The Power of Healing Past Life Imprints

This month I’m talking about something that blows me away every time it shows up in my work; the influence of past lives.

Have you ever walked into a place (a house, a hotel, a new town) somewhere you know you’ve never set foot before but felt an overwhelming sense of familiarity? Like you’ve been there before?

Have you ever been in the middle of a conversation and suddenly felt a flash of recognition – of having said and heard those exact same words before? 

Have you ever met someone for the first time and felt an immediate connection? Almost as though you’ve known this person for a very very long time.

If you’ve ever had a fleeting sense of 'I’ve seen this before or I’ve done that before' … then you’ll know what I’m talking about.

Did you dismiss the experience as just a random occurrence – a coincidence with no special meaning? Or did it get you pondering on what it might mean?

Has it ever crossed your mind that these experiences might be hinting at the possibility that you actually have been here before? That maybe these were memories of a dim and distant past that you once lived through …? 

If you already have a belief in reincarnation …the idea that our souls return to this planet in different guises again and again to balance things out within themselves, and between themselves and others, then this idea may not be too challenging for your mind to comprehend. But, if this is a new idea for you then I invite you to listen to this podcast with an open mind and prepare for an eye-opening half an hour that could expand your perspective on life quite significantly.  

Thanks for listening!

You can discover more about my work on my website: https://www.harinderghatora.co.uk

Follow me on Instagram for free information on healthy, balanced living: https://www.instagram.com/harinder_ghatora/

Transcript

Hello there, I hope you’ve had a wonderful month, and like me are enjoying the slightly longer days and the renewal energies of spring. 

This month I’m going to be talking about something that blows me away every time it shows up in my work, because it provides a fascinating insight into the incredible breadth of the human experience … it challenges me to go beyond what we think we know about our lives …  and I know that it can be so healing for people. 

What am I talking about? The influence of past lives.

This is Harinder and you’re listening to the Bringing You Back into Balance podcast.

Now, let me ask you … have you ever walked into a place (a house, a hotel, a new town) somewhere you know you’ve never set foot before but felt an overwhelming sense of familiarity? Like you’ve been there before?

Have you ever been in the middle of a conversation and suddenly felt a flash of recognition – of having said and heard those exact same words before? 

Have you ever met someone for the first time and felt an immediate connection? Almost as though you’ve known this person for a very very long time.

If you’ve ever had a fleeting sense of “I’ve seen this before or I’ve done that before” … then you’ll know what I’m talking about …

So, what did you make of this? Did you dismiss the experience as just a random occurrence – a coincidence with no special meaning? Or did it get you pondering on what it might mean? Has it ever crossed your mind that these experiences might be hinting at the possibility that you  actually have been here before? That maybe these were memories of a dim and distant past that you once lived through …? 

If you already have a belief in reincarnation …the idea that our souls return to this planet in different guises again and again to balance things out within themselves, and between themselves and others, then this idea may not be too challenging for your mind to comprehend. But, if this is a new idea for you then I invite you to listen with an open mind and prepare for an eye-opening half an hour that could expand your perspective on life quite significantly.  

Now, the thing I love the most about the healing work I do, in comparison to the psychotherapy and coaching, is that it allows access to the hidden realms – the unconscious parts of us ... the parts that we simply can’t access with the conscious mind alone. There are memories, feelings, beliefs and experiences that are buried deep within our psyches that we have no conscious awareness of, but which nevertheless exert a powerful influence on our lives. When these things are brought into a person’s conscious awareness, their influence weakens, and this can significantly and positively change the experience of life. I’ve seen this first hand. Every now and again something truly amazing shows up in a healing session that leaves me in absolute awe. 

I often find clients showing up with issues that have plagued them for a long time.  They tell me they have read the books, engaged in self-reflection and analysis …tried their hardest to change but simply can’t … they can’t understand why they continue to be adversely affected by certain things… be these habits, emotional reactions or persistent difficulties in relationships.

We then set out to explore the deeper causes of these issues in a healing session. More often than not we discover that these patterns have their roots in their subconscious mind but every now and again a past life influence shows up …. this can be an experience from a previous incarnation that has left a strong impression on the soul, or something that has not been fully resolved or healed from a past life that has reappeared in this one.

