I: Marije is a past life regressionist. Let`s start with the most basic of questions for anyone who has never heard of past life regression: What is it?

B: That is a good way to start. A past life regression is a way to re-experience one of your past lives. The technique that I use is kind of different than many other techniques out there, because in my past life regressions, I do one-to-one regressions and groups. The one-on-one regression consists of three parts. The first part is just me and the client sitting down, talking about their life as it is right now in a somewhat chronological order so I know what`s going on, I know what they are dealing with, I know what is important to them so I know what to ask when we go into session. And when we go into session, they are going to lay and they are going to close their eyes and I am going to guide them by using hypnosis to experience a past life. They are the ones experiencing it, I am only asking open-ended questions. The life that they are going to be experiencing is somehow relevant to their life right now – it is whatever their higher self wants for them to see. Whatever they are going to see is exactly what they are supposed to see and in the last part of the session, this is what makes this technique different from the other ones, we call for their higher self to speak directly through them. So you are basically lending your voice to your own higher self. This is a part that is very magical because literally anything can happen. We also get to ask it whatever questions my clients might have – I always ask them to bring a list of questions. Common questions are: What is my life purpose? Why am I here? Why did I choose these parents to be born to? Why do I keep having backpain? Why is my relationship with my partner this way? How can we change it? How do I release this blockage that I have around money? It could really be about everything. And the higher self is this very loving part within us. It says the most beautiful, inspiring answers and it is always there to motivate you, to help you move forward in your life.

I: It sounds like past life regression has a therapeutic quality. To help process.

B: Yes. And I audiorecord the sessions, it is super important for people to listen back to it. While you are in it, you are still very much aware of where you are – but as soon as the higher self comes, the conscience leaves. It sometimes comes back in waves, but in general it leaves. So, when you come out of it, you remember the past life part and you remember parts of the higher self part, but not all of it. And then the magic happens when you listen back and hear your own voice answering your own questions, but it is something else that is answering it. This is such a special thing. You are getting advice from the deepest part within yourself.

I: How do you start your mornings?

B: Not all are the same, I wish I was more routine-based. On a good morning I take time to write down my dreams. In my dreams, there is always messages in there, often symbolic. As soon as I write it down and I just kind of let it be, I don’t think about it too much, often the meaning behind the symbolism comes through. So maybe I dreamt of a person from way back and Im like: why would I dream of this person? But all of a sudden I see what this person represents and the message is there. That is always really important for me to start it. Another thing I do: before I fall asleep, I write down some questions. Not regarding any of my dreams, just general questions. When I revisit them after writing down my dreams, the answers again just come to me very quickly. It is basically a very simple way of channeling. In the morning we are super receptive. I write the questions down and I forget about them. But I do not really focus on them. I recommend to start with easy, kind of curiosity questions, open ended question. You will start to recognize: all of a sudden you get a vibe like “oh this is the message”. As soon as you start practicing and trusting this, the messages will get stronger and stronger. This is wonderful to do in the morning.

I: You basically let the answer come through in your dreams?

B: No. The dreams are separate. This is also a good technique: I write down the questions prior, the dream is also a separate thing, it sometimes relates. All of a sudden you`re sensing different things – and your conscious mind is not there.

I: So: during the day, you write down questions you have. During the day, you don’t focus on them anymore, you just let the answers come through.

B: It is kind of an innocent way – but it is really lovely to start practicing and building it, you can also start asking more personal questions. Whenever I talk to the higher self, when we ask the questions my clients have, this is something that came through in two different regressions, when the higher self gave out this technique. Because often the higher self has all those tips for my clients and I am like: I am going to use this, it is amazing. I often test all these different things as well.

I: How did you discover past life regression?

B: Good question. Actually, about 5 years ago, I was not at all a spiritual person. I didn’t really think of reincarnation at all as something serious. My background is agnostic, no religion, I am from the Netherlands originally. But four, four and a half years ago somebody gifted me the book “many lives – many masters”. I was reading it and I was super fascinated, I was really grabbed but I was also really confused because he starts talking about past life regression, about reincarnation. There is no way this can be real – nobody ever talked to me about this, what is going on? But nevertheless, I was really fascinated and I finished almost a third of this book in one day. The next morning, this really interesting thing happened: I woke up and right away I am thinking about this book again. All of a sudden I heard this very strong voice. It said: you knew about reincarnation all along, it is time for you to remember it now. I was completely in shock. I heard it, but I also really felt it in my body, it was almost like I was hit by lightning and everything was turned on. I had to sit down, was like: holy shit, what is this. But I also decided: if this is real, I need to know everything there is to know about it. That is basically where my journey started – and I haven’t really stopped learning, talking about it. It is still going.

