Diane Swygard conversation
Once again thanks to the valiant efforts of Afonso Silva who gave me an email address and a recommendation, this week I spoke by phone with Diane Swygard, co-author of the Awareness Techniques books. I emailed Diane and told her about the work I was doing and to my surprise, she called and left a message. We connected for over an hour by phone. Due to technical issues, I wasn't able to record the call but I did get answers to many of the questions I had about the birth of the Awareness Techniques.
The most interesting bit of new information from Diane was that William Swygard had been stationed in India when in the service so there are some Eastern influences in the method of accessing past lives. No specific guru is mentioned, but many use the third eye as an initiation point. I myself had my third eye touched with a peacock feather when I received a blessing from Swami Satchidananda in Los Angeles in the 1980's.
I also got the official story about the distribution of the original instructions that I posted on this website. Diane told me that they elected to copyright the books but not the instructions, choosing to mail them for free to anyone who sent in a stamped, self-addressed envelope. Ads were placed in the classified section of Fate magazine*, which amazingly is still being published, and whose website states "65 Years of covering the strange and unknown." (Yes, I will be searching for a copy of Fate circa 1970 to find the original ad. Below is an ad for Books 1, 2, & 3 from 1973 issue of Fate.)
I learned the back story from Amy Shapiro's meeting with the Swygard's when on a trip to Florida for an astrology convention with Isabel Hickey. The Swygard's had a bookstore located next to a 24-hour laundromat. Since there was street traffic late at night, the bookstore stayed open late for browsers who were waiting for their clothes to dry. So it was not unusual for someone to come to the store after midnight, as Amy claimed they did, although getting William to do a past lives session at that time might have been.
According to Diane, William wrote his part of the books by hand, and she edited, typed them and even did the typesetting prior to publication. Bill Riley, who lived in Boston, helped with the publishing until his death in 1995. Book 1 was written and published along with the first of the "Waldara Answers", which were the FAQ (frequently asked questions) for the technique. Then Books 2 and 3 with their accompanying "Waldara Answers." I recently found a copy of Books 1 through 4 compiled into one trade paperback that was published in 1978.
Diane was kind enough to tell me the story behind William's untimely death at 58 in 1981. The Swygard's had moved to the Boston Massachusetts area to be nearer to publisher Bill Riley when Willam's health issues forced them to return to Miami. William previously had a heart attack and it was a stroke that ended his life. Between them, they had 11 children, with 6 still at home when William passed. Somehow she kept doing workshops and worked with Stephen Learnerd, who helped release the audio cassettes that I have been digitizing.
Diane had an interesting take on her work with he Awareness techniques. She only had 5 previous lives on this planet, so she very rapidly learned and released all of her unfinished business with multi-level awareness, and moved quickly into the deeper aspects of the work. She sees working with the Techniques as leading to "self-realization," an opinion I share. But she did have a surprise for me when I asked what she would tell someone just starting this work. "You've been good, bad, and indifferent. Just run and finish it so you don't have to do it again." Great advice, y'all.
*Fifty cents a word as of 1971 (http://www.papergreat.com/2018/04/30-classified-ads-from-june-1971-issue.html). Interesting sync- the present incarnation of Fate Magazine is based in Hendersonville NC, 30 miles from Asheville.
Ad from the January 1973 issue of Fate
Helen Hoag mystery solved
Thanks to fellow researcher Afonso Silva, I have an idea of the back story of Helen Hoag, this mystery woman of past lives exploration. Afonso found a relative of Helen's who sent us some of her booklets, which are out of print and very hard to find. I was scanning them for the archives when I came across the acknowledgements to "Dawn of Creation" in which she thanks William Swygard "who perfected the "Awareness Techniques" and also Diane Swygard. So in 1968 when she wrote this text, she was acknowledging their contribution to the work, but not in later editions, maybe assuming that people knew about this? So, no longer a mystery woman but a member of the Miami group that Swygard referred to and thanked for their participation in Book 1.
Asking questions and following bread crumbs with Afonso Silva cleared up one mystery and gave us insight into what was happening in Miami in the late 1960's that birthed this amazing technique.
Non-Hypnotic Induction Part 1
When I was describing my work with the Past Lives Project to people at the Illuminate Expo recently, I realized that I needed to clarify my position on what is unique about my approach: that it is based on guiding people to an immersive past life experience without using the classical hypnotic induction. I feel that this is the strongest and most notable aspect of William Swygard's innovation with the Awareness Techniques, and its even more impressive that he came up with this breakthrough in the 1960's. According to his wife and co-innovator Diane Swygard, William Swygard started doing this work in the 1950's but stopped because he was getting so much resistance. It was only when William and Diane met in 1966 that they resumed the work that lead to him publishing "Awareness Techniques Book 1" in 1970. The interview I just posted with Amy Shapiro reaffirmed the differences between the Awareness Techniques and most other methods:
"I do want people to know that they’re not going to lose any awareness in the process of this, they’re only going to expand their awareness."
