Monday 11 June 2007

Post No. 002 - Workshop on Past Lives - Part 1: working with karma as an energy [Content Warning - harm & wrongdoing, karmic punishment]


Welcome. As with my first post, I'll probably have problems with the figures in these notes: my apologies, and hope you can enjoy them anyway.
Later edit: there are some interesting articles related to some of what I cover in these and the next workshop notes. They are:

"Life and Karma" by Kelli Klymenko at http://www.witchvox.com/va/dt_va.html?a=usca&c=words&id=11821 (on the Witches Voice website, at http://www.witchvox.com/)
"On Past Lives, Soulmates, and Living in the Now" by Lupa at http://www.witchvox.com/va/dt_va.html?a=usor&c=words&id=11836 (also on the Witches Voice website, at http://www.witchvox.com/)

Love, light, hugs and blessings

Gnwmythr
(The photo is one of a few I took at Mallacoota, in east Victoria, during a low tourist period. Once I get the figures in the right format, I'll be able to add them.)
Tags: energy work, karma, past lives, workshop notes
First published: 11th June, 2007

Working with Karma as an Energy


Gnwmythr


July, 2005



Working with karma as an energy
Table of Contents
1. Introduction.. 2
2. Some Underlying Principles. 3
2.1 Karma. 3
2.2 Highest Spiritual Good. 4
2.3 Ethics. 4
2.4 Current karmic “good” credit. 5
2.5 Looking after yourself. 5
2.6 Psychic safety. 6
3. Techniques. 6
3.1 Basics. 6
3.1.1 Negative units. 6
3.1.2 Positive units. 6
3.2 Group practise. 6
Exercise 1. 6
Exercise 2. 7
Exercise 3. 7
Exercise 4. 7
Variations on a theme. 8
Final note from practise. 8
4. Applications. 8
5. Figures. 9
Figure 1. 9
Figure 2. 10
6. Flow charts. 11
Clearing. 11
Problem solving. 15
Asking yes/no questions (individual) 18
Asking yes/no questions (group) 19

Workshop notes
1. Introduction
I have been guiding people through past life regressions since the mid-80s. This workshop, whilst being done as a standalone workshop, is one half of the technique I typically use for those regressions. The reason I have split the past life regression workshop into two halves is to adapt my technique from a situation where I am working one on one, to a situation where I am working in a workshop setting.
As a warning for the 2nd workshop, please note that I will not be dealing with any issues of proof of reincarnation. The approach is based on resolving issues or problems, and - in that context - whether or not past lives exist is irrelevant: what matters is whether it works for you or not. And if it doesn’t work for you after a reasonable attempt, then I would suggest you consider moving on and finding the next technique that is of relevance to you.
If you would like some proof about past lives, I suggest you:
Ø read “20 cases Suggestive of Reincarnation” by Professor Ian Stevenson (I don’t have the full reference - sorry), Dick Sutphen’s books “Past Lives, Future Loves” (pub. Pocket Books, 1978, ISBN 0-671-83485-1) and “You Were Born Again to be Together” (pub. Pocket Books, 1976, ISBN 0 671 43383 0), or
Ø see a hypnotherapist who is prepared to help you work on this, which is the essence of books such as “The Reincarnations of Robert Macready” (pub. Zebra Books, 1980, ISBN 0-89083-703-1) (I don’t have any referrals or recommendations).
On the subject of books, another one worth thinking about is “The Case for Reincarnation” by Joe Fischer (pub. Grafton Books, ISBN 0 586 06540 7).
This technique is based on what I learned at a New Age/spiritualist group called ASPECTS, run by John Fitzsimons (see http://home.vicnet.net.au/~johnf/welcome.htm). I don’t know what changes ASPECTS has made since I left in the late 80s, but I have adapted this technique slightly over the years.
You should also note that there are other teaching sources and/or techniques for doing this sort of work - one such example is set out in the book “Cutting the Ties That Bind” by Phyllis Krystal (pub. Aura Books, 1982, ISBN 0 85500 162 3).

