Journey of Souls: Case Studies of Life Between Lives (Michael Newton's Journey of Souls, 1)

Michael Newton talks about how, through hypnosis, people are taken to the part of the mind (not brain) where we remember everything, including our time spent in between incarnations, (in fact, he found out that MOST of our eternal existence is not in body, but in heaven— "the afterlife," where we learn, grow, evolve, and LIVE.) He, though regressing hundreds of people over the years, learned MUCH about God's realm, and eagerly wrote everything down that he learned. While I recognize that it COULD be all untrue, it seems true to me, and plus what one gains if one absorbs this information is a new way of living more spiritually. It is perfectly combined with the study of Near Death Experiences, which has a similar effect. So, while with NDEs, you can listen to the experiences of people who have "been there" and seen that light and had their lives change, this book is by the hypnotist ABOUT the experiencers, and he doesn't write much about his own regressions, so it's more a question of faithful believing. But his other 3 books contain even more about people who have undergone this journey to that place we can't remember, and found out their life purpose and changed their lives for the better, in ways that they feel, "YES, this is right, this is what I was meant to be doing. " I was brought up by atheists and, while discovering God for myself, I didn't believe in life after death and never subscribed to any religion. I think that maybe I was meant to remain open to embrace these newer understandings, which stand the tests of current experience in helping people. Well, of course the regular religions do this, too, but some of us just can't seem to grasp the truth in them—they are so old and creaky. To try and wring wisdom from the Bible is so much harder than to read newer stuff written in modern language about the way God means it to be. So simple, and what we all know, but with a special spin of authenticity, and extra information, too—like, did you know that some souls incarnate on other planets? That we do evolve and progress in the spirit world? and especially, that we are each here on earth to learn special things that our souls have been having trouble grasping? And you know, look around, how much this knowledge is needed. Instead of lying and manipulation for power, as we have seen in the last four years (it's 2021 now) done spectacularly—(and it goes on, even after the term of office is over, not just one person, but thousands.) For one thing, you can see that these people need to have their sights set on living good lives, and not on fighting and arguing and protesting, and they are here to learn things that, God help them, they might want to start learning—and that if, in our culture, it became in general something we all had in mind, how much better things would get, fast—as we discovered how to love and help each other instead of cut and compete. One hopes that mainstream science is going to get on board with these discoveries (especially NDEs) but meanwhile, we can each set our own lives on a better course by learning more about God's reality and God's truths. It helps me a great deal in the face of adversity to turn my mind to "What do I need to learn from this?" I think that's the most important gist of why learn all about heaven and the purpose of our lives and the evolution of our souls. Michael Newton and others founded a center which continues his work. "The proof of the pudding is in the eating." Let's hope he is still communicating with those of us on earth who have that gift of being able to hear deceased souls!! (I'm not one of those! I have to read about it, and so I just ordered some more books about spiritualism!) It's hard to understand, while viewing ALL these books about this field that Most People are still basically atheists (even the religious ones) and laugh at the whole idea that the mind separates from the body at death and lives on. I just cheerfully say "Wait, you'll see!"

This book contains some of the greatest written and illustrated, wonderful facts about our inner souls and our journeys through lives. It's certainly well worth reading as is the authors following book "Destiny of Souls" which I also purchased.

