Capítulo 8. CAMINO ESPIRITUAL

 

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8

Spiritual Path

 

After many lifetimes working on forgiveness, self-acceptance, self-worth, and self-care, you reach a point when you understand that your journey is less about your current lifetime and more about your eternal life. If you are like many others, once you have reached this point, your perspective broadens. You may live life as you always have and struggle with the same issues, but you begin to look for life’s deeper meaning and purpose. You seek to reach your highest spiritual potential.

Whether you realize it or not—you are on the spiritual path.

The spiritual path is circuitous. Like other journeys, there may be roadblocks, detours, and myriad distractions that prompt you to dally. As someone once said to me, God writes straight on crooked lines. If that alone is not heartening, you can be comforted knowing that eternity is a very, very long time!

 

*  *  *

In the cases that follow, you will meet six people whose spiritual journey is as different as their circumstances and lives. What they do have in common is an appreciation for the fact that they are spiritual beings having a human experience

.In the first instance, we meet Rosa, whose interactions with an angelic being during her regression anchors the tumult that is robbing her inner peace and equanimity.

 

Rosa

 Rosa is a 58-year-old research assistant at NASA. She is acutely aware that the current political environment has contributed to a general malaise. Unfortunately, this malaise has negatively impacted her emotional state. She scheduled her session to gain insight about the chaos and vitriol that is causing her and many others to feel discombobulated.

 

Rosa’s experience defied expectations and provided a road map that would benefit her personally, and also her broader community.

Once in a hypnotic trance, Rosa finds herself as energy, floating within a sea of purple vastness which morphs to a brilliant gold and back again to purple. The soothing sensation leaves her feeling calm and relaxed. She is initially confused and disappointed because she is not visiting a past life as expected. She would later share that the experience she was having was more satisfying and powerful than she could ever have hoped.

She learns that her eternal name is Magda. She has had many lifetimes, most frequently incarnating as a woman, but these would be the only details about her past that she would gather.

Immersed in the sea of colors, she is joined by Archangel Miguel, who is quick to offer calming words as he cradles her in an embrace of unconditional love.

 Everything is okay, you need not be afraid or overly concerned.

 His message is interspersed amidst a phenomenal parade of wafting colors that makes Rosa feel that she is in a distant galaxy in the center of the Universe. She knows that she is one with the colors, amidst the backdrop of a constellation of colors.

Spirals appear, a continual loop that she describes as having no beginning and end. The colors of purple and black are overlaid on the spirals, creating the appearance of stripes. Golden light is everywhere, intensifying with time.

 

 

She is the golden light. She carries the golden light of the Divine. The black overshadows her divinity.

 

Rosa understands that the fluctuation of the colors from gold to black is a visual reminder that too often she forgets she is a divine being. It is a symbol of the external tumult that has festered within her, robbing her of joy and peace.

 Archangel Miguel has come to remind her of her divine essence. His objective is much more important than answering the specific questions she had for the session.

Rosa continues to float in frequencies of massive colors. She witnesses the explosion of purple, yellow, gold, blue, pink, every color imaginable.

She must remember that she is a soul having a human experience and not a human having occasional spiritual experiences.

 The light that emanates from her is the reminder that she is divine and that the light of her divinity radiates out.

By contrast, the chaos and tumult and suffering that you see is meant to draw your attention to the beauty of the light. There is darkness, and there is light. While things and people can appear to be dark, nothing is completely devoid of light. There is always light, even within the dark. When humans focus on the darkness, the light is overshadowed.

 Rosa understands that Archangel Miguel is showing her the contrast of the dark so she might better appreciate the light.

He introduces a concept that will give Rosa and many other light workers pause.

 Those who are playing the dark roles have agreed to play these roles to show the contrast. They should be honored for their choice to do so.

His final words to Rosa regarding the spiritual path that she is on will resonate for some time to come. In their breadth, they are a message for all.

 Choose the light, choose to focus on the light and not the dark. You are all beings of light, including those who have forgotten. You are all a part of the One.

 Brought up from trance, it was clear that Archangel Miguel’s appearance and message had an impact.

  Wow, that was powerful!

All I could see were the colors, the colors got bigger and bigger. Bright colors. The colors were radiating from me and swirling around me, purple, blue, pink, gold. I saw a galaxy of colors and sensed how tiny we are in this vastness.

