Anxiety & Panic
In this chapter, we will explore past life case studies from people who experienced often-debilitating anxiety and panic, only to find relief from their deep-rooted past rather than from anything in their current lives.
Anxiety
According to the DSM-5, some of the many symptoms of generalized anxiety include “excessive anxiety and worry (apprehensive expectation), occurring more days than not for at least six months, about a number of events (such as work or school performance).”
While the clients you’re about to read about did not necessarily qualify for a clinical diagnosis, they certainly experienced instances of anxiety, sometimes causing panic attacks or similar symptoms.
Mary Released Chronic Anxiety
Mary suffered from deep-rooted issues with anxiety throughout her life. She tried different medications and when none worked to her satisfaction, she chose a spiritual path of meditation and mindfulness to try to alleviate her stress. Everything went smoothly for her for years, until life issues caused her anxiety to rear its ugly head again, worse than ever.
“I’ve been doing so well for so long,” she told me, “but ever since my husband and I decided to call it quits and file for divorce, I’ve been a nervous wreck. I stayed home to raise my daughter and I own a small business that doesn’t bring in nearly enough money to make ends meet. Now I’m going to have to move and somehow find a job.”
We did quite a bit of forgiveness and healing work around her divorce as she gratefully acknowledged the gifts her marriage had given her, but knew she had to move on. Then, surprisingly, when I asked her to travel to the source of her anxiety, she soon realized she experienced these exact feelings before in her past life.
SK: What year is this and what’s happening?
Mary: I’m on a beach wearing a swimsuit. It’s 1932 and my swimsuit is white with puffy long sleeves and knee-length bloomers with ruffles. I’m barefoot. I’m with two young girls who are my friends from school. I’m 16 years old. I see a boardwalk off in the distance, with carnival rides and music playing. I’m so happy. I feel that my family is privileged with money.
Mary: Very good. Go ahead now and fast forward to the next most significant event in the 1930s. Be there now. Where are you? What’s happening?
Mary: Now it’s two years later, my father dies from cancer, and I have to go to work to support myself. I’m really scared and I don’t know how I’ll make it.
SK: Good job. Is there anything about that situation that reminds you of your current life, yes or no?
Mary: Oh yes, it’s just the same, only different. I had a life of abundance until all of a sudden, I had the rug pulled out from under me, and now I’m on my own.
SK: Notice the energy of the father in that lifetime. Is he anyone you know in your current life?
Mary: Oh my gosh! It’s him! My soon-to-be ex! He’s so much older than I am in that life, and he’s older than me in this life too.
SK: What lessons did the two of you come together to learn?
Mary: We support each other, we’re good friends, and think the same on a lot of levels. The problem is that we’re not meant to be together forever. We’re together for a reason and for a shorter period of time. It’s not meant to last. That’s part of my learning. I must learn how to stand up on my own two feet. He’s helping me do that by forcing me out.
SK: Great! Travel out further into your life in the 1930s and notice what happened after your father passed away.
Mary: I had a very average existence after that. I always cherished my younger life and my teenage years. I missed that life! Then again, I had everything I needed. I learned that you don’t need all that wealth to be happy.
SK: And were you happy in that life?
Mary: I was, yes.
SK: Travel out beyond today and go into a moment in your current-life future where you are happy, healthy, through with your divorce, and successfully standing on your own. Be there now. Notice what’s happening.
Mary: It’s a few years from now. I live in my other house south of here and I love it. The scenery is so much prettier than where I lived when I was married. I went back to school about five years ago, so now I’m actually using my degree. I’m a teacher, I make really good money, and I live in my house, which is paid for. I have a really nice life, and what’s better is I’m so much happier on my own. My ex and I are still great friends, but we didn’t need to be together anymore. He’s doing well and everything worked out.
Incredibly, the things Mary foresaw in her future came true. She’s one of the best examples of someone who went into her empowered future and actually took the steps to move forward into her happier, fuller life. I am quite proud of her. She is doing wonderful these days.
