LBL

[ravensgate]

Anyone with personal experience with Life Between Lives (LBL)?

I'm seriously considering a session with a licensed practitioner; the closest one is a 3-hr drive away.
My interest in LBL has been growing for a number of years, and got stronger after reading and hearing very young children speak of their home, their "other" home - and when asked about the other home, most of them suddenly go quiet and refuse to give details.
I've always read Michael Newton's books; he's the clinical psychologist who "discovered" LBL rather by accident, as he was regressing his clients. Don't know if he wrote other books, but the ones I'm referring to include Jouney of Souls and Destiny of Souls.

If you have personal experience, do you mind sharing? And if not, what are your thoughts about it?

Here's a link to one of his website pages:

http://www.spiritualregression.org/p...piritual-world

[Roberta Grimes]

Dear Ravensgate, thank you for raising such a great topic! I found Michael Newton's books only after I had extensively researched the afterlife and formed some strong impressions about what the Summerland is like, so I was stunned to find these books which were in many ways confirmatory but in some other ways fundamentally different. Here is how I have reconciled those differences and come to better understand what Michael Newton calls the life-between-lives period:

1) There is no time. That changes everything! We have been given to understand that in some way that we cannot fathom, all our lives are happening at once. It is therefore possible (for example) to hypnotically progress people to what we would call future lives; and the L-B-L period is "between" lives only for some purposes (reviewing the last one and planning the next one) but not for other purposes. It truly is a puzzlement!

2) Michael Newton seems to be mostly conversing with what we might call "over-souls." He talks with the eternal mind, which contains but is much more than the individual consciousness which has just lived the most recent lifetime, and this seems to be what makes his communications so different from what we hear from most dead communicators. These beings in Newton's books are for the most part coolly objective about the life just completed, and they are used to seeing people as just specks of light against darkness. When we die, on the other hand, we are protected from the shock of so big a change by remaining in what most report to be a seamless illusion of materiality from here to there - the "matter" of the Summerland is of a different nature, but we are never only specks of light. Nor, if we stay on track, do we seem ever to see those that we love as specks of light; at least, I cannot recall seeing that reported by the dead as something they experience, not even by very advanced beings. But the same specks-of-light-against-darkness phenom is reported by the most advanced astral travelers (check out Bob Monroe's great trilogy), and I have no doubt that it is more "real" than the Summerland that we routinely see. If we choose to view reality that way, I don't doubt that we can! It's just that we are so infinitely loved that each of us is coddled like a precious princeling - if we want to see beyond the illusion, apparently we have to request it. (I recall now reading long ago one report of someone who was curious, who reported that the Summerland illusion was dissolved for him briefly - specks of light against darkness! - and then it re-materialized. None of the people around him seemed aware that, very briefly, he had seen them dissolve into specks and reappear. I have read about this just once, so it is unconfirmed and I never have mentioned it before - but it makes sense.)

3) The Summerland period seems to extend for as long as we feel the need for it. Again, time does not objectively exist,and there doesn't seem to be any special hurry for most of us - we play, do arts and crafts and music, take classes, sit at the feet of Jesus or the Buddha (or both!), and wait for everyone we loved to also graduate and spend non-time with us before we start planning a different lifetime - whether earlier or later in "earth time" - with many of those same folks. At least, that seems to be what happens.

- I hope this helps! Again, thanks for giving us all a chance to talk about this ;-).

[Annie]

(I recall now reading long ago one report of someone who was curious, who reported that the Summerland illusion was dissolved for him briefly - specks of light against darkness! - and then it re-materialized. None of the people around him seemed aware that, very briefly, he had seen them dissolve into specks and reappear. I have read about this just once, so it is unconfirmed and I never have mentioned it before - but it makes sense.)

This would mean that the outer darkness is an illusion too, that happy people would construct a beautiful, summery place with their minds and more gloomy people would create something darker.

[mac]

For me so-called 'outer darkness' is a meaningless concept and not something found in the UK. I put it in the same bag as so-called channeling and 'higher self', New Age terms for old age concepts known under different names.

And please forgive me if I sound cynical but would there be a charge for a 'life between lives' session and what would be the licensing body of such a licensed practitioner?

