In my last newsletter, I wrote about the Brian Weiss workshop I had recently attended.  In that piece I described two metaphors he used to explain the permanent nature of the soul vs. the various lifetimes the soul inhabits.  This time I’m going to focus on an exercise he had us all do.

We were asked to pair up with a stranger and exchange something that the person had on his or her body, for example a watch or a piece of jewelry.  My partner gave me his watch and I gave him my ring.  Each of us held the object while we opened our minds to whatever insights we might have about the other person.  What came to my mind was a past life that he’d had with his current life father.  The relationship in the previous lifetime was different, but the issue from the past was continuing to impact his current life decisions.  By his becoming aware of the connection, he can now make choices that are more appropriate for his present life, without letting the past life legacy impinge.

My partner focused differently.  (I love how we are led into the direction that the Universe sees as most useful.)  He saw me entertaining a large group of people and enjoying that role.  Then he saw a castle and a man standing near it, at one end of a bridge spanning a moat.  I was standing at the other end of the bridge.  The man was encouraging me to walk across the bridge and assuring me that I would be welcomed with warmth and love.  As he related this to me, I resonated with the first part, seeing the hostess role as something I enjoy doing in my current life.  The bridge seemed like a metaphor for the transitions that I am facing.  I felt reassured that the changes going forward would be positive.

This exercise is one that you can do as well, with someone you don’t know, a friend or a family member.  A stranger or acquaintance means that you don’t go in with preconceived ideas.   Just open your mind and let any expectations about what you will learn move out of your mind.  Respect whatever pops into your awareness, whether it seems strange or not.  It may deal with a present or past lifetime.  After you share your insights, check out what resonates for your partner and how it might fit in with their current life experiences.

Enjoy and let me know what happens.

To be in the presence of Brian Weiss is to see a genuine, humble man with a tremendous amount of experience and knowledge.  We who believe in reincarnation owe him a great debt of gratitude for his courage in speaking up about this topic many years ago, when discussing past lives wasn’t as well accepted as it is now.

On March 10^th, I went to a daylong workshop in NYC at which he spoke about the impact reincarnation has on our current lives, a subject dear to my heart as well.  He led the large group of attendees through two hypnotic regressions and two exercises.  I will comment on two of his metaphors that especially triggered a reaction in me. In a later newsletter, I will discuss one of the exercises that you will be able to try yourselves.

Sometimes it’s hard to grasp the concept that the soul is eternal and the human bodies it joins are what changes.  In speaking about the permanent nature of the soul that continues from one lifetime to another, Brian Weiss used this metaphor.  We buy different cars throughout a lifetime, but we remain the driver, no matter how many cars we own.  Thus, our soul, the driver, guides the car, whatever the car looks like.  The cars are the many different human bodies into which our soul incarnates.  Just to play with that a bit, we might have cars that are different colors, some snazzy and some simple, or some that turn out to be lemons.

Another metaphor Weiss used to describe how the purpose of each incarnation is chosen for different purposes was this one.  He suggested that our soul is like the train that stops at many stations. each station symbolizing a previous lifetime.  Each station offers opportunities, but the train remains the same.  Some stations are rich and imposing while others are poor and rundown, but each one has a special purpose.

I believe it is so important to recognize the role our souls play in the reincarnation process.  Our various lifetimes are building blocks to enrich our souls.

I’d like to invite you to listen to the broadcast on Brandywine Radio when Bruce Mowday, an author who regularly interviews other authors, interviewed me.  This can be accessed on your computer by going to http://www.brandywineradio.com/ .  The live-recorded version will be broadcast on Friday, March 30 at 5:00 PM and Saturday, March 31 at 11:00 AM.  If you are unable to tune in at that time, the interview will be archived and can be accessed at any time after April 1.

Can our prejudices originate in past lives?  Have you ever experienced resentment toward certain types of people or behaviors that don’t seem tied to current life experiences?  Suppose that these prejudices have a logical origin, coming from unresolved issues from past lives.

Last month, I wrote about how reincarnation can increase our tolerance of people and behavior through acknowledging our own past life experiences.  Just as that can be one outcome, so may the opposite be true.  We may actually develop prejudices because we lived through a situation in which we were negatively influenced by a specific kind of person.  There may appear no rational reason for you to hold such a viewpoint, based on what you have encountered in this present lifetime.  Look a little deeper into the past and the reason may become apparent.

Let me present some examples.

