Tag: Past Lives

My Own New Normal

A Look Back Since Publishing Adventures of a Soul

I can’t believe that it’s been more than a year and a half now—a year this past August, to be precise—since I published Adventures of a Soul: Psychics, Mediums, the Mystical, and Me. I’ve learned so much about the world of self-publishing and book promotion, and yet there is so much still to learn! A heartfelt thank-you to EVERYONE who has purchased and read my book, and doubly so to those who have posted a review on Amazon or elsewhere. It’s GREATLY appreciated. The Reader reviews I’ve received have been touching and heart-warming. Honestly, I’ve been surprised many times at precisely WHO has enjoyed my book the most and/or expressed to me that they’d been profoundly changed by reading it. Friends who admitted they had barely even thought about metaphysics or the invisible realms, but had a mind open enough to read Adventures of a Soul when they heard about it, have asked me for recommendations for their first psychic or medium reading; for classes and workshops; and for more books in this genre to read. Now, that, Dear Reader, REALLY warms my heart! After all, that was the reason I wrote this book in the first place: to encourage others to expand their horizons—both inward and outward—by embarking on a personal metaphysical exploration of their own.   

Even more surprising to me, Reader, has been another phenomenon that’s occurred since my book’s launch. Friends who read Adventures of a Soul with whom I’d not had contact for a long time—sometimes several decades—confessed to me that they’d had “paranormal” experiences, and even discovered “paranormal” gifts and abilities of their own. Some have come into them in recent years; others had them back when we were classmates or neighbors or work colleagues, but had never shared this aspect of their lives with me, as they had no idea I was interested in such things. (And, honestly, who can blame them? Up until fairly recently, most people haven’t generally talked about these topics in “mixed company,” for fear of being branded deluded dreamers, wackos, or mentally ill.

Reader, the stories they’ve shared with me have been fascinating! One told me of seeing an apparition, dressed in clothing from another era, that vanished before his eyes; another, of hearing a “little voice” throughout her life that told her things, including a long-buried family secret that proved to be true. One described having an ability to intuitively sense serious medical issues in the patients she was treating as a physician’s assistant, at times second-guessing her superiors, and being right! A former coworker told me she has become able to contact the dead, along with a number of spirit guides; and a former schoolmate of experiencing an “awakening” that left her able to communicate with guides, angels, and other higher-dimensional beings. One friend told me of seeing, as a teenager, up close and unmistakably, a UFO craft (or, in current parlance, a UAP); the husband of another shared his experience of seeing two actual ETs—the ones with little bodies, big heads, and huge eyes, in this case—in his bedroom! (Yes, he was freaked out; no, he’d not ingested any controlled substance; and no, they did not harm him.)

And this is not to mention any of the new friends I’ve made, while pursuing my explorations, who are gifted intuitives, mediums, past-life readers, and energy healers . . . I’ve even gotten to know several who can talk to the animals (move over, Dr. Dolittle) and see fairies (yes, Reader, I now believe in fairies, though they’re not, as I understand it, quite the way our pop culture has portrayed them: think less Tinkerbell, more energetic-beings-existing-in-a-higher-dimension-who-often-appear-as-light! (Then again, “Tink” did often appear as a bit of light, so perhaps author J. M. Barrie was on to something . . . )

Actually, Reader, all of this should hardly have surprised me. It’s part and parcel of what I’ve been learning about for a good number of years now in my studies and explorations regarding the idea of a “Shift” on planet Earth—a global shift in consciousness—that’s been long awaited, and is now taking place. (Come on, you knew something weird was happening, didn’t you?) This Shift, apparently predicted by many of the planet’s indigenous cultures and ancient civilizations as something that would occur if we got to this point in history without wiping ourselves out, involves, among other things, vast numbers of people “waking up” to the fact that we are far more than just our bodies, and stepping into a far stronger connection with their Higher Self . . . including claiming such innate human abilities as intuition, mediumship, telepathy, remote viewing, channeling, energetic healing, knowledge of their past lives, and more.

But it’s one thing to read about it and hear about it for decades from so many metaphysical teachers and sources as something “coming”—it’s another thing to hear that it’s here, now, and to actually witness these things occurring among your otherwise “normal” acquaintances and friends. If it sounds a little X-Men-ish to you . . . well, you’re not alone. And from what I’ve come to believe, Reader, we ain’t seen nuthin’ yet. I’ll be writing more about the Shift and in particular the information that’s been “brought in” about it via channelers—individuals who serve as “vessels” for higher-dimensional beings or collectives who are able to communicate through them—for many years now. (There are a few channelers out there who’ve been doing it for thirty or forty years. One has even been invited to speak numerous times at the UN! Who knew?)

So, yes, Virginia . . . and anybody else who’s seriously asking . . . paranormal HAS become the new normal, as I hope I’ve begun to show in my previous blog posts, and looks to be becoming more so every day! Stay tuned . . .