So I'm going out on a limb and say that I believe the main advantage of exploring past and between lives with the Awareness Techniques is that by running, you are "integrating" your consciousness by, in Swygard's words, “adding more levels of awareness to your being.” And since I am one of those people for whom hypnosis doesn't work, I welcome others who are "minimally susceptible" to hypnosis (up to 25% of the population*) or who choose not to be hypnotized to contact me to try the Awareness Techniques.
Since I started researching methods of accessing past lives, I found others who have used non-hypnotic inductions, most prominently Roger Woolger and Morris Netherton. In fact, Netherton describes his work as the "Past Life Therapy Center De-Hypnosis Method." His website, pastlifetherapycenter.com, claims “Past Lives Therapy (William Morrow, New York, 1978) was the first published book in the field of Past Life Therapy.” (The first book released by a major publisher, maybe, but Hoag and Swygard were released in 1968 and 1970.) From his offices in Beverly Hills, California, Netherton practiced his non-hypnotic method for 45 years before retiring and Dr. Thomas Paul took over. I'm sure any hypnotherapists reading this are yelling at the screen when Netherton says:
"PLTC (Past Life Therapy Center) utilizes a focused state of de-hypnosis, unlike hypnosis that often entails suggestive methods, which rarely works long-term, if at all. "
But there is wisdom to his method. According to Hans TenDam's "Exploring Reincarnation" which will be the subject of an upcoming book review:
"Netherton uses 'postulates', ingrained programs, vows, promises, ingrown attitudes, verbally fixed in the mind and sometimes repressed, as triggers for past‑life recall. When we describe our problems or fears, these postulates come up as repetitive statements. The point is to pick out these ritual formulas, preferably giving them an expressive character. For example, 'I have to get out of this!' or 'Nobody likes me,' or 'I don't need anybody.' Repeating, or having us repeat these key sentences a few times, elicits their suppressed emotional charge and focuses us. Directly following this, we are asked to picture ourselves in a situation in which this sentence is literally true or actually spoken, with all its corresponding emotions."
This is an interesting technique which I have successfully used myself. But I can't talk about Netherton without mentioning the hole in the center of his work. Astonishing for someone who did past life regressions for so long, Netherton says:
“Between lives therapy or space between lives is consulting with spirit guides and masters that likely do not exist."
Sigh. Its hard to reconcile past life therapy with scientific materialism at its worst. I'll take the high road and say that Netherton bridged the gap between mid-1900's psychological therapeutics and the shifting paradigm that is bringing past life therapies into the mainstream. The low road would be sometimes progress in science proceeds one retirement at a time.
Update: I found the quote I was clumsily referencing by quantum physicist Max Planck:
"A new scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and making them see the truth; but rather because its opponents eventually die and a new generation grows up that is familiar with it."
Now life between lives is far from becoming a "new scientific truth" and will probably never be one, but a new generation has come along that is accepting this possibility and incorporating it in their work.
(to be continued)
*https://psychcentral.com/lib/all-about-hypnosis-and-hypnotherapy/2/
Following the bread crumbs
Sometimes it feels like I'm following a path laid out for me and a trail of breadcrumbs is showing me the way forward. I made a list of books to read to research various practitioners doing past life work. The Kindle list on Amazon was getting too large and too expensive, 10 books at @$10-$15 each, so I looked into Kindle Unlimited but it requires a 6 month membership for $59. The next day I opened my Amazon browser and received an offer for Kindle Unlimited, 3 months for $1.99. After reading the Amy Shapiro book on Isabel Hickey, "Never Mind", which mentions her meeting with Swygard, the next book I was lead to was "Exploring Reincarnation" by Hans TenDam. There I found the perfect quote about Morris Netherton's work for a blog post about past lives therapists who don't use the standard hypnotic induction. I was researching Netherton and Roger Woolger, whose work inspired the "circling the globe" induction I use in the MeetUp group. I did a Google search for Netherton's website and found a link to a YouTube video, "Why Regression Therapy", featuring, wait for it..... Morris Netherton, Roger Woolger, and Hans TenDam. That's like winning a game of Past Lives Project bingo on the first card. Follow the yellowed book road....
Wall St. Journal article on psychedelic research and the mystical experience
This article came cross my news feed and of course I saw the link to my past and between lives work. The article, "The New Science of Psychedelics"by Michael Pollan, referenced recent studies that showed promise for sufferers of depression, anxiety, and addiction and how therapeutic use of LSD and psilocybin is changing long held beliefs on how the mind works. Now I am not advocating using drugs for spiritual development (though the concept of micro-dosing as a nootropic is fascinating) but this sentence about the mystical experience after a high-dose LSD session jumped out:
"Typically described as the dissolution of one's ego followed by a merging of the self with nature or the universe, a mystical experience can permanently shift a person's perspective and priorities.* The pivotal role of the mystical experience points to something novel about psychedelic therapy: It depends for its success not strictly on the action of the chemical but on the powerful pyschological experience that the chemical can occasion."
