Reincarnation Adventures

Progress?

I went to a Civil War reenactor’s ball last night.  I was hoping that it might jog some memories from my past life in that era loose.  For the most part it didn’t, but there is one incident that has me wondering.

Someone asked my my name, and I blurted out “Emmeline Baker!”  What the heck?!  I’ve suspected that my first name in that life was Emmeline, but the Baker part is new.  I haven’t come across anyone named Baker in my research back tracking my life from that of my first husband.  I’m also a little concerned at how similar it is to Josephine Baker, as in, I’m considering whether my brain was just scrambling some things together that aren’t really related except for the sound.

It’s all very odd.  I will see what I can find in the genealogical databases I have available to me when I get back into work tomorrow.  It’s throwing me off that I am not getting a strong gut reaction to this one way or the other.  Well see.

Tags: past lives, reincarnation

So You Want to Be a Psychic?

Well, you’re in luck!  I have just set up a free psychic development group on the Haunted Voices Radio Network social network.

I wasn’t always highly psychic.  While I had some psychic ability as a kid, it was nothing to brag about.  Growing up with extremely skeptical parents didn’t help.  After a terrifying experience with a malevolent entity in college, my psychic abilities shut down completely for over 2 decades.  However, my mediumship skills started kicking in again during a business trip to the extremely haunted Charleston, South Carolina.  That spurred me to get involved in paranormal research and look into developing my psychic abilities.  After working with another psychic development group for a couple of years, I was stunned by how well I could read people’s past lives and come up with information that there was no way I could have known on a conscious level.  In some cases, I was even getting names and dates that were verifiable in historic records.  It’s pretty mind-blowing when you’ve given someone their name, when they were born, and where they lived in a past life reading only for them to call you up a few days later saying that they found their past life self in the census records.

This is starting to sound like an infomercial.  LOL!

Anyway, the point is, if I can do it, so can you.  The lessons will be offered free as part of HVRN’s commitment to bringing paranormal education to the world.  I’m trying to set this up so that you can start at any time and it will be helpful for all levels of ability.  If you are more advanced, please feel free to stop in and share your knowledge, too.  We can all learn from each other.

And while you are in the educational mode, please also consider taking HVRN’s evp lessons.  The basic lessons are free, and the advanced ones are donation funded.

Tags: Haunted Voices Radio, past lives, psychic

Famous Past Lives – Issues to Consider

One theory I’ve heard about why so many people think that they were the same historical person in a past life is because they were close enough to that person to have some similar memories. For example, they may have been the maidservant to Cleopatra, or Napolean’s valet. They remember enough about the intimate life of the famous person that they believe they are that person instead of just someone closely connected to them.

I would suggest that anyone who feels a strong connection to a famous person from the past take it back one step further and consider that the famous person may feel so familiar to you simply because they were so well known. Famous people influenced a lot of people’s lives, even the lives of people who never met them, both during their own lifetime and after. You may have a strong emotion about them because you idolized them in a past life. Or maybe they had a significant influence on your life somehow. Famous people will also show up in your dreams or stand out to you in other ways because they function as archetypes. When you are having dreams about them or feelings or feelings of familiarity, it would probably help to try to figure out what they represent to you on a metaphorical level.

So, just how do you sort it all out?

One commonality I’ve noticed in people who I believe to truly have been someone famous in their past life is that they fought against the idea for a long time and only reluctantly finally gave in an accepted it. They flat out did not want to have been that famous person. If your main thought when you discover you may have had a historically significant past life is “Wow! I was really important. That’s so cool,” you probably ought to also look at the current state of your ego and consider that you may have a need to be important. If you think that you had multiple famous past lives, that’s an even stronger indication that you may be confusing a need of the ego with the truth.

Next, look at the degree of fame that person had. The vast majority of people I have met who I believe to have had famous past lives were what I call the B-Listers of history. Looking at it from a fantasy versus reality point of view, someone who has a need to feel important is going to fantasize about being the king, not the king’s third cousin twice removed. One reason why I believe Jessica Jones Jewett’s claims of being the reincarnation of Fanny Chamberlain is that realistically, nobody fantasizes about being the wife of a Civil War hero and governor of Maine. Most people have never even heard of Fanny Chamberlain, and the historians that have generally treat her in a unflattering manner. Which brings me to a related aspect. The degree of admiration that people have for the historical person could be another factor in determining that a past life memory is for real. The less that people respect the person now, the more likely the memories of being that person are to be real.

