Past Life Regression, Hypnotherapy & the Subconscious Mind w/ Niki Cozmo

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Let's go make shit happen. Welcome back to the podcast, guys. I am here with a special guest this week, Nikki Cosmo. Nikki, you may have heard of her before. I talk about her on my Instagram all the time. She's one of my teachers, mentors, someone that I really look up to. She's a certified hypnotherapist, a past life regression therapist, a Reiki master teacher. Healer, mother, and just overall really epic human. So I'm so excited to have her on the show and share all of her knowledge with you guys. Welcome to Makeshift Happen, Nikki!

Yay, I love it! Thank you for having me.

So good to see you. You're welcome. Yeah, you're welcome. I'm so excited to do this, and I know a lot of people listening, uh, have requested this and been waiting for this, and they have questions for you, and they're so intrigued by the work that you do. So Yeah, just to kind of like start off, I'd love for you to give us a little bit of your sort of background of what it is that you do, right? I kind of intro'd you as hypnotherapist, past life regression therapist, Reiki master, all these amazing modalities that you use. But how would you describe the work that you do?

Yeah, I guess the, the shortest way to put it and the easiest way to put it is teacher, mentor, therapist. Those are really what I truly feel in my heart and soul that I embody most. Hypnotherapy is my jam. That's really my main thing that I do. Mentoring and teaching also is pretty, pretty much right at the top with that. But any type of subconscious or spiritual work is where I thrive the most. And that's really where I like to support my community the most.

Yeah. And didn't you study Didn't you— I think I remember you saying in our training that you studied hypnosis at the same place as Dr. Joe Dispenza.

I did. Is that—

yeah, is that right?

That's my claim to fame. Dr. Joe is one of my mentors. I really, really love that guy. And yeah, we studied at the same College of Hypnotherapy.

Amazing. So she's the real deal. That's so— if you guys are— if you guys are familiar with Dr. Joe Dispenza, or you listen to any of his stuff, or you practice any of his meditations or hypnosis or any of the amazing work that he's doing in the world, um, you'll know how, how incredible that is. So yeah, I'm excited to dive into all this good stuff because I think there's a lot of people that have heard of hypnotherapy, but you know, few of us probably have really utilized it or integrated it into our life or into our own personal healing. So just to kind of give people a reference of what hypnotherapy is most used for, because I think sometimes people would probably— the first thing, you know, if we're not really familiar with it, hypnotherapy, I think we might think of— sometimes people use that to quit smoking or things like that. But what are some of the things that you find that your clients utilize hypnotherapy for?

Totally. So back in the day when hypnotherapy was maybe in its first term of popularity— I would say now it's sort of in its second term of popularity— it was more like weight loss, smoking cessation, things like that. And now my clientele in particular is using it for confidence, um, abundance mindset, so how to make more money, um, finding their soul's purpose. I mean, maybe that's also just because that's how I show up in the world, is a bit more of the spiritual alternative essence. So people are like, what's my purpose? How do I thrive? I need a little more confidence and a boost of that, you know, feel-good stuff. And let's also make more money on the side. There's— I also specialize in grief, trauma, loss, and PTSD. They're sort of in the same little bucket. So there's also that side, which I would say is maybe the darker side of the, ooh, purpose and light and love. I have people who come to me often who have severe PTSD and trauma from childhood or whenever. And so I really focus on that as well. I think the light and the dark are the same side— or different side of the same coin, you know what I mean? It's important to dive into both.

Yeah, it's kind of that yin and yang. And I talk about this a lot in, in my work in a different way, but also understanding that whenever we're doing the light work, we also have to be doing the shadow work, right? Because we can, you know, think about that, you know, forward momentum, all the things that we want and we desire and we want to create, but we also have to do that deeper work of healing the limitations and the stories and all the things that are holding us back. So, I mean, obviously a huge part of hypnotherapy has to do with the subconscious mind, and I know that you love to like nerd out on the subconscious mind, and so do I. So I'd love for you to like share with everybody just like, what is the subconscious mind? What is held there? And what is the power that it has over our lives?

Right. So the subconscious mind makes up roughly 88 to 95% of our mind, which means the other roughly 5% is what's governing our logic, reasoning, willpower. It's what you and I are using right now to be conscious and aware. It's what the listeners are using. That's the conscious mind. So the subconscious, which is a humongous portion of the mind, is running in the background. And we like to think of it as a hard drive or a treasure trove of memories, events, experiences. And so as adults, we might be operating in certain ways that we don't understand. And often it's from subconscious experiences from past events in our lives, most likely from childhood. So even I have clients who say, why I lived, I had a pretty good childhood and And I don't really— I can't think of anything that happened, um, per se that was traumatic, but we are influenced by our parents, our guardians, our teachers, our friends, society, the country we grew up in, the town. So all of those are placing— we're very suggestible as children, so it's placing these ideas of how to be. So even if there's nothing that is at the forefront of a client's mind that feels traumatic, they'll come to me and say, I want— I just want to like boost my clientele a little bit. I want my job to be a little more awesome and thriving. And I'm like, okay. And then once we go into the subconscious, which again is the events, memories, and experiences, they realized, oh, I came here for so much more. I didn't realize there was so much more beneath the surface.