If I cast my mind back over my work,  I’ve seen that past life influences tend to show up in four different ways:

•  In relation to deep unexplained fears or phobias
• In difficult relationships
•  In emotional patterns, beliefs or recurring behaviours that have their roots in physical or emotional trauma in a past life
•  And, in cases where karma is being rebalanced.

It's always easier, and more interesting, to illustrate my points through actual examples, so I’m going to present a case study. As always, I’ve taken care to protect my client’s confidentiality so have changed several identifying characteristics to protect this person’s privacy. In fact, in this case I actually have this person’s explicit consent to share their fascinating experience.  

Several years ago, a young lady in her late twenties booked in for a soul plan reading. Let’s call her Amy. As always, the two-hour session involved me going through her soul plan, and her reflecting on how what was being shared was showing up in her life. 

Amy had a soul destiny that alluded to her having to experience some very intense relationships throughout her whole life with a view to acquiring wisdom from these encounters and then sharing this wisdom with others through inspired or channelled writing. She was intrigued by this, and reported that, yes, indeed, she could relate to this as her family relationships were very challenging. She also loved writing so was excited to discover that her life involved her engaging this passion in some worthy way.   

Amy was the eldest and had two younger siblings; a twenty-three year old brother and a twenty-one year old sister. She said she was very close to her father who she reported as being a stable, loving and reliable presence in her life. But, her relationship with her mother was rocky to put it mildly. She thought her mum had undiagnosed mental health problems as, she was so emotionally volatile. It wouldn’t take much for her to be triggered. If she didn’t like something or  get her own way she would fly off the handle and start raging and become abusive and sometimes even violent. As Amy grew up, her dad had acted as a protective shield and had always done his best to keep her and her siblings physically, mentally and emotionally safe from mum’s outbursts.  

Amy’s soul plan indicated some experiences of loss. When I presented this to her she broke down. Through tears she said that at the age of eighteen her world completely  fell apart when her dad was diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer. By the time the cancer was picked up it had already spread to his liver and lungs and he died six weeks later. This was a stunning loss for her. She was absolutely devastated. She was in her first year at university and overnight she was thrust into taking care of her two younger siblings, who at that time were aged 13 and 11. Mum totally fell apart and it quickly become apparent that she needed a lot of practical and emotional support. In fact, the entire household fell apart and with it all the things that Dad managed so well…bringing in the groceries, managing the finances, doing the chores and helping and supporting the children.  

Amy suddenly found that she got catapulted into Dad’s position. She became the person responsible for her siblings - helping them with their homework, taking them to school, attending parents’ evenings, ensuring that they were cared for and safe. And, she became the person doing everything to hold the entire household together. All this, whilst she was a) processing the grief from losing her beloved dad and b) trying to get on with her own studies. She had to move back from university halls as she just couldn’t cope with all the responsibility that had been thrust upon her. It soon became all-consuming and overwhelming. Amy said on some days the grief was so debilitating. There just wasn’t any time or space to come to terms with the fact that she had lost the most important person in her life. It was a very dark and traumatic time.

Now despite doing everything for her siblings Amy said she was plagued with a deep persistent feeling of guilt, that she wasn’t doing enough. That she should be doing more …be around more… support them more... protect them more. She felt deeply responsible for them on every level; for money, for guidance, for support and for nurturance. 

Time passed by and life moved on … but this feeling of guilt persisted, even after she got married and moved away. Despite having her own life, her twenties were spent very much involved with her birth family. If anything needed sorting out for any of them Amy would be the first port of call. And, whenever any of them made contact she’d drop everything to help whenever they asked. She’d also constantly be checking in with them. This sometimes put a strain on her own relationship with her husband who just couldn’t understand why she couldn’t/wouldn’t put in boundaries when it came to them. Her siblings were young adults now and, yes, mum was still volatile, but they were capable of fending for themselves. 

Amy said she experienced constant worry for her siblings. She chose to live nearby, so she could keep a close eye on what was going on but no matter how much she did she just couldn’t shake this feeling that she should be doing more. It was all emotionally, mentally and physically exhausting but she couldn’t let it go. 

