Attending an IST course: information for students

What happens at an IST course?

"Before one can become supernormal, one has to become normal."

- Samuel Sagan

An IST course is an inner adventure, a time to turn inwards and discover the many hidden aspects of your own being. It can be challenging at times, and also incredibly rewarding. Expect to uncover, recover, and discover many things about yourself along the way.

The course has a full schedule, from 8.30 in the morning to around 9.30 in the evening. Each day includes a morning meditation, a rejuvenating 'night practice' in the afternoon, as well as daily teaching and discussion times, and practices of exploring states of spiritual vision and connection. Aside from these practices, the bulk of the course is dedicated to IST, practiced in pairs with fellow students and assisted by a small team of instructors.

What is IST?

IST: a framework to explore consciousness

IST is an interactive technique practiced in pairs: a client and a facilitator. It is a process of self-exploration that closely integrates the psychological and metaphysical dimensions.

Both client and connector enter an inner space of consciousness that is similar to meditation. The key difference is that in meditation, when emotions or impressions come to the surface, the practice is to let them come, let them go. Whereas in IST when things come up, you allow them, you feel them and explore them. Clients in IST come to understand how past events are shaping their lives, and are able to see when and how they originated. Through seeing and feeling things at their source, students find themselves becoming increasingly free of the emotional and psychological 'baggage' they have been carrying, and they grow more and more into their greater self that has always existed beyond the conditioning.

What is the practice of IST?

Once in the space, the facilitator finds a spot somewhere on the client's body, and touches or presses that spot. Then through a combination of the space, the spot, and a targeted dialog between the pair, all sorts of buried emotional imprints emerge.

IST also goes beyond emotional exploration and release. It covers a wide range of applications, from regression to early life experiences and past lives, to high states of consciousness that open vision onto high spiritual worlds and beings.

All this means that IST is far more than a process for emotional exploration. It is a framework to explore consciousness at large.

IST involves physical touch

One of the key components of IST is physical touch, where the facilitator (known as the connector) touches the receiver (or client) as part of exploring buried imprints and inner realities.

When you participate in an IST course, you implicity give your permission for this touch, as it is a crucial part of the interactive techniques. This includes touching spots, a standard part of IST. There are of course obvious 'no go zones', such as eyes or genitals, which are not touched, and individual sensitivities to touch are always respected. Physical touch can be declined at any time without ending the session. Still, it remains that if someone were to be uncomfortable with any sort of touch, they might well find themself distanced from the best of what IST could otherwise offer them.

What can IST be used for?

What happens in IST? What are the main experiences occurring in IST?

In the inner space of IST, clients typically re-visit early childhood and past-life experiences. Here, they find and resolve samskaras; imprints left in the psyche by emotionally-charged experiences. This process typically leads to profound openings, realizations and metaphysical shifts, bringing completely new life directions.

IST is also a tool for exploring the inner worlds of consciousness. Students see and feel the many aspects of their inner selves, attaining states of 'clear vision' of their overall personality and growing towards higher self-understanding and maturity.

IST can also be used as a tool for psychological exploration, unveiling and dealing with subpersonalities (or 'characters'), reaching a state of 'clear vision' of the overall personality – a state of higher self-understanding and maturity.

IST also works at the level of the life force. By addressing blocks at this energetic level, along with the emotional level, greater confidence, vitality and emotional stability can ensue.

How do you get to the inner space?

The Inner Space of IST is reached through an activation of the third eye, central switch of the body of energy and gateway to a whole spectrum of experiences of consciousness. To many clients, IST sessions offer an opportunity to discover completely new aspects of themselves: vast spaces of consciousness in which they naturally connect to higher, spiritual realities. This is often accompanied by the development of a new sensitivity to non-physical perception, especially when IST is done in conjunction with the rest of the Clairvision work.

More advanced levels of IST deal with mapping consciousness, establishing various cosmological references, discovering higher realms of the Spirit, and connecting to high spiritual beings. In this regard, IST is a key technique in the subtle inner alchemy processes that are integral to the Clairvision work.

The aims of IST

Freedom

What are the aims of IST? Before anything else, freedom! Freedom from emotional reactions and conditioning. Through the thorough exploration of your inner world of consciousness comes the capacity to differentiate reactions from the spontaneity of the Spirit. IST allows you to become aware of samskaras and to see in great detail:

As samskaras are revealed through the IST process, they lose a great deal of their power to affect your life. Inner blocks and unconscious patterns of behavior are neutralized. You let go of a number of neurotic features, which transforms your ways of relating to others. A whole facade of illusory aspects falls, and you start living closer to your higher self.