The light emanates from each and every one of us. This experience has reminded me of what is most important. Remaining calm and balanced amidst the chaos and vitriol is important. I can help others balance themselves through prayer and meditation.

 Rosa had been gifted with wisdom and healing. Archangel Miguel reminded her that through prayer and meditation, we are beaming out our light, the light and love that is our divine essence.

The experience served to remind her to look at all the reactions she has with difficult people. In her words, once we experience how huge we are, our small worries are dwarfed. She left the session reminded that her current life is one in a succession of countless lifetimes. Each one a steppingstone on the spiritual journey that began eons ago.

 *  *  *

In the next instance, we are introduced to Matilda. Like Rosa, pain has been the driver of her spiritual growth.

 

Matilda

 Matilda is 50 years old and the mother of a young adult, who despite his special needs, is flourishing. This is a result of her almost single-handed efforts raising him. Throughout his childhood and youth, she voraciously sought and consumed the latest research regarding best practice therapeutic and educational techniques. During the course of caring for him, taking care of herself took the back seat.

 

From a low point of despair, including struggling with addiction, she reconnected to her eternal self and began actively working on aspects of her spiritual growth. It is this orientation that had her seek regression therapy.

 

From a prior past life regression, she knows it was during a lifetime as a priestess in Egypt that she had her closest connection to Spirit. In a recent transpersonal journey, we hear from her higher self about what weakened that connection.

  We degrade the purity of our soul with each incarnation. If you do this often enough, your soul’s purity becomes polluted. The pollution obscures your connection to God.

 Matilda is right that some souls become so disconnected that they lose sight of their connection to God. But she has forgotten that the connection is never lost.

 When I revisited the priestess life, I felt my deep union with God. It was just so pure! From my spot on the planet, I felt connected with the Universe.

 

I want and need to feel it again. I want to recapture the feeling of Home. But I can’t die right now, even though I know life on the other side would be so much better. I am not done yet. I want to take care of my son.

Now that I have chosen sobriety, I am able to have a better life.

Overcoming the earlier struggles in my life has made me much stronger. I understand now that I can make choices about my spiritual journey. It’s not all predetermined. I didn’t understand that before.

 

For some time, Matilda had been hoping that she could somehow pause life and the seeming endless challenges that she cycled through. Never actually contemplating suicide, she was on a long decline that might well have resulted in her death. Fear was a driving force in her pain.

 

Fear holds incredible power over people. We have to remember that we really have the power we need. It’s not that God sends you challenges to make you stronger as we were taught as children. Fear takes form, and it holds us back. It’s amazing how it changes things. I am not going to be afraid.

 Matilda is joined by a cadre of healing beings. She is awash in their healing energy and love. She sighs repeatedly as she experiences the release.

 Oh, oh there is so much healing.

 She is reminded to call them in during her meditation whenever she needs.

 I am a strong person, but I did not recognize my spiritual strength. I am going to build up my spiritual strength. I am going to release old beliefs that are no longer serving me.

Seeing a host of white angels against a beautiful deep purple background, Matilda exclaims:

 

I am renewing my lease on life, because I am no longer powerless! Thank you, God.

Now it’s time to do the work that I have come here to do. I will work with the power of the angels.

 It’s not what we accomplish in one life, it’s what we accomplish in the whole cycle of our lives.

 In another transpersonal journey, Matilda was reminded never to forget the importance of love as the overriding emotion, something that is too often forgotten during the darkest moments and the most challenging times. The message resonates again.

 

When life becomes too difficult, that is when it is important to stop and connect in prayer and meditation. They are powerful tools.

What’s accomplished through an earthly incarnation can’t be done anywhere else. It’s a choice. The individual human should be revered and loved for its heroic effort to grow spiritually through its incarnations.

 Matilda embarked on a life that seemed to challenge her at every turn. At times, she was so filled with despair that she imagined her only chance of peace was for her life to end. Through hard work, she not only renewed her lease on life, but she reaffirmed her soul’s commitment to grow spiritually.

 *  *  *

We are next introduced to Yésica, who has embedded abandonment and patience into her life plan as a way to pursue spiritual growth.

