 4 Soul Groups

Soul mates; soul experience; group dynamics; spirit guides.

Chapter 5 Specialist Activities

Healers, guides and teachers; intellectual pursuits; working with energy.

Chapter 6 Planning the Next Life

Planning with other souls; single life previews; multiple  choice previews; planning with the Elders; recaps, reminders and triggers.

Chapter 7 Karmic Dynamics

Learning, experience and growth; the role of free will; emotional lessons and specialist skills; altruistic lives.

Chapter 8 Returning to Incarnation

Selecting energies, emotions and strengths; embarkation and relayering; merging with the body; the veil of amnesia.

Conclusion

Guidance and support; subject feedback; final thoughts.

The Universal Section

Introduction

Moving into the universal; the mechanism of universal research: presentation of the transcripts

Chapter 1 Unusual Soul Behavior

Trapped energies, fragments and imprints; attachment of trapped energies; soul fragmentation; multiple incarnations; walk-ins; shared soul memories and projections; carrying over body traumas and physical characteristics; death-points and suicides; demonic beings.

Chapter 2 Soul Development

The purpose of reincarnation; human versus animal souls; soul birthing and the recycling of experience; reuniting with the Source; development during the reincarnation cycle; damaged, disoriented and impetuous souls; planes, levels and aspects; post-reincarnation development; experiencing other planets.

Chapter 3 Humanity’s Past and Future

The emergence of the human race; lost civilizations; the soul logistics of population increase; humanity's present problems and possible futures.

Chapter 4 Reality and Time

Creating our own reality; the nature of time and parallel dimensions.

Conclusion

Subject feedback; summary; final messages

Appendix

Appendix  1 Between Lives

The history; research details; questions used for the subject feedback; comparison with other between lives pioneers. 

Appendix 2 The Universal

More about the subjects; the questions; the sessions; details about the sources; how the information was processed; the research questions.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       

Glossary

Source References

Bibliography

The Author

Further Reading

PREFACE

I have been a past life and regression therapist for over twenty years and have helped hundreds of clients to overcome various psychological problems, including allowing them a glimpse of death following a past life.

In 2003 I came across the work of other past life pioneers who had regressed people beyond a past life and into the life between lives. This was my inspiration to start on the path of becoming a life between lives regression therapist myself. In 2006 my first book Healing the Eternal Soul was published, which included a chapter on life between lives regression. As I was writing it I knew that this was an area I wanted to expand into a full book. I mentioned this to a close colleague called Ian Lawton who had just completed writing a book called The Book of the Soul. We had the idea of working together. Ian would add his analytic and research ability, and I would add my life between lives knowledge and skills.

This book arose from that research and covers the individual experience of ordinary people who have had a life between lives regression. It explores the incredible world that awaits us all following physical death. New and exciting information from the life between lives is identified as this territory is further explored and charted. The research went further by asking structured questions on a wide range of subjects to the evolved spirits of light encountered during the regression. New techniques were developed to tap into this incredible universal knowledge.

I conducted the life between lives regressions and Ian took the lead producing the questions, the analysis of the transcripts and the book outline. I need to thank him for his amazing skills. Initially we wanted to publish all the research in one book, but for various reasons decided to publish it in two books – Exploring the Eternal Soul by myself on the individual experience, and The Wisdom of the Soul by Ian on the universal experience.

Early in 2018 I met with Ian and was told that The Wisdom of the Soul was no longer being published. I was given permission to use his analysis and book outline together with the transcripts. I was delighted to take this amazing information and bring it together into one book as originally intended.

I decided to keep the existing name of Exploring the Eternal Soul because it is well established. Two sections are used, one on the individual as originally published, and a new one on the universal. The book cover has been changed to give the book a different feel and energy. The image is based on a wonderful painting produced for the book by friend and artist Sanja Jovic,

I am aware that the vibrations of earth have risen since 2012, as the veil to the spirit world has thinned and new and deeper information about the soul is becoming available. I have put a few comments in the book to reflect this, but to do it full justice a follow-on book is needed.

I would like to thank the subjects for giving their time generously and providing feedback afterwards. They showed a good deal of courage and selflessness in sharing their experiences with the world. I would like to express my sincere gratitude to all of them. And my thanks to Sanja Jovic for the cover image from her painting, and to Ian Lawton for his amazing research analysis and support. Finally to the Elders and various evolved spiritual beings that provided information in the universal section.

If this book inspires readers to explore their own between lives experiences then a list of professionally trained therapists trained by the Academy I created can be found on the website: www.regressionassociation.com.

