Kid Wisdom (Part 3 – Planning Ahead)

Through the last two posts, Kid Wisdom (Part 1) and (Part 2), I’ve introduced the phenomenon of young children being an unadulterated source (no pun intended!) of information about the realm of Spirit.

This all arose because of a spine-tingling interaction I had with my six-year-old grandson, Huxley, one evening last November, when Greg and I were visiting Greg’s daughter and her husband, Julia and Sean. 

An after-dinner conversation became a life-changing event when Huxley spontaneously proceeded to share insights into the non-physical realm of Spirit … based on first-hand experience!

In this (somewhat longer than usual) post, I begin to share everything I can remember about the full conversation … or perhaps I should say, dissertation.  The full account will unfold over this and subsequent posts.

As I go, I’ll carry out what I’ll call a “Consistency Check.”  I’ll compare Huxley’s insights with a few of the many sources of information I’ve read and heard during my past 17 years of spiritual exploration. 

After all, what he put forward will be considered by many to be … well, let’s just say “unconventional.”  (Yeah, that would be putting it mildly.)  So, let’s find out … is there any overlap between his observations and what the various experts in this field have to say?

Okay, here goes … I now invite you to sit back, suspend disbelief, and stay open to what this very young child had to share.

Let’s get started!

So, here we were, seated at the dinner table.  After we cleared the way by reassuring Huxley it was indeed okay to talk about “D-I-E …,” as he had delicately put it, he launched into a series of stunning revelations ….

How we come into this life

Huxley didn’t beat around the bush.  He dove right in by explaining how he entered the world …

“When it was time, I looked for the ‘Julia and Sean portal’ and went through it and into Julia’s tummy.” 

Okay, that’s an interesting opening gambit … lots there to unpack.

Starting with … portal?  At the time, it kinda made so much sense I didn’t think twice about it, but as I write this now … is this really a word a six-year-old uses?  Perhaps.

However, what I definitely did find significant was that he used Julia and Sean’s given names, not “Mommy and Daddy.”  At this tender age, those are not monikers I expected to hear. 

He seemed to be referring to his parents from the perspective of someone other than their little boy ….  Hmm, interesting.

As I pondered this, it led me to wonder, why them … why “Julia and Sean”?

“I picked my parents”

So, I asked … how was it that Julia and Sean in particular became his parents?  Did he pick them or how did that work?

“I picked them.”

In retrospect, mine could have been a leading question, but his answer was quick and emphatic as he went on to describe this further.

When I queried why he’d picked these specific parents, he replied, because “they seemed really nice” and “there was an A+ beside the portal.”

An A+?  Yes, apparently this was the sign they were a good match for him.

“I picked my name”

Continuing of his own volition, Huxley went on to share another decision he’d made before his, er, “arrival” … apparently, he’d picked his own name. 

You might wonder, as I did, how he planted his choice of name with his parents, since, you know, I believe they’re the ones who actually have to put it on the birth certificate. 

But before I could ask, he explained that he sent this name via a message to Julia …

“I pressed the button and the message was sent.”  

Ah, I see … I actually get this.  In the grown-up world, we call it telepathy.

Julia agrees that his name did “just come” to her.  She also found this particular point interesting because apparently, even though he claims to have picked his name, he’s recently been talking about wanting to change it.  LOL!

“You get to pick what you want to look like”

Huxley continued this theme of pre-life planning by telling us we can pick what we want to look like.  Seriously. 

“You get to see pictures of how you would look, as a baby, or a child.  Even as a teenager.” 

He hastened to add, without prompting, “But you still have to be born little and grow up into a teenager.” 

I smiled to myself over his need to clarify something so obvious … and then realized, in light of what he was sharing, why would I think anything was obvious!

Consistency Check – Do we plan our lives ahead of time?

Whew!  Let’s pause here and absorb what just happened. 

What this six-year-old was telling us is this … there are certain aspects of our life that we actually plan before being born.  We participate, at least to some degree, in defining the roadmap laid out for our life.

Huxley singled out certain aspects … we pick our parents, our name, and what we’ll look like. And also when we arrive into mom’s “tummy.”

I warned you, right?  This all sounds rather … fantastical.  But the question is, have I heard any of this before? 

The answer … You bet! 

