The first time that many people hear about their past lives is when they go for a psychic reading. This kind of brief introduction is just enough to make them curious. The next step is usually booking a regression to find out more.
There are, however, a number of other ways to explore your soul history. This chapter is an introduction to the best of those methods. They are safe and fun to experiment with, and will show you many different ways to look at your past lives.
Dowsing is easy to do and available to everyone. You don’t need any special skills. It does use psychic energy, but that energy comes through you into the pendulum or dowsing rod. Dowsing comes from a well-established, time-honoured tradition. For centuries people have been successfully dowsing for underground water, oil, metals, precious stones and historical sites. To do this, the dowser most often uses a forked stick, holding one prong in each hand. With the stick pointing straight ahead and level to the ground, the dowser moves slowly over the area. When the stick suddenly wrenches downwards of its own accord, it means the object of the search is directly below.
Sometimes two L-shaped metal rods are used. The dowser holds the short ends, with the long ends pointing directly ahead. This kind of rod is especially sensitive to unseen forms of energy, such as the human aura. They react by swinging widely open or closed.
To access past-life information, a pendulum is probably the best dowsing tool to use. This can be any small weight suspended by a chain, but a crystal will give the best results.
When you’ve found a pendulum that you like, the first step is to find out which way it will swing for ‘yes’ or ‘positive’ and which way for ‘no’ or ‘negative’. Hold the end of the chain in your left hand, and wait for the crystal to hang in stillness. Then say ‘show me a yes’. You can reinforce that by holding it over a piece of paper with the word ‘yes’ written on it.
It could then start to swing from side to side, back and forth, or in a circle. A circle usually means that the answer is uncertain or ambiguous. But some pendulums may move in clockwise or anticlockwise circles for ‘yes’ or ‘no’. When you’ve found out how your pendulum will indicate a ‘yes’, repeat the same procedure for the word ‘no’.
Then try it out by asking ‘yes’ or ‘no’ questions that you know the answer to, such as ‘Is today Sunday?’ When you and your pendulum are working happily together, you can then move on to your journey of discovery.
To follow are some methods that you can experiment with to help you find out about your past lives.
Hold your pendulum over a map to find out where you had a past life. Try different places on the map. Each time, say out loud or clearly in your mind, ‘Did I have a past life in this place?’ Give your pendulum time to settle and react before you move on to the next area.
Ideally, you need two people to do this – one to lie down while the other does the dowsing.
In the same way as dowsing a map, move the pendulum little by little over the person’s body. Pause often, each time asking, ‘Are past-life memories held here?’ Remember to dowse the back as well, because many unconscious issues are held there. The shoulders, arms, hands, legs and feet are also important – but any part of the body can be affected.
Most of us have things we’ve bought or that have found their way into our lives – things that subconsciously remind us of our past lives. They could be jewellery, ornaments, pictures, clothing – even large pieces of furniture.
Pick something that feels significant. Then hold your pendulum over it and ask, ‘Does this have past-life meaning for me?’
If you’re wondering about possible past-life connections with certain people or places, you can dowse pictures of them. Hold your pendulum over the picture and ask, ‘Do I have a past-life connection with this person/place?’
When you’ve established a past-life connection with a place on a map, in the body, among your possessions or with someone you know, you can then go on to ask more questions about it.
Begin with these four core questions as your foundation. You can then ask new questions that occur to you, depending on the answers the pendulum gives you. Frame all your questions to have a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answer.
For example, ask yourself: ‘Did that life take place in the twentieth century?’ If the answer is ‘yes’, ask if it was in the first or second half of the century. If the answer is ‘no’, ask if it was within the last 500 years. Continue refining your questions until you get a ‘yes’ answer.
Once you’ve established a clear time in history, you can even find out the year of your past-life birth by asking about specific years until you get a ‘yes’.
Here are some more questions to ask:
Once you have the answers to these basic questions, you can continue getting more details until you have a good picture of that past life.
Dowsing can tell you a lot about your past lives and what you can do to either heal or enhance those effects.
Some parts of the astrological birth chart are specifically about past lives and can be useful tools to explore them. It’s easy to get your birth chart done on the internet, often accompanied by helpful interpretations. Because many of the charts are free, you could download a few and compare the results.
