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Soul Journey: Unlocking the Wisdom of Past Lives

• Douglas James Cottrell PhD • Season 2 • Episode 5

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Have you ever wondered why some people seem born with extraordinary talents or why certain challenges keep appearing in your life? The answer might lie in what existed before this lifetime.

Dr. Douglas James Cottrell takes us on a fascinating exploration of pre-existence and how understanding our soul's journey can transform our perspective on life's purpose. He introduces the concept that our immortal souls originated from a place of pure love—what he calls "the Christos"—before venturing into the universe seeking experience and knowledge. Like teenagers given car keys, we eagerly set off to explore but eventually found ourselves unable to return home, leading to incarnations in physical form.

Your current life, according to Dr. Douglas, is one of many patterns your soul must experience to achieve completeness. He describes 144 distinct life patterns we must master, explaining why humanity displays such diversity of experiences and challenges. The difficulties you face weren't randomly assigned but chosen by your soul as opportunities for accelerated growth: "Pleasure puts you to sleep, pain wakes you up." This understanding shifts responsibility back to us, recognizing that our current circumstances—family, economic situation, challenges—were selected as learning experiences.

Perhaps most intriguing is Dr. Douglas's concept of "soul DNA"—a spiritual database your consciousness continuously fills with experiences across lifetimes. This explains why some people demonstrate natural talents from an early age; they're accessing abilities developed in previous existences. By remembering these past experiences, we can avoid repeating mistakes and advance our spiritual evolution more efficiently.

Curious about how your past lives might be influencing your current journey? Subscribe to Wake Up with Dr. Douglas James Cottrell for more insights that will transform how you view your purpose and challenges in this lifetime and beyond.

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Announcer:

Welcome to Wake Up with Dr Douglas James Cottrell, your source for helpful information, advice and tips to live your life in a mindful way in this increasingly chaotic world. For over four decades, Dr Douglas has been teaching people how to develop their intuition and live their lives in a conscious way. His news and views of the world tomorrow, today, are always informative and revealing. And now here's your host, Dr Douglas James Cottrell.

Douglas James Cottrell:

Welcome to the Wake Up, the broadcast where curiosity leads to deeper understanding. I'm your host, Douglas James Cottrell, and my good friend and co-host Les Hubert is here with me, along with editor Jack Bialik, as we delve into the fascinating realms of life, metaphysics, spirituality and the pressing questions that shape our world. Hello, my friend. What are we going to talk about this time?

Les Hubert:

Hi Doug, we're going to talk about pre-existence. What does having knowledge of previous existence do for us? There was a book written by Dr Ian Stevenson, out of the University of Virginia, showing that 2,500 people have knowledge of their pre-existence. What can that do for us?

Douglas James Cottrell:

A whole bunch. First of all, to my friends who are a little skeptical and to people who don't understand the process of pre-existence, let's just step back and you remind me of what the question is in a second if I get distracted. But it starts off with: if you believe you have a soul, all of us do, I'm assured of it. You have to discover it yourselves, my friends. But if we have a soul, then what I'm about to say makes sense. If, on the other hand, you discard the concept that we have a soul, that we just have this physical existence, we live it the best we can and then we pass away and we become dust and there's nothing after, then what I'm about to say might not make sense to you. But let's assume that you have a soul and that soul is immortal. That soul came from a great consciousness that we attribute the Universal Mind to, by calling it a Supreme Being, Yahweh, God Almighty, and a whole lot of other names. As we delineate or assign names to God, you know what? The name doesn't matter. Because the names are only for us, the finite mind attempting to describe the infinite mind, and so God Almighty is the best term for me, because it says God is Almighty, God is creation, God is life, God is virtue, on and on we go. So if you understand or subscribe to the concept that you have a soul and it was in heaven or the other dimensions above, the other planes of existence, if you look at creation, it talks about God creating the heavens and the earth and created, moving on down, the oceans and the land, and moving on down to different animals and plant kingdom, and then finally, on the last day of creation, created us people. It says that: Go forth and multiply.

