unconditional love, regardless of others' ignorance

I was teasing you Charlie - I didn't mean to imply otherwise - and you're right Humm, I haven't a clue how to make a living with this research. I finally gave up going the professional route through my agent, attorney, whatever - and just figured, "If someone needs to hear this info, they will."

Good questions TzuJanLi - I had the same questions when I approached the research. Since I didn't buy or believe that thousands of people could or would say the same things under hypnosis (as we know, the history of the medium is fraught with Freudian manipulation, and people have many false memories brought on by psychiatric hysteria) as well as disparate accounts of NDE's ("I saw God" "I was with Jesus" "I saw Buddha"), it was refreshing to hear Newton's skepticism about past life regression to be begin with. He didn't believe it either - until a client spontaneously went into a past life in WWI and Newton grilled him on details of his memory, and then not satisfied, contacted the British War office in London - and found they were accurate. Even then he started doing past life regression from the point of view that it seemed to help psychosomatic illnesses, and he didn't care if it was real or not.

But then one day a client came in and quickly went into the life between lives - where she saw her soul group, understood why she felt so lonely, and cured her deep depression about feeling so alone in this lifetime. Newton was shocked - and said "I was the worst skeptic about past lives, and now this?"

So being a skeptic helped his research. He was (and is) relentless about his research. And for 30 years he grilled thousands of patients about these details without sharing or publishing what they said with anyone but his wife. And they all said the same things about the journey. I interviewed his wife as well to get her take on this - and she said "I thought he was nuts and they'd take my husband away." She was a nurse by trade. And then she said "until I heard the tapes. So many people saying the same things from different walks of life could not be a coincidence." She realized he was on to something.

So to answer your question - and apologies for verbosity, but it's good to see the context I'm coming from; I was going to make a documentary that showed a number of traditions and their beliefs in the afterlife. But after interviewing Newton I realized I could test this theory by using different therapists (who knew how to do this five and six hour method), and filming them with clients that I chose - friends or acquaintances of mine who knew nothing about Newton or his work.

I began filming sessions about five years ago - with different therapists (Newton is retired) - and they're in my footage. A few are hypnotherapists - people trained in his method, and they allowed me to film their sessions. But the bulk are people from different walks of life who've never heard of his research. <snip>. I filmed interviews with therapists who knew of his work, and therapists who knew nothing of his work - but because I know his work, I could ask about their technique, and what they were hearing during the sessions.

All I can say is that they all were saying the same things - and when I did my two LBL sessions, two years apart, I was very skeptical I could be under hypnosis - when I did the first session I was constantly arguing with myself "oh I must be making this up" - but I allowed myself to just see and say what I was seeing or sensing without judging it. And it took another year before a "coincidence" put me at a table with a forensic historian who verified details of my own past life regression (which I couldn't understand) And the second session, much longer, two years later with a different therapist - also trained in Newton's technique, but hadn't seen or heard anything of the first one - well, all I can say is that it was much richer, deeper, and put everything into clearer focus for me (and is the last chapter in the book.)

So the answer is - some of the people were aware of the process, as they had taken classes in hypnotherapy. Did they say the same things? No - everything is always told from a person's own perspective. But they experienced the same story points all Newton's clients did. The other half were people I chose or knew or suggested the therapy to - perhaps they'd lost a loved one, and I would say "You should check into this hypnotherapy thing, it might help you." One was my agent who said "I don't believe I can be hypnotized, but I'll try it." And he was cured of a lifelong kidney problem I wasn't even aware of. I've had at least two sessions with friends who've said "I'm completely skeptical - I don't believe that I can be hypnotized, but I'll try it to see if there's a particular issue I'd like to address." Both of these people had really deep and fascinating sessions - I'm still filming, hopefully for another book on the topic.

As to peer reviewed sessions, Gary Schwartz (Harvard/Yale Ph.D) who asked to write the forward to my book, tells me he's doing some research now into past life regression (triple blind studies). He's written for many peer reviewed magazines so we'll see what he comes up with - the problem I've found in this field is that there aren't any peer reviewed journals involving life between life therapy, because no one has done the kind of research Newton has. He only published in 94, and since then has trained about a thousand therapist worldwide. There are no University programs or studies in life between life therapy - there are a few in past life regression, but that's just the gateway to this research.

But yes, there are quite a few cases where a person has had no experience with this research, and through some kind of conscious altering event - an NDE (as I posted the MD who had one), or an OBE, or a coma - or some other event (Gary Schwartz's first event came when a voice told him to avoid a car accident while he was at Harvard - it saved his life, but it took him another 20 years to begin to examine how someone could have warned him.)

What I've found fascinating - is that once you sift through the research, from peer reviewed scientists like Ian Stevenson, or Gary Schwartz, and compare the results with Newton (and to a lesser degree Brian Weiss and other past life regressionists) or the NDE scientists who've been discussing consciousness and quantum theory - to my mind, they all coalesce and make sense. People are speaking about the same process, but from a different perspective of the puzzle. <snip>

Cheers.

Edited by SF Staff

Greetings..

Hi Rich: You are doing a super job at marketing your work, Kudos.. still, i ask what about those that have different results.. i am a multi-NDE survivor, and i have had several sessions of regression therapy, and my experiences differ substantially, as i previously described..

Be well..

Originally Posted by TzuJanLi

Greetings..

Hi Rich: You are doing a super job at marketing your work, Kudos.. still, i ask what about those that have different results.. i am a multi-NDE survivor, and i have had several sessions of regression therapy, and my experiences differ substantially, as i previously described..

Be well..

As always Tzu - you are the exception.

[Silver]

Originally Posted by Humm

As always Tzu - you are the exception.

Ooh how awful! Out of 2 people, what he's got to say differs from others' experience - he's different. Ooh. Surprise, surprise.

oh excuse me for butting in....just trying to fit in around here, heeh.