Facing a
Health Crisis
Learning that you have a serious illness or that an injury has caused permanent damage can strike fear in your heart. Suddenly trivial matters don’t seem so important, and fears about what this crisis may mean to you and your loved ones emerge. The problem can be non-life threatening, or it can be catastrophic. In either case, it signals a change and provides an optimal time for taking stock of your life. Health problems serve as a wake-up call, causing us to slow down, giving us the opportunity to examine our lives.
The health crisis may only slow you down temporarily, but things may never be the same again. If it results in a permanent condition or disability, you may be required to reinvent the way you live your life. Or, it may foretell your likely or imminent death.
Most serious health problems are planned by us while we are still at home in the spirit world, to help us learn specific lessons. We can choose to have major life events, such as a serious illness or injury, occur at certain points in life to provide specific experiences. Minor illnesses or injuries do not fit this situation.
Cases included in this chapter are from individuals who sought a Life Between Lives session to learn more about their health problems and what spiritual meaning these occurrences might have. The wise advice they received is applicable to many health issues.
A Message from Your Body
Valerie, a sixty-seven-year-old divorced woman, was close to retiring from her successful career two years ago, when she had a serious accident. While carrying several packages in from her car, she fell coming up her back steps and shattered one of her shoulders. This moved her retirement timetable up a bit, but that was manageable. What was harder for her to accept was that the first surgery was not successful. She had to undergo a second surgery for a full shoulder replacement.
A protracted period of healing followed, which was a major disruption to the way she thought she might be spending her early retirement days. It was even more difficult because she had been so independent and self-sufficient. She found that while her shoulder healed, not being able to do many things for herself was very frustrating. She was able to return to her usual activities in due time, as her shoulder healed well. However, that was not the end of the story.
During her recovery, another problem, the gastric reflux she had occasionally been experiencing, became worse. She had difficulty eating and lost weight. Eventually she was able to manage this condition with medication and diet, but the problem was not totally resolved. On top of this, she had been putting cataract surgery off until after her retirement, and her rapidly failing vision was making reading, one of her pleasures, difficult and tiring.
She went ahead with the cataract surgery. The surgery went well, but she developed an unusual complication afterward that temporarily affected her vision. She was unable to drive or engage in her usual routine for several weeks until her vision cleared. She found this very exasperating and was beginning to question why she kept having so many health problems.
But it was not until she fell again, this time fracturing her hip, that she really became depressed and worried. She had by now experienced nearly two years of one health problem after another, and this was taking a toll on her. Her latest injury was painful and very debilitating. She harbored a fear that she might never be able to walk normally again. She wondered what her body was trying to tell her and why she kept repeatedly finding herself unable to engage in her usual activities without assistance. Her feisty sense of self-reliance was waning.
She scheduled a Life Between Lives session hoping to gain some insight regarding her health issues. During the session, Valerie discovers her soul’s reason for her many health challenges. Once in contact with her soul as her higher self, she shares the following insights.
My health problems have slowed me down so that I can look at areas in my life that need changing. I know that I am judgmental and am not always compassionate toward others. I’m proud of being independent and self-sufficient and expect others to be as well. But these health issues have given me a chance to see things from a different perspective. I know now how hard it is not being able to do things for yourself. How depressing that is!
The vulnerability brought about by the repeated health and functional difficulties that Valerie had experienced over the past two years allowed her to accept compassion and nonjudgmental support from others. She acknowledges how vital the empathy and kindness are to her well-being. She realizes that she doesn’t always have to be so self-sufficient, that she can accept help from others. This, in turn, helps her to feel closer and more empathetic toward others and ready to help them in the future when she can. She says:
I needed help and my family and friends were so caring and supportive. It made such a difference. This has given me a new perspective.
Valerie relates, at the end of her session, how grateful she is for all the help she has received. She also reports that she feels her health problems will get better now, as she knows how her attitude toward others has changed. And she is so right. She completed rehabilitation for her hip and can walk well now. A follow-up finds her getting ready to leave on a trip to visit her grandchildren.
Things are going well. But then Valerie slips and falls while at a resort with friends and breaks her elbow. She has surgery to repair it and starts rehabilitation again. However, it is a very different experience this time. She asks for the help she needs, and with assistance for a short period of time, can continue to socialize regularly. Her attitude is very positive, and she returns to her usual activities very quickly. Sometimes there is a little post-test to allow us to put what we have learned into practice.