Douglas James Cottrell:

So if you kind of look at it that way, we're kind of like on the end of evolution, when God was creating things. So I guess we're at the bottom of the totem pole when it comes to that. But to understand that God created the heavens and the earth, that means all the dimensions, all the planets, all the nebula, those things that the telescopes are reaching out to see. God created all that okay. And somewhere out there is a place I like to call the Christos, the place of all love, a place of existence for the souls started out from. Home base, if you will. And so at some point in time, God looking upon itself, and all of us souls together, for we are of God and from God. We're pieces of God, fragments of God that we assign the name soul. He said you know what? I need to know. And he created souls, us. We divided ourselves or God divided itself, maybe as a term to understand and we were all given free will and free choice, and so poof. It's just like saying to your teenage son or daughter: daughter here's the keys to the family car. What's that child going to do? It's going to take off, it's going to drive away. .

Douglas James Cottrell:

If if they're us, we We took. We we went through all the universe and we scattered. We're immortal, we are part of God, we are God. . .

Douglas James Cottrell:

But when we everybody, got ask out them, there in the universe adult: because it's so vast, we couldn't find say: way back. We're lost in darkness and alone, and so we started to experience things in different ended up here in the world, in the earth, and so we're stuck because we still can't get back to where we want to go, back, to where we left home. You know, everybody asks them when they're an adult why did you leave home? And they'll say because I didn't know any better. I had my own room, I had meals prepared for me, I had my own room, I had meals prepared for me, my laundry magically got done. I didn't have to worry about rent, mortgages, taxes or anything else. I had such a wonderful time at home. Well, that occurrence has happened to all of us and we want to get back home. We want to go back where it's safe. Okay, to the point.

Douglas James Cottrell:

So, having knowledge that we've come into this world, our soul has chosen a physical vehicle, a temple, our body, this frame, and it entered into it. We now have two aspects coexistence, our physical body, which is going through the evolution of birth and death, and the soul, that's kind of piggybacking. It comes into us, this physical body. So this entity we call self, is multiple. It has a mind, it has a physical form, it has a spiritual form. It has a consciousness and we have a subconscious, as everybody knows. We have a waking consciousness and then we have a soul consciousness or a super consciousness, all packed in and jammed into this one little vessel we call a body.

Douglas James Cottrell:

So you can see by my simple description here, and there's a lot more to it, that we are pretty complex being ourselves. So what's the purpose? Well, we come into this life to figure out life, because the first time we came here was exciting, like wow! We became something. Some theorists say that the soul entered into mundane things like trees, plants, rocks, lower life forms, etc. But ultimately we arrived at this human form. And so, for the purposes of discussion here today, we're just going to talk about the human form and how remembering previous times or existences helps you have a better existence in this one.

Douglas James Cottrell:

Well, the first Les, is that you've gained knowledge and experience, by going through several experiences. You learn what to do, what not to do. You apply that in your natural life, this time. We've often heard people say of people: hey, they're mechanically inclined or they're just a natural at that. I don't know where they learned how to play that piano when they're two years old, like a master, just amazing.

Douglas James Cottrell:

Well, it's the memory of the previous experiences that you gather up, and I'm going to use the term soul DNA. I came up with this a few years ago and there's mention of it here and there because I've been broadcasting it for a while. But if you take it as a soul DNA, we know that the DNA has a consciousness. The consciousness is filling up that void or that bank of knowledge in the DNA. Why? So that we can know everything, what there is to know about the world, the world we live in. And when we fill up with all that knowledge, well then we move off to another dimension and we find out about that world. And we continue on because we want to know it all. That's why we left. We want to know where everything is, we want to have a good time, we want to find out everything we possibly can. We want to evolve as a spiritual being.

Douglas James Cottrell:

Two things; One, the soul does not have emotion. None. It's just a sponge gathering knowledge. And two, as we continue to build up this existence of knowledge, we also have to do and undo the things that we've done, that we've learned in this lifetime. And so the purpose of experiencing one experience after another is sort of like a learning on the job. It's not esoteric knowledge, it's experential knowledge, where we learn by hands-on. And that's the best way, because wisdom does not mean knowledge, it means knowledge plus experience. We learn by trial and error.