 

Yésica

 Yésica is in her mid-40s, single, and very close with her mother and one sister. Her father, who abandoned the family years before, recently died. She describes the theme of abandonment as recurring in her life.

Over the last several years, she has become increasingly focused on her spiritual development. She views it as central and not tangential to her life. She scheduled a session with hopes of getting a greater understanding of the role that loss of loved ones play in her spiritual growth.

 

Once in trance, her higher self recounts a lifetime hundreds of years ago in which the theme of abandonment was pronounced.

As a woman in the past life, she married as a teen to the love of her life. Pepe and she met in school and saw each other frequently in church. They lived in a small town in a tight knit community in which the church played a prominent role in people’s lives. After two wonderful years together, Pepe died. She was devastated by the loss, made worse by the reaction of her family and the broader community. They believed Pepe’s death was the wrath of God for her shortcomings and transgressions.

Isolated, her grief morphed to bitterness that marked her remaining life. Having lost her husband years before, she faced her own death alone.

 

When Pepe died, I was devastated. I mourned him for a long time. I was angry at God for his death. I cursed God. I never made up with God before I died.

 Looking back, she sees retrospectively that the life lessons were actually about acceptance and surrender, although at the time, she felt abandoned by her beloved, her family, community, and most devastatingly—God. It was only after she returned to soul state that she would understand the fallacy of this belief.

 This was one of my first lifetimes working on surrender. I could have learned to accept that nothing is guaranteed. Had I been able to accept the loss, I would have been happier, and I probably would have met someone else.

 Her focus shifts to a different life.

 Yésica describes a life as a slave, in which she embedded lessons of surrender. Despite being victimized in that life, she overcompensated and was too accepting. Her oppressors convinced her that their superiority and her fate were God’s intention. For the second time, she failed to strike the right balance. Worse yet, she once again allowed grossly false beliefs about God to pollute her life.

  Yésica learns that one of her objectives for this lifetime is to clarify who and what God is. She started down that path by stepping outside of the religion that was such an important part of her early life. No aspect is beyond question and deliberation.

Yésica gathers an important perspective from her higher self.

 You may have doubts about the overall direction for your life and want to do things differently, but, ultimately, the soul’s master plan is the best plan for you to follow.

Your challenge is to be calmer about the fact that not all things are in your control. In the end, your plan will unfold even without understanding why or how. The not knowing is what makes it work. It is an important ingredient to the ultimate success of the plan. That is why surrender is important.

 Discussing the seeming tug of war between control and surrender, Yésica’s higher self continues.

 The difficulty arises because the soul creates the plan for the upcoming life. Once you incarnate, the conscious mind doesn’t have any awareness about the plan, yet you are expected to surrender. There is a tendency for the personality to want to take control, and thus you have what you call the tug of war between control and surrender.

 Her higher self goes on to elaborate that she is tackling one of the most challenging aspects of surrender. Yésica is working to accept the fact that no one can control whether they are loved or who and how they are loved. Her father’s abandonment seeded this challenge, and the recent break-up with her long-term lover advanced it.

 There is no guarantee that your romantic partner could be everything to you.

Your search for love is too narrow. You confuse it with your desire for a romantic partner. Love takes many forms. There are other ways that people express their love that you dismiss: friends, mentors, all the other people who love you and meet your needs. Once you get a more balanced perspective, you will be on the right track.

 Yésica’s higher self affirms that when the conscious mind is able to accept the idea of a divine plan, the personality is able to relax and stop struggling.

 Struggling with patience is a clue that more work on surrender needs to be done. You will find as you are able to surrender to the divine plan, you will no longer be so impatient. You will have stepped outside of earthly time.

 Yésica’s higher self reminds her of the benefits of living each day with gratitude.

 Constantly find things to be thankful for. Be actively grateful in your statements, your actions, in your prayers and meditation. When you are grateful for the life you have, you stop focusing on the things and life that you don’t have.

  In words that would resonate long into the future, Yésica’s higher self gifted her with a message of encouragement.

 You agreed to this plan because you knew you could do it. It will facilitate your spiritual growth.

 Upon return to full consciousness, Yésica shared how relevant the session was and how much more relaxed and at ease she felt.