[mac]

2) Michael Newton seems to be mostly conversing with what we might call "over-souls." He talks with the eternal mind, which contains but is much more than the individual consciousness which has just lived the most recent lifetime, and this seems to be what makes his communications so different from what we hear from most dead communicators. These beings in Newton's books are for the most part coolly objective about the life just completed, and they are used to seeing people as just specks of light against darkness. When we die, on the other hand, we are protected from the shock of so big a change by remaining in what most report to be a seamless illusion of materiality from here to there - the "matter" of the Summerland is of a different nature, but we are never only specks of light. Nor, if we stay on track, do we seem ever to see those that we love as specks of light; at least, I cannot recall seeing that reported by the dead as something they experience, not even by very advanced beings. But the same specks-of-light-against-darkness phenom is reported by the most advanced astral travelers (check out Bob Monroe's great trilogy), and I have no doubt that it is more "real" than the Summerland that we routinely see. If we choose to view reality that way, I don't doubt that we can! It's just that we are so infinitely loved that each of us is coddled like a precious princeling - if we want to see beyond the illusion, apparently we have to request it. (I recall now reading long ago one report of someone who was curious, who reported that the Summerland illusion was dissolved for him briefly - specks of light against darkness! - and then it re-materialized. None of the people around him seemed aware that, very briefly, he had seen them dissolve into specks and reappear. I have read about this just once, so it is unconfirmed and I never have mentioned it before - but it makes sense.)
).

I've had a difficult couple of weeks. In my website wanderings I read this particular piece but it made no sense for me and I moved on. But then I experienced a delayed 'eureka' moment where an important missing piece of a spiritual jigsaw puzzle fell into place, an issue about which I'd been looking for guidance for quite a time. The piece was in that paragraph.

I didn't have a clue where I'd read the piece above or even on which website I'd read it but I remembered the details. I realized how it might change my approach to certain issues and felt pretty down as change is not easy for me to handle. I'm a Taurean.

So thank you, Roberta, for inadvertently bringing that missing piece. I wonder if I'll seem different to others? We'll see.

[vic smyth]

...When we die, on the other hand, we are protected from the shock of so big a change by remaining in what most report to be a seamless illusion of materiality from here to there...

I have read about this from a number of sources including Emmanuel Swedenborg. It seems like to protect us from the shock that we died, many people don't even realize that they have died! Gradually they get accustomed to the transition by those guiding us. So people that have committed suicide may not even be aware that they committed suicide. Boggles the mind!

With Lovingkindness (metta),
vic

[Roberta Grimes]

I've had a difficult couple of weeks. In my website wanderings I read this particular piece but it made no sense for me and I moved on. But then I experienced a delayed 'eureka' moment where an important missing piece of a spiritual jigsaw puzzle fell into place, an issue about which I'd been looking for guidance for quite a time. The piece was in that paragraph.

I didn't have a clue where I'd read the piece above or even on which website I'd read it but I remembered the details. I realized how it might change my approach to certain issues and felt pretty down as change is not easy for me to handle. I'm a Taurean.

So thank you, Roberta, for inadvertently bringing that missing piece. I wonder if I'll seem different to others? We'll see.

Dear Mac, I read this yesterday and I've been trying to figure it out ever since. I am thrilled to be of help, but I cannot imagine what your spiritual puzzle might have been! Are you willing to share? Even a little bit?? (My husband is a Taurean, too, so I know the breed. 'Nuf said ;-).)

[mokandi]

I knew being a taurean wasn't always a blessing.

[mac]

I knew being a taurean wasn't always a blessing.

Is it ever a blessing?!

[mac]

Dear Mac, I read this yesterday and I've been trying to figure it out ever since. I am thrilled to be of help, but I cannot imagine what your spiritual puzzle might have been! Are you willing to share? Even a little bit?? (My husband is a Taurean, too, so I know the breed. 'Nuf said ;-).)

I see you're familiar with the burden of the Taurean!

My words were in connection with the so-called Summerland and the frequently heard assertion that it's illusory. I'm not big on imagery but after I'd read, and dismissed, your tale of the individual who had asked to see beyond the illusion, the picture you described remained with me and kept running through my thoughts. I realized I'd seen a missing piece of my jigsaw puzzle. Nothing earth-shattering and nothing I could share any better without a long explanation.

It's only a small issue but coupled with other recent events it's put me in a different frame of mind.