An Interview with Angie Noon
Certified LBL Hypnotherapist
United Kingdom
Interviewed by Savarna Wiley
Angie began her TNI journey in 2005 and served in a number of capacities during the ten years after certifying. She was a Teaching Assistant, working alongside Paul Aurand and the training teams in a number of international trainings. Additionally, Angie was director of marketing for TNI for six years which included the launch of TNI’s own Facebook group, and was the researcher and writer for an in-house journal called “Heartbeat.” She was instrumental in the manifestation of the Stories of the Afterlife online journal, in the development of our original Code of Ethics, and was involved, along with Trish Casimira and Michael, in the primary editing of our book, Stories of the Afterlife. She was the first recipient of The Peggy Newton award for outstanding service. Angie is not currently booking new client appointments because of her family responsibilities, yet would be happy to discuss the inspiration of LBL via [email protected] and is planning to return to her practice located in the UK when the time is right.
How did you come to do LBL work? Why did you choose to train with TNI?
My LBL career began rather like magic. I’d been practicing hypnotherapy and eventually PLR by hypnosis for some years at a complementary health centre and, one day, I had an unexpected phone call from a colleague. While in a bookshop, Destiny of Souls had just landed at her feet and she looked through it, decided she wanted to experience LBL and called me saying, “I will wait until you have trained – you have to do this!”
So many people have told me that one of Michael Newton’s books just came off the shelf into their hands. It makes you wonder about what is going on in those bookshelves! So, did she inspire you to look into LBL?
Yes, I had been experiencing Bowen therapy with her and I trusted her intuition so, not knowing this was actually Michael Newton’s second book, I bought it, read it with rapt attention and looked up the TNI website and trainings. Here was the next piece of magic. Just a few months away, LBL training was scheduled in Bedford in the UK, not too far from my home. I knew I was meant to be there and, with deep excitement, applied for the training. I was accepted! I read Michael’s other books greedily in preparation … I was to find out how blessed I was as Michael himself led the team and he planned it to be his last training outside the USA. I didn’t bother looking up other possible sources. As far as I was concerned, only TNI existed. Needless to say, my therapist friend became one of my first case studies – the experience was amazing for us both – so she helped me in so many ways. I will always be grateful to her. And that ‘magic’ was clearly meant to be.
Was there anything in your past that has especially prepared you for doing this deep work with people?
My family was dysfunctional; Dad was an alcoholic who never recovered and my sister, the apple of his eye, was a bully. Ill health was a strong and consistent feature and I learned, from a very early age, about care-giving, initially because it was inescapable. Inevitably, my mother and I relied on each other a great deal and in later years, as she developed Parkinson’s disease, our roles were reversed and I became the mother. I gradually learned the importance of trying to understand the motivations of others though it was not until a colleague facilitated LBL for me that I really began to nibble away at understanding life from a completely different viewpoint. I made the discovery that so many of those apparent hardships and challenges were actually gifts from those who were willing to share difficulties and joys so that, together, our souls could learn and evolve.
This issue of the journal is focused on compassion. I have to admit when I heard that I immediately thought of you as I have seen you extend warmth, love and compassion to so many people, myself included. I know that compassion is a natural part of who you are but is there something about this work that has strengthened your ability to be compassionate?
Yes, experiencing LBL helped me to begin to understand the true meaning of compassion. I looked up some dictionary definitions of “compassion” and the one I prefer (from vocabulary.com) describes it as “a very positive emotion that has to do with being thoughtful and decent; showing kindness, caring and a willingness to help others”. Oh, that I could aspire to that at all times! Working to facilitate LBL teaches me, as well as my clients, how important it is to be open to viewing the bigger picture and this has had the most impact in answering one of my often-asked questions – “Why?” There is always a reason for the experiences we have; sometimes we only begin to unpack those reasons many years after the event. If it is for our highest good to know, LBL will help speed up or deepen our understanding.
Earlier in life I qualified as a teacher; in later years I studied color therapy, was attuned to Reiki and before I learned to facilitate hypnosis, worked for many years in advertising, marketing and PR. So many great opportunities to receive insights into what makes people tick! Then I realized, perhaps rather late, that I also had to learn what makes me tick – compassion for myself, which is much harder.
When we observe souls interacting with their soul group we see that it is not uncommon that a loving soul friend may volunteer to present a challenge to another soul in the next incarnation – they may betray or hinder or even cause harm in order to help a soul learn forgiveness, for example. Have you seen a way in which this understanding has helped a client find peace and by extension … compassion?
One of my most memorable learnings from a client was the man whose young son was shot and killed in a gangland murder. Inevitably, the killing had a huge impact on my client’s life; it was difficult to imagine the pain he was experiencing. He could have chosen for his life to fall apart. Instead he eventually chose to work with groups of young people who, he understood, satisfied their sense of belonging by joining a gang. He saw that by helping them find a different sense of purpose he could help prevent other such killings. During LBL, his son came forward and instead of dwelling on his death, he told his father that he was so proud of his dad’s compassion. He then proceeded to show my client around as much of Soul Home as he could, just to reassure his dad that all happened as it was supposed to happen, and he was learning; happy and fulfilled in his soul energy. That soul understood that his dad needed more than just reassurance he was no longer suffering; my client needed to know that the lively, forward-moving character of his son was indeed continuing to blaze onward.