Amy then told me something truly amazing. During one particularly difficult episode with mum where she had become physically violent towards Amy’s sister …...who was now in her late teens and really not helping the situation, Amy had shown up to work quite distressed. She told her friend about how difficult her life had become since her dad had died. Her friend told her to go and see a psychic healer who she knew. 

Amy was so desperate at this point that she immediately made an appointment and arranged for a reading, not really knowing what to expect.  

What this healer revealed was truly fascinating. I was captivated as Amy recounted what had come up in her session with this quite elderly lady. This healer told Amy that in a previous incarnation her two siblings had been her children. And that that incarnation had ended with Amy dying while they were still young. The sorrow of that parting had left her with the belief that I she hadn’t done enough for them. It was this unconscious belief that was playing out in her sibling relationships in this lifetime – and it definitely explained why she kept feeling like she was responsible for them; like she was their mother and had to take care of them. Instead of diminishing as they got older, this feeling had only intensified over the years. Her feelings and attitude towards her younger siblings just didn’t make any rational sense…until that is she was presented with this past life information.  

Amy said when she heard this, she felt a huge wave of recognition and relief. It made complete sense. She said that she knew without a shadow of a doubt that it was true. She could feel it in every part of her being.  

Well, the healer cleared these past life connections and all the associated beliefs, programs and patterns and, much to her surprise, after a short while Amy noticed that the guilt had gradually subsided. 

The healer also gave Amy an amazing insight into her relationship with her brother. Amy had always had this irrational fear that her mum was going to hurt him in some way, not just emotionally but physically – which was just ridiculous because her mum was a petite lady and he is a very strong, very fit young twenty-three-year-old. But despite constantly trying to reassure herself she just couldn’t shake this fear off. Somewhere deep down she knew that this irrational fear…this sense of terror at some impending catastrophe was driving her incessant vigilance and protective stance and the reason she just couldn’t walk away from her siblings and get on with her own life.  

The healer picked up this fear intuitively without Amy even mentioning it. If that wasn’t amazing enough, she went on to report that Amy, her mum and brother had been together in a past life and she had actually witnessed her mum killing her brother. Amy had been there, watching events unfolding in front of her, crying out in desperate terror, begging her mum to stop but she was completely powerless to do anything. This had left an imprint on her soul.  

The messages from the healer then got even more weird! In yet another incarnation, the healer said she and her now brother had been married. This was some time in the 17th   century … they had been sold into slavery. Amy had to watch her husband (her now brother) being branded with hot iron. She had felt absolute terror. And, here’s the crazy bit ... the person doing the branding was her now mother. 

I was blown away by this. And, totally distracted from the soul plan reading we were meant to be doing.  

Amy said it all sounded so absurd at one level but so real at another. Somewhere deep down in her soul she knew it was all true. It definitely explained why she felt this irrational terror around her mum every time she and her brother argued - and that she had such an intense need to protect him from mum.  

I asked if this reading made any difference to how she actually felt? She said she had no expectations as she hadn’t known what to expect but was amazed to discover that she felt so much lighter in the days after the healing, like she’d been freed from the burden of fear and over-responsibility. That incessant need and desire to protect and mother her siblings diminished. The guilt disappeared. She felt more in control of her emotional reactions around her family. And she gradually moved to loving her siblings but as a sister, not as a provider or protector.  

I was amazed by all this. How absolutely incredible were these past life references. Who was this healer? She was clearly brilliant at what she did because it made such a difference in Amy’s lived experience in this lifetime. 

I have to say at this stage that I’m not a regression therapist. I don’t take people into past lives like this healer, looking for connections, but occasionally pieces of the jigsaw reveal themselves in a divine healing session, and hints at past lives show up, which I go on to clear. 

A young man I worked with a while ago comes to mind. We did some healing and coaching work around his perfectionism. He’d struggled with this for decades and interestingly in all the jobs he’d had….. this vague fear that unless he did everything one hundred percent right, one hundred percent of the time, he would be sacked … and without a livelihood end up on the streets! This was pretty irrational as in all of the jobs he’d done he’s been told he was doing incredibly well. The evidence to support this belief didn’t exist. But he always had this sense that he was about to trip up … and when this happened the consequences would be dire for him. This fear drove him to such an extent that whenever things got challenging in a role he’d resign.  