Or maybe they come up against blocks around being able to be their authentic self or show up fully online or be seen, or, you know, something that's sort of kind of related to what they're struggling or what they're coming up against, but not in the way that they might be consciously aware or thinking of it as. And I think that's like a really common thing that happens in my work too with my clients, of people being like, there's nothing really wrong. Like, I don't really know what— I don't have a reason per se, right, to feel not fully confident in myself, or to feel like I'm missing something, or to know why I can't have a long-term relationship, or, you know, whatever it is. Like, I just don't know why. Like, there's no— there's no reason. There's no answers. And that's why I love talking about this idea of, like, what I call— I don't know if this is a real term, but I call them common traumas because it's not the type of trauma that everybody maybe thinks of in terms of like bullying or violence or abuse or, you know, those things that really stand out of like, oh, that probably impacted me in a certain way. There's lots of other random stuff, you know, like we were just talking the other day about a situation in my life where someone said something to me and it was just a simple sentence and it's still ingrained in my head from when I was like 9 years old. And so it's like nothing horrible happened to me, but obviously I had a certain reaction to that and I created a story around it, and then I created a coping behavior from that, right? So I love this, this idea of allowing people to really understand what there is to find and uncover in the subconscious, because so often we think that we have nothing there, or no work to do, or no traumas to uncover, or nothing left to heal. You know, after we did our, um, past life regression that you put me through the other day, I posted on Instagram and I said, this is a reminder that you don't need to have anything go wrong in your life in order to heal more deeply, which I think is such a cool lesson that I've learned through you and the work that you do, is like there's always more that we can access and uncover and explore.

100%. And I love that term, common trauma, whether you made it up or not. It's kind of this all-encompassing idea because, oh my gosh, there's so much goodness here because people may come and say, yeah, why can't I lock down a romantic partnership? Like, why can't I just get a boyfriend or a girlfriend? Why isn't that working for me? And we often like to point the finger outward and say, oh, I'm just— it's that guy, it's that guy, oh, he sucks. But really, once you realize there's a pattern in your life that's just kind of continuing on for years and years, whether it's I can't make money, I can't hold down a relationship, or why do I have low self-confidence, I have imposter syndrome— these are all very common themes. It's so important to go into the subconscious mind because maybe, yeah, maybe there's a kid on the play yard in elementary school that made fun of you or just made one comment. It's that one comment in that one moment, just an example, maybe 7 years old. And that is completely embedded now in the subconscious and rules the way we walk through the world. Or maybe your parent told you you didn't do a good job in school, or you know what I mean? It could be just the little, littlest things, but they actually really get embedded or locked down in the subconscious. And that's why it's called the subconscious. We're not consciously aware that it's happening or that it even exists in the first place. So that's what my job is, is to really go down in there, open up the subconscious mind very gently, but then potently and powerfully vent out what needs to be released. And so we can move forward with our lives.

Yeah. And I, and I love this description of you know, guiding someone gently into that state of hypnosis where the subconscious mind does become more open and accessible, because I think it takes away some of the fear around, oh my gosh, like, what does it mean to be hypnotized? You know, like, I think lots of people have stigmas around what hypnosis means. So when you practice this with your clients, like, just paint a picture for people of like what this looks like, because I know that you do this virtually as well. Which I think a lot of people maybe they don't realize is possible. So yeah, what does it look like when you do this with people?

Totally. So hypnosis and hypnotherapy are just as effective, if not more effective virtually, because all the client needs to do is listen to the sound of my voice. There is literally nothing else they need to do except for lay back, relax, and listen. So I find that ever since a lot of us have gone more virtual since, you know, the changes in the world. My clients have become even more susceptible to change because they're in the comfort of their own home or the comfort of their own bed or their own chair rather than in my office. I went strictly virtual after the changes in the world a couple years ago. So what, what we do is we meet virtually. We have about 15-20 minutes of talk therapy to really see what wants to come forward. There's no specific questions that I necessarily ask. I like to put the ball completely in the client's court to share to whatever degree that they feel comfortable what they'd like to share. And then when we go into hypnosis, they lie down and all they need to do is listen. And it sounds maybe a little strange if you've never done it. You're like, well, how does that make any change? Well, I have the tools and the know-how to really get into that person's subconscious mind and start— I don't know if it was you I said to the other day, like, spelunking, which is kind of like cave. So we're going in, we're chipping away, we're illuminating, we're seeing what wants to come out. And 99.9% of the time, people have immediate profound effects.

