Past-Life Regression vs Akashic Record Reading: A comparison from experience

Those of us who don’t question the idea of past lives will reach a point where we’re curious about what has gone on before. There are several ways of finding out; the quickest is to pay someone to do it. In the east, it’s not unusual to find a temple medium who will reveal a karmic issue when you approach them about a contemporary problem. They usually don’t do past-life readings as a service; that’s up for the gods to reveal. In contrast, past-life regressions and Akashic record readings are services more familiar to spiritual seekers in the west, though the reach is growing.

I’ve gone seeking my past lives three times, with three different people. I’ll mainly discuss paid services, though I will also share what it’s like to get glimpses into the past when you least expect, and how becoming aware of past life traumas will also necessitate healing those traumas in this lifetime.

My first past-life exploration was in early 2012, with a clairvoyant medium who did a combination of accessing the records and putting me under deep relaxation so I could re-experience the recollection to some extent. I didn’t see nor feel much, but did come out with a small amount of information. It seemed that this first time, my spirit guides didn’t think I was ready for much. More information would come to me in pieces from my own efforts and other channels later. All timing is perfect, even if we can’t always see  it.

Past-Life Regression

I signed up for this December 2013 in England. I was an obvious foreign visitor to Glastonbury, loved it, and wanted to find out if I had any past connections there. In a private space above the Centre of Moon Mirrors, I was made comfortable lying down, and narrrated through a visual meditation. I followed this easily up to the point I was supposed to see my past life. In that moment, I was in an entirely new state: I had some vague sight, and had a ton of information I just “knew”. I also had undeniable sensations and memories, and my voice took on an accent, which I could barely control! Yet there remained a part of my brain tied to the current time, watching everything skeptically, but unable to deny the “new information” that was present. Even to want to believe that the information was “made up”, it couldn’t explain why these were my imaginings. I told it to accept that there was a reason, even if it couldn’t comprehend it.

My facilitator led me through the recall by asking what I could see and feel. I felt cold, dressed humbly, and in the centre of a hilly landscape from a tall vantage point. I supplied the year, the name of the town (north of Glastonbury, apparently) and my name. I spoke in awe of the landscape, then described a monastery interior, and the problems I had relating to my fellow brothers there. My ideas on God seemed very different from theirs, and the rejection of my viewpoint was  acute and deeply felt. Physically, I seemed able to access high places quite a bit, until suddenly I couldn’t. I felt immobile and trapped, despairing. I couldn’t feel my body, and the source of the problem seemed centered on my back. The information about that lifetime at that point seemed to stop coming; all was dark. I was in distress. My facilitator deftly brought me to a neutral place between lifetimes. I was asked to forgive those who had wronged, hurt, and angered me: “Do you forgive them?”

Answering yes brought a crash of energy that has been incomparable since then. I cried horribly from the release–quite a feat to do while lying down! I felt thinner and lighter getting up from that table later–and so weak I could barely move. I needed extra help grounding, standing up, and walking again. It had all gone in a way I hadn’t expected at all. Something done on a whim had become a profound emotional experience, and I came away more able to recognise (and understand) my long-time persecution complex over my innermost beliefs–and my long-time antipathy to organised religion. The facilitator told me that I had sounded more like a druid than a man of the cloth while speaking about the English landscape. That I was trapped in a building of rigid stone and Scripture (and possibly a broken body) would explain the enormity of pain that needed to be released from that lifetime.

Several months after this past-life regression, I hurt my back in bad way. But I had been warned beforehand, and had access to my guides, and a chiropractor in the same afternoon, who immediately realigned my spine and gave me my new posture (and new height). The muscles in my neck and back took longer to recover, but they did in the end. “Karmic release!” said the guides. Oracle cards drawn around that episode were “freedom”, “leave past behind” and “relax”.

The dramatic emotional release and spinal realignment will probably put me off past-life regressions for a while. Don’t let my example deter you.

Akashic Record Reading

This is now an option so easily available that I was picky in choosing someone I trusted. In December 2014, finally I had a chance to arrange a session with a visiting channel who was highly recommended. I emailed to book an hour-long session. Strangely, my email got lost; then at the last moment, I was scheduled in. For the first half-hour, we didn’t even get to my past lives–instead, an ascended master was channeled to bring me a ton of information about my current  life and purpose. Much was alluded to for my future, and many keywords and themes which I have indeed encountered in just the short two months since.

(That hour also cost me more than I’d ever paid for any service per hour, short of lawyers. But I have no regrets.)

