A giant has fallen... the passing of Michael Newton

Fans of Michael Newton are mourning his passing....

 RIP Maestro!

As I'm fond of saying: "Not gone. Just not here."

In 2007 I contacted the Newton Institute about doing a documentary on the topic.  I was surprised that no one had considered doing one to date.  I wasn't entirely sure what was happening in the sessions, but I'd read his books "Journey of Souls" "Destiny of Souls" prior to the interview. And I guessed (correctly) that if I could film a "between life session" the camera would quickly reveal if there was anything about the interviews that were "leading" or could be based on "cryptomnesia." 

Basically Michael Newton wrote in his books that he'd had 7000 clients over 30 years say relatively the SAME THINGS about the afterlife during his hypnosis sessions. How could that be? I set out to find out if it could possibly be true. (My documentary "Flipside" goes into greater detail) 

Here's the original transcript of my interview with Michael Newton, published here in honor of his journey on the planet. When I asked about doing an interview with Michael, his office said no, that he was retired, but I was welcome to come to Chicago, meet him and film some of their teaching.

I flew into Chicago and showed up on their third or fourth day - they'd already done the preliminaries, and they were getting into the deeper teachings.  I met Michael prior to one of his sessions, he shook my hand and I think got the sense from me that I wasn't there to prove or disprove anything he'd written or said, that I was just trying to document the process so people could understand his technique. He said he would grant me "his last interview" (his words.)

A still from the film "Flipside: a Journey into the Afterlife"

From 2007 in a hotel near Schaumburg, Illinois. 


INTERVIEW WITH DR. MICHAEL NEWTON

(Excerpted from "Flipside: A Tourist's Guide on How to Navigate the Afterlife" by Richard Martini. Homina Publishing 2011. All Rights Reserved.)


RichMartini: Is hypnosis a valid scientific tool?

Dr. Michael Newton. A lot of people don't feel it is. Hypnosis is a study of human behavior, adequate scientific proof depends on your willingness to accept self-reports from the mind as data. When someone is in deep hypnosis, it’s not something that can be programmed. Under hypnosis, people are very aware of who they are and have great insight into what they're telling you. Over thousands of cases there was consistency of reporting; it didn't matter whether a client had a deep religious belief system or not; once we had them in deep hypnosis, they all told us the same things.

What was your first past life regression?

I began practicing in 1956, a traditional psychotherapist using hypnosis to try to uncover childhood emotional and physical trauma. It was the year of the famous Bridey Murphy case - the Colorado housewife who remembered a previous life in Ireland. I’d get calls, "May I come for a past life regression?"  I’d say "No, I’m traditional, not involved with “new age” thinking." I was very naive, really. 

But then a client asked if I could see him about pain he was feeling in his side.  He'd been troubled since childhood, and doctors said it was psychosomatic - they'd done x-rays and could find no physical symptoms. They told him he should see a psychiatrist.  When he came, I couldn't find any earthly origins at all, so I gave him the command “Go to the origin of this pain.” 

Well, he jumped into the life of a soldier in World War I, when he was a British Sergeant and was being bayoneted. I couldn't believe it; this fellow was lying on the couch groaning while I was more interested in verifying if it was real – asking him the British unit he claimed to be with and a number of other facts - instead of desensitizing this horrible trauma he was going through. Eventually I did do that.  

He called a few days later to say "There's no more pain, thank you.” Well that didn’t satisfy me, so I contacted the British war office and the Imperial Museum in London to find out if this British Sergeant ever existed and sure enough he died in 1916.  From that case, I began taking past life clients. So I came kicking and screaming into this movement.  

Sometime later, a woman came to me, depressed over having no friends and couldn't seem to connect with anybody. I reached a point of frustration when I couldn't seem to find any help, so I said "Go to the origin of your loneliness, especially if there's a group of people around you."  I didn't know it, but “group” was a trigger word, because we exist between lives in soul groups - “cluster groups” we call them.  Her face lit up. She got tears in her eyes and pointed to my office wall and said "I see them all." 

I was thinking "Is she seeing them in this life? In a past life?" "Where are we?" I asked. "Oh," she said, "We're in the spirit world. I'm seeing all my soul companions, they're wonderful," and she began describing them. 

I probed more, took a lot of notes, and had a recording of the session. I found none of her soul companions in her life today and she was lonely because of it. After she left, I said to myself This can't be happening to me.  

I'm the world's worst cynic, skeptic, and past lives was enough of a jolt of cold water, and now this? I studied my notes and the tape for a long time, and then with other clients, I began exploring it more and more. Once I started, I couldn't stop. 

I closed my practice to all other forms of hypnotherapy and worked quietly and alone. I didn't go to hypnosis conferences, I didn't want to read metaphysical books, and I just wanted to do the research by myself. After twenty years I realized I should write a book, so I began collecting better case notes with an eye to writing "Journey of Souls." 