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So cool. It's so intriguing. Oh my God, I'm obsessed with like just the psychology of it all and the subconscious mind. I think it's so fascinating and so, so interesting. So something that I— I mean, you mentioned that a lot of people will use hypnotherapy as well for this kind of like darker side of things in terms of loss, grief, all of that. And I remember when we first started talking on Instagram, you had shared with me that a big part of your journey to like arriving to this place in your life and, and doing this kind of work was the extreme loss and grief that you experienced from losing essentially all of your immediate family members to death. So if you're open to it, I'd love for you to share just a little bit about what that was like and how it impacted you and how maybe it guided you to do this work.

Definitely. So losing my whole family, so that's my mom, my dad, and my only sibling, my younger sister. On top of, at this point, countless, probably 15+ friends, and I'm talking close friends. I understood pretty early on that whatever my purpose or reason for being here on this planet had to do with death and the people who cross over, and perhaps the ones who are still here on Earth, and helping to guide them through that experience of loss. Of course, my dad was the biggest one. When he passed, I mean, I lost all sense of self. But then very soon afterwards, I started understanding from a very spiritual standpoint that him leaving was a gift to me. And I know that that may sound strange to some people, but he left me the gift of of seeking deeper meanings of life and death. And it's really because of his passing, we had almost a contract that said, now, my love, you need to take this and fly with it and help other people. And since his passing, I've had probably 20 people, including my mom and sister, pass away. So I just have a very close relationship with death. I think it's beautiful. I actually love talking about it. And I think that in the Western world, we don't honor it nearly enough. It's like we fear death when really it's, it's a beautiful transition to the next portion of whatever's out there.

Yeah, that was exactly the next thing I was going to say. I was going to say so many of us are terrified of death and of dying, you know, ourselves dying and our loved ones dying. I know I was when I first came to you, the first past life regression session that we ever did. I told you like, I want to explore this because I feel like this fear that I have to face, this fear that I have around death in some way, because I wanted, I desired that sort of more peaceful or accepting relationship with the idea of death or people dying or even myself dying, which I think is very strange to a lot of people, like to ever be able to perceive of being in a place, you know, where that is more accepted. But I think it's just so incredible that having lost so many people, that you don't have a bitterness towards that. And it's like, you know, I think it created the exact effect that your dad would have wanted in terms of, you know, rather you closing off and shutting down and becoming cold, it did the exact opposite. It like broke you open and it like softened you. And it humbled you, right? And it made you— it created all this amazing connection and work that you do and helping other people like me, you know, like connect more to that relationship that we have with death. So I'm just— I just— I love that so much, and I'm so grateful to you and so inspired by you. And like, I look at you and I'm just like, I— like, you are like a pillar of like strength. Like when I heard that about you, I was like, I cannot believe this like gorgeous badass woman, like with a brand new baby, like running a business, doing all these things, has like moved through all of that heaviness and has like found a way to like freaking like alchemize it, you know? Like I feel like that's what you did. Like you really took it, and I'm sure it was like sort of a journey to get to that place of being able to integrate it and alchemize it. But like, holy shit, it was just like incredible.

Alchemize is the perfect word because I want to be transparent here. I'm not healed. In fact, I don't believe that healed is ever a place we get to. So trust me that I still have my emotions and feelings come up around my losses. I lost 4 dear friends just in 2020 alone. So I still have grief that lives at a very deep core of my being. I tell my students this all the time because I like to show up as transparent as possible. I said, there is a deep well of sadness that lives within me, but I know how to live with it. And I think the beauty of accepting death into our life is knowing— I mean, again, don't want to freak anyone out, but my motto is I could die in 2 minutes. Any of us can. Any of us can die in 2 minutes. I could trip down the stairs after this call and die. I mean, is that kind of gnarly to say? Yeah, but it gives me a sense of, oh wow, the presence really is all I have. The now really is so beautiful. So let's just live it up. It doesn't mean, you know, spiritual bypassing or toxic positivity. I mean, I cry. Crying is my fucking jam, and I feel sad sometimes, but I also understand how precious this very interesting short time on Earth is, so let's just do it up.

I feel the same way. Oh my God, I know, it is so— it's so humbling. I mean, that's kind of like— I don't know if you ever heard Gary Vee talk about this, but he's like always says, um, like his best piece of advice is you're gonna die. Like, that's, that's just what he says when people are like, give us the best, quickest piece of advice you could. He says you're gonna die. And everybody's like confused at first, like, how is that advice? And it's like, no, it puts it into perspective. Like, what do you want to do while you're here, right? What actually matters? Are you going to show up or are you going to sit in, in the shadow, you know? Like, are you going to live your life the way that it should be lived, or are you going to keep waiting for permission or whatever it is, right? All these things that— all these cycles and patterns we get stuck into. So I love that. Yeah, like, death can be a motivator, man. Can push us.

