Connecting All The Dots

Accessing past life memories can heal your wounds today

By Christina Lopes

We’ve lived many times before this life.

It turns out, our “history” and “past” are far more extensive than the years we’ve spent on earth…this time around. And our long history, over the course of multiple lifetimes, is somewhat ingrained in us.

Energetically speaking, we carry a lot of baggage from the past and it can certainly limit us in the present.

Past life “imprints”, as I call them, can take on the form of inexplicable fears or phobias or they can manifest as an ingrained way of thinking (subconscious pattern) that resists change. Sometimes, we just do the same thing over and over (even if it hurts us) because we acquired that particular habit in another life and it has carried over into this one.

Some statements I’ve heard from clients and friends that point to past life imprints include:

“I’ve never had a good relationship. I really suck at them and don’t know why.”

“I have no idea why I am terrified of flying. I have just always been.”

“I keep repeating the same behavior with my spouse but don’t know why. It feels like we’ve interacted in this way for eons!”

“I’m in a really toxic relationship but it feels so old, so comfortable, that I find myself staying.”

These are only some ways in which past life imprints can manifest in our current lifetimes.

Today, I use the modality of past life regression as an important tool in my own life and also in my healing work with clients. In my experience, the ability to access our past lives is a truly transformational tool. “Seeing” the past can help us heal our most profound wounds.

In this post, I will discuss reincarnation and the power of past life regression by:

1. Detailing a specific instance where I accessed one of my own past life memories and how that helped me overcome a profound and inexplicable fear in this lifetime.
2. Answering questions from readers about past lives and past life regressions.

If the topic of reincarnation interests you or if you would like to learn more about past life regressions, I recommend the work of Dr. Brian Weiss — a pioneer in the field of regression. Click here and here for some of his books.

Part I:

My Journey Into A Past Life

I was recently drawn to a book about quantum physics and the nature of consciousness, called “The Self-Aware Universe”, by Amit Goswami. As I started reading the book, I felt an overwhelming sense that I knew the information contained in it. This felt odd to me because a) I don’t have a degree in Physics and b) I really suck at math (a pillar of physics).

Yet this feeling of “Yeah, I know this” kept intensifying as I continued my reading. Until I got to this sentence:

“There is no object in space-time without a conscious subject looking at it.”

I put my iPad down. A sense of fear started surfacing in my body. I didn’t want to read any more. Then, I felt a thought form in my mind:

“Don’t keep learning about this kind of stuff. People will think you’re crazy.”

For years, I had experienced this fear of “going crazy” and I hadn’t the slightest idea why. And now, here it was again, triggered by something I was reading in a book. I knew there was more to the story and felt the answers were somewhere in my past. A past life to be more specific.

I had already experienced a few spontaneous past life regressions while in meditation (I detail them in my memoir) and today, work with clients on accessing their own past lives. It was now time for me to try another auto-regression and see if I could access the memory causing this fear.

I sat cross legged on my meditation mat and gently closed my eyes. Immediately, I felt my hands tingle and my eyes began to blink uncontrollably. These are the physical signs that I am channeling healing energy. I smiled. The energy was here to help in my own regression. So I asked out loud:

“Please show me this wound that I carry from the past.”

I took a couple of deep breaths and then suddenly, felt my consciousness “fall” out of my body. It was falling into what looked like a huge crater in the earth. I felt myself in free-fall for a few seconds until I came to a stop in a field with beautiful trees and rolling hills.

I see a young girl twirling amongst the trees and flowers. She’s beautiful, late teens (perhaps 17 or 18), and has long silky black hair that glistens in the sun. She’s happy and precocious. I walk towards her and notice she’s talking to a tree. And then a bird. She talks to nature a lot. She reminds me of…myself.

She is me, in a different era.

I can feel the energy of the time. 1950’s, somewhere in the US I think but I’m not sure about the exact location. The girl’s name is Edith. She’s solitary but not lonely. No one around her understands Edith and that’s why she spends so much time alone. It doesn’t bother her though. She just talks to the flowers, the bees, and the trees.