What was the reaction from colleagues or your wife when you came home with this information?

Frankly I didn't go public until the first book was published. I had a lot of criticism from my colleagues; "How dare you keep this information from us, you didn't get our input.” I said “I did not want to be influenced by your thoughts; I didn't want to introduce bias into my work.” 

My wife is a nurse trained in psychology, and she was, like myself; initially skeptical. I had to talk to somebody, and what better person than my soul mate, who didn't tell her friends, but quietly absorbed all this. Eventually she came to really believe in what I was doing. 

A TYPICAL SESSION  

Can you walk us through a typical Life between Life session?

People come in because there may be a relative who recently died, or emotional trauma from losing a child. This work is not to supplant therapy they should receive from a licensed trained professional; it’s intended to provide them with answers about their inner being. 

One of the things clients don't understand until they experience it is that there is a dual nature to all of us. We have our brain ego if you will, and we have a soul ego, and when they are combined it creates one personality and one lifetime. 

The first hour we pick a couple of childhood memories to get a sense of them recalling events earlier in this life, to prepare them to answer questions on a deeper level. Then we take them into their most immediate past life, because it's their most recent experience. It's very brief as it’s not intended to be a discourse on past lives. 

There are a number of past life therapists that don’t have a clue about Life between Lives therapies - they think it's grayish ‘limbo’ that has no significance. But we then cross from the death experience into the spirit world, into the afterlife; it's an interesting and exciting time for the client because they begin to really see their soul.

Friends, relatives or their spirit guide, usually both, come to greet them - when a client sees their immortal teacher for the first time they’re usually blown out of their minds. Some religious people think they see Jesus or Buddha or Mohammad coming towards them but they quickly realize, “Oh, no, no, no… this is my personal teacher who’s been with me since I was created as a soul.”

From there, we move to interesting aspects of the spirit world, perhaps soul groups which range from 3 to 25 souls, the average client has about 15. These are all friends, relatives, spouses, dear friends in this life and some clients are shocked by who’s there. There are other soul groups, nearby affiliated souls, that may play an important part in certain lives. There are reasons for that, and we try to explore it. 

From there, they typically go in front of a group of wise beings - some call them “The Elders” or “The Wisdom Makers” - wise beings who are a step or two above their guides. 

These are non-incarnating beings, they’re about as close to God as we get, and there’s usually a very interesting discourse. They may ask the patient “How do you think you did in your last life?” They’re very gentle people. 

An interesting thing happens when they’re ready to return in the next incarnation; there’s a life and body selection library where people choose different kinds of bodies and who they think they can work best with. Their elders and guides have a hand in their selection before they come forward into the next life. It’s a fascinating process. 

What’s key is there’s such order and discipline there and yet it’s a very compassionate loving relationship. It isn’t one that involves the kinds of things we see on Earth with a hierarchy of beings who lord over you and engender fear. 

There is infinite forgiveness and understanding there. We all make mistakes, some of them terrible, and that’s all forgiven once we cross over. 

When the clients wake up after one of these long sessions, some of them are crying and some of them are laughing, some of them can’t talk - and generally there’s just this “Wow. I can’t believe it.”  Trying to process what’s happened.


AFTERLIFE CLASSROOMS AND THE COUNCIL OF ELDERS

I’ve spoken with a few people who’ve referred to their own recurring dreams of being in a classroom somewhere in the Universe, some working with or without energy. Also, I’d like to know more about “The Elders.”

We get flashbacks from time to time that break through that amnesiac block, folks who’ve had no LBL experiences, and just ordinary people that don’t know about our work. Suddenly they’re in a classroom in their dreams and they think “Hmm. That’s a strange image; where’s that coming from?” 

Most of us between lives spend time in a spiritual classroom. They are usually described as buildings, a library, or the place where they meet their council looks like a beautiful domed structure and in some cases a temple. 

Of course, there aren’t buildings in the ethereal space between lives, but people free-associate or have flashbacks of buildings; “I’m in a classroom, I have people around me that I know, there’s a teacher…” 

Essentially we’re given instruction by a Specialist Soul in areas we may have a talent or affinity for.  They may be areas we’ll specialize in after our incarnations are over - when we will be helping others.  I often hear about an energy creating class where they’re working with raw energy to create certain things.

 I have the theory a lot of what we see on Earth in terms of plants and animals and geographics has been created by groups of advanced souls.  

When we visit the Elders, we talk about our lessons and what we might do differently in the future. We’re not standing before God or a Creator or a Source - But people describe feeling kind of a God like presence at these meetings. It’s hard for people to describe it; I need to speak to someone who’s not incarnating anymore to give me answers to that sort of thing. 

Once in a while I got a highly advanced client who was in their last series of incarnations, who’d open the door a little bit, and it’s beautiful to listen to. 


What kinds of questions would you like to know the answers to from this work?

