4. Shamanic Practice «The Cave»
Northern shamans enter into a trance in order to communicate with spirit helpers in the Middle World, which is the world of humans on Earth. In their practice and meditations, they pursue different objectives not related to past lives. However, this same practice can be effectively used for recalling past lives or reviewing events from your childhood.
Where to start
To begin a session, you will need solitude, meditative music, and initial skills in turning off the internal monologue. In the first session, there is no need to set grand objectives or pre-compose a list of many questions (more on that will be discussed in the next chapter). It will be enough to focus on mastering the technique and achieving results. If you don't succeed the first time, don't be discouraged. Remember, you didnt learn to read and walk at once, it occurred only after you made significant efforts. The same principle applies here: the more you practice, the better the results will be. However, typically, most individuals at once enter into the recollection of their past lives.
So, plan viewing a certain past life. This may be the previous life before the current one, the first on Earth, or the most significant one. Give a task to your subconscious. Get ready to see pictures from another life and remember as much as possible from what you will see.
Practice
Suppose you have chosen the previous life before the current one, and are ready to plunge into a light trance. Now take a comfortable position, sitting or lying (your back should have support). If it's noisy around, put on headphones with meditative music, but do not turn it on too loudly. You may use a recording of a shamanic tambourine.
You should sit or lie in a comfortable position. Shamans use the «nondoing» during practice; that is, they put on some unusual clothes to show the spirit that they are in an altered state of consciousness. For the first session, you can also put, for example, a bandana on your head. Any unusual action helps the attention to concentrate, which generally facilitates the practice. But you can dispense with it. It's also good to use crystals that you can hold in your hand while traveling into the past.
Entering the shaman's cave
Close your eyes and listen to the music or the silence around you. Stop the inner monologue. At this moment, you should neither think about everyday things nor mentally comment on anything that is happening. Now imagine a cave in the mountain. It may be a real cave that you've seen before, or one made-up by yourself; this does not matter. The cave is a secret entrance to your subconscious. If you see only one cave, then you have managed to open one entrance so far, but it may turn out that there will be several caves in front of you, each of which leads to a past life. This implies that your subconscious mind offers you a choice.
Look around: What do you see? What does the place where your cave is located look like? Look up at the sky, and then look down. What is around? Is it day or night outside? It may be a forest, a desert, or even a city around you. Afterwards, you will always use this entry point. You should be cozy and comfortable In this place, and you also should understand that it is absolutely safe here, only you are in this space. No outsider may appear here without your consent. Shamans in their practices call for helpers, spirits of trees or animals with whom they got acquainted before, but this is not necessary to view past lives. Your higher Self, your spirit, is quite capable of independently penetrating into the secrets of previous births.
Now pay attention to the cave itself and consider it in more detail: it is narrow or wide, what its edges look like, and if there are any other caves nearby. If there are several of them, choose the one you like the most and enter this cave. If it is narrow, maybe you will have to crawl inside on your knees instead of walking; this does not matter. Move forward, examining the cave itself at the same time. Inside, it can be a narrow manhole or a very wide one equipped with stairs. Farther, there may be anything at all: an elevator, a modern room, a long corridor, even a metro station. In any case, it will be an image of space, a road along which you will enter another world.
While passing through the cave, announce mentally your goal once again: «I intend to see my last past life.» Now look for an exit from the cave leading to another world. Usually it looks like a light-color tunnel or an opening to the outside. Pass through it.
You got into the memory of your past life
Take your time, look around: you will see a certain landscape. It could be anything: a forest, a city, mountains with a lake, a street in a metropolis, a ship at sea, and so on. If you see a city or a forest in the distance, head towards it. You can walk there, or you can fly since you are a light spirit. If it's a forest, follow the path, your subconscious will tell you where to go. Once in a place, you will see the figure of a person, it will stand out among others, if there are several of them. You may not see a face right away, but some details will come into view, such as hair, clothing, or a vehicle (car, ship or horse). Try to remember as many details as possible.
If something distracts you during the session or an unnecessary stream of thoughts appears, try by an effort of will to return to the place where you have met your last incarnation.
The first acquaintance
The first thing to do is to ask the question, «What is your name and who are you?» Often, you will only hear the name without a surname or you may not even understand in which language your past incarnation is speaking. This is a normal process, and you can obtain more specific information in subsequent sessions. If you don't receive an answer, try to consider the person's face, and transforming into a weightless spirit penetrate the head of this character.
Now ask the same question while being inside your avatar. Here, the answer may not come in words but as immediate knowledge. Once you learn the name, inquire about the person's occupation, the city they live in, and the time period they exist in. The answers may not come right away, but you will be able to look at the surroundings through the eyes of your past incarnation and identify the location. For example, the appearance of the buildings can indicate that it is a city in Europe from a past century.
Reviewing significant moments of a past life
Now that you have become acquainted, you can ask to be shown the most significant moments of your life. Mental images will begin unfolding before you. Do not be frightened or exit the session. Remember firmly who you are now and no matter what your memory reveals, all of that has long passed. Significant moments may include birth, death, the passing of loved ones, encounters with beloved ones, entering an educational institution, the birth of children, emotional events at work, and so on.
Returning
For the first time, it is enough to review a few of such moments. If you feel tired or have the desire to return, leave the area and make your way back to the entrance of the cave. The return journey may take significantly less time than the appearance, and this is normal.
You will find that you are not walking along a path but flying through the air or suddenly find yourself near the entrance of the cave. Now, make your way back, enter the cave, and move towards the exit leading back to your world. When you successfully exit the cave and see the exact spot where your journey began, conclude the session, open your eyes, and turn off the music.