If you go to a psychic for a reading or or a hypnotherapist for a regression, do not mention who you think you were. Instead, ask them to look into the time period or an issue in your current life that relates to the possible famous past life. There is a natural inclination to want to make the client happy. Even if your reader or hypnotherapist isn’t consciously doing that, being front loaded with a suggestion about who you were could falsely influence the results they get. If the reader or hypnotherapist is unscrupulous, they will use that knowledge and make up whatever they think you want to hear.

That isn’t to say that no one who remembers being a well-liked, very famous person from the past really was that person in a past life. I have met some people who I do believe to be the reincarnations of very high-profile, well-loved people. Influential people from the past reincarnate just the same as everyone else. However, if you do think that you may have been a famous person in a past life, it is essential that you be brutally honest with yourself about the ego issue. And I do mean brutally honest. If you do that and still come to the conclusion that you were who you think you were, then that will give you more confidence that what you are experiencing is real and not some flight of fancy. If you can’t honestly say that there aren’t any egotistical needs playing into your belief, don’t kick yourself for it. Ego is a normal human failing. We’ve all got it to some degree. You just aren’t doing yourself any favors by holding on to it instead of looking for the truth about your past lives.

Tags: past lives, reincarnation

The Plot Thickens

I’ve mentioned in a previous blog about how some issues from my past life were being echoed in the life of my current sister. In that life, she had been my father and would not allow me to marry my childhood sweetheart before he left to fight in the Civil War. Her reason was that we were too young and not financially secure. My beloved was killed in the war, and I never forgave my father for denying me the short period of happiness we could have had together if we had been allowed to marry. In the current life, my sister ended up marrying very young and without financial security herself. I thought it was interesting that she chose to explore the same kind of situation that she denied me when she was my father.

Well, things just got more interesting. Now, her 18 year old son has announced that he is engaged to his equally young girlfriend, and of course, they don’t have two nickels to rub together. I’ll be intrigued to see how she handles it this time around. Is it bad of me that I find this whole situation hilarious?

Probably.

But it’s still funny.

Tags: reincarnation

Another of My Own Past Life Memories Resurfaced

I love it when I recover more memories from my past lives. I’m still trying to figure out what kinds of things trigger them. In the case of last night, I seem to have gotten one on request.

I was laying in bed after an emotionally rough day. I had already vented about it and wanted to switch gears to some happier thoughts, so I asked my angels to lift my spirits. Shortly thereafter, some pleasant images started filling my mind. What I saw was me around 2 or 3 years old in my Civil War life. I was over visiting at the home of Oscar, who was my age but would eventually become my husband. I’m not sure if his parents were babysitting me or if my family was there for a party that would run too late for little ones’ bedtimes, but Oscar and I were put in the same bed to sleep. It felt like our normal bedtime, but there was still light out, like it was a summer evening. We were having too much fun to settle down and sleep. We’d put our foreheads together so that the other would look like a Cyclops and giggle ourselves silly over it. A dark-haired lady poked her head in the room to shush us and tell us to go to sleep. She tried to be stern, but you could tell that she was quite amused by us.

My friend Steph had pointed out to me that the memories that tend to surface are often the small moments in life that had a deep emotional significance even if they weren’t about big events. I’ve been finding that the ones I have the clearest memories of are indeed moments when I was in a state of deep contentment, not even so much great joy, but the sense that all is right with the world.

Tags: past life memories, reincarnation

Spam Problem Fixed

Awhile ago, I had to discontinue allowing comments on my blog because I was literally getting a ratio of 49 spam comments to every legitimate one. Who has time to constantly go through and delete out all that nonsense?

I just installed Askimet’s anti-spam program for blogs. I’ve been hearing good things about it, so keep your fingers crossed for me. And many thanks to Askimet for making this available for free to personal or commercial sites that bring in less than $500 a month.

I may or may not be going back through my past blogs to re-allow comments, but comments will be enabled from here on out.

Meditation – a Key to Psychic Development

I know it’s hard, but meditation really is the most helpful thing you can do to increase your psychic abilities. Of all the tips I’ve heard from talented psychics, this is the one thing they all agree on. Think about it. If your own mind is always buzzing about at a million miles a minute, how do you expect to notice any psychic information that may be trying to come through? That’s like trying to hear an occasional comment by someone with a soft voice while someone else is loudly chattering away.