I: If we are at a dinnerparty and I say: I don’t believe in reincarnation, what would be your winning argument for it?

B: Actually, I do run into people that say: that is not for me. But I am totally cool with that. I am not here to convince you. You believe what you believe. I also had to have my personal experience to turn this around. The interesting thing is: sometimes I also get clients come to me in a session and they don’t believe it. Then I ask: ok, why are you here today? And they are like: I am just very curious and somehow it just kept on popping in my head. For me, this is a sign that the higher self keeps inspiring them. So yeah – maybe I am just here to prove me wrong, or just to see what happens. And I am always super excited. You don’t have to believe it to actually have a successful past life experience. You can still have the experience – it is just up to you what you do with it afterwards. The fun thing is: those people are always like: I don’t know what to say and I am always like: ok, take your time.

I: Can you tell us more about the technique you use? You use a technique called quantum healing hypnosis technique.

B: Yes. Short is QHHT. This technique is created by a lady called Dolores “Cannen”. Anyone who is interested in past life regression I would  highly recommend reading anything or watching her youtube videos. She passed away in 2014 but she has done past life regression technique for almost 60 years. She is from the US and the interesting thing with her: back in the 1960ies when she stumbled over past life regression she was just using regular hypnosis, clinical hypnosis techniques. She was right away completely into it. But at the time, there were no techniques out there. She could not go to a course like we can nowadays. So she developed her own technique. And she never stopped: she always kept trying new things, all those different ways to evolve her technique. The big difference is the higher self part. This is the part that I really love because people get so much information and also healing can happen at this point.

If you would like to get into it “brian Rice” is a good start – and if you love it, Dolores “Cannen”. That is university level. There is a lot of Youtube material of her: she used to do a radio show, all that is up. It is called the metaphysical hour, and it is just her talking about all these different amazing things that she is finding – it is very sweet, its this old grandma. As soon as you see her, you know she is real. There is no game going on, she does not try to convince anyone. She is just telling everyone how it is.

I: The technique has the word hypnosis in it. We have an image to this in our head from television and the media. But what you do is different. How would you describe it?

B: The thing we see on television – it is called stage hypnosis. It always freaks me out when I see it, to be honest. It is not for me. The hypnotic “trans” that I use, is a very natural hypnotic “trans” because this is something that everybody is in and out every day of their life. Instead of being conscious of everything that is happening around you, you re focusing your attention and awareness on one point. Therefore you are not necessarily noticing if somebody is calling your name or if there is a bird flying by the window. You are really focusing on one point. This could already be when you are on your phone for a few minutes, or watching TV. So, when focusing with our eyes closed on the inside, we actually get to go really deep really quick. It is very easy for people to get into and quite not invasive. It is not that hard to get into hypnotic trans and to open doors you did not even know you had.

I: Why should someone do a past life regression? What can it help me?

B: It is a different reason for everybody, I get such a huge variety in clients. I remember for me, when I first started doing it, I wanted to experience it before I started doing the courses, for me it really gave me such a big perspective in life. Before, I thought my problems were big problems. Now I am like: oh, wait a minute, it is not that big of a deal to learn certain things, it is just a matter of experiencing and growing. For me, when you really go through past life regression and all of a sudden it really sinks in that hey – it is not just this one life, and there is so much more than meets the eye, that it really allows you to get that helicopter-view over your own life. Go with the flow more. When my clients come, a lot of the reasons why they come to see me is: they are stuck in life, they want to know what their life purpose is. It could also be physical problems, this is not something I often advertise, I do not want people to think I am going to heal them. The higher self always says: I can only help people that are already also helping themselves. But it does happen often, literal physical healing. Also energetical healing: it could be about people needing to make a life style choice, but they want to be sure they are doing the right thing, and this could be a great confirmation for them. Cause their higher self will tell them exactly what it is. Before we come into this life, we make a plan – we make a pre-birth plan. In this plan, we have kind of identified what we want to learn, with who we want to learn, what karma we want to work out. How we are going to enjoy our lives. All our higher self wants is it wants us to realign with this. That is the biggest thing – to just get back on the path.

I: What does the higher self look like?

B: Our soul consists of two different parts: One is incarnated in the body. The other is still on the other side: it is still where we came from. This part knows all about our past lives – it knows about this pre-birth plan, it knows exactly what you came here to do and what you want to experience and learn from. This is the higher self. You can call it soul. Dolores in her early stages actually called it subconscious. They don’t care how we call them, we can call it anything. It responds to anything.

I: Do they give us nudges in the right direction?