In fact, this is such a commonly recounted and fundamental concept of “life behind life,” so to speak, there are times I have to remind myself not everyone is familiar with it.  If your mind is spinning, I get it.  But …

Multiple sources … hypnotherapists, mediums, near-death experience survivors, channelers, spiritual thought leaders … reveal how, much to the disbelief and chagrin of many, we actually do plan this life.

And, yes, this specifically includes picking our parents, our family, our body, and the timing of our arrival.

Let’s check in with a few of these sources ….

The realm of psychiatric medicine

One of the early medical doctors to publish about this sort of stuff, based on his experiences treating patients through hypnotherapy regression, is Brian Weiss, M.D.  As a psychiatrist, hypnotherapy was one of the therapeutic modalities in his toolkit. 

I wanted to start with a medical doctor because, you know, people tend to give more credence to what they have to say.  And Weiss wasn’t just any doctor at the time.  No, he brought heavy-duty credentials …

Educated at the prestigious academic institutions of Columbia and Yale … chief resident in psychiatry at Yale … on the teaching faculties of several university medical schools … and chairman of the Department of Psychiatry at Mount Sinai Medical Center in Florida for many years.

In his own words, he was “a classically trained physician, professor of psychiatry and confirmed skeptic … “ 

And yet a physician who suddenly, and to his great surprise, found himself regressing patients not to an earlier time in this life, but to an entirely different past life. 

And then, to a state of being in between lives ….

Yup!  After death and before (re)birth.

I’ve posted Weiss’ first book that describes his entrée into the arena of past-life regression … “Many Lives, Many Masters.” 

As his experiences grew, he wrote other books, including “Messages from the Masters,” which is where I lifted these quotes on the subject at hand (bolding is mine) …

“Not accidentally or coincidentally are we born into our families.  We choose our circumstances and establish a plan for our lives before we are even conceived.” (Ch. 3, pg. 44)

He goes on to say …

“There is considerable evidence that we actually see the major events in the life to come, the points of destiny, in the planning stage prior to our births.” (Ch. 3, pg. 44)

Wow … before we are conceived … prior to our births … not a lot of ambiguity in those statements. 

A master hypnotherapist paints the full picture

Weiss isn’t the only professional who practiced hypnotherapy to find himself delving into this territory.  The most amazing source I’ve come across in this field did as well … Michael Newton, PhD.  I’ve mentioned him in previous posts.

Newton too was a doctor, but of a different sort … you know, the PhD kind, holding a doctorate in Counseling Psychology. 

Although now deceased, he was what was called a master hypnotherapist in the US, in practice for decades.  Early in his career, he also experienced this same surprising development of regressing clients back in time much (much) farther than expected. 

Fascinated with what he was learning, he continued to pursue it.  And over the ensuing years, found himself regressing thousands of clients into the state of being in between lives. 

Clients of different genders, ages, cultures, socio-economic status, faiths (or no faith) … all people unknown to each other … and yet across all these cases, Newton found consistent similarities in their accounts. 

And this was during a time period (starting in the 1960’s) when this sort of thing wasn’t openly discussed, so it wasn’t like, you know, they’d all read the same book or anything.

There’s a method to the madness …

Guess what he found?  Apparently, this pre-life planning is not just some random, arbitrary activity. 

When Newton stood back and looked at the full picture of data he was collecting, he realized these accounts painted a picture of a rather structured process we go through … a process that unfolds from the moment we DIE to the moment we’re REBORN.

(No, that’s not a typo … that’s the sequence.  And I use “RE-born” because the existence of reincarnation is a natural fall-out from this field of research.  But let’s stay focused on Huxley’s pre-life planning pronouncements.) 

Newton documented and published this structured process, along with transcripts from several example client sessions that revealed it, in his first book (one I’ve posted) … “Journey of Souls.”  

He then followed it up with a sequel that dives even deeper into what he’d learned … “Destiny of Souls.”  

So get this … as part of the first book, Newton addresses specifically the planning aspects of our lives that Huxley raised.  Seriously! In fact, he dedicates FULL chapters to them …

• Chapter Twelve – Life Selection
• Chapter Thirteen – Choosing a New Body
• Chapter Fifteen – Rebirth 

As their titles indicate, these chapters delve into the details of the planning process Newton discovered that we go through to decide where, when, and as whom we’ll next be born.