 There was a certain point where you can feel the size of your body, and yet you are beyond the limits of your body, as if it didn’t exist. You are the observer who is watching the melding of two different worlds, the outer world and the inner world.

Wow!

It was so clear. You have all of this knowledge and insight showering down on you, but you can’t even verbalize it. I don’t know how to capture it using human words.

In the trance, I was reminded of some of the relatively new things I have been learning about the spiritual journey. I got what I needed… my path forward.

 *  *  *

Matilda and Yésica are not alone in having acquired false beliefs about God and their eternal nature. In the next two instances, we meet Ramona and Pancracio. Both were traumatized by the misgivings and misinformation they acquired lifetimes ago about the Source of all light and love.

  

Ramona

 Ramona is a 52-year-old editor who transitioned to part-time work so that she might pursue her interest in spirituality and metaphysics. She has been married to her college sweetheart for more than two decades and is mother to two young adults.

Ramona has experienced a sense of detachment and emotional abandonment that appears incompatible with her history of relationships with family members and friends. By her own description, her heart is shut down. She describes herself as loveable but invisible, reflecting a perceived imbalance in her relations with others.

 I give myself to everyone, without leaving enough for myself. I am beginning to focus on myself.

 

When we first met, Ramona had started meditating a year before and was hoping to connect with others who were also pursuing spiritual interests. Her meditation practice had spawned a desire to grow spiritually and to connect more directly with her spirit guides. At an intellectual level, she knows that she is divine. She admitted that she longs to feel it on an emotional level. She sensed that something is blocking the experience.

Some months later, Ramona scheduled her first past life regression. While the experience piqued her metaphysical interests, it did not offer any clarity or direction. In the ensuing months, the sense of abandonment deepened, as did her conviction that her heart was frozen. Her second regression a year and a half later would provide the clarity and direction she desired.

Once in trance, Ramona finds herself in a garden setting where she connects with her higher self. Her eternal name is Elena, who is pleased to share.

 We have a fear of not doing our best, a fear of letting others down. We also fear not being accepted into the Divine light. This possibility makes us sad.

 

I don’t know how this started, but it feels like we’ve been shut out. We were told we were not good enough. If we do things that are wrong, that’s another reason to not be accepted. It’s easier to not do anything. But we don’t like that.

Ramona is dependable because that’s the right thing to do. She helps people because she wants to do it and not because it is what other people want or expect from her.

The worst thing we’ve ever been through is the feeling of just never being good enough. It feels like it has been through all lifetimes.

In the past, demands were ever-present and overwhelming. It’s never enough. You can’t do your best, so you just give in. You don’t stick-up for yourself. You don’t know who to turn to for help. Who do you trust?

 Elena begins discussing a lifetime thousands of years ago when she dwelled in a cave with an abusive partner. He was a brute, much stronger than her. Her only joy was her animals.

 During that life, my partner beat me. He said I wasn’t good enough. I felt imprisoned. Nobody wants to be beaten, it doesn’t feel good. He was so angry. As life became harder and harder, he took his anger out on me. It was easier for him to take the anger out on me than to find a solution.

 

Survival was not ensured. He had trouble providing for us. He would share me sexually with other men, trading me for essentials that we needed. It was easier for him to give me away than struggle to provide.

 We lived alone, and I was isolated. There was no community. I couldn’t leave. It wasn’t safe. It was too scary a world to be out alone. It was the price I had to pay for being protected.

I wished I had a better life, but I felt trapped. I couldn’t leave. I accepted the idea that this was what I had to do. I didn’t live a long life.

  Elena abruptly shifts focus. She is now discussing a life she had in medieval England. Despite how different the outer experience of life was, the connection between the prehistoric and medieval lives is apparent.

 I am in another time and life. I am a wealthy woman. We live a safe and comfortable life. Our royal status ensures that my needs are provided for.

 I am overwhelmed because it seems that everyone wants something from me. People beg at my feet asking for things. I can’t find even one person that just wants me. I’m not enough!

 I wasn’t able to be with the man I loved because of my father. He gave me to another man to advance his position and political status. It wasn’t a harsh life, but it was one in which I didn’t have any say over myself. I felt like a prisoner in my husband’s home. I loved my children. I accepted my situation so that my children would not suffer.