B: 100%. It is not like some clients imagine it: Something from outside is taking over and I will speak through them, no. It is quite subtle that is from the inside that is overshadowed by, you know, our personality or everyday-voice. With hypnosis, we really get to focus on the higher self voice. The conscious mind, the everyday-voice, just kind of moves along to the background. That is basically how it works.

I: How do people experience their past lives? Do they see actual images?

B: It is 50 – 50. All that it is – you are remembering things with the mind. For some people the mind does create visual images. For others, it is more a sense of feeling or knowing. All your senses get activated. People get hot, they get emotional, they taste things, they smell things. Some people have very strong reactions: usually it is a combination of all those different factors. But I always tell them: don’t get to hung up on the visuals. That is not how remembering usually works.

Even for me, the first thing I think even though I am seeing, experiencing things: oh, maybe I have seen this in a movie, or maybe I read this in a book. Our ego, our conscious mind is trying to poke us. The big difference to a movie or a book is that a past life regression is very emotional. You see a person and you have certain feelings about this person. Or you see a child and you start to cry, you don’t really know why. It is because you are emotionally really attached to this person. This is something people often ask me: how do I know this is not just something I have seen before? Many clients start to cry, or become very scared. It is very emotional, actually.

I: How many past lives can one experience in one session?

B: Usually, the average is one or two. I also kind of let the higher self decide. If it goes to the last day of that life really quick, I say – ok, then lets move on to a next one. Sometime there is people that skip to many different lives. If I ask them to move forward in their lives or to an important day, they just go to a whole other life. Sometimes people see many lives, but usually the case then is that there is an overtheme that is going on to different scenes. The average is 1-3. I really want to find out why we are being showed this. Not just the fact: oh you were in Sweden and you were a maid. What is the story behind it? What are we here to learn from it? Because if you don’t learn the lesson, next time we do a past life regression you are going to see that same life. The higher self will say: no, we still need you to understand why we are showing this life.

I: What if I don’t feel / hear / see much of anything?

B: That does not happen often. In group it never happens, maybe the group pressure. But sometimes in one-on-one session if the clients have a harder time or feel a little nervous perhaps, and it is totally fine, it is just a matter of time. All that it is that their conscious mind is not really willing to take the backseat yet. That’s where the QHHT technique comes in. People need to feel safe and relaxed to allow whatever needs to come through. Everybody will have an experience.

I: In the beginning you do visualizations.

B: Yes. That activates the right part of the brain. That is the part that stores all the emotions, it’s the creative and intuitive side. It is connected to the higher self. When I first learned how to channel my spirit guides, the right side of my head would get completely hot. It would literally get warm. Also with the morning dreams.

I: Are there common themes that pop up?

B: Yes, definitely. A bit one: as humans, we measure success in the amount of comfort that we have in life. The higher self, the soul does not measure it this way: it is how much we learn, how much we grow, how much joy we have in life. Those are two different things. Often in regression this comes up. It can show in many different ways. Sometimes it shows a life where you took the wrong choice and how it worked out for you. Sometimes it does the opposite, depending on the person, whatever they need to get motivated. This is the big thing: for people to understand that they have a choice and that they should really follow joy.

I: someone in our group reincarnated as Marie Antoinette. Then you explained: several people have been incarnated as her and other famous examples. How is this possible?

B: This is interesting, because this is something that sceptics will take as an argument. Dolores Cannen dealt with this a lot because she did lots of lectures. For the longest time, she could not really give an answer – but than all of a sudden, as she progressed in her work, she got more information come to her, more complex information. There is this thing on the other side before we are being born: we can chose imprints from other people`s lives to learn from for our own. It is not really romantic: I just put in a floppy disc and that’s it? But they are as impactful as all the other lives. It really does not matter for you if it was an imprint or an organic life that you actually lived. You are still going to learn the lessons, you will feel what they felt, what impacts and actions they had on other people. Before you are being born, you chose imprints from people who had somehow similar patterns or somehow similar themes at least that they dealt with, you don’t wanna be coming into a a life and not having prepared yourself for it before coming in. There is a big difference. You always come back with a soul group. The difference to know if it is an imprint or an organic life is that you always come back with a soul group. There is a big group of people, a big group of souls that you keep coming back with. The reason for this is that you can work out karma a lot faster together than if you start over new all the time, because you already have a history, there is already a feeling there. You have to constantly balance your emotions and your relationships with people in your souldgroup. In an organic life, you recognize people from your current life.

I: Someone who is my father now could have been my best friend, my lover in another life. It is strange.