Gary Vee, yes. I have full body chills hearing that because I 100% understand when he says that to people. I know exactly what he's saying. And yeah, it's important, babes. It's important to accept that, but also not to feel down on oneself if you're like, "No, that's really fucking scary to me. I don't know how." But with time, it is a journey, like you said.

Yeah. So you say that you've been an intuitive all your life. And I think a lot of people struggle to connect to their intuition in, in one way or another. I know a lot of my clients or people in my audience will say, how do I, how do I know when it's my intuition or when it's just ego or when it's fear, you know? Um, so if people are struggling to connect to their intuition or their psychic gifts, we could even say, because I, I really think like we all have some sort of psychic ability, you know, it's just whether we like want to tap into the spidey senses or not. But what advice would you give to someone who's trying to understand what intuition feels like or how to discern it or trust it?

So intuition often shows up in the body. It's not like, oh, I got this profound, colorful image in my mind. Often it's, it's a knowingness accompanied with a feeling in the body. But then one might say, well, I feel fear in the body. Totally. But intuition feels like a big golden yes, and fear has the, the questioning aspect, like, I don't know, is that something? So how to figure out whether it's a big golden yes or the questioning, it's just learning to trust oneself and You know, I hear that question that you just asked me, and my, my therapy, my therapist mind already goes into, well, if someone has a block in their intuition, that goes way further back. That has something to do with mom, dad, or caregiver. It has something to do with, um, something that happened between the ages 0 to 8, because otherwise we're all intuitive beings, we're all psychic beings. So discerning between that feeling in the body that feels like a fear that's protecting us or a big golden yes that's pushing us? Because sometimes doing something new can feel like fear, but it's a good fear. Do you know what I mean?

So there's fear that—

totally fear that protects us from the bad, and then a fear that feels uncomfortable because it's pushing us past our comfort zone. So discerning between the two, and what that takes is self-trust.

Yeah, I totally agree. The way that I, I try to describe it to people is exactly like you said. It's more of a feeling. Like, I find that intuition is, you know, our intuition kind of lives here in our gut, which is why it's called like the gut instinct, right? Or in the sacral chakra region. Yeah, it's like that's where we get the, the feeling of like, I should really do that thing. And then for me, like, the ego or the fear that jumps in is always in the form of like some sort of like logical thought or argument. Right? It's like it has words to it, you know. It's like, oh no, that might not be safe because then this or whatever, you know. Whereas the intuition, it doesn't really have a language, it doesn't have words, it doesn't have, um, that sort of like logical, analytical, argumentative side. It's just plain and simple knowing. Yeah, pure knowing versus let's try to like suss this out and figure it all out in terms of words. So that's at least like my experience with it and how I like to describe it. So I love that you verified that for me, of like, it's totally more a feeling than anything else.

Totally. And I'll give you a quick story, a true story. So I would say maybe 10 or 11 years ago, I was in Mexico in November with some friends and her parents, and I got an email that I had the opportunity to move to Australia in a week. And I had a job back in California. I was a caregiver for a special needs child. I did that for a long time before stepping into this role, and I loved that family. I loved the child that I worked for. I loved what I did. I was very good at it. And so in that moment, everything within me was like a big fuck yeah, or a golden yes is what I like to call it. And I thought, I need to move to Australia. I only have a week to decide, but I need to go. This is an opportunity. But then that ego logical mind, like you said, came in and was like, well, you can't quit your job. You're, you're, but that's not going to be good for your boss. It's not good for your resume. What are people going to think? Are, you know, blah blah blah blah blah. What is your family gonna say about you moving? My family as in my aunt and uncles. But that's where I think we need to understand it doesn't really matter what anybody else says, family, society, or otherwise. And to this day, that boss and I still are in contact. Was she upset in the moment that I quit on a whim via email? Probably. But I moved to Australia and I would never look back. That was the best decision of my life. So, you know what I mean? Understanding, well, which voice is telling me to move forward with this decision? Decision, the one that's mine or the one that's other people's?

Yeah, that's a really good way to look at it too. So powerful, because it is so often that way, right? The fear is a story that somebody else gave to us, right? It's not our truth. It's like, what are they going to think? What are they going to say? This is what I've been taught. This is how I've been raised. These are the values I should be using in order to make this decision, yada yada. But it's always, you know, kind of that external voice rather than the internal one. So yeah, that's another great way to really look at it. So obviously we need to talk about past life regression because I did the, I did the practitioner training with you and then I got so many questions from my audience about past life regression and what it is and how it works and who can do it and all the things. So I was like, I have to get Nikki on the podcast so we can dispel all the myths and like just help people really understand this beautiful modality a little bit more. So just to kind of like start us off, like, past life regression—

what is it?