I never saw my beloved again. My heart was broken. I was angry at God and blamed God for the fact that I couldn’t choose how to live my life.

 Choice is a big part of Ramona’s current life.

 When I incarnated as a man, I had some choice over my life. In my many lives as a woman, until now, I have had none. There has been a significant power imbalance between men and women.

 She moves to the end of her life, and in soul state, Elena shares.

 I wish I had bettered myself. I regret not having taken any risks nor standing up for myself. I originally felt like I had power, and then it was gone, taken away from me by my father and the circumstances of the times. I didn’t have much power, and I feared losing the little I had. On top of that, everyone was just wanting me to give. No one was giving.

I’m tired of giving to everybody else and not taking care of me.

 The higher self reaizes that her disgust for the incessant grasping by others was symbolic of what she had been denied—personal power. The connection between the most recent life and the life millennia before has been clarified. She experienced the loss of power as a loss of self. With access to her memories of that life, she adds.

 I know that if I had escaped, I would have faced danger and an uncertain future. But I feel as if I could have found a way out. Maybe I didn’t work hard enough, didn’t do enough. I didn’t believe in myself.

 There have been other lives in which I didn’t get what I needed. Giving people what they wanted, making them happy, became my norm, even when it was to my own detriment and sacrifice. I became very accommodating. It’s been a pattern for a long time.

 I can’t remember when I began to believe that I wasn’t enough. I think it began during the lifetime millennia ago.

I may have had wealth, comfort, and status in the royal life, but I never felt like I was enough. Its deeper than the outer trappings of how I lived. It’s about how I felt about myself.

 

What I wanted or what I expressed didn’t matter.

 

I must not be important, because I’m not heard. What I think, say, or do isn’t valued. And now it just seems like this is the way it was always meant to be. I have not been heard in many lives.

My father’s decision broke my heart. What I said didn’t matter. What I wanted didn’t matter. What was important to me didn’t matter. And I felt too powerless to run away.

When I can’t find a way, I just conform to the choices others make for me. Instead of fighting against it or even running away, if that’s appropriate, I acquiesce.

 Elena admits that she may be angry at herself for the choices she has made and acknowledges that this has combined with her anger at women’s position within society.

 My opinion didn’t matter. I was just a body that can be given to someone else. That’s how both my dad and my partner made me feel.

 Although the connection between the two lives that Elena has revisited is clear, what is not clear is the origin of the beliefs she holds, not being good enough nor having value. Even her mistreatment in prehistoric times does not fully explain beliefs that have remained solidified for thousands of years.

Hoping to clear some of the anger and frustration that may be blocking full understanding, Elena agrees to let me call-in the soul of her father in the medieval lifetime. Through tears, she tells him:

 

My voice matters. Going against my wishes is going against who I am. It violates me, my heart, and my love. Losing the man I loved wasn’t even the worst part. It was the fact that you took my value away from me.

I matter. My opinion matters. I am important enough to be heard.

I can make my own decisions. You can support me in those decisions and not threaten me. I never saw my beloved again. My heart was broken. I blamed you and God for the fact that I couldn’t choose how to live my life.

 Elena’s father is remorseful.

 I’m sorry, it was the way it was. It wasn’t about you. It was about what we had to do to get what was needed at the time.

 Despite accepting her father’s apology, Elena remains distressed.

 I think Ramona does a really good job forgiving all the trespasses against her, maybe too easily. Even though I feel like I had forgiven him, I still carry all this angst and anxiety. I carry the burden of not feeling valued and not good enough to be listened to. Ramona is carrying this lack of value. She second-guesses herself.

 Searching for insight about these beliefs, I ask Elena to explain why she blamed God.

 I thought if I did all the things I was supposed to do, that God wanted me to do, I would have God’s love and protection. I felt like God abandoned me in hundreds of lifetimes. I believed that if you worked hard enough, prayed hard enough, and did the right thing, then you would not get punished. When you do things that are bad, God punishes you. I felt like I was punished.

I’m not good enough, so I have no voice. I’m guilty for not doing enough and being good enough. When you’re mean or hurt other people or do things against other people, you are prompting God’s rejection. We were all taught not to do that stuff. I haven’t measured up. I believe I am being punished for not living up to God’s standards.