Past-Life Regression Pioneer Dr. Brian L. Weiss

When spending time with my mother in the Staten Island house I grew up in, which I frequently do, I take my daily walks at lovely Sailor Snug Harbor, formerly a home for retired mariners and now a cultural and arts center with gorgeous landscaped grounds. Most days, as I walk, I listen to podcasts or videos on my phone—generally woo-woo-related content that’s research for upcoming books (yes, Reader, there are two more in the works . . . so far). One day, I was listening to some material that had to do with “old souls,” a phrase used to refer to souls who’ve had many incarnations—hundreds, perhaps even thousands of them. Apparently, those of us who are drawn to this material, I had come to understand, are likely to be old souls too. And on a gut level, I felt that to be true. As I cut across a parking lot on my way to visit the loo, a license plate on a parked car caught my eye. “HERE B4,” it read. Yep, I thought, me too.

Have you, too, had the feeling you’ve been here before, and maybe more than once? As I write in my book Adventures of a Soul, it could be meeting someone for the first time and having a profound sense that you’ve known them before; it could be an inordinate fondness for—or even an obsession with—something not of your era or culture; or visiting a place for a first time and feeling, I know this place, often with deep emotion involved. (I had this feeling myself upon visiting several cloisters and convents, before I’d ever been told that I’d had many past lives in religious orders—which I was, a number of times.) It could be a phobia, for no apparent reason, or a prodigious inborn talent for, and knowledge of, something like music or math. For those who are curious about the topic, I direct you not only to the astonishing work of Dr. Jim Tucker at my alma mater, UVa, regarding children’s past-life memories—featured in several of my previous blog posts—but now, too, to that of Dr. Brian L. Weiss.

Brian L. Weiss was one of the earliest mainstream authors (and a best-selling one at that) in the field of reincarnation. A psychotherapist with an MD and an Ivy-League background, he used hypnotic regression as a tool with his patients, taking them back to their childhoods to find the roots of issues manifesting in their present-day lives. A skeptic about reincarnation at the time, he was astonished when, while regressing one of his patients, whom he refers to as Catherine, she appeared to recall past-life traumas that seemed to be the cause of the severe emotional problems plaguing her in the present. And while Catherine, quite remarkably, began to rapidly recover once those memories were explored and processed, it wasn’t until she began to bring in, or “channel,” messages from spirit “Masters” that were extremely personal to Dr. Weiss and his family, with information no one outside the family knew—in particular, messages about his deceased son—that he became convinced that what was going on was “real.”

Weiss wrote about the experience in his first book, Many Lives, Many Masters.  He went on to write several more books as he continued to work with his patients’ past-life memories, finding them a powerful means of healing, including Same Soul, Many Bodies (about, believe it or not, “progression therapy,” that is, peering into the future—or a future—through hypnosis! I haven’t read it yet, but having just learned about this phenomenon, now I must!), and the hugely synchronistic, fated past-live love story Only Love Is Real (a personal favorite, Reader, as I’m not only a hopeless romantic, but have experienced a fated past-life love story of my own, as told in my book Adventures of a Soul).

Why does all this matter? Well, to me, the idea of past lives is a fascinating topic in and of itself. But then, I always want to learn as much as I can about who I am, where I come from, and where I may be going. Not everyone, I’ve found, does! (Reader, it boggles my mind, but it’s the case.) If we can heal our present-day maladies by processing wounds and traumas from other lives in our past, in my opinion, that’s a valuable thing to know.

And then there’s this: I’m working on a few more books, one of which deals with a subject that I touch upon only briefly in Adventures—the idea that we are currently in the midst of a seismic shift in consciousness on the planet, one that has been predicted by a number of ancient cultures around the world, and talked about by countless channelers and intuitives in the “New Age” movement over the past several decades or more. One aspect of what they see happening to us humans as we evolve as a species is that we will be connecting far more seamlessly with what some call our “higher selves”—the divine part of ourselves to which we are always connected, but with which most (though not all) of us here on the planet don’t currently consciously interact. As we do, it’s said, one thing that we can look forward to is the ability to remember all of our past lives. Yes, Reader, you read that right! And not only remember them, but be able to access, for each and every life, all of the knowledge, experience, and talents that we possessed. Think about what that would mean . . . especially for old souls!

Do I believe it? Yes. Why? I’ll tackle that subject, as I said, in a future book! For now . . . check out Weiss’s books, and the videos on his YouTube channel, and you, too, may find yourself as intrigued as I am by the clues, and sometimes keys, to a present life of happiness that our past lives may hold.

John Cleese Interviews Dr. Jim Tucker

Research into Children’s Past Life Memories

I’m pleased as punch to post this video on reincarnation—specifically, children with past-life memories—as my first blog entry. As an alumna of the University of Virginia (Wahoo-wah!), I couldn’t be prouder of the work of their Department of Psychology’s Division of Perceptual Studies team, which has been studying this topic for more than fifty years. What, a well respected University like UVa studying . . . what some would term the “paranormal”? Frankly, I had no idea that this was going on during my time there! Now I can’t wait to take a trip back down to Charlottesville and see if they’ll allow me to be a fly on the wall and observe some of their work . . .

Here, Dr. Jim Tucker, who appears in my book and has been very kind in answering my questions, is interviewed by the fabulous John Cleese (of Monty Python fame . . . who knew he was so woo-woo curious?). If you find this intriguing, check out Jim Tucker’s books Life Before Life and Return to Life.

Take it away, John . . .