Between-Lives Regression (Life Between Lives)

Between-lives regression, commonly called Life Between Lives therapy or LBL, is a specialized form of hypnotic regression developed to access the soul”s experience in the non-physical realm between incarnations. Rather than stopping at the events of a previous life, an LBL session carries the person through the death transition of a past life and into the state of pure soul consciousness that exists before the next birth. Practitioners and participants report that this between-lives state offers a perspective dramatically wider than ordinary waking awareness: a sense of knowing the soul”s history across many lifetimes, recognizing the spiritual beings who have accompanied it across incarnations, and understanding the planning process that shaped the current life.

The method was developed and documented primarily by Michael Newton, a California hypnotherapist who began publishing his case research in the 1990s. His two main books, “Journey of Souls” (1994) and “Destiny of Souls” (2000), drew on thousands of LBL sessions conducted over decades and presented a remarkably consistent picture of the between-life realm reported by his clients under deep hypnosis.

History and origins

Michael Newton developed the between-lives method gradually through clinical practice rather than through a pre-existing esoteric framework. Working as a conventional hypnotherapist, he discovered that some clients, when guided past the death point of a past-life memory, spontaneously entered what they described as a realm of light and began reporting experiences of spiritual reunions, guidance encounters, and planning sessions. The consistency of these reports across clients who had no prior contact with each other, and who often had no strong prior belief in reincarnation, led Newton to conclude that he had identified a reproducible pathway to a genuine between-lives state.

Newton eventually retired from individual practice and founded the Newton Institute for Life Between Lives Hypnotherapy, which trains and certifies practitioners in the specific method he developed. The Institute operates internationally and maintains a directory of certified practitioners. LBL training requires prior certification in clinical hypnotherapy and completion of the Newton Institute’s specialized curriculum, which creates a degree of methodological consistency across the practice.

The between-lives framework overlaps with Theosophical descriptions of the causal plane and with the teachings of various metaphysical traditions on the soul”s between-life activities. Newton himself approached the work as a researcher rather than as a committed spiritual believer, and his presentations emphasize the empirical consistency of his clients” reports rather than theological argument.

What is typically encountered

Based on Newton’s published case material and the reports of practitioners trained in LBL methodology, a consistent sequence of experiences appears across many sessions. Individual variation is real and significant, but the broad structure recurs often enough to be described as characteristic.

Following the death of the past-life personality, many clients describe a transition through darkness or a tunnel-like experience before arriving in a place of light, warmth, and expansion. The personality-self of the past life tends to fade, replaced by a larger sense of self that encompasses many lives and recognizes its own age and history. Clients often report feeling welcomed, loved, and recognized by presences in this realm.

Reunion with soul group members is one of the most emotionally resonant features of LBL experiences. The soul group is described as a relatively small cluster of souls who have known each other across many incarnations, taking different roles in each other’s lives but maintaining ongoing relationship between lives. Recognizing a soul group member in the between-lives state and understanding the long arc of that relationship can be profoundly meaningful, particularly for people working through complicated present-life relationships.

Encounters with a spirit guide or teacher, often identified as a being of greater age and development who has accompanied the soul for many lifetimes, are reported in a large percentage of LBL sessions. These encounters tend to feel deeply personal rather than generic, and the guidance received is often described as direct, wise, and applicable to present-life questions.

A life-planning review, sometimes described as appearing before a council of elder souls, features in many accounts. The soul is understood to have participated in planning its current life before birth, choosing the key circumstances, relationships, and challenges that would offer particular growth opportunities. In the between-lives state, this planning process can sometimes be partially accessed, offering insight into why the current life is configured as it is.

A method you can use

Between-lives regression in its full form requires a trained practitioner and a dedicated two-to-four-hour session. The following describes the general structure used by Newton-trained therapists.

Preparation: The client completes an intake questionnaire covering their purpose in doing LBL work, key life questions they want to explore, and any significant relationships or life patterns they hope to understand. The practitioner uses this to frame the session”s intention without over-directing the experience.

Induction: A thorough relaxation induction, longer and more gradual than in a standard past-life session, brings the client to the deep hypnotic state necessary for LBL work. Visualized environments, progressive physical relaxation, and breathing guidance are all employed.