I propose that a much more direct method of experiencing the "dissolution of one's ego" is by an immersive past life exploration and following one's consciousness through the transition from the physical to the NPE, the Non-Physical Experience between lives. While the ego may sometimes linger past the death of the body, it eventually releases to the continuity of consciousness in the between lives state that is the ultimate "merging of the self with... the universe." The past and between lives journey offered by using the Awareness Techniques can be a profound mystical experience, it is reliably reproducible and there are no drugs involved. And once we have integrated our physical self with our higher self that has lived many lives, our perspective and priorities can shift if we allow them. The answers indeed are within.
Update - 5/14-
Salon's Laura Miller reviewed Pollan's book and this quote popped out that made me appreciate this book even more. Referring to the Default Mode Network and the cognitive patterns that psychedelics temporarily overturn:
"As Pollan explains it, these disorders are the result of mental and emotional 'grooves' in our thinking that have become, as the DMN's (Default Mode Network) name suggests, default. We are how we think. The right psychedelic experience can level out the grooves, enabling a person to make new cerebral connections and briefly escape from 'a rigidity in our thinking that is psychologically destructive."
I propose that exploring our past and between lives experiences are an effective way to make new cerebral connections and escape rigidity in our thinking.
*The most interesting aspect of the research is that "they were surprised that the chemical, which they assumed would boost brain activity, actually reduced it." Quoting Aldous Huxley on his psychedelic journey in 1954: "For the moment, that interfering neurotic who, in waking hours, tries to run the show, was blessedly out of the way." Pollan's article is an excerpt from his upcoming book "How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Dying, Addiction, Depression and Transcendence."
Helen Hoag - The Mystery Deepens!
Like a character in a historical novel, this mysterious woman of past lives work becomes more fascinating the more that I research her. Thanks to my friend and incredible researcher Afonso Silva in Portugal, I received the pdf of a book, actually another pamphlet, Hoag wrote and published in 1969, "Technique of Past Lives Recall". To recap, Hoag and Swygard were obviously working together at some point, they were doing the exact same explorations in consciousness in the same city (Miami, Florida), but neither mentions the other in their published works. And Hoag published earlier than Swygard, in 1968 and '69, Swygard not until 1970. This 1969 pamphlet is only 28 pages long but filled with these tidbits. On the first page, Hoag says,
"This might be the first time you have heard of the awareness techniques."
(Interesting side note - Swygard always capitalizes "Awareness Techniques".) So Hoag was using the same name for her work. Then she says:
"You can "run" your past lives, as the process is called because it is like a motion picture "running" through a projection machine..."
(Another tidbit. Hoag refers to "running" past lives as did Swygard. Afonso found references to Swygard being in the film business in Miami in the 1960's, so its interesting that a film reference was used to describe the process.)
There are scattered internet references to Swygard (but little biographical information) and he is generally credited with being the innovator of the Awareness Technique. But Helen Hoag had The Awareness Research Foundation in Miami at the same time as Swygard, the late 1960's. Hoag's published material was in pamphlet form and never compiled into trade paperbacks like Swygard's, possibly that is the reason she is even less known. But both "running" and "the awareness techniques" were mentioned in print previous to Swygard's publication in 1970. And Hoag's publication date of 1968 matches the earliest book that I have found about past lives in the modern era, Ruth Montgomery's "Here and Hereafter."*
Curiouser and curiouser.
*Ian Stevenson published "Twenty Cases Suggestive of Reincarnation" in 1966, but this is reincarnation research based on accounts of children recalling details from their previous existence, which I separate from exploring past lives without conscious memories.
Update-
I was reading Awareness Techniques Book 1 and noticed this in the Preface by William Swygard:
"Most of the work involved in the book... its writing, publication and distribution, was done by the delightful members of the Miami group. They will put out more books such as this one...I thank them for being with me over the years."
This "Miami group" is intriguing, I assume Helen Hoag was a part of it, but the above is the only mention of others involved. And this is the first time I noticed that others were involved in the "writing, publication and distribution" of the original pamphlet. I mentioned this to Wendy Nethersole, who I hope to have an interview with shortly. She learned her method, Past Life Soul Regression, from Linda Backman who, according to her website, "studied and co-taught with Dr. Michael Newton, author of the seminal books on Life Between Lives regression therapy, and co-created and served on the Founding Board of the Society for Spiritual Regression (now The Newton Institute) as Membership Chair and President" before leaving to establish the Ravenheart Center to continue past and between lives research. But Newton never mentions Backman's participation, and the mention of Newton is only on the web page for Backman's book, "Bring Your Soul to Light." So maybe Swygard and Hoag's situation is not uncommon, but its still curious. At least in Backman and Newton's case, their work continues, even after Newton's passing in 2016.
