What if reincarnation is actually real? What could you learn from your past incarnations? What wisdom might your soul share from all your past lives that would help direct your current one?
One therapist online says that’s precisely the journey we’re all on, and she’s compiled quite a bit of insight from her clients’ descriptions of the times they’ve been here before.
Reincarnation is obviously a controversial topic — and one many people regard as nonsense. I see you, eye-rollers — I personally was a lifelong skeptic about this concept until fairly recently!
But what ultimately made me open my mind is the fact that most people who claim to have had a “near-death experience” in which they saw “the other side” report having seen and encountered remarkably similar things, much of which points to the concept of reincarnation.
Those people include a fair number of scientists, such as neurosurgeon Dr. Eben Alexander (though to be fair, many of his assertions have been challenged by other doctors and scientists.)
Major universities like the University of Virginia have also done sprawling studies on past-life memories in children, who are said to be more perceptive about this issue in part because they are less inculcated into the various stigmas against the idea of reincarnation.
So there is reason to remain open-minded about reincarnation, even if you’re a skeptic. And since the whole point of reincarnation, the theories go, is that our souls learn and grow from the experiences and then apply those lessons to the next life, what might we be able to learn from our “higher selves”?
That’s where past-life regression comes in, a process by which people go deep into a meditation that supposedly leads them to the parts of the subconscious that hold memories of our past lives.
Those who want to take this a step further often enlist the help of people like Mallorie Shannon, a professional past-life regression hypnotherapist known as @youvegotmal on TikTok. Shannon uses hypnosis to take clients even deeper into their subconscious so that they can meet their “higher self” — the actual soul that keeps reincarnating and which took their current human form in their current life.
And as she shared in a recent videoShannon’s work with her clients has exposed her to quite a bit of these higher selves’ wisdom, and there are bits she has found to be the most helpful for all of us.
: If These 7 Things Appear In Your Dreams, You’re Remembering Your Past Life
Zahh Namati | Unsellay
Shannon says her clients’ higher selves have said that “it’s important for your energy field to reset” every now and then, and the close proximity to your partner while sleeping can put you in contact with their energy field and impinge on this process.
“Even if you have a partner, it’s important sometimes to take that reset and to sleep by yourself,” she said.
I’m an avid hiker and have often felt like trees “speak” to us — a notion I’ve always dismissed as hippy-dippy wishful thinking. But perhaps I’ll reconsider! Because according to people’s higher selves, “everyone can talk to trees, you just have to clear your mind,” Shannon said.
She admitted that even she had to laugh about this one, but she has found trees to have a spiritual side, too. If you’ve ever been all alone in a forest, you’ve probably felt SOMETHING. So next time, lean into it.
“Talk to trees,” Shannon said. “It’s so cool.”
Not only do our thoughts have an impact on the actual realities we experience in our lives — that’s part of the neuroscience behind spiritual concepts like manifestation (yes, there is actual neuroscience behind manifestation, skeptics!) — Shannon said souls have told her our thoughts “can actually influence how you digest food and what the food does for you.”
As a person who sleeps with approximately 473 pillows arranged into a complicated sleeping fortress I will not be taking this advice (sorry, higher self, get bent on this one!), but Shannon says the spirits say pillows “can affect how your blood flows and how your spinal fluid flows.”
Some of her clients have lived past lives in cultures where the practice was to elevate the feet while sleeping instead. Shannon said that while she only has anecdotal evidence about the efficacy of this, she has found that since adopting this process “my neck has felt way better.” (I’m still not doing it though, I can figure this out in the next life!)
: The Spiritual Meaning Of Never Breaking A Bone
This is one of the more common woo-woo manifestation methods, and according to people’s higher selves, it’s very real.
“If you talk to your water and infuse it with positive intentions and then drink it, it affects your body in a really positive way,” Shannon said.
Yes, this sounds insane of course, but what can a few words whispered into a glass really hurt, right?
This is where we start getting into the quantum physics of it all, and the theory of parallel realities that is the basis of everything from phenomena like the Mandela effect to Oscar-winning movies like “The Matrix” and “Everything Everywhere All At Once.”
The higher selves Shannon has encountered say that stuff is very real — and that it has very real implications on our decision-making. Basically, if you’re fretting over what the “best” decision is, let it go — because the “worst” one is going to happen too.
“Every time you have a major life decision or a decision in general, both options get played out,” Shannon said, “so whatever one you’re choosing is what one you’re experiencing, but a parallel version of you in a parallel timeline of reality is experiencing the other one.”
Which sort of touches on what I think is the most compelling part of the entire concept of reincarnation. If all this day-to-day living is actually about the edification of some deeper “soul,” then why worry so much about it?
It’s like that old cliche that says, “we’re not humans having a spiritual experience, we’re spirits having a human experience.” And if you end up being wrong and there really IS nothing after this life? Well, at least you didn’t spend it overthinking everything, right?
: What Almost Everyone Gets Wrong About Manifestation That Keeps It From Working
John Sundholm is a writer, editor, and video personality with 20 years of experience in media and entertainment. He covers culture, mental health, and human interest topics.