Cancer, the Dreaded Diagnosis
Molly, a sixty-four-year-old widow, has a large family living nearby. She’s a wonderful cook and hostess, frequently entertaining her many relatives. She’s very nurturing and involved with her family, babysitting often and caring for her aging mother. She’s very active, always doing something for her family.
She is in shock when she is diagnosed with ovarian cancer after seeking medical assistance for some vague symptoms. She decides to have the surgery to remove the cancer but is unsure about whether to follow a course of chemotherapy treatment afterward. While preparing for her Life Between Lives session, one other complaint she voices is having difficulty in getting along with her mother. She describes how her mother calls her frequently, wanting attention, when she is in the middle of an important activity. This is very exasperating to her, and she resents it at times.
When she is guided to a past life, she finds herself as a middle-aged woman with a husband and several children. She lives in a warm climate in a semi-rural area in about 1934. Her name is Rose, and she is a small woman with light brown skin and dark hair.
I feel frustrated trying to take care of everybody and do everything for my family. I just can’t keep up. Somebody is always needing something and there is too much work to do. I just don’t have time to play with the little girls or even talk much to the older children. I feel stressed and irritable. I never have any time for myself.
The practitioner asks if anyone helps her.
No, it’s MY responsibility to take care of things!! But I don’t keep up! I don’t take care of my family the way I want to. Mary and Helen [her young daughters] are with me now, playing on the floor, but I’m too busy to pay any attention to them and I don’t feel well.
The practitioner asks if Molly recognizes them as anyone from her current life.
Oh my gosh, it’s my mother and my aunt!
Then Rose appeared to slump.
I’m so tired and I don’t feel very well, but I must keep going. I’m getting sick, but I can’t let anyone know. My girls are still so little. They need me. My family needs me.
The next scene finds Rose on her deathbed, unable to keep up any longer. The girls are still quite young, and she feels badly about leaving them. She regrets that she never seems to have any time to spend with them. She also wonders if this would be happening if she had taken better care of herself. Molly then breaks through excitedly.
Rose is my grandmother! I was my grandmother!!
Molly had never met her grandmother, as she died before Molly was born. However, she knew that her grandmother died of ovarian cancer. Molly also knew that her mother and grandmother did not get along very well. Molly’s mother had told her that her grandmother was always busy with the family or too tired or sick to ever pay any attention to her.
Later in the session, the subject of chemotherapy is raised.
The guides are telling me that chemotherapy will not make any difference. What would make a difference is a change in attitude. This life is a chance for me to do things differently from when I was my grandmother. I am keeping up well now, but just like my grandmother, all my energy goes toward taking care of my family. I am not putting any energy into taking care of myself. I don’t usually tell them when I am tired or not feeling well, I just try to be there for them. I don’t even think about what I need. But what I do need is to think about myself more and take care of myself instead of being so involved in caretaking. I need to share more about how I’m feeling and what I need. It’s all about balance.
While specific medical advice is not given, as Molly has hoped, she is alerted to the imbalance in her life and her lack of attention to self-care. Molly’s overinvolvement in caretaking not only inhibits her self-care, but also her ability to develop closer relationships with her family. Rather than engaging in the give-and-take of a healthy relationship, Molly is doing most of the giving. As a result, she often feels too depleted to truly enjoy being with her family. As in Valerie’s case previously discussed, health problems can serve as a “wake-up call,” encouraging us to examine our lives to achieve better balance and personal growth.
Later in the session, Molly’s relationship with her mother is addressed by the guides.
My mother and I have switched roles from our past life when she was my daughter. She is now my mother in my current life. We did not have a good relationship when I was her mother. Now, in my current life, I have another chance to develop a closer relationship with her. She is still seeking the attention she didn’t get as a child. This time I have a chance to build a more balanced relationship with her. I can give her more of the attention she craves, but I shouldn’t be doing all the giving. I need to let her know how I feel and what I need sometimes.
Molly is struck by how she is repeating the pattern of neglecting her own self-care and keeping very occupied with family care in her current lifetime. While she truly enjoys taking care of her family, she can clearly see that her life is unbalanced. It is not lost on her that she has developed the same disease she had in her previous life as her grandmother. She admits how tired and frustrated she is sometimes because of all the things she is doing for her family. Molly leaves the session determined to put an emphasis on her own self-care and lessen the amount of caretaking she is doing. She also vows to work on creating a better relationship with her mother.
