Journey of Souls by Michael Newton

[vespa68]

@Tobi. The same thing happened to me and I had to put the book down. Since the time of reading those books I had a huge spiritual awakening and worked very closely with the other side as a medium and energy worker. I questioned many things and I understood from doing loads of the inner work that a lot of things that are said of the other side does not resonate. I speak a lot to my guide as well who I hear just like anyone else. The other side just means you know who you are at the deepest level of your being. You are in your true essence so you see things that are true to you. Its not so different from this side. The people being hypnotised could not possibly know who they are on the other side even in that hypnotic state unless of course they did the inner work and were enlightened let's say. The things that were said seemed like illusions.

[Michelle11]

Originally Posted by AnotherBob

Hi Michelle!

Yes, I read all of his books. There are elements that resonate, but I find the big difference is that the spirit experiences which Newton relates (not unlike NDE reports) are all being interpreted from the pov of human personas, whereas Sparrow's reports are delivered from the pov of spirit, so I tend to put more stock in his analysis. Of course, I am still only going on my own subjective judgment in these matters, but there it is, eh. ;)

Oops sorry. I was not aware that the thoughts presented by you were from someone else. Is this a spirit you channel? have you read the Seth and Michael Speaks books or Ramtha? They all had interesting points about the afterlife but seemed to veer off in odd directions at times. With all I have read some content I resonate with and some I don't. I do think on some level we are not supposed to really know what it's exactly like on the other side. Too much info would likely diminish the impact this place has. But I agree with you on Past Life though. It is hard for me to really embrace any of it because I have no frame of reference even if I had past life meditation experiences. I just write them off as imagination.

[AnotherBob]

Originally Posted by alicat

Another Bob-

You had some interesting points. I agree with what you said about investigation in past lives leading to more questions than answers. That mystery though- is part of what makes them so cool to think about!

Hi Alicat!

There are so many cool things we can think about, aren't there! The mind is endlessly fascinating, but at a certain point, we may start to question our thoughts. Are they even ours? What is the source of thought? When we try to find the source of thoughts, we end up in a silence that is prior to thought, prior even to any concern about what happens in the afterlife, any concern about what others might be experiencing after their body drops away. That silence is very interesting, very absorbing. It's not like there are answers there, but more like we no longer are interested in the questions that once seemed so important to us, so cool to ponder. At least, that is what I have noticed.

;)

[AnotherBob]

Originally Posted by Michelle11

Oops sorry. I was not aware that the thoughts presented by you were from someone else. Is this a spirit you channel?

Hi again, Michelle!

You may notice in this subforum a very long thread entitled "Common Questions About the Afterlife". The person who ran this thread is Sparrow, and I was so impressed by his answers that I created a blog, where I compiled his responses to various questions asked by members. The blog is here: https://spiritguidesparrow.wordpress.com/

[H:O:R:A:C:E]

Originally Posted by Michelle11

I do think on some level we are not supposed to really know what it's exactly like on the other side. Too much info would likely diminish the impact this place has.

i for one am ready to know.
the "not supposed to" idea was something implemented by us it appears.
(nothing can oblige us to be ignorant)
a diminished impact sounds like good thing to my ear.
"too much" of anything is undesirable.
it seems that truth is an indivisible thing;
to know it only partially would be to not know it at all [i posit].
ALL of truth is knowable.
i am on the side that wishes for full disclosure.

[metal68]

Its a very interesting book but many doubt the veracity of these regressions

Its interesting that many like Jurgen Ziewe & Bob Monroe and so many of the mediums report that we have a physical body akin to our Earth lives and yet the Newton books suggest that we are more or less disembodied balls of brilliant energy. That's a very big area of conflict, is it not??

[Wandering_Star]

Originally Posted by Michelle11

I also read another book that may be of interest to you also along the lines of hypnosis into prelife planning. Your Soul's Plan by Robert Schwartz. I didn't necessarily agree with all of the author's viewpoints on life, I didn't necessarily with Newton either, but it was an interesting take on why some soul's plan difficult traumatic lives. Though I did a reading with one of the readers highlighted in the book and was very disappointed. It felt very much like a cold reading. She was actually pretty off and I honestly felt like I got more accurate insight from some of the readers on this forum in the reading section for free. So buyer beware I guess is what I am saying. But when I read the book it somehow managed to help me put my whole life story into perspective but the readings in the book may be based on generalizations so take it all with a grain of salt. But still an interesting read you might want to check out. It helps to look at traumatic experience from a more objective perspective.