I have read all Newton's major books which have been fascinated and very helpful in giving new insights especially in regard to in-between lives. Having personally experienced non-stress related out-of-body and white light experiences such research has re-enforced and expanded my understanding. I was hoping to find satisfactory answers to some questions that all my life have caused me much heartache despite all my readings still do not make sense even in the big picture and continue to go unanswered: 1. What purpose does it serves individuals who die suddenly or from indiscriminate natural "disasters? 2.Prior to having the ability to learn from the experience in their present lives why do the very young suffer and die? 3. Since animals do not have free will as humans and live mostly by instinct, what purpose does their suffering serve? ...And why would a compassionate creator allow a natural system of carnivores/predators causing so much ongoing stress, fear and suffering in the animal kingdom? 4. Why do so many people with so much talent and skill find themselves in circumstances with little opportunity to use those special abilities to make this a better world...Why do not the spirits not work along side us for the greater good rather then allow us to become so discouraged and allow others of greed and cruelty to continue to dominate and decimate our planet? 5. Why does prolonged suffering occur amongst animals ...how could they be learning anything to further there spiritual evolvement since unlike man they are instinctual beings without free will ? 6. It seems that“lessons” can often be so hard, and or prolonged as to severely traumatized a person and loved ones causing understandable bitterness and regression, especially when earthbound the reasons are unfathomable yet still not revealed to them, which seems counter-productive and cruel ? Christ knew with certainty where he came from, his purpose and where he was going and why he was being crucified while God in spirit by his side, giving much needed comfort and fortitude etc. ...so why not the rest of us ? 7. Childhood would seem waste of time rather then starting at a mature age or where one left off from their last incarnation. Children being more prone to engage in abuse (...and further bad karma) cause unnecessary suffering, especially toward the defenseless such as animals? It would be a great relief as well as remove a substantial hindrance to my spiritual progress if any anyone could answer these questions as specifically as possible or give me references to some text that does, or if unable to ask someone appropriate during your hypnotic therapeutic questionings who could, such as a spiritual guide which if published would be of great interest and worth to others as well. Thank you such much for your time and considerations, Brad Kalita “Sum greater than parts”: The multi-faceted elements of human beings as a whole may be more comprehensible to make a comparison to the facets of water. Water is probably the most wondrous of substances having several distinct forms/properties depending the environment: Solid, liquid and vapor. Solid State…which we know well. Humane similarities in liquid state: Potential to let go, and just flow...exampfied by the wise elder who fell into a raging river surviving by not struggling and exhausting himself but rather flowing over the rapids until reaching calmer waters. Vaporous State …ethereal/spirit state, as in transcending or “passing over.” In scientific terms; Matter and energy never lost but transformed ...“having continually evolving integrative emergent qualities”. Such deductions may be comforting as well as enlightening since they coincide with laws of physics, thereby lending fascinating possibilities to human transformative potential. Life after Life based upon personal and thousands of documented case studies: Evidence: Those experiencing an“Out-of-body” often see/report things that they couldn’t possibly have seen/known. Core experiences independent of pre-religious etc. beliefs. Very young unaculterated children have same experience as adults. Contrary to claimed as stress induced, experiences are often situationally non-threatening spontaneous events. “The Unified Field”: Before returning earthbound “Near-Deaths” are often met by loves ones and animals experiencing surroundings of luminous radiant harmony and great beauty. Any questions/concerns are satisfactory answered telepathically, then consciously deleted. A detailed review is made of ones life during a wonderful restful period prior to corrective co-strategy...including race, gender, planet etc. for next incarnation. For teaching progressive/evolvement purposes unless prior reconciled, abuses inflicted are likewise experienced. “Ye shall do even greater things” – Jesus: Through further effort, varied life situational experiences and resulting acquired wisdom, eventually an ultimate magnificently blissful eternal multi-dimensional state of incredible opportunities and abilities is achieved.

