Ann C. Barham - The Past Life Perspective: Discovering Your True Nature Across Multiple Lifetimes

Dedicated with love to three very special people who have made their transitions to their next adventures:

Dr. Ron Scolastico, spiritual teacher and gifted channeler. Thank you for your wisdom, which has led to a deeper understanding of the eternal realities. Your twinkling eyes and profound guidance are sorely missed.

Margaret Meg Keller, licensed marriage and family therapist, counselor extraordinaire, valued colleague, beloved friend, and co-adventurer in spirit.

And last but certainly not least, my dear mother, Antoinette Toni Gattuccio Conrad, who did her best to wrap her mind around the unusual thing her daughter did for a living. Im sure its all perfectly clear to you now!

The nature of our immortal lives is in the consequences of our words and deeds, that go on and are pushing themselves throughout all time... From womb to tomb, we are bound to others, past and present, and by each crime and every kindness, we birth our future.

DAVID MITCHELL, CLOUD ATLAS , THE REVELATION OF SONMI 451

Souls cross ages like clouds cross skies, an tho a clouds shape nor hue nor size dont stay the same, its still a cloud an so is a soul. Who can say where the clouds blowed from or who the soulll be morrow?

DAVID MITCHELL, CLOUD ATLAS , ZACHRY

I WONDER IF Ive had a past life? or Can past life therapy really help me? In my last seventeen years as a marriage and family therapist specializing in past life regression, Ive had my share of clients who express some healthy skepticism. Its hard for many people to initially fathom the possibility that they may have experienced a prior life even once, let alone many dozens of times. Like the proverbial cat with nine lives, weve faced death many, many times, only to see our spirits live again in another lifetime. Indications are, weve more than equaled those clever felines, and were still counting! Its just that in each lifetime we show up in a different body and personality, and most of us dont remember whats come before without some assistance. Thats where past life therapy comes in.

You are about to read a selection of fascinating and insightful case studies taken from my files working with past life regression clients. (Regression simply means going back, so past life regression is literally going back to past lifetimes.) Although certain case studies jumped out immediately as must-share stories, you have no idea how difficult it was to decide which ones to include and which to save for another day. You will see an amazing variety in the type of clients who have consulted me and the past life stories that were revealed in session. All of these clients were happy to give me a release to share their regressions with you; in fact, it is extremely rare for a client to be unwilling to share his/her story. Of course, names have been changed and identifying information protected so that client confidentiality is maintained.

Many readers might ask: Are these stories real? The information in each of these case studies was directly told by the client while in a live session and was transcribed from copious notes and audio files I keep. A past life therapy session is quite different from a psychic reading, in which information is provided to the client through an intermediary. With past life regression, all the information is coming directly from the client by accessing unconscious memories via hypnosis or a similar technique. In these case studies, I include quotes straight from my clients where appropriate, including their occasional grammatical inconsistencies and unique ways of saying things. I want to give a clear and authentic picture of what its like to go through a regression.

As far as the legitimacy of these client stories as true past life experiences, one of the great things about being a past life therapist as opposed to a researcher is that I have nothing to prove regarding the validity of the information that clients bring up in session. Rather than Is this really true or not? the questions I ask myself as a therapist are: Does this help people? Are they able to understand themselves better? Deal with challenges more effectively? Unlock dysfunctional dynamics in relationships theyve been struggling with? Identify more closely with the eternal nature of their existence? In short, does integrating knowledge from their prior lifetimes help them move more fully into realizing their potential in their current lives? Since in most cases the answer to the above questions has been a resounding yes, then it doesnt really matter from a therapeutic perspective if their past life memories are 100 percent correct or not.

Of course we all know that even our memories in our current lives are far from perfectly accurate. The classic story weve all heard is of the policeman who interviews three different witnesses of a traffic accident and gets three different versions of what happened. So inaccuracies are just part of the territory when anyone is dealing with perception and memory. When I approach the past life memories of a client, Im looking for the emotional impact of the event: What meaning did that past life personality attach to it? What thoughts or decisions arose as a result? How are these events, thoughts, and decisions impacting the client now in his/her current life? What insights can we integrate so the client can move forward more freely?

Occasionally, clients worry after the regression that maybe they just made it up or it was only their imagination. In the scheme of things, that isnt particularly important. In the first place, we can treat the past life stories as illustrative metaphors for the issues and influences in a persons current life. It gives us very rich material to work with, as any therapist who employs dream interpretation, creative imagery, sand tray work, or other projective techniques well knows. And as far as imagination goes, where does imagination come from, anyway? For all we know, much of what we label imagination or daydreaming may well be past life material creeping in. It just hasnt been identified as such.

And if the story were working with is made up, why was it that particular story? Why is it often a story so unexpected by the clients, something they maintain they would never imagine in their wildest dreams? Places in the world they have never been, time periods they know very little about, personalities that seem odd or foreignall of these factors arise. In all but a few cases the lifetimes uncovered are not illustrious and may in fact be filled with the daily events of rather mundane lives. At times Ive even had clients burst out with What a boring lifetime that was! (And, frankly, I had to agree with them.) Its extremely rare to have a king, queen, or famous personality emerge. If the client is making the story up, wouldnt we expect to have more stories that were predictable or impressive?

In my work, I have come to believe that most of the prior lifetimes that clients have recalled are indeed real, even if all the details arent accurate or filled in. Perhaps what convinces me more than anything else is that I have witnessed such depths of emotion from many clients as they relive the events of a prior lifetime. Anyone might shed a few tears while watching a touching movie or reading a great novel, but to sob in anguish at the death of a loved one in a prior life is a little far-fetched if the client just made this up from his/her imagination. However, I have also learned over the years that an obvious cathartic release is not a necessary ingredient for a successful regression. More than once I have gone through a session with a client who shows little emotion in the exploration of the memories, only to comment at the end of the session, Oh my gosh, that was so intense! We each experience dramatic events in our own way.