The Orphan Who Built Walls
By Gayle Barklie
Certified Life Between Lives® Facilitator, USA
Loneliness is more than just the absence of companionship; it is an internal state that often has little to do with external circumstances. Many individuals who experience chronic loneliness struggle not because they lack social interactions, but because they resist the vulnerability required for true connection. The real difference between loneliness and solitude lies in one’s relationship with oneself.
Solitude, when embraced, can be a space for self-discovery and creativity, whereas loneliness often signals unresolved emotional wounds that block deep, meaningful bonds. Many people unconsciously distract themselves with work, social media, or addictive behaviors to avoid the discomfort of being alone with themselves. But true healing begins when individuals stop running from their own presence and instead turn inward, integrating past wounds and reconnecting with their deeper essence.
Bernard is a 43 year old self-made man. Despite barely graduating from high school due to early childhood dysfunction, he built a highly successful career, accumulating significant wealth at a young age. His philanthropic pursuits included creating spiritual gardens—sacred spaces designed for reflection and healing. Yet, for all his material accomplishments, Bernard felt completely alone. To those around him, he appeared to have mastered life, but beneath the surface, he was burdened by an unshakable sense of emptiness.
Presenting Issues
Bernard intellectualized every aspect of his life, including his emotions. He approached therapy with analytical detachment, using elaborate theories and sophisticated language to distance himself from true emotional engagement. This tendency to overanalyze created an invisible wall between himself and meaningful relationships, including his current wife. Though he excelled professionally, he had always struggled with emotional intimacy.
Through regression therapy, Bernard sought answers—why did he struggle to connect? Why did he feel so alone, even when surrounded by people?
Bernard’s Past Life Regression: The Life of Beorn
In his regression session, Bernard found himself in an old European village, reliving a past life as Beorn, a child abandoned at a young age. His earliest memories in that lifetime were not of love, but of survival—wandering through forests and barren landscapes, always searching, never belonging.
There was no warmth, no guiding hand to soothe him, no voice to call him home. He had no memory of being held, of being seen, of anyone truly acknowledging his existence. He was an orphan, untethered from the world of human connection, moving like a ghost through the village that ignored him.
Hunger and the cold were constant, but the deeper ache—the one he didn’t have words for—was the emptiness of never having been nurtured.
As he grew older, Beorn found refuge in the crevices of great rock formations outside the village, where he could remain unseen, untouched. The jagged cliffs became his shelter, the only place where he felt safe. He would press his back against the cold stone, listening to the wind whistle through the cracks, feeling as though the earth itself was the only thing that had ever embraced him.
Eventually, Beorn began to shape the stones with his own hands. He stacked them, arranged them, fitted them together—not for others, not for sheltering villagers—but for himself. These walls became his solace, his protection.
Each stone laid was another layer of defense, another barrier between him and the world that had never welcomed him. He didn’t realize he was sealing himself inside.
The Glede Maiden
Then, one day, she appeared, a healer, a wise woman knowledgeable in plant remedies.
At first, he refused to acknowledge her presence. “She was just another villager, another human who would eventually turn away and leave me”. But she kept coming back.
“She leaves things outside my rock wall door,” Bernard described in trance, his voice soft with the memory. “Herbs… little charms. I don’t know why she cares.”
He had never dared to look directly at her, but one day, curiosity got the best of him. He glanced at her—just once.
“Green eyes.”
That’s what he called her. He never asked her name, never spoke it aloud. But he never forgot those eyes—deep, compassionate, endless like the ocean.
Green Eyes saw him. Not just the walls he built. Not just the silence he wrapped himself in. She saw into him.
For years, she tried to reach him—not with words, not with force, but with quiet, patient offerings. A bundle of dried lavender. A carved wooden charm left on the stone ledge outside his home. A gentle nod when their paths crossed in the village.
There were moments when he almost let his heart walls down. Moments when he wanted to call out to her, to say “stay!”.
But every time, he withdrew. Then, one day, she was gone.
“I can see her leaving,” Bernard murmured in trance, a single tear ran down his face. His breath hitched. “She’s not coming back.”
And just like that, the last glimmer of warmth disappeared from his life. Then, a sudden realization gripped him.
“Her eyes…”
Bernard’s breath caught.
“My wife… she has the same eyes.”
His current wife was Green Eyes. The same soul, returning in this lifetime, still offering love and patience. But this time, she had her own walls too.
The Life Between Lives (LBL) Session: Breaking the Cycle of Isolation
During Bernard’s Life Between Lives (LBL) session, he was transported beyond time, beyond the weight of his past-life regrets, into the realm of higher consciousness. Here, in the space between incarnations, he was no longer bound by fear or pain—only clarity and understanding.