A later follow-up finds Molly doing very well, despite having decided not to take chemotherapy. She has been doing some traveling with friends and taking more time for herself. She is doing less caretaking and creating more balance in her life. She also reports spending more time with her mother and an improvement in that relationship.
Just as we were finishing this book, Molly contacted the practitioner to report that her mother died during a short hospital stay. She wanted to disclose that while her mother was generally oriented and recognized all the other family members, when asked who Molly was, she repeatedly said, “That’s my mother.”
Cancer Brings Emotional Healing
Bill, a sixty-seven-year-old naturopathic doctor, plans to work for as long as he is physically able, as he loves his work. He has a happy marriage and a good relationship with his three adult children. About six months before he comes in for his session, he begins having digestive symptoms, which initially he treats with natural remedies. However, he experiences no relief, and so goes to see a gastroenterologist for a diagnosis.
After a series of tests, he is diagnosed with liver cancer. His inclination is to continue to use natural methods to treat the cancer, but his family talks him into accepting medical treatment. He is having a difficult time with the treatment and is experiencing no improvement. His symptoms are becoming worse and there is now significant metastasis. He comes in for a session to gain clarity about his situation. While it seems that his condition is getting worse, he feels that he is having this illness so that he will be better equipped to help others in the future. He has even been thinking about writing a book about his experiences.
Early in his session, Bill’s guides tell him that he is always caring for others, but now he is being cared for. He is also informed that he has done well with his current life and has now completed all he had planned. Bill protests that there are several things from the past in this life that he feels are incomplete and that he still has things he wants to do, such as share what he has learned about coping with a serious illness. He asks to examine a feeling of deep loneliness that he has experienced during different points in his life. The guides take him back to his earliest memory of this feeling in his current life.
I am about four or five and I am playing in our front yard with my friend Gail. She gets mad at me and yanks a hunk of hair off my head. It really hurts. Now she won’t play with me. I’m crying because I feel so lonely. My parents don’t pay much attention to me.
Next Bill finds himself at nineteen, just three weeks after he marries his first wife.
She’s a nurse in the military and she is being deployed. I feel so lonely now that she’s gone. She won’t be home for two years. She doesn’t write to me much, but I understand that maybe she just doesn’t have the chance.
When she comes home, it’s like she is a different person and things are terrible. I guess today you would call it post-traumatic stress syndrome. It’s like I don’t even know her. There is no caring. We just can’t communicate and then she just leaves without a word. I am miserable and can’t imagine ever being happy again.
Bill claims that the years after his wife leaves are hard. He feels alone and abandoned. But just two years later, he meets and marries his current wife and has been happily married to her for the last forty-four years.
However, when he is in his mid-fifties, he experiences another lonely period. His wife’s very successful sales career is requiring her to travel extensively for about a year. It is like a flashback to earlier times.
My wife is traveling all the time and I am left here alone at home by myself. I’m lonely and I feel abandoned. Even though my wife calls frequently and comes home as often as she can, I am back to feeling like I did during my first marriage. I’m afraid she’ll be different when she comes home to stay. I guess that’s how I felt when I was five too. It’s a feeling of being all alone and not safe, even though I know better. It’s like nobody will be there for me when I need them.
The practitioner suggests that Bill ask for assistance with these feelings of abandonment. The guides take him to a place of healing where he experiences the following vision.
I’m a blob and I’m in this big bubble and there are lots of other bubbles around. I’m feeling very happy and bouncing around. We’re all safe in the bubbles because nothing can get in. This is a different dimension and bubbles are for protection. Others can’t hurt me because they can’t penetrate the bubble. I feel joyful and I am completely safe. Now I see a bright light. It’s more white than yellow, but it seems like the sun spread all over the horizon. It’s very warm and protective and comforting.
Bill takes several minutes to absorb this feeling.
Now I get it! I am completely safe and nothing can hurt me.
Both Bill and the practitioner sense an advanced presence in the room. Bill describes this as an overwhelming feeling of peace and well-being and a knowing that all is well. Bill spends several more minutes to assimilate with this profound experience.