 Finally, we had uncovered the power behind the negative thoughts Ramona holds about her life and herself.

 The higher self believes that all of the things that have happened to her across many lifetimes are a result of God’s wrath for not being good enough. She believes that God has a standard for behavior that she has failed to measure-up to. And that is the origin of her guilt. Not feeling lovable is the label for not measuring up to God’s expectations.

Her early lives of mistreatment left her feeling fearful, unsafe, and not in control. She concluded that God must have been displeased with her because no one came to her rescue. This instilled lots of fear, anger, and guilt. It left her feeling abandoned and with a strong sense of unworthiness. Her desire to get back in God’s good graces led her in an incessant cycle of doing everything to please and satisfy others.

 Drowning in disappointment, she turned her anger inward. She internalized the images of a wrathful, unforgiving God who in his disgust issues a life-sentence, in fact—many life-sentences.

The higher self realized that to repair her disconnection with God, she would need a corrective action plan. So, she embedded strengthening the connection to God in the soul plan she crafted for Ramona’s lifetime.

 People struggle for decades trying to reconcile what they have been taught about God. Formulating new ideas in order to write a new script about the Divine is not as simple as writing a term paper on the subject. In unearthing the long-held false beliefs that her higher self held across millennia, Ramona gained understanding, emotional relief, and clarity about her spiritual journey. Now, she is working on reinforcing the belief that God loves and accepts her.

 I chose to come into a family that chose to break away from traditional religious dogma. I am free to release limiting beliefs and to come to know God directly. My relationship with God will be based on who and what I am. Now, I see that we are all accepted. We don’t have to do certain things or act in certain ways.

 The life themes make so much sense. Since I began focusing on spiritual matters, I have been working to form a new opinion about God. I now see that I am free to choose what to believe about God, and through meditation, directly connect.

  Over millennia, there have been myriad efforts to create and peddle a wrathful God. Few promoted the image of a loving and unconditionally accepting God. Rarely have people been reminded of their own divine essence. Today we are indeed fortunate that there is guidance and encouragement to directly connect to God.

 *  *  *

In this next case, we meet Pancracio, who, like Ramona, has suffered because of falsely framed beliefs about God. In his case, those beliefs were a result of fallacy passed on by a well-intentioned but misinformed spiritual teacher.

  

Pancracio

 Pancracio is a 50-year-old chemical engineer. He is devoutly religious, and Hinduism assumes a prominent place in his life. He has been married for 24 years and has three beautiful teenage daughters. He is devoted to his beloved wife and daughters, which is particularly relevant given the reason for his interest in regression therapy.

Pancracio shared that he had been yelling at his wife and daughters for several months prior to arranging a past life regression session. He described his behavior as out of character, inexplicable, as well as inappropriate. Worried that it was negatively impacting their previously harmonious home life, he was anxious to uncover the reasons for his verbal explosions.

Once in trance, Pancracio finds himself floating in an undefined space. He died at 82 after a long and happy life as a farmer in India in the ninth century. He had a wife, two sons and daughters-in-law, and five grandchildren.

He knows that he has been dead for a long time and offers the following explanation about his choice to not move into the light.

 The stillness stopped me. I was attracted to the beauty of the stillness. This is what I expected it would be like when my life ended. I stayed in the stillness for more than 400 years. I had been taught that the stillness was perfection.

 Despite luxuriating in the stillness, eventually, Pancracio’s soul became bored, which led him to question whether in fact stillness was the perfection his religion had taught. He understood that within the stillness he would also experience love, but this was clearly not the case. The absence of anything other than stillness eventually led to frustration. His efforts to suppress his frustration turned into anger, which also had to be repressed.

Over the course of his time in the stillness, other souls came by who were similarly frustrated at their circumstances. Their commiserations relieved some of the frustration, but all these years later, Pancracio’s soul still seethed with anger.

 Eventually, he began to wonder whether his spiritual teachers had been wrong. Although the others who passed by were similarly confused, Pancracio’s soul blamed himself for misunderstanding and not the teachers for failed teachings.

 I was taught never to question, to have faith. Those who question are considered nonbelievers. Nonbelievers go to hell. Those doomed to hell, boil in oil.

It was easier to blame myself for misunderstanding.

