“I’m on the cutting edge of an industry that’s going to be very big in the future.”
Nanette Davidson isn’t what I picture when I imagine the metaphysical. A former business executive with intense blue eyes and soft, honey-brown hair, she speaks about former lives so matter-of-factly that even I, a skeptical journalist, am inclined to believe.
“When our physical bodies die, our energy still exists. Mediums connect with energy,” she said.
Energy is what Davidson is all about. She uses it in her work as a reiki teacher/master, a life coach, and an international speaker. “I conduct groups for sensitives, I teach people meditation and to read auras, I’m a minister, and I do past life regressions,” she said.
When I first went to see Davidson, it was to do energy work at her business, The Serenity Room. Reiki is considered a natural form of healing that’s gaining popularity around the globe.
Lying on the table, I didn’t expect to pop back in time. Davidson, however, was not surprised. In order to do past life regressions, she said you need to be in “a calm, meditative state. It’s really a trance. You’re not asleep and you’re not awake.” That’s pretty much the state I was in when the 1920s came roaring in. I’m still not sure if I’ve lived past lives or if I have a particularly active imagination. Either way, it sparked an interest, and I’ve now followed up with over-the-phone sessions from my Colorado home (she works out of the D.C./Virginia area).
So far: Five past lives and counting.
Here is how it works. Davidson works with your breathing and visualizations to bring you into the trance-like state. “You’re connected to the divine, and through that channel you can travel to the past, if you’ve had a past,” she said. Also, people experience it in different ways by using one or more of the senses. Some people feel things. Some people hear things. Some people see things.
Me? I see them.
I first saw myself in an old kitchen. I was a poet and a book of my work was sitting on the sideboard of the house that was under renovation. My shoes were brown and laced up. I was a man. A man! (I am the least masculine person I know.) Davidson said it’s normal to experience different personas in different lives so you can learn new things. She then guided me through, asking questions to help ferret out information. Finally, she took me to the end of that life and back to this one.
Because my first in-person experience was so spontaneous, our phone sessions varied a bit. During those, she began by taking me back to an early childhood memory. From there, I was guided through an “in between” — that space between lives. I can’t speak for others, but for me, what felt like memories of past lives came fairly easy. Every time, I was surprised.
During one session, I saw myself in a fire ceremony in Papua New Guinea. Again, I was a man. This time a warrior, wearing a red and green headdress. I pictured myself twirling something on fire. Later, I saw what I believe was a big, brown cat pounce on me. Interestingly, I wasn’t afraid. I believed — really believed — I was becoming a part of the animal when it killed me. In another life, as a Native woman, my death did not come happily. I was dying alone (I don’t know why) and was angry about it. Or perhaps my imagination was unhappy about it. Regardless, new research suggests past lives may be more than imagination.
Jim Tucker is a professor of psychiatry and neurobehavioral sciences at the University of Virginia. In his book Return to Life, he outlines findings from a study he did of more than 2,500 children who reported memories of past lives. The aim of his research was to try and match the stories told by young children with actual people from the past.
He acknowledged to National Public Radio that a child’s imagination is a powerful thing.
“If we had never been able to verify that what the child said matched somebody who died, then you could certainly just mark it down as being fantasy,” he said.
But he did find matches. Some of them were rather obscure. One well-known study focused on a young boy who began talking about being a World War II fighter pilot shot down over Iwo Jima. He knew the name of the pilot, the name of his friend, and the name of the naval aircraft carrier where he was stationed. Tucker said he confirmed all names and events.
Davidson said she was “able to find myself” in one of her past lives the same way.
“I’ve been having memories of that lifetime my whole, entire life,” she said. She knew her name, her husband’s name, and the street she lived on in France during the 1700s. When more advanced methods of genealogy were developed, she found that woman. In this life, she says she has the same birthdate and a derivation of that woman’s name.
How do you know if you had a past life? Davidson said you’ll often be drawn to a certain time period or you might find yourself knowing about something and not know how you obtained the knowledge.
“I think Earth is like a school,” she said. “We really are spiritual beings and we’re here to advance our soul.”
Some of us travel together. “In the spiritual world you make agreements about how things are supposed to play out for your benefit,” Davidson said. “There’s free will, so things don’t always work out this way.”
She added that older, more experienced souls often choose more difficult lives. “Older souls are here to teach us,” she said. They often do that by showing others how to handle tragedy with grace.
Like acupuncture, Davidson believes past life regressions and other metaphysical beliefs will soon gain the same type of acceptance.
“The world is full of old souls” she said. “A greater percentage of young people were sent here to change the paradigm.”
You can contact Nanette Davidson at: serenityroom.nanette@gmail.com
