by Constance S. Rodriguez, Ph.D.

This article reviews the possibility that the psyche travels through time and space landing in the exact “past life” to rework problems, issues or emotional blocks that may be hindering one’s soul growth. Dr. Rodriguez reviews the notion that state bound matrixes of energy live in an archetypal field made accessible in the paradigm of past lives, which she terms Holographic Journeying. This conveys a sense of one part (one life) affecting the whole rather than seeing lives as a linear string of embedded memories. In this informative excerpt, Dr. Rodriguez gives examples from her work with clients emphasizing the therapeutic value of this work.

The universe is a dance of energies which vibrate at many frequencies. They ebb and flow, merge and part, form ripples, tides, currents, eddies, and whirlpools. They become units of all sizes, from atoms to stars, individual souls to cosmic beings … As rays, streaks, streams, rivers, oceans of light, they flow into each other and separate again, changing frequencies—and changing frequencies, they become suns, galaxies, spaces, airs, winds, fires, liquids, solids. They become the bodies of human beings into which the energy called consciousness comes and is embodied.

Swami Rama

Psyche’s Stories

The psyche loves to tell stories. It tells them every night in dreamtime. It comes through fairytales and in our myths to tell a story. Perhaps it is the story that wants to be told, and finds its own portals through which to be heard. It comes through dreams, art, poetry, dance, and in soul journeys framed in past life vignettes. It is as if the story, when it finally gets to tell its tale, surrenders its hold on us. Our job is to understand the language of the psyche. Psyche is a Greek word meaning “Soul.” We might as easily call past life expressions soul stories. I refer to this kind of work in therapy, as “Holographic Journeying.” Holographic journeying is an interactive imagery framed in the notion of past lives, yet is a more holistic construct modeled after the holographic notion of the eternal now. It is a regression into another time period in now-time, played out in the imagery of virtual lives. It is also a portal into a threshold of non-linear time, waiting to be accessed, replayed, and reviewed for our awakening of the Self.

What if past-life expressions were like waking dreams—life dreams—enveloped in templates familiar to mankind? Are these templates, enveloped in life dreams, lifelike replays that are magnificently situated in an energetic field or life issue? What else could so explicitly underline and shift our stories, releasing us from the magnetic pull that draws us over and over to the same wavelength or life pattern; until we find a way through these waking dreams framed in past life vignettes?

Emotional and mental disorders are encoded organically or cellularly, and are not always easily available from the “memory banks.” We saw this in my example from childhood and the effect the ambulance sirens had on me in the last chapter. Until I had that spontaneous recall, the sound of the ambulance sirens did not consciously link to the emotional impact my father’s heart attack had on me. It is only through an altered state of consciousness that we are able to retrieve “state-bound information.”

Hypnotherapy often refers to ego states that are state bound, which means that some part of the psyche has been split off and is only available through some sort of retrieval method. Shamanic journeying in soul retrieval work is based on this idea, as if these state bound affective patterns live in an archetypal field, waiting for the correct access code to release them. These state bound matrixes of energy and trauma—which Jung termed complexes—are often triggered and re-experienced as uncontrollable bodily experiences, unrelated emotional affects, or compulsions that are unlinked to an actual event. In regression work, all of these somatic and affective states are portals through and to the release of the trauma that lies at the root of these experiences living in an unconscious matrix. Jung said that embedded in every complex is an archetype, an archetypal field that once made conscious, releases its hold on us.

Consider a person who has a life pattern or theme that prevents him from moving forward into his soul’s potential. In Holographic Journey work, or trans-life regressions, a person enters an altered state, which then allows the psyche to create the perfect holographic experience that can set this person free from her pattern. In a holographic paradigm, time and space are arbitrary constructs of the psyche. This concept allows the psyche to move through the collective unconscious, or the universal web, holographically “landing” in the perfect drama or soul story. Some experts feel that we have a genetic memory encoded in our DNA that is imprinted in our cells and which is why we may feel drawn to or repelled by certain places, things, or idiosyncrasies. Many belief systems and traditions hold that we bring themes from many lifetimes forward through karmic patterns for the soul’s evolution. Although this belief remains in a linear time construct, it nevertheless coincides with many religious traditions from cultures all over the world.

Seeing our life process as a linear series of incarnations might be only partly true within the illusion of time. There may be a reference point from which reincarnation might more accurately be described as multiple incarnations being lived simultaneously. (Bache, C. 2000)

In regression therapy, the belief a person holds does not matter. It’s sole—soul—purpose is therapeutic. You may enter into these panoramic enlivened fields as if they were real. However, to the psyche they are real—they are not just like lived experiences, they are lived experiences. And, like numinous experiences, or synchronistic events, they change us and are rarely forgotten experiences that tend to become guiding moments in our lives.