This level of success can happen for you too! Later in the book in the guided journeys section, you will have opportunities to travel into your future and discover the best plans for a happy life and learn the steps you will take to move forward in the direction of your highest potential. Using hypnosis, you will use guided visualizations and the power of your imagination to go see your own future. It’s truly empowering to see your own highest potential and then move forward into the life you’ve always wanted. It’s all possible!
Past Life Bullying Affected Deborah’s Child
Social anxiety from bullying is a huge problem in modern society. Bullying is a big topic in the news because it seems incredibly unenlightened for modern people to treat each other so poorly. Knowing someone is out to get you by purposefully attempting to instill fear is cause for great stress and turmoil in anyone’s life.
All of us have likely suffered at the hands of a bully at some point in our past. Even I had someone who used intimidation tactics on me at every turn. I can’t even tell you what caused this person to come after me in the first place because as far as I was concerned, I didn’t do anything specific to initiate it, at least not in this lifetime. Then again, I had to wonder: Did the bully and I have unresolved karma?
That’s a question my client Deborah asked when she came in for a regression and wound up telling me all about one of the other mothers in her child’s class at school whose older son teased her little boy non-stop about his thick glasses. The constant torment overshadowed his sweet personality and caused her son to become so withdrawn at school, he stopped socializing with his usual friends. The two moms served together in the elementary school PTA and were at each other’s throats all the time. After Deborah repeatedly complained to the principal about the bullying, nothing changed.
“My son can’t help the fact that he wears glasses. He doesn’t deserve to be treated like this. I have a horrible feeling about that woman (his mother). I’m worried because every time I see her I want to punch her and I know if I actually do that, I could get into big trouble, and my son will suffer. As it is, we’ve been in the principal’s office too many times to count, and I’m sick of it. I just need it to stop. I’m a nice person, really I am! I don’t normally act like this! I swear I’ve never had anything like this happen to me before. I told my husband I have a terrible feeling this woman is out to get me. I can’t shake it, so I’m here to see if I can get answers before I do something I’ll regret, or before her boy does something to my son. If that happens, I know for sure I won’t be able to contain myself. I can hardly control myself now. I can’t sleep, I’ve lost my appetite, and every time I have to go to one of those meetings, I freak out. I can’t keep going with things the way they are. We could pull my son out of school and take him somewhere else, but I don’t believe in that. He shouldn’t have to change schools because of an older kid torturing him, and who’s to say it wouldn’t happen somewhere else? I have to solve this problem here, where we are now.”
We visited her past life, and sure enough, these two had a connection—and not a good one.
SK: Go back to the source event where you first knew the soul of this woman. Be there now. What year is this?
Deborah: Somewhere in Europe.
SK: What year is this?
Deborah: 1389. This is weird, but I am a man.
SK: Very good. Are you alone or with other people in 1389 Europe?
Deborah: Right now, I am alone on a road.
SK: Fast forward to a time when you’re with other people. Be there now and tell me what’s going on.
Deborah: I walked down that road to the center of a village. There’s a mob there and someone is being punished.
SK: Is there anyone you know from your current life?
Deborah: Oh yes. She’s there. That’s her.
SK: What is your relationship in that life?
Deborah: I knew her from the town. Now she’s being punished along with her kids for stealing food. They’re all taken into the center of town and shackled to some wooden post. Everyone’s gathering around, including me. I pick up a stone and throw it, hitting her kid in the head. She looks me right in the eye.
SK: What happens to them?
Deborah: They’re all killed. We stoned them. They died a horrible death.
SK: Imagine you can bring them out in front of you now and apologize for doing this to them. Tell them you were only going along with the crowd.
Deborah: That’s just it, I hate to admit this, but I enjoyed it. I wasn’t a nice person. I didn’t have to be there that day. I wanted to be there. I wanted to participate. I’m not sure why. I liked the feeling of control back then.
SK: How is that life affecting you in the now?