• Homophobia: A homosexual sexually abused you in a past life and now you label all homosexuals as predators.  Or maybe you were a homosexual yourself and you were shamed for your choice, so you carry that shame into this current lifetime and avoid any contact with gays and lesbians as if the sexual preference were contagious.

• Racial bias: You were attacked by a black man and now view all blacks as people to fear.  Or you were a member of a minority race yourself and harassed as a result.  In this lifetime, you are determined to have power and look down with scorn on minorities.

• Misogyny: In a past life as a man, you were dominated by a woman and felt helpless.  Now you resent any woman who expresses an opinion or dares to question your superiority.

I invite you to name whatever prejudice comes to mind and imagine possible scenarios that might have led to these outcomes.

The likelihood is that we all have beliefs about people and situations that have little basis in fact.  These preconceived ideas serve no purpose and only restrict our abilities to view each person and situation from an unbiased perspective.

I grant you that we have all probably suffered in this current lifetime because of the behavior of certain people.  There is no way we can avoid all problems.   It’s when we generalize one person’s behavior and label a whole group as having that characteristic.  That’s the danger.  Therefore, situations that would underscore the resentment that originated in previous lifetimes get increased several fold because of the legacies from prior lifetimes.  Now it’s not just an annoyance, but also a full-blown prejudice.

The solution?  Face your prejudices and open your mind to the possibility that they may originate in a past life.  Challenge them to determine if they are realistic in this current lifetime.  If you suspect past life legacies are involved, find a way to uncover and heal them.  You will be able to live a more fulfilled life now, free of the undercurrent of fear and anger.

To discover ways to uncover and heal them, I would suggest that you go to my book, “Hidden Treasures from Past Lives”, and work through the Action Steps.  There are also many techniques described for doing the work.

The process of incarnating into all sorts of human beings and situations over and over teaches us tolerance.  Having many past lives gives credence to the saying, “Walk in my shoes awhile and you’ll understand.”  The reality of reincarnation is that indeed we have walked in many shoes.  With each experience, the scope of our awareness broadens.

Once we start looking back at our different past lives, we can know first hand what it is like to be the opposite sex of what we are right now.  We can understand what it means to be rich and poor, to be single and married, to be of a different race, to live in different parts of the world, and to die in a variety of ways.  One of the ways in which we find clues that we all change our identities in different past lives is through a study that Helen Wambach did.  As a psychologist and college instructor, she hypnotized and regressed 1088 people.  Of the 70% who were able to access past lives, the descriptions of the lives they lived fell into the established statistical pattern of historical times.  Therefore, the probability that we each have experienced all these different situations is high – or we will in a future lifetime.

I recently made a presentation at a retirement community about how reincarnation gives meaning to life.  The repetitive cycle of lifetimes provides us with many opportunities for our souls to mature and develop.  Someone in the audience made the comment that reincarnation can be a healing process.  We are not limited to one lifetime to make it the best we can and that is the only chance we have.  Rather, we have many chances to fix the mistakes we made in previous lifetimes.  That is how our souls learn.  Compare this process to what our children go through.  Each child has his or her experience and must learn to deal with it.  Out of those trials, the child learns; it doesn’t help to shield the child from all such experiences because then the child would not learn and evolve.

I was led to review a past life recently.  In this previous lifetime, I was a black man who lived during 25,000 BC, in what is now Africa.  I engaged in a ritual that was part of my religious belief and took pleasure in being a faithful participant.  This ritual wasn’t something that would be acceptable in today’s world, but back then it was the norm.  The purpose for my recalling this past life was two-fold.  First of all, I needed to appreciate the positive legacy of my soul’s desire for a deep religious belief and my faithfulness to it.  Secondly, understanding the wide gap between my behaviors back then and now increased my tolerance for differences.

With each lifetime, we can increase our tolerance.  We know what it is like take on different roles.  We know what it is like to have good intentions and yet fail.  We know what it is like to live in all kinds of circumstances.  We’ve walked in those shoes.  How can we be prejudiced when we’ve been that, done that?

Next time, I want to write about prejudice, those instances when our souls don’t learn tolerance.

Soul growth actually does occur through challenges and adversity.  The situation may create a lot of anxiety, but out of the experience, we move forward and our souls mature and develop a little bit more.

These situations may be exactly what were chosen between lives in the spirit world for us to deal with.  Therefore, instead of mumbling and grumbling about challenges and adversity, perhaps we need to welcome them as opportunities.  I have to admit that often times I start out resenting the intrusion into the life that I (emphasis on “I”) thought would be nice.  However, by the time I have worked the issues through, I’ve come to terms with them and am grateful, or at least more at peace.