THE INDIVIDUAL SECTION

INTRODUCTION

I want to know what sustains you from the inside when all else falls away. I want to know if you can be alone with yourself, and if you truly like the company you keep in the empty moments.

Mountain Dreamer, Oriah Indian elder

Laying the Foundations

The idea we have past lives is becoming more widespread and an increasing number of people are having their own experience. The therapists who offer past life regression frequently use hypnotic trance. This enables past life memories to quickly surface into conscious awareness, often with amazing clarity.

Skeptics say that past life memories are simply the product of the ability of the human imagination to construct a plausible story. The necessary information may have been obtained by perfectly normal means over the course of the person’s lifetime. They may also point out factual inaccuracies. However, this is too slight a dismissal of such a complex phenomenon.

There are a number of reasons to take past life memories seriously. First, a considerable number of independently investigated cases have been published in which people have recalled information that has been subsequently verified. Often this information is obscure and so detailed about the period of the past life that it is unlikely to have been obtained by normal means. Also, the circumstances of many of these cases have been fully investigated without any signs of deliberate deception.

Another reason is the professionalism of past life therapists. Some skeptics suggest the therapists are unprofessional and give leading suggestions to clients because they believe in reincarnation themselves. This is a long way from the truth. Many pioneers in the 1960s and early 70s were professionally trained psychologists and psychiatrists. The Americans include Michael Newton, Morris Netherton, Edith Fiore, Helen Wambach and Brian Weiss. The others include Briton Roger Woolger, Canadian Joel Whitton, Australian Peter Ramster and Dutchman Hans TenDam. Nearly all described how they had become atheists while studying at university. Using conventional hypnosis to regress their clients back into childhood they experimentally stumbled upon what appeared to be past lives. Without exception they came to believe in their authenticity because of the incredible therapeutic effects produced by their recall. Some clients who failed to respond to conventional therapies over many years made dramatic improvements after only a few sessions.

Skeptics may suggest that people only remember past lives of being famous and this is because of their ego. However, this is incorrect because many recalled past lives are as ordinary people in the cultural conditions that have prevailed throughout human history. In some cases the past lives are nasty, brutal and short. Importantly all the past lives are significant to the person experiencing it. Often they report a full range of emotions including fear, anger and sadness as the past life is reported. This strongly contradicts any suggestion these are mere fantasies.

The final area that needs to be examined is the research into children who spontaneously remember past lives. Professor Ian Stevenson and his team at the University of Virginia have investigated and documented thousands of cases in which children’s reports of past lives were subsequently verified. Often the information was so obscure it could not be explained away except through reincarnation. For example, one five-year-old child reported 49 specific details of a past life experience that was later verified by at least two independent witnesses who knew the past-life person. This research, together with all the other evidence, provides a compelling case that past lives are to be taken seriously.

The Reliability of Between Lives Material

The obvious question is ‘What happens between lives?’ In a life between lives regression, or as it’s often called between lives regression, clients report there is a transition to the light following a past life death. The descriptions are often of looking back at the scene below or quickly moving to the light. If the past life death has been traumatic, such as from a battle, execution or accident, many of these harsh memories are still present. Healing and rest is offered in the afterlife. At some point a review of the past life takes place, often with a spirit guide. This is an evolved soul that has been overseeing the past life.

At a later point the narrative moves to meeting a soul group. These are souls that work together and often jointly reincarnate on some meaningful work. The highlight during the between lives is meeting the Elders, souls who have attained a level of experience and wisdom that does not require them to physically reincarnate. They review the progress of the soul before them and can discuss aspects of their past lives until an understanding is reached about what is expected for the next life. Achieved with love, compassion and the participation of the soul, it leads to the next physical incarnation having a purpose.

So how reliable is this information? Between lives regression has been progressively developed over the last 20 years, but particularly so over the last decade. The history is reviewed in the Appendix. Some of the pioneers include Joel Whitton, Helen Wambach, Dolores Cannon, Peter Ramsden and Michael Newton. Many of them stumbled upon the between lives by issuing imprecise commands to a client during a past life, and amazingly found them talking about soul memories between lives. Thousands of people have now had their own between lives experience guided by the pioneers or other between lives therapists trained by them. The between lives reports show a remarkable consistency, but what is particularly important is that many of the people in these between lives regressions had no prior knowledge that any experience existed between lives. They also had beliefs ranging from atheism through all the world’s major religions. This is an important point to note, that the clients’ previous belief seems to make no difference to the nature of their between lives experience.