These are the three aspects of your chart that refer to past-life effects:
This is about the ingrained habits, negative effects and old patterns from your past that are now holding you back. It may point to abilities from earlier lives, which now need to be either left behind or transformed in some way.
This is about your highest potential. It’s the inner purpose of this incarnation and represents the best path you can take in this lifetime for your personal growth.
For example, my south node is in Virgo. This refers to past lives that were focused on analytical work. My north node is in Pisces, which is about intuition and mystery. So my purpose in this lifetime is to learn to rely less on left-brain skills and take a more mystical path instead.
On looking back, I can see how perfectly that has unfolded. While at university, I seemed all set for an academic career. But my life took another path altogether. I became fascinated by all things spiritual and other-worldly. Now, although analytical skills are still handy, I see them as one of the many tools that we can use to progress along our spiritual path.
A retrograde planet in the birth chart can be a positive or a negative thing. If it’s positive, it will be about someone or something from a past life that it would be good to revisit. If it’s negative, it will be about things from the past that need to be left behind.
You can find out if the retrograde planet is positive or negative by looking at its aspects to other planets. The charts that you download will give you this information.
For example: if Venus is retrograde, positive aspects could mean that a past-life soulmate is destined to come back into your life. Negative aspects might be about a past love holding you back in some way.
A badly aspected retrograde Mercury could mean having to amend something that was said or written in a past life. If the aspects are positive, it might mean picking up on studies you began in earlier times.
A retrograde Mars that has bad aspects might point to the need to heal or let go of past-life conflicts. But if it’s well aspected, it could be about positive dynamic influences from former times returning to help you now.
Astrology won’t show the exact details of your past lives. But it will give you a meaningful overview of your soul journey. This is a useful addition to the more comprehensive past-life knowledge that you can unearth in other ways.
Crystals carry specific vibrations, which help all kinds of inner work. You can hold them while meditating, wear them as jewellery or carry them with you in a protective pouch.
Below are seven of the best crystals for helping you to recall and heal your past-life experiences:
Dreams are excellent ways to find out about your soul history. You can tell which dreams are about your past lives: they’re the ones that are set in another time or in a part of the world you’ve never visited.
These dreams come to us for good reasons. If you have a dream like this, it means your inner spirit wants you to become aware of it because it will help you in some way.
Here are four good ways to understand past-life dreams:
Write down everything you remember about the dream. ?If you keep a regular dream diary the clues will build up and you’ll be surprised at how much information you gather.
Do so with the intention that you’re going to find out more about it and understand what it means.
Quieten the mind by relaxing and breathing slowly and deeply. Then focus on the dream. Imagine yourself in that place again. Notice all the details around you. Try talking to the people in the dream and see what you can find out from them.
With a bit of practice, this method can be a good way to discover the inner meaning of every important dream you have.
This means simply telling yourself that you will have a dream to answer a question. You could ask for a follow-up dream to tell you more about a past-life dream you’ve had. Or you could ask for a new dream about a past life.
Incubating a dream is like telling yourself to wake up at a certain time in the morning. Your inner self hears and will do as you ask. The dream you’ve asked for will come to you quite soon – if not that night, within a week or so.
In the meantime, keep a notepad by your bed so that you can write down the details while they’re still fresh in your mind.
All dreams talk in symbols. Every object in a dream has meaning and significance. For example, a table is never just a table, it represents how people gather together. A past-life dream featuring an expensive-looking table would be about an elite social world. A plain wooden table represents a more ordinary situation. A table for two will stand for a special relationship.
Bags are another important symbol in dreams, as they refer to our main occupation. In a past-life dream, the bag you carry will tell you a lot about that life. For example, depending on what it looks like, a bag could represent a life of fun, of penury or of study.
To give another example, dream shoes signify your path through life. Sandals often represent spiritually centred lives. Clogs point to a simple way of life. Shiny boots mean being higher up the social ladder.
Dream dictionaries can be helpful. But in the end, every symbol in your dreams is personal to you. This is why one of the best ways to understand them is by free association. Ask yourself what a dream object reminds you of, then what that reminds you of, and so on. This is one of the quickest and most direct ways to translate a dream.
Guided visualizations are both easy and enjoyable. They’ll work just as well whether you experience them in a talk, a workshop or from a CD, book, phone or Skype session.
