I also find myself feeling similarly when I’m awakening from a particularly striking dream. I know not to eat or read the newspaper right away but just to stay with that state, because in that perceptual mode I’m aware of so much more. It’s at once a feeling of being intuitive, of knowing things at a deeper level, of understanding. However, when going off to work, contemplating traffic, or engaging in some similar action, it is often necessary to return to that normal waking consciousness.

  It is important to remind yourself that every step is sacred, every breath is holy. Stay in that mindful mentality and there will occur in you a shift in consciousness. You will have a feeling of complete peace. It is healthy for you—healthy for your body, healthy for your mind—to do this. You are a spiritual being, and this is your natural condition. Think of the “other” as your normal state, and think of the “everyday” as a temporary mode to help you get by in the physical world.

  The exact manner in which a held object can facilitate the transmission of private facts and details in the psychometry exercise is not really known. It is possible that there is a transfer of energy, for many people describe the object as feeling warm or becoming hot as they hold it in their hand. Several ancient cultures have described a life force that empowers all beings and all of reality, one that contains a wisdom and intelligence beyond words. It has been called chi (or ki, or qi ), prana, the Tao, the source, and numerous other names. The art of feng shui has attempted to describe its flow. Maybe this indescribable ocean of energy underlies the entirety of existence and is responsible for the transfer of intuitional insight and knowledge.

  I have often wondered about the nature of the unknowable energy field. For example, how does it possess wisdom and other humanlike qualities? How do physical objects relate to the field? How do we appear from it and eventually return to it? How are its vibrations or frequencies modulated?

  Perhaps this indefinable, omniscient, ethereal energy vibrates at the highest possible rate, and as its frequency is dampened it begins to manifest form: at first like a gas, wispy and spiritlike. As it condenses, the delicate gas becomes a sleek and smoothly flowing liquid, not yet with rigid boundaries. The solid or physical form, which takes shape as the liquid condenses even further, does have such boundaries and is relatively restricted compared to the other forms. The objects that we hand to our partners during the psychometry exercise are examples of this. And so, too, are we. Yet the basic energy is the same, all derived from the etheric. At the end, we simply return to that divine, idyllic form that is our source. There is no birth and no death—only transformation.

  Earlier in my career, I sometimes wondered why I did not encounter the phenomenon of ghosts, or attached entities, or negative spirits in my practice. Others had written entire books about doing de-possessions or clearings of the clearly unfortunate host. And although I recognized, clinically, that most “cases” were actually projections of unwanted or uncomfortable impulses by the patients, perhaps not all of them were purely psychological. Yet I never actually came across any cases of malevolent spirits. Two subsequent meetings, one with several Tibetan rinpoches and the other with a Taoist master, helped me to understand why.

  In 1994, I had the opportunity to sit down with some Tibetan rinpoches at the University of Michigan. During a lively discussion about reincarnation, I was able to ask them why I had never once had a patient with an attached malevolent spirit.

  The rinpoches immediately began laughing. Perhaps my question was too simplistic?

  “No,” one lama explained through an interpreter. “Your energy does not permit that in such close proximity.” They laughed again. The question was not simplistic, I understood; I just had never thought of it in terms of energy fields. There was some kind of repelling force that kept those kinds of spirits from interacting with me.

  By the spring of 2010, I still had never personally come upon such a case with any of my patients. At that time, I was traveling in China and had an audience with a leading Taoist master in the gentle green foothills outside Xi’an. Several Taoist scholars from nearby universities also attended. We spoke for an hour and covered many topics. Eventually, I asked the same question that I had posed to the Tibetan rinpoches sixteen years earlier. Once again, it was met with laughter. Once again, the answer was the same. This time, two interpreters were needed, one for the regional dialect into Mandarin and the other to translate from Mandarin to English, yet I am sure that there was little to no distortion.

  “That energy would be too uncomfortable in your energy. That energy could not flow there. It could not happen.”

  There is nothing unique about my energy field. I meditate often, and this may raise one’s vibration. Yet this practice is free, universal, and available to all. The answer of the lamas and the Taoist master was not specific to me; it applies to each of us. “Evil” spirits or manifestations can be equally as uncomfortable in your energy field as in mine. The important point is that by mastering our spiritual lessons, we become incompatible with that kind of energy. This is how you can cast out your own demons.

  In addition to meditation, another way to raise our vibration is to fill our hearts and our minds with loving-kindness, with tranquility, and with peace. These qualities, I suspect, are very important in the process of refining the energy field. If incorporating these practices and principles into your daily life rids you of affliction, in whatever form, what a blessing you will receive.

  The comments of the monks and scholars reflect the acceptance of the idea of negative spirits, but my impression from the discussion with them is that ignorance would be a more appropriate word than evil or malevolent. There is no real evil. Ignorant spirits might appear to be dark, but they are simply at an unenlightened (literally, “in the dark”) level. They are like first-grade boys in a school yard, a bit wild and mischievous, perhaps pulling the girls’ hair—but not evil. First graders are qualitatively the same as graduate students. The only difference is their level of knowledge and maturity. The boys are young and ignorant, but eventually they will become the graduate students.

