By Jach
A Grouping of Questions with Jach’s Replies from the Online Conferences
A Technique for Exploring Past Lives
During the June 2006 Online Conference, Jach was asked a question about accessing past lives for specific understanding, and answered with a succinct, powerful meditation for safely exploring ‘past’ lives.
Q: At workshops I’ve heard Lazaris talk with some people about the influence of their past lives. Would you talk of ways to become more aware of our past lives? Do we need to become conscious of specific past lives to move beyond them?
JACH:
Past lifetimes fascinate some people, and for others … well, they just can’t "get into them." Working with them is not necessary, for sure, but such work can be amazingly valuable. Working with past lifetimes can add such a rich texture to our personal processing work. And that rich texture can carry over into the daily living of our lives. One of the most important things to remember is that we are the ones—in this lifetime—who are creating our reality. Past lives are influences. They do not create our current reality; they are not controlling factors. Again, they are influences. They can be powerful, amazingly powerful, stunningly powerful influences, but they are no more than that: influences.
It is also important to remember that they really are not "past." We label them or categorize them as such for convenience. They are concurrent lifetimes that are located in a different set of time. They are lifetimes in the same "space" but a different time. Parallel life times are concurrent lives that are in a different space but in the same time. [s] The point is: They are concurrent and thus do not cause in our "now" lifetime. They are … influences.
Understanding and working with those influences can be immeasurably helpful (but not necessary). I think of Lazaris’ analogy about seeing stars at night. In the bright lights of the city it is hard to see the stars and to make out the constellations. Difficult as it may be to see them, those stars are there and the constellations are still there. If we go out into the country where there are not bright city lights, the night sky comes alive with stars and constellations. Wow! It is so easy to see them; they are beautiful. We can gaze into the sky for countless and endless moments. Captivated, mesmerized, we can stand there for hours.
Well, in the bright lights of living our daily lives, we can’t always see the influences and constellations of influences that play upon our decisions and choices and give us predelictions to follow this old pattern rather than a new one. But if we can get out in the country of exploring certain influential past lifetimes, we can be captivated, and we can see so much more clearly what was there all along.
So working with past lives can be like going out into the country. With a different point of view, now look up in the sky. … With a different perspective, now look at yourself. See what I mean? Lazaris used to talk with people about the most influential past lifetimes. He doesn’t do that anymore.
When I work with crystals, often they tell me their stories, and often those stories include some past lifetime information about the current keeper of merit. I am still always amazed when people write to me about the story the crystal told. They give me feedback about how on target the crystal story was about their lives. They are amazed, and, in turn, I am amazed at how the crystal reveals influences in the current keeper of merit’s life.
Well, you don’t have to buy a crystal to find out about your past lifetimes. [vbg] There is a technique that Lazaris talks of. I don’t know if it is on a recording or not. Here it is.
1. Go into your altered state and enter your safe place; feel that safety. Stay there until you do feel safe.
2. Now speak your desire and speak it three times. Speak it to your safe place. You can make a statement such as: "I want to explore a past lifetime that is currently influencing my business life." Or, "I want to explore a lifetime that is currently significant to my physical well-being or health." You could be more specific: "I want to explore a lifetime that influences my relationship with (name the person)." Or you can state your desire to know more about the influences in anything in your life. You can ask about lifetimes in Lemuria or in Atlantis. Or about any area of your life … lifetimes when magic really worked or lifetimes where you turned away from your magic. The key is to state your desire. … It’s not a question; it’s a declaration. And be as specific as you can be, but also allow a range of possibility.
3. Once you have stated this three times clearly, concisely, and with determination, find yourself standing at the top of a staircase. You look down into the dark … into the unknown and the Unknown. Feel your feelings … from the fear and anxiety to the excitement and curiosity. It’s important to feel your feelings as you stand at the top of the stairs.
4. You begin your descent in a very specific way. You step down with one foot (left or right, it doesn’t matter), and then you bring the trailing foot to that step. Then with the other foot you step down, and bring the trailing foot to that step. You count down 10, 9, 8 … all the way to 1. Count slowly and bring each foot to each step. I hope I described that clearly enough. [s]
5. At the bottom of the staircase, there is a long corridor with a door at the end. As you walk the corridor, repeat your declaration at least three times, maybe more. Repeat the declaration of what you want to experience.
6. Come to the door. Stand there a moment and say: "I am now going to step into my past life." Grab the knob or latch and say it again. Turn the knob/latch and say it a third time. Now open the door and step in. Step beyond the threshold into the dark.