An area that needs to be discussed concerns subjective leading by the pioneers or between lives therapists. The narrative in the transcripts that have been used throughout this book will show the open type of questions that are used. Under hypnosis clients respond to questions extremely literally, much like a computer program. In other words, the client will only answer the question given. Deliberate falsification of information is virtually impossible, unless the client is not really in trance, and a skilled therapist can tell when that is the case. A person in deep trance cannot just be directed to experience something unless they have the information to respond with. Most importantly much of the information is entirely new to the client yet relevant to their present life context.

Between lives testimony is consistent from what now amounts to thousands of clients. The strength lies in that it comes from countless ordinary men and women. Many people think that this is the most profound source of spiritual wisdom that has ever been available to humanity.

The Mechanics of Between Lives Regression

The techniques used in between lives regression are detailed in my book Healing the Eternal Soul. Let me take a moment to summarize how the process works. Hypnosis has traditionally been the approach to regress into past lives. Only a light level of trance is needed and this can be achieved with a short hypnosis induction, meditation or similar techniques. For a between lives regression clients need to be in a deeper level of trance, often the theta state that is experienced just before entering sleep. At this level the client’s conscious mind is inactive and their intuition link opens fully to the between lives memories. So the normal way of entering the between lives is from a past life while in deep hypnosis.

Of course the therapist needs to be able to assess the depth of trance and although this is not an exact science there are physical pointers. As a client goes deeper into trance their blood circulation slows and breathing becomes shallower. When talking there is a delay in answering questions and a literal response given. However, when a client starts to talk some trance depth is lost. Although it is possible to deepen the trance during the between lives, once the intuitive link has been established it tends to remain in place even for lighter levels of trance. The important thing for the therapist is to spot if a client has lost the intuitive link and drifted to a conscious level. This is achieved by checking that responses to questions are literal and assessing the quality of the voice. In some cases a client will even interrupt the session themselves to say that their conscious mind has become active.

The most common problem that can block a between lives regression is when a client does not achieve deep trance. Some 15 percent of the population can experience this difficulty. However, repeated exposure to hypnosis does deepen the experience and some clients benefit from using a self-hypnosis CD. Occasionally personal emotional issues arise and of course these need to be cleared before a between lives regression can take place. At a spiritual level a block can come from the client’s spirit guide. Some or all of the between lives experience may be stopped because the client’s conscious mind is not yet ready to receive the secrets of the soul. To give too much information away would detract from their ability to use their free will in current life situations and learn from it. This tends to happen more for younger clients or those that are in the middle of a difficult life situation. Provided trance depth has previously been created and the intuitive link has been established, most sessions exploring the between lives can continue for in excess of two hours without problems.

Progressing Between Lives Research

I have taken hundreds of people, mainly from the UK, Germany, Holland and Scandinavia, through between lives regressions. For research one consideration in picking subjects is to avoid criticism that the subject’s previous knowledge influenced the content of their experience. This is particularly the case with Newton’s between lives books that have sold in the hundreds of thousands and are widely available. So for this reason some of the subjects for the research were deliberately picked because they had not read any between lives or similar type of book. This was achieved from a questionnaire about their prior knowledge.

Based on this information a final selection of 15 between lives cases were ranked into different categories. Five came from each of the following categories:

High: They had previously read about the between lives in some detail, and retained a significant amount of that information.

Medium: They had previously read about the between lives some years ago and forgotten the details.

Low: They had not previously heard or read about the between lives, or had very limited prior exposure.

We will see from the case study narratives in the book that the subjects with a high or medium level of prior knowledge sometimes came up with new information. This suggests their sessions were not totally influenced by their prior knowledge. Far more important, those who had no prior knowledge still described the same underlying elements of the experience. In fact some of the most interesting and detailed accounts came from these subjects.

The research approach utilized is different from other between lives pioneers. First, the subjects came mainly from Europe rather than North America. Second, and more important, each subject was given a pseudonym and their narrative follows them through all the stages of the between lives experience. This allows for comparisons to be made between the different between lives to give a broader and more interesting presentation of the experience. The Appendix has a tabular summary that shows all the subjects’ personal details, the major elements of their between lives account, and the order of these events. This approach also allows the subjects to give their feedback of the experience and its effect on them, which is shown in chapter 9. So using multiple subject narratives allows for a more in-depth presentation of this type of experience.

