Jacob Cooper is a remarkable therapist and healer who is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker in the state of New York. He is also a certified hypnotherapist who specializes in past life regression hypnotherapy and a Reiki master who has been featured in multiple media outlets. Jake is the author of a thought-provoking and inspirational book titled Life After Breath: How a Brush with Fatality Gave Me a Glimpse of Immortality, which begins with the astounding NDE Jake experienced when he was just 3 years old that profoundly impacted his life. I was entranced reading about Jake’s struggles with school, family relationships, his strict Orthodox Jewish upbringing and more that contributed to the incredibly challenging road he travelled to become who he is today.
IN THIS EPISODE, YOU’LL HEAR ABOUT THINGS LIKE:
- Jake’s Near-Death Experience when he was 3 years old, including his experience with Jesus, spirit guides, angels, his soul family and past lives.
- Death is not an ending but instead a rebirth or renewal from crossing over.
- What Jake learned from his out-of-body experiences.
- The difference between listening to the voice of intuition and the voice of fear.
SOME QUESTIONS IRENE ASKS JAKE:
- How did your religious beliefs evolve from your Orthodox Jewish upbringing into a more Universal consciousness?
- How can a person’s life improve with the help of psychotherapy?
- How are some of our past lives significant to our current life?
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Listen to the podcast here
Jacob Cooper: A Near-Death Experience When He Was Just 3 Years Old Brought Jake Fascinating Insights Into The Mystery Of Life On The Other Side
I’m delighted to have this opportunity to interview Jacob Cooper, a remarkable therapist and healer who will be speaking to us from Massapequa, New York. Jacob holds a Master’s degree from Adelphi University. He is a licensed clinical social worker in the state of New York. He is also a certified hypnotherapist who specializes in past life regression hypnotherapy and a reiki master who has presented and held seminars with the Edgar Cayce’s Association for Research and Enlightenment, International Association of Near-Death Studies, local, national and international universities on a graduate and undergraduate level. Plus, he has been featured in multiple media outlets.
Jacob is also the author of a thought-provoking and inspirational book titled Life After Breath: How a Brush with Fatality Gave Me a Glimpse of Immortality, which begins with the astounding near-death experience Jacob experienced when he was just three years old that profoundly impacted his life. I was entranced reading about Jacob’s struggles with school, family relationships, his strict orthodox Jewish upbringing and more that contributed to the incredibly challenging road he traveled to become who he is now.
I’m looking forward to asking Jacob about his near-death experience and out-of-body experiences, his touching relationship with his grandfather, the guidance he received from his spiritually open and seal and what his near-death experience taught him about past lives, angels, spirit guides and the concept that death is a rebirth from crossing over. This is surely going to be a very special interview.
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Jacob, a warm welcome to the show.
It’s such an honor to be here with you. Thank you for having me on as a guest.
Thank you so much, Jacob. It’s truly my pleasure. Let’s begin with this question. Please tell us about your near-death experience when you were just three years old, including your experience with Jesus and your two spirit guides and what you learned about angels, the soul family, and your past lives. We could have the whole interview based on this question, but I have so much more to ask you.
In September of 1993, I was three years old. It was right before the Jewish High Holy Day of Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, a time in which we are preparing ourselves to meet the Creator. We’re trying to have a year of renewal and getting ourselves ready for a year of health and well-being promised to go into the new. Little did I know, I was about to have a different encounter with the Creator on a more direct basis versus through thought or prayer in synagogue or ritual. I went to a park with family friends of mine, and it was a beautiful morning.
I didn’t know this but I had a highly contagious upper respiratory condition called whooping cough, otherwise known as pertussis, which is more the generic term. I had it. At the time, also, my brother younger than me had it too. Going to the park, I went up onto a slide, and as I was climbing up onto a slide on the ladder, I began to suffocate. At the top of the rung of the slide, I had no breath whatsoever. Everything shut down. That was one of the most frightening, scariest, traumatic moments of my life. We could circle back as to why I do believe it is that I remember it. Certainly, the intensity of the trauma was one reason why it is so clear in my memory bank.
Due to suffocation and deprivation of oxygen, every part of my body was no longer serving me to the point where almost as if you were trying to start a car and your engines were not working. There was no real point in being in the driver’s seat. I had to get out of the driver’s seat and look at the engine. My soul or myself or whatever you want to refer to as the real me stepped out of my car or my body or the meat suit and started to examine this body. They say we use a very small percentage of our brain in life. At that time, I understood that fully.