“Journey of Souls” is an exceptional book. Few writers in the history of humanity have professed to interview clients who were discussing their journeys in the spirit domains between successive human lives. To materialist-oriented scientists, all of those discussions are sheer bunk – the rambling of creative imaginations. By their reckoning, there is NO veridicality whatsoever to discussions of being consciously functioning in some spiritual dimension of reality. By the lights of materialist science, all consciousness has its basis in somewhat successfully functioning brains. No soul, no spirit, no vestige of consciousness in the person whose human body has died can intelligently be postulated. But WHAT IF materialist science and all the atheists who denounce religion and spirituality are feeding us GRAVE ERRORS? Did the author of the book under review, Michael Newton, hypnotize his subjects and direct his questioning so as to elicit the sorts of answers he wished to receive? Did Dr. Newton lead his subjects through hours of escapades into imaginary worlds of utter FICTION? These are not idle questions. To answer in the affirmative is to pretty much relegate the author to the category of a rank charlatan. I will be frank about the vantage point from which I address these issues, and I confess to, decades ago, long before I heard about journeys of any sort in a spirit domain, having been rationally forced by personal experiences to convert from agnosticism to devout theism. However, even though I was a fairly strong adherent to the belief in reincarnation, when I began reading “Journey of Souls”, my skepticism flags were flying all over the place. I’d read books about fairly rare children who, when young, claimed to know things that had taken place in various people’s lives and in places where they had never visited in their current life. Numerous cases are recorded of such children and their inexplicable knowledge of events things they’re never heard about or read about in this life so as to convince parents and many other people that the children really had lived lives of individuals who had died sometime prior to the children’s births. There are fairly numerous books available by highly credible authors who have amassed volumes of records about such phenomenal cases. This, in turn, strengthened my belief in reincarnation. But most of the subjects discussed in the book being reviewed reported experiences in the “afterlife” that failed to discuss very much their reasons for having to again become embodied in wretched human lives, lessons for character improvement, effective strategies for learning spiritual lessons in succeeding lives, etc. It seemed as if their reports from the spirit domain involved rather carnal, vain, and selfish beings while they were living “between” human lives. After some more thinking, it occurred to me that this makes sense. After all, people who are so carnal that they are condemned to going back and trying to “get it right” could be expected to operate a good deal by vanity in the spirit world. In fact, they took with them to the “afterlife” the very same vain, competitive, carnal nature they’d had while on earth. Suffice it to say that, even with my hearty dose of skepticism intact, I finished this book – having worked my way through it haltingly – with considerable respect for the author and a fairly strong inclination to regard the book as containing a sizeable amount of genuine veridicality. This open-minded stance flies in the face of hardened materialists whose minds are firmly shut tight on the dogma that the physical universe is all there is, all there ever was, or ever will be. Would they qualify as bigots? The answer depends on who is answering. Genuine open-mindedness is a rare treasure among humanity. The willingness to question one’s own questioning is praiseworthy. The book discussed here did not change my worldview substantially, but I will declare that IF the book is even moderately endowed with validity, it peers into a world whose suggested possibility for existence would arouse in those who subscribe to materialist convictions inclinations toward mockery with gusto. I valued the book more after finishing it than when acquiring it, but I remain a convinced learner.

Almost finished the whole book in one sitting! This was food for the soul. So interesting I could not put it down. So many things in life make sense now.