Apart from this main purpose – that of moving towards emotional and energetic freedom through disempowering samskaras – other important benefits can result from this regression work.

A metaphysical experience

When you contact episodes of past lives, you become aware of the person you were in that particular life. It feels like yourself without any possible doubt and yet it is not the same you as now, for time has made you a different person. The superimposition of the two 'yous', the past and the present one, reveals what is common to both – your eternal Spirit. This holographic vision of yourself has a shaking power of awakening, not unlike a near-death experience. It explains why some people undergo a major spiritual shift after their first intense regression in IST.

Activation of the third eye

The effect on the third eye may not be apparent in the beginning, because it begins with a simple awareness between the eyebrows. But through many IST sessions, a deep structuring of the third eye and of the body of energy takes place. Familiarity with the astral space and the whirling in the third eye grows. There is a growing realization of the action of angels and other non-physical beings. In the long run, this awakening of the subtle bodies ends up being just as important as the work on samskaras.

In an IST course, third eye work is an inherent part of IST. There are also specific third eye practices first encountered in an 'Awakening the Third Eye' workshop, which are further built on during the course.

An opportunity to give

Last but not least, IST grants you a rare privilege, that of being able to give. If you master the technique, whenever your friends go through an emotionally difficult time you will have the capacity, if they wish, to accompany them to the root of the problem and facilitate a genuine release.

The IST techniques are based on a principle of reciprocity. If you go on being the client without ever giving to anyone as the connector, your own development process may well end up stalemating. On the other hand, it is often while connecting for someone else that certain important shifts will take place inside yourself. While in the role of the connector, you can be totally dedicated to your client and forget about your own problems for a while. This giving, and the expansion of the heart that goes with it, is to spiritual practice what ferment is to yogurt. It enlivens and elevates the practice to another level entirely.

Life is full of occasions to give on the material and emotional levels. But on a spiritual level, as long as one has not become a spiritual lighthouse, what can one give? It is very nice to send love or positive thoughts to the planet, but how much action does that really have as long as you have not reached access to high states of meditation? Whereas if you put all of yourself into giving to a friend in IST, you can change their life in a tangible way. At your level, here and now, you can accompany them into high levels of light and awaken them to new areas of life.

Emphasis on the here and now

Now it is essential to repeat what the purpose is not. The purpose of IST is not to write a novel about your past lives. The emphasis is resolutely on here and now. IST explores present blockages and releases them through finding their sources. This may take you into early childhood, past lives, but that is not what matters. What matters is that you see and understand yourself at a deep level, and gradually shift from the conditioning of the samskaras, towards the free will of your higher self.

Purposes of an IST course

Besides learning and practicing IST, an IST intensive is an opportunity to immerse yourself in a space of spiritual connection, a space which becomes stronger during the course of the intensive

In the course you will gain first hand experience of IST. You will become capable of giving and receiving IST with other Clairvision students, and later on practice it with people who aren't students of the technique.

You will understand the principles of IST, and how a metaphysical dimension can be integrated into psychological work..

Gain self knowledge. Know yourself in depth.

Through IST you will gain a know-how to handle emotions and lose astral weight. You understand what samskaras are in yourself, and understand how your astral body operates through reactions. You observe these mechanisms not just theoreticaly, but first hand. You see the samskaras inside yourself, you make the samskara process work for you. At times you experience the massive release that accompanies a successful regression and you move towards increasing freedom from the conditioning of the astral body...

You will find out what drives you, get to know your deep unconscious pulls and understand how they have influenced your life-choices and decisions. This is the kind of vision that changes things. When you really see them, they just cannot have the same influence in you.

Intensify your third eye work.

IST is an extremely powerful way of awakening the third eye and inner vision.

Practicing IST will deepen your experience of meditation. The IST state is akin to meditation. Therefore IST courses always include meditation practices. And through the practice of IST, there is an awakening of your third eye and of your body of energy which strongly reinforces your experience of meditation.

Beyond emotional work, IST is a technique to map consciousness. Learning IST means gaining a tool that can be applied to the exploration of all areas of yourself, and of non-physical realms that interact with your consciousness in different ways. This is a preparation for higher echelons of IST, where the technique is used to build subtle bodies and implement more subtle processes of the Clairvision work of inner alchemy.