Amy Shapiro Interview (With audio)
I had the pleasure of talking to Amy Shapiro last week, and I'd like to share my experience with you. Amy is a priceless resource for this work, not only because of her 18 published books and the fact that she uses the Awareness Techniques in her counseling practice, but she actually met William Swygard. (The only other person that I know who met him was Miguel Paredes, and I did not get the chance to speak to him before he passed in 2016.) I will include the audio of Amy's description because meeting Swygard was such a big part of her personal journey. But I also got to talk to Amy about her work and her use of the advanced techniques from Books 2 & 3.
Amy is one the few people I know who use the Awareness Techniques in addition to hypnosis in the practice:
“This made me very curious: if this (the Awareness Technique) isn’t hypnosis, then what is hypnosis and how is it different. And so back in 1993 I signed up for a seminar series at the New England Society of Hypnotherapy, and that was a week long training. And from that I learned a lot of hypnotherapy principles and techniques, and saw that there was a lot of similarity in terms of the work I was already doing in guided meditation and guided visualization. And what was similar is that both hypnotherapy and the Awareness Techniques were ways to access unconscious information, unconscious material, deep soul level material. That’s where they were the same. But they differ in that the Awareness Techniques are such that the person undergoing the experience has full control over it; at no point are they un-conscious. And that’s why its important to me to continue to use the term 'Awareness Techniques' as opposed to other names... that’s been given to the techniques. Because I do want people to know that they’re not going to lose any awareness in the process of this, they’re only going to expand their awareness. Where with the hypnotherapy, you can help the person access their unconscious material and also instruct them that they will not remember when they come back to their conscious (state). And that is where there is a very big separation between hypnotherapy and the Awareness Techniques, is you’re always in control. You can stop the session at any moment and then come back to it later at your will. Where in hypnotherapy, typically, people are guided by someone else. I always say to my clients, once you’ve come for a session, and you’ve gotten the basics of the technique, its perfectly safe to do this for yourself. You don’t have to worry about getting caught somewhere, trapped in a time warp. You’re never going to lose yourself. Nor are there any 'parlor game' tricks with the Awareness Techniques, as you find sometimes with people who do hypnotherapy for entertainment purposes, where they have you take on a persona of a duck, or whatever manipulated thing they have you do. There’s never that kind of shenanigan with the Awareness Techniques."
I compared notes with Amy on my experiences in running people between lives and those of the Michael Newton LBL process, specifically my issue of a "checklist" of experiences: the life review, meeting the guide, the soul group reunion, the life planning session and putting it to the council; all of which have occurred but not in that order and not every time:
"Think of it this way. When you’re learning to cook, it helps to have a recipe, and a recipe is a checklist. But when you’ve mastered enough recipes, and you understand the concept of ingredients and what works well with what, you get to make up your own recipe… So look at it like that’s just one recipe, it doesn’t mean its the only one."
Amy has worked extensively with the Multi-Plane Awareness in Book 2:
"The concept of a ‘council’ might actually be all of your plane consciousnesses. ..I do believe the Akashic records, or soul records, are stored on the 7th plane, so probably that’s where we do go when we’re reviewing our records."
(That syncs with the information from Helen Hoag's book that I mentioned in a previous post. Hoag postulated that we begin our between lives journey on the 4th plane, and work our way up to the 7th before returning to the 3rd plane to incarnate.)
When I remarked that it is called “The Awareness Techniques”, plural:
“To me its like house cleaning. I like to use analogies… so if I’m having company coming over, of course I’m going to get my house cleaned. So its like, clear out your soul record, get your house cleaned, and then meet all your higher consciousnesses (in the Multi-Plane technique)… People have so much junk that they have to get rid of. “
On utilizing the connection to our higher planes:
"I think we are seeing evidence of integration with higher planes all around us in this information age. Because all of these warp speed rapid pace breakthroughs going on with cyberspace, technology and applications, they’ve all filtered down from the higher planes. So there are people who are receptive even if they haven’t gone through the recipe; they are still connecting to their higher planes where these ideas are coming through and coming from. I think even unwittingly, people are starting to have awakenings to higher plane experiences even if they haven’t become aware that they have these specific higher plane consciousnesses with a name and a function. I think the filters are really thinned out right now."
BB: The implication is, that by consciously pursuing these higher planes we can access that knowledge and bring it back down to the 3rd plane with us.
AS: Exactly, we can participate more actively and mindfully and fruitfully here. ..You know the old cliche, “an idea whose time has come”, well anybody can be the vehicle for these ideas whose time has come. But you have to be open, and you have to clean your house first, to have the mental and psychic space to be open."
Amy's website is http://newagesages.com. I will be doing some sessions with Amy and will update you when they occur.
PS: Audio takes a few seconds to load.
Costumes
“We are all in boarding school. Earth is the school, and our bodies are our uniforms. When we die, all it means is that we get to take off our uniform and go home.”
