© Isolde Kopping 2011

EXCERPT FROM THE BOOK BY ISOLDE KOPPING:

Exploring Past Lives and Spirit States – Australian Case Studies of Past Life and Spirit State Healing

 

 

 

 

INTRODUCTION

 

 

The soul is eternal.

Life continues after physical death.

The world of spirit and pure consciousness is loving and supportive.

  

   These are the indisputable ‘facts’ I am presented with daily in my work as a hypnotherapist, past life therapist and spiritual healer.  My work involves helping people access their inner knowing and their soul memories, either to heal or as part of their quest for truth and meaning.  My wish is always for people to find inner peace by doing this kind of spiritual work with me.   

   It was not always like this and I did not ‘decide’ consciously to begin working with spirit or even to study hypnotherapy when I was young.  Like so many people on this particular journey I arrived at this point later in life because I was busy with other stuff in my younger years.  For many years I lived in the large metropolis of Sydney, working a day job while studying for a psychology degree at night. 

   During that time I visited a hypnotherapist for some help with a personal issue.  I never had hypnosis before and was therefore curious but also a little nervous.  The therapist explained that the state of hypnosis would help me tap into my own healing powers, which immediately relaxed me.  He explained that hypnosis would allow me to access my own inner knowing and allow me to influence or heal aspects of my Self to achieve certain outcomes - under his guidance of course.   

   It worked like a dream and I achieved everything I set out to do – easily and quickly.  I was hooked.  The budding psychologist in me realized immediately the therapeutic potential of this healing modality and how hypnosis, properly applied by a trained professional, could also save people time and by implication money.  I made the decision to study this fascinating subject and some years later, after moving to the country, I finally set up my own hypnotherapy practice in a small town on the east coast of Australia. 

   When I trained as a hypnotherapist many years ago my only aim was to help ease people’s suffering or to facilitate behavioral changes such as letting go of the need to smoke.  To utilise the power of hypnosis for healing and change was all I wanted to do and for many years that was all I did.  Working with spirit, pure consciousness, other sensory perception or past lives was not on my radar.  Sure, as an inquisitive and open minded person these issues were of some interest to me, but I thought ‘things like that’ happened only to others.  In any case I felt there were many people far more qualified than myself to venture into these realms.  Or so I thought.

 

   One day I answered the phone and someone requested a past life regression to help her sort out some issues.  The caller was quite insistent so after a lengthy discussion and initial reluctance on my part we agreed to meet.  Despite feeling a bit out of my depth at that moment I knew I had successfully regressed people back to their childhoods and even to their own births many times before, and therefore I reasoned that it would not be such a big deal to take someone back even further.  This first past life regression proved quite successful and my interest in this fascinating subject was now ignited.  Word got around and what followed were dozens of past life regression practice sessions with a few willing clients (thank you), usually for free and more or less successful.  At the same time I began to read books about past lives, reincarnation, other sensory perception, soul journeys and spirit states (by authors such as Brian Weiss, Sylvia Browne, Mathias Wendel and Michael Newton among others) and it was a thrill to discover the similarities between what the books revealed and what was happening in my own clinic.  My clients used similar language, described similar things and had similar experiences to the clients described in those wonderful books.  To discover that was very exciting and reading about it after I had done the work made it clear to me that I had not projected some unconscious knowledge or expectation onto my clients.  It also gave me welcome ‘proof’ about the existence of past lives and the state of pure spirit.  I think I am like most people in this respect – there are things I intuitively know, but it’s also nice to get some proof every now and then.  In my view evidence is a bit like the icing on the cake.  It gives our inquisitive mind something to marvel at - while the rest of us just knows. 

   It became evident that in a field with few teachers and little guidance I needed to navigate my own terrain.  This journey then took me through my own psychological, emotional and spiritual landscape for the years that followed.  In time I found myself becoming acquainted more and more with my own true Self - somewhere along the way.  I was confronted with issues around my own ego and issues of faith that needed to be resolved.  I experienced my own healing on many levels.  But I was also given several opportunities to ‘choose differently’, to ‘screw up’ or to ‘opt out’.  I realized that it was important for me to ask for ‘guidance and help’ from a higher source as I began to understand that I was merely acting as a channel or instrument for healing and love here on earth.  A willing channel, mind you, and an enthusiastic co-creator of a better world.  Along the way I was taught by some of my great teachers that I was not special.  A spiritual life is a choice open to everyone in his or her own unique way.  This path does not need to be walked in the obvious manner while working as a healer, counsellor or therapist.  The path of spirit and the heart can be walked as part of everyday life.  As mother, scientist, philanthropist, teacher, artist or just by being sensitive and kind to the people and the world around us.  Sometimes it’s not what we do but who we are that matters most. 

  

   I learned my work as a past life therapist and spiritual healer mostly by doing.  My clients became my teachers and messengers.  I learned from my clients that our immortal soul occupies a different physical body in each incarnation and that groups of souls meet again and again in different roles during many life times.  I learned from my clients that we are ‘in spirit’ between our lives on earth, that we are pure consciousness or energy without a physical body before choosing to reincarnate.  And best of all I was shown time and time again that our soul retains a memory of these pure spirit states as well as remembering our past physical incarnations.  This then allows people like myself to facilitate healing or discovery for others by tapping into and communicating with this soul memory.    