Now the practitioner asks Bill to imagine communicating with his cancer. Bill responds as a soul through his higher self.
The cancer has come to allow my life to take a new direction. I can experience support from my wife now and know that she is here for me. I am not abandoned. It has slowed my life down so that I can help others in a new way. I can teach them new ways to look at things, how to live naturally. I can teach my wife not to fear passing and to have healthy attitudes about illness and dying.
Bill then asks the guides if using his natural methods will work best for him now and if he will be able to write a book about his experiences.
They are telling me that it does not matter if I use natural methods or not. I can write a book if I want to, but I am already gaining the learning. They are telling me that I am healing, but healing takes many forms. Some will be healed of illness, but there is also mental and emotional healing. The cancer is offering me emotional healing and understanding of my feelings of abandonment. As I struggle to continue, I see that I am never alone. I feel all the love and support. I am gaining wisdom. The words I speak to others will be what they need to hear.
Bill reports that he feels a profound sense of peace at the end of his session. He shares that he feels safe and guided and that the “presence” he has experienced remains with him, giving him comfort. He makes the following comment.
I know now death is nothing to be feared and I am okay no matter what happens.
Things do not improve and about a month after his session, he goes into home hospice care. He remains consciously aware and makes his transition three weeks later, surrounded by his family.
Although Bill dies, he is healed in many ways. He is given an opportunity to review his life during the session. He completely loses his fear of death, receiving a sense of peace so comforting that he can calmly remain present with his family until the end.
The guidance given is not meant to provide medical advice, but rather to promote soul healing. Recognizing and learning from the lessons behind a health crisis can bring peace, whether physical healing occurs or not. It is our attitude toward the health issues we are presented with and our willingness to look deeper and learn from them that is the key.
Life after Brain Trauma
Susan, a fifty-one-year-old married technical assistant with one adult son, comes in for a session to gain a new perspective on her current health situation. Over a decade ago, she contracted herpes encephalitis, which resulted in some permanent brain damage. She claims that this changed everything and forced her to find a new way of living. Now, she can no longer think in the same way she was able to before the illness. She explains that this creates many restrictions and limits the things she is still able to do. Her family and friends don’t seem to know what she is going through.
Susan admits that she constantly struggles to get back to who she was before the brain injury, and all she could do back then. Nothing less than getting all her old abilities back is acceptable to her. She refuses to accept her limitations and has been continually grappling to overcome her disability. We begin her case with her time in the womb, as she is beginning her current life as Susan. It is here that she awakens to her soul self.
My head is in the wrong position; my head is up, and my feet are down. I should be upside down. Mother is angry and a little scared because I’m in the wrong position. But if I turn my head down, I won’t be able to fit inside the body. The body is perfect, but everything is wrong. The body is so tiny, and I am so large. I have trouble fitting in such a small body. My brain will break!
The practitioner asks why she has chosen a brain that will break.
Otherwise I will not learn.
Next, we move on to a past life, where she is a young girl in slavery, named Cara. She is intelligent and curious and wants to know how things work. She asks too many questions and bothers people in the village. They throw her off a cliff and she dies instantly from a head injury.
Just after leaving the body in the past life, her guide accompanies her through the gateway into the spirit world. Susan’s soul self gives the following report.
I feel welcome, I see light, everything is light. I am on my way to peace. There’s a large golden disc that opens in the middle and I enter. I am coming home. I just move around very fast and check that everything is in order, that this is real, that I am here.
She is welcomed by her soul family and taken into their circle of light. Her guide tells her that she has done well enough but there is a plan that she needs to remember. He tells her he sends her into lives to help people because she needs to learn to embrace and to love.
I feel I am nothingness and it makes me happy. I can do anything in this emptiness. It is healing. I want to stay here for a while.
Susan takes some time to absorb these feelings. Then she says that it feels like someone is holding on to her and it is incredibly hot.
We are in a cave with a view over water. I am sitting on a stump and my other guide is sitting in my lap. He says I need to learn to be alone and find my own way. That’s what I needed to learn in that life as Cara and that is like what I need to learn now. I need to find my strength. He says that I am on the right track and that I know what to do, but that I don’t see it that way in my life as Susan. Susan believes others know better. I just need to open my eyes and see.
Next Susan moves on to a meeting with her council of wise beings.