Dorothy Ackerman
I have been exploring the concept that the clothing that you've chosen to cover your body at any point in your vast history can be seen as a costume. And if this physical existence really is "just a play", as one participant described her experience, then we might just be actors on a stage. And the clothing you put on this morning is as much of a 'costume' as a medieval jester, a 16th century monk, a 20th century soldier, an ancient Egyptian priest, or even the skins and hides covering a caveman's back. All of these are the costumes I have worn in previous lives I've explored recently. So when I dressed this morning and put on jeans, a t-shirt, and hiking shoes, I have to wonder how today's 'costume' will appear when I'm looking back at this from the far distant future when we're all wearing form fitting Star Trek uniforms. In our MeetUps, we have been doing a group meditation to acquaint people with the costumes they are wearing, first with eyes open and then practicing a closed eyed awareness of the cloth, plastic, rubber and hide covering our modern bodies.
This process is something I've been doing in my presentations but you can start where you are. Eyes opened, look down at your feet and describe what you are wearing, as if you are giving information to someone who can't see you but is sketching you. Then close your eyes and feel what is covering your feet, your lower body, your waist, your upper body and arms, and around your neck. Becoming aware of our present day body is a good warmup for the running process, especially for people who are not especially visual. If you can't see what you're wearing with your eyes closed, maybe you can feel what you're wearing. If you can't feel, trying asking for verbal prompts and see if you get a reply; sometimes that will kickstart the visuals.
Now go about your day, and notice how much of a costume a suit and tie is. Can you tell the difference between the tourists and the locals by their costumes? After a long career in the music business, with way too many promotional pictures that will outlast a nuclear event along with cockroaches, I can't criticize the modern hipster uniform of beard, plaid shirt and hiking boots, not when there are band promo pictures of me from the 70's and 80's out there on the inter web. But its a costume, along with outfits chosen by Goths and jocks and hippies, and our costumes are both socially defined and socially defining, plus they are crowd-sanctioned, with social credits for participating and knocks for defying the norm. Look at Renaissance Fairs and Civil war re-enactments, look at them as socially acceptable opportunities to wear costumes from a previous era. But this is not an exercise in fashion; it is in service of step 1 in running a past life: Looking down at your feet, describing it in detail, then doing the same with the rest of our body coverings. Eventually a personality emerges from the clothing and the person behind those clothes is acknowledged. It is the pathway to the inner life of the actor on the stage.
Become aware of the costume you are wearing today, and use it as a bridge to examine your role in the play that is your present life.
The mysterious Helen Hoag
My research into William Swygard and his innovative work with the Awareness techniques has uncovered an interesting and mysterious woman doing similar work in the same city at the same time. Helen Hoag is the author of a series of books on past lives, including "What Happens Between Lives" and "Technique of Past Lives Recall.' Helen Hoag may be the missing link in this story, even if there is no record of her. A huge 'thank you' to Af Slv, my friend and an amazing researcher in Portugal who found Helen's work and made scans of her books available to me. What makes Helen so mysterious is, she references the awareness technique, multi-level and multi-plane awareness, and running, and she established "The Awareness Research Foundation" in Florida in the late 1960's. Adding to the mystery, her publications pre-date Swygard's by a year or so. (Hoag published the above books, actually 50 page pamphlets, in 1969, Swygard published "Awareness Techniques Book 1" in 1970). In the acknowledgements to "What Happens Between Lives", Hoag says "My sincere thanks to the more than one hundred students whose experiences in viewing their past lives furnished the examples for this book. Without their interest in, and their 'running' of their past lives, we would not know so much about life after death.", dated "Copyright 1969". In Swygard's preface, he says "The technique 'multi-Level Awareness', has been tested in all its aspects upon persons of various races, religious backgrounds and ages for over eighteen years in the Miami, Florida area.... Most of the work involved in the book you are holding, its writing, publication and distribution, was done by the delightful members of the Miami group." It is signed: "William Swygard, Miami Florida, December 1968"but the copywriter date is "1970 & 1975".
Hoag and Swygard apparently worked together in the Miami Florida area for some time, enough for Helen to do "more than one hundred" sessions, yet they published separately, within months of each other. And Swygard references "the Miami group" of which Helen Hoag may have been a member. And Hoag's book teases "other titles planned, some by new authors", maybe implying Swygard's own book? But neither refers to the other by name. I would love to have access to the monthly bulletins from "The Awareness Research Foundation, Inc." that Hoag mentions in the end pages of her book. The "Awareness Research Foundation" is no longer active, and repeated attempts to locate living relatives have been unsuccessful. If there is anyone who has any information on Helen Hoag and her work, please contact me and I will pass it along.
Book Review Part 2 - "Exploring Past Lives' by Mary Lee Labay
"Whenever you meet someone with whom you will be closely involved—a mate, boss, children, in-laws—it is wise to look at who you have been to one another. Take the time to follow your memory of that energy back through the veils of time, and discover the depth and true nature of the energy between you."
I can't think of a better description for this past lives work than to follow that energy that connects us back through time. This is why I am such a fan of Labay's and recommend this book to people looking for further information. Her 30 years of doing this work resonates in her writing, and even though she is a hypnotherapist, her work syncs with the Awareness Techniques more than anyone else I have researched.
