This summer, during sunnier days, my 11 year old niece (who realizes I’m a little different from the rest of the family) asked if I could do a past life regression on her. I said yes, not realizing what was about to transpire.

I had her relax and imagine gold light filling her body. I had her close her eyes and walk down a flight of stairs into a past life.

She walked down the flight of stairs in her minds eye and boom, she was off and running. She started describing her family life from a different time and different place. There were huts and fires and family and a boat. The boat keep coming up.

I continued to walk her through the regression when suddenly she was on the boat and cannons were being shot at the boat that she was on and she was afraid. She said she thought she was at war and cannons were being shot at the boat.

Suddenly, i become afraid.

Shit, I thought to myself, what have I done. I’ve regressed my eleven year old niece into a past life where cannons are being shot at her.

A fear of accidentally traumatizing my beloved niece overcame me.

It’s to late now, i thought to myself. I need to see this through.

So, back to my niece.

She is half hypnotized describing the scene where cannons are being shot at her boat and suddenly everything goes black and she says: i’m not seeing anything anymore. I just feel quiet and peaceful.

There is a long pause.

I ask her if she has died.

She pauses back, and says yes, she has died.

I sit for a moment and then I ask her to stay in this meditative state and ask what was she learning in that life time. I asked her to listen quietly and allow an answer to come to her.

About ten seconds pass. She pauses and says:

I was learning to be a warrior.
I was learning to be strong.

I allow another moment to pass and allow her space to take in the message.

I slowly guide her back.

She opens her eyes, looks right at me and says: That was really cool.

She then promptly runs off to play with the other kids in the water.

I breathe a sigh of relief. She is okay.

By God: She is a warrior.

Once I was listening deeply to a friend who was talking about leaving her husband. I was practicing deep listening at the time and was giving all of my attention to this. (i.e. I wasn’t thinking about what I needed to say in response or multitasking or advice giving. I was just listening.)

As my friend talked about leaving her husband I heard a deeper part of her tell me that she would never leave him because of their money situation. I heard the words beneath the words. When I listened in this way, I had access to much more information than I normally would have. It wasn’t subtle. Actually, it felt like a super power. When I focused on really listening, I was amazed at the information that I had access to.

Practice deep listening today. See how deeply you can listen.

What do you hear when you listen in this way? Can you hear the words beneath the words?

Let this be your experiment with life today. Listen to the words beneath the words. YOu may be amazed at what you discover.