When I get an advanced client in my chair, I feel sorry for them because I’m a relentless inquisitor. I’ve asked the question “What does it all mean?” with certain advanced clients. 

One thing I’ve learned is that we are only one of many universes. I’ve been able to hear about nine or ten dimensions, either parallel universes or universes that overlap in timelines, through patients.  (He later told me that he'd visited as many as 27 in his work.)

Once you leave Earth, of course, you’re not in linear time anymore, you’re in what we call ‘now time
 - which is past, present and future... that’s the best I can do on the question about creation - I wish I could tell you more.


QUANTUM PHYSICS AND THE AFTERLIFE

What do you think about the concept that photographs may be captured time?

It feeds into what we know about quantum physics - the Cherokee Indians believe no event in time is ever lost. I think from what I have discovered, nothing is ever lost; every moment of time represents particles of energy. 

It’s like a movie that’s being shown. That frame is there forever and can be recalled in the spirit world.  Souls are able to go back to any event in any past life and review it completely. 

This is one of things we do that is so valuable. When they’re in the spirit world, in a library or a classroom, they’re able to recall everything from their past; nothing ever dies and when you have past, present and future all conjoined into “now time” think of the advantage that brings to studying and reviewing what you’ve done and how you can make it better.  

There are possibilities and probabilities in the time continuum and there have been wonderful books about parallel universes, the “Holographic Universe” by Michael Talbot for example. 

It’s very much in synch with reports we get from clients who’ve never read the books, so I feel the knowledge we’re gaining now is greater than it’s ever been about our inner being and the forces behind our creation.

Why hasn’t this information been available earlier in our history? 

I think there are a couple of reasons.  We've never been so over-populated in history, with so many of us running in so many directions. Second, I think it's the pervasive use of drugs which has even reached our elementary schools - when someone is taking drugs to "escape from reality” it shuts down the soul. 

And maybe the powers that be decided it’s time to loosen up this amnesia bloc we all have when we come into this world so we're able to gain information that perhaps earlier was not really available.” 


INTERVIEW WITH PEGGY NEWTON

I spoke with Dr. Newton’s wife, Peggy. Michael told me his entire life he’d had a vision of meeting a woman dressed in a white uniform named Peggy. After he came out of the service, he saw an ad in a magazine that reminded him of his lifelong vision. 

A poor grad student on the G.I. Bill, he caught a bus and asked the driver to “Let me know when we are near the largest hospital in Phoenix.”  The driver let him off next to a dormitory, which was fortuitous as he thought it was the main entrance. 

When he walked inside and asked “Do you have a nurse named Peggy?” a woman brought her out to meet him.  He knew the moment he saw her she was the woman in his dreams, and they’ve been together ever since.


RM: How did you meet Michael?

Peggy Newton: I was a student nurse and he was in graduate school. He had this feeling about a woman with dark hair dressed in white he was supposed to meet named Peggy. Off he went looking for a dark haired Peggy in a white uniform; he maintains from the moment we met he knew I was going to be with him for this life. And had probably been with him for many lives.

Can you remember that day?

He came to our dorm and we had a charming house mother on duty. He said "I can’t remember her last name but I’m looking for a Peggy with dark hair." 

Then he told me this rather crazy story I won’t repeat, because it made no sense to me at the time, when I asked him to sit down and clarify why he was there. 

We wound up talking for four hours; I went upstairs and told my roommates I’d met the man I was going to marry. We’ve been married almost 51 years.

What was it like when he first came home to tell you about a past life regression?

I thought it was too bizarre. "Past lives?"  I had my medical scientific brain and I tended to put that to one side. I did think he might be ‘over the bend’ though, and worried about his sanity.  But then he played me the tapes. His clients’ tapes are private, so anything I heard never left me, but I realized these people were all saying the same things about the spirit world. 

Seeing the same things, saying the same things, how could that be if it wasn’t true? You just can’t take strangers through an experience where they relate stories that are all the same. I became a real believer at that point, and then I became a true fan.”

*** 

"I know I am deathless. No doubt I have died myself ten thousand times before. I laugh at what you call dissolution, and I know the amplitude of time." 
                                    Walt Whitman


(Excerpted from "Flipside: A Tourist's Guide on How to Navigate the Afterlife" by Richard Martini. Homina Publishing 2011. All Rights Reserved. Not to be reproduced without written permission.)

Bon voyage Michael!!!!

(The Newton Institute is an organization that teaches his method of hypnotherapy to therapists around the world.  Their website at NewtonInstitute.org has a searchable database for all the people who have been trained in his method and where they are located.  If you want to consider doing this form of hypnotherapy, I highly recommend going through them, meeting with the therapist to see how much synergy is between you, ask for recommendations from others, and do the exercises and read as much as you can prior to doing a session, in order to gain the most benefits. Pete Smith, the current worldwide President of the organization is located in Australia, but to date there are hundreds of practitioners in their organization worldwide.)