Book Review: Journey of Souls: Case Studies of Life between Lives
by Michael Newton, PH.D. Review by Dr. Denice Moffat
Book Review:Journey of Souls by Michael Newton
Dr. Michael Newton, a certified Master Hypnotherapist and initially a self-proclaimed atheist, began regressing clients in his practice to access memories of former lives.
He wasn’t prepared for the fact that some of these clients began describing what was happening BETWEEN lifetimes. His curiosity piqued. He eventually limited his practice only to discovering what was happening to souls between lives, regressing hundreds of patients and asking as many questions over a period of many years.
After developing and refining many of the techniques used in his practice, eventually he wrote, in a case-study fashion, three books on these topics answering questions one doesn’t even dream to ask. This is the first of the three books. His third book is for the practitioner describing his regression techniques and how to use them in their own practices.
Michael’s journey started when a client came to see him about chronic pain in his right side. Under hypnosis to intensify the pain (a technique used to manage pain using hypnosis) the patient uncovered a former life in World War I as a soldier in France who was killed by a bayonet. Dr. Newton discovered that chronic, unresolved and psychosomatic illnesses in this lifetime are often a result of past life issues. Sometimes the process of regression allows the issue to dissipate in this lifetime.
It didn’t take long for Dr. Newton to realize that our deep-seated memories offer a set of past experiences too real to be ignored. His next patient enticed him to ask more questions in the area of life between lives rather inadvertently by asking her if she missed a group of friends. The patient, breaking into tears replied, “I miss some friends in my group and that’s why I get so lonely on Earth.” After questioning her further about where this group of friends was actually located, she replied, “Here, in my permanent home.”
I thought you’d be interested in a snippet of a case that Dr. Newton writes about in this first book.
From the Death and Departure Chapter 1: “I’m rising up higher . . . still floating . . .looking back at my body. It’s like watching a movie, only I’m in it! The doctor is comforting my wife and daughter. My wife is sobbing (subject wiggles with discomfort in his chair). I’m trying to reach into her mind. . .to tell her everything is all right with me. . .I want her to know my suffering is gone.”
Chapters 2 and 3 describe what happens once you go to the light and through the tunnel into the spirit world. Who meets you on the other side? Relatives? Friends? Are you alone? What guides you to go to a place where you can veg out for a bit before getting back to work in that big classroom in the sky? Who are these Guides who watch over you your entire life?
On suicide: Although there is no such thing as punishment on the other side, your guides and soul group make it known that they are not happy with you if you’ve decided to shorten your own life through the process of suicide. An exception here is when a body is in chronic physical pain. The soul, when suicide happens, spends time in a healing room where the soul is repaired and rejuvenated before the next trip down. Progression of the soul’s journey is slowed with suicide.
Chapter 4 is a popular chapter containing several case studies of clients who answer questions like what happens to murderers and other disturbed souls who have performed evil acts in a lifetime? What if you don’t accept the fact that you’ve died (ghosts). It discusses those souls that do not go to the Light and how that all shakes down. Dr. Newton’s subjects explain that no soul is inherently evil and that often souls will be damaged by poor life choices. Some souls spend a LOT of time alone before being re-integrated to a group setting. They do not progress very quickly. Is there a hell?
Dr. Newton notes that when his intrusion into a soul’s journey seems clumsy or unnecessary, the soul’s guides will block a subject’s response with silence or answer in obscure metaphoric language. Dr. Newton has developed many tricks over the years on how to regress a soul most effectively and how best to ask questions to get the answers the client came for. These strategies are written up in his third book on the topic, Life Between Lives: Hypnotherapy for Spiritual Regression.
Dr. Newton realized during the first years of doing this type of work that there are younger souls and more advanced souls and that the soul will emanate certain colors or auras depending on the progression of the soul. He notes that a soul group or pod of souls usually has a similar color and doesn’t often interact with other colors unless it’s for teaching purposes. Advancement does not make one soul “better” than another.
