Getting exciting....

I am off for a holiday, but leaving things exciting - "Despite the Angels" is with an editor, and I also have seen the first 'drafts' of a cover design. I was hoping this would be ready to share, but we have to wait a little longer.
"Jill" (see Hairs on back of my neck, Below) came back for her 'Life between lives' session, and got a lot of information about her life today. She was pleased to find that she is doing the right job, and making progress in the right ways. I have tried to Google the information she got about her last life on Earth, but it is difficult to know where to look, so we may never get clear confirmation as for her North African life. But it doesn't matter to 'Jill', she is setting off into the rest of her modern life with a renewed sense of purpose.

We have all been "baddies"

As I said below, we have not all been princes in our past lives. But we have all been the villain,even though most of us do not visit villainous lives during regression. Our conscious minds block it, as we are all much more comfortable with the idea that we are the victim, and everyone is always mean to us!

I had a client who did see herself in the bad role, and I wrote about it in Chapter 24 of "Memories of the Afterlife" edited by Dr Michael Newton.You can read the full story there, but I'll give a taste of it here.

Marguerite, my client, came for past-life and life-between-lives sessions to find out why she was 'stuck' in one area of her life. The first past lives she experienced were quite far back in history, and resonated with her present life. The third, done just before her 'LBL' session, was in a more modern setting, and she was married to an abusive husband who eventually killed her. We then carried on into the life-between-lives, and she gained much information, which she felt afterwards would help her to clear the block. (She also wanted to write a book!)

A few months later, she returned for another past-life regression, as she became anxious every time she started to write, and felt the situation was not resolved. She saw herself first speaking out against the religious establishment in Ancient Rome, and being poisoned as result. This (apart from the poisoning!) seems rather like her modern situation, so it was not much help. I suggested she look further, and she found a life as a witch-doctor who carried out a child-sacrifice, in the belief that this would fill her with healing powers which could benefit her tribe. Later in that life she repented, and cut her own throat. Within the hypnosis session, she was able to discuss this with her spirit guide, and gained much clarity. She is no longer upset by people who hold strong opposing views to her own, as she understands very clearly that they may do so because of genuinely held beliefs. The 'evil' amongst us may often believe they are acting for the best. It is very likely that we have all found ourselves acting on false or damaging information during at least one of our past lives....

The Next Hurdle

"Despite the Angels" took a small step towards publication today - it has gone off by email to 'The Literary Consultancy' (.co.uk) for editing. I am also asking the editor who reads it to suggest its genre. A kind contributor on this blog suggests 'occult' but I'm not sure about that, as I feel occult makes people think of vampires and séances. 'Despite the Angels', despite the angels in it, is very ordinary. I hope that will be one of its strong points.
Also, I would not like it to be seen and read only by people already interested in reincarnation. It is a story suitable for everyone, just as fiction. Terry Pratchett's readers do not have to believe there is a flat world on the back of a turtle out there somewhere, so my readers do not have to believe in past lives...
What genres do you look in to find the books you like?

We were not all Cleopatra!

     A common criticism from those who are unwilling to consider the possibility of reincarnation is that "Everyone always thinks they were Cleopatra or Attila the Hun". Actually, nothing is further from the truth. The overwhelming majority of past life regressions show very ordinary lives, often as foot soldiers, servants, small farmers, slaves or peasants. If you think about it, this is to be expected - most lives lived today are those of ordinary people, even with our modern culture of 'celebrity'. In the past the proportion of famous to plain would have been even smaller.
     Ordinary lives can provide huge learning experiences. It is not necessary to be be a famous person (today any more than in yesteryear) to experience all of life's emotions. In fact, some of the hardest, and most valuable, lessons have been learned in very humble bodies.
     It is of course possible that reincarnations of well known characters are walking the earth at this time. The famous reincarnate as much as anyone else. In terms of a soul's learning, a life as a king, bishop or film star is no more useful than one as an ordinary 'Joe Soap'. What is 'better than' when in the body is definitely 'the same as' to the soul.
     It is also possible that a person may see themselves in a famous life, not because they were that character, but because something about the character resonates with the modern person's present life. For example, a woman who feels betrayed could see herself as Anne Boleyn. This is not because that person actually was Anne Boleyn, but because the story can clarify to her that she feels as hard done by as Anne must have felt.
     The other explanation is that the modern person may have had a past life in the entourage of the famous.

     Having said all that, I have never regressed anyone into a 'famous life', nor have the dozen past lives I have experienced been of any historical note. But more of them another time!

Writing at the Bar

No WiFi at home, so must go to local bar to connect. This is today's contribution to 'Nulle Part Ailleurs' staying open for us! (as well as drinks) They are lovely here, in Trémolat, Périgord.
Forgot to add this photo to post below....

On Holidays...

As I'm on holidays, I thought I'd put up a poem I wrote based on an experience on last year's hols, in the same place. In this part of France, the towns and villages hold 'Marchés Nocturnes' or 'Soirées Gourmandes' - where they basically turn the town square into a food hall. Delicious food is available to buy, and there is usually some sort of entertainment. Last year, at 'Creysse', where they do a fish-based marché, they had musicians. And I watched, and the writer in me produced this. This poem was published in 'Circle Time', the Dalkey Writers Workshop anthology, last autumn.
 Sorry, nothing about past lives this time, but an enormous celebration of the lives we are living now...

Marché Nocturne

Serried poplars, pinkening sky
garlic and mussel scented air
guitar and accordion set up their cry-
it is time to dance at the night fair.

Plump and bald answer the call,
wives in hand, remembering when
these were sylph-girls at a Hunters' Ball:
thought they would always be young men.

Ancient lessons guide them round
on easy moving feet
that music such a familiar sound,
a happy lilting beat.

They look down with loving eyes,
smile through all the years
connectedness that never dies
enhanced by local wine, or beers

which ooze out of a million pores
and stain two dozen shirts,
wives fatter now than years before
and wearing longer skirts

but in his eyes the very girl
he held so close back then,
this gentle move the self-same whirl:
old bodies still contain young men.

Hairs on the Back of my Neck

Yesterday I did a past-life regression for a young woman (I'll call her Jill), who saw herself in a life in France and then moving to Africa. She was able to see the date on a newspaper, it was 12th July 1845. She couldn't read the paper, it was in a strange script. She died on that day, her head was cut off during "absolute chaos, everyone is dying". Her attacker was a black man, which at the time I thought was odd as the story seemed to fit North Africa more than the south. She also could tell me the port began with a "J".
This morning I got a phone call -"I'm sorry to ring so early, but I couldn't hold myself in". It was Jill. She told me she had Googled the date, 12.July1845, and found that in the Algerian port of Jijel there was fighting on that day, including attacks by pirates, which probably explains the man from further south.
It is fascinating to have a clear confirmation of a past-life fact, and well done to 'Jill' for seeing the date so clearly! She saw other details well too, for example, they were growing oranges for export.
It encourages me that my two books are set in a real world, where reincarnation happens. Sadly, publishers do not believe in reincarnation, so have trouble with putting my books into a 'genre'.
Can you suggest what genre they might be, when I get them up on Amazon later this year?