The most comforting message from this remarkable book may be its convincing evidence that we are not alone. First published in 1994 and now with the astonishingly small number of 300,000 copies sold, Journey of Souls probes the previous lives of 29 people who underwent regression hypnotherapy by Michael Newton, PhD, a certified master hypnotherapist. These disclosures riveted my attention, because 15 years ago I was transported in a near-death asthmatic crisis to the edge of the realm Newton and his 29 subjects describe. See The Soul Factory on [...], for a description of what two churchmen have since told me was probably a "revelation." That experience showed me, in fragments, what Newton has skillfully sewn together in Journey of Souls: Case Studies of Life Between Lives -- proof that we are not alone in the universe, that we all have souls, that we return again and again to chaotic Earth and to other worlds in an infinite scheme of evolving Creation, the elusive purpose of which is to build perfection. Even plants and animals have souls in this common, eternal quest, Newton reports -- albeit souls of a less-developed nature than ours. This work is not anti-Christian or anti-religion. Indeed, it reinforces most of the main themes found in the main religions. But it does depart sharply from beliefs many live with, such as the coming of a Day of Judgment, and Eternal Hellfire and Damnation as punishment. These are not true, Newton tells us. In the evolving eternity of time and space, our souls grow and develop, and are not judged or damned. Most of the Bible should not be read literally as a truthful record of actual events, but as a profoundly meaningful collection of moral, ethical and spiritual messages wrapped in stories or parables as their vehicles. For an excellent, short, lay-language overview of Newton's discoveries and a portal to diverse other sites and experiences in the timeless realm of souls he discovered, visit [...]. It could take you a lifetime to explore everything that has been experienced and retold about this subject; indeed, it took Newton 10 years to produce his book. Which leads me to an intriguing question: Why have only 300,000 copies been sold in five editions since 1994? One answer may be Newton's choice of publisher -- Woodbury, Minnesota-based Llewellyn Publications, which its Website [...] reveals to be heavily invested in works about witchcraft, astrology, tarot, paganism, the paranormal and the like. Mainstream publishers, fed on celebrity and "how-to" blockbuster titles, may have found Journey of Souls an unlikely candidate for mass appeal, thus pushing Newton into a smaller but friendlier, alternative publishing niche. Another answer may be that not many people are open to "new" ideas, however well authenticated, to the question: "What happens to us when we die?" Since infancy, most have been satisfied with the comforting answers parents for centuries have given: "you go to Heaven to live with Jesus forever" -- an answer that every church reinforces in greater and lesser measure throughout our lives. It's repeated in every religious funeral service. Newton's book doesn't debunk this idea, either -- rather, it gives a much more "scientific" and to me, believable version of it. Since the first Sputnik and views of distant heavenly bodies and galaxies began appearing in every child's schoolbooks, the idea of Heaven as a place in the clouds populated by white-robed angels behind the Pearly Gates has long been unbelievable to modern minds. And from that simple disillusionment to its grimmer next step -- that God is not seated on a throne there with Jesus at his right hand and the Holy Ghost at his left -- may seem a quantum leap to many. So we shrink from it. This is something we don't spend a lot of time wondering about as we go about our daily lives and habits, including the rituals and liturgy of church on Sundays. "Our Father, who art in Heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy Kingdom come ..." We believe this prayer, even as we know the greater reality that there is no Heaven and no Kingdom -- at least, not above the clouds or anywhere else our telescopes can see. Jesus gave us the Lord's Prayer before there were any telescopes. Although speculation persists, some Bible scholars even insisting they have found heaven physically located within our Solar System ([...]), the modern church does not teach us where Heaven and the Kingdom of God are located. Instead, it invites us to imagine them in a spiritual context, open to a vast array of future possibilities, including their joint establishment here on Planet Earth after Judgment Day -- to which I can only wonder: If we have to wait until then to see it, where is it now and where has it been since God, in the Book of Genesis, created Heaven and Earth? These are difficult theological questions to which organized religion has no satisfactory answers. And since it has no satisfactory answers, most of us don't think about it. We either have faith in the unknowable, or we don't -- and increasingly large numbers of us don't. That's where Newton's descriptions can fill a void, if you can be bothered looking for the answers to theological questions that you may have for so long given up asking in your faith. If you're like me, you have been "treading water" in this area for long time. Michael Newton began his research as a self-admitted atheist. His research, he says, made him a believer in an infinitely evolving universal Creation and in its single Creator, who, he admits, might well be God. Reading Journey of Souls reminded me not only of my own still-vivid encounter 15 years ago and the indelible impressions that left in me, but also of so many of the eternal themes of the Bible, and of the fundamental teaching of other religions. The spirit world where souls eternally learn and strive to improve, revisiting Earth and joining new human lives in their quest as part of continuing Creation, is based on love, according to Newton and others whose own observations and experiences support his narratives. Vengeance, hatred, envy, greed, lust and other vices are -- like punishment and retribution -- all human deficiencies not found in the realm of souls that Newton and others describe. Although Christianity and other religions do not directly address this, their positive teachings and the universal rules for living a good life in harmony with each other here on Earth, all broadly comport with what is found in the Journey of Souls.