Another client with whom I have worked a number of times, has a recurring theme of experiencing motherhood from many aspects. In past life and LBL explorations she has been a mother whose children were taken away from her; and also a mother who abandoned her children from choice. She has experienced the pain of choosing the death of her children in order to save them from what she perceived would be ongoing pain and difficulties in that life. Today, one of her children is suffering with a serious health challenge and this is teaching her to be compassionate not just to her daughter’s situation and its demands, but also towards herself. She began with the perception that she herself was being punished in this life for having allowed her daughter to die in one of their previous shared incarnations. Gently, she has been reminded that punishment is never part of the plan; that only love is real and she did what she did in the past life from a deep, protective motherly love for her child. Thanks to LBL and reflecting on past LBL experiences, she has learned that this time around she has to learn to love herself and to love and understand herself for the minutes, sometimes hours or even days when she is resentful about her current situation and the demands being made upon her. That to feel emotion is to be human and dealing with those emotions is a key learning – and therefore a soul development process. And to understand, too, that this is a shared choice between her soul and that of the girl who is her daughter in this current life; a soul who freely chose to be part of this shared experience. No punishment is involved at all; just a loving desire from both parties for soul growth.
Her sessions have given me much strength in my current situation as caregiver to my husband, who has Parkinson’s and also cancer. I was resentful to have a second person with Parkinson’s in my life – been there, done that, with my mother – why again? And after my husband successfully healed from cancer in 2002 – why again? Was it all my fault? All these crazy thoughts would come but, thanks to my LBL work, I have learned that it is not all about me! I am learning patience in a big way and I fully accept that I need to learn that.
So many times I have suffered and caused others to suffer by not taking a breath before reacting with extreme emotion. My recent learning is to choose to take that breath now. It is better for those around me and for me too! And to accept that my husband and I both chose this path together and we are both learning from it. I have compassion for his suffering but, as an empath, I find it hard not to take it on. So another lesson is to ask Spirit for my own protection and to clear and cleanse my own energy regularly, too. Discipline with myself enables me to care for him so much more effectively. I now choose to accept what lessons I have. I could never have begun to think this way without what I have learned from facilitating, teaching and experiencing LBL.
To acknowledge that your soul set up these opportunities for you and that you have come to a place of non-resistance … of actually choosing to accept the challenges seems very empowering.
It does help!
I often feel that Spirit is very much an opportunist in that, while the LBL session is definitely for the client, there is often a very appropriate message that comes for the facilitator as well.
I would say that there is always a teaching for both. Michael was very clear that we were not to pose our own questions during someone’s session but, as he could attest, the learnings provided through the session can do double duty and help the facilitator as well.
As we know, our individual learnings are often reflected in a wider scale. The world is in a big time of change and challenge right now. Is there any teaching that has come through a client or session that you think is particularly helpful for humanity at this time?
Many examples of this but one in particular resonates with what has been happening to our beautiful planet recently; the floods, hurricanes, and extreme heat. My client in this case is deeply aware of her connection to the natural world, to Mother Earth. To quote part of her session from three years ago, as she channeled a message from her guide, who presents as a Native American Indian:
“Listen to the ground … no war, only truth through connection. Hand to hand, heart to heart, head to head. Truth. Belief brings relief from pressure. The world is so, so fast. The speed is burning us alive. We have to weep, flood with tears to survive … to cool … our tears are cooling, just as Mother Earth cools with the rain. She is our mentor, she keeps her head cool … coolness has to happen because our fire has too much heat, our speed is too fast … for her vibration to change our vibration has to change.”
So our actions and choices ripple out to the collective and to the planet as well?
Yes.
You have been an instructor for TNI. In thinking about the qualities that are helpful for a facilitator of LBL sessions, is there anything you would want to share for people who want to train to do this work?
Yes. Retain your compassion for your students but also remember to cleanse your own space and seek your own protection. Remember the importance of transference in the student/teacher relationship … understand that your own perceptions and presentations will be filtered by the students’ own experiences of life, and encourage open and honest questioning. Prepare well; know your subject and then allow Spirit to speak through you. In the words of Marianne Williamson, “You are the faucet, not the water.”
I will always remember being with Michael Newton at a training gathering. HIs blue eyes were sparkling as he taught us to stand back and allow. For all of his efforts and dedication, he had a deep humility and reminded us that therapy in LBL is conducted by Spirit. We are the simply the facilitator, the conduit, for that to happen. So I would say, have respect for Spirit who so generously comes forward during these sessions to guide and offer love and support. Feel, listen to, absorb the incredible energy generated during your training and allow gratitude for this connection and your ability to facilitate it to dominate all you do.
Thank you, Angie, for your beautiful and honest sharing with us! ♦
Angie Noon, LBL Hypnotherapist
Savarna Wiley, LBL Hypnotherapist
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