7. Wait. And allow the energies to adjust. Allow the shape-shifting to settle. Now experience. Let it come to you. Some people visualize clearly; some do not. There are those who sense rather than see. See or experience, whatever is your nature. Will it work the first time? Maybe; maybe not. Experiment, explore, develop your expertise.
By the way, this surprises some people: In most of my meditations, I sense. I don’t see much at all. When I do see, it is unbelievably vivid, but most often I sense things without seeing. I have learned to trust my sensations and my sensing. So I don’t demand that I see things. Seeing can be misleading, at least for me. Sensing for me is far more valuable. I trust it a whole lot more.
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Jach’s answer to a question about forgiveness, separation, and union:
I don’t fully know the answer to that, but I suspect it is because the lack of forgiveness is so often what fosters separation. The lack of forgiveness is what cements the discord that prevents so much happiness and success in our individual realities and cements the discord that keeps nations in Eastern Europe and in the Middle East in perpetual states of violence. The Croats and Serbs, for example, have little or no potential for coming together because they each have inflicted so much violence on each other for over 1,000 years and no one is willing to forgive. Separation is fostered, discord is cemented, and there is little or no chance of union. In the Middle East, each side thinks God is on their side. And he is. [s] But no one is willing to forgive.
Now, I am not so naive or so sophomoric as to think they should just sit atop that wall and forgive each other, but my point is that forgiveness is at the root of the discord that prevents union in that region. Now, there are a zillion reasons why. … But I wonder how many of those reasons were spawned by the refusal to forgive so long ago?
In our personal lives, isn’t it similar? And within ourselves, isn’t it just as similar? The discord we feel within ourselves … how much of that could be healed if we would forgive ourselves? How much of it is never fully healed because we refuse to forgive ourselves? So, I think that is a big reason why the Year of Union begins with working with forgiveness.
Another thought: Many of us remember working with Lazaris and forgiveness many years ago … decades ago. We remember crossing those fields and gathering those flowers to present at the altar of forgiveness. And we were successful. Ha! We were mightily successful. [vbg] But, you know, we have changed and grown. We have evolved our perspective and our perception. We see through different eyes now, and we also see with other than our eyes. Likewise, we hear with different ears and with other than our ears. The observing and measuring devices are different now; the reality we observe and measure is different now. And with our different perspective and perception, there are things to forgive that we couldn’t have even seen or heard so many years ago when forgiveness was so fresh at hand.
So a new us, well-seasoned and matured, returns to forgiveness in our search for union. The enlightened us who can hear the music, a metaphor that Lazaris uses, and who has matured with a sense of justice and compassion, comes to revisit forgiveness. That’s another reason why the Year of Union [2004] begins so. Also, as the title of the workshop suggests, forgiveness is the miracle of magic. To me that means that no matter how proficient we are with technique, no matter how much magic we know, choice is at its core, its heart, but it is forgiveness that is the mystical something that ‘allows’ or ‘makes’ magic work. Choice is the active agent, the yeast, of change, but forgiveness is the active agent, the yeast, of magic. And that’s another reason why, I think. [s]
Q: I wondered if you could talk about forgiveness around the events of 9/11; I found myself feeling that even with the recent success, there is still a sense of failure for creating this in the first place, and forgiveness seems like a key to preventing future attacks, but I know it isn’t a guarantee. Do you have any thoughts about this?
JACH:
Well, if we view ourselves as failures, then the potentials of punishment are not too far behind, are they? I mean, we have been conditioned to believe that punishment should be meted out for failure, right? So I see what you mean about forgiveness being so important. But more than to avoid punishment, it seems that forgiveness is a critical antidote for judgment.
Did we fail? Frankly, I don’t think so. I think we created incredible and miraculous success around the horror of September 11. There are people who are going to create the nightmare. And there are those who will come close to the edge of that nightmare. Was September 11 a part of the nightmare? Well, for some, I suppose it was. For others it may be an ingredient or the beginning of a chain of events that will become their nightmare, I don’t know. But I do know that there will be a nightmare for those who create it. And I know that the genuine threat of negativity will, in fact, be genuine.
We are magicians; we are not perfectionists. Ours is to change the reality in compliance and in accordance to our will, love, and imagination. Sometimes … more often, that is anticipatory magic. Sometimes it is reactionary magic. And when the events of September 11 happened, we went to work to change the reality in compliance and accordance to our wills, our loves, and our imaginations. I think we were incredibly successful.
