Past life regression workshop.

[mojomojo]

Last weekend we did a past life regression workshop, and it turned out pretty much as we expected, with guided deep meditation techniques.
There were four meditations that day, which to me was probably too much, as the fatigue and brain drain the next day proved.

in between the meditations we did an exercise where you stared into your partners eyes and told them whatever came into your mind.
I got a vision of a lady, collecting flowers and herbs, carrying a small wicker basket, in a long pale blue/grey gown with white apron, wearing a tied on hat. My partner just laughed, seemingly she dreams of this lady on a regular basis, she even knew her name.

One of of the past life regressions, involved the usual counting down, then walking down a staircase into a garden, going to the far end of the garden, walking through a gate into the light, and from here you were asked to observe your feet, body, hands etc,  to try to identify who and what time period you may have been in as regards clothes, I could see nothing, was starting to think I had vanished.
Then suddenly came out the other end of the light, I was a monk in a grey habit, with a large crucifix hanging from the side, head shaven bald on the top, striding through what seemed like a church or cathedral just been built, people busy every where, tall thin stained glass windows.
Then the scene changed,
next there were soldiers in bright armour, with the cloth vest on the front and back, forcing there way in, it all started going a bit hazy then, but got the impression I was put to the sword. That's the problem with past lives, they always seem to end in death

But the strange part of the day, was when we did it in reverse, instead of going back, we went forward, first 100 years, then 200, then 400.
And not one person, came up with anything, which seems to suggest it all comes from the subconscious, past lives stored in subconscious memory. Why in a deep meditative state, could we not access the future?
Does the meditative state, not take us beyond the mind, is everything we see in meditation coming from the mind, memories, what we have read, seen, learned.
Which  brings me back twenty odd years, to when I started meditating first, at the time I had read very little, and in meditation all I ever experienced was a deep black stillness, but from that came an inner calm confidence. 
Do we build a wall up around us with spiritual knowledge, has the mind now got spiritual entertainment to keep us away from the dark, I must be in the zone look at these wonderful experiences I'am having, but have any of these experiences come from something other than what we have read, seen or learned, does it all come from the mind, is the mind that subtle and clever.

If it was not for the fact of experiencing external spiritual encounters, I would have put everything down to the mind, and even now, ponder could the mind be capable of that as well.

[aceofcups]

HI Robert,, thank you so much for sharing your experiences of the workshop... was interested what would come up when you told us you and your wife where taking it.

Your question is it all Mind,, to me depends what one is classifying as Mind.. we have a number of "Minds" in a way, each having their own uses and traits, limitations and evolution.

Waking conscious mind, subconscious mind ( some integrate this with an astral mind).   Then there is what is classified as the Mental Field and principle within us.. called "Manas" and even that is said to be broken us with a lower mental principle and higher mental principles. The Lower would harmonize with our waking conscious mind, the higher is more about abstract thought, archetypes, symbolism etc. All of these energies use our brain to make stuff known to us consciously in our waking mind, but also exist on their own inner level and doesn't become know unless we awaken to it.

Embracing all of these would be the Higher Self,, a deeper aspect of self and Mind, using real intuition (very different then emotional hunches) and spiritual insights.. which live in the Quiet Mind and the Present and Presence.

What you described as past life regression is a form of mild hypnosis or self hypnosis which can receive a past life astral reflection, the deeper images of past life live on the Soul level in the true Akashic.

Those aligned with Soul memories one has to enter a deeper stage of trance soul hypnosis which also one can tape into Life between lives (see work of Dr. Michael Newton... Journey of Souls etc). Sometimes we also tune into it in dreams or via meditation.


just my two cents

peace
aceofcups

[tribunalofmercy]

Hi Robert - what neat experiences! And I am So glad you two are doing this together

You know, that's a Hard question, isn't it. Lots of 'hard questions' along the spiritual path....

I'm going to use another allegory/example because I don't Know how to do otherwise...I surely can't begin to grasp these things without stories and Something 'solid' to stand on. It flattens out the full meaning of Anything, granted; but these are leaps of understanding we are taking!

Imagine a song that has been written - something we know well, that many people will be playing at different times, with different groups and orchestras...your national anthem, even (needs to be Reasonably complex piece, just to even Think about in this way)

The Song has been written. Start to finish. But each group who plays it must Play/sing it, start to finish, and embroider themselves in it as they go along, according to their own understanding and interpretation of the piece being sung/played (how it affects Them).