And she is wise. In fact, she has absolutely no idea how wise she is. Her mother is very protective of her. Edith tries to share her sense of excitement and wonder with her mom.

“Do you know that we are all connected mother? This flower that I just picked is part of me! You and I are connected too! In fact, the world around us, everything we see, it only exists because we look at it! Nothing exists without eyes that see it.”

Her mother looks upset.

“Hush child! You must stop saying those things out loud! People will start talking. They’ll say you’re crazy. Please stop talking nonsense! And why are you so happy all the time? Who is happy for no reason?”

Edith doesn’t understand.

“But mother, I’m just happy! I’m surrounded by love always. We’re all surrounded by love. How can I not be happy at that?”

Her mom seems sad and nervous. She’s actually scared for her daughter.

Then suddenly, the scene goes dark and my consciousness is propelled forward.

I’m in a cold building. Everything is white, sterile. There’s absolutely no color on the walls. There’s no color anywhere. Just white and metal. I’m in a hospital of some sort. I walk down the hall for a bit and then see an open door to my left. There’s someone sitting in a chair, looking out the window. I walk toward her and notice that her hair has been cut and looks messy.

I stop right next to her and look at her face. She’s not actually looking out the window at anything in particular. She’s just staring into the blue sky. No more happiness; no more wonder. Just a blank stare and drool coming out of her opened mouth. I look down at her hands. Her wrists are restrained to the chair. So are her ankles.

A nurse comes in. She’s kind and really likes the girl. She’s carrying a tray with a half-full glass of water and a small container next to it.

“Hello Edith my dear. It’s time to take your pills.”

No response. The girl just keeps staring out the window.

“Come on Edith. Open your mouth.”

After a few long seconds, the girl turns her head to the left and mumbles:

“Can I please be untied now. I promise not to run away.”

The nurse smiles and gently cleans Edith’s mouth.

“You said that the last time. It’s for your own good my dear. Now open wide and take your pills. That’s a good girl.”

The scene begins to go fuzzy and I’m propelled back into the crater.

I’m back in my body and I open my eyes.

I sat there for almost an hour crying. Sobbing actually. I could feel Edith’s sorrow, her pain, her loss. I could feel the pressure of those restraints on my actual wrists. I could feel the deep fear she felt. And regret. How deeply Edith regretted not listening to her mother.

I was left with so many questions. What had happened to Edith? Who institutionalized her? How long was her life?

But by this point, I knew how the regressions worked.

The energy only gives access to specific episodes of a past life that are pertinent to current evolution.

In other words, you only go to episodes of past lives that help you understand, unblock, and release a memory which is still stored and needs to be seen right now.

Why was I seeing this specific past life now and not a month or a year ago? That is another question the mind just cannot answer. Universal timing is always perfect and we see past wounds in the order we are meant to see them.

For days after this regression, I felt Edith’s life, her pain, and her wounds. It was as if I was “integrating” the energy from that life in my current energetic system. I like to use the word “integration” as much as I use the “unblock” or “release” because in truth, when you see a past life, you are integrating the energy of that era into your current one.

Let’s use an example to illustrate this. When people lose a loved one that simply disappears, the family generally feels a deep grief not knowing what happened to their loved one. A sense of closure and peace comes to them when they finally find out what happened to the person. They can then “move on” once that knowledge is received. The same can happen to people who were abandoned at birth by their biological parents. Frequently, there is a sense of “something missing” until the person connects in some way with the biological family. There is a level of healing that occurs once the person knows the “why” of their abandonment.

The same happens with regressions. We have all these pieces of us out there, in our history, and once we see those pieces, the puzzle can be completed. We integrate all of these fragments of our past and see and release so much pain that can be locked inside of us from lives that we don’t consciously remember.

After this intense auto-regression, I began to slowly feel “lighter” — literally like a shackle had been released from me. And most importantly:

I noticed the old, deep fear of losing my mind was just gone.