Akashic record readings have someone accessing your past lives for you, following the guidance of your spirit team. You may be forgiven for thinking it’s easier-going than a past-life regression (you’re not doing the work of recall) but the revelations will likely still pull tears out of you–your guides are ever concerned over your healing and effective working in this lifetime. In 30 minutes, two of my past lives were recalled, more recent than my time as a monk in England: One as a calligraphy/painting teacher in the 14th century, and as a learned scholar in the 13th. Cushy lives, relatively, except that the emotional imprints from those lives were still about rejection: by family (who could not see the worth of my mental pursuits, going so  far as to bully me for them) and by society (being unappreciated and unknown for my contributions and talent, which were on par with my students who achieved fame and fortune; I didn’t). Oh yes, the echoes of those two lives still ring loudly in my life now. (And really, all three lifetimes have this same theme around rejection and/or under-appreciation.)

Healing Homework

Even though I was led through a couple of releasing/healing affirmations after those recalls, I still had some doubt that all would be well within a month of the Akashic session, as loosely promised. I knew myself–the wound was too deep. It is still deep. The healing goes on; opportunities can return with a vengeance, and a little bit of drama. It will help to know when and why these happen, and release them. Today, after queuing at a food stall, and being acknowledged yet passed over by the stall owner twice, I ROARED at her when she served the persons behind me in the queue for the second time. She had told me to wait but had never even taken my order. The anger was justified, but my volume was not; It felt like I dissolved, and pure emotion POURED through as words were screamed: “CAN YOU NOT SEE ME? I’M HERE. I’M HERE!” 

I then walked away and broke down somewhere else. After I got over the shock of screaming at a perfect stranger, all I could feel was deep, deep pain. The hurt was about being passed over, not being acknowledged, noticed and appreciated, even after my efforts to assert/re-insert myself. This had also happened weeks ago  at another shop, but I’d merely fought down my irritation, instead of giving it voice. Now the pain was HERE. It was all I could feel! It was “irrational” but undeniably present.

I had to admit: Yeah, who the fuck wouldn’t be sick of being “preferentially” ignored this way? It took more crying and time, but I am clear on this: As long as I am still being “passed over” and feel the pain, I know I am not yet healed. I do not benefit from ignoring this hurt, and that I take such instances harder and more often than other people seem to. And if no one else can be gentle, understanding and willing to heal this, and to fight for me, I need to do so–no more suppression or excuses.

The knowledge of these weaknesses are a hidden blessing, difficult as they are. Past-life exploration and new salt on old wounds draw our attention to our unhealed parts. Healing takes work. But it’s better knowing than not. Better out than in.

Going Backwards to Move Forwards

As I’ve become more sensitive to flashes of information and images, and other subtle forms of information gathering, it was possible for me to get déjà vu and past-life visions in group situations and meditations. (Some of those were group past-life regressions, some of them not.) I learned to accept and trust these, because they always imparted more information once analysed than I could have invented on the fly. They would reveal relationships, roles, settings and time periods in one neat snapshot. (Truly, in these, a picture speaks a thousand words.) The snapshot also would also give me clues on why the people in my life were here again–these seemed to be reserved for “special ones”, however–the ones I clicked with quickly. With these individuals, moving forward, building the new, and sharing recent personal experiences took barely any time or effort.

Karmic Relationships

Relationships from past lives that were mutually beneficial can return, by mutual desire and design. Even antagonistic karmic ties that are here have the potential for healing–but you are asked, and boy are you asked–to rise and to forgive. Possibly no one’s slate is completely clean of wrongdoing, and we have all spent lives as victims and aggressors. I still find this hard to believe myself, as one who has spent many lifetimes in service to light and truth, but I also know it’s possible to hurt ourselves too with lack of self-love, and to reject others when they have rejected us.

Last Word

To explore our past lives is not an undertaking for those expecting to hear they were previously royalty, famous, or powerful. (I don’t understand that anyway: past fame and present obscurity is hardly comfort.) But if you suspect that there are challenges or calls in your life that seem inexplicably deep-reaching, an Akashic reading or past-life regression may help those deep issues surface for better understanding and healing. It is my personal experience that I need another  party to help me recall the really painful stuff. “Happier”  histories, I can recall alone–they’re not “needed” but they’re nice.

I’d go as far as to sat that beneficial current relationships likely won’t come up in a past-life reading. The challenging relationships will.

No matter which method you choose, a past-life regression or Akashic reading, go with an open heart, and go for yourself. Know that the one who will need the benefit of that knowledge most is you, and it will give you that chance to heal and be stronger for it.