Douglas James Cottrell:

If the life of this soul is immortal, if it lives forever, then this life is like one breath in the life of the soul. And if the soul lives forever, no need to rush, no need to worry and, most importantly, no need to be afraid that you only have one kick at the can, that one life, and it's over. You're either going to go to heaven or you're going to go to hell. God does not create beings to destroy them because they make a mistake, no matter what it is you do, because what you think is a mistake might not be, might just be a hard lesson to get you to where you need to go.

Douglas James Cottrell:

So, to answer the question, why do we live and why do we die? Well, we need to have a fresh start all over again. We get down so far. Life is pretty tiring, it's pretty difficult, and if you keep trying real hard and you're making all kinds of mistakes, mistakes remember:, the more difficult your life is, the faster you are attempting to learn all you need to know about life. Life is such that pleasure puts you to sleep, pain wakes you up, and so we're in a world of duality, are we not Les? Light and . Forward forward, . And and the key is to be of service and to learn how to love. We don't . That's that's what we're attempting to learn, learn to be , loving, loving like God Almighty in our own little, microcosmic, little, teeny, tiny, finite way. And when we have figured it out and we become Christ-like, christ-like the Christ christ consciousness or the consciousness of the Buddha buddha or other deities, Sathya, Sai Baba sayababa, the avatar, or on and on, on throughout the world's great religions, to their highest level of consciousness their they're holy beings, beings then we're . We're we're able to move on.

Douglas James Cottrell:

And then what we normally do is, well, we got to the top of the ladder. Oh my gosh, here's the rule: said you all left, you all want to come back, you all come back together, or you don't come back back. So that's why we have angels, watchers, avatars, saints and other pretend saints, if you will, the dark side. We're there to help and hinder each other to get up to the highest level or the Christ consciousness. Now I ask you to remind me what was the question to start off with.

Les Hubert:

What does having knowledge of our preexistence do for us?

Douglas James Cottrell:

So in summary, one it's our nemesis. We got in trouble, we continued taking the car down the street, spinning the tires, zipping around corners, and we're lost. On the other side, it's the purpose of gathering experiences, all kinds of experiences, total experience of what goes on here in this physical life. And then selecting to be of service, to be moral and just and upright, to be fair with one another, not to take advantage, not to do bad things to each other. That's when the golden rule becomes our road sign. It says: hey, you want to get home? Do unto others what you would have them do to you. And if you do that, step on the gas, you're going fast, you're getting home.

Douglas James Cottrell:

So the meaning or the purpose of having experiences is to go through this university we call the Earth or the physical life, and so that we graduate with honors at the end. And so the purpose becomes to experience the life, and I'm talking about every possible experience, good, bad and ugly. So one time you're a real person. To make up for it in the next life you're a real saintly person. This swinging back and forth on the pendulum, some people call it cause and effect, some people call it blessings and sin, some people have other names for it, like karma. But karma is an action, it's a causational thing, it's not a thing. It's the process of the pendulum swinging back and forth. So it's an action to make that understood.

Douglas James Cottrell:

So voice, as we move forward in life, all of us: me, Les, Jack, behind the scenes here and producing, everybody else out there listening to our voice if you make a bunch of mistakes, wow, look at all the lessons you've learned. Because mistakes are the stepping stones to success. If you're not willing to make mistakes, you're not going to learn. And you're unwilling to learn, you're afraid to learn, so you're dormant. And you know what? The soul inside, inside it lives forever. It's in no hurry, so it goes to sleep while you're down here in the world, worried about mundane things, silly things, one silly life after another, or one, let us say, unpurposed life after another. But there's no such thing as life. silly J ust just one unpurposed life, until you wake up and you decide: decide I'm fed up, I don't want just to be a slave, a worker, I want more, I want light. And the soul says: said Oh oh, ? light Ding ding. Okay, let's go over here and look. You talk to so-and-so and they're going to take you to school and you're going to learn a trade. Or, over here, you're going to learn how to be a physician. Over here you're going to be a philosopher. Or over here you're going to be a nurse or a doctor or some other life of service. And through service you get to learn, get to see what other people are doing, and you add that to your record.