So I went back to “The Self-Aware Universe” — the book that had triggered this whole episode — and picked up where I had left off. No more fear; no more subconscious thought of going insane.

Another part of me had just healed. And it made me smile.

Part II:

I Answer Questions From Readers

1:

“ How do I know if a wound from a past life is affecting me right now?”

Quite simply:

Life will show you.

Taking my story as an example. I noticed there was something there for me to explore the moment I felt fear and wanted to stop reading the book I was reading. The sentence “There is no object in space-time without a conscious subject looking at it” caused a visceral reaction in me. And then a deep fear.

Feeling visceral, inexplicable fear is a pretty good sign that you have an energetic imprint from a past life that is affecting your current one.

Not only that, but the intensity of the emotions you feel can also be a sign of an energetic imprint. When you feel a sudden rush of fear or anger, take a deep breath and become conscious of what is occurring in your outer reality at that exact moment. Perhaps your spouse says something to you that immediately rocks your internal environment or maybe you just feel an intense deja vu when you are about to get into a plane or a train. These are only a couple of examples of how past life imprints are triggered by our outer 3D reality.

2:

“ Is there a way to regress oneself or do I need help doing this? ”

“Yes” to the first part of the question and “maybe” to the second part. It is absolutely possible for each one of us to auto-regress. That said, it’s also possible that auto-regression proves to be a difficult journey for some people.

You just have to try first and see where it goes.

The best advice I can give is for you to try an auto-regression on your own first (multiple times). And if you are unable to access the past, then feel free to reach out to someone who has experience in the area of regression.

Keep in mind though that regression in any form — auto or with the help of a therapist/guide — may not happen at the specific time you wish. As I said above, regressions happen with the help of the loving energy that surrounds us all and if it is not the right time, it just won’t happen. No matter how many regression experts you seek out.

I’ll give you an example from my own practice.

When I first started doing regressions, I was in a session with a client and began to guide her back in time. Interestingly, as I tried to take her back, the only images she was getting was of her childhood in this lifetime.

Initially, I thought perhaps I was doing something wrong. But I wasn’t. After a couple more clients did the same thing, I finally realized what was happening: the beautiful loving energy was indeed guiding each client to the specific time frame that they needed to re-live in order to heal now.

It just so happened that the specific time frame was in this lifetime.

The clients had mentally assumed their wounds were coming from past lives but the energy was lovingly whispering:

“Your work in this precise moment is to heal a wound from your childhood in this lifetime.”

So go ahead and try auto-regression first. I’ve made an infographic to help you out. Try this process multiple times and see where it leads you:

Note: A quiet, peaceful mind is an important inicial step for the regression to progress more powerfully. So if you are having difficulty with quieting your mind, try using one of my favorite tools:

Binaural Beats.

You can learn more about binaural beats and how they influence our brainwaves here.

For the purposes of auto-regression, stick to audio tracks in the Delta brainwave frequency. Like this:

3:

“ What happens after a regression? Are there ‘side-effects’ of accessing a past life?”

It takes time to process past life memories and emotions.

In my experience, you will feel sensations from the regression for a few days after it has taken place. The most common post-regression sensations are:

1. Feeling the intense emotions of that particular lifetime. This happened to me too when I relived Edith’s life. The two emotions that stuck around for a few days were regret and fear. And this is the most frequent feedback I get from clients regarding their regressions.
2. Having images or other “pieces” of a regression enter your mind after the regression is over. This means that you could be washing dishes two days after your regression and suddenly see another image from that particular lifetime that completes the regression in some meaningful way. These are what I call “regression Aha’s” — they answer important questions that we may have had leftover from a regression.

I don’t like to call these sensations “side-effects” because it gives a negative connotation to the post-regression experiences. And negativity comes from fear.

There is nothing to be afraid of with regression and past life experiences.

