Destiny of Souls: New Case Studies of Life Between Lives by Dr. Michael Newton is no longer “new”, in terms of date, published in 2000.  But…

… it is significantly new in terms of what Newton explores via his many clients. At least I’m not aware of other works that have built upon or replicated what he has laid out, in great detail, in the book.  Of course, other “past life regression” therapists have done similar work and continue to write books.  Without having read them, I imagine they would tend to confirm core implications of Destiny of Souls”.  

However, Newton’s focus in both this book and his others (one was prior, Journey of Souls, 1994) is what happens in people’s disembodied state between the many incarnations he believes most people have. (This became his focus from early in his long career, though not something he had even believed in when starting out.) One potential boon for us is what it may help us discern about both about our personal soul-life and the nature of life and consciousness more broadly.

In my view, there is valid reason to have some questions about the details of client descriptions or about the author’s conclusions on certain matters.  Some of these issues Newton addresses in various places in the book, though I suspect the “defenses” are missed by many readers, especially the stronger skeptics (generally 1 and 2 star reviewers) who often read only a couple chapters or skip sections.

Finer-point skepticism aside for now, here is why I believe the overall work by Newton, and this book in particular (I’ve not read his others, said to be overlapping) to be very important:

It presents a credible fleshing-out of the dynamics of reincarnation, widely believed in but little understood.

It offers alternative explanations of ideas on both “sides” of the resurrection/reincarnation divide (Judeo-Christian vs. “Eastern”). 

Let me elaborate on these a little (there’s a lot to potentially include). Some background: Reincarnation is a majority view of the “destiny of souls”, taken worldwide.  Even in the “Christian nation” of the USA, polling indicates around 20 – 25% believe in some form of reincarnation, including many who identify as Christian.  Whether you’re a believer or not in reincarnation, there must be some basis for its wide appeal and some reasons why so little is commonly understood about how it actually operates, and toward what ends. Might this book be at least a strong clue and maybe much more? In it we get a lot of specifics going beyond reincarnation as either merely “an endless cycle” or “eventual enlightenment”.  Newton believes he has uncovered many of those specifics and a clearer view of the larger “Plan”.  He believes his data also tell us a lot about the nature of spirit life while not embodied.

Stepping back a bit, at the same time some Christians are at least open to reincarnation, orthodox Christian teaching clearly opposes reincarnation in favor of belief in one human lifetime followed by some form of “final judgment”.  Just how “biblical” is this historic view is a topic for another post (or many).  The Bible, regardless, adds relatively little further information on either the judgment process or life thereafter.

This leads to a lot of presumption, guessing and the creation of an endless stream of “Peter at the Pearly Gates” jokes.  (Actually, these are often quite funny!) More soberly, future resurrection of the body and the nature of soul existence after death is debated within traditional Christianity, along with how one may obtain “eternal life”, etc.  Understandable curiosity leads to the wide speculation, admitted to by most Christian theologians.  Aside from threads in both Hebrew and Christian Scripture that focus on apocalyptic “end times”, ancient forms of both religions, particularly Judaism, focused primarily on this-world issues and claimed little about what happens after.

I’m far from an expert on the contrasting Eastern religions but have become generally familiar.  There are places where some specifics on the nature of reincarnation and spirit-life are described but there is not widespread agreement on specifics… on whether “transmigration” (to non-human species) happens to souls, for example.  Also missing, to my knowledge, is much discussion of what happens between lives, as to any review and learning processes.

These are issues which Newton’s work does focus on.  Precisely because it purports to fill in numerous holes in either “revealed” or more investigative information (such as the many studies of people’s “near death” and “out of body” experiences), this book is both a fascinating read and important for further research.  Many reviewers testify to it helping them greatly in dealing with grief or in gaining a sense of their purpose or direction in life. (I well realize many Christians as well as atheists/skeptics will discount or “disallow” this factor, along with all of Newton’s information, based upon belief systems that differ, but it must be taken as one factor of significance in evaluation.)

   The late Michael Newton

Now, I happen to be intent on religious and “spiritual but not religious” people, atheists and everyone being in respectful dialog.  We need to find places and ways to cooperate on shared goals for human betterment.  There are problems with every single religious or spiritual view, institutional or personal.  More solid and stable foundations come from common wisdom — principles and insights widely agreed upon.  In one sense, these can be pursued without consideration of differences on the destiny or growth process of souls.  But humanitarian this-world goals cannot be fully separated from the larger picture of how our souls (or “personalities”, for unbelievers in any consciousness beyond this life) came to be, where they are headed and how this all proceeds.

For example, the common, often nagging questions of “What’s my purpose in life?” or “What does this all mean?” have powerful impacts on well-being and the ability for many people to actually be compassionate and active in support of others.  These issues are addressed, with widely varying answers, by religions and many forms of spirituality. Some, such as Buddhism, do so without much speculation on the being of God, or even if such a “supreme being” exists.  This book might be considered to have a similar approach regarding that matter.  For purposes here, I’ll merely say in summary that Newton’s research indicates a complex spiritual world of beings and functions, apparently originated or directed, in some sense, by “God” though God is not a key focus and never really defined or directly encountered in reports by Newton’s subjects.  My own take is that Newton is describing something like a benevolent “field” or “ground of being” within which all aspects of reality and all life forms exist and grow.  (Whether or not he/she/it is “personal” is largely a matter of fine-point definitions.) This would seem to fit within perspectives along a broad spectrum from the Bible to scriptures and beliefs of classical Eastern origin and current more “New Age” thought.

In Part 2, I will give some further specifics of both Newton’s data-gathering method and what he believes are valid general points to be gathered that may provide answers we crave and sometimes comfort or desired direction.  I will address, via his work, what I consider a potentially close parallel between Christian “reap what you sow” and the Eastern concept of karma.