We started the hypnotherapy session and Anah helped me to become progressively relaxed.
“I want you to take a deep breath and imagine that you are at the top of a staircase. The stairs are covered with soft, red velvet. Just float down the stairs, like a leaf gently drifting downward from the top of a tree,” she said in a measured and relaxed voice. “And now you are at the top step. Take another deep breath and continue to float downward.”
We continued this process until eventually I reached the last of ten steps.
“Okay, now look around for a window or a door.”
Up to this point, there was nothing new to this routine we had been using to get into a hypnotic state.
“I see a towering gothic-style door of some black material in front of me,’ I said.
“Are you afraid?” she asked and I told her that I wasn’t. “See what happens to the door. Is it open or closed?”
“Closed.”
I then decided to try to open the door and, although it was quite heavy and difficult to move, I was eventually able to pry it open enough to peer inside.
“All I can see is pitch black,” I said. “Hello, is anyone there?”
There was no response. So, I decided to go inside and see what would happen if I did. Nothing happened for a few moments. I called out again, “Hello, is anyone there?”
This time, I had a burgeoning sense that someone was indeed there. At first, all I could make out were a pair of intense eyes, eyes which were illuminated as if on fire. Then, in a very animated fashion, black smoke unfolded around the figure of a stunning Chinese man. He had intense and piercing eyes, he looked young, and was wearing a thin but long beard and mustache. His long black hair was braided into a ponytail and he was wearing a hat much like one that an emperor of ancient China would wear. His hat and full-length robes were black silk with red trim.
“Someone is here,” I said tersely. I was so taken by this vision and its intense clarity that I did nothing but gaze at him until the hypnotherapist asked what was going on. I told Anah about this being who had just manifested in front of me.
“You might want to find out what he wants. Go ahead and ask him.”
I asked him, “Why are you here?”
“To show you your past life, if you are willing to see.”
I said “Yes, of course,” and he motioned me to follow him.
We started walking and suddenly, were walking on a narrow path in a forest. We were moving very swiftly and the wind was causing his robes to flow behind him dramatically as we strode.
I started to sense that we were walking backward in time. With each step, it seemed as if we had traversed not just some distance but fifty or a hundred years as well. I also had the innate sense that we were walking in a Westerly direction.
The sunlight seemed to exude a different quality to me, somehow more luminous and golden. As we came upon a clearing, a monastery came into view. We stopped in our tracks to take in the view.
My guide asked, “Are you now ready to meet your past life?”
“Yes,” I replied.
A few moments later a short Chinese monk in saffron robes appeared. My guide gestured toward him
“Here he is!”
I bowed to the monk and he bowed back.
“It’s time to get to know this monk of yours, Scott. Spend some time doing just that,” Anah said.
The monk and I strolled around the monastery grounds.
“Tell me about yourself. I’m interested in what your life is like.”
“At a very early age, I became orphaned and was taken in by the monks here. This is the only home I have ever known.”
I noticed that he was not a handsome man. His head appeared to be too large for his frame and kind of bumpy in a strange way.
“So, is there some kind of work that you do here?”
“I’m a herbalist. I harvest and store herbs for the monastery’s pharmacy. I am trained in crafting customized herbal formulas for those who suffer.”
I was very impressed and when I expressed my joy at this, he tried to humbly downplay it.
“Don’t listen to him,” another monk said suddenly. He came alongside my monk and slapped his back playfully. “Our brother is really quite famous around here! He has helped a great many people with herbal medicine.”
We moved on to other parts of the monastery, walking and chatting, all the while other monks and a few nuns were moving about around us, carrying out their daily duties. We came to a point where the conversation began to slow down to a stop.
“Perhaps you should try to convince him to come back with you to become integrated into your current life,” Anah suggested.
“So what do you think? Care to experience the 21st Century with me?” I asked.
“Absolutely not. I like my quiet and simple life here. This is the only life that I have ever known.”
“Just think about what you could experience looking through my eyes,” I said. “You could vicariously enjoy intimate relationships with women, marvel at modern advances in science and philosophy, and otherwise experience a new world inconceivable to you currently. Please, I need your help in the work that I intend to do moving forward.”
I could see his forehead furrowed in thought. He scratched his chin, then his scalp. He frowned for what seemed like a long time but gradually, and almost imperceptibly, his face softened. Finally, he smiled at me and said, “I’ll do it.”
“We need to start wrapping this up,” Anah said. “Is your guide there? You should formally thank him for this vision.”
He was not around, so I said something to the effect of, “Hello, guide, where are you?”
In a dramatic effect like a dust devil of black smoke spiraling up from the ground, my guide appeared. It was the same stunningly intense Chinese gentleman from the beginning of this vision. He manifested right next to the monk.
I was suddenly overcome with joy and gratitude for what I had been shown. I started bowing many times to them and said, “Thank you, thank you both, I wish I would have done this much sooner.”
“All you ever had to do was to cross the river,” my monk replied.
This profound and meaningful statement came with a realization that flooded my consciousness. At this moment, I realized that the monk in front of me was, in fact, the very same monk that I had seen decades previously in a vision during meditation.