They tell me I need to move on and gain a higher perspective. They tell me that I am blocking my own development. I need to stop waiting for others to understand; they don’t need to understand. I have the strength to take the path alone. No one can show me how. That is what I have to learn.
Susan asks for clearer guidance and is taken to the library by her guide.
I’m flying over meadows and see all my past lives down under me. The hardest lives are those when I cannot show myself and be in touch with my soul self. Often, I don’t make that spiritual connection because I am worried that others will not understand. I see that in my life as Susan I have been too focused on others and have a deep need to impress and be the best and the fastest. Seeing this, it feels like I can let all old beliefs go.
Susan takes the message about finding her own way to heart. Since the session, she has been building her new life on her own and is still discovering new resources and abilities. At a later follow-up, she relates the following information.
I have a deeper understanding that the old Susan is not coming back. I can live my life and not constantly think about how it used to be. I can let things happen. I no longer have the urge to prove to myself and others that I can do things even if I have brain damage.
I trust my ability to learn new work assignments—new challenges. I do them at my own speed and experience that I can do it. I’m accepting my limitations in a different way. I don’t have to compete.
I gained an understanding that some things are more important. I have that choice. Now I follow my own path regardless of what others think I should do. I am me and I stand by my choices. Before my session and even before the brain damage, I was not able to do that. Before the injury, I did not love my life. I was always focused on doing the right thing. Now I enjoy life.
After the session, I do not feel the same pain. I do not push myself and I feel good about it. My use of painkillers is only half what it was before the session.
We see that Susan’s acceptance of a limiting condition planned before her birth is bringing her a sense of peace and new joy in her daily life. She is learning to adapt to her limitations and live life her way, instead of listening to what others think she should be doing. An important lesson she has learned from experiencing a permanent disability is that it is not important to impress others or to try to make them understand her situation. Others are not on her path, and she alone can achieve the learning and personal growth that can come from her disability. After her session, Susan reports a deep calm and a sense that she has been set free.
Health Crisis as a Turning Point
Lynn is a sixty-eight-year-old married woman who is in an abusive marriage. She is also suffering from a rare blood disease and is chronically ill. Living with the stress of an angry, demanding husband, her health condition worsens. Her husband refuses to pay for the expensive medication she needs to keep her health condition stable.
Finally, her sister, who is very concerned about her, convinces her to leave her husband. With this encouragement, she moves some distance to be with her sister and aging mother. Her sister helps her receive the medical and welfare assistance she needs. The Life Between Lives session is a gift from her family to help her adjust to her new situation. Lynn has many questions about her rare blood disease during the session. She receives many answers when visiting with her council of wise beings during the session.
They are telling me that having this rare blood disease was not planned for this life. The disease came to help me learn, because I was not getting it. I have a pattern of staying in negative situations too long and not protecting myself. The disease came when I was working as a laboratory assistant in a very negative place. The people I worked with were very hard to get along with and I got yelled at a lot. That was a time when I cried almost every day. But I believed that we needed the money and that I couldn’t leave my job. It was harmful to me to be there like that.
The practitioner asks her to explain this further.
I see that once I became ill, I had to leave that job, and that really upset my husband. He thought I was “faking.” I became so weak and tired that I couldn’t do everything he had been demanding of me and I could no longer keep him from getting so angry. He just got meaner and meaner and I just got sicker and sicker. But I didn’t have the energy to leave. The disease came to help me learn to protect myself. To seek positive situations and learn to love and care for myself.
Lynn reports many insights from the session. She recalls other times in her life when she has stayed in negative situations until her health suffered, most recently her abusive marriage. And she had also done the same thing in her first marriage. She vows to protect herself by seeking relationships and situations that are positive and uplifting from now on. She intends to take better care of herself and shield herself from stressful situations. With the assistance of her sister, she goes into remission and begins enjoying life again.
It is interesting to note that health problems may not be preplanned, but if we are not learning the lessons we planned, an illness or injury may be a contingency plan to help us find our way. This development can provide an opportunity for us to “wake up” and get back on track.
Lynn and Molly learn from their health challenges to take better care of themselves. Health issues slow us down. By taking the time to examine our lives at this point, rather than struggling to bring things back to normal as quickly as possible or passively letting things get worse, we can uncover the guidance the illness is offering to us.