The research subjects were taken to their last between lives experience. If a client needed to experience more on another occasion they were guided to pick up the experience again to further explore it. Of course if a different past life is used, the following between lives will then be different to the first. To demonstrate this one of the subjects was given two between lives sessions from different past lives and the contrasting aspects were examined. This provided a useful insight that has not been addressed before.

Sometimes when a client is regressed into a past life it may not be their most recent one. This sometimes happens when the client’s higher self deems it appropriate. The past life that comes to the surface always seems to contain information more relevant to the client’s current life. When this happens with a client I normally switch timeframes from the middle of one between lives with an instruction to move to the planning process in the most recent between lives. Then the client can benefit from finding out about the life planning for their current life. However, for a few of the subjects I deliberately left them in the original between lives to provide a research contrast. This is an advantage of using a narrative approach.

Hopefully these new ways of covering the experience itself will build on the work of Newton and the other pioneers, and also help to progress our collective understanding of what is in most cases a profound and moving experience.

The Presentation of Transcripts

Not all parts of the case studies have been presented, because some parts were less detailed or revealing than others. Those that have been quoted make for the most interesting reading. Often my questions and the answers are shown in full, but where my questions are less important only the subject’s answers are used. Any omissions are marked by dots. A difficulty with the subjects in trance is that they sometimes repeat themselves, and their grammar can be poor, particularly for those who did not have English as their first language. So some minor adjustments have been made to improve the readability. For clarification I have occasionally added some of my own comments in square brackets. The overriding intent has been to present transcripts that are readable and yet as accurate as possible to the original content.

CHAPTER 1 - TOWARDS THE LIGHT

Death is a favor to us but our scales have lost their balance. We are just a midair flight of golden wine.

Muhammad Hafiz, Persia, 14th century

What happens after death? Until recently humanity has relied on the various religious and esoteric traditions to provide the answers. The original purpose of these was to help the spiritual development of different cultures at different periods of humanity’s history. At a deeper level, they all have an important spiritual message that is very similar, often referred to as the Ancient Wisdom. However, when it comes to providing information about what happens after death, these traditions have unfortunately provided all sorts of contradictions and confusion. There are descriptions of heavens, hells, bardos, gods, angels, demons and the trials and tribulations to be overcome. The problem with many of these traditional views of death is that they contain widespread distortions, however pure and wise their original sources might have been. Given these contradictions no particular tradition will be used for a comparison with the between lives experience.

However, it is useful to briefly mention near-death reports. These often happen following a heart attack and last until the person is resuscitated. Considerable evidence has been accumulated from these experiences. A remarkable example is the research of cardiologist Dr Pim van Lommel and his colleagues from the Rijnstate Hospital in Arnhem, Holland. They investigated the experiences of 344 heart patients resuscitated following a cardiac arrest over a 13-year period. All had been clinically dead at some point during treatment. Sixty-two of them reported a near-death experience, with 41 describing an experience which included traveling in a tunnel, reaching a light and meeting relatives. During their near-death experience many patients had no electrical activity of the brain. This meant that their memory recall of near-death experience could not be explained by traditional scientific explanations. Further investigation concluded medical factors could not account for these experiences either. Given the importance of this modern evidence a comparison between near-death and between lives experiences will be included in this chapter.

The Three Planes

In the absence of consistency from the spiritual traditions a basic model has been developed to assist in understanding what happens after death. This can be thought of as containing three realms or planes. It is perhaps useful to use the analogy of the different states of water when describing these realms and their different energy levels. The densest level is the solid state of ice. When the vibrations of its energy increase, the ice becomes water and eventually vapor. So relating this to the spiritual model, the densest spiritual energy is the physical plane in which we are all currently incarnated. The next higher level of vibration is the astral plane containing the spiritual energy that leaves the body after death. It’s in this realm that trapped or earthbound spiritual energy resides. The highest level of vibrational energy is what can be referred to as the spirit plane. This is what between lives regression or near-death subjects often refer to as the light or home. It is also here that the subjects describe meeting spirit guides, soul groups and Elders.

It is not appropriate to think of the astral or light planes as having any location such as ‘up there’ and so on. Instead these planes can be thought of as occupying a different dimension of universal space that is simply experienced. An analogy is a dream that cannot be said to exist in any one place, but in a dimension we can experience. Another aspect of these two planes is the nature of time. In the between lives experience subjects do not report on how much time passes for the simple reason that without a physical body subject to decay and death, time loses all meaning. So the actual between lives experiences may take seconds or years. All that is fixed in time is the point of leaving the physical body at death and the point of entering the baby for the next reincarnation.

To return to the question of what happens after death, the following transcripts in this chapter