There are a few misconceptions that I want to clear up about meditating. First, there is no one right way to do it. Different methods work better for different people. Secondly, you don’t have to do it for hours at a time in order for it to be effective. The usual recommendation I’ve heard is a minimum of 20 minutes a day, but any little bit you can get in is helpful. One of my favorite techniques to to let my mind blank out listening to the sound of the microwave oven while I’m nuking my lunch at work. It is OK and normal for your attention to wander a little. The important thing is to let go of the thought once you realize you are off track and get back to the business of calming your mind. Likewise, psychic information doesn’t necessarily come through while you are meditating. It can, but don’t be disappointed if it doesn’t. The thing about meditating is that it helps your mind learn how to calm down in general, making it more receptive to pick up on psychic energy throughout the day.

When I first started my journey into psychic development, I cringed at the thought of meditating. I had tried off and on over a couple of decades to do traditional “concentrate on your breathing ” and even guided meditations with no success. The good news is that you actually have more choices than just that.

What finally worked for me was discovering Peter Russell’s 3 minute meditation. He has you concentrate on various body parts and gently reins your attention back in when it may be wandering. The fact that this meditation is only 3 minutes long is also useful. Like with many things in life, it helps if you take baby steps first, then build up to the point where you want to be at. Eventually, I was able to comfortably work my way up to his 15 minute version of that, which is also available at his website for a mere $3 as an mp3 download.

Medium John Holland suggests trying a more physical form of meditation if you are a very active person. His technique is to go for a walk and mentally count off from 1 to ten with each step. Once you’ve walked 10 steps, start over.

Getting your mind into a fuzzy state that isn’t alcohol or drug induced is another method. You know what it’s like when you are falling asleep and you aren’t asleep yet but you aren’t really thinking, either? Listening to certain kinds of music can facilitate that, especially if it doesn’t have lyrics. I have found that Mind the Gap by Spoonkat works well for me. Sometimes just losing yourself in the music while dancing works, too.

Speaking of which, one interesting tip I heard from psychic Andrew Brewer is to do something you enjoy. Having your attention focused like that does quiet down all of the miscellaneous thoughts that usually crop up. The added bonus is that being in a happy state automatically brings your energy level into a higher frequency, which is also condusive to receiving information psychically.

So, even if you have not been successful with meditation in the past, try giving it another shot. Chances are that you will find a technique that works for you if you keep looking.

Tags: Andrew Brewer, John Holland, meditation, Peter Russell, psychic

So Faithful a Heart

This has been a good year for books on reincarnation. At the tail end of spring, Andrea and Bruce Leininger came out with Soul Survivor, a compelling story about their attempts to unravel the mystery of the memories their young son had of being a WWII pilot. Then this fall, Jessica Jewett published Unveiled: Fannie Chamberlain Revealed about her struggles to accept her past life as the wife of Civil War hero and governor of Maine, Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain.

Recently, K. Lynette Erwin also came out with So Faithful a Heart, a romance novel about the relationship between Mozart and the opera singer, Nancy Storace. I’ll let you in on a secret regarding that one. While it is being presented as a work of fiction, it is based on her and her beloved’s detailed memories of being Storace and Mozart. Like most people, I take claims of famous past lives with a grain of salt. However, I have had the privilege of getting to get to know Steph and Lynette over the past couple of years and found them to be both very down to earth and spiritually balanced people. There is no doubt in my mind that their claims are indeed true.

Even if you don’t believe in reincarnation, it is one engrossing read. If you do believe, that facet adds another layer of depth to the story. The following is the review I wrote for the general public.

*****

What do you do when you meet the love of your life but honor dictates that you remain married to someone else? So Faithful a Heart is about the intricacies of a very complicated relationship between Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and opera singer Nancy Storace. It has a lot to recommend it – history, drama, and a romance so compelling that it can touch even the heart of an avowed non-romantic like me.

History and opera buffs will revel in the details about backstage life in 1700’s Austria. Erwin brings the reader fully into all the intrigue, rivalries, and politics of the time. Deftly written, the world she draws is lively and colorful. She also covers some of the social conventions of the culture in the introduction, which makes more sense of Mozart’s dilemma to the modern reader.