Holographic soul journeys

Holographic journeying allows the psyche to experience or re-experience key themes that come alive through imagery in a non-ordinary state of consciousness. Thus, regression work becomes an imaginal production that allows one to travel through the portals of time to access the perfectly framed life related to a problem. We relive it through imagery, to unlock the archetypal pattern that has a hold on a person. More importantly, I feel this work opens patterns held in the collective level—the world psyche—and some say when a person endeavors upon this work, it actually lifts the vibrational rate and the healing for others on the planet. When we look at the cosmic hologram of reality where every part affects the whole, we not only transform ourselves, our work affects others. Each person working toward consciousness is in effect reverberating out to all others. While this is a huge concept to digest, quantum theories seem to support it, especially when considering the notion of entrainment, morphic resonance, and attractor templates.

I have conducted many holographic regressions—soul journeys—in my work as a therapist. People often come in with an issue that seems long-standing, which has not been resolved through “traditional” kinds of therapies. As a result of these re-animated experiences, I have found that people are often released from the pattern or theme in their current life. By entering these imaginal re-constellations, framed in the linear model of time, major changes occur.

Here is a story of a woman I will call Cheryl who came in questioning why she has held herself back in life. She felt blocked in her self-expression and from seeing herself working in more creative ways.

The story opens with finding herself in a tomb. From her transcript, she begins:

“It is dusty, damp, with yellow/reddish stone. It’s dark. I am dark skinned. I am looking up from the feet of a big-breasted, beautiful girl. She is in a pinkish-white cotton dress, brown hair, looking off toward the jungle. I am ankle-height to her, standing in a stairway, which goes down to a square entrance underground. I love her. She is clean. I have dirty, brown peasant feet and short, ragged grayish pants that are dirty. I am a young man, maybe thirteen. I am digging and building a chamber for her, like I am part of a crew, though I can’t see anyone else. She is very important. I am struck by her beauty; I adore her. I am constructing this for her, but someone else ordered it. It’s a tomb, in a tropical area like Palenque or Peru. She’s lighter skinned than I am. I am beneath her in all ways!”

Moving forward in time:

“They kill her and put her in the tomb. Sacrifice. It’s what they do. I am not sure if I was buried alive with her too. I don’t care; I want nothing more to do with them. It was wrong! I am angry.”

“I’m in the dark. Inside of me and outside. In the tomb. I never want to go back up there. She’s under a stone slab. I am thirsty, thin, weak. I am draped across her stone. I feel sad, and scared.”

I ask her what connections she is making to this life. “I think it is not okay to be beautiful. Rules; it is not my place to change things or love her. I made the decision that people are without compassion and fairness. Don’t argue with them or struggle, just go away. Don’t speak out to change things! I turn away, shut up, shut down, die. In this life, I didn’t have a right to speak either. We don’t have a right as a child.”

In another life with a similar pattern, Cheryl experiences herself in a Chinese or Japanese life. She continues:

“I see a fancy outfit. She is powerful, noisy, has a yellow and red streamer and a mask of paint on her face. She could be a Japanese dancer. She’s forceful—dominant” (pause). “I can’t find me.”

After a minute: “I have on black cloth slippers and white cloth binding on them. I am a geisha girl. I have big black hair. I am bowing. And bowing. To the flashy person, and others. I am not performing, but serving. Acting very humble. I am acting completely subservient, but that’s not how I feel. There is a lot of clanging and noise. Maybe that other one is performing, or is a ruler performing a ruler role. I feel small. Quiet. A role. My role is so narrow.”

“These rules! There are so many. Everything is bound by rules. Who gets to dance sing, make noise. Everything’s prescribed. There is nothing I can do outside of the rules.”

“Next I am sitting with three men and at least one other geisha, the more famous and powerful one. I want to sing. A man I am drawn to does ask me to sing. I begin singing. As a woman, I cannot say no to him, because he is the patron. The famous geisha makes fun of me while I am singing. I feel very humiliated. They all laugh with her. Later she scratches my face and pulls my hair because he asked me, not her. She tells me that she is the only one who gets to sing; she is the popular one. I crumble, get away, and sob on a mat. There is no hope. I become dispirited and give up. I am silent and the man loses interest in me. She won’t tolerate rivals and has to be the prima donna; she has to be the only one, I hate her. Turning my back on all of them, I jump into the river, which is shallow. I see my dress tumbling down the river as I leave my body in its death.”