Embracing Vulnerability
Alexa, a fifty-five-year-old divorced woman, has systemic lupus and her health has been up and down for years. The last four years have been especially difficult, as she has been too ill to work steadily and has been without a home. During this time, she has moved several times, staying with friends and family all over the country. She works as she can, freelancing as a writer for various companies and magazines. As complications from her illness flare up, she is in and out of hospitals. Several months ago, she became critically ill and almost died.
When her illness was at the most critical point, she was visited by her guide, who asked her what she wanted to do. Alexa was told that she could go back home to the spirit world or she could stay. If she decides to stay, she will write the book that needs to be written. She is not told what the book is about, or that it will be a commercial success, only that it is important to share it.
My guide tells me that they have no judgment if I choose to go home. My soul contracts are essentially complete. They understand that I am tired and in pain. It is a tough choice because my pain levels are running so high, and I am physically exhausted. At first, I want to just pass on and leave the work to someone else. After a bit though, I realize that staying will allow for more growth.
Once Alexa makes the decision to stay, her heart, kidneys, and lungs all improve, and her pain levels begin going down. She loves the city she is in, and as her health improves, she seeks out new work opportunities. She finds a potential business relationship, but it is stressful and falls through when she won’t accept the unreasonable terms. Feeling the need for more stability in her living situation, Alexa decides to come back to her hometown.
She feels that she is at a crossroads in her life now, after walking away from a work contract that was not right for her and a city she loved because her unstable living situation had begun to feel unhealthy emotionally. After enduring years of childhood and marital abuse, she has learned the lesson of honoring herself and is adamant that she won’t go backward. Alexa wants to move forward now, especially considering the information she has received from her guide. But she continues to grapple with several health issues that keep her from fully thriving in her new life, including lupus, high blood pressure, kidney problems, nerve issues, and back pain. She is dismayed that after making such bold, positive changes in her life, she still feels so restrained, because of her health problems. She wonders if these issues can be healed.
Alexa also continues to harbor some fear about her health due to her close call with death and her continued health issues. She learns during her Life Between Lives session that she has chosen difficult situations so that she can experience vulnerability and fully understand it. During the session, Alexa is given healing energy and an adjustment to the amount of soul energy she carries in her physical body. One of the decisions made by souls as they are planning each incarnation is how much soul energy they will bring into the life they are about to live in order to accomplish the learning they have planned. Dr. Newton originally believed that the amount of energy brought into an incarnation was static. However, we have since encountered sessions with special circumstances when this might not be the case. An example is a situation in which more rapid spiritual growth than expected occurs or when there is a miscalculation about the amount of energy needed to accomplish the goals set for a life.
Alexa is ambitious and didn’t bring as much soul energy into her body in this life as she could have. The powerful spiritual energy flooding her body is felt by both Alexa and the practitioner. Alexa is flooded with healing and joy.
She is told by her guide that through the difficult situations she has previously experienced, she has learned the lesson of vulnerability. Now she can let go of the fear connected to these past difficulties, which is still hurting her. With the healing energy she is receiving, Alexa can release the fear. The key message repeated over and over by the guides in the session is to focus on joy. Joy creates flow. Embracing joy is the path to healing for her and for all of us. Alexa, as her higher self, explains this further.
It is so easy to forget who we are when we’re here [on earth]. These bodies are dampening. While they allow us to live in this dimension, they also dampen the energy. Sometimes it becomes warped as it tries to seep through. Think of energy coming through a sieve. It is fragmented because of the nature of the travel it must traverse. These bodies can create dampening, and if we bring too much energy it blows the circuits. If we do not get enough energy, and it is easy to do one way or the other, it is difficult to communicate. If we get too much energy, then it’s difficult for us to be grounded in the reality that we must experience.
Some of us have a habit that when we are young [souls] we want to take everything; we want to take all our energy. When we are older, we don’t want to take as much; however, we may underestimate the need. We feel confident and therefore we think we can go without it, but no. The energy level can be adjusted. We are constantly being assisted even as we assist.
Alexa learns that she has planned for this lifetime and others to be difficult to enable her to feel vulnerable. She wants to experience vulnerability so she can teach about vulnerability. She has succeeded in learning that lesson. Thus, the health problems, unstable living situations, and abuse that allowed her to feel vulnerable are no longer required and will no longer be present. The guides explain this further.