This method works because it keeps the mind pleasantly occupied, while at the same time taking us to deeper levels of consciousness. As with dreams, the images that come up will be more about inner meanings than literal details. The soul talks to us in the language of symbols. Knowing that makes it easy to understand whatever may surface during a guided visualization.
This is a way of using meditation, relaxation and guided visualization techniques to help you find past-life memories for yourself.
The three keys for success at this are: intention, relaxation and trust.
This means simply deciding that you want to get a real past-life memory. Your inner spirit will hear this, and respond in a genuine way. The more you trust that, the easier it will be.
Then think about what you’re looking for. For example, you might want a memory that will:
For additional reassurance, you can also ask your guardian angels and spirit guides to be with you to help and watch over you during the session.
Each of these tried-and-true techniques works quickly and will relax you whenever you need it. You can use as many or few of them as you prefer, in any combination that works for you.
When done before any kind of meditation, visualization or exercise, these techniques will get you better results. When practised regularly, they’ll give you a greater sense of permanent inner peace.
Try the following:
Toning helps to unblock the energy meridians within your body. Repeating the well-known ‘om’ (pronounced ‘ahoom’) is excellent, because the vibration of this sound creates higher harmonic patterns that radiate through your whole being.
Focus on wherever your body is touching the floor, chair, bed, or sofa. Notice every detail of how it feels. Enjoy the feeling of how comfortable and supported you are.
Take a few deep breaths, letting them out like big sighs. Then start to breathe slowly and deeply. Quieten the mind by listening to the sound of your breath.
Imagine relaxation flowing through your whole body. Let all your muscles soften and feel heavy.
Choose a soothing piece of music and immerse yourself in it. Let it waft away all your concerns and help you to drift into a pleasant state of relaxation.
Gaze steadily at a mandala, a candle or a crystal. Think of the object as a symbol of your calm inner centre. Let go of all other thoughts.
Still the mind by listening to every sound that is going on within and around you. Although the sounds of nature are ideal, this exercise works just as well with any kind of sound. Even the whoosh of passing traffic can be soothing when we use it like this.
Close your eyes and imagine yourself relaxing in a beautiful place – perhaps floating in a warm sea, lying on soft green grass or basking in the sun.
Mantras are words or phrases that calm the mind when repeated over and over again. Use a positive affirmation, such as ‘I am relaxed, centred and confident.’
When you feel relaxed enough to go on your journey, you will have three vehicles to choose from. Each one will show you different types of memory.
This will take you to a physical past life that you had on Earth.
Imagine that you’re relaxing on a beautiful magic carpet. It’s comfortable, stable and strong. It knows which memory would benefit you the most to know about. As soon as you’re ready, it will take you straight there.
You can then stay on the carpet as it moves from scene to scene. No one there will be able to see you. You’ll be able to observe invisibly everything you need to know from that lifetime. Unless you wish to, you won’t have to re-experience anything.
When you’ve seen enough, the carpet will bring you back. Alternatively, anytime you want to return, you can simply open your eyes.
The cloud will show you a spiritual overview of your past lives. As you relax, imagine yourself floating on a beautiful white cloud. It’s soft and comfortable, but will also support you firmly.
The cloud will know what would be best to show you. As soon as you’re ready, it will take you to a place where you can learn more about your soul journey.
When you’re ready to come back, it will bring you safely home. Again, anytime you want to come out of this meditation, it’s fine to just open your eyes.
This will help you to explore memories from other worlds, other dimensions or between lives.
As you relax, imagine yourself in a tiny spaceship for one. It has huge all-round windows, like a flying bubble car. Although you can see out, no one can see in. You’re completely safe and protected as it floats gently through the beautiful regions of other-dimensional space.
It will take you to the other-worldly memories that would be the most helpful and enlightening for you to know about. You’ll be able to observe invisibly from inside the bubble.
When you’re ready to return, you can either open your eyes, or let the space bubble bring you safely home.
You can learn more about your past lives using a number of different methods:
Discovering that you had past lives is like suddenly inheriting an enormous mansion. The first wing you explore is all about finding out what kind of past lives you had. The wing that lies beyond that is about how to use that information to improve your life now.
The next section in this book will take you into that new wing – how to find and use the many gifts that your past lives have in store for you.