Past-life entry: The client is guided to a suitable past life, typically one that surfaces naturally from the deeper state. Key scenes from that life are explored enough to establish the personality and life context.

Through the death: The client is guided gently to the end of that past life and through the death experience, with the practitioner maintaining steady, calm guidance. For most people, the death is experienced without distress, often with relief, as the soul releases the past-life body.

The between-lives state: The practitioner asks orienting questions: What do you sense around you? Are you alone? What do you know about yourself here? The client”s answers guide the direction of exploration. The practitioner follows rather than leads, asking open questions that invite depth without imposing a structure on what arises.

Return: The session concludes with a gentle return to ordinary consciousness and an extended integration conversation. Clients are often moved and need time to settle before re-entering daily life.

In practice

LBL work is used by practitioners and clients for a wide range of purposes: understanding the soul”s broader purpose and direction, gaining perspective on the most challenging relationships or life circumstances, resolving fear of death, and reconnecting with a sense of spiritual meaning during difficult periods. Many clients describe LBL as the single most profound experience of their lives, independent of prior spiritual orientation.

Finding a practitioner certified through the Newton Institute or a comparable LBL training program is the recommended approach for serious between-lives work. The depth of the hypnotic state involved, and the potential for emotionally intense material, makes trained facilitation significantly preferable to solo attempts.

In myth and popular culture

The idea of a realm between incarnations has roots in several philosophical and religious traditions long predating Newton’s work. Plato’s myth of Er, narrated at the end of the Republic, describes a warrior who died in battle and witnessed the between-life realm: souls choosing their next incarnations, guided by a lottery of lots and counseled by the Fates before drinking from the river of forgetfulness and returning to life. This account includes soul groups, life review, and free choice in selecting one’s next incarnation, elements that closely parallel what Newton’s clients reported under hypnosis.

The Tibetan Book of the Dead (Bardo Thodol), an eighth-century Tibetan Buddhist text attributed to Padmasambhava, provides an extensive and detailed guide to the between-death-and-rebirth period known as the bardo. Its descriptions of encounter with luminous presences, judgment scenes, and the process of moving toward a new incarnation share structural features with LBL accounts that researchers have found striking, given that Newton’s clients had typically not studied Tibetan Buddhism.

Newton’s books Journey of Souls (1994) and Destiny of Souls (2000) became widely influential in New Age and spiritual communities and have been translated into dozens of languages. They contributed substantially to the contemporary understanding of soul contracts, soul groups, and between-life planning that now circulates broadly in spiritual memoirs, podcasts, and channeled material. The concept of a life-planning council of elder souls is perhaps Newton’s most distinctive contribution to popular spiritual imagination.

Myths and facts

Between-lives regression is an area where significant misunderstanding circulates alongside genuine and interesting material.

• Between-lives regression is sometimes presented as scientifically validated research into the afterlife. Newton was a hypnotherapist presenting case studies, not a controlled scientist; the consistency of his clients’ reports is genuinely interesting and worth taking seriously, but it falls far short of scientific proof of an afterlife or of the soul’s between-life activities.
• A common assumption holds that everyone who attempts LBL work will access clear, detailed, and dramatic between-life memories. Experiences vary enormously; some people access vivid and apparently detailed material, others encounter vague impressions or nothing particularly remarkable, and this variation is not a failure of the practice or the practitioner.
• LBL is sometimes treated as equivalent to channeling or mediumship. It is a hypnotic induction technique that invites the client’s own deeper consciousness to access material; it does not involve a third party speaking through the client, and trained LBL facilitators are specifically instructed not to interpret or direct what the client experiences.
• The idea that past-life regression must precede LBL because it is “simpler” is a practical guideline, not a spiritual law. The recommendation exists because the deep hypnotic state required for LBL work is easier to achieve for people with prior regression experience, not because past-life access is a prerequisite for the between-life state to exist.
• Some practitioners believe that the soul council encountered in LBL sessions can be directly petitioned for specific outcomes in the current life. The LBL framework presents the council as a source of wisdom and reflection rather than a petition-granting body; most practitioners and clients describe the council experience as informational and illuminating rather than as a place of requests and grants.