Dear Subscribers,

Today is the 32nd anniversary of an important step on my spiritual journey and I thought to celebrate by talking about something very personal and yet possibly interesting to many.

In the early 70s, I was whizzing through space while my body was sleeping in Hawaii. It was immensely vivid and I wanted to remember everything so I sketched maps of the constellations I was passing and then I saw the Earth spinning on its axis and I realized I was coming down too fast because I saw the Golden Gate Bridge and made a quick course adjustment before precipitating a disaster. It was difficult getting back into my body. My arms felt heavy and I just couldn't move but the visions kept coming. After the exhilaration of passing Cassiopeia at a speed faster than light, a grief seized my body and I saw myself standing over the grave of a newborn son. It was obviously a flashback to another life and the first past life that I saw with such clarity. It seemed I blamed my husband for the misfortune and when I finally could move, some six hours after reentering my body, I did what any astrologer would do and picked up the ephemerides to see why I was seeing what I was seeing. It was Saturn and some karma was revealing itself so rather than feeling ecstatic over the journey in space, I carried this monstrously heavy feeling around with me, trying to make sense over the death and the dynamics between myself and the man I did not recognize as anyone I knew in this lifetime.

In addition, of course, I drew a map of everything I had seen on my way back to Earth and tried to plot the "flight plan" and realized I had gone straight East.

Textbooks are not consistent because, if the truth be known, anyone can write a book, and in those days, most astrology books were plagiarized. As I eventually came to understand, all books are based on knowledge acquired from other sources so whether we are talking astrology or herbs or probably any other subject, there is very little that is original in each publication. The problem with astrological texts was that except for a few authors, most were practically verbatim so I threw away 90% of the books I bought in 70s.

First of all, what you get from a plagiarist is information without roots or reliability. Even an intelligent plagiarist is a con because he or she is trying to get mileage with someone else's idea and thus such people are not useful guides for others. I am saying this emphatically because most of what you read is some form of a copy and paste exercise, so to be explicit, I would say that whether a reporter is writing up a White House press briefing or one of the citizen journalists for Mike Adams is borrowing material from the worldwide web, these people are not authorities on the subjects they publish because they have no connection with the roots of the story.

This is the point. The issue is not whether knowledge belongs to everyone, the issue is who and what to believe and you can only believe people who are at one with the subjects on which they speak. So, now to continue my story.

Most astrology textbooks do say that the soul enters the body through the Eastern gate, what we call the ascendant, and then there is a lack of consensus over what exactly the ASC represents. The reason is that most people don't know so they are just talking through their hats.

It was a few more years before I had another dream related to this one. It was also very powerful and vivid but it was less exotic. In this dream, the mother of a friend began talking to me in a whisper about past lives, and she told me who I was. I was astonished and incredulous — in the dream — so she repeated this three times. There was nothing much to do with this dream except archive it. Later, my next door neighbor addressed me as I was in that past time so it was like a time warp in which an old group was being pulled back together, not necessarily on friendly or solid terms. Over a period of 35+ years, more and more pieces have fit together, including the reason for seeing what I did back then.

My advice therefore is to assume that nothing inexplicable occurs without a reason. Be patient until you see the explanation.

Isabel Hickey came to Hawaii and I picked her up at the airport. The moment she got into the car, she began talking about where my soul had come from and why. Obviously, this was no ordinary conversation and though welcome, I truly did not know how at that time to carry on a conversation on such a subject. It was on that trip that she demonstrated the Awareness Technique and this gave me a set of practical tools for facilitating past life recall. It was through the variations and modifications of that technique that I came to understand not only that what we generally refer to as "reality" is seen in an altered state of consciousness as the third dimension. No one ever mentioned other states by name or number so the idea occurred to me to prompt someone to explore the fourth dimension. In the altered state, this "nudge" was obviously very easy to follow so I tried it with lots and lots of people. The experiences were consistent to the extent that the fourth dimensional self is an idealized version of the self we call "I" and it is kind, gentle, wise, refined, and understanding. It has great affection for the third dimensional self and an appreciation of the issues faced by this self.