In an IST course you will develop a network of fellow students, people who have followed IST courses and with whom you can keep giving and receiving IST, continuing this work after the end of the course. Note that there is never any suggestion that an IST course is training you to become a professional IST practitioner. It teaches you a technique you can use to give and share with your friends, which is very different from using a technique professionally.

Taking part in an IST course is the opportunity to observe people coming up against a wide variety of difficulties and problems, and learning a method to deal with them. You gain experience on how to handle a whole range of situations arising in self-transformation work.

Not Born Yesterday

If the purpose of IST courses was to be summarized in one point, it would be: train NBY people (Not Born Yesterday). People who have gained a significant amount of experience in working on themselves and with other people, and who therefore know how to deal with just about any situation in the field of self transformation. People who have seen a lot, and who therefore are capable of handling a lot.

Points that should be clear to all students

An IST course is not therapy

Do not make the mistake of thinking a week-long IST course is going to be a week of therapy. It is neither therapy, nor a support group, it is a place of challenge. IST isn't about trying to find quick fixes for your problems, but gaining an in-depth vision of yourself – a vision that will lead to real transformation, not just improvements.

IST tends to reveal your own limits: limits of trust, of confidence, of your ability to love and receive. Seeing those limits is the first step towards dissolving them and being able to live increasingly in those broader states of consciousness that are your birthright.

The course is intense, it requires an intense motivation

An IST course is intense, and designed for people who are highly motivated. It also requires a certain solidity. IST can take you extremely deep inside yourself. You have to use your own judgment and decide whether you are ready to face yourself or not.

At times IST brings about intense emotional releases. These can transform your life and make you a different person, feeling not only tons lighter but also infinitely clearer and more stable. But in order to transform you sometimes have to go through a phase of feeling even more stuck. Again you have to use your judgment and decide whether you want this, and are ready for it.

Motivation is the main key. Experience shows that people who are highly motivated to know themselves and become NBY go through major releases in a fluid way and without crisis.

Note that taking part in an IST course requires that you have the willingness to deal with issues, and enough persistence to see them through. Be aware that issues will be uncovered, and be ready to work on them until they are resolved. This requires not only a certain amount of courage but also 'stickability'. Running away, meaning discontinuing the process as soon as something major has been unveiled would make you feel worse. Here, an unappealing analogy can be drawn from dentistry: starting to work on a tooth and stopping in the middle (before the cavity has been filled) would be worse than doing nothing at all.

Withdrawing when you feel bad – a capital mistake in IST and in spiritual work in general

IST, and spiritual work in general, is immensely exciting – until you hit a real issue, that is, a core samskara. When this happens, it is not rare for people to suddenly lose their enthusiasm. Yet the time when you feel like doing IST the least is usually the time when you need it the most – the time when the deepest shifts could take place. Withdrawing when you feel bad is a capital mistake in spiritual work.

Be open to learn something new

IST has its own modus operandi. It is expected that you will come to the course with a fresh mind, open to learning something new. If you have practiced other systems, this means leaving aside prior knowledge and, during the IST sessions, letting yourself flow with the IST method and know-how.

No 'learn-on-Monday, teach-on-Monday'

If you are a practitioner hoping to add IST to your skill set to use with clients, this is not the course for you. There is a well-mapped path to becoming an IST practitioner which involves a comprehensive and rigorous training, including doing hundreds of hours of IST, both as client and connector. Anyone after a quick accreditation should be very clear they have come to the wrong address.

Learning means learning with beginners

The purpose of an IST course is to give you tools with which you will be able to explore levels of your inner self. The direction is one of empowerment. There are some methods of self-discovery that rely on seeing a professional. Here, you are the student of a class. This invites a different attitude – one of greater maturity. It also favors a spirit of discovery and pioneering.

But there is a price to pay for this. You will be learning with other students who, along with you, are beginners and therefore will not be as skilled or experienced as a professional might be. Note that this doesn't necessarily mean the process will be less intense or effective. IST in courses can be extremely powerful, bringing deep insights and openings.

Confidentiality

It is impossible to do serious IST work with people you know nothing about. If you are not ready to let out anything about yourself, your IST sessions are likely to remain superficial. And vice versa, the deeper the other course participants get to know you, the more meaningful the work they will be able to do with you, and the more you will get out of the course. This is usually not a problem in IST courses. In the opening created by the space and the process of discovery, participants feel free to let other people see who they really are. During the sharing times, people often talk about themselves in great depth, and so it is essential that you listen, so you are ready to give your best for them when acting as their connector.

