An article from National Geographic inspired a lesson in guiding clients in their past and future life journeys. Unfortunately, the article is behind a pay wall but the title tells it all: “Two gladiators enter- only one leaves alive, right? Think again.” Once again, new discoveries prod modern science to reframe long held beliefs, in this case, about ancient Roman gladiators. The new theory, based on the research of Brice Lopez is this:
A FEW GLADIATORS WERE CRIMINALS OR PRISONERS OF WAR CONDEMNED TO COMBAT, BUT MOST WERE PROFESSIONAL FIGHTERS.
This revision points to gladiators as a warrior class, basically a profession, with highly skilled athletes thrilling audiences in enormous arenas. Lopez doesn’t make the comparison to pro wrestling, that’s my attempt to provide a modern day model, but he does postulate the equivalent of “tapping out” instead of fighting to the death.
His conclusion: Gladiators weren’t trying to kill each other; they were trying to keep each other alive. They spent years training in order to stage showy fights, most of which did not end in death. “It’s a real competition, but not a real fight,” says Lopez, who now runs a gladiator research and reenactment troupe called ACTA. “There’s no choreography, but there is good intent—you’re not my adversary; you’re my partner. Together we have to make the best show possible.”
It’s the background of this that excites me. If a client were accessing a past life as a gladiator, feeling the “costume” of armor and the thrill of combat, their conscious mind might interrupt their process — “Wait, I’m fighting with what’s basically a chef’s knife while wearing as much armor as a Roman soldier? And I’ve fought my opponent many times before? This can’t be right. I must be making this up.”
Many if not most of my recent sessions have involved demolishing commonly held beliefs about what modern science has decreed to be fact. Past Life Journeying is the experience of being “boots on the ground” and experiencing the inner world of people living their daily lives in inconceivable circumstances. It requires surrendering to the process in order to access the inner state of the past life personality. I don't devote much of my research to finding historical confirmation of past life events, and discoveries such as Brice Lopez's confirm my belief that we get better data from Past Life Journeys than from historical texts, especially when those historical proclamations are being re-written on a regular basis.
Here’s Brice Lopez in action:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Lbrl2MLWE0