In "Exploring Past Lives", Labay elegantly lists the benefits of doing past lives work :
-the resurgence of a strong sense of self;
-honing our skills in working with the subconscious mind;
-finding our Spirit Purpose, our overarching mission in life;
-understanding the Big Picture and how we fit into it;
-getting new perspectives on life and death;
-finding a new appreciation for history and geography; and most of all:
"The greatest benefit of discovering our past lives is that we begin to see the divine in all of life. With the understanding that each person we encounter may have been our parent, child, sibling, or spouse, we come to recognize the precious nature of every human contact. Each person carries the potential of having served some important role in one or more of our lifetimes."
Another sync with Swygard's work is her version of the Creation:
“There is speculation that at one time, eons ago, there was one massive unit of homogenous energy. At some point, it split apart into many pieces. From each piece’s perspective, they were now separate. They had become individuals, capable of incarnating into their own bodies. Now they could play the fascinating game of rediscovering all the other pieces of their original Self as they manifested into a multitude of interesting forms.”
That's not to say that I agree with everything in this book. I already expressed reservations about her concept of a spirit being extinguished by remaining out of the physical place for too long; I have not come across that in my work. Here is Labay's take on "merging into one-ness":
"On a stressful day on the Earth plane, returning to oneness can sound appealing. However, imagine locking yourself in a closet for a year or two without stimulus, change, or contact with other people. That is the metaphor for the return to oneness...if oneness were to occur, each soul’s individual consciousness would extinguish...Rather than repudiating life and seeking to merge back into oneness, we serve our spirit better when we engage each moment fully and enjoy it completely."
I respectfully disagree, since I and the Past Lives Project participants have described this merging into oneness as the highlight of the between lives experience. But I acknowledge her expertise and will keep that concept in mind when processing the between lives experience in the future.
The Kindle version of "Exploring Past Lives" is only $5.60 on Amazon this month, I highly recommend it.
Quotation of the Month - April 2018
“What if” we are more than this body, this mind, this particular history and story? What if beyond the egoic drives of fear and gain, that we are in essence, really beings of love? What if this experience that we call life is really just a semester of Earth school? And that in between these semesters of Earth school, there’s a realm that we can go to… a realm that is of great beauty, creativity, connection ... a realm with humor, of learning... a realm of great peace and love? What if beyond the costumes of this life there is another and a larger story of who we are? Take a moment. Sometimes we hear these ideas, but we need a moment to lean into them... to feel them. What would it be like to live our lives from a soul perspective, from that larger story perspective?...I called what I remembered “The Before.”
Richard Martini
Author of "Flipside" and "Its a Wonderful Afterlife"
Awareness Techniques Books 1-4
Finding a copy of Diane and William Swygard's "Awareness Techniques" has aroused a lot of interest in the books, judging by the people emailing me to ask where to find them. So it seems counterintuitive for me to say this -
I don't recommend reading these books.
I suggest you start by following the instructions and "running" a few past and between lives first, then reading the books. All the information that you need to "run" is in the instructions and maybe the introduction. The reason for this is, immediately after the instructions, Book 1 takes you behind the scenes of the Creation, the very definition of "big picture stuff", and this is a lot to process. Our modern day consciousness is better used processing personal awareness of our past lives. Swygard himself recommends reading this material when in a state of integrated consciousness, and this is only achieved after becoming fluent at running. So congratulate me on finding a physical copy of the books for the archives, as I enjoy the different way my brain processes reading a physical book from a digital copy. If you're interested, go to the services page to set up a session and I'll guide you through your first explorations. Or you can email me at bobbyb@pastlivesproject.org for the instructions and, in the words of the authors, "ask questions, questions, questions."
Shelf Help Update - Awareness Techniques paperback located
I found a copy of William and Diane Swygard's "Awareness Techniques - Books 1-4" at a New Age bookstore in Hendersonville. I already have the books in a scanned version, but lost my personal copies many moves ago. What's interesting is that the book was originally published in 1979, it was originally purchased in Hialeah, Florida, and made its way to Hendersonville NC for me to find it. Many insights to be gleaned from these books, I'll update as my awareness increases.
Brave Participant Interview for March- Rebecca Rouse
Name: Rebecca Rouse
Location: Weaverville, NC
Occupation: Tattoo Artist
How did you connect with the Past Lives Project? A recommendation from a good friend.
What was your experience of a past lives exploration? Through Bobby's guidance I was able to travel through memories, and could recall the actual "feelings" felt through my body in this life, my previous life, and the feeling of being in between bodies. I experienced one of my own deaths, and as I left my body the initial feelings of anger and sadness and resistance to letting go, I found myself completely filled with joy as I rejoined a massive expansion of energy, without a doubt it was the source. Though this was my first guided meditation through these depths of self (and my monkey brain trying to distract me), while I was in between lives I was able to "see" body-less others, as lights, feeling the immense connection and visual materialization of my recent memories, a great current of continuous energy moving through me. All feeling. I could also separate from this moving current and view it as a spectator of sorts, and rejoin as I desired. Another light being, Joshua, led me to a massive tunnel of water, deep as an ocean abyss and wide as a mountain, swirling and vibrating as though it was more of a solid. Looking down through this water I could see blue and green aspects of the earth plane...perhaps this was the way to incarnate?