Being curious, you know this is my predominant trait, I decided to press my luck and see if people could respond equally well to a prompt to visit the fifth dimension. Most could but they had a hard time with the particulars and were usually unable to impart meaningful details so I thought, "What the heck, let's try the sixth." The sixth dimensional self was able to explain the problems in the fifth dimension and if the fourth dimensional self was beautiful, well, the sixth was beyond awesome. Using the modified Awareness Technique, I brought one person to the seventh dimension. Here, we found the master plan for all Earth incarnations, but the tapestry was not finished.

Using the modifications of the Well-Springs Technique that I learned in Santa Fe, nearly everyone eventually made contact with the seventh dimensional self and, I believe, we went beyond this even to what, for lack of better words, we might call trans-Earth dimensions.

Here, it seems, and I am merely speculating, we incarnate in a matrix of interpenetrating and concentric bodies that seem to consist of seven dimensions or layers. You might say, this is the architecture of forms on this Planet, but, it seems, we all have parts, other dimensions, that are not really manifest here. As I said, I am speculating but I have not seen an aura with more layers nor anyone with more than seven chakras. In short, it would seem that the structure of our forms here is based on seven dimensions and seven senses. The two dimensions below the third are "sub" conscious. They are not inferior, just below the threshold of consciousness so we have to go into dream time or regressions or deep psychological states to bring the information and knowledge of those dimensions to the attention of the conscious mind. In our culture, people who "hang out" — sorry for the slang but it is appropriate here — in the subconscious are regarded as psychiatric cases by the medical profession and as shamanic in other cultures. In these states, you find a mixture of dark and light, polarities perceived by the part of ourselves that judges experiences according to how they feel. What we like feels good and what does not feel good, we stygmatize. To show you how inaccessible this part of our awareness is, most people would rather see a dermatologist for an allergy than visit a psychologist or psychic. The problem is that the dermatologist may or may not identify the allergen. The psychologist will probably try to instill enough awareness to promote shifts in behavior to navigate the potholes in the psyche. The psychic and shaman might, however, help the client to put together the whole story and draw a line between history and the present and this is more liberating than antihistamines or antidepressants. . . or behavioral modification.

The Ascendant

By the 1990's, I was able to facilitate recall of past lives on this Planet as well as information about the purpose for being here. The fact is that everyone has the answers to all their own questions, but the keys to the memory vaults have not been used. Most people probably doubt they are privy to this much self-knowing, but in 100% of cases, we actually found that people can remember if they set aside the time and focus their attention on this instead of the countless less important distractions of life. I am not blaming anyone. I have my own share of distractions and understand this well.

When I was asked to speak to some first year music students about music therapy, I tried to keep it simple. Obviously, this is sometimes challenging to me. In music therapy, the client listens to music in a manner seldom seen in life. If you hear music in an elevator or in your dentist's office, you are rarely listening attentively. It's the same in a restaurant where you are conversing and only hearing with a fragment of your awareness. However, in music therapy, the client more or less surrenders to the sound. This is how we all should be listening to what our friends or family members are saying, but most people don't really listen in this way. They are not giving 100% of their attention to hearing. In theory, in meditation, one would have the same sort of merger of attention with the subject of the meditation but lots of people are just keeping rocks or pillows warm while their minds are focused on to do lists or something else.

Two things happen in music therapy. The aura expands because we were created by sound (the Word) and the lines of the aura are thrilled by beautiful sounds. Then, the underlying patterns in the music start to cause an entrainment to occur that brings memories to the surface. As an astrologer, I probably see a third factor, and that is the predominant influence at the time of the session will probably determine what can and cannot be aroused from slumber and brought to the level of consciousness. Nearly everyone is astonished by the vividness and clarity of what they see, but even when they try to banish visions because of rejection by the rational mind, they cannot do this. In Santa Fe, my client base consisted of physicists from Los Alamos and Sandia Labs as well as creative artists, musicians, and New Age types. In reality, skeptical scientists tended to bring up more detail because the habit of concentration assists focus whereas those who are more easily stimulated in the third dimension exhibited some of the same proclivity to jump around when in other dimensions.

Remembering

Sometime in the late 70s, when I was still living in Hawaii, I eventually accepted both the memory I had of an historic figure as well as the realization that I came here from another part of Creation. I am sure that this knowledge was always with me, but not accessible and because it also did not seem normal to have it, I was cautious and I sought some sort of input from others, not necessarily corroboration, but I wanted to know if someone without any direct information from me drew conclusions similar to my own. On the Cosmic question, the three people who confirmed my vision, without any discussion with me, were Isabel Hickey, Thinley Norbu Rinpoche, and Morrnah Simeona.