How does it work? Why is it useful?

Past life regression is a hypnotherapeutic technique where the practitioner or the therapist takes their client into a hypnotic state, which is also a theta brain state or like a twilight state, where their more open to allowing images and events, memories to come through. And then the practitioner, the therapist, guides them very specifically with very specific words. They have the tools to know how to guide that person exactly precisely for how their mind operates and takes in information to then discover or uncover memories of the past. That's the simple— I feel like that's the simple, but I know that's a whole like, well, what's the past? And there's a lot more questions.

Yeah, so we'll go in. I have— I've pulled some of the specific questions that people ask so that we can kind of like fire round, move through them, and help answer everybody's questions. But what do you— in your experience, what do most people come to PLR for?

Hmm, yes, relationships are one of the most common. People want to understand familial relationships, romantic relationships, friendship relationships. People want to understand why something isn't working. What is it with my mom and I? Why don't we get along? What is it? I don't understand. Or Why do I keep attracting the same partner into my life? What is it? So relationships are huge. There's also a fairly large percentage of people that have physical ailments in this lifetime, undiagnosable leg pain or migraines that they have no idea why they have, um, some sort of stomach issues. So physical ailments and understanding that perhaps the manifestation of the physical ailment in this life actually began far before. Um, and then a more vague but overarching reason is people want to understand their purpose. Is there something that I can help them illuminate that they did in a past life that will help them now in this life thrive?

I love that— relationships, physical ailments, and purpose. I think like one of the three all of us can relate to on some, on some level, right? So I think that's awesome. So let's get into some of the questions that people wrote to me that they wanted you to answer. So the first one is, is, is it safe to do a past life regression by yourself? I've seen a lot of things online when I search it.

Safe, but it's not going to work as powerfully. This is because, and you know this because you took my training, that every human takes in information differently. Some people are direct learners, some people are indirect learners, some people are smack dab in the middle where they can learn and take in information almost any way you talk to them. So my only qualm with a past life regression pre-recorded on YouTube or something like this is it's not geared specifically toward your mind. And so you just may not get a whole lot out of it other than a very deeply nourishing, relaxing meditation. So safe, yes. Effective, uh, not so much.

Hmm. Okay, good. How many sessions do you need to have in order to experience it?

Well, one, if, if you're a good therapist or practitioner, just one. But I have some clients who have done 20+ with me because they just really enjoy the process.

Yeah, that's what I was going to say. Like, I mean, if the question is— the way that I interpreted this question was like, how many sessions do you need to have in order to actually get to the past life memories? Which is one, you know, in the first one that you do, you will encounter some sort of, of past life memory. But then there was another question, let me see if I can find it, that was kind of like goes up against this really nicely. So yeah, it says, does every session go into a specific past life? Do you just keep going forever? So like, can you just like keep doing this forever and keep encountering more and more past lives?

Yeah, definitely. I mean, not everyone's soul has incarnated the same amount of years. So depending on who you are and who your soul is, how long it's been around, you can keep doing this for years and years and years to come and keep seeing different lifetimes. Or you may come to a point where you start revisiting the same ones. But that's neither here nor there. That's not good or bad. It just, it just is. It's exciting.

That's what I was going to say. Like, if you, if you have just a handful of past lives. I would assume that if you were to do many sessions, you would just go into those past lives continuously and kind of experience more life events from, from each one, which is equally as cool and informative and insightful. Um, so another question was, does it usually work for everyone?

Everyone is hypnotizable. And everyone can go into a past life regression or experience. However, with that being said, if someone— if I have a client who— and this is a real story— who opened the door, and when they looked through, it was just black, and it was black for their whole session, this is a very strong indicator to me as the therapist that they have a strong block a lack of trust, perhaps some judgment, perhaps some resistance. So then I have— then I understand that I need to go a bit deeper with this person to chip away at what are— why do you have a wall up? What are you resisting? What are you afraid to look at? And, you know, I don't maybe say it as direct as that, but I, I know that that's what that indicates. So the simple answer is yes, it works for everyone. But I have had some clients who needed to come back again for a second to go, oh shoot, okay, I trust you, I trust me, I trust the process. Because not all people are ready to go that deep on the first session.

Hmm, yeah. And someone else asked if you can have a bad experience with a past life regression. She said, I'm scared of feeling weird or uneasy.