However, this openness brings a certain responsibility of confidentiality. All personal information stays within the limits of the course. No personal matters of the participants are to be discussed with anyone who isn't part of the course.

Come on time for each class or session

To get the most out of the course, it is essential that you commit yourself to coming on time to each class or session. There are several major reasons for this:

IST is, before anything else, a space of consciousness. Conducting an IST course has to do with building this precious space, in which students will have profound realizations. It is impossible to build a space when people turn up late or when they come and go. Once a group is sealed, it has its own energy, its atmosphere of consciousness. Each time a participant misses a session, it creates a hole in the energy of the group. If there are too many holes, the space is significantly diluted, resulting in a weakening of every participant's experiences.

Punctuality is more than it first appears. In every meeting, the energy 'opens' at the start of the class. When people arrive late, it is tangible to everyone present if they bring agitated vibrations with them, disturbing the peacefulness of the space. When more than one or two people arrive late there is a real risk the space may fall flat, in which case the whole session is likely to be uneventful for all participants. This is why you help everyone by making the effort of arriving early for each session or class, so you can slow down, quieten, and contribute to building the space instead of pulling it down.

When you do not want to attend

There are other reasons, even more crucial, behind the need to attend every part of the course. IST, among other things, deals with samskaras and emotions. The mind has powerful resistance mechanisms which are such that at times, you will feel like missing a meeting – in particular when you are on the edge of making significant discoveries. You will feel tired, or perhaps bored or angry with the process. Perhaps your mind will send you a headache. These are not signs that you are tired or sick, but that your mind is playing tricks on you. If you listen to the insidious pull, you may miss an important step in your process of transformation. This, by the way, is not specific to IST, but is common to spiritual and self-development work in general. It is often when you are on the edge of key discoveries that you will feel the most resistance to attending. And if the mind knows that it can take you off track simply by sending you a headache, expect it to send you more and more headaches. The truth is, it is usually when you feel like coming the least that IST is likely to bring the most results for you. By not turning up to every class, you negate the value of the entire process and sabotage all prior efforts of self-transformation.

The principle is: whenever you can come, you do come. If for some reason you are really incapacitated or very sick then your absence will not be detrimental to your own process. It is whenever someone could come but doesn't that the integrity of the process is compromised.

Components of an IST course

A typical IST course will include the following components

Abstaining from drugs and alcohol

All participants of residential courses agree to stay away from recreational drugs throughout the duration of the course. This includes microdosing and other forms of plant medicine, which you are asked about on your application form. The reason is that drugs and alcohol go against the clarity of the space and could create unwanted links to spaces and energies that interfere negatively with people's experience. For everyone's safety and wellbeing it is essential that this rule be followed without exception.

Students enrolling in weekly courses agree to abstain from drugs for the duration of the course and from alcohol for at least 24 hours before each class.

Some forms of IST require precautions

In some cases it may not be appropriate to put pressure on the spot, for example when there are health issues. For this reason it is important that all health concerns are fully disclosed when enrolling for the course, and that connectors are informed when necessary.

Support mechanisms

During the course, students are grouped in sharing groups, each facilitated by an instructor or a helper. If at any time you feel something is going wrong, either for yourself or someone else, speak to your instructor or to the MC of the course. During the discussion periods you should not hesitate to ask any question you want. During the sharing time at the end of each IST session, bring up any point or ask your instructor any question you feel appropriate. Don't let problems or malaises build up, bring them up as early as possible. Outside the class, do not hesitate to contact your instructor if needed.

Keep instructors informed

For the safety of the process, it is essential that students let their instructors know as soon as possible if a health problem occurs, or if they go through a phase of feeling depressed, exhausted, or feeling they are not coping.

If students notice that one of the participants seems to be 'acting strangely', or is unusually down or depressed, it is important to report it immediately to an instructor.

Something else that instructors need to know is pregnancy. If a participant is pregnant they should inform her instructor and/or the MC. IST with a pregnant client is practiced very differently from other people.

Leaving the course

Of course participants are always free to discontinue their participation in the course. An absolute rule of the Clairvision School is to never chase participants or put pressure on them to stay. The rule of not missing a session absolutely does not apply if you need to leave the course altogether.