 Questioning religious tenets and leaders was a dangerous proposition!

According to Pancracio’s higher self, sometime in the 12th century, Lord Shiva came to rescue him.

  Shiva said, it’s time to go.

Later, I was reborn in Tuyet, the town that I lived in as a farmer. I was able to pick my family. My criteria for selecting them was they should want to seek salvation.

Before the new life, I was also allowed to study with Reameanea, a spiritual guide, to clarify the misunderstandings. I was taught to seek salvation through practice and experience, including through prayer and meditation. He taught me that within salvation, I would find stillness and love, including love of others, but not love of self.

 I was helped to let go of the frustration but not the anger. My anger was immense. I had been cheated out of 400 years!

 While much had been clarified, Pancracio’s soul would begin his new incarnation in Tuyet with a mixed bag of beliefs. On the positive side, he understood that his God—Brahman—is love, and that love is one and the same as salvation. Sadly, he was left believing that self-love is bad and that he is not worthy enough to be loved.

 Both of these beliefs created worry that salvation is beyond his reach and are reflected in the previous inexplicable outbursts in his current life.

With hope of clearing up century old beliefs, I invited those who Pancracio worships to connect. Pancracio is joined by the Hindu God Shiva and Saint Vivekananda. They wrap him in a loving embrace and release the anger that has festered unhealed for centuries.

They remind him to follow the path of meditation and prayer.

Before leaving, Brahman tells Pancracio.

 You too are divine. You should honor and love yourself as you love and honor others. In doing so, you are a role model for others and an ambassador for me.

 Awash in the power of this divine love, Pancracio notes that peace has replaced the space previously filled with his anger and frustration. In closing, he shares his new prayer.

 I love and honor myself, and in doing so, I radiate the Divine.

 People are surprised to learn in regression that they may have delayed crossing over in a previous life. There are many reasons. The insight gleaned from such a discovery can be invaluable.

 Pancracio’s failure to cross into the light, while exceptional, is not unique. There are many circumstances that lead souls to dally or to consciously choose not to move into the interlife. What is important about this and other instances, is that discovering what led to that decision may be relevant in your current life. For Pancracio it was a composite of misinformation about eternal life, remnants of which he still held at the time of his session.

Pancracio’s soul brought the energy and beliefs from his traumatic experience into this life for resolution. Interestingly, a new priest espousing a different spiritual philosophy at his temple was the trigger for Pancracio’s eruptions with his family.

 Many things can inhibit our connection to God. The most common is the belief that God has caused or failed to prevent a devastating tragedy. In Pancracio’s case, it was a misinformed belief that interfered. But whatever the disruption, we are never truly separated from God.

 The soul is a brilliant choreographer of circumstances that lead to desired healing and learning. Humans tend to be motivated to change through upheaval and contrast, which the soul happily orchestrates to enhance growth. When subtle clues are ignored, the soul’s clamor for change becomes louder, until the need for change can no longer be ignored.

 In a case such as this with so many variables, it might be too easy to miss what is the most valuable nugget for all—Brahman’s reminder to Pancracio that he is divine, and as such is worthy of self-love.

This is a universal truth. You have been made in the image and likeness of God, birthed as an individuated expression and experience of the Creator. As such, you, like Pancracio, are divine. And just like Pancracio, you are worthy of self-love.

 *  *  *

We next meet Ofelia, who has reached the point on her spiritual path in which developing love of self takes center stage.

 

Ofelia

 Ofelia is a 40-years-old financial manager who is also an adept energy healer. Her family emigrated to the United States when she was a toddler and, like many families in similar circumstances, experienced isolation. Her older brother was a major positive force in her development while her parents worked tirelessly to establish their family in their new home country.

 

Ofelia had been briefly married. A second, significant relationship ended amicably after a move left Ofelia and her lover thousands of miles apart. A year later, she discovered that she could communicate telepathically with him while meditating.

 

Several months before scheduling her first session, she had the first of numerous mystical experiences conversing with Kuan Yin, the Chinese Goddess of compassion. For decades, Kuan Yin has been a prominent spiritual figure for her family.

 Ofelia approached her life between lives sessions seeking to understand her purpose in life, the soul agreements she made, and her capacity to heal others energetically.

