Sunday

An Interview with Michael Newton


AN INTERVIEW WITH MICHAEL NEWTON
Available online at all major outlets in kindle, ebook, audible etc.

(All Rights reserved, copyright 2011 Richard Martini)


Chapter 2
THE NEWTONIAN UNIVERSE

“I was like a boy playing on the sea-shore, and diverting myself now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me.”
Sir Isaac Newton

As a therapeutic tool, hypnosis has been around for millennia. The ancient Greeks, Egyptians and Hindus all used forms of “Sleep Temples” to help people with various mental afflictions, and in 1207  Persian physician Avicenna (Ibn Sina) studied altered states where people could be both awake and asleep.[1]  In 1841 British physician James Braid studied Eastern religious practices, including trances and deep meditation, and coined the term hypnosis. It later became an accepted form of therapy as psychiatrists like Sigmund Freud popularized the concept by famously making it part of his practice and therapy.
Reports of “Past Life Memories” have been around for quite a bit as well. Mentioned in the Upanishads from ancient India, reincarnation is accepted in various forms by a number of religions from Hindus to Buddhists, the Taoists of China, American Native tribes, Aboriginal tribes of Australia to the Celts of England who all believed souls are immortal and after a fixed number of years after death, enter another human body. In the Middle Ages, there were a number or reincarnationist movements in Europe. The Cathars were considered such heretics by the Catholics that they sent them on to their next lives with great dispatch.
Over the centuries, a number of American thinkers embraced the concept, including Benjamin Franklin, Mark Twain, Walt Whitman, General George Patton and Henry Ford who said “I adopted the theory of reincarnation when I was 26. Genius is experience; some seem to think it is a gift or talent, but it is the fruit of a long experience in many lives.”
According to the Pew Research Center survey, one out of four Americans believes in reincarnation.  But aside from being a belief system relegated to religious dogma, it didn’t begin to be examined by Western science until the 1950’s when hypnosis and past life regression became a form of therapy in the mental health field. It was new therapy, however, and during hypnosis a patient might be encouraged to remember things that didn’t actually occur, and for this reason, many considered the role of the psychiatrist’s leading questions the culprit in supposed past life memories.  That led the scientific community to believe these memories were the result of “Cryptomnesia,” narratives created by the subconscious mind, using imagination, forgotten information and suggestions from the therapist; in other words, entirely made up.
In terms of popular culture, the first widely reported case of a remembered past life in the U.S. was that of an American woman in the 1950’s who remembered details of a life lived in 19th century Ireland by a woman named Bridey Murphy. Research at the time could not verify her story and eventually her saga fell into disrepute. Past life regression and hypnosis became a common joke on television shows, from Lucille Ball getting hypnotized into becoming a criminal on “I Love Lucy” to Albert Brooks’ “Defending Your Life” about a patient who has a peer life review with hilarious consequences. 
Dr. Ian Stevenson of the University of Virginia took up the subject of reincarnation as a serious topic in the 1970’s and with the benefit of research, time and money, over 30 years was able to catalogue numerous cases that proved, from a scientific point of view, that reincarnation could at least be categorized and studied. Stevenson said he was skeptical of past life memories during hypnosis because like most critics, he feared the therapist could or would interject false memories via the questions.[2] However, Dr. Brian Weiss, a Yale trained psychiatrist, encountered spontaneous past life regressions in his work and turned those revelations into his bestselling book “Many Lives, Many Masters.” 
Recently the New York Times noted that “Past life regression” has returned as an acceptable tool for many psychiatrists.[3] A number of hypnotherapists, including those interviewed in this book, recount patients spontaneously going into a past life regression during a session, and being cured of their psychosomatic illness after examining the source of their illness or pain. There isn’t a known medical reason behind these spontaneous cures, other than “the placebo effect.” As we’ll learn in this book, there may be other verifiable origins involved.  
Dr. Michael Newton had a similar experience as Brian Weiss.  A patient spontaneously regressed into a previous life, and despite being skeptical about past life regression in general, Newton was able to verify that a British soldier had lived and died as described during his session.  As a result, Newton began doing past life regressions, and as he as put it “was dragged kicking and screaming into the movement.”
Over the following decade, Newton began quietly cataloguing his cases of patients who could remember past lives. One day his focus took a giant leap forward.  A client under hypnosis described the “life between lives,” where everyone reportedly goes after they die and, with the help of their soul mates, decide how and where they’ll return.  Newton began to research this new field more fully with his patients, and after 20 years of intense research, published his first of four books in 1994.   
Looking a bit like Charlton Heston, Newton, late 70’s, has an easy, laid back manner. Having retired from his practice as well as stepping aside from his full time duties with the "Newton Institute,” he’s weary of fighting the battles with those who feel his research attacks their belief systems. However his pale blue eyes still flash when he talks of debating critics.

INTERVIEW WITH DR. MICHAEL NEWTON
RM: 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.

From the film "Flipside"


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.[4] 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.  Once you leave Earth, of course, you’re not in linear time anymore, you’re in what we call ‘now time[5]’ - 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 felt it key to hear from his wife that she’d been hearing the tapes of his sessions dating back to the beginning of his research. She confirmed the detail her husband had avoided metaphysical sections of bookstores during his research so he wasn’t be influenced by other’s work in the area. Newton said he’d had over 7000 patients who said the same things about the hereafter while under deep hypnosis. If true, then Michael Newton’s work may become one of the greatest discoveries in human history. 
My documentary on reincarnation took a turn after this interview.  I began to focus on the science behind reincarnation, as well as stories of people who either had a direct experience of remembering the life between lives, or those who’ve spontaneously gone there via near death experiences or other means.  I began with interviews with hypnotherapists trained by Newton as well as others who’d never heard of him.  I also filmed sessions with various patients, some friends of mine who were skeptical about the entire process, and finally, I was invited to have my own session which I would film as well.
As a matter of logic, either what these patients were saying about the afterlife was true, or it wasn’t.  If it was true, then others must be able to visit the same place without his help or guidance.  Also, if it was true, then there must be cases of others who’ve traveled this same route, without the direct guidance of Michael Newton.  I was invited to film a session conducted by a Newton trained hypnotherapist, Paul Aurand.  I was about to head down the rabbit hole.
Walt Whitman: M. Brady

"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




[1] Wikipedia; Hypnosis, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avicenna
[2] "A large part of what emerges under hypnosis is pure fantasy. Some of these "previous lives" have been traced back to historical novels."  Interview with Omni Magazine, 1988.
[3] “Interest In Reincarnation is Growing,” by Lisa Miller. NY Times 8-29-2010
[4] These energy classes are mentioned in a number of sessions in this book.
[5] For those who watched the final episode of “Lost,” one of the characters refers to “Now time” as the reason they all had multiple time lines.

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