Wisdom of Souls (Dr. Michael Newton, PhD)

The only thing I liked about this book was the last chapter.

Wisdom of Souls is the fourth book from a series of publications by Dr. Michael Newton and the Michael Newton Institute. His trained practitioners and their respective clients contributed to this compilation of regression accounts, as Dr. Newton had passed over in 2016.

For those who haven't heard of Journey of Souls or Destiny of Souls, Dr. Newton essentially pioneered the study of past life regression. By way of hypnotherapy, he and his associates have been able to help their clients reach into their psyche to remember the womb, living and dying in another (usually most recent) life, and making their way into the Spirit World. Those books explain the entire life-death-afterlife process, while emphasizing that the ultimate goal of a session is figuring out why one is going through their current struggle. (I understand this all sounds crazy, but give those a read and you'll be shocked at what is repeated by different people over, and over, and over again.)

The Wisdom of Souls "instalment" is a continuation of the other Souls books, but it is not an exploration of what happens when we die. It's broken down into chapters relating to issues that clients (people) are facing, and each account has a record of the advice past souls and Guides have to offer. This provides insight into why we might be suffering however we're suffering; the first chapter is on health issues, eventually getting into anxiety and depression, relationship struggles, addition, etc. The point of these accounts is to help readers understand that there is a reason why you are struggling, and you're supposed to learn from it now so that you don't have to deal with it again later.

While I get and appreciate all of this, I didn't love that the book is unavoidably subjective. Hearing other peoples' experiences could be helpful for personal reflection, but it isn't actually that helpful when you factor in how you could be way off in the interpretation of your own situation. It differs from Journey and Destiny in that sense, because Destiny continued on Journey's research into death, dying, and the afterlife, while Wisdom felt like the diary entries of those who had been through the Life Between Lives session.

I liked the last chapter because it was on aging, death, and dying. The accounts were consistent, and were the most comforting out of all chapters. They felt like a complete reflection of what Dr. Newton described in the first two Souls.

For me, Journey and Destiny were life changing. I've been through trauma, I've strayed from faith, and I've been lost. Journey brought me to a place that made me comfortable with the idea that death isn't scary and everything is in place to make you stronger and more capable of dealing with life. Destiny took that another step further, delving deeper into the "afterlife" and how we continue to grow.

Wisdom is not what I expected, and because of that, I'm disappointed. I guess it's good in its own way if you're looking for little hidden messages that can help you think differently. I'm not saying that I don't like hearing perspectives, but that isn't what I went into this book looking for. When I realized it wasn't going to be additional findings from Dr. Newton's research, I found it difficult to get through. There are still some "lessons" that I found valuable, and I highlighted those, but overall, I wanted way more.

6/10