A MESSAGE TO PRACTITIONERS USING THE TERMS
“LIFE BETWEEN LIVES,” “LBL,” OR SOME SIMILAR DERIVATION
MICHAEL NEWTON’S LEGACY
As related in the introduction to Dr. Michael Newton’s first book, Journey of Souls, written in 1994 about Life Between Lives, or LBL, the development work was laborious and consumed more than a decade. On this he said: “The research was painfully slow, but as the body of my cases grew I finally had a working model of the eternal world where our souls live.“ After another decade of continuing work and careful research, Dr. Newton published another book, Destiny of Souls, in which he expanded on topics introduced in his first book. In the early 2000’s he published another book, Life Between Lives, describing his methodology for taking a client into the spirit world for spiritual guidance and illumination. Following this, in an effort to advance the study and practice of his life’s work, in 2002, Dr. Newton founded the Society for Spiritual Regression, which evolved into The Newton Institute (TNI) in 2005. The purpose of providing this information about the work and evolving knowledge base about LBL is to illustrate that it came into being only after years and years of practice and painstaking, careful research. The training methodology for LBL and requisite days of hands-on learning was developed with the same attention to detail and requisite effort. Finally, under TNI there is a rigorous certification process that all candidates must successfully complete to become full members of TNI and make a commitment to a spiritual code of ethical behavior. In an effort to be able to protect the value of this extensive work and the very considerable time and effort expended by its members to obtain membership, TNI has obtained copyrights and trademarks in numerous countries for “Life Between Lives,” and/or “LBL”, or derivations thereon. Unless there is a concerted effort by all practitioners, TNI and non-TNI alike, to protect the value of these terms and associated training, over time there will be an averaging down of quality and a diminution of all practitioners’ work in the field. It is with this interest in protecting the value and the integrity of these terms, as well as the value and integrity of TNI’s training and credentialing processes, that Dr. Newton has felt the need to issue the following message.
MICHAEL NEWTON’S STATEMENT TO THE WORLD
Dr. Newton is now retired from active practice but continues to work closely with TNI in an advisory capacity. Prior to his retirement he developed a team of TNI-certified LBL therapists to offer TNI-endorsed trainings, and with the intention of upholding the high standards set by him, this growing teaching team is dedicated to furthering Dr. Newton’s life’s work around the world. On this very important issue of training and certification, he says:
“I am delighted to support the work of all currently-certified members of the Michael Newton Institute for Life Between Lives Hypnotherapy who follow The Newton Institute’s true methodology and who are bound by our organization’s Code of Ethics. There are others, however, who promote themselves as ‘LBL practitioners’ and ‘LBL teachers,’ yet are not members of TNI and have not trained with our organization, even though they claim affiliation with me and my life’s work of exploring the spiritual realm. Still others have had such training and membership in the past, but are no longer current members with up-to-date knowledge of TNI, its goals and the latest developments in our methodology. Some left our organization so quickly after their initial LBL training that they did not receive the monitored exposure and feedback from our regular members. Some offer ‘LBL training’ but have not, themselves, followed the training and preparation required by our organization to teach LBL. I can endorse only training programs run by the TNI training team and its approved Alliance Training affiliates. People have a right to choose their own paths in life, but too many of those who have left our LBL organization still use my name for their own personal gain and claim an inaccurate and misleading association with the methodology that grew out of my research. I am concerned about public perceptions. Unless they remain in the TNI membership, how can I vouch for their skill levels or even know if they are following our Code of Ethics in their conduct? Because of these issues, they have neither my endorsement nor my support. The TNI team works hard to evolve and develop LBL methodology, but focuses on maintaining the core principles of my original research.”
For those readers of this message who may not be aware of TNI’s website, an easy-to-search list of currently-certified TNI LBL practitioners is available at www.newtoninstitute.org under the ‘Locate a Therapist’ pages. Visitors to the site can search by region, by language, by country or by therapist name.
A PATH OFFERED BY TNI FOR NON-TNI PRACTIONERS
It is the desire of TNI and Dr. Newton to open our collective community more widely to allow all non-TNI practitioners currently using the terms “Life Between Lives,” “LBL,” or derivations of these terms, the opportunity to obtain the training and credentialing with TNI to acquire TNI membership, and, accordingly, the right to use such terms and claim such association and sanctions. This means that TNI will make every effort to provide for trainings necessary for all interested people to achieve TNI membership. All members of TNI see this as a wonderful opportunity to share the benefits of Dr. Newton’s life-long efforts and the continuing work of the many dedicated members of TNI with those who are willing to do the work necessary to become members. Understandably, each person will have achieved different training and skill sets, and TNI will work with each individual to establish the extent of this training and experience toward meeting TNI’s membership requirements. Then, TNI will assess needs by world region to determine locations of future trainings. It is the hope of all members of TNI that through this effort all of us offering LBL, in the sense described above, will pull together in a unified effort to provide the highest quality of services to humankind in their search for spiritual meaning. https://www.newtoninstitute.org/