  . 8 .

  One of a Kind

  Some stories defy easy categorization because they touch on new or rare concepts, on modern physics or parallel universes, on future lives, or even on psychically turning babies who are in the breech position prior to birth. The cases in this chapter fall into this category, and they offer fascinating insights into our deeper natures and the characteristics of the soul. We are eternal and multidimensional beings, in these physical bodies for a brief time to learn important spiritual lessons. As the Jesuit mystic Teilhard de Chardin stated: “We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience.”

  Spiritual beings are not constrained by the usual limits of time, space, or the physical body. This seems an extraordinary freedom—and yet it is our natural state. It is who we are; we merely forget this.

  Allow the stories in this chapter to remind you.

  . PROGRESSION TO THE FUTURE .

  My experience was a personally moving one that occurred whilst taking the course you provided at Omega in 2007. It took place in a revelatory practice session that turned out to be a progression, rather than the intended regression.

  My reason for attending your past-life regression therapy training was to expand my therapeutic arsenal. I have a private complementary practice that offers interventions based on techniques drawn from the field of energy psychology. Along with my academic studies in the general field of psychology, I have also spent the last twenty years studying much of the metaphysical literature on healing and well-being, in particular The Seth Material, authored by Jane Roberts. You informed me that you were reminded of this work by a question I had asked about the possibility of “recall” of a concurrent lifetime. Back in 2006, it was my study of such material in relation to a percentage of clients who were failing to respond to a variety of approaches I offer that led me to believe that other lives of such individuals may be involved.

  The practice session began with the class being paired off with someone unfamiliar to us. I was paired with an American woman for the purposes of practicing the rapid induction technique. I went first as practitioner, and she appeared to respond well to the induction. I proceeded to guide her through a past-life recall of some detail as a pioneer in the exploration of the American West.

  When we reversed roles, I too was receptive to rapid induction, and she proceeded by guiding my mind to a series of doors leading to past lives. I passed through a door made of frame-to-floor lengths of beading, which were popular as space-saving entrances to kitchens and such over the years. On the other side of this entrance, I was greeted by two beings that were physically intertwined: their heads were cheek-to-cheek, foreheads higher and broader than usual, with crystal blue eyes also somewhat larger than the human norm but not as large as the alien-face depictions commonly seen in science-fiction illustrations. Their bodies appeared to meld together into a plaited form, where limbs were barely discernible and legs disappeared into a tapering wisp of material.

  I sensed a benevolent and loving energy emanating from their being toward me. I knew that they were my guides. More than this, though, afterward I was drawn to the term oft used in recent years—“guardian angels”—although I don’t adhere to the religious overtones associated with this term. I had no idea as to where they may have been guiding me as they each put out a hand to grasp mine before flying out into space, leaving Earth behind us.

  After a seemingly brief trip through the stars, we eventually began approaching another world, a planet with an atmosphere, a blue-and-white globe similar to the Earth that we had left behind. We began hovering above this strange world, high in the stratosphere. They still had hold of my hand, although I could sense that they were encouraging me to release my grip and drop through the clouded atmosphere below. I became apprehensive about doing so, but I also sensed that they were reassuring me that my fears would be readily dissipated if I would just trust in myself and them. What I needed to see was on the surface of the planet below.

  I managed to let go of their hands and begin a slow, gliding descent through the clouds. Before long, the land below came into view: a green carpet of vegetation clearly of a temperate climate zone, and then signs of management of the landscape, with fields and hedgerows coming into view. Instantly, I found myself in a field, a pasture that seemed to be sloping very, very gently down toward a river, although the river was not visible to me. I was standing on the meadowland of the floodplain to the river. As I took in this beautiful setting and noticed the sun striking various patches of meadow as it broke through the clouds, I became aware of someone standing close to me. He was a tall, silver-haired individual, with an air of distinction about his countenance. He wore pastel-colored cotton robes that appeared light and appropriate for the warm ambient temperature.

  It was me! An older me, but definitely me. I watched myself turn and look over my left shoulder, up the hill to a building about two hundred yards distant. It was a château, a three-story building of considerable size, nestled amongst the trees. I knew it to be a place of learning, a sanctuary or retreat. I knew that I was in France, that the year was 2037, and that the “me” that stood before me was on the faculty of the learning establishment up on the hill. This was a scene from my future, and I was a teacher, clearly at one with himself and his role.

  Needless to say, my fellow student was quite amazed as I recounted my feelings about the experience and my certainty that I had progressed forward to an age of eighty-four. What had been shown to me by my “guardian angels” was something that I had never consciously contemplated before. I had never considered becoming a teacher; if anything, it was a profession that I had always dismissed as hard work with little reward.