He summarizes these discoveries by stating:

“The soul must … take purposeful action based upon three primary decisions:

• Am I ready for a new physical life?
• What specific lessons do I want to undertake to advance my learning and development?
• Where should I go, and who shall I be in my next life for the best opportunity to work on my goals?” (Ch. 12, pg. 202)

Yes, his interactions with thousands of disparate clients revealed that we actually have decisions to make before re-entering into a physical life.

Apparently, “coming into a physical body” is a deliberate, thought-out, considered event.

I’ve emphasized Newton’s work because I’ve found it to be the most comprehensive and well laid-out, but this planning concept is touched on in so many other sources.  Let me offer a couple more to give you a sense of the variety.

Near-death experiencers

For example, there are scores of people (yes, scores) who have “died,” but have then subsequently come back to life to tell what they experienced, including what they learned while they were … well … “over there.” 

One such person is Mary C. Neal, M.D., an orthopaedic surgeon, who drowned in a kayaking accident … and then returned to her body and her life.

She wrote a book to recount this phenomenal story, which I’ve posted … “To Heaven and Back.” 

I just now pulled her book off the shelf to see what I might find on this topic since she’s, you know, another medical doctor …. 

The book “fell open” to a relevant passage I’d underlined when I first read it years ago (yeah, that falling-open-to-just-what-you-need sort of thing happens).

In this passage, Neal is describing one of the encounters she’d had while she’d been “dead” … a conversation with a being she referred to as an angel.

She says this being was explaining to her how certain things worked, including, as Neal states:

“In preparation for our journey to earth, we are able to make a basic outline for our life.” (Ch. 17, pg. 98)

Children’s stories

Then there are the children … I mean, other than Huxley.

Let me pull from another book I’ve recently finished reading, one I mentioned in Part 1 … “Life Before Life: Children’s Memories of Previous Lives,” by Jim B. Tucker, M.D.

This book is a description of the in-depth scientific studies of cases of children recounting memories of past lives. 

One of many observations Tucker makes is:

“In a number of cases, the children have reported that they chose their next parents.” (Ch. 10, pg. 218)

Confirmation from a different grandson … ?

This brings to mind a personal experience I had with my first grandchild some years ago.  He was not quite eight weeks old when I came away feeling he confirmed this “you pick your parents” idea …

His parents had brought him for a weekend visit, and as they packed to leave, I looked after him.  As I held him, I talked to him about this life he’d come into, wondering aloud what it was he had selected to experience and learn.

By this point, I was already familiar with the concept that we plan elements of our own life before birth.  So, continuing to talk directly to him, I told him he had good parents and declared … “You chose well.” 

At that very instant … his face broke out into a big smile, bigger than any of the smiles I’d seen so far.  It wasn’t a hint of a smile; it wasn’t a partial smile … it was a very definite wide grin that reached his eyes in an almost conspiratorial look.  It was very cool and lit me up inside.

After a few moments, his face reverted to what it had been … great interest, mostly serious, but with an open look.  He didn’t smile like that again, and shortly after, they were on their way, leaving me with the memory of a secret shared ….

Yes, it appears we do plan …

No way!  I can hear some of you yelling right now.  There’s no way I picked [insert derogatory term] of a [insert family member] … !  Uh uh!  Nope!

However, once I began to travel down this path of discovery, I learned this to be a fundamental concept that arises in almost every teaching … as a soul, we plan our life in advance. 

Not all the details … but the circumstances we’re born into, key milestones, decision points, relationships … all designed to give us the opportunity to experience what it is we’ve chosen to experience. 

I have to say, the implications of all this lead to a rich, multi-layered, in-depth discussion …. 

However, I’ll leave that to the realm of spiritual teachers and therapists more qualified than I to dive into what all this means. 

As for me, I’ll just reiterate that these concepts Huxley shared are widely reported and agreed upon … and leave you to ponder their implications, should you wish to.

In the meantime, I’ll invite you to continue on this journey of discovery, courtesy of a six-year-old.  (I promise the next posts won’t be quite so long.)

In the next one (Part 4), we’ll learn that “heaven” is not just a wide-open space filled with fluffy white clouds … it actually has a structure. 

Who knew??