She will teach many people. She has a difficult time staying in this physical form. The body breaks down and the mind breaks down more, wanting to go home, not understanding that it is purposeless to come here without completing the task. Although nothing is wasted. She will begin to thrive. Most of the learning has been achieved and the difficult conditions are no longer necessary.
Focus on the joy. Focus on the wonder. Enjoy life and don’t be afraid. This is the most healing thing she can do. She loves the outdoors. She started exercising again. This is good. Walking is very good. Yoga would be excellent. She needs the flexibility.
This problem with her physical being will work itself out in time. The reason the nerves hurt is blockages that are difficult to explain. They will be healed. She needs to let go of the fear. Most is gone. It is leaving, but she must focus on joy and on gratitude. Then she will find that everything flows.
Let the love flow through. She has been afraid to love or to allow herself to be loved. This has caused her much physical pain. Her soul requires a high amount of love because it is her nature. When she keeps herself from this, for the block in this case is her own, it causes physical pain. This is a signal that she is not loving herself and allowing the joy to come through. She must focus on joy. On creating joy for others as well, which she does. This will be the path to healing.
We see in this case that the difficult situations that occurred in Alexa’s life were planned by her to help her learn the lesson of vulnerability. While she learned this lesson and overcame enough fear to go after a new life situation, some fear remained. This kept her from fully loving and caring for herself. Letting go of the residual fear and embracing joy and gratitude was the final test. The healing energy and insights from her session will allow her to thrive.
Alexa’s case shows us that an important part of self-care is loving ourselves. We are encouraged to embrace joy and bring it to others.
Understanding the Root Cause
Meghan, a thirty-nine-year-old lawyer, comes in for a Life Between Lives session to gain some insight regarding her recurrent stomach problems and inability to eat most foods. She reports a history of chronic stomach and digestive problems for the past twenty years, which medical care has been unable to alleviate. While her current marriage is stable, with two children, nine and twelve years of age, she has endured much abuse in a past relationship.
She reports that she didn’t have any stomach problems until she was in high school and loved food and cooking. The first episode she recalls is when she was sixteen and diagnosed with gastritis. She doesn’t recall what might have triggered that first episode, but does remember being very lonely in high school.
A year later she met a soldier in the war in Croatia who seemed kind and gentle, and she fell in love. They started dating and were together for five years. For the first six months, it was nice. After that he became very rude to her and soon the relationship became abusive. The stomach problems reoccurred, and she became weak. When she tried to leave, he threatened her. He asked her, “Do you know how many people I have killed? Do you think I can’t do it again?”
When summer came, he wouldn’t go to the beach with her because he says her legs were too fat. He wanted her to go on a weight loss diet. She started to hate him and couldn’t stand it when he touched her. But he kept touching her and she spent hours in the shower afterward trying to wash herself clean. But she didn’t feel clean and started to hate herself.
Once he almost killed her, and the next day she developed horrible spasms in her stomach. Her parents took her to the hospital, where she remained for the next two months. They ran multiple tests and finally diagnosed her with irritable bowel syndrome.
When she returned home, her boyfriend reappeared, and the abuse started again. Her stomach pain became worse and she lost more weight. She became unable to digest food and later developed a fever and abdominal distention. She was hospitalized again in very serious condition, unable to eat anything. The doctors couldn’t figure out what was wrong with her. However, one of them suggested she try homeopathy. She reported that this saved her life. But, while the pain and problems with digestion got better, she continued to eat only a very limited, bland diet. The abusive boyfriend was gone by this time, and she went on with her life. But in all the subsequent years, she is living with a fear of food.
During the regression to childhood, Meghan remembers her sister’s birthday party and how her father blocked the children from coming in to play. He finally left to go to his card game, but she feels ashamed of her father’s behavior in front of the other children. And her stomach hurt. The practitioner guides Meghan to comfort the child she is then and let her know that her father’s bad behavior is not her fault. She is directed to let go of the feelings of shame she feels then and other times.
When regressed to the womb, Meghan feels cold and unwelcome. She reports that her mother feels tired and heavy and that there are no feelings of love. The practitioner guides her to send love and warmth to her young self, to tell her that she is loved and wanted, and to welcome her to the world. Things feel much better to her after doing that, but Meghan reports that she still feels alone. Then, the practitioner asks her what she has come here to learn.