Deborah: I grew up with all brothers who were hunters and I never liked them hunting. I think it has to do with this life. I don’t want to be part of brutality anymore. I’ve learned over the centuries that fighting and going against others isn’t right.
SK: Were there other lifetimes when you fought other people and tortured them?
Deborah: Yes.
SK: Be there now. Notice what’s happening.
Deborah: This is also in Europe in the 1700s. This feels more like England, but now that I think about it, the other place was around France. I witnessed a lot of hangings. It was a bad time, lots of poor people, and crime was on the rise.
SK: When you look around at the people in England in the 1700s, do you recognize anyone there from your current life?
Deborah: No.
SK: Were there any events in your past where you received punishment?
Deborah: Yes, long ago.
SK: Be there now. What year is this?
Deborah: I want to say this is in the times of the Romans. I don’t have the details, but my guide is showing me I was tortured there. Stabbed and left for dead.
SK: What crime did you commit?
Deborah: Nothing too bad. Stealing food. Same as the people I tortured. You didn’t have to do much back in those times when food was scarce to receive death as a punishment.
SK: Did you pay any of those people back who executed you?
Deborah: Oh yes, I think there’s been some back and forth with paybacks. I just want to call it even now, though, and be done.
SK: Imagine you can bring the mother of the little boy out in front of you, along with her son and your son in this life. Go ahead and apologize to her for the stoning and see what she says.
Deborah: She doesn’t forgive me.
SK: What could you do to change this?
Deborah: She says she’s enjoyed watching my son suffer because I watched her child suffer and it feels good.
SK: Were there other lifetimes where you two knew each other?
Deborah: No.
SK: What about your two sons?
Deborah: No. She’s saying it’s taken a long time to finally get even with me for what I did.
SK: Allow your spirit guide to come in and act as an intermediary between the two of you. Is there any compromise here? Anything you can do to help?
Deborah: My guide says I need to go up to her and apologize. That doesn’t make any sense. She’s not going to know what I am talking about, but my guide says I have to do this in person in order to heal.
Many times, the person can do the healing in the unified field, in their mind, and real results take hold in the outer world by healing on the inside. In this case, however, for whatever reason, Deborah left feeling clearly guided that she needed to initiate some sort of apology for something she did not do in this lifetime. A week later she told me:
“I couldn’t believe what happened after our session. I took a few deep breaths and tried putting myself in her shoes and went up to her after a PTA meeting. I could not get that image of her baby being stoned out of my mind and I whispered into her ear, ‘I’m sorry for all you’re going through.’ She turned around and had the strangest look on her face. I’ve never seen anything like it. Her eyes welled up and she almost cried. She actually thanked me and apologized. She explained that she and her husband had separated and planned to divorce. She regretted not doing more to stop her son. She tried talking to him, but he was upset about what was happening at home, too, and she had run out of energy to discipline him. Once we talked, everything changed. We’re kind of friends now. Well, that might be stretching it a bit, but she goes out of her way to say hi in the carpool lines and my boy hasn’t had a single complaint since. I’m thinking of inviting them over after school soon so the two of them can play. I can’t even believe I’m saying this, but everything changed and things are looking up.”
When you shift your attitude about people, they have to change to conform to your new thinking. Many times bullies wind up being frail underneath their rough exteriors, as Deborah discovered. The bully’s perceived anger and rude behavior isn’t always personal and is normally a cover-up for troubles in their own lives. When we can show compassion, things change.
Deborah’s experience is similar to what I experienced with my bully. I shifted my thinking from fear to tolerance and held my ground against the unwanted behavior. Once I changed, we had a long-overdue conversation and became friends. Know with a little extra compassion and time, things can turn around even in the most difficult situations.
Michelle Constantly Worried About Her Son
Separation anxiety is very real and can become quite problematic. During Michelle’s session, she told me she experienced constant nightmares about her third-grade son. She started every day trembling from anxiety before putting him on his school bus. I asked her if something had happened to make her feel this way.
