Podcast Summary

Podcast: New Thinking Allowed Audio Podcast
Episode: Are Past Lives Real? with Karen Kubicko
Host: Emmy Vadnais
Guest: Karen Kubicko
Release Date: April 6, 2026

Episode Overview

In this episode, Emmy Vadnais engages in an in-depth conversation with Karen Kubicko—a past life hypnotherapist, intuitive psychic reader, and Reiki master—about the reality, mechanisms, and healing potential of past life recall. Drawing on Karen’s personal and professional experiences, the discussion delves into how traumatic events in previous lives can shape our current realities, the scientific evidence for reincarnation, and the role of forgiveness and intuition in personal healing. The tone is open, genuine, and both skeptical and deeply curious.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Karen’s Personal Journey Into Past Life Work

• Near-Death Experiences as the Catalyst
  • Karen describes two near-death experiences: one during childbirth ([03:04]), and another following a car accident where she encountered spiritual beings and received guidance from Archangel Jophiel ([07:47]).
  • These events awakened previously latent intuitive abilities and a curiosity about life beyond the physical, setting her on the path toward past-life therapy.

"I really believe that a lot of people don't realize that they might have stepped out of their body, remember who they are as a spiritual being. And then they come back into their body and something shifts, something changes in a real sense where your intuitive senses get awakened even more." – Karen ([05:03])

2. Training and Professional Experience

• Dr. Brian Weiss’s Influence
  • After reading Children’s Past Lives by Carol Bowman, Karen encountered Dr. Brian Weiss’s work and trained with him at the Omega Institute ([11:20]).
  • She shares her experience of being regressed by Dr. Weiss in front of a large audience, recalling vivid details from a 19th-century lifetime, including emotional and physical sensations, locations later validated, and the recognition of familial souls recurring across lives ([16:53]).

3. Scientific Perspective: Evidence for Past Lives

• Studies by Dr. Ian Stevenson & University of Virginia
  • Over 2,000 cases of children recalling verifiable past lives, some with matching birthmarks or specific physical features corresponding to their previous deaths ([22:23]).
  • Karen recounts her own experience of having a bullet-hole sized birthmark linked to a past-life trauma, which faded after forgiveness work ([23:03]).

"I had like a bullet hole size birthmark right here on my neck...I remembered the lifetime...and when I remember that lifetime and did forgiveness work, which is so important, Emmy, I didn’t realize it would go away...It's never come back." – Karen ([23:03])

4. Distinguishing Real Memories from Imagination

• Validation through Emotion and Research
  • Key signs a past-life memory is authentic: strong emotion, physical release (e.g., tears), and sometimes the ability to corroborate specifics via historical records ([27:10]).
  • Examples include clients recalling unknown foreign languages (xenoglossy) or historical details later confirmed through research ([34:40]).

"If you're not sure if you're actually remembering a past life, some of the ways that you can know without a doubt...There's emotion to it. A lot of people when they're experiencing past life regression say, man, I never cry. And there’s tears dripping down their face the whole time." – Karen ([27:10])

5. The Therapeutic and Transformational Potential

• Healing Emotional Wounds Through Forgiveness
  • Recalling and emotionally processing a past experience—whether from this life or a previous one—can lead to catharsis and resolution ([42:45]).
  • Forgiveness is repeatedly emphasized as crucial for releasing traumatic energies and moving forward ([45:45]).

"If you don't love yourself, how on earth is someone else going to care about you in that deep way?" – Karen ([60:29])

• Examples of Healing Process
  • Karen explains that some past life traumas can manifest as unexplained fears or physical symptoms in this life—she has helped clients and herself resolve issues like asthma and phobias after uncovering their origins ([36:55], [49:13]).

6. Mechanisms and Process of Past Life Recall

• Role of Intuition and Sensory Impressions

  • Intuition is vital; people receive impressions as sights, emotions, physical sensations, knowledge, or even smells ([51:34]).
  • Trusting one’s intuition is central to successful regression and healing.

• The Death Experience and the “Greeting Room”

  • Karen describes guiding people through the death moment of the past life and into a “greeting room” or luminous afterlife space, where loved ones, angels, and guides are often present ([54:14]).

7. Why We Forget Past Lives

• Practical Reasons for Amnesia
  • If we remembered all our past lives and relationships as children, it would cause confusion in current life roles (e.g., a child remembering being their parent’s parent) ([58:00]).
  • Forgetting allows focus on the present incarnation’s lessons and relationships.

8. The Purpose of Reincarnation & “Life as Another Class”

• Soul Learning and the Evolution of Consciousness
  • Life is viewed as a class for soul development—love, self-worth, intuitive growth, and establishing boundaries are central lessons ([60:26]).
  • The process is driven by free will, and souls can eventually “graduate” by learning required lessons, ceasing the need for earthly incarnations ([63:24]).

"Ultimately, the goal is to connect to these higher dimensional chakras in a very conscious way. And the more that you understand and connect to those higher dimensional chakras, you understand that you are an energetic being having this human experience." – Karen ([64:56])

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Spontaneous and Validated Memories:
  "You look at an old photo, and on that photo is a picture of you. That’s all that’s there. That’s all you know. But you know that your mom bought you the outfit, you know you were going to some fancy thing, you know you ruined the shoes. None of that is in the picture, you know..." – Karen ([51:34])

• On Healing and Forgiveness:
  "When you can recognize from that different, higher perspective...you no longer give your energy away. Then you can feel more love toward yourself. So for me, forgiveness is...you're not giving your energy, even on a subconscious level, away." – Karen ([45:45])

• On the “Crazy Train” of Reincarnation:
  "If you want to get off this crazy train...do the inner work, Emmy, I mean, that eliminates the lessons that you're trying to learn on a bigger, grander soul level scale." – Karen ([60:35])

Key Timestamps

| Timestamp | Segment / Topic | |-----------|---------------------------------------------------------------------| | 03:04 | Karen’s first near-death experience, awakening intuition | | 07:47 | Second NDE with Archangel Jophiel, choice to return | | 11:20 | Discovering Brian Weiss and past life regression training | | 16:53 | Being regressed by Brian Weiss, emotional past life recall | | 22:23 | Ian Stevenson’s scientific evidence for reincarnation | | 23:03 | The bullet wound birthmark, healing through regression | | 27:10 | Identifying authentic past life memories (criteria/examples) | | 34:40 | Xenoglossy and other evidential stories | | 36:55 | Why remembering past lives is personally and therapeutically useful | | 42:45 | Catharsis & forgiveness as healing mechanisms in regression | | 45:45 | Importance and definition of forgiveness in healing | | 51:34 | Role of intuition and sensory impressions in past life recall | | 54:14 | The death moment and the "greeting room" in sessions | | 58:00 | Why we forget our past lives | | 60:26 | The purpose of reincarnation and soul lessons | | 64:56 | Is it about learning, pleasure, or both? | | 66:37 | Final advice: follow what resonates, trust your intuition |

Final Thoughts and Takeaways

• Past life recall, according to Karen, is a legitimate avenue for self-exploration and deep personal healing, corroborated by personal experience, client transformations, and scientific research from respected institutions.
• Significant benefits arise in the form of emotional release, physical healing, and a more profound understanding of the multi-life journey of the soul.
• The path to healing requires openness, a willingness to forgive, and attunement to one’s intuition, whether exploring with a guide or through personal practice.

"If you are like, man, maybe I want to explore and understand more about who I really am on a soul level...go down that rabbit hole, see what you find, what are you resonating with...” – Karen ([66:37])