Each time, and in each case, the piece/song is performed uniquely; the unique version of the song that was performed in your Own specific past has been finished by all those in your 'orchestra' and I suppose it is like 'remembering', whereas the future you is part of that already-written song with Specific Parts to be played - including your own - but 'how' you will play it, and how the Others involved will as well, is still to come.

(Joe is trying to show this to me using things I can Relate to. urgh)

[mojomojo]

Hi Ace,
The mind itself seems to have a vastness of depth to it,
Don't know why but your post reminded me of a book I read a long time back, if I remember correctly, it was "silva mind control".
Which used meditation and visualisation techniques, and concentrated on reaching the alpha state from where manifestation was possible,
Wonder if quiet mind and the alpha state are one and the same.

Hi Mary Anne,
I would say, very eloquently put, but wonder what level we have to reach before past, present and future become one.
One person claimed to get something from the future, that the Eiffel Tower was in a museum, insight or vivid imagination.

[gruntal]

I have wondered about this myself; how much of the spiritual experience is just a trick of the mind or even a charade by an accomplished magician. By definition for one with less then stellar abilities a lot must be taken for granted. I was told though if a student was given the absolute truth he/she would still need to interpret it for them self. So in the beginning it is always internalized.

It also must be said no reputable spiritual advisor would ever claim to be able to tell the future for you. That information seems to be not so much forbidden as impossible for average mortals to comprehend. Unless you lived for all eternity in an instant you were still constrained by time ( and space ). And then there wouldn't be any future separate from the past and present.


Do people really get a white feather when wishing for an angelic sign? I have seen it happen and I am as skeptical as they come. But as to WHERE the little white feather came from or rather it was a miracle is still at this point in time just an odd coincidence as long as our minds interpret it that way.

Maybe we think we seek a miracle when we should just be amenable to an ultimate reality.

[mojomojo]

Given that we only have access to 20 per cent of the brains potential, and even with this we are meant to be able to control our lives via thoughts etc.
It does give an indication of what power lies dormant, and if this could bring forth the external spiritual encounters.
I don't think we can ever know, until we are in that deep, that the question then becomes irrelevant.

I had one encounter, on a visit to Lourdes, were we decided to go to the church to do the Rosary, I'am not particularly religious, I don't attend church every week.
But once inside we started praying, and I proceeded in my usual fashion, a few lines in my brain became all confused and the words wouldn't come (akin to been stuck in quicksand), so I stopped, then it cleared and I started again, same thing happened again, stopped again.
This time when I started, I went much slower, everything was ok, I thought are you kidding me, it must be the heat (mind you inside the church wasn't hot), so I went back to my original pace, again the mind went to mush, words wouldn't come.
I can not remember how many times I put this to the test, and every time same thing, until I submitted, I had just received a lesson on how to pray, told you I wasn't that religious.

This seems like a very small thing, but at the time it didn't, then you start questioning did it really happen.
We walked out of the church into the daylight, and we're taking in the view, and this was still bothering me, so I told my wife what happened.
The very same thing happened to her.
Whether we put it down to a trick of the mind or not, one thing is for sure, if it's an outside influence, we better pray it's of a good nature,
and we think we're in control, or maybe we just don't know our own minds.

[angelm]

Hey guys, kinda new here but I found the last few posts here to be interesting.

May 19, 2015 0:34:08 GMT gruntal said:

Do people really get a white feather when wishing for an angelic sign? I have seen it happen and I am as skeptical as they come. But as to WHERE the little white feather came from or rather it was a miracle is still at this point in time just an odd coincidence as long as our minds interpret it that way.

Maybe we think we seek a miracle when we should just be amenable to an ultimate reality.

This is cool because I remember reading something online about how people believe when they find a feather it means they are being reminded that an angel is watching over them or that they are protected. Something of that sort. Then, I was on the bus on my way to town the other day, and just as I thought about a feather I peeked down and looked at the bus floor and there was a little white feather sitting there. Sure, it could have been from somebody's jacket, but really it's almost as if it doesn't matter where the feather comes from, the point was that it was there. Perhaps it means nothing, but it's certainly interesting to think about how such circumstances managed to line up in such a way to give a person such an experience. It certainly felt as if I was meant to see that feather as I thought about protection of the divine, but it could of been my mind floating in the clouds~ Who knows? I like your question though!

[donq]

This might be off topic. Sorry, Robert.

If I remember it right, I used to read about mind over matter experiment. A man could control a cloud by his will. Say, he saw a cloud on the sky and dispersed it by his will, and it really was scattered and gone. What interest me is his thinking BEFORE he wanted to disperse that very cloud. Why that particular cloud, not other one else? How did he know?
P.S. Yes, I could not help but tried that for some times, too. And never success. hahaha