That said, I do have the space to understand that others feel as if they failed. [s] Okay. And forgiveness is critical to assuage or dissolve the judgments that we would make around and about failure. See, it’s not that failure really breeds punishment or that failure really deserves punishment. We have been conditioned to expect or believe or even to want punishment when it comes to failure, but I think that’s more associated with avoiding responsibility.
I mean, if we are punished for our failures, we call that taking responsibility. Maybe it is, but often such punishment is avoiding genuine responsibility. Well, my point is that punishment is not inherent in failure. But punishment is inherent in negative or constricting judgments. To quote Lazaris from so many years ago, ‘Judgments hurt.’
So I think the forgiveness is necessary to dissolve judgments made about September 11. Without it, yes, we could punish ourselves with future acts that come closer to our own world. Or we could create realities that involve our personal terrorists or our personal nemesis. So forgiveness is critical.
For some, it may be related to a sense of failure, as you point out. For others, it may be related to fear. For me, I don’t feel as though I failed, but I do feel fear. Or I have felt it. Fear about the future … fear about the chain reaction … fear about the negative alchemy that can attend terror and can build within the field of terror. So I have felt fear and I have worked to forgive myself for giving sway to it.
I suppose this ties into the question about lifting resonance. I forgave myself for slipping into the fear resonance. My response was not to become brazen or cavalier. My response was to forgive myself. See what I mean? [s]
Q: Hi there, Jach [s]. From time to time Lazaris has mentioned forgiving the unforgivable and mending the unmendable. Would you mind talking a bit about that? Thanks for this conference!
JACH:
Lazaris first talked of the unforgivable when he talked of abundance. One of the reasons why we do not create abundance even when we know how and when we have every opportunity to do so is because there is that something that is unforgivable within us. It’s not true for everyone, but for some of us, it is what stops us from being truly abundant.
What I found interesting in all that was that the unforgivable doesn’t necessarily stop us from being successful, but it can stop us from being abundant. It was then that I really began looking at the difference between being successful and being abundant. And I can see how a person can create success and how a person could work magic and still hold on to the unforgivable in them. But to turn success into abundance and to turn magic into a confident magician’s life could be severely hampered by the unforgivable. I began looking for it in myself.
Lazaris next talked of the unforgivable during the November Culminating Weekends last year. Part of the New Magic from beyond the threshold involves healing what needs to be healed. For some, that is healing the delusions that they still carry with them; for others, it involves healing the broken alliances. The broken alliances are what account for the unforgivable within us.
Lazaris pointed out that the unforgivable often is *not* some hideous thing that would shock the world. Often it is something that others would and could readily forgive. But it is unforgivable in us because in the event or the deed, an alliance was broken. Or maybe several alliances were broken. Obviously, Lazaris was referring to spiritual alliances. He has talked of these broken alliances and of forgiving the unforgivable more recently when he spoke of finding lost dreams – an evening discussion.
For me, the key is in the concept of broken alliances. I knew that there was that sense of the unforgivable in me but I couldn’t find anything that would warrant such a strong and imprisoning decision. But when I looked for broken alliances, bam. It all fell together.[g]
Within the unforgivable was shame, as well. Not infant or child shame, and not adolescent shame, either. It was adult shame. And with it came the need to fix it before I could
be forgiven. Strangely, it was a matter of character and integrity … or so it seemed.
It would be improper to be forgiven for this thing, I thought, until it is fixed. Ha! Well, when I saw the issue of alliances broken, it became clear. Healing those alliances was easier than I anticipated. And once healed, the forgiveness work that I had already done fell into place. It’s like it was all there (the healing work that I had already done) waiting in potentia. Once I healed (not fixed but healed) those broken alliances, the floodgates opened and the forgiveness fell into place.
To conclude, the phrase Lazaris uses is … ‘The grief that will not end, the unforgiven and unforgivable, and the malady that will not mend.’ I suspect that the issue of broken spiritual alliances is at the root of these, as well. Such broken alliances would be such as an alliance with Soul or with Spirit. It might be an alliance with Higher Self. Or it could be an alliance with our inner child or our Future Self. It could be a broken alliance with God/ Goddess/All That Is.
Q: Jach, could you expand more about forgiveness as a letting go of old ideas and images such as illness and malady? Do you feel there is any limit to this?
