5> If your unconscious mind is putting up a fight, then ask to be shown objects that are clearly neutral in nature, like a pair of shoes, a pair of gloves, or a blanket. Since these items of clothing are designed to protect you, this should soothe your unconscious mind and overcome any resistance to this exercise.

6> Once you have gotten the object, use the "Past Life Clustering" Exercise to unearth the feelings that surround this object. Once you have the feelings identified, the story behind the object will emerge.

Example: The best way to understand how this exercise works is to review what I wrote when I did this exercise for the first time. My household object was a gold chain bracelet. I did not understand the significance of this bracelet and so I did the following clustering exercise around the word "chain".

These are the words that bubbled up from my unconscious mind which were associated with the common household object of a "gold chain bracelet". I did this cluster in under a minute and it looked as follows:

love -- Rosa -- binding --- CHAIN -- laughter -- happiness -- love
loss -- hopelessness ------ CHAIN -- despair -- pride - alone - death
earthquake -- trapped ---- CHAIN -- strength -- softness -- forever
father -- marriage - not --- CHAIN -- truth -- devotion - love lost
ship - drowned - lost ----- CHAIN - money - poverty - earthquake

Below is the story of a tragic lost love anchored to this gold chain bracelet. I looked at the cluster and then remembered the bracelet that I had worn in a past life. This past life was so painful and buried so deep that my unconscious mind would have stopped me from remembering had I tried to access it directly. Yet it was something I needed to know because it explained and help me overcome the deep seated fear that I had of becoming seriously involved in intimate relationships.

"The Story of the Chain"

It was a chain of simple rope that was woven around the wrist of my left hand. My beloved had made it for me out of beaten hemp so it would be soft to the touch and yet strong enough to endure the rough seas I was sure to encounter. The pattern was beautiful and complex just like my Rosa. She said this hemp chain was full of lover's knots so it would bind my heart to hers - as if that needing doing.

Although she often said that I was the Captain of her heart... the truth was that I was her slave. All of my crew were rather amused by it: although they dared not show it to my face. For I was their Captain and they served aboard my ship.

What they found so amusing was that, before I fell in love with my Rosa, I was the worst womanizer among them. In every port, I bedded numberless girls. In every port, I had many bastard children. I was not a complete scoundrel: I supported those children I thought were mine (because they resembled me in some way). But I often said I would not be tied down like a ship to a single mooring.

Then after one three year voyage, I returned our home village. The little child who used to follow me around so adoringly had blossomed into a young woman. Rosa had loved me all her life and now I hopelessly in love with her too. She was determined to "tie me down" and so she crafted a simple chain of rope.

Rosa wanted this chain of rope to be seamless. To make it that way, Rosa had to finish it while it was on my arm. We spent many happy hours together as she completed her task. I did not care: for it gave me an excuse to be so often in her company. Many times my men tried to rip it off my wrist while it was being finished - hoping to get me in trouble with her. But, being a light sleeper and far more clever than any of them, that never happened.

When it was finally completed, I stared at that chain until my eyes ached and I could never find where it was joined. My Rosa never failed to point out my "love chain" (as she called it) to her women friends. She took great delight in reminding everyone that only she was mighty enough to tie down the great Captain Miguel.

I wanted so badly to marry her. But her father disapproved: my past mistreatment of women was given as his reason. He was seriously ill and Rosa feared to make him worse by leaving him to marry me. When she chose her father over me, I got extremely angry. So I went back to sea determined to forget her.

Yet my Rosa was wise and knew exactly what she was doing. I stared at the chain all the time we were apart. In the end, I missed her so badly that my anger faded. I was terrified I would return home to find her married. Yet she was not: the chain had bound her heart to mine as it had bound my heart to hers. All was forgiven between us. All we needed was to get her father's blessing but that was impossible.

We were wondering how to resolve this dilemma when fate lent a hand. Her father was killed in a sudden earthquake which leveled our village. Rosa was free to be mine but I was no longer free. My men and I were forced to put out to sea. We had undertaken a dangerous delivery in return for a year's worth of food for our now starving village (most of the crops were lost in the quake). The money was so good because the risk was so great: it was the wrong time of year for sailing.

As I feared, my ship was battered and broken by days and days of violent storms. In the end, a giant wave swept over us pushing my tall, proud ship on it's side. Most of the crew was instantly thrown overboard. I had tied my right wrist to the helm so that I could not thrown from the ship.

The cruel, unforgiving sea snapped the rope binding me to the ship as easily a twig is broken from a tree. Then when I felt her simple chain of rope being torn from my left wrist, I knew that I would die and never see my beloved Rosa again...

Credits: by Ellen Mogensen with the inspired help of the Guardians of Time