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

OMG - this book is life changing if you believe that hypnotherapy is possible. I will re-read this book over and over again. Recommended to a few people who are like minded. Amazed that this information is available to us - it's not information that is readily available or known to many. It's easy to read, enjoyable and provides knowledge that will help you understand many of lifes quandries.

"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 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.

Most of what is mentioned by the hypnotized subjects in this book does align with general themes and principles of what we do feel or sometimes “see” of the spiritual realm. I highly recommend this book to anyone questioning life’s purpose or even for those who believe we “just die” when we die. The only reason this review is 4 stars and not 5, is because of the casual mention of rape throughout the book with no real line of questioning to follow up on the karmic return for such a heinous act of violence, destruction, and humiliation against another human being. I found the tone around this subject to be disturbingly and disgracefully casual. This tells me that the author has inserted his own personal feelings into his book, which taints what could have been a great discovery of the afterlife’s more negative consequences for our actions in life. In fact, it seems the author may be running or hiding from his own wrongs, as his pursuit to answers around any true evils committed by humanity are weakly sought, at best. He asks souls what happens to a “tainted soul,” receives vague answers around “recycling,” and then mysteriously drops the subject and glazes over it throughout the book.

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!"

There is so much I want to talk about this book. And my small narrow review does not do justice to the awesomeness of it. Among all the "pros" of this book, there are some "cons" as well. I will talk more about the cons in section 2. First, the pros: This is no doubt the best book I have read so far of any books. It is written so simply but the implications are overwhelmingly deep. I am actually having a scheduled session with a hypnotherapist next month to validate the work of this book even further. This book elegantly unifies long sought enigmas on souls, life after death, out of body experiences, reincarnation, and karma. I have read Buddha's teaching. And I can see that every aspect of this book either enhance my understanding of Buddha's teaching or give a clear and concrete example of what he was talking about. For example, Buddha said we have no self, but we do reincarnate. this book really explains what that means - it means we have a soul but that soul is not our body or mind. As the matter of fact, it is described as an energy which can multiply and be at different places at the same time. So the traditional one-person self is no longer valid. And another example is how this book goes into explaining the purpose of reincarnations and what is the ultimate goal of it. This completely aligned with Buddha's explanation about how we keep being reborn until we are completely "enlightened" from which point we no longer need to be reborn. While Buddha's teaching is cryptic and often hard to visualize (it has been said to for monks to mediate a long time to understand what Buddha means), Michael reveals in plain English what it means and it only takes you a duration to read this book to understand a lot of it. In summary, Michael's work on this book is amazingly revolutionary and the fact that it is aligned at near perfection with the most well-known ancient religious beliefs makes this book a more credible material to the believers. Now the cons: I do love this book. But in the back of my mind, I still have that tiny doubt about the truth behind - not the book but - the sessions. These people may have truly experienced those visions, but it does not prove they are real. All could be a work of their own mind's imagination. A guided session could provide a framework for all of these well-groomed sessions. Several questions remain in my mind. For example, if souls live forever, how do they sustain themselves? The herarchical society that the souls live in is too similar to a human's society. I feel like reading the description of the soul's place as a large university in which souls are placed in certain groups and work out their "courses" in order to "graduate". Also the souls emotions are exactly human's emotions (minus the negative emotions which seemed to be non-existent). There are some conflicting information as well, for example: All souls mind are transparent and all can read each-others mind but some sould can "block" what can be read. Also the selection of reincarnation is said to be volunteered but described a cohearsed. There are times, I feel like this is a work of fiction as well. Regarless of what one believes or not believes. No one can deny that this book is a writing masterpiece in its clarity, content, and meaningfullness.

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.

I purchased Journey of Souls in April 2022, and since then, I’ve read it multiple times. Prior to owning this book, I had read Many Lives, Many Masters by Brian Weiss. While Weiss's work is widely respected, I personally didn’t resonate with his approach. His writing often incorporated religious themes that leaned into fear-based ideologies, something I couldn’t fully align with. Michael Newton’s Journey of Souls offers a very different perspective. Although it does touch on religion, it does so with neutrality and seeks understanding rather than reinforcing fear. Newton’s work provided answers to questions I had long held about death and the afterlife. After reading this book, my fear of death genuinely diminished. It gave me clarity, peace, and a sense of deeper spiritual awareness. That said, I do want to give a fair warning, this book is not for the faint-hearted, especially if you hold strong religious beliefs. Newton’s findings challenge traditional religious narratives, and some readers may find this uncomfortable or even offensive. Many people prefer Brian Weiss's work for this very reason, they feel more spiritually aligned with his tone and messaging. And that’s completely okay. We often forget that not all of us are walking the same path, and that’s the beauty of the journey. We have the freedom to explore, question, and accept only what truly resonates with us. This book may not be for everyone, but for those seeking a broader understanding of the soul’s experience beyond this life, Journey of Souls can be a transformative and deeply affirming read.