Everyone on the other side is dedicated to helping each other. There is no judgment, no ill feelings towards one another (even if they’ve given you a really awful time in this lifetime) and an endless amount of patience. Souls overall are concerned with the advancement of ALL souls and are very dedicated to this process.
When asked about seeing God, I did not read one case study in the two books I read written by him that said they had seen God, although many souls stated that they knew God or a higher power existed and could feel the energy of a Higher Power and that it was innately known that a Higher Power existed.
Most souls choosing to come to Earth keep returning to Earth because it’s just too difficult to change directions and learn about a new planet once you have spent a few lifetimes in one place. Souls are allowed to vacation on other planets between lifetimes. The soul feels that by switching planets, it stagnates the progress of the soul. All souls Dr. Newton talked to about this felt that incarnating on more than one planet slowed down their spiritual progression.
Apparently we get to choose what lessons we will focus on when we incarnate, where we will be on the planet and which parents we will have. We are able to go to an IMAX type of movie theatre before birth where we see snippets of our lives and what they will or could accomplish in the pre-planning stage. We then get to interact with other souls and work out a game plan and back up plans for accomplishing our goals.
Major players in our lives trigger subconscious memories of what they look, act and smell like so that we stop and spend more time with these souls upon reincarnating. We spend much time on the other side memorizing these specific cues so that we don’t miss our connections after reincarnating because we know we forget most everything from this pre-screening experience once we slip into the infants brain and integrate with them. We get to choose the bodies we enter, even matching character flaws with temperament for specific growth patterns. Apparently the soul enters the baby between 3-9 months in utero and melds with the baby’s brain. (This part of the book was a bit of a reach for me.)
If it’s so good on the other side, then why would souls just not choose to stay there? Well, people choose to reincarnate because without a body their studies take longer to accomplish states Dr. Newton. One reason why people choose bodies with physical challenges is that they can spiritually accelerate the pace of their lessons.
What about deep-seated family issues? There are spiritual reasons for our being raised as children around certain kinds of people, just as other people are designated to be near certain adults. Gee, if we only knew why we had to endure some of these things! Why can’t it be more obvious? Maybe we just don’t understand the big picture here. Apparently the spirit world is the center of divine compassion. I know many of you are thinking that if it’s so compassionate, couldn’t they make things a bit easier down here?
When people talk of chance, happenstance or impulses, or meet crucial contacts that have shifted their life paths and life choices these are not chance happenings. These are pre-determined prior to birth.
Dr. Newton’s subjects tell him that the shock of being born is much more jarring than the death process. I think that people who are afraid of dying and that hold on to the very end really just haven’t remembered where they came from and where they are going back to. Fear of the unknown. Of course sometimes they don’t go back, but that’s a topic for a future newsletter.
Journey of Souls has been transcribed into ten languages. It’s quite the mind stretcher. I get the impression, although it’s not obvious, that being involved in this work has transformed Dr. Newton’s atheistic preference. For those who are afraid of death and dying or are wondering why all sorts of “bad stuff” happens to you in this lifetime, this book may give you some insight and answers.
As a side note, when I choose and read a book, I choose books for the best use of my time and for the truthfulness of the book through the use of muscle testing. If the truth of the book is less than 70%, it isn’t worth my time in trying to figure out what is real and what is “Memorex” if you know what I mean. And the book needs to vibrate a couple hundred points higher than the vibration of the present world (210). For anything vibrating over 500, a person can receive a healing just by reading it or being in the room with that person, sound, or object according Dr. David Hawkins Scale of Consciousness (from his book Power vs. Force if you’re interested). Journey of Soul’s tests out as 88% truth and it vibrates at 520. That was good enough for me to read it.
Helpful links and References for Journey of Souls:
- For more book reviews on this site go to: https://naturalhealthtechniques.com/mediareviewsmedia_reviews1-htm.htm
- Dr. Michael Newton’s website for Journey of Souls and for finding out more about past life regression: https://www.spiritualregression.org/