It all started when…

I was 13 years old. A friend asked me if I wanted to “hear something weird.” She lowered the phonograph needle on a foreign-label record, and sitar music from India engulfed my senses. A rapturous feeling of “coming home” washed over me. I wanted to bow low to the ground in reverance. Vivid impressions arose: I saw my sturdy brown legs walking in tall grass; I looked forward to loved ones waiting for me in the village; everything in the world fit together just right.

I snapped out of my vision and came back to the present time. How could these sounds awaken such strong sensations in me? I had never heard Indian music before. Yet every note was deeply familiar to my soul.

From that moment, I wanted to learn more about the mysterious memories we carry within us. Where do they come from? How can we awaken them more fully? What gifts do they offer? How do they inform our understanding of reality?

My workshops arise from this lifelong quest. I learned that it is quite easy to open new portals into our mulitdimensional being. Some of the best tools are viewing images, hearing music, using active imagination, and inspiring each other with personal stories. In the company of each other, we can joyfully meet our inner identities. Connecting with past lives is not just about the past. It points our inner compass to a greater future.

“The years…when I pursued the inner images were the most important time of my life. Everything else is to be derived from this.“

Swiss psychologist Carl Jung (1875-1961), Memories, Dreams, and Reflections.

Dianne Skafte holds a doctorate degree in counseling psychology from the University of Colorado. For over a decade she chaired the Depth Psychology Program at Pacifica Graduate Institute. Her book, Listening to the Oracle (HarperSanFrancisco) explores oracular guidance in many times and cultures. Ask The Guides, her interactive oracle tool, is available on the App Store. Dianne currently writes and consults in Santa Barbara.