How many times have I awakened at 2:30 A.M. and spent the next two hours working through issues?  Countless times.  After one such session, it dawned on me that each time I wrestle with challenges, my soul is benefitting in the long run.

In my book and articles, I’ve written so much about soul development and maturity.  Never did I connect these nocturnal sessions with soul growth.

You may not work through your challenges in the middle of the night.  Goodness knows that’s not my preference.  There are many ways to do the work:

*While exercising

*During meditation

*While praying

*In journaling

*In talking with a friend or therapist

However you do it, I invite you to celebrate the time as well spent.  You are accomplishing just what your soul needs for soul growth.

April Crawford channels Veronica, whose messages she posts on her website, http://www.InnerWhispers.org/ discusses how important it is to align with the soul’s intention.  I like the idea of viewing challenges as part of our soul’s intention.  Conceptualizing it this way provides a purpose to what may look unfair or a nuisance.

I invite you to experiment with this approach.

I am pleased to send you the news that the paperback version of my book, “Hidden Treasures from Past Lives”, is now available.  Many of you have expressed an interest in wanting to have the book itself in hand, as opposed to seeing it as an e-book.

The paperback can be ordered on Amazon and Barnes&Noble, as well as some smaller outlets.  I will have a limited supply at my office and some at home, so if you would like to buy one from me, that is also an option.  No shipping costs and I’ll autograph it.

This is the Press Release sent out by my publisher:

Brighton Publishing LLC releases “Hidden Treasures from Past Lives” by author Barbara Folts

Brighton Publishing LLC announced the release of debut author Barbara Folts’ highly-acclaimed book “Hidden Treasures from Past Lives: Techniques for Discovery and Healing of Past life Legacies”

CHANDLER (AZ)—Brighton Publishing LLC announced the release of “Hidden Treasures from Past Lives: Techniques for Discovery and Healing of Past life Legacies,” by author Barbara Folts. Heralded as both a breathtaking spiritual journey and guidebook for readers seeking illumination of their own past lives, Folts’ breakthrough work is now available as an eBook at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other leading retailers.

Early reviews are already pouring in and Folts’ book is a great success:

“A remarkable work of personal, spiritual and metaphysical genius! Barbara Folts doesn’t just open doors for her readers, she kicks them down with gusto in this tour de force into the part of human history most often ignored or misunderstood.” (“CLC Book Review”, KFNX, Phoenix)

Join Barbara Folts on a journey unlike any you’ve ever before taken. With “Hidden Treasures from Past Lives,” readers experience the rare opportunity to explore experiences from past lives that are actually altering their lives today. Within these pages, Folts offers the chance to discover, challenge, and heal what lingers from past lives, often preventing us from living more fulfilling lives now. This is a chance to turn those past life moments into treasures.

Author, psychologist, and therapist Barbara Folts has helped many clients resolve the issues that seem out of reach if only current life experiences are considered. Opening the door to allow the concept of reincarnation to play a part in our healing and growing provides the path toward a more fulfilling life now. Through her unique combination of intuition, energy psychotherapy, and hypnotherapy techniques, she invites you to go on a journey into the past.

“Barbara Folts has delivered a fascinating, captivating look into past lives with a voice both invigorating and knowledgeable. Her case studies are unlike anything readers are likely to have encountered before and the seven-step process developed through her clinical practice will take readers on a journey they’ll never forget,” said Kathie McGuire, director of Brighton Publishing LLC. “Readers will be amazed at the doors Folts unlocks, and the stories she shares along the way. This is unlike anything you’ve read before.”

In addition to her therapy practice, Barbara Folts is a frequent lecturer and workshop guest, and has appeared on television and in the media on numerous occasions. She is a member of the Pennsylvania Psychological Association and the Association for Comprehensive Energy Psychology as well as being licensed as a Certified Hypnotherapist and Counselor.

“Don’t I know you from somewhere?  Ah yes, a past life we shared.”  Wouldn’t that be an interesting conversation starter?   In fact, we do share past lives with the same souls repeatedly.

In my book, “Hidden Treasures From Past Lives”, I discuss at length this idea of reincarnating together over and over.  In Chapter Ten, “Repetitive soul Groupings”, I make the following statement.  “A soul does not operate in a vacuum. Instead, it repetitively incarnates with the same souls over many lifetimes. Souls choose to incarnate together into the same family, neighborhood, or larger geographical location, taking on a variety of roles.”