He found himself in a vast, ethereal garden of light, where soft golden hues pulsed with an energy of pure acceptance. Unlike the isolated stone walls of his past, this place was expansive, open, and welcoming. His soul group—energetic beings who had traveled with him across lifetimes—appeared in symbolic forms: some as animals, others as luminous presences, all radiating warmth and familiarity.
As Bernard absorbed this higher perspective, he began to see his life in a way he never had before—not as a series of disconnected struggles, but as a pattern, a repeating cycle that had spanned lifetimes. He was finally given the chance to understand the root of his fear of connection.
The Core Lesson: The Origins of His Emotional Walls
His guides gently directed him to the pivotal moments where this wound had taken shape. He was shown how, in his past life as Beorn, the pain of early abandonment had forced him to develop a survival-based fear of attachment.
Each time he had been hurt, he had reinforced the same unconscious belief: “Love is dangerous. It leads to loss. I must protect myself.”
His soul group revealed that his refusal to let the healer into his heart had not been an accident, it had been a subconscious choice, a decision to keep reinforcing his trauma rather than heal it. He had mistaken avoidance for safety, isolation for strength.
And it had not stopped in that lifetime. He had carried that same defensive posture into his current incarnation, manifesting as emotional detachment, intellectualization, and avoidance of intimacy.
Connecting the Dots: The Patterns Repeating in His Current Life
His guides then walked him through the key moments in this lifetime where the echoes of Beorn’s trauma had resurfaced. Bernard saw, with stark clarity, how his past life wounds had shaped his present reality.
In Utero: Before even taking his first breath, Bernard absorbed his mother’s energy—her fears, her uncertainties, her emotional distance. This reinforced his subconscious belief that love was not stable, not safe. Even before birth, he had begun erecting walls to protect himself.
Early Childhood: As a young child, Bernard had moments of deep loneliness when he was left alone, not out of neglect but circumstance. Yet, each instance reinforced his past life imprint: “I must rely on myself. Others will leave.”
A Moment in Nature: One of the most striking revelations was a memory of himself as a boy, wandering alone in the woods. In that moment, he had felt an inexplicable sense of connection, a presence beyond himself. His soul group revealed that he had unknowingly reconnected with them in that moment, just as he had in the spiritual garden of the LBL realm.
A Teenage Relationship: A girl in his youth had attempted to break through his emotional shell. She had seen something in him, sensed his depth—but fear made him reject her before she had the chance to walk away. A perfect mirror of his past life, when the healer had tried to reach him.
His Current Relationship: His marriage, though outwardly functional, mirrored the same emotional distance. He had chosen someone who, like him, kept things at a safe distance. The relationship lacked vulnerability, reinforcing the very patterns he had lived with as Beorn.
Breaking the Cycle: What His Soul Group Revealed
Bernard’s guides did not show him these things to cause guilt, but to offer him a choice. They made it clear:
His past life pain was not a punishment, but a lesson.
He had the power to change his trajectory in this lifetime.
Love and connection were not threats—they were the very things his soul longed for.
His spiritual gardens in this life were no coincidence. His soul had unconsciously sought to recreate the sanctuary of healing he now stood in. He had always been trying to find his way back to this very moment.
Then, his soul group posed the most important question of all:
“Will you continue to live in emotional isolation, or will you finally allow love in?”
For the first time in many lifetimes, Bernard had the answer. The fear of loss was nothing compared to the pain of never experiencing love at all. In this lifetime, he would make a different choice.
Transformation and Integration
Bernard no longer viewed loneliness as something external— He now realizes it is a consequence of his own subconscious defenses. Now it’s his time to take this responsibility.
But now, he had a new choice to make:
Let love in.
Invite vulnerability, not fear.
He made conscious changes in his life:
Prioritized emotional connection in his relationship.
Invited his wife into couples communication work to explore trust, vulnerability, and connection.
For the first time in lifetimes, he was choosing love over fear.
Conclusion: A Life No Longer Lived in Isolation
The journey of healing is not about erasing the past but about integrating its lessons. Bernard’s story serves as a powerful reminder that the walls we build to keep pain out often keep love away.
For too long, he had mistaken self-protection for self-preservation, believing that avoiding vulnerability would keep him safe. But true safety, true peace, lies not in isolation, but in connection.
The realization that his loneliness had been a choice was both humbling and liberating. It meant that if he had created his emotional prison, he also had the power to dismantle it.
And so, he began.
No longer would he merely construct gardens for others to heal—he would allow himself to be healed within them. No longer would he observe love from behind emotional walls—he would step out and embrace it.
His transformation did not happen overnight, but with every conversation that went deeper, every moment of presence, and every step toward vulnerability, Bernard reclaimed the part of himself that had been locked away for lifetimes.
For the first time in both this life and the last, he was not simply building walls—he was tearing them down.
And in doing so, he discovered that he had never truly been alone at all.♥
Gayle Barklie is an LBL Facilitator in Hawaii, USA, and sees clients in-person and online worldwide