The portrayal of Mozart is not what the average reader would expect. Most people have formed their idea of what Mozart was like on the buffoonish portrayal of him by Peter Shaffer in Amadeus, a work that had no pretensions of being historically accurate. Instead, in So Faithful a Heart, Mozart is shown as a talented man struggling to balance his own need for Storace with living up to commitments he made before he met her. He is a flawed man, but basically a man of honor.

Likewise, Storace herself is an interesting character. We first see her as a high spirited 17 year old, anchored down by a mother who was more concerned about her own desires than that of her child. Despite being a talented and highly successful opera singer, she spends a great deal of her life under the control of others. That leads to the tragedy of a forced marriage to an abusive husband.

Indeed, tragedy and pathos punctuate the novel in ways that make the forbidden love even more poignant. They occur in ways that both serve to keep the lovers apart while increasing their need to be with the one person in their lives who could truly soothe their troubled souls. Their story is completely heart wrenching at times, causing the reader to root even harder for them.

This isn’t the sort of thing that I normally read, but did so upon the urging of a friend. I’m glad I did. I have to say, I really enjoyed it.

Tags: Anna Storace, books, Lynette Erwin, Mozart, reincarnation, So Faithful a Heart

Advanced Mediumship Training

I’m not sure if there are any others of you who are at the point I am with my mediumship abilities – I’ve got a basic handle on it but am not to a point where I can use it as consistently effectively as I want. I’ve been looking for ways to get better at it and thought that I’d share what I’ve found with you.

Someone asked a similar question about improving skills on medium John Holland‘s radio program when he had fellow medium Bobby Marchesso on as a guest. He has his own radio show, too. Their advice was to keep practicing and mediating and having more faith in herself. While I know that is part of it, that advice surprised me. John Holland himself had gone through some rigorous training at the Arthur Findlay College. As far as practice goes, I actually have a dream job in that respect. My day job entails processing death certificates from the first half of the 20th century for genealogists. The deceased are always popping in, giving their 2 cents’ worth about how they died or what their lives were like.

I had also been told to join a Spiritualist group for more training. I would love to, but I’ve got some bad scheduling issues. I work a full time job, 2 part time jobs, and volunteer for 4 non-profits, so I’m already burning the candle at both ends. I’ve also heard from a lot of my Spiritualist friends in England that the Spiritualist community there has a competitive nature, so it may not be a comfortable learning environment for everyone. The one in the US sounds much more cooperative, though.

Lilydale, one of the big centers of Spiritualism in the U.S. holds a series of workshops every summer. I have a little more flexibility in my work schedule for the coming year, so I hope to make it out there for at least one this summer.

Getting back to the Arthur Findlay College, if I can figure out how to afford this, I will definitely take some classes there. They do offer a full program of classes in mediumship. The beauty part is that the classes themselves are only a week long and you can take the classes independently without signing up for a full series. John Holland has mentioned that while the classes are quite challenging, they are extremely helpful.

Given my problematic work schedule, I’ve been looking for training through books, dvds, or whatever I can do at home. I’ve got to say, there isn’t a lot out there on that count. Practically all of what I’ve been finding is geared towards flat out beginners. To be fair, every author teaches this from a slightly different slant, so there is always potential to learn something new from every book. However, I don’t have the time or patience to wade through books where 98% of it is stuff I already know to find the 2% that is new. So, I was thrilled to find Advanced Mediumship and Spirit Communication by Sharon Anne Klingler. It’s a workbook and 4 cd set. I am familiar with Sharon through her appearances on her sister Sandra Anne Taylor’s radio show on Hay House and was impressed with her mediumship and teaching abilities. I’m a few chapters into the workbook and am indeed finding it helpful.

Tags: Arthur Findlay College, John Holland, Lilydale, mediumship, Sharon Klingler

Low Cost Reiki Training

If you are interested in Reiki, you might want to check out Ian Sadler’s site. He offers a Reiki training manual for a small donation ($2 – $10 as you can afford) and the attunements for free.

I’ve got a bug in my brain about Reiki because someone recently mentioned that energy flows through the palms of your hand in it. Ever since I’ve started working on my psychic development, I’ve noticed that on an energetic level, I have lotus blossoms growing out of the palms of my hands, and sometimes they change to a bright white flame. I’m not quite sure what that is all about, but I figured that looking into Reiki might possibly make some sense of it. I’m sure that it’s a worthwhile thing to learn at any rate.

Tags: Reiki