“Not at all,” she told me with tears in her eyes. “I just can’t shake the feeling that something horrible is going to happen to him, even though we have a nice life, his father is a good man, and there’s no logical reason for me to be so upset, but I can’t help it.”
Was Michelle suffering from feelings carried over from a past life? I wanted to find out.
Sure enough, Michelle recalled a past life in early twentieth-century Chicago. To her surprise and mine, she saw herself as a little girl and her son as her father. The family lived in the city, and one day when the little girl walked to school with her father nearby, a car struck and killed her. It broke her father’s heart and he never recovered.
SK: What lessons did you and your son come here to learn about in many lifetimes?
Michelle: He decided to come back again because he wants us to spend a longer time together this lifetime.
SK: Very good. Go ahead and bring out the little girl you were back then, your father from that lifetime, and your son. Imagine this is your son’s Higher Self, his soul. Go ahead and speak to them now about these lessons and whether or not you can choose differently this time.
Michelle: Yes, we definitely can. We’ve agreed to come back to the Chicago area again and this time around we will do better.
SK: Can you see there was no mistake in what happened?
Michelle: Yes.
SK: What lessons did you receive from the accident?
Michelle: There wasn’t really a lesson. I had to go early, up to … heaven, I guess you’d call it. I had some spiritual training to do.
SK: Is that training helping you in your current life?
Michelle: (laughing) I hope it can now, but so far, not so much. I need to stop my worry and let go of fear. This is all an illusion. We are infinite, so there is nothing to worry about.
SK: Very good. So do you think you can have a successful and lengthy life together this time around?
Michelle: Oh yes, we will. But I have to stop the worrying or my son won’t want to be around me and he won’t be properly prepared to face the world. He needs to be strong, and he can’t be unless I become stronger.
SK: Are you ready to do that?
Michelle: Yes, definitely.
Once the two parties solidified the agreement, Michelle traveled to her current-life future and saw the family years later.
SK: Where are you now?
Michelle: My son’s graduation from college.
SK: How do you feel?
Michelle: Great. Everything worked out this time around and we still have a wonderful relationship.
SK: As you experience yourself in the future, imagine you can look back over your life and notice when you let go of your anxiety about your son.
Michelle: I did that today.
SK: Nice. Are you able and willing to let go of your anxiety about his safety? At least for the most part?
Michelle: I can.
SK: When will you do that?
Michelle: Now.
She spoke with conviction, so we had only one more step to do.
SK: Great. Now go back to your son’s graduation and really tune in to the feeling you have now that he has safely graduated. Allow every cell in your body to relax knowing he is fine and he is safe. Allow your subconscious mind to give you a symbol that represents your new feeling of calm where your son is concerned. What is that symbol?
Michelle: A graduation cap.
Once she identified the graduation cap as her symbol for her newfound peace, she used the hat to trigger reassured thoughts for her future.
In part three of this book, you’ll get to discover a powerful healing symbol of your own. For Michelle, from that day on, she became empowered to create the life she wanted to live, rather than being stuck in a painful pattern of misery.
SK: Every time you think about a graduation cap or you see one on television or in a movie, anywhere at all, you will instantly be brought back into the memory of your son’s graduation and you will know that all is well and he is doing great. Any other insights or lessons you received?
Michelle: We are not stuck here on Earth. There’s more that we can’t see. We are going on from here. There is no death of our spirit, so we are okay, no matter what.
Sometimes a little understanding goes a long way. Many times, our unexplained emotions aren’t actually caused by anything we are or are not doing in our current lives, and yet this is often hard to determine because we are so invested in the illusion of three-dimensional consciousness. In Michelle’s case, she was truly surprised to realize roles were reversed in the past, but by simply observing that, accepting what happened in the last life she and her son shared, she easily let go of her anxiety. Last I heard from her, she had never looked back.
Panic
Panic attacks, according to DSM-5, have several symptoms and must be “associated with longer than one month of subsequent persistent worry about having another attack or consequences of the attack.”