2. Some Underlying Principles
2.1 Karma
Since the title of this workshop refers to karma, perhaps we should start with that.
The best way that I can explain my understanding of “karma”, which is a basis of this workshop, is that karma is the idea that what you give out, both good and bad, comes back.
There are other terms which are similar, but I’m familiar and comfortable with the term “karma”, and have found it creates a good understanding for most people of what this is about.
In the context of this workshop, the idea is that interactions we have with people can lead to an energy that connects us to the person and/or the interaction (As a digression, I was interested to read on the BBC website’s “religions” page that apparently followers of Jainism believe in particles of karma.)
Ø example (1): if you help someone by, say, saving them from drowning, that constructive interaction could: - create a “good”/positive/constructive link along which energy can travel (and, perhaps, give you a “warm, inner glow”), or - create a thought form of the event which could influence someone else into saving you from drowning (possibly metaphorically) or perhaps a thought form of any tools used (eg, you may like boats without wanting to be a boatie);
Ø example (2): if you harm someone by, say, hitting with an axe or shooting them, that unfortunate/destructive/counter-productive interaction could: - create a “negative”/destructive/ link along which energy can flow (and, perhaps, possibly result in you having pain as the pain energy created in the victim flows back to you), or - create a thought form of the event which could influence someone else into committing that act against you or perhaps a thought form of any tools used leading to, perhaps, a fear of whatever was used, or that - results in an earthbound entity being stuck in your aura (based on my experience, there seems to be some mechanism for this to occur in lives beyond that in which the negative action was undertaken, but I have been unable to explain that);
Ø the strength of these links, thought forms, etc (I was taught to use the generic term “units”) depends on the strength of interaction: - brush against somebody a bit roughly, and you may not form a link, or the “sorry” may adequately take care of the incident - cause great emotional, mental, spiritual or physical pain, and it is likely that there will be a stronger result.
See Figure 1 (Note: this is a scanned copy of an old diagram - I would probably draw this differently now).
There is the potential for vast discussion on this topic and the many related issues, countering viewpoints and fine points (most fundamentally, what is “constructive” or “destructive”), but the purpose of this brief commentary is to provide a way of thinking about the techniques: it is a lead up to the practical exercises.
The next important point is: as we live our lives, we do further “good” and “bad” deeds, and the energy we create through those deeds (whether physical, mental or on some other level) tends to have an influence on what we have created. (This suggests that it helps to respond constructively to bad stuff coming back to you, which is one thing from Buddhism I try to hold to - and constructive does NOT mean “do nothing about”).
Largely, this “further influence” is automatic. However, it is possible to use an increased spiritual awareness to deliberately accelerate this process. Apart from potentially helping us by accelerating the removal of negative links and other negative units (which may, for instance, remove a source of headaches that we have suffered from), I am of the opinion that this contribute towards reality as a whole being a better, more constructive/spiritual place.
There are a few qualifications to this process.
To begin with, I have spoken to a person who survived a near death experience who came back with the strong message that people had to understand that after death we all experience that which we have given out, good and bad, (which is a concept I have come across as reviewing the life just lived, perhaps in the “Hall of the Akashic Record”) and considers this technique won’t change what we experience after death. Personally, I’m not so sure she was in a position to really comment on that, for a number of reasons, but I think having a healthy scepticism is good for you, so I’ll throw that bit of doubt in for the good of your souls :)
You should also keep in mind that this is a technique for accelerating and bringing to the level of conscious intervention what would otherwise still happen - and there are people on this planet who are doing so much through other means that they don’t need this technique to accelerate their growth or help to contribute to the world being a better place. To put a Buddhist slant on this, this technique is not a prerequisite for attaining enlightenment.
There are a few other points I wish to briefly outline.
2.2 Highest Spiritual Good
Something I differ from Buddhism in (and, to some extent, as ASPECTS used to teach this technique) is that I do not consider everything is due to karma. There are learning experiences, tests etc along the way - and I am of the opinion that there is some intelligent force (Goddess, Allah, JHVH, Great Spirit, God or whatever term you wish to use) having an influence on how karma and the universe work.