So we would need to define the word bad, because clients absolutely have the potential to come up against something that feels uncomfortable, challenging, or confronting. And if anything, babes listening, it's pretty common. Because why would we have the scary stuff at the forefront of our conscious mind? We put it down there in the subconscious for a reason, because we don't want to look at it.

We want to hide it away.

So I'm not going to say bad. No one's had a bad experience. But have people come out of a regression feeling emotional? Absolutely. But that is a step forward. So in my eyes, that's a good thing.

Yeah, that's a good experience because that's— I mean, why are you doing it in the first place, right? You want to encounter, process, and clear.

Yes.

Yeah. So that would be, you know, it's, it's part of doing the work, um, is finding what there is to be found, whatever that is. Totally. And being okay with that. Um, so someone else said, how can I free myself of negative experiences of past lives?

Well, I'm— this is assuming this person has done past life regressions before or has an understanding of their past life patterns, I guess. So if they, if you already know that you've had some negative patterns in past lives, take that information, write it down, look at it as a physical entity, look at it in your notebook and go, wow, these are the patterns between my lives. How can I change the narrative? How can I put a stop to that now in this lifetime and start moving forward so I don't repeat the pattern for lifetimes to come? And then people go, well, how do I do that? It's a choice. And that is not my clients' or my students' favorite answer, but it's my favorite answer to give. It's a choice. And you know what? Sometimes choosing a different life or a different path can feel really fucking uncomfortable, but it's so worth it.

I totally agree. I think it's, it's, oh, when you're in those patterns, it can be really hard, especially if it's a pattern of something like something common, I guess, of like people pleasing or needing to be approved of, or, you know, something like that. It's like learning to set boundaries or protect your own energy or share your opinion or be your authentic self. Like, that is a choice, like you said, but it can be a really hard choice when you're used to doing something the same way. But I think it's this idea of almost like healing generational trauma. When you know that a pattern has been created from something in a past life and it's continuing to affect you in your present life, and then you do this work of finding that out and then making the choice to change, it's like, oh my God, you're doing the work for generations to follow, right? Because that's now not a thing that your children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren have to go to PLR to go back and find and and fix or choose to change, right? So that's something that's really inspiring and empowering about doing this work is like, I can change patterns for generations in my family line to come.

Yeah, definitely. And to take that a level deeper past choice, let's say you're in the position like, okay, I'm ready. I'm choosing. No more of this pattern. No more of this bullshit. I'm ready to go forward, move forward. Change it all. That's why mentors and coaches like myself and Samantha exist, is to help you, to guide you along the way until perhaps you don't really need that support or that guidance anymore, and then you just skyrocket. So again, transparency. I've been intuitive my whole life. I've been tapped in. I've been claircognizant my whole life and a healer, but I've needed and desired and required lots of support along my journey. So while I may be here in this position where I look like this grand leader, and like you said, I'm a pillar in the storm, I am that, but I'm also someone who has my own help on the side. I have a therapist, you know, I have things too. So I guess it's, it's really also being vulnerable and understanding that there might need some massive shifts to take place within oneself.

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Totally. Mentorship— I think that's probably the most powerful part of mentorship, is, you know, a mentor or a coach or a therapist or whoever is never really going to be able to tell you what to do or what you should do, right? But they're going to evoke within you your own sense of confidence and inner knowing for you to be able to empower yourself to actually do it. Whereas before, you're sitting in the doubt or sitting in this uncertainty or sitting in the waiting to just know more or figure it out later or have somebody save you or whatever it is, right? So I think that's one of the most powerful parts of, of mentorship that maybe people don't understand. It's like, we don't hire people to give us answers. We hire people to hold our hand and help empower us to make our own bold choices.

Yes, definitely.

Okay, so last question from the audience on, on this is— and this is a loaded one— is there scientific proof that past lives are possible?

You know, I'm not a scientist, but to my knowledge and in my studies, I don't think there's scientific proof. I think it falls under the same kind of pseudoscience healing type of stuff where Reiki exists and these other things exist. However, if the science believes in the subconscious mind, and I know religion isn't science, so this is a deep dive into all sorts of topics, but If you have followed any type of religion, whether it be Buddhism, Christianity, uh, Kabbalism, Judaism, Judaism, there's a belief and an understanding that the thing that's within us, which you may call the spirit or the soul or the energy, that thing doesn't die. That thing keeps going on and on. So here we are Nikki and Samantha in these bodies, these physical bodies, which will die one day. But the idea is that the thing within us keeps going. So the theory of past life regression and reincarnation is that this soul or spirit has been here before, before my physical body. It was somewhere else in perhaps another physical body. So I hope that helps.