JACH:
Well, I am not sure that forgiveness is letting go of old ideas and images. [g] I think that we can use forgiveness …to accomplish this end result … but I don’t think the letting go is forgiveness. Often the forgiveness aspect is to forgive ourselves for holding on to the old ideas and images. When we come to finally admit that that is what we have been doing, we can feel pretty foolish.
We can feel indebted to our Higher Self for indulging us our indulgences for so long. In this case, once we forgive ourselves, then we can let go. I see them as separate activities that call us to separate tasks.
Beyond this, forgiving others may be a critical link. I mean, if we are holding on to those old ideas or old images to maintain a hidden agenda or to maintain a function of blaming them … then that forgiveness would probably have to come first. But even so, then the letting go would follow.
With illness … sometimes we blame our bodies for getting ill … sometimes we blame ourselves. Sadly, in the New Age, there are those who hold severe better-thans about themselves (who are well) and severe less-thans about others (who are ill).
We often buy into that New Age arrogance … sometimes consciously …most often unconsciously. If we do blame our bodies or ourselves, as well as changing the belief about illness, forgiveness would be in order, wouldn’t it?
I refer back to the stages of forgiveness [see Forgiveness I in this section] … if we are in a state of denial or one of blame or pity or one of indignation, then forgiveness seems to be an answer and an issue … our issue and part of our answer. So around illness or another malady … around anything that we sense as failure, there is a role for forgiveness.
Is there a limit? Sure there is. But that limit is not inherent in the forgiveness. I think its power is unlimited. The limits are not inherent in us, either. But they are within the beliefs we choose to hold. I don’t even say within our beliefs … within the beliefs that we choose to hold. And more and more the limits are contained in the choices … the quality of choices we choose to make. Or at least, that is how it seems to me. [vbg]
Q: Why is it so much easier to forgive others but so difficult to forgive ourselves?
JACH:
You know, the answer to that does vary so much with each of us. However, at this point in our growth … when this happens to me … I look at why I don’t want to forgive myself. I mean for someone who knows little about forgiveness the answers may vary, but most of us here know a great deal about it.
So I ask myself why don’t I want to forgive myself … Sure, the obvious answer is that I still want to punish myself. That could be true. I also look at this: Am I still wanting to keep others on the hook. What I mean is this … If I forgive myself now, then all is well and the changes can happen and the freedom can come and all is well.
But if I refuse to forgive myself then I am in a less than adult place … I am being less than my true self … I am being less than my ‘more.’ Why would I do that? Why would I do that to me? And why would I do that to others?
This is what helps me get off the difficulty of forgiving myself. Beyond that, I suppose it has to do with belief structures that say it is better to forgive others and better to punish self. [g] Anyway, this is the way I approach it.
Q: How do I know if I really forgave myself or just went through the motions?
JACH:
Well, reality is a nifty feedback mechanism. [g] If any of us have just gone through the motions (motion without emotion as Lazaris would say), our reality will reflect that soon enough. And if we did do the forgiveness … reality will show that.
See, the force of forgiveness has not speed … it is not mass and it is not motion. Forgiveness has not speed. It is or it isn’t. It is a quantum phenomenon. Forgiveness, like change, may not have speed, but it does have size … the size of the change we make … the size of the forgiveness we allow.
There are things that can make the forgiveness smaller in size or larger in size. I think that reality reflects and expresses that nicely. I have found it so.
Also, when the forgiveness is real, it feels freeing. There is an exhilaration and an exuberance … there is a breath … a breath of release or of healing or of something. Perhaps it is called knowing.
As a quick aside … Knowing is something that we think is a big mystery. It is mysterious and it can be mystical, but I think knowing is probably a lot easier than we sometimes think or allow it to be. When we know … we know. When we don’t … we don’t.
It seems to me that the mystery is not about knowing as much as it is about why we will not tell ourselves the truth about knowing. [g]
Copyright 2007 NPN Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.
Other Resources
"Past Lives and Parallel Lives," transcript of the chapter from Lazaris Interviews: Book II. Available at: http://www.lazaris.com/publibrary/
Evening with Lazaris and Peny (November 1986), a Lazaris and Peny recording
The Sacred Journey: You and Your Higher Self, a Lazaris book
Reality Creation: The Basics, an Evening with Lazaris recording
Freedom from Karma, an Accelerated Journey Series recording
Stop Feeling Not Good Enough, an Evening with Lazaris recording
The Magic of Our Spiritual Ancestry, an Accelerated Journey Series recording