Remember: you only access a memory if you are “ready” to integrate/release/process it. Universal energy is wise beyond anything our minds can conceive. Trust that you are being guided by a loving energy that you are a part of on a soul level.

Access to past life episodes always occurs with help from the energy that loves you unconditionally, and for your highest good.

The best advice I can give to help you process the experiences of a regression is this:

Always assume the role of “witness” through it all.

No matter what images come or whatever emotions you feel, just let them be without judgment.

This is the same advice I give people for everyday life! Part of the evolution of consciousness is tied with our ability to detach or separate from the ego. We learn how to simply observe all the thoughts and emotions in us with non-judgmental “eyes”. We learn to “lean back” into the seat of pure awareness (the witness) and watch our inner rumblings without getting caught up in them.

The same applies to regressions. If you feel, for example, intense fear during a regression and that emotion sticks with you for a while, does it really matter that it came from the regression? Would it make any difference if that fear had come from a situation you encountered in the present?

In the end, you can be the witness no matter what the origin of the emotions/experiences are. Regressions are actually a great way of practicing the art of non-attachment. You are allowing it all to move through you, without fighting or freaking out.

Just let the energy (which is really what emotions are) move through you.

You’ll notice that if you allow things to move through you without judgment, the scenes/emotions from past lives will process quickly.

And you will feel at peace and light afterwards. A new sense of wholeness will also permeate.

4:

“Does a regression involve only accessing past pain or trauma?”

No, not at all! Taking my own regression as an example, I experienced Edith’s joy, her wonder, her happiness, her profound wisdom. And I was given access to that part of the lifetime on purpose. It was like the universe was whispering:

“You still have this joy and wonder in your heart!”

In this particular auto-regression, I experienced the “good” and the “bad” but that is not necessarily how all regressions work. They are each different. I’ve had clients regress to specific episodes of only happiness, joy, and wonder. The lessons for them were crystal clear when they opened their eyes. I had one client smile and say:

“Wow, I didn’t know what happiness was until now.”

You may go to a lifetime of great joy because the universe is asking you to recover that part of you in your current lifetime. Other times, people will access happy childhood moments from multiple lifetimes in the same regression. The lesson here is clear too. The energy is saying:

“Live more with the heart of a child.”

This is why I use the word “integration” to describe regressions. In accessing and experiencing multiple aspects of a lifetime, you get to choose what makes your heart sing. As you integrate more little pieces of your history, you experience the “good” and the “bad” and choose in this moment how you want to live going forward.

I read a post recently on an entirely different topic, but there was a specific quote in that post that stuck with me:

“Never leave a wound unloved.”

How beautiful and so true. In seeing the pain or trauma of a past life, you are given an opportunity you didn’t have in that particular lifetime: You’re given the chance to love that person (you in a sense) and all they went through.

You are given a chance to love that wound that you have carried with you for eons.

And it is in love that you release the wound finally.

5:

“ Is there anything I have to be cautious about in past-life regressions? Is there a ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ way to access past lives?”

The answer to this question is similar to the answer I gave about the “side-effects” of regressions.

No, there is no “wrong” way of doing a regression. Some express concern with regressions done through hypnosis and I cannot speak to those because I have no experience with the modality of hypnosis. So I will leave that for the experts on the subject.

Speaking of my experience with non-hypnotic regression (you are fully conscious), I would summarize the method like this: in trusting the beautiful loving energy that surrounds us all, we are insured that nothing happens which is not supposed to happen.

In other words:

You always experience a regression (or not) in divine order, at exactly the right time, and in the right manner.

Trust that you are loved and guided beyond anything your mind can imagine. Always.

Fear only comes in when our level of trust is low and our mental chatter high.

6:

“I’m wondering if a past life wound doesn’t get healed in this lifetime, is there a limit on how many lifetimes you can have to heal that wound? And are they all on this planet?”

There are no limits to evolution.

Evolution is a never-ending staircase with no beginning and no end. We are infinite creatures, part of Pure Consciousness, Source, God, or whatever other name we give it.