"Are you afraid of death? Do you wonder what is going to happen to you after your die? Is it possible you have a spirit which came from somewhere else and will return there after your body dies, or is this just wishful thinking because you are afraid?" --Dr. Michael Newton in Journey of Souls - Case Studies of Life Between Lives At one time or another, everyone wonders what happens to them when they die, and what lies beyond the grave. In his book Journey of Souls - Case Studies of Life Between Lives, Hypnotherapist Dr. Michael Newton chronicles the experiences of 29 people that were under deep hypnosis and their experiences between lives. Many books have been written about past lives, but this book addresses what happens between lives. Dr. Newton did not set out to regress people beyond their current earthly lives. In fact, as a skeptic by nature and one oriented towards traditional therapy, he resisted requests to do past-life regression--feeling that this was unorthodox and unethical. However, one of his clients complained of a lifetime of chronic pain on his right side, and during one of their regular sessions, the client made stabbing motions to describe the kind of pain he felt. When searching for an explanation for this client's choice of images, he uncovered that his client had a past life as a WWI solider that was killed by a bayonet in France. Through this discovery, they were able to eliminate this pain altogether. He then began to do past life regressions, but then stumbled on a discovery of enormous proportions: he found that it was possible to see into the spirit world through the mind's eye of a hypnotized subject who could report back to him about life between lives. Dr. Newton explains: "The research was painfully slow, but as the body of my cases grew I finally had a working model of the eternal world where our souls live. I found thoughts about the spirit world involve universal truths among the souls of people living on Earth. It was these perceptions by so many different types of people which convinced me that their statements were believable. I am not a religious person, but I found the place where we go after death to be one of order and direction, and I have come to appreciate that there is a grand design to life and afterlife." Dr. Newton shares actual dialogue culled from audio recordings of regression sessions between he and his clients about what happens at the gate of death, who meets us on the other side, what we do once we're there, the purpose of our life, the role of guides, the nature of karma, cluster "study groups", inter-soul communication, what happens to "disturbed" souls, aura colors, the different levels of souls, and much more. I found Journey of Souls utterly fascinating, as well as Dr. Newton's sequel Destiny of Souls. However, my experience with these books was much more than mere intellectual fascination: both my husband and I experienced an utter paradigm shift about the afterlife, the Creator, and the purpose of life. Up until reading these books, I was still on the fence about reincarnation, and my husband's perspective was "no way!" The compelling regression sessions chronicled in this book convinced us otherwise, largely because of the consensus among regressed clients and how their reports confirmed some spiritual notions we were discovering on our own through direct experience. No other model made sense to either one of us; we long concluded that there was no literal hell, but what of suffering on Earth? Are our bodies, and our lives, completely random and arbitrary? Is it really possible we live more than one life? Why are we born into the family we are, especially if it results in abuse or pain? In these books we discovered that individuals carefully choose his or her own body and life circumstances to bring about certain experiences and to draw the soul closer to the perfection of the Creator. The whole point of incarnating is for self development. Yet, no one is rushed back into incarnating, and every soul has a chance to enter a dimension of time/space to "try out" a life and decide if this is the best choice for their own path. On the other side, there is playfulness, exploration, role playing, lessons, growth, past life examination, and so on. It is a place of rest, healing, rejuvenation, and self-examination. There are "schools" and our learning is a part of a specialized soul group. We have guides who teach us how to work with energy, and others who open up "books of life" so we can scrutinize our past life performance--and decide where we messed up, and how we can best grow in future lives. A helpful aspect of this book is the explanation of why some individuals go through difficult relationships, especially as children: "When clients tell me how much they suffered from the actions of family members, my first question to their conscious mind is, 'If you had not been exposed to this person as a child, what would you now lack in understanding?' It may take awhile, but the answer is in our minds. There are spiritual reasons for our being raised as children around certain kinds of people, just as other people are designated to be near us as adults... ...whatever happens to us in life, it is important we understand that our happiness or pain does not reflect either blessings or betrayal on the part of a God-oversoul, our guides, or life selection coordinators. We are the master of our own destiny." Most encouraging though, especially to those who fear a vengeful God awaiting them after death, is that we are not condemned or punished in the afterlife. Newton writes: "All soul evaluation conferences, be they with our guides, peers, or a panel of masters have one thing common. The feedback and past life analysis we receive in terms of judgment is based upon the original intent of our choices as much as the actions of our lifetime. Our motivations are questioned and criticized, but not condemned in such a way as to make us suffer." I highly recommend Journey of Souls, especially if you're searching for answers about the meaning of your life, why things happen, and what happens after death. Truly, we are never alone and are always surrounded by a supportive "great cloud of witnesses". Janet Boyer, author of The Back in Time Tarot Book: Picture the Past, Experience the Cards, Understand the Present (coming Fall 2008 from Hampton Roads Publishing)