I asked Cheryl what connections she made from that life to this one. She said her mother would not tolerate competition in this lifetime, was verbally vicious, and told her not to sing in church. She grew up terrified of her mother’s rage and jealousy. “She was the queen.” She said she thought that the woman in her past life who humiliated her in public and her mother were the same soul. She said that she always shrank back in the face of her mother’s wrath and her father’s “rules.” Cheryl said that she learned if you break the rules you die, or if you step outside your place they will kill you. “There is only place for one star.”

From examining these lives in a virtual reality, Cheryl saw that she had several beliefs that kept her from expressing herself more fully in this life. She saw how and why she held herself back. She said she saw her mindset as:

“I have to follow the rules, no questions asked. Rules are rigid, prescribed. I didn’t deserve to love, express, sing, speak. Others were more important. I wasn’t.”

“I didn’t realize I had these beliefs and choices to do things differently.” Cheryl told me that there had been many times in her life that she had wanted to commit suicide. Although she never acted on them, the feelings were intense. Since our session, Cheryl told me that she was expressing herself more vigorously and sooner than before. She notices that she is not withdrawing from life, and is less concerned about her parents negative reactions to her feelings and wishes. Several months later, Cheryl enrolled in a body movement program. She has been putting on trainings for this type of expressive bodywork.

“Memories” seem to be soul imprints that become patterns or themes in our lives and seem to be pre-programmed to be re-enacted in some form in our present lives. Perhaps the psyche finds a story to relive that fits with its issues, blocks, or patterns. Whether they are seen as psyche’s creations or actual experiences does not seem to matter. The places, events, and people encountered often hold significant meaning for the person. Emotional issues played out in these dramas seem to alleviate the symptom. Perhaps, more importantly, by experiencing the cycle of death, birth, and re-birth, we awaken to the world soul. Soul story work, or trans-life regression, pushes back the veil of time wherein we can access our multidimensionality in the collective unconscious of the world psyche.

Archetypal Themes 

Soul journeys often embody archetypal themes. Themes of love, abandonment, betrayal, birth, and death are examples of the themes that play out in these real life dramas. People are often unaware of the archetypal journey or myth they have been living—or has been living them—until they see it in the themes played out before them either in this threshold state of awareness, in dreams, or distilled from waking-life themes. One of the most amazing aspects of this kind of imaginal process is that changes not only occur in the journeyer’s life, but also changes in the lives of people around them. Most all therapists are aware of the domino affect therapy has in the lives of the people around the client when he or she begins to make life changes in their own behavior, relationships and approach to life. However, more astounding are these kinds of transformations that occur seemingly resulting from a trans-life regression.

The archetypal motifs, especially death and rebirth, tend to unlock the ego’s fear of death. People report having a sense of peace knowing or experiencing what seemed to be a re-enactment of very traumatic life endings. Another benefit of this kind of threshold experience is that people begin to see that they have lived many kinds of lives, have been players as antagonists and protagonists. We have been many colors and things. From the humility of finding that once you were the very thing you judge the most—your shadow self for example—your judgments and prejudices of others in the world seem simply to fall away. I remember having untold projection and bias toward Catholicism. I could give so many reasons why I held these prejudices from which I knew I would not budge. Then, on one fine day during a regression, I saw myself living the life of a nun! I could not believe it, yet there I was in my habit, living a sparse life in another century. From that experience and many others like it, I have retracted my personal judgment and biases. If anything, I have learned that chances are those that I have had any reaction toward are simply mirrors for a traumatic or unresolved life waiting for me to uncover!

Unless the imprints that become patterns or themes are reworked, they seem pre-programmed to be re-enacted in our present lives. By reliving these archetypal motifs in this type of virtual reality, our fixed identities shatter. These experiences expand the boundaries of the Self. Reliving stories of the soul unlocks patterns at a cellular level and loosens the ego’s grip on Maya—the illusion that we are separate from each other and all sentient beings. Soul stories serve to awaken us to the world soul and our connection with one another. It brings humility to our judgments about others and grace to our soul as we begin to understand that we have experienced all things, from rapists, murderers, to heroes and heroines. We begin to find compassion in our heart knowing we have most likely lived in the shoes of the other. “We begin to recognize that our minds are part of an extended web or field of consciousness composed of all the beings that are simultaneously sharing this present moment.”

References

(*) Bache, C., Dark Night, Early Dawn: Steps to a Deep Ecology of the Mind, (New York: SUNY Press, 2000), p. 133.

(**) Bache, C., Dark Night, Early Dawn: Steps to a Deep Ecology of the Mind, (New York: SUNY Press, 2000) p. 159.