Some older spiritual teachings, usually based on fear, have instilled in us an idea that we are somehow down here on earth on “probation”. That we must evolve in a certain way or do A, B, C things before we can evolve into a higher level.

I prefer to look at evolution either as a never-ending staircase or as a dance! I love the image of dancing to describe evolution because it removes the egoic tendency we have to make our existence competitive. Competition only comes about through our “I” mechanism: the ego or mind.

A broader way to look at evolution is to understand that we come here to dance, to learn, and more importantly:

Since we are ONE with Source, the only way universal consciousness experiences herself is through our eyes.

If there is no “outside” to pure consciousness, if oneness is all there is, then how can the universe become self-aware? She experiences herself through each and every one of us.

We are all part of a beautiful tapestry of life and we choose as souls to come down here. We choose to participate in this specific time frame in order to “know thyself” better.

So no, there are no limits to evolution, there are no limits imposed on us at all. We travel through the universes (yes, there are many!), dancing along to the beat of love, evolution and expansion.

And yes, our souls experience different realities on different planets (not necessarily within a 3D construct though). In fact, a piece of YOU may be experiencing another reality far away as you read these words!

“Parallel lives?”, you ask. Yep. The nature of reality is far more complex than we think! Ha! But that is a topic for another post altogether.

7:

“Do you believe that souls come back in similar circles? Example: My sister was my mother in a past life and perhaps my mother now was my child previously?”

Yes, souls incarnate in “groups” or “families”. In fact, some of the most profound insights in my own life and in regressions with clients have been in the understanding of these ties with various souls.

But first, let me define a “soul family”. It doesn’t just mean “family” as in, your blood relation. It’s broader than that. A soul family is a network of souls that incarnate roughly around the same time and interact with each other on various levels across a specific lifetime.

For example, that rude person you bumped into on the street? Part of your soul family. A soul family can be quite broad in the sense that it can include what seem like complete strangers to us. They are strangers only on a mental level.

We’ve all experienced these “soul recognitions” with strangers at some point in our lives. You go to a party or strike up a conversation with someone on the street and it feels like you’ve know them for eons? Well, you have!

Souls incarnate in various forms for evolutionary reasons. Some call it “karma”. For example, in one lifetime, you can experience being the perpetrator of violence and in another one, you will be the victim of violence. I try not to use the word “karma” too much because it has acquired a negative connotation in the West.

I prefer to talk about evolution in the sense that we choose to experience “duality” or “polarity”. Earth reality is defined by matter, by experiences in 3D. And in matter there is “duality”: hot/cold, dry/wet, fear/love, big/small.

In one lifetime, I may want to experience being a “big sister”, and in another one, I may want to be a parent. And I may choose to live these various roles…with the same group of souls.

So yes, a soul that was my mother in a past life can indeed incarnate into this one as my daughter or son.

This complex interplay can also have energetic effects on us from past lives. Frequently, we will experience repeating patterns with a soul that come from a previous life. I’ll give you an example from my own life.

One of my earliest personality traits or energetic tendencies was the visceral need to always protect my mother. I cared for her much like a mother cares for her child. And I never even questioned this tendency until recently. That’s how old and ingrained an energetic imprint can be.

It turns out, my “protector” tendency was an imprint from a past life, in which I was indeed the mother and she, the daughter. Once I accessed that memory, I was able to process the imprint and release the energy. And today, my mom and I laugh about it! But growing up, this imprint caused a lot of pain and turmoil in my relationship with her.

So, it’s always good to do a little “review” of your current relationships (biological or not). Are there habits or behavioral tendencies that cause stress or friction in the relationship? Do you feel something “out of place” or “weird” about the relationship? We are all pretty good at feeling energetic imprints, even when we have no idea on mental level what they are.

Chances are, you have assumed various roles within your current family unit. And it is all blessed.

The foundation of it all is unconditional love.

Do you have any questions about reincarnation and past life regression?

Connect with me at:

www.christina-lopes.com