It should be mentioned that I was led to this "plumbing of the depths" by some incredibly intense fears I had developed recently about my own death in my current body. Through this process with Bobby I bravely confronted these fears of the feelings of losing breath, my heart ceasing to beat permanently, and leaving a body behind. After the session I was awashed in such peace...SUCH peace, and gratitude for my breath. And, also grateful for my fears, for without them I would not have sought so desperately to find the help to open up to greater purpose and evolution. And we've just brushed the surface, there is still so much to do!
My website is: http://www.rarouse.com/, and my email is rarouse@gmail.com
(Rebecca is a talented tattoo artist at
My session with Rebecca was possibly the most intense first session I've ever experienced. It is so gratifying when someone who is ready finds this work at the perfect time in their development. Rebecca has, in one session, experienced what it is to be an integrated consciousness who is aware of themselves as more than this physical body in this one incarnation. I look forward to seeing how her experience is reflected in her art in the future.)
Quotations for March 2018
"Don't depend on death to liberate you from your imperfections. You are exactly the same after death as you were before. Nothing changes; you only give up the body. If you are a thief or a liar or a cheater before death, you don't become an angel merely by dying. If such were possible, then let us all go and jump in the ocean now and become angels at once! Whatever you have made of yourself thus far, so will you be hereafter. And when you reincarnate, you will bring that same nature with you. To change, you have to make the effort. This world is the place to do it." *
Paramahansa Yogananda
"If all it took to gain enlightenment were death, wouldn’t we all be enlightened by now? After all, we have died many times...It is meaningless to be morally upstanding in your consciousness, unless your behaviors in physical reality reflect those choices."
Mary LaBay, who says it even more succinctly-
“Just because you’re dead doesn’t mean you’re smart.”
(Or woke, apparently.)
— *Read more:
http://yogananda.com.au/gurus/yoganandaquotes07c.html
(The authors of this blog do not advocate jumping in the ocean now in the hopes of becoming angels at once. Please use discernment.)
BB
PS- Yogananda on the 3 levels of Bodies
"You have read in the scriptures,” Master went on, “that God encased the human soul successively in three bodies—the idea, or causal, body; the subtle astral body, seat of man’s mental and emotional natures; and the gross physical body. On earth a man is equipped with his physical senses. An astral being works with his consciousness and feelings and a body made of lifetrons. A causal-bodied being remains in the blissful realm of ideas. My work is with those astral beings who are preparing to enter the causal world.”
Yogananda on Sri Yukteswar
[Sri Yukteswar explained:] “Just as most people on earth have not learned through meditation-acquired vision to appreciate the superior joys and advantages of astral life and thus, after death, desire to return to the limited, imperfect pleasures of earth, so many astral beings, during the normal disintegration of their astral bodies, fail to picture the advanced state of spiritual joy in the causal world and, dwelling on thoughts of the more gross and gaudy astral happiness, yearn to revisit the astral paradise. Heavy astral karma must be redeemed by such beings before they can achieve after astral death a permanent stay in the causal thought-world, so thinly partitioned from the Creator.”
From Chapter 43, “The Resurrection of Sri Yukteswar“, Autobiography of a Yogi- Paramahansa Yogananda
(The work doesn't end at death, our learning and our possibility for progress continues.)
Great Ursula K. LeGuin quotation
“If you can see a thing whole,” he said, “it seems that it’s always beautiful. Planets, lives … But close up, a world’s all dirt and rocks. And day to day, life’s a hard job, you get tired, you lose the pattern. You need distance, interval. The way to see how beautiful earth is, is to see it from the moon. The way to see how beautiful life is, is from the vantage point of death.”
—Ursula K. Le Guin, The Dispossessed, 1974
(As everything I read or watch seems to refer to a past lives perspective, this quote gives me an opportunity to honor one of the great minds of the last 100 years and also points to the advantage of that perspective, pulling away from the detailed, physical world into the non-physical (the NPE-Non Physical Experience.) I know Ursula is enjoying her new vantage point in the non-physical.
Ursula K. LeGuin 1929-2018
Book Review: Exploring Past Lives
Exploring Past Lives: Your Soul's Quest for Consciousness - Mary Lee LaBay
Have you ever thought you were too advanced for this physical world and wanted to graduate to a higher plane of existence? Have you ever considered that your consciousness can be "extinguished" by not being in a body for too long? Then this is the book for you. I've mentioned Exploring Past Lives before; this is the book I recommend to people who've already read Brian Weiss and want to dig a little deeper. This book has both enlightened me and challenged me, which is what I want from anyone approaching this topic.