  The following year, through past-life regression work with clients and on myself, together with further study of contemporary metaphysical information sources, I came to realize my true intent and purpose for my life: to teach. I experienced an epiphany that my spiritual guides, a year or so before, had shown me a probable outcome if followed up. What was I to teach? This came very quickly to me: to teach others what I have learned about the nature of one’s being from my diverse studies over the last twenty-five years of my life. To do for others what I had done for myself: integrate knowledge from science, metaphysics, philosophy, and spirituality into solid, practical guidance on the discovery of one’s purpose in this current lifetime. I now know that this knowledge is the key to leading a life of value and fulfillment. It is knowledge that is implicit to the change in consciousness that mankind is currently experiencing.

  Chris Johnson

  Regression therapy involves taking a patient back to some earlier point in time, whether in this lifetime or a prior one or somewhere in between. Progression therapy, on the other hand, moves the patient ahead in time and, as Chris’s story illustrates, it can be equally therapeutic. It is a subject that I have written about and documented extensively in my previous book, Same Soul, Many Bodies.

  There are many possible futures, both our personal ones as well as global ones. Our individual and collective decisions will help determine which are realized, although many or all may be concurrently progressing in alternate dimensions.

  Yet there seems to be one that is most likely or probable to happen. Here Chris’s spiritual guides (or the manifestation of his subconscious wisdom) are letting him glimpse the one in which he will feel happiest and most fulfilled. Having seen this “best” outcome, he can now knowingly connect the dots and reach this goal. His decisions in the present can actually take him to the future he most desires.

  Interestingly, Chris appears to travel into space and “through the stars” to reach France in 2037. This prospective Earth seems to be not quite physically here. Perhaps it represents an alternate dimension or reality that is connected to Earth of the current time, yet not exactly the same. If we patiently wait for time to unfold, we will meet it. However, if we can travel out of body and through space, maybe we can meet it much sooner. We travel the fast route to tomorrow, we grab the blueprint of time, and then we return to the present with this precious map. Knowing the plan and the goal, we can consciously choose the journey to our optimal future.

  Even if you are not able to see your own optimal future so clearly, you can nevertheless trust your intuitional wisdom to guide you there. Do not let fears or doubts cloud your vision and obscure your path. Listen to your heart.

  The geographical locations of our next lives are not important. The quality is the critical factor. If we are progressing to lifetimes filled with kindness and understanding, we will inevitably wind up in the proper dimension.

  In his story, Chris mentions the possibility of recalling a concurrent life, or one that is happening at the same time as your present one. What would a regression involving nearly simultaneous lifetimes look like? Read Donna’s story, next, for one possible example.

  . TRILOGY IN TIME .

  One of my favorite and most compelling past-life memories is a trilogy. I was shown three consecutive lifetimes that were very poignant and that demonstrated how an individual grows from his or her experiences.

  In the first scene, I see myself wearing the green uniform of a German SS soldier. Three of my buddies and I are standing next to our military vehicle, which is pulled over on the shoulder of an isolated country road in Germany. We are smoking cigarettes, talking, and laughing while writing a report of our completed assignment. It is cold out, and I can see the white mist coming from our mouths as our breath hits the cold air. On the right of us is open farmland, which is surrounded by wooden fencing, a few cows, charming farmhouses, and the Alps in the background. On the left, across the street from where we are standing, is a pine forest, pristine and untouched—except for the Jewish camp that we have just decimated with our rifles and machine guns. A farmer had spotted a campfire during the night and alerted the “authorities.” We had been sent out to investigate the report, and we found a group of Jewish families, men and women of all ages and many children. We systematically wiped them all out and then proceeded to go through their belongings to see if there was anything of value that we might want.

  In the next instant, the scene changes. Now I am a slightly heavyset, Jewish Polish woman standing inside a women’s dormitory in a concentration camp. My little five-year-old son is standing in front of me. It’s cold, and my son is wearing a too-large, coarsely woven sweater that is rolled up at his wrists and that hangs down to his knees. He has straight, blond hair falling into his eyes; it looks like it could use a shampooing. With surprise, I recognize him as my son in this lifetime. There is a loud bang behind us, and the dormitory doors fly open. Camp guards barge into the dorm, shouting “Alle der kinder aus” (“All the children out”) and pushing the children along ahead of them with the butts of their rifles. The mothers are screaming; the children are crying and clinging to their mothers. Just as a guard approaches my son, the boy turns and grabs on to the wooden structures that serve as beds to hold on and keep from being swept away. My heart explodes with pain and horror as I watch him being shoved along with the other children, who are all taken away.

  Then the scene changes again. This time, I am a German officer. My uniform is brown, and I am wearing heavy leather boots. I am in an empty office; I can hear my footsteps echo around me as I walk to a desk in the center of the room. The room has high ceilings and is dimly lit by a gray light filtering in from the only window. I search the desk drawers for a stamp with which to mark the documents that I am carrying in the inside pocket of my jacket. The documents are meant to assist in the escape of Jewish individuals. I keep looking over my shoulder to make sure that I am not discovered. I sense that later I am caught and executed by firing squad, but not before I have assisted in the escape of a large number of Jews.