In our healing session, it came up that he had a past life where he had a successful career but had lost his job … and with it his status and standing in the community. This had been an awful, humiliating experience for him and clearly, one that was influencing this thoughts, feelings and behaviours in this lifetime. We cleared this imprint and within a few weeks he discovered newfound peace and freedom from this self-sabotaging behaviour.  

Over the years I’ve had past life influences show up in a myriad of other ways.   

Some experiences in this lifetime are related to karmic rebalancing from previous existences. Possibly one of the most jaw-dropping moments I’ve ever had in a healing session that I’ve conducted was with a young lady who sought healing for the continuous and relentless bullying, abuse and suffering she experienced. It would show up wherever she went, both in her private life and her professional life.  

We set the intention to heal whatever was causing these experiences and began the process of identifying and clearing away layers of trauma and low frequency programming. About three quarters of the way through one of her healing sessions I was stunned when my client said out loud, ‘I think I was a Nazi in some previous lifetime’. What? She had been lying there putting all the information that was coming up together; she was painfully thin and had a very difficult relationship with food. We’d uncovered a hidden agenda of self-punishment related to these food issues. She was constantly anxious and vigilant and found it hard to trust anyone. And, a past life influence had come up around her being a) a perpetrator and b) a victim of brain washing. She was deeply relaxed in the session and suddenly sat up and said that she had a profound awareness of being an army officer. She also confessed to being obsessed with watching documentaries on the holocaust. Putting all of this together she concluded that she must have been a Nazi and played a part in the concentration camps. In the session we had discovered that she was a perpetrator and also a victim of brain washing. Perhaps she was now punishing herself in this lifetime for something she had done in a previous one. 

I genuinely didn’t know how to respond to this. Maybe she was! I had no way of confirming or rejecting this. One could argue that this was simply her mind coming up with a rational explanation to fit the evidence but there was such a strong emotional resonance with this conclusion that she felt compelled to believe it. I worked with her for a period of time and saw that the work we did together did indeed result in a deep shift in her relationship with food and the bullying, as her abusive partner of many years left her life. Divine healing is so very powerful. As we remove our internal programmes and associated low frequency energies, our outside world absolutely has to rejig itself to reflect this inner change.  

She and I did have an interesting conversation about karma. I don’t believe karma is punishment, as she did. I believe it is more about balancing things out. We continue to experience each end of a polarity over lifetimes until we come into a place of balance – and the whole purpose is for our soul to grow and evolve. 

There was this other young lady who I worked with who would experience anxiety every time she had anything around her neck … scarves, a tight collar …. she’d start to get really agitated and quickly experience feelings of overwhelm and panic. In a healing session (on something totally unrelated funnily enough) two past live influences showed up where she had been strangled to death. This imprint was still on her soul!  

It appears that when a life ends suddenly or violently the trauma around that doesn’t get worked through or healed. It remains there as a soul imprint – and under certain circumstances gets reactivated until it is cleared from the person’s energy fields. This is a possible explanation for many a strong phobic reaction. It took several months but this lady noticed a massive shift. She continued to avoid scarves out of habit for a time but noticed one day when someone jokingly draped some tinsel around her neck at the office Christmas party that she was surprised to notice that she didn’t react in her usual way. The imprint had gone. 

Another area where I often see past live influences at work is in close relationships that are very intense or turbulent. In a healing session these show up as karmic monads; past life connections between two souls in previous existences which energetically compel people to act in certain ways in this lifetime.  

I recall a session I did for someone who had a very turbulent relationship with her sister. They struggled to be in the same room as each other as every encounter would very quickly descend into a heated disagreement. My client said her sister would do whatever she could to destroy her happiness. She would bad mouth her to anyone who would listen, she would accuse her of doing things that she hadn’t done. She even tried to make a pass at her fiancé and then went around telling everyone that he had tried it on with her. The lies she would tell to upset my client were insane. 