  

   I decided to write this book as a means of sharing some of the spiritual messages and some of that powerful knowledge with a larger audience.  Case studies from my practice with brief explanations and interpretations comprise the bulk of the material covered.  I describe and present the subject matter without much interpretation so readers can experience their own reactions to what they are reading.  The cases in this book have been selected from a large volume of past life or spirit sessions, chiefly because they contain something of interest to most of us, not just to the individual concerned.  They also cover a broad spectrum of issues.  They reveal the causes of debilitating fears, the reasons for disturbing thought patterns and in some cases even the reasons for physical illnesses.  Some people discover their life’s purpose during these sessions, or they may gain clarity and inner peace.   Some people are given messages or knowledge from other realms or civilizations.  Some are able to heal deep wounds by being shown compassion and experiencing forgiveness from other souls or members of their soul group.  Some are shown the lessons they are meant to learn here on earth in this particular life time.  

  

   During journeys into the spirit realm people experience themselves in the pure spirit state.  There they are conscious of what is happening and feel fully alive without being in a physical body.  As I guide them through this experience many report meeting spirit guides, angels or deceased loved ones who provide comfort, assistance or clarification.  I keep notes or record these sessions, but people generally remember everything after they come out of hypnosis.

   During past life regressions people usually experience themselves incarnate in a different body at a different point in time, sometimes a different gender.  Valuable lessons can be learned from observing their previous selves dealing with a variety of situations.  With this awareness healing may happen as people come to understand for the first time why they do what they do.  To augment the healing I may guide people through processes which release fears or blockages, helping them to move on in their lives.      

  

   The desire to let go of pain and fear may be the motivating factors for many of my clients, but it’s perfectly fine to explore these matters out of pure curiosity or as part of our quest for truth and knowledge.  I feel this type of exploration has the power to illuminate one’s path, validate our true self, confirm our decisions and enhance our life.

   Listening to clients during their sessions and observing and guiding clients through spiritual experiences has allowed me to witness and learn about spirit myself.  I now know things I never had the chance to know before I began this work.  Over time I have come to believe in the eternal nature of our existence and of life before and after death in states of pure consciousness.  I have witnessed countless occasions where people remembered being in a different physical body or form at a different time on earth.  I was shown the possibility of existence in different dimensions, in different states of matter and on non-linear time scales.  I am humbled and grateful to have been given the opportunity to witness these things and to learn about them while being able to help people at the same time.    

  

   Learning to be a past life and spirit state therapist involved much more than the gathering of facts, knowledge and experience.  I also realized that in order for these experiences or memories to rise up into the conscious or sub-conscious mind it is important to suspend any sort of judgment (but not discernment) for a couple of hours.  There is ample time after the session to examine what occurred and why.  Judgment before or during the session by either the client or the therapist does close doors and limits the possibility of genuine exploration.  It would almost certainly prevent any genuine communication between therapist and client and subsequent discovery, healing or joy.  I must admit there have been times when I felt pushed close to the edge.  There have also been times when I could not make sense of what I was witnessing.  I have learned to not let a lack of intellectual understanding prevent or interrupt the processes that were unfolding in my presence.  This was not always easy.  I occasionally lost sleep over my mind’s attempts to make sense of what I had witnessed during the day.  I felt alone and out on a limb at times.  But mostly this long journey of mine, from hypnotherapist to past life therapist and from mainstream therapy towards holistic healing has been exciting, joyful and rewarding. 

  

   Hypnosis is my tool of choice and I use it to guide my clients through specific processes which allow them to access past life memories or the spirit realm.  Hypnosis is one of several ways to achieve this; others include energy or body work, Reiki or the use of psychic abilities.  Why did I choose hypnosis?  Is it better or faster than the other methods?  No, probably not.  Selecting hypnosis as my tool of choice has as much to do with the way I function as a human being and what I am passionate about, as it has to do with circumstances and other variables present in my life.  Put very simply - body workers, energy healers and similar practitioners help people access these soul memories and their inner wisdom via energetic or kinesthetic pathways.  Sound healers will do the same thing via sound vibration and frequencies.  Art therapists often utilise visual pathways for healing.  Psychotherapists and counsellors predominantly use the cognitive, or mind pathway.  Hypnosis also utilises a lot of mind power on the way to healing and I am drawn to this because of who I am, not because the mind is superior in any way.  And most good therapists and healers would use a combination of them all, consciously or unconsciously, sometimes together and sometimes at different stages of the healing process.  I don’t think there is a right or wrong way to do this kind of work.  People who are intuitively drawn to hypnosis, either as a client or as a practitioner, will most likely discover that hypnosis is the correct pathway for them to follow.  

 

   You may have noticed that I use the terms spirit, soul and consciousness interchangeably.  This is done quite deliberately.  Much time could be spent (and wasted) arguing about the ‘correct’ meaning of these terms.  Any definition I provide would only be useful until someone else comes along and provides a different one.  Does it really matter what we call it?  Every individual knows what they mean when they choose to use one of these terms.  Words are just words, it’s how people feel about these words that matters. 

  

   I hope this book will entertain you, at the very least.  But then it might just ignite your passion for this fascinating subject.  It may turn out to be the next step in your quest for a deeper understanding of your Self and your life’s purpose.  What you will read about might provide clarification or healing, or give you something that will support you on your journey.  It might go some way in quenching your thirst for meaning and truth.  Maybe it will give you inner peace.  I sincerely hope so.


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