Yeah, no, I love that. And this is one of my favorite parts when we did our training was learning about all of the ways in which we can see this idea of reincarnation and past lives show up in the world and in culture and in history and in, you know, like Greek philosophy and so many world religions. It's, it's, you know, it's, it's well believed by the masses. Um, and I think even with things like, like media, like psychic mediumship and stuff like that, people have been trying to prove, trying to find a way to scientifically prove whether that's real or not. And, you know, I just— I firmly believe that some of the best things are— we have yet to be able to prove by science. Like, I just so believe that. Like, I, I always share this fact, which I think is fascinating, which is the human eye can only see less than 1% of the visible light spectrum. Which means that the entire world around us, all the things that we can see, right, all of nature, all the cities, the world, people, places, you know, all the things that we can look at under a microscope, still that's only less than 1% of what exists. So like, what could possibly be going on around us and circulating, you know? And also just understanding how small the Earth is in comparison to all these massive, like, galaxies that, you know, it's like, there must be more, I guess, is, is my point with that. Um, so whether people want to believe that past lives are possible or not is their personal choice, but for me, I'm just like, I feel like all signs are pointing to there's a lot more shit going on.

Yeah, I mean, there's so much, there's so many more truths that exist in the world outside of Western society. And I'm not bashing Western society, but I will say that before we became so westernized, we were a lot more tapped into the cosmos, a lot more tapped into nature and plants, even plant medicine. And those things, you know, are now Schedule 1 drugs. And like, I know that's a whole other topic, but to understand that before we lived in these boxes with roofs and toilets and whatever the hell, we were a lot more connected beings. Like, that's where we come from. We come from a connected place. So there are a lot more truths out there to, to know and be curious of that perhaps may be outside of a textbook.

Totally. And my whole motto with this type of stuff is even if when my physical body dies and my soul transcends or doesn't transcend or whatever ultimately happens, and I somehow— my consciousness somehow discovers that everything that I believed or thought to be true was totally wrong, it's like it, it won't really matter because the things that I'm choosing to believe and integrate into my life during this lifetime are helping me live better and be better. Right? So by me choosing to believe in past lives or in psychic abilities or in my intuition or in plant medicine or in holistic remedies or whatever it is, it's like I don't need to know that that's a fact to know that it's helping me feel more supported and guided and live a more powerful existence, right? So like, it doesn't need to be a fact for me. I don't need to know that it's true. 'Cause it— and I may die and discover, oh wow, that was all bullshit. But hey, I felt more supported, I felt more guided, I felt more healed, I felt more integrated. So who the fuck cares, right? I mean, that's—

Exactly. Speaking of plant medicine, I was at Burning Man, maybe 2011, and I had this thought just jump into my mind that says, do what you want to do as long as you're not hurting anyone along the way. And I was like, damn, that's so profound. So to touch on what you're saying is, if it's helpful, there is really no right or wrong way to live one's life as long as you're not hurting yourself or someone else along the way. Otherwise, do what you need to do. Healing looks like so many different things.

So speaking of, speaking of this idea of healing, I know that a huge part of, you know, everything that we've, we've spoken about, all these amazing modalities— Reiki, hypnotherapy, PLR, all these things that we can use, just normal therapy, mentorship— one of the most important steps, and I think you would agree with me on this, is the integration, right? And it's, it's a piece that a lot of people miss. So how can we start to integrate the learnings that we pull from the PLR, from the hypnotherapy, from the Reiki, from the whatever it is?

The first word that comes to mind is trust again, because, okay, look at this. Someone— too much of anything has the potential to be— well, I'm saying bad in quotes. Bad. I can't think of a better word. What I mean by that is we could see a Reiki healer every day for the rest of our life and still be in the same place. We could do a PLR every month for the rest of our life and still be in the same place. So what we need to do after any type of healing, coaching, or mentoring is take that and start actively using our learnings and trusting ourselves. Trusting that we do have the knowledge and power to take care, care of ourselves the best way we know how, and just start actively doing it, doing whatever the thing is that needs to be done. Because— does that make sense?

Yeah, no, totally, totally. I mean, I think that is— yeah, it's— I mean, integration is obviously going to look different for every person and the information that they've uncovered, and, you know, it's all sort of very situational. But in general, I think I, I totally agree. Integration is exactly that, is trusting that what you've uncovered has some sort of purpose or message in it, and it has the power to help you evolve and change. Because we can find— like you said, we can find all the information and just be like, oh well, that sucks, and then do nothing with it, you know? And then that— I mean wouldn't really do anything. So, and it does require that level of trust, um, trust in yourself especially, of I know how to move forward, I know what the change is that I need to make, right? I know what I need to do next. And I think that's something that a lot of people maybe struggle with, is truly believing that they do know, right? Again, kind of talking about that, that bit of, of intuition. You know, it's like when someone says— I think you said this to me— when someone says, 'I don't know,' don't you say, 'Well, if you did know, what would it be?' Was it you that said that to me?