Is there a way to recognize the chain of same soul incarnations?  Here is a suggestion about a way to go about discovering who in your current life was also in a previous lifetime. Suppose we have an intuitive connection with someone.  We can begin by contemplating whether his or her soul incarnated previously in a relative from past generations in our family tree.  We have a little more knowledge about recent relatives because we may have known them before their death or have heard about them from our other family members.  The next step is to look at the characteristics of the person you feel connected with in this current life and see if these traits are shared by grandparents, great-grandparents, aunts, uncles, etc. These are clues that the soul is reincarnating into your current life.

Let me give you an example.  I am aware of a young child in my extended family who shares the same soul as my grandmother.  I intuitively sensed the connection and then saw how they shared some of the same characteristics.  My grandmother was a generous and kind person who had an inner strength that was exceptional.  In the face of a challenging marriage, she managed to keep her own counsel.  She was well liked and was a leader in an understated manner. Now I see this young person exhibiting the same traits and needing to deal with a challenging family member.  This current life person’s soul has been honed to meet the issues because he has experienced a similar task in a past life.  I believe that in both cases, the past life and the current life, the soul will not only utilize the strengths gained for itself, but also assist in the development of the challenging member.  Remember that the soul’s drive is to mature and develop throughout its many incarnations and thus accumulates treasures that can help it in future lifetimes.

So keep your eyes open for this chain of same soul incarnations.  In addition to understanding the logic of reincarnation first hand, it can be a comfort to know that someone you loved before is now back in your life.  If there was difficulty between you and this deceased person, this may be an opportunity to remedy the relationship.

From a reincarnation perspective, how do we make sense of the sacrifice that veterans and their families make?  Whether veterans die in action, are physically or emotionally disabled, or take time out of their lives to serve, the toll can be great.  Does reincarnation offer any answers?

This can be a difficult question because when we are in the middle of a challenging situation, it’s often hard to understand that there could be any benefit. Sometimes it requires us to step back from the experience and look at what we may be learning or need to learn.

For the caregivers, it may be patience and love.  The spouse who returns from war may be very different from the person who left, the adjustment very challenging.

For the veterans returning, life is never the same.  Any innocence regarding the cruelty and hardships of war is gone.  By the same token, awareness of the amazing acts of courage are indelibly etched on their minds.  The drastic adjustment from war to civilian life is like stepping into a time warp, a whole different culture.

In terms of reincarnation, if we remember that our souls chose these lifetimes for the purpose of maturing and developing, we can begin to accept that going to war or being the loved one of a veteran does have some greater meaning.  Our learnings and growth usually accelerate during times of stress.  It can also be comforting to know that this isn’t the only lifetime one will experience.  The next one may well benefit from the growth that your soul experienced when meeting these challenges.  By the same token, if you regret some of your actions in this lifetime, there is a future life during which you can make up for that.  This isn’t a lottery where the one who suffers the most difficult situations just happens to pick a losing number.  There is a purpose in all our experiences.

As an example, let me describe two of my past lives that involved wartime challenges.  In one of them, I didn’t deal with the issue of losing my leg very well and in another one, I met the challenge more appropriately.  The first past life occurred during the Civil War when I lost a leg, reducing my mobility to hobbling around on crutches.  In fear of the consequences to my family and me, I committed suicide.  In the other lifetime that occurred in a later war, my leg was amputated just above the knee and I was fitted with a prosthetic.  Since I owned a farm, my whole life style was altered and I needed to adjust.  This time, although the struggle was enormous, I worked my way through it.  My soul was given another chance.

On this day of 11-11-11, I offer my appreciation for the many sacrifices of veterans and their loved ones.  I acknowledge the many, many difficulties of dealing with the affects of wartime.  If the idea of gaining a perspective on the situation through the eyes of reincarnation gives anyone a bit of encouragement, I am pleased.  Just maybe, your soul will be enriched by the experience.

Coming from a background of membership in a mainstream church, I went through a period in which I struggled with how to incorporate my traditional faith with my reincarnation beliefs. Whatever your faith background, I imagine that many of you might be in a similar position.

To me, I have had a difficult time reconciling a loving and forgiving God with a God who tolerates such unfair distribution of life circumstances.  How can some people have easier lives than others, some living in poverty and some in wealth?  How can some people be born with crippling diseases and others enjoy beautiful, healthy bodies?  Why do some die within a year of birth and others live into their 90’s?  At what point does God even out these vast discrepancies?