The point is, this is the beginning, not the end. Moreover, everyone has a beginning that is characterized by intense purposefulness and then the journey through Time and Space is launched. I would guess that while none of us are technically lost, we are all lost to the extent that we can't remember our way home much less why we left in the first place. Things start to fit into the place the moment that memory is recovered and then, truly, the crescendo does begin, probably because of the interlocking relationship between these exalted dimensions and murky third dimension.

Now, if the Earth itself will transform . . . and if you and I and others will still be here when that happens, it is, for me, a no brainer that fourth dimensional reality will seem like paradise compared to the third. However, this is almost like a yogic state. A sadhu sits and meditates and eventually enters samadhi where everything is perfect in comparison to here. The sadhu, now swami, is enlightened because he moved consciously between dimensions and pierced the thin veil separating the third and fourth dimension, however, he could only remain in samadhi while his body was quiescent and his conscious was allowed to part from the body. Once, he was "back" in his body, he had to address all of the needs of physicality.

Now, let me take a completely different approach and tell you about one of the most challenging medical cases I encountered while still a young mystically-inclined astrologer. I was visiting Honolulu and as I was leaving Morrnah's home, she said, "You have an interesting case tomorrow." Immediately, I asked her how to handle it because I was seeing an infant who was born blind. Morrnah said that there were two stars in the back of her eye sockets and if I invoked them, she would be able to see. Naive as I was, I slept pretty well that night. I was, however, completely unprepared for the reality . . . which was that the eyes were the size of small peas and way in the back of the eye sockets and her eyelids were mercifully closed.

Well, when you have no idea what to do, it's best to do nothing. So, I sat there and observed. Hour after hour went by. The child could not swallow on her own. She made no effort to walk or talk. She did not respond to any stimuli from outside and others who had been consulted by the parents had urged lots of stimulation to bring her into relationship with the world around her. Since it obviously hadn't worked, I decided to continue observing. At a certain point, hours after arriving, the little girl had some spasms. I asked her mother about them and she said she had them often. I asked, "Always like this or different?" She said always just as I was seeing. So, I tried to imitate the movements to see why someone would move like that and I figured they were martial arts movements.

Memory works through the power of association. You need to have at least one association to unlock the quest for the next and the next and next association. It came. I saw her in a white kimono with a group of monks. She saw something in the eyes of someone she trusted and went into shock. She (he in that lifetime) was partly out of the body before being cut down by a sword. So, there we had a tiny bit of information. I had a feeling that the monk had been very well trained so I put my hand in front of her and said to use her third eye and to move her hand and put it in the palm of mine. She did it immediately. Her mother, of course, was deeply moved, and she stayed in touch with me for twenty years. Her daughter had been able to ride buses, attend school, and do most things others could do simply by using her third eye instead of her physical eyes, which, for the record, never opened.

I'm grateful that I had time to reflect when I was younger. So many people wait until they retire and by then their professional lives are behind them. In the future, I would hope that all children are encouraged to remember as much as they can so that schooling and jobs do not obliterate the memories that we all need in order to live the lives of purpose that are our only true destinies. In my experience, quite vast now if the truth be known, that purpose is stamped on the ascendant when we are born but behind the impulse to be born, there is a place in Space to the east from which we hailed before gliding into our present circumstances. I am totally certain that anyone can find out more about his or her true home as well as why he or she came to Earth (and when) because this is all part of our memory, just tucked away out of sight most of the time. If you wish it fervently enough, you can access this knowledge, but sometimes it's easier with a facilitator. I, of course, believe that all of us ought to start with this knowing and not stumble upon it in the last breath before departing here.

Many blessings,

Ingrid

Copyright by Ingrid Naiman 2009

The Ascendent || Beyond the Rings || Calendars
Changes Leading up to 2012 || Eclipses 101 || Saros Cycle 146 || Jupiter-Uranus
Piaf || Reflections on the Future || Religion and Politics || Scherazade
Third Dimension || Three Selves || The U.S. Horoscope

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