I also read Schwartz's book, but was disappointed by it.

While Newton based his work on reports from hypnotized subjects, Schwartz relies on psychics for all of his data--which wrecks it for me because frankly, I've yet to encounter a single psychic I can take seriously. Some have been outright frauds; but even the ones who were well-intentioned and took it seriously resorted to cold-reading and still completely failed to pick up on the major issues I was dealing with. More often than not, what they told me was laughably wrong, and what little they did get right was trivial stuff that most people with decent "people skills" would have picked up on.

And these were "the best" psychics, who all came highly recommended--but they still failed to tell me anything of substance that was specific to my situation. So, coming from that background, I found Schwartz's book frustrating. While the overarching idea presented in it makes sense to me, and has been a useful tool to help me work through all that stuff I hoped those useless psychics could help me with, using psychics as his "authorities" made it very hard for me to take Your Soul's Plan seriously when it came to the specifics.

Oh, and his writing style didn't help at all--it felt very dumbed-down and condescending. Michael Newton's writing style can be a bit dry, but at least he wrote with an intelligent adult audience in mind!

So I like Newton very much, and have found his works invaluable--they've helped me make sense of things. But Schwartz and his psychics? Meh. Not for me, thanks.

As for other authors, I seem to recall that Brian Weiss, MD gets into some of the same stuff in his books--Same Soul, Many Bodies is the one I can see on my bookshelf right now, and it's as good as any if you're interested. He's put out quite a few books, but he recycles his own material so if you've read one or two, you've read them all...

[AnotherBob]

Originally Posted by metal68

Its a very interesting book but many doubt the veracity of these regressions

Its interesting that many like Jurgen Ziewe & Bob Monroe and so many of the mediums report that we have a physical body akin to our Earth lives and yet the Newton books suggest that we are more or less disembodied balls of brilliant energy. That's a very big area of conflict, is it not??

The more I research the matter, the more I am convinced that, as Sparrow has indicated, the afterlife is empty. As souls crossing over, we project our own particular reality into it, based on various subjective criteria, which are always changing. This is also why, for example, certain people can have 2 NDEs separated by a number of years, and have two totally different experiences (as has been reported in the literature).

Indeed, from what I can tell, there is no objective reality called "the afterlife", except what we infuse and manifest based on our own particular "stuff". This is why there is such a discrepancy in the various reports from individuals, with some seeing jesus, some seeing angels, some seeing a void, some seeing Grandma and Grandpa, some visiting hell, etc, etc..

Likewise, the reason for any commonality in reports is due to the fact that we humans tend to hold a lot of consciousness in common, even down to the archetypes, and so our projections will have certain themes shared by many.

[Michelle11]

Originally Posted by H:O:R:A:C:E

i for one am ready to know.
the "not supposed to" idea was something implemented by us it appears.
(nothing can oblige us to be ignorant)
a diminished impact sounds like good thing to my ear.
"too much" of anything is undesirable.
it seems that truth is an indivisible thing;
to know it only partially would be to not know it at all [i posit].
ALL of truth is knowable.
i am on the side that wishes for full disclosure.

I am with you on that. I have read many a book looking for the 'truth' but I suspect if we were really meant to know we would know so the veil is for a purpose or it wouldn't be there. Though some have said the path is one back to knowing. So maybe a bit of both.

[AnotherBob]

Originally Posted by Michelle11

...t I suspect if we were really meant to know we would know so the veil is for a purpose or it wouldn't be there. Though some have said the path is one back to knowing. So maybe a bit of both.

If we knew the whole plot ahead of time, it would kind of spoil the visceral impact of the adventure. Indeed, we came here to experience not knowing for a change, to face the "unknown", to experience the surprises of life. In the Spirit World we have access to Universal Knowledge, but so many want to adventure in realms like these, just like those who want to challenge themselves, like mountain climbing, where they don't already know how it is going to turn out. Imagine how dull it would get, knowing what's going to happen, knowing all the answers in advance. We certainly would not have the growth opportunity that not knowing provides, nor would we get to see how we would react in situations of uncertainty. What kind of a test would it be for ourselves if we knew the answers in advance?