With this in mind, please take into consideration the fact that instructors put a lot of time, effort and heart in running the course. They make themselves available to you, they give as much as they can. From a space of heart, you may judge it fair to not leave without at least giving some warning or explanation. Simple courtesy. Again this is in no way demanded from you, you can always leave.

It is the same in the case of weekly classes. Students are never asked to commit themselves to attending for the duration of the course. Rather, they are asked to come to each class, and come on time, for as long as they take part in the course.

It is true that some people will leave because of not wanting to face their inner demons (be it consciously or unconsciously). And yet, sometimes a greater wisdom lies behind these motivations. The Clairvision methods are not for everyone; people need to find the spiritual path that is right for them.

Who can learn IST?

The IST method of regression is intense. It has been designed for people who want to shift now – not after twenty-five years of meditation. If the motivation for transformation is not strong, then it is preferable to find a method of work better suited to you.

Those who are looking primarily for emotional healing are not necessarily the same as those who are in quest of their Self and on a self-transformation path. This is a fairly good criterion to decide whether or not an IST course is suitable for a particular individual.

People whose interest in IST is mainly to solve psychological problems or physical disorders will greatly benefit from practicing awareness of their emotions and reactions as described in the book Regression, Past Life Therapy for Here and Now Freedom. But those who are not ready or willing to look inside will benefit much more from doing some personal growth work with a qualified practitioner, rather than enrolling in an IST course.

For those who are mentally and physically healthy and solid, and involved in a path of self-transformation, there is no reason not to enroll in an IST course to learn the techniques, both as client and connector.

Note that 'healthy' does not mean Tarzan or Jane but just normally neurotic, as most people presently are. Anyway if you were totally clear there would not be much purpose in IST.

For people taking drugs, those with a history of psychosis, or who have had episodes that required psychiatric treatment, those suffering from a chronic illness or anyone who is psychologically or physically fragile, then an IST course is not the place for them. They will be better served by seeing a qualified professional.

Recommended learning material

For both IST 101 courses and weekly courses, it is recommended, but not compulsory, for people to have followed one or two Knowledge Tracks and read the following books:

Attending an IST course – practical recommendations

Wear loose, comfortable clothing.

Bring a blanket and any cushions you need to help sitting on the floor.

Bring a notebook and pen, or something to take notes on.

Stay away from alcohol for at least 24 hours before the beginning of the course.

Avoid perfumes or odors of any kind, including aftershave or essential oils. In warm weather, it may be advisable to wash your feet before the class.

Avoid heavy meals just before the sessions. (No problems, however, with a light meal before a class.)

Arrive at each session a few minutes early to give yourself time to adjust to the space of the class.

Silence all devices and switch them to flight mode while in course sessions.

Expect surprises.

Questions about taking part in an IST course

Can I follow an IST course if I am practicing another method of meditation or spiritual work?

All entry-level Clairvision courses have been designed so they could be followed by people involved in other forms of work. There is no reason why you couldn't take part in the IST course, as long as you are wanting to learn something new. This means that during the course you will not be trying to repeat things you have learned elsewhere, but will be putting into practice the principles of the Clairvision work. Come with a fresh mind, and everything will fall into place with time.

To do IST, how proficient do you need to be in the third eye?

Learning IST is one of the most powerful ways of opening the third eye. Even if you have little perception of your third eye, this perception will quickly develop.

Do you have to discuss your issues with everyone?

No one is going to force you to disclose your secrets!

However, what you will find is that the IST space is extremely deep. In this deep space a certain form of 'soul communion' takes place, and client and connector find it natural to open to each other. People who do IST together end up knowing each other through a profound osmosis, and trusting each other.

Quite quickly, in sharing groups, people find it natural to speak about themselves. It happens by itself. IST is about dropping the masks.

Participants gradually realize that by not sharing vital information about themselves, they impair their own process. By letting other participants know who you are, you allow them to help you. How could they be a good connector for you if they do not know who you are, and the key circumstances of your life? And vice versa, you get to know them and their life circumstances too. Which is why the rule of confidentiality is essential.

A great realization comes from being the connector for a number of people. You discover that people tend to all have the same problems, or anyway that similar patterns often come up. This is immensely liberating, because it makes you realize that your problems are just the same as everyone else's. Often, consciously or unconsciously, people tend to look at their own problems as something horrendous and shameful – something which could never happen to anyone else. The more people you connect for, the more you realize that this is nonsense. Behind the specifics of someone's problems there are usually patterns which repeat themselves in all human beings. More than just a philosophical attitude, this gives you a transpersonal perspective on yourself – part of becoming NBY!