B: Yes, there is such a thing. And you will know it. Family members are often soul group people, but also people that you just meet and you feel like you have been knowing them for years. When you cant stop talking to them because it just feels so familiar. Falling in love at first sight. That can only happen when you already had a history with this person. There is no other way to have these feelings right from the beginning.  Soul groups can be very big. He had this question: how many people are in my soul group? And the higher self said: fifty thousand.

I: Your group sessions are split in three parts: first, the past life regression. Than the spirit guide connection. And in the end you do a future life regression. You don’t just do past lives, you also do future lives – very far out, a little insane. You guide us on a journey 1-300 years into the future. How?

B: This is really hard to comprehend, I am not even sure our human minds are made to comprehend it – the more I study spiritual things the more it always comes through that on the other side, where we come from, there is no such thing as time. In our human lives, it is linear time. On the other side, it is forever expanding. If you pop out your timeline, you can go anyway, you can go wherever. I do tell my clients: be really open to whatever may come through, don’t already have a preconceived idea because it is called past life. It could really go anywhere. All these lives, all these different time frames are affected by each other. Still, it is not set in stone. We have a free will. We can chose what we do – and with every choice we make we influence the environment, our future. Not set in stone, but it is a fun thing for people to experience it. You see a lot of similarities from people going through these future lives. Very fascinating.

I: What can you tell us about the future?

B: Once I had a lady who was an architect in the future. She was quite specific that they had a special kind of glass that was bendable and the houses were really green and they have integrated plants into the oxygen flow. Usually, what I hear: people will have a space, it is an empty space which is their house. It is very minimalistic, clean, highly advanced technology. They reuse this space for many different ways. They reprogramme it to their living room, all of a sudden they want it to be a swimming pool, a party place, this one space you can use for many different things. This is something i often hear: that somehow you can reuse your space to have many different functions.

I: What can you tell us about spirit guides?

B: The truth is, we are never really alone. They are non-physical beings, and they are with us all through our lives. When we are incarnated, when we pass, we get guidance. There is a whole army on different spirit guides as well that will come and go depending on what it is that you´re doing in your life. When you are studying, becoming a parent. Spirit guides are a wonderful tool, they are there for us, we are never really alone. But again, free will is the most important thing – they can not interfere with our life, unless we ask them for help or guidance. You can actually ask them things: in your head, out loud, write it down. I personally write it down, go into a meditative state, open my channel by visualizing and ask my spirit guides to come. It is difficult in the beginning, you ask yourself: am I making this up? What they actually told them to do: write down the questions and write down the answers you think are right. And then write down the questions and let us answer them. And then compare them. They are different. It is like a muscle.  You are not going to be the best piano player from just one try. You have to keep doing, trusting, acknowledging it in order for it to grow into something vibrant.

I: How do you tap into it?

B: This is called channeling. There are many different courses and books out there on how to channel the spirit guides. The reason why we do this in group regression is because in a group you cannot go and access the higher self. It is such a deeply personal space for people to tap into that its not ideal. Therefore I tap into the spirit guides. The spirit guides are between the higher self and you. I would say this is a little easier for some. The interesting thing: if you ask something, pay attention to whatever may happen in your life. Maybe in the radio when you hear a song and its completely relating to your question. Or maybe youre overhearing the conversation next to you and hear your answer. Its such a magical world we really live in. Pay attention to all these different factors.

In Canada, past life regression is completely normal, a lot of people do it. In Europe people are not much into it yet. The one-on-ones I do only in person, the group in zoom.

For me, growing up, I never had spiritually grounded role models. If I saw something spiritual, it was always really far out from where I was – ladies dressing very differently. But how wonderful would it have been if I did have role models. That were normal people, but also very knowledgeable about all these amazing things. I find it really important to normalize it. There are so many people that are spiritual, but they are still in the closet. If we speak freely about our experiences, I hope we encourage others to do the same. There are so many people around that are completely also into this. It is wonderful to have a foot in both worlds. And there is more and more people like that.

I: booktips

B: Seniah Roman – six books about spirit guides, “opening to channel” – about channeling

Dolores Cannen – not her latest work, somewhere in the middle and then work your way up
“between death and life” her books are transcriptions on her regression. She just bumbles them together in different themes so you see all these slightly different perspectives on all these different things, for instance the building of the great pyramid, Atlantis, all these special things.

A return to love by marian Williamson. So many valuable lessons.

I: Where can people find you?

B: My website: wondersnevercease.co, also Instagram. On Instagram I share a lot of things that I learn from my regressions or interesting things that I find through it, also I post on there whenever new group regressions come up. When people are interested in one-on-one regression, I always schedule a pre-consultation. It is very nice to get all your questions answered and to understand on a more in-depth level what is going to happen.