A term I was taught is Highest Spiritual Good, which is term acknowledging that you may have to go through turmoil and challenges and trouble - not only for karmic reasons, but also because you may need the strengthening experience, or you may have agreed to take something on to see whether others would help you (ie, as a test of a friend, perhaps), or this may be needed to motivate you into learning thoroughly.
Hence, no matter how good your application of the techniques we will be learning about in this workshop, they may not work for you in all situations.
There is a flip side to this as well: it may be for your Highest Spiritual Good to have some “troubles” removed from your life despite you not having the ability to do so by your own efforts.
2.3 Ethics
I have mentioned ethics as a separate issue to make sure you think about respect for others and their free will. In the context of this work, you cannot heal other people against their will, but you do have the right to clear what is affecting you (if that is for the Highest Spiritual Good), or at least your share of that. That may crop up if you want, for instance, to clear a link which one of your victims is using (probably entirely unconsciously) to cause or contribute to a headache and they want you to go through a bit more of what they did. (In that circumstance, “two wrongs do not make a right”.)
If someone helped you to create, say, a negative thought form, and they are not yet ready to dissolve their share of that thought form, despite it possibly affecting them, that is their choice, and they have the right to do so.
2.4 Current karmic “good” credit
To be able to start this work, a certain amount of “good” karma is required. Most people who are interested in coming to a workshop like this will have acquired a certain amount of that just in the course of living. If not (and I have yet to come across anyone who didn’t have some “good” karmic credit), the intention to fix a problem will in itself earn some “good” karmic credit
2.5 Looking after yourself
I’m going to step ahead for a moment, to past life regressions.
Unlike many other regression techniques, the technique I use focuses quite deliberately on past mistakes.
To illustrate that, where some regression techniques may attribute, say, the trusty old headache example to having been hit by someone, this technique requires you to take stronger ownership of the situation and go back to a life where you were the hitter rather than the “hittee”.
This has a lot of potential to help you learn, but it also comes with a danger, in that it can adversely affect your self confidence or self esteem. It is therefore absolutely vital that you monitor yourself and how are feeling, and take constructive action if you have a problem.
There are two aspects to this: short term (ie, during the session itself), and long term.
In the short term (ie, the session you are working in and immediately after, your mood will be obvious enough. It is important to:
Ø remember the saying “show me someone who hasn’t made a mistake, and I’ll show you someone who hasn’t done anything”;
Ø stay focused on the fact you are doing something which is of benefit to yourself and others;
Ø NEVER compare yourself to others (you don’t know what they’ve perhaps already done to clear up messes);
Ø avoid any victim or “Poor Little Me” thinking (when I was learning, owing to the intensity with which we studied, this was a significant issue).
In terms of monitoring oneself on a longer term basis, some questions I used to suggest for use to check how they were on a long term basis (eg, could perhaps ask these questions of oneself every new moon, or every festival of either a lunar/solar quarter, perhaps) are:
Ø Have there been any changes to my temperament? - If so, is the change better or worse? If it is for the worse, what action is required, and how do I implement that or work towards implementing that?
Ø Have there been any changes in my stress levels, or signs of being stressed? - If so, is the change better or worse? If it is for the worse, what action is required, and how do I implement that or work towards implementing that?
Ø Have there been any changes in my involvement with family, friends, hobbies, physical recreation or cultural activities? - If so, is the change better or worse? If it is for the worse, what action is required, and how do I implement that or work towards implementing that?
Ø Have there been any changes in my psychic health?
Ø Have there been any changes in my goals or direction in life? - If so, is the change better or worse? If it is for the worse, what action is required, and how do I implement that or work towards implementing that?
This is being mentioned now, as I would like you to think about ways to reasonably stay positively focused while doing this sort of work if you come back for the next workshop (you may have to convince me you’ve got a good technique for this at or before the next workshop) and for any time you use these techniques. You probably won’t ever need them, but it doesn’t hurt to be prepared.
(Incidentally, it is possible to use constructive links to get a bit of a lift - more on that later.)
2.6 Psychic safety
You should always regularly use responsible psychic practise such as shielding (protection), grounding and releasing, and sessions where you wish to clear negative units are no different to any other psychic work session.