Douglas James Cottrell:

You know, I liken this experience to kids learning how to drive an automobile. The instructor sits in the right hand side with the, the duplicate brakes and steering wheel, and the student sits behind the left hand side (in our country anyway) and can steer and operate the vehicle. And two other students are sitting in the back seat, aren't they? And they're watching, oh my gosh, what's going on? Because it's going to be their turn next. They learn more by watching than the person actually terrified behind the wheel. And the instructor is always there, like God is with us, always. Silent, letting us steer the car, steer our lives, and the two people behind us are angels, or people in heaven that are watching over, learning from our experience, or to the point that we're learning by our own mistakes. And people watching us who are wiser than us are learning by watching us make mistakes, so that they don't have to go through the trauma of making mistakes and then repenting and making things right and all those things that we do when we transgress.

Douglas James Cottrell:

So the point being is what's the purpose of remembering these past lives? So you don't make the same mistake next time. So you pick up where you left and you advance, you go to a higher octave the next life.

Douglas James Cottrell:

How many types of life patterns are there in the world? Well, rule of thumb I came up with this some ago: a strological signs, there's 12 of them. Numerological signs there's 12 of them. Different vehicles there's always 12. There's 12 disciples and the 13th was the Christ. So if we take a look at that the 12, then we come to the understanding in a more knowledgeable and, I guess you could say, practical way that each of those 12 signs has themselves 12 more signs within them, or patterns more exactly. So 12 with 12 is what? 144 patterns of life. So we all have to go through, you and me, Les, we're on lifetime maybe 96 o r pattern number 103, or pattern number 25. But each of those patterns is different and distinctly different from all others, a ll the rest. But they are the same, to a certain degree. And so, if you look at it that way, then you can say, oh, that's why we have all kinds of really strange people out there. They're strange to us because they're exactly opposite to us and they are, of course, looking at us the same way. So it gives one a little bit of, let's say, breathing room to say, okay, I'm going to have to learn at least 144 lives or patterns of life to get it perfect. And what's the chances of doing that Les? Pretty close to zip. So you might have to go through one of those patterns, oh, maybe a thousand times to get it right.

Douglas James Cottrell:

So the purpose of remembering your preexistences is to give you knowledge that you lived before, you somewhere -- t he great in-between life, life between lives, the post-existence, if you will -- and if you're really wise, you've probably my friends already figured out that if you're in the post-existence after you die, you were in the pre-existence before you were born Yeah. A nd so the pre-existence and the post-existence what? T he same place. But here's the ticket: you get to choose better the next time. If you remember the previous time, when you're in the heavens above, making the choice to come down and be born into the family, the economic situation, the race, the color, the economic status, the place in the world, etc. etc. you chose that as a soul, to come down and gather the experiences. So when you're here, you shouldn't be saying: why is somebody else so privileged? Why do I always have the hard way? Well, you earned it, you asked for it, you chose it. You don't like your parents and your family and they're supposed to take care of you forever? You never asked to born? Honk, honk, wake up. Yes, you did, you chose it. So wake up. You're here, you're supposed to be here because you chose to be here. And the more you remember from those previous times, the less chance you're going to make a mistake and go on that endless wheel of life after life, after life.

Les Hubert:

Sounds good. Doug, Thank you for that great information.

Douglas James Cottrell:

Okay, my friend, until next time, everybody. We wish you peace and prosperity. See you next time, Les. Bye for now.

Announcer:

Thank you very much for listening to Wake Up. If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to subscribe so you'll be notified when a new episode is posted, and we'd greatly appreciate your review of our show on iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts to let others know about the great content we're producing. For more about Dr Douglas's self-development classes, books and other related products, please visit his website douglasjamescottrell. com. Until next time, we wish you all of God's blessings: health, wealth and peace of mind.