EXCERPT FROM THE BOOK BY ISOLDE KOPPING:
© Isolde
Kopping 2015 Exploring Past Lives and
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. It is always
my wish 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
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
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.