3. Techniques
3.1 Basics
3.1.1 Negative units
In essence, by accepting responsibility for having created a negative unit, we take a big step towards being able to clear or dissolve that unit. Some units cannot be cleared until you gain an understanding of what your mistake was, which is where the past life regression techniques come in. For the purposes of this workshop, we’re going to deal with units that you don’t need to do any learning to be able to clear.
The actual technique is:
Ø establish your shields/protection, and establish (and check) a clear link with whatever source of psychic information you intend to use (whether that is Higher Self, ancestors or guides)
Ø use your psychism to sense negative units around you (ask your psychic source to help you to sense what you are allowed to “for your Highest Spiritual Good”)
Ø generate positive energy (typically by visualising light, but you could also use heat, [astral] images of tools, etc) to clear (dissolve) the unit(s): - send light out along links to dissolve them (whether this has a noticeable, beneficial effect at the other end depends on how forgiving other person is prepared to be) - send healing to objects - have earthbound people rescued (as a minimum, you can send healing - with permission from recipient’s Higher Self)
See Figure 2 (note: this is a scanned copy of an old diagram - I would probably draw this differently now).
Objectivity is important while you do this. Don’t get into self punishment/guilt trips - working with others helps to maintain objectivity, and can be useful to gain a check on your psychic impressions.
I find it easiest to simply directly apply positive energy to counter and dissolve any negative units, but others may not find that as easy. Books such as “Cutting the Ties That Bind” by Phyllis Krystal (pub. Aura Books, 1982, ISBN 0 85500 162 3) can be helpful there, but so can sharing ideas and being willing to let your creativity have free reign. As an example, I was once able to “rescue” a fairly large group of earthbound entities from a train by asking for an astral trains to be brought alongside the physical one, and then sending out an astral notice for everyone to change trains - the earthbound entities changed trains, and then were guided to the astral worlds.
3.1.2 Positive units
It is also important to remember the positive units we have been responsible for creating. (Interestingly, over a series of lives, people may end up with a complex combination of positive and negative links.) By sending positive energy to or through these units:
Ø the units will be strengthened
Ø people on the receiving end may get a warm inner glow, and are likely to reciprocate (it can be useful to send out this positive energy until you get that warm inner glow yourself)
3.2 Group practise
Exercise 1
Get into pairs and:
Ø person A asks how many negative links she/he has that are allowed to be cleared for the Highest Spiritual Good in this session while (as a check) person B also asks how many links A can clear - if the answers are close, simply continue - the numbers don’t have to match exactly, as this is only one of several checks, - if the numbers are far apart, consider what options you have for solving this problem (see the flow charts in Section 6 for some ideas)
Ø repeat this regarding where the links are
Ø repeat this regarding what influence - if any - the links have had, and what the benefits will be of clearing that link
Ø person A then commences sending positive energy out along the links until BOTH A and B agree that the links is dissolved (as an example of a way of checking this, one could, for instance, ask one’s guides to show a milk bottle gradually filling, on the basis that when the bottle is full you have done everything you need to)
Exercise 2
Change pairs and:
Ø person A asks how many negative thought forms/astral objects she/he has that are allowed to be cleared for the Highest Spiritual Good in this session while (as a check) person B also asks how many thought forms/astral objects A can clear - if the answers are close, simply continue - the numbers don’t have to match exactly, as this is only one of several checks, - if the numbers are far apart, consider what options you have for solving this problem (see the flow charts in Section 6 for some ideas)
Ø repeat this regarding where the thought forms/astral objects are
Ø repeat this regarding what influence - if any - the thought forms/astral objects have had, and what the benefits will be of clearing that link
Ø person A then commences sending positive energy to the thought forms/astral objects until BOTH A and B agree that the thought forms/astral objects is dissolved
Exercise 3
Get into groups of three and:
Ø person A asks how many negative links she/he has that are allowed to be cleared for the Highest Spiritual Good in this session while (as a check) person B also asks how many links A can clear; person C also checks this question and also keeps a (psychic) eye on how the interaction between A and B is going - C is meant to be a sort of umpire making sure that both A and B are doing their jobs objectively and properly - if the answers are close, simply continue - the numbers don’t have to match exactly, as this is only one of several checks, - if the numbers are far apart, consider what options you have for solving this problem (see the flow charts in Section 6 for some ideas)
Ø repeat this regarding where the links are
Ø repeat this regarding what influence - if any - the links have had, and what the benefits will be of clearing that link
Ø person A then commences sending positive energy out along the links until ALL A, B and C agree that the links is dissolved
Ø repeat the process but with persons A and B swapping their roles
Exercise 4
get into new groups of three and:
Ø person A asks how many negative thought forms/astral objects she/he has that are allowed to be cleared for the Highest Spiritual Good in this session while (as a check) person B also asks how many thought forms/astral objects A can clear; person C also checks this question and also keeps a (psychic) eye on how the interaction between A and B is going - C is meant to be a sort of umpire making sure that both A and B are doing their jobs objectively and properly - if the answers are close, simply continue - the numbers don’t have to match exactly, as this is only one of several checks, - if the numbers are far apart, consider what options you have for solving this problem (see the flow charts in Section 6 for some ideas)
Ø repeat this regarding where the thought forms/astral objects are
Ø repeat this regarding what influence - if any - the thought forms/astral objects have had, and what the benefits will be of clearing that link
Ø person A then commences sending positive energy out to the thought forms/astral objects until ALL A, B and C agree that the links is dissolved
repeat the process but with persons A and B swapping their roles
Variations on a theme
There are other ways of undertaking this clearing of negative units (I gave one when regarding the train). For example, one could visualise a tornado or a vacuum cleaner being used to collect units, or visualise crystals being used like fridge magnets to radiate positive, healing energy into a thought form or object.
I have found that using breathing exercises - particularly alternate nostril techniques - can make use of this technique much easier.
I will also remind you that normal living and growth will often lead to units being dissolved anyway, so don’t forget the value of working through your issues and other techniques you have learned or tools you have. For instance, an athame could possibly be quite good for cutting links.
Final note from practise
As a final note, remember the need for balance and objectivity. If you want a quick test of this: if you were watching someone else feeling what you are now after a session like, what would you do?
You may also find this technique tiring at first, particularly if you are not used to working directly with energy.

4. Applications
Because this technique is potentially dealing so directly with negative energy, I recommend that you consider using this separately to other techniques initially. Initially clearing of negative units should be done when you are in a good mood or mental/emotional/psychic space, but with practise can be used to lift your mood (particularly sending positive energy out through links).
Don’t overdo this technique.
In the actual techniques you use, try being creative and having fun - invent new techniques, try them, and then assess them :)
By doing things like pre-clearing negative links to people you are going to meet, you can use this technique to prepare for events. It may also be possible for you to clear negative units that are contributing to problems - for instance, you might be experiencing a “mental block” because there is a negative unit in your aura; if you clear the unit, you may be able to clear your “mental block”.
You can also ask to be assisted to do whatever clearing you can for forthcoming events, people you are going to meet or “for whatever the coming day may bring” when you go to sleep.
Remember that may not be allowed to clear all units, but if you ask for assistance to do so “for the Highest Spiritual Good” you may be able to do more than have the personal skill for.

5. Figures
Figure 1

Figure 2

6. Flow charts
Clearing



Problem solving





Asking yes/no questions (individual)
Asking yes/no questions (group)
 

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