 In her first regression, she experiences herself as an energy being and finds herself amidst a cadre of light beings. Her guide Atera joins in.

She is being schooled in different healing techniques using her hands. This capacity will provide joy as she shares it with others.

 Her empathic abilities serve her well. She can learn to heal herself. She just needs to listen to the messages. When she learns to heal herself, she will be better able to heal others. She may end up working as a healer, engaging and helping more and more people in this way.

 Later, Atera reminds her that she is in the process of rising from darkness that resulted from prior lives as a warrior. He emphasizes the importance of her learning to love herself again.

This thread reappears in her life between lives session a month later.

Ofelia’s plan for this lifetime is to experience and learn through love. She has made soul agreements with others to help her do this. Her relationship with her brother was planned to teach her familial love. Her marriage expanded upon that teaching. It also provided her with chances to develop boundaries, recognize her strengths, and develop self-love. Other relationships with family members, colleagues, and friends expanded the opportunities for refining her understanding of love.

Atera highlights some of the nuanced aspects of love.

 Everything that is touched by love becomes calm and peaceful. There is joy when love is exchanged. But there are also instances when one person loves another and that love is not reciprocated. Even then, the person who loves the other can experience joy.

 Atera continues, hoping that Ofelia will grasp the dual experience of love, the joy of loving another, and the joy of being loved by that same person.

 In this instance, if you can detach from any expectation that your love of another will be reciprocated, you retain the joy you experience loving them. While you can’t pursue a relationship at that point, you can still cherish your love for the person. Minimizing it is a disservice to yourself. The joy of loving is marred by attachment and grasping. If you can remove all of this, you are left just with the joy. This helps when your partner dies or leaves. Understanding that you are eternal also mitigates the loss of the physical presence of a love.

Contemporary cultures romanticize love, but it is much more than that. Romantic love can be smothering. Physical attraction combined with love can be very powerful and overwhelming for some. It creates a deep bond. But you have to guard against being blinded by the attraction.

 Atera explains how understanding the nature of love is important for Ofelia to learn to love herself.

 The negative relationships that Ofelia has had were to teach her about love. Initially, the complexities clouded her understanding of love. Ultimately, they helped her remember that she is love. She needed to learn to care for herself. Like each of you, she is worthy and deserving of that care.

Love is important for connection, to achieve oneness. Love is expansive and is connected to all things.

 To fully experience her divinity, Ofelia must learn to love herself.

 As many have said, the experience of awakening to your divine essence, to the love within, is an experience that is beyond words. Words fail to express the ecstasy of connection. The road home starts with the desire to remember that you are divine.

 Self-love sets the stage.

 *  *  *

Eduardo

 A similar message about our divine essence was echoed by Cecilia’s spirit guide Eduardo who we met in Chapter Two.

 It is hard for humans to remember their innate worth. Humans, as an act of hubris, have attempted through time to control and put down other humans by exploiting divinity. Some, with an exaggerated sense of their self-worth and power, manipulated others through religion, chipping away at their sense of self-worth. This is why so many have forgotten their divine essence.

Humanity needs to remember that we are all from the same spark. We are all one. This thought had been lost for ages but is now reemerging slowly through the infusion of enlightened individuals.

 

This reawakening can be helped by those who spread this reminder through small groups and connecting one on one. Connecting in these ways enables participants to experience their own divinity directly. Embracing meditation will help to advance spiritually.

The need for this awakening has led us to send additional help. There are enlightened individuals who are spreading the word. It is all around you. It can be seen in everyday life and interactions, in books, in movies that carry this important message.

  Eduardo’s words are a powerful reminder.

 Perhaps you too are awakening to your eternal nature and destiny. Understanding that you are first and foremost a spiritual being having a human lifetime is an essential step in your spiritual growth. Equally important is understanding that you are on the path to embodying unconditional love and acceptance.

But these ideas alone are not sufficient. To reach full realization, you must overcome the emotional challenges that have robbed you of peace and joy, including loss, forgiveness, self-acceptance, doubt, self-worth and self-care. Doing so requires that you rout out the false beliefs that previously caused so much pain and prompted actions that didn’t serve your highest purpose. The physical, emotional, and spiritual benefits of accomplishing this are significant and worth the effort.