After an IST, is there a completion or tying up of the process, in the line of a resolution of the issue worked on during the session?

With deep issues, expect to work on them over many IST sessions before complete resolution is achieved.

One of the outcomes of IST is certainly to feel good, but this does not happen through some sort of superficial pampering. There is a deeper sense of wellbeing that comes through becoming your real self, beyond all samskaric patterns of conditioning.

If at the end of an IST session, an issue has been brought up but not resolved, then you carry it until the next one. This means remaining aware of it in the background of yourself, so a gradual maturation takes place – a process akin to a 'cooking' of the soul. This cooking is an indispensable part of the process, especially when it comes to major issues.

Note that it doesn't necessarily make you feel bad. Even if it is not always comfortable, it is accompanied by a greater feeling of 'going somewhere'. Not just touching the surface of things, but really transforming your life.

Can we safely assume that we will not be confronted with more emotions than we can cope with?

IST is a self-regulating process. If you are not ready to face the monsters of your own inner depths, you tend to simply block on seeing them, either consciously or unconsciously. The mechanisms to avoid uncomfortable things inside yourself are many and varied, and are precisely what the IST techniques are designed to help overcome. In truth, a far greater danger than uncovering things is not uncovering them.

Because the client allows the IST to be guided by the connector, it follows that withdrawing from the connector will halt the process. Therefore, to come out of the IST space and back into ordinary mental consciousness, all you need to do is tell your connector, "Stop," and open your eyes. However, this may make you feel better in the moment, but it doesn't make the cause of the emotions go away. They remain inside, continuing their influence in unseen ways. If IST makes emotions flare up inside, it is because it brings hidden things into the light.

Students commonly find that what they can cope with is far more than what they had previously thought. In fact, one of the purposes of an IST training is precisely to discover and develop the part of yourself that can cope: the NBY philosophy.

When following a weekly course, should we do additional practices during the week?

With IST, as with most things in life, the more you put into it, the more you will get out of it.

It is expected that you do some meditation at least every morning – and in the evenings too, if you feel like doing so.

After the first ten or twenty IST sessions, you will have reached a level of competency in IST where you can arrange to do IST with one of the other students outside the class. Spending two or three hours swapping IST with a friend is a meaningful way of spending an evening.

If you want to really get somewhere with the technique, waiting for your turn to be client every two weeks in class is simply not enough. Both extra IST and daily meditation are essential for the serious seeker.

How does the mythology of Atlantean Secrets relate to an IST course?

Atlantean Secrets was written by Samuel Sagan as a teaching medium. Through story-telling the living knowledge of the tradition is imparted to the reader. The saga of Atlantean Secrets is more than a story to be read and enjoyed, it is a succession of spaces which are entered by the reader, facilitating a resonance with spiritual streams and beings. These are as relevant to modern people as they were to the Atlantean initiates. When reading about the White Eagle for example, many people feel the particular quality of presence related to this high angelic being.

Atlantean Secrets is not a tale to be believed or doubted, but a legend to be imbibed and enjoyed. There is a certain state of receptivity one enters to enjoy story-telling, through which the qualities of spiritual presences can pass through unfiltered by the rational mind.

During an IST course, spiritual presences make themselves felt in the practices at times. Students who have read Atlantean Secrets often find that the contextual understanding gained by reading about some of these spiritual beings allows a greater depth of appreciation for the connections.

Are there any particular dietary requirements to do the course?

In a residential IST course food is vegetarian. Not for any moral or philosophical reason, but for a more practical one. Eating meat has an incarnating, grounding effect. Conversely, diving into inner worlds and subtle experiences of consciousness is facilitated by a vegetarian diet. Besides this, eating a heavy meal directly before an IST session is best avoided. When the body of energy is engaged in metabolic processes it is difficult to maintain a high quality of connection.

Can you do IST if you don't believe in past lives?

Because the emphasis is on feeling, and on the relevance of IST experiences to present day life, it essentially does not matter what you believe. If you engage in the process with an open attitude, and foster a sincere aspiration and desire to know yourself, then IST will work for you. The story aspect of IST sessions is far less important than the realizations they bring about yourself. In the end, it is experience, not belief, that changes you.