Very cool, Joshua, and I totally agree that past-life explorations can likely help in psychiatric illness. I do, however, believe that people are not “punished” by being made to come back as a slug or virus or what have you. The whole punishment model of karma doesn’t really work for me, because I think that karma is resolved through love—and what better way, sometimes, to resolve it than by returning to love and support and heal the souls you once hurt? ;)

At least, that’s what I’ve seen in my own life: the “villains” of my past-life visions ultimately appeared in my current incarnation as well, and I can see the traces of how their souls’ old struggles linger with them — e.g., learning to drop racism, or sexism, learning how to stand up to corrupt authority figures, learning to define their own sense of what it means to be “powerful” or a “man,” etc. However, it’s been beautiful and life-affirming to see how their innate goodness has remained intact along the lifetimes, beneath all the old conditioning that once inspired previous versions of them to make hurtful choices.

They have thus, in this lifetime, become some of my most cherished friends, who’ve helped me to heal the wounds that I carried from the past. I never would have imagined it, but I also wouldn’t have it any other way. :)