Earlier in the book I mentioned a fascinating phenomenon I call Supretrovie, or spontaneous past life memories brought on by external stimuli. I’ve discovered thousands of people have memories of prior incarnations that are triggered by external events—places they visit, people they see, or physical objects. These memories often trigger traumatic reactions in the present. When people experience Supretrovie, they often require a past life regression, not to identify the prior lifetime, but to go back into the situation in a safe environment so they can heal the trauma and get on with their lives. Many people have past life memories spontaneously pop up while they are traveling. These situations are different from déjà vu because they are not examples of knowing you’ve had the same exact experience repeated, but instead, you remember a long-forgotten time on a conscious level, of something you did in the past, or of the place you’re visiting. These experiences often cause tremendous panic and anxiety, yet when the events are happening, people are not always aware that the trauma is being caused by a past life in that area.
Kyle Feared the Nile
Kyle believed he had definitely lived a past life in Egypt after he went to Cairo on business and became incredibly fearful.
“We were in the city center and I was with my colleagues walking along the sidewalk next to the Nile, not too far from the Egyptian National Museum. We were about to cross over the river when we decided to stop and glance down at the Nile. For some reason, a profound sense of terror overwhelmed me. I almost started to cry when I saw the water. It wasn’t a sad cry; it was angrier, like something wicked had happened there. Something I hadn’t thought about for a very long time. I held my breath and tried to get myself under control because I didn’t want my coworkers to see me. I wanted to run, but I froze from fear and couldn’t move for a second. I tried breathing and after a few minutes, by the time my coworkers approached, I could move my legs again. I just stayed quiet while we walked back to the hotel and averted my eyes so I wouldn’t have to see the Nile. I stared at the sidewalk until I could get myself under control. Once I got back to the hotel lobby, they all wanted to go eat, but I said no and went to my room. Seeing that place wore me out. I showered and went to bed, but that terrible feeling from the Nile lingered. I didn’t cry; I rarely do. I’ve never experienced such bad vibes before or since. I’ll never forget that as long as I live.”
I could certainly understand feeling emotional after visiting a place. I’ve even felt that way after meeting certain people I believe I’ve known in past lives. You may have had similar experiences. Nevertheless, I was excited to learn about Kyle’s connection to Egypt, so we did the regression.
SK: Where are you and what year is it?
Kyle: I’m in Egypt sometime before the pyramids were built. I don’t know the date.
SK: What’s happening?
Kyle: I am with hundreds of people. We are doing some kind of ritual along the Nile. There is fire, smoke, a ceremony.
SK: Are you a man or a woman?
Kyle: Man.
SK: As you experience the energy of the people there, what is your relationship to them?
Kyle: I sense a woman there. I love her. We are together, although not formally. I know there is some ritual that must be performed. Not too different from marriage, but it’s more religious than that. I promised we will be together.
SK: Is she there with you at this ceremony?
Kyle: Yes.
SK: Surrounded by healing light, go to the event that is the source event for the strange feeling you had when you were in Cairo. Be there now, notice what’s happening.
Kyle: She’s performing a risky ritual along the banks of the river. I don’t like it, but it is commanded by the rulers at the time that she obey. She missteps and slips and falls, hitting her head. I’m watching as her body floats down the river. People are holding me back. I want to dive in and get her, but they say no, I cannot. I am needed elsewhere. I fought and was restrained and sent away, brokenhearted and angry. I became convinced the Pharaoh was evil after that and his ways were not pure. I was eventually put to death for my disobedience.
SK: How is this life affecting you now?
Kyle: It wasn’t until I traveled back there that I realized I do have a tendency to be a rebel at work. I’ve missed a lot of opportunities because I refuse to do what I’m told. I stress myself out over things when I don’t feel they’re fair.
SK: Imagine you can be back on the Nile and notice a loving, healing light coming down from above, washing away your sorrow and bitterness. Allow that light to move into your heart, releasing you from this energy so you are more open to receive. Let me know when this feels better.
Kyle: Yes, although part of my soul will still never get over what they did to her. I could have easily saved her if they would have just let me go help. I have a hard time with that still.