In my view, reincarnation provides the rationale for what appears, to those of us who attempt to understand God, as favoritism for some souls and not for others.  However, if we look at the purpose of having many lifetimes as being opportunities to experience many different circumstances for the enrichment of our souls, the discrepancies take on a different meaning.  All souls need to know what it is like to live in poverty as well as wealth.  All souls need to know what it is like to live with disabilities as well as be in healthy bodies.  We grow more when we encounter hardships than when we are coasting along.  Challenges add depth to our souls.  Think back to some of the difficult situations you worked your way through.  Did you find strengths you never thought you had?  Did you develop compassion for others that you didn’t have before?  Did you learn something you wouldn’t have had the chance to do if you hadn’t encountered the difficulty?

People often ask the question, “Would you like to go back and be 20 or 30 years old again?”  Or if you are 20 or 30 years old now, “Would you like to be a child again?”  My answer, and that of many others I’ve talked to, is to decline the possibility.  Who we are now is enriched by all the experiences we’ve had.  There’s a depth to our very being now that we didn’t have back then.  Now transpose this current life rationale and extend it to the idea that having many lifetimes allows you to have a wealth of experiences.  That’s the value of reincarnation.  Remember that the goal of incarnating over and over is to mature and develop the soul.  Each of us will be challenged in a whole variety of ways from one lifetime to the next; no favoritism.  However, God does promise to love, strengthen and guide us through whatever we encounter – in all our lifetimes.

Thus, if we go back to the issue of why a loving and forgiving God would create a world in which there is such an uneven distribution of circumstances, we begin to find some answers to our question.  God wants our souls to mature, just as we want our children to do so.  To rescue our children from challenges is to rob them of the opportunity to grow.  How much more would God want His children to have those opportunities?  Isn’t it nice that we get many lifetimes in which to accomplish that?!

In my book, “Hidden Treasures From Past Lives”, I explore this topic with many case examples.  You can order the e-book now and in the fall, the paparback version will be out.  Hope you enjoy it!

I recently made a presentation about past life legacies that result in current life symptoms.  They can be frustrating because they often don’t lend themselves to healing unless looked at from the viewpoint of reincarnation. Here are two clues about how they can be recognized as past life legacies.

1. So often we have issues that appear out of context to our experiences in our current life.  Thus, they seem to have no point of origin.  My suggestion?   Perhaps they originate from unresolved situations in previous lifetimes.

2. Or perhaps we try to heal problems through the medical route, but no matter all the magnificent work medical professionals do, the symptoms don’t heal in a timely fashion.  At this point, many scratch their heads in frustration.

In my book, “Hidden Treasures From Past Lives”, I provide many case histories of people who have struggled with unresolved symptoms, finally chose to view them through the lens of reincarnation, and then healed the leftovers from the past lives.  Past life legacies are these leftovers, the experiences from previous lifetimes, which were never lived in a satisfactory way.  They are treasures in that we become stronger once we heal the legacies or at least put them in perspective.  We also have the opportunity to live a much more fulfilling life now and in future lifetimes.

What kind of issues lend themselves to past life legacies?  Almost any do, but this is how I divide them into categories in my book: physical, emotional, situational, phobias and relational.

Some interesting questions arose at the presentation that exemplifies how past life legacies impact our lives today.

1. If a person has a past life legacy and doesn’t address it through the lens of reincarnation, what happens?  My simple answer is that the person missed an opportunity.  The problem may persist in the current life, only to reoccur in a future lifetime, in the same or different form.  We choose each lifetime for the purpose of learning and resolving past life issues.  If we don’t do it now, we’ll just have to do it later.

2. Another question was asked by a person who has a physical/emotional problem, wondering how the issue might show up in the current life (for an understandable reason) and still have had a past life presence as well.  I explained that there is often a repetitive theme that expresses itself in a variety of ways, from one lifetime to another.  Each soul may have several themes.  In the case of this questioner, he has the chance to heal both the current life challenge as well as the past life legacy.  Often times, when I work with a client, I tackle the current life issue first and then, investigate whether there is also a past life concern.

My hope is that you will widen the perspective to include reincarnation when you focus on your symptoms.  You may just find that you heal the problem in a more thorough manner.  If you don’t, it may be like only seeing the tip of the iceberg and ignoring the greater mass beneath the surface.

For greater detail, I hope you will read my book, “Hidden Treasures From Past Lives”.  Right now, it is out as an electronic book only, such as a Kindle or Nook.  In the fall, it will appear as a paperback.