Cowboy Dreams: A Past-Life Story

 
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Many years ago, while I was in hypnotherapy school, I participated in a demonstration on past-life regression. My teacher asked the class who wanted to explore past lives that were related to a talent or interest we have in our present life. I had just committed myself to writing a book, and I was eager to explore my relationship with writing. My hand shot up into the air immediately!

As I settled into a chair at the front of the room next to a few other enthusiastic students, the teacher said a few preparatory words to help us drop into a deeper state of consciousness. One of the things I loved about this teacher was her way of guiding people into hypnosis through simple conversation. No drama. Just an easy way of connecting you with your deeper self.

She invited us to think of a talent or interest in present time and then connect with past-life memories that were related to it. It was really that simple. Of course, we all had loads of practice going into trance by that point in the curriculum.

As I connected with the topic of “writing,” the most poignant past-life memory that came was of being an illiterate cowboy.

The scene was like an old Western movie. My fellow cowboys and I were all circled around a campfire, ready to bed down for the night. The fellow closest to me had a newspaper. After he nodded off, I took the newspaper and just looked at it. I saw all these symbols on the page that I simply couldn’t make sense of. I knew what a newspaper was, but I did not know how to read. I beheld it with awe. It felt like pure magic that my friend could read these symbols, that these confusing marks were words!

Just as easily as my teacher guided us into our process, she guided us out. As we all shared about our experience, she advised us not to make any of these “memories” too meaningful. I have always appreciated that. I hold my inner “past life” images as potentially fictional, but useful nonetheless. It doesn’t matter if the past lives were “real,” they could still function like metaphors or dreams or even just a story, the way a good novel or movie can inspire insight or catalyze an inner transformation.

Whether real, metaphor, or dream, I honor the passion for written language the cowboy kindled in my soul.

I am grateful to have been able to follow that thread of passion through this lifetime. The cowboy would be wowed if he could hold my books in his hands, and think: this is my future.