As we started identifying and clearing away the programmes and patterns underpinning this relationship we discovered three powerful karmic monads at play; attacker/victim, betrayed/betrayer and slanderer/slandered. Karmic monads are specific polarities that two souls play out with each other in an attempt to balance out the karma between them. They are very compulsive, and people continue to come into lifetime after lifetime and act these programmes out; switching roles each time in an attempt to resolve the issues between them. It’s always fascinating to observe how once these monads are cleared, how quickly a deep sense of peace and detachment appear. The triggers and compulsive urges just disappear. This particular client reported a very positive outcome as the fear and trepidation she felt around her sister disappeared. She still avoided her as she knew she wouldn’t/couldn’t trust her but there was peace around this relationship now. 

Another way in which past lives interfere in a person’s life is through previous roles and identities. People sometimes have taken on roles in one or many previous lifetimes that have left an imprint on their soul and in this lifetime, they still identify with these roles. They may be here to do something completely different, but these past life soul imprints can create limitations and prevent a person from evolving and making other choices that are more in alignment with their spiritual evolution and growth. For example, someone who can’t help but try and fix others could be identifying with the role of being a healer. In this lifetime they are not a healer but keep being compelled to intervene in this way. Other examples are people who always take on the role of educating others but not in any formal way, as in a job, but in their everyday encounters. They may well have been teachers in a previous existence. As these imprints are cleared it frees peoples’ souls to focus on what they are here to do in this lifetime…it frees up their energy for things that are relevant in this existence. 

It truly is amazing how much our lives can be subtly controlled by things that have gone on in other realms.  

So, what is your take on all this? 

Do you think it is helpful for us to have a knowledge of our past lives? Should we seek this info out just out of curiosity or the fun of it? I personally don’t believe so. I think these things should be treated with caution. Some would say that there’s a reason we don’t remember our past lives … if we were supposed to, we would. I don’t think our minds would be able to handle our experience in this lifetime if we could remember all our previous existences.  

On the other hand, as we’ve explored through the case studies presented in this podcast, sometimes a past life influence is causing a major block in a person’s life. The imprints from previous existences could be keeping a person trapped in something … and by clearing these memories/beliefs/traumas they can be freed to move forward. I’ve seen first hand how healing past life energies can create a powerful and positive shift in a person’s life. I never go looking for these past life influences but when they naturally show up in a session I know it’s for an important reason and that those energies are ready to be cleared. 

So, what do you make of this subject matter? 

Do you believe you have been here before?

If you are very sensitive and connected to the spiritual realms, then maybe you even have some vague awareness of some of your previous existences? 

Are there people in your life with whom you had an instant connection when you first met? A sense of having known them before? I definitely had that experience when I met my husband all the way back in 1987. We spent about thirty minutes and I just instantly had this feeling that I know this person very very well.   

When you’re deeply relaxed, or, if you are a meditator during meditation, have you had any recurring images or impressions surfacing – maybe faces or places or experiences that you don’t recognise but somehow feel familiar?

Do you have a deep connection to a particular place or location, but you don’t know why? 

Do you have a strong affinity with or interest in a certain period of history or culture? 

Do you have any unexplained fears or phobias? 

And, are there certain things that you naturally excel in, such as playing an instrument or a foreign language that you’ve picked up very easily without a lot of training/practice? 

Past life influences are not only about the negative things – they can be about positive things too, such also as talents and skills earnt in previous lifetimes – e.g. empathy and compassion … healing work … intuition & psychic abilities … leadership abilities.  

Yes, of course all these things may have other explanations – but maybe… just maybe… they could be dim echoes from a past existence. Who knows? 

One of the first books I came across with regard to this subject matter was Dr Brian Weiss’ book “Many Lives Many Masters”. If you’re interested in knowing more then this book would be a great place to start.  I also love Robert Schwartz’s book “Your Soul’s Plan”. That is another incredibly fascinating read.  

Okay so I’m going to leave it there. I hope you liked this podcast and that it’s given you some food for thought. If so, then please subscribe …that way you won’t miss any future episodes…and tell people about it.  It’s all free and it could help someone create a happier, healthier, more peaceful life for themselves.

And, before I end, let me remind you… take really good care of yourself because you and I both know that if you don’t no one else will. 

Bye for now…