I think that was me.

Oh, I thought it was you. I thought it was you. Well, I heard that somewhere. I heard that somewhere. It was like when a client says, 'I don't know,' they follow it up with, 'But if you did know, what would it be?' And it's like, because you do know.

You know, yeah, that's a great— that was me, but that was great.

We'll use that, we'll use that from now on. Um, okay, so to close, I wanted to ask you, because I think everybody has their own definition and perspective and an idea on this, like, for you, what does it mean to you to live a spiritual life? Hmm.

Wow, I love this question. To live a spiritual life to me means being vulnerable, accepting what is, understanding that everything's pretty much a cosmic joke anyways, so to not take anything too seriously. Contrary to many of my students and clients whom I love dearly, but any of them can attest to this, that as of late, I jokingly but very honestly say the ritual is no ritual. You don't need to drink lemon water precisely 2 hours before you eat your breakfast and then stand on your head for 20 minutes, chant 100 times, and then journal for 30 minutes. Like, that in itself is its own weird way of controlling what is, when really, if we're just in the flow and the presence of life, I think that's the most spiritual life you can live. To not hurt yourself and to not hurt others and really have compassion. That's a huge word, compassion for other people, because we never ever know what's going on in someone else's life. So even if you encounter an asshole on the street or someone sends you, like, there's a troll on Instagram, which I had recently, it's like to understand the worst. What's, what's wrong in your life to make you want to act this way? Like, I wonder what's, what's paining that person so bad. So compassion, presence, and vulnerability, for sure.

I love that so much. That wraps it up so, so beautifully. I agree with everything you just said, especially, yeah, this idea of how we overwhelm ourselves with all of these We have so many— that's the thing about like the spiritual path. There's so many tools that we have that we can lean on and use, but then we, we kind of use our monkey mind and start to try and create structure and control around how we use them and when we need to use them. And, and like you said, that begins this its own weird kind of cycle of like not actually honoring ourselves for what we want to do and forcing ourselves to, to be a certain way or show up for certain things that don't actually feel authentic in the moment. So I'm all about that in terms of listening to yourself. And if the lemon— if you hate lemon water, like, don't fucking drink it, you know? If you hate running, stop going for runs. Like, I'm all about that, you know? Like, do what you feel called to do.

Yeah, we are already spiritual beings. We don't need to be spiritual because that in itself is even its own clique. Like, I'm a skateboarder, I'm a vegetarian. Like, it's its own label. So to understand, you don't need all the crystals, you don't need all the sage. Those things are beautiful tools, like you said, but to actually embody a quote-unquote spiritual life is to just understand that you already are that. Yes, I know we could— this is a whole other 2-hour thing, but yeah, mind explosion right here.

It's like, uh, the feeling that you get when you read The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle. Yeah, that whole book is exactly that, that moment of like brain explosion of like, whoa, like, wait, what is this?

Who am I?

What is life?

Totally.

Totally. Totally. So, okay, speaking of books, is there any one book that has stood out to you in your life or your journey that you feel like people should read?

Yes. The Art of Happiness by the Dalai Lama.

Oh, you love the Dalai Lama. That's right.

I love the Dalai Lama. And that book really changed my life. I was not a reader up until my early 20s. I really disliked reading., and I read that book while I was traveling through Indonesia, and it was like, I think, the first book I ever finished, and I was so proud of myself, and I ended up reading it 2 more times, and it's, it's a fantastic book for anyone, whether you're advanced or beginner on any type of spiritual path or understanding. It's a very beautiful book.

Amazing. I have yet to read that one, so I'm going to take your recommendation and I'm going to go for it. Yes. All right, you guys, I hope you have loved learning all of this juicy goodness from Nikki. She is a wealth of knowledge and such an amazing person, and she has so much to offer. And I know you guys are dying to know how you can work with her and how she can crack your subconscious mind wide open and spill all your secrets so that you can start healing more deeply. So I'm gonna link all of her, um, where everywhere that you can find her in the show notes. But Nikki, if you want to just rattle off your website and your Instagram and things like that so people can go stalk you.

Yeah, my Instagram is Nikki Cosmo. Cosmo is C-O-Z-M-O. And then my website is the same, NikkiCosmo.com. And if anyone is interested in getting certified in past life regression to become a practitioner and lead people down that path as Samantha just did, we have another one coming up in just a couple months. So I will be releasing those dates in the coming week. So peep the space, it's a fantastic modality, and I would love to connect with you guys.

Yes, let's all be past life regression practitioners. We need more of this work in the world, certainly. So thank you, Nikki, so much for coming on and sharing your wisdom. It's been such a pleasure.

Amazing, thank you.