I just finished the book and just read many of the reviews, covering the spectrum of raves and pans. I thoroughly enjoyed the book and have sent it to a friend to read and then we can discuss. I do believe that there is a spirit world and how it’s structured is a mystery. But, I find myself fascinated by NDE stories, readings from mediums and other things that add to the mystery of understanding why we are here and what lies ahead of our mortal journey. As a Christian, I am torn to some degree but can also see how God, Jesus and faith have room for how we will be in our eternal life. I am reading and studying more and while everyone’s journey is different, I think there is more to learn. I’m listening to an audio version of his other book, Destiny of Souls, and that’s adding to this exploration. For myself, it’s changed how I think about the spirit world as well as my own earth “carnation”. I do like how Newton lays out the spirit world from re-entry to rebirth, and what happens along the way.

Charming experiences of regressive hypnosis

A must-read for anyone who is ready to uncover deeper truths beyond what we know. Be open minded and you shall understand that everything that happens in our lives, is something we chose.

Please, don't challenge your "realistic" and "skeptical" mind, just try past life regression yourself! And you will find answers to your questions not only about to this book, but about yourself! Make an experiment! A.Z., MD, PhD

A fabulous little book that has given me hope! No one could possibly invent the information in this book that established religions will hate! Keep an open mind.

This book was a fascinating read. As a person who believes in the afterlife, and after losing the love of my life, I was drawn to this book to help ease my curiosities about what happens on the other side. Is there another side? Indeed there is! Dr. Newton himself claimed to be an atheist but spent many years studying patients using past life regression taking them back to before their births and after their deaths asking questions about life in the next realm, how they are greeted there, what they learn, and how their choices are made to reincarnate into their next lives. This book is like an intimate journal into the journey to the afterlife. Dr. Newton claims his initial interest into reincarnation was purely out of intellectual curiosity, until he worked with a young man on pain management. He explains the various levels of trance people go into that are neither dream stage or hallucination and when he regressed patients back to their ‘soul’ state, they were able to communicate their responses about the spirit world. “Death does not break our continuity with the immortal soul of those we love simply because they have lost the physical personhood of a mortal body.” Soul spirits are said to be masses of white light that whirl around. Souls are made up of energy. The human body dies, but energy doesn’t die. In this book through case studies, we will learn that souls have the ability to divide their essence so that they can be in more than one body while on earth. This answers the question about, if we reincarnate, how will our loved ones be there to greet us when our time on earth comes to an end. We are told that when a new soul enters the afterlife, they are given a review of their life before moving on and meeting lost loved ones. He talks about evil wrongdoers who will have karmic lessons to learn in the next life. When choosing our next life, there is an agreement made to not remember a past life, because learning is better from a clean slate. Souls in different stages of progressing in the next life, emit different colors of spirit according to which groups they are in. We learn that some souls choose to never go back to earth for another life. We learn that every soul who chooses a particular new life has a motive for choosing that life, and that there is usually some kind of a karmic reason, whether pleasant or painful, the soul seeks when choosing their next life. Dr. Newton speaks about the people we meet in our earthly lives that will fulfill our lives, and our soulmates, saying although these meetings may seem coincidental, they aren’t really coincidental, but pre-destined. Those ‘deja vu’ moments we sometimes experience when meeting someone new are often related to knowing them in a past life, they are often referred to as ‘signs’ placed in our minds in our spirit life, to ‘jog’ our memories later in life as humans. It’s like a prepping in the afterlife, because we won’t know this once back on earth. We learn that souls do in fact retain sensory memories. This could definitely be a reason why a certain scent, song or smell will remind us about someone or give us a familiar feeling with somebody we just met in this life. The good doctor even goes into about when a soul reincarnates into a new baby, and what happens if a soul chose a baby that was stillborn or aborted. Case studies tell us what it’s like to be in the womb. Much is also explained about why innocent little children have the ability to see spirit, and many who claim to have ‘imaginary’ friends. This book affirms that our journey here on earth is not limited to our physical bodies, but so much more about where we came from, and where we go once our time on earth here is done.