LaBay describes with a light touch all the deeper aspects of past lives work, like working with the subconscious mind and seeing the Big Picture, pointing out how much more interesting history and geography can be once one opens to what she calls "the inner tourist". She is challenging in presenting some ideas that I am still processing. LaBay proposes that a soul loses energy and degenerates when not experiencing a physical body for hundreds or even thousands of years, and that a soul can be "extinguished" if not energized in a physical incarnation. I have not heard or read about this concept before, and my jury is still out until I have personal confirmation. But the ramifications are mind boggling; I defer to her years of experience, reserving final judgment. Opening my mind to that concept caused me to confront one of my longest held beliefs. I have even made a joke about this in the MeetUps, paraphrasing a great line from "Lily Dale - The Town That Talks to the Dead" by Christine Wicker (great book, highly recommended) - "There are going to be skid marks on the clouds if they want me to come back into a body." I was one of those people who were self-declared old souls, too advanced to come back into a body and ready to graduate to the next level. Labay lays it out-
The best strategy for gaining wisdom and enlightenment is to work hard while in a physical body. The best investment is to learn lessons that help us clarify our vision, strengthen our morals, heal emotional baggage, and acquire knowledge. This world is our proving ground. It is through the experiences in this physical world that we make the greatest progress.
Its hard to dispute the idea that Cooper sums up in the quote of the month: we come here for education and because we desire to grow. No shortcuts, especially if as LaBay suggests, getting lazy and spending to much time outside the body can get your butt extinguished. I'd hate to let all this hard work over many, many incarnations go to waste. There is a lot more to explore in this book, to be continued next month.
Brave participant interview w/Pamela Shook
02/18 Brave Participant Interview
Name: Pamela Shook, Cl.H.
Location: Waynesville. But my office is in Asheville Acupuncture Wellness Center.
Occupation: "I have been an Alchemical Hypnotherapist since 1990, blending Gestalt, Jungian and shamanic techniques with more traditional hypnosis. As a Reiki Master, I also incorporate Reiki into the healing sessions for accelerated results. I help the client tune into their body and let their cellular memory decide where the journey takes us."
How did you connect with the Past Lives Project? "When I moved to WNC last September, I looked on Meetup to find like-minded groups, and was delighted to see the Past Lives Project. Your group was my first stop in connecting with the spiritual community, and one of my favorite Meetups. The conversations are always meaningful, supportive and inspiring. I believe this research is so important at a time in history when there is so much divisiveness. If we can understand that we have probably had lives as most races, classes, belief systems and genders, it is harder to judge others, because we have probably been the type of person we are most prejudiced against."
What was your experience of a past lives exploration? "My first past life regression was while reading a book on Edgar Cayce at age 13. I had spontaneous flashbacks of being a slave in Alabama. I have been regressed many times. In the session you did with me, I was a baby who starved after my whole family died in a bombing in WWII. I had a wonderful experience of being re-united after death with my family, who who told me they had all been watching over me, helping me stay asleep so that the death process was less painful and lonely. It was a beautiful realization that however lonely and abandoned we may feel, we are truly loved and watched over at all times."
Your website and contact info: www.pamelashook.com,
704-534-0687. "I offer a free 30 minute phone discovery session to see if this work is a fit for you. I only take clients I truly believe I can help."
I experienced a session of Alchemical Hypnosis with Pamela and it was powerful and insightful, I highly recommend her work. Pamela is giving a Meet Your Inner Mate workshop this month.
WHERE: Crystal Visions, 5426 Asheville Highway, Hendersonville
WHEN: February 8, 1 - 2:30 pm
COST: $15 or 2 for $20 (bring a friend or partner) cash or check
REGISTRATION/ INFO: 704-534-0687
February 2018 Quote of the Month
"The chief purpose of reincarnation is education. To this end, we are born again and again on earth, not because of any external pressure, but because we, as souls, desire to grow. The driving power at the back of reincarnation, which brings us to earth again, is the thirst for experience, the desire for knowledge, the yearning to mingle in the throb and rush of physical existence. "
Irving S. Cooper, Reincarnation: A Hope of the World
January video (instead of a book) review
Flipside: A Journey Into the Afterlife by Richard Martini
(Available on Amazon for $1.99)
I decided to offer a video rather than a book review for the holidays after seeing an interview with Richard Martini on Gaia TV.* Martini did an interesting interview on George Knapp’s show that alerted me to this video. Its an interesting overview based on the work of the late Michael Newton’s between lives trainings. I like that it includes the director’s own experience with the hypnotic process. And it was the first time I’d heard Newton talk about his own journey, which is worth the low price of admission. My only concerns are technical -some of the audio volume is erratic, and they include some incredible quotes in between segments, but feature them so briefly I didn’t have time to read and digest them. So keep the remote handy to pause and read the quotes, which I assume are taken from Martini’s book of the same title. I recommend this video for an interesting introduction to this topic, check it out and let me know what you think.
* I have mixed feelings about Gaia TV since they so heavily feature David Wilcox, who’s not worthy of our attention. Anyone who spends time in their presentation trying to convince me that they are the reincarnation of Edgar Cayce based on sketchy facial similarities gets kicked to the curb, puh-leaze.