I came to share love even when I am alone. I don’t stay in the womb. I go to the light. I don’t feel alone there. I’m there with many. They are joking, and they are a little naughty and funny. I see two of them sitting off to the side and they are sad. They are telling me that I shouldn’t go there. I shouldn’t go into that body because it will be hard. I tell them not to worry, as I am sure. I have made a deal with my mother. My sister is there. She takes me somewhere to show me about the deal I made.
Next Meghan moves on to a past life.
Now I see a woman in a dress. She’s in the garden in front of the house. I stay on the side and I am hiding from her. She’s doing something with a towel. I feel pain. I don’t like her. I want to just stay hidden, but I am so angry. I did something to her. She doesn’t know that I’m angry. I want to stay hidden, but I see stones and I hit her with the stones. I’m a man and I am just so angry. I killed her with the stones. She was evil. Now it hurts even more, and I fall to my knees crying.
In the next scene, he is taken to be hanged.
I feel so weak and I feel pain in my entire body. I see a group of men and I am in the middle. Two of them held me under my arms and they pull me off the floor, because I can’t stand on my feet. I feel so weak, without any strength in my body. I’m not afraid of hanging. I know what they will do. I leave the body a moment before the hanging. I leave the body slowly, like I need a few minutes. I move up. I feel released.
The practitioner asks why the man hated the woman so much and why he thought that she was evil.
She killed my baby. She shook the baby too much. She didn’t feel guilty. I don’t feel guilty for killing her. I want her to feel guilty.
Now I am with the others and they are washing me and singing. They are washing away all the guilt and shame I brought into that body. I feel clean and easy now. I am back home, and I feel happy. I am now gold and I shine. Then I go to a special room. There are three elders and one is higher than the other two. I’m not afraid of them, but I have respect for them. I know I didn’t do my best in this life. I’m all alone with them and the others wait outside the door. They don’t say anything, they’re just watching me. I feel their energy.
They are not happy. I did not learn. They send me to another room with books. I am learning patience. I am afraid. When I entered, a “book of light” came to me, but I was afraid to look at it. There are others here, but I don’t speak with them. I don’t recognize anybody.
The practitioner guides Meghan to ask for assistance. The guides give her the following information.
I am learning to forgive, to not judge, and to be good to the people who are not good. I tell them that I am not Mother Teresa and that is why I am here. Strange. They want me to be good to people who are not good to me, to not judge and to forgive. I must be openhearted to those kinds of people. Loving with an open heart is my essence.
They are healing me. One stays behind me and one stays in front. I feel heat and see light coming into me. My appearance is changing. I look like them now. The one who is staying behind me is the higher one, but I see him as if he were in front of me. He is so powerful.
The practitioner guides Meghan to ask about her stomach.
It is guilt. I’ve been carrying that anger and guilt for a long time. I need to love and forgive myself. I have the tools to heal myself. I came to earth this time to make my mother feel guilty. But I need to forgive her for shaking that baby. I need to forgive the man I was then who killed her. I also need to forgive the father who wouldn’t let the kids in for my sister’s birthday.
Meghan reports that after her session, she wants to eat foods that she has been avoiding for twenty years. She is now eating meat and pasta and feels no pain. She is slowly adding in other foods that she hasn’t been able to eat for years, giving her digestive system time to adjust.
Meghan agreed to help her mother experience guilt in this lifetime so that her mother can grow. However, the guilt and anger she herself continues to carry over from that previous life is the reason behind her stomach problems in this life. Letting go of guilt and forgiving herself and her parents in this lifetime results in significant healing.
We see from the cases in this chapter that health problems are planned by us to help us evolve spiritually. They can alert us to areas in our lives where we need to make changes in order to continue to grow, and they can remind us of the importance of loving and caring for ourselves.
Health issues can provide us with the opportunity to heal emotional wounds and to let go of fear, anger, or guilt. They can slow us down and provide us with an opportunity to examine our lives to release limiting attitudes or to achieve more balance in our lives. While we may not always heal physically from a health crisis, we can heal emotionally and be transformed.
Life Between Lives sessions are an excellent way to uncover the hidden gifts brought by health challenges. The sessions do not provide medical advice, but rather healing guidance to advance the soul.