I’ve found past life regression to be incredibly helpful for coming to a state of acceptance about some of the injustices in the world. Forgiveness and letting go are hard for each of us for different reasons. Kyle’s story is a great example of something I describe as peeling back the layers of the onion of your subconscious mind, only to realize there’s much more to go in the future. Some things we will never accept, no matter what, but having the clarity can still provide some degree of healing.
New Orleans Haunted House Panicked Erin
One of the more interesting regressions I’ve done involved Erin, who couldn’t shake the spooky vibes she picked up from a haunted house. Here’s what happened:
“I live in Los Angeles and I went to New Orleans over Halloween one year to meet some girlfriends who live on the East Coast. We went on one of those ghost tours of the Garden District, and I got really spooked in one of the houses. I didn’t see anything, like I didn’t see a ghost or spirit, but I felt terrorized there, to the point I could hardly sleep that night. My friends thought it was funny, which I don’t blame them for, but if they could have been inside my head, they would have known this fear was real. Down-to-the-bone real. Bad enough I didn’t get any sleep and had nightmares all night. The following day when we went back to that area for a tour, I started hyperventilating in the downstairs lobby of one of those mansions. My heart raced so fast I thought it was going to pop out of my chest. Thank God, I managed to make it to a sofa and sit down before I fell down. It was really bad. I was sweating and I couldn’t catch my breath. I thought I was going to die. I felt super embarrassed when one of my friends came over and tried to get me to calm down, which I did to some degree. I missed out on Bourbon Street and partying that night, because my friends were worried there might really be something wrong with me, like I think they thought I had the flu. I went to my hotel room and went straight to bed and felt fine. The next day I flew home, no problem, but I’ve always believed I picked up some bad juju from that haunted place—a spirit or something that stuck with me—because ever since then, when I think about New Orleans, I get a bad vibe.”
During her past life regression, Erin definitely uncovered a connection to the New Orleans area.
SK: What year is it, the first thing that comes to your mind?
Erin: 1700s, but I don’t know the exact date.
SK: Where are you and what’s happening?
Erin: I’m in a mansion.
SK: Visiting or do you live there?
Erin: I live there in that same area where we went, only there’s nothing else around.
The key to Erin’s challenges happened at the end of her prior incarnation.
SK: Fast forward to the very last day of your life and tell me how it is you pass into spirit.
Erin: I’m very old. I’m fixing food when my heart starts racing and I fall down in the kitchen. I’m having a heart attack. I die.
SK: Go ahead and lift up, up, up, out of that body, out of that life. Surrounded by a healing light, notice if these symptoms you experienced in the mansion lobby are similar to what you experienced in the 1700s.
Erin: They’re just the same, only I wasn’t going to die.
SK: Very good. Imagine you can speak to the Higher Self of the woman you were back then. Notice there’s an energetic cord connecting the two of you and in a moment, when I count down from three, we’re going to cut that cord, releasing and healing you from those events in your past. Ready? Three, two, one, cut! Notice there’s now a healing light pouring into your heart, relaxing and healing you. Let me know when this feels better.
Erin: It’s definitely better now.
Before her regression, Erin mentioned her concerns regarding the possibility that she inadvertently picked up some wandering souls from the mansions she had visited. I refer to them as stragglers, and they could have definitely caused her to feel fearful. I’ve worked with dozens of people negatively affected by discarnate beings over the years, so I asked her about that:
SK: Did any of the spirits in New Orleans come home with you?
Erin: No. That’s what I thought originally, but now I realize I was just sensitive to the energy because I had lived there before.
Incredibly, we can energetically carry over medical issues and conditions from the past into our current lives, especially in cases like Erin’s, where she had actually visited a place where she’d been long ago. With a few simple shifts, Erin changed everything.
Summing Up
All of the case studies explored in this chapter show how debilitating panic and anxiety can be in normal waking life. When challenges won’t quit, that’s when it’s time to look into the past for answers.