We use a very small percentage of our brains in life. Click To Tweet
I was able to have a lot more awareness of not only my surroundings and other energies around me but also in the very primal basis of my body and brain. Within moments later, I was able to see my brain deprived of oxygen, understanding the different neuro pathways and different parts of my brain. I felt my brain snap in half like a large crack occurring right in my brain as if you or your soul is plugged into this wall and you yanked the plug out of the wall. All of a sudden, you’re no longer in the wall. You’re just belonging to eternity. You don’t have space and time. You’re not governed by limitations.
Moments later, I was allowing myself to feel my soul. I was racing down a tunnel and entered the light. That’s when my brain cracked open, and God came in, as they say. I was able to have an awareness as we talked about Christ’s consciousness of the all-omnipresent. All there ever is never was. Also, an awareness of the countless array of a sea of angels that were floating right in front of me, awareness of my spirit guides, my karma, as well as dharma, as life duties, and encounters with my soul family. To find yourself, you have to be willing to let go and lose what you’re holding onto yourself. It was the most beautiful euphoric sensation that words, on a limited basis, convey but can’t fully capture.
Jacob, I’m wondering if you maybe remember as much as you do because that was your soul that left your body. That was your eternal soul that had that memory. When it returned to your body, it remembered.
Our brain is the filter of consciousness, as I experience. Once my brain shut down, I was able to open up the doorway and be in the room of eternity. Our brain is the middle person between the two worlds. Within our lifetime, if we rely on our brains, then we’re finite. Everything is limited. If we’re in touch with the deeper tapestries of who we are, there’s an infinite component to us that defies conventional wisdom. It goes over linear development and understanding of our limitations.
Our brain is the filter of consciousness. Once our brain shut down, we open up the doorway and be into the room of eternity. Click To Tweet
You also joined your near-death experience. The life blueprint that was being programmed into you was replaced with a new one from what you refer to as God or source. What was the original? Why did it change? What did it become? Where were you supposed to go in your life? After this, what was changed?
Much of our blueprint is disempowered. We’re taught from a very young age that to be something, you have to do something. We’re taught that we don’t know the answers and someone bigger than us has the answers. All of a sudden, the body is synonymous with development or evolution and wisdom or clarity. What I learned is the body is a temporary dwelling place of truth, but it’s not the birthplace of it. It’s the filter of our eternity. They’re old people who are quite young and young people who are quite old. In our society, at least one that I was living in, up until that point, the trajectory was on regurgitation versus imagination. It was on regurgitating information versus embodying.
Would you say that would come from your Orthodox Jewish background and all of that?
Even in the Western world, we fall in love with the regurgitation of information but not as much of saying, “What do you have inside of you? What’s there?” That’s what I was talking about, this conveyor belt that I was on of the world outside of me that wanted to make me into something that I wasn’t versus embodying what was there. It wasn’t a human being without a soul but understanding that I was a soul having a human experience.
Were you told what you were going to become when you grew up?
I was aware that my purpose was much bigger than a classroom and what I saw in front of me. My purpose was something deep inside of me, far more than just the boxes of the college classrooms. Many people forget. It’s like a conveyor belt robotic situation. We follow a set of steps to get there but we’re there to be ourselves.
A lot of people get caught up in the word ‘healer.’ Some people feel that they have to be doing things to be a healer. To me, the closest thing to being a healer is to look at people through godliness and the ability to see the good, uplift, and be inspired, or in spirit when you’re with someone. It’s coming from that deep place. When you’re comfortable with yourself and you’re connected, other people too could feel that within themselves. When you’re disconnected, there’s an awkward feeling and you feel very disempowered in your life.
Near Death Experience: To embody the qualities of a healer, one must view others with a sense of divinity, recognizing their innate goodness, and seeking to inspire and uplift them with a positive spirit.
What is your understanding of the continuity of consciousness beyond the physical body when we die? You’re talking about what happened to you, but how did you learn that death is not an ending but instead a rebirth or renewal from crossing over?
It wasn’t anything that I necessarily would put on the label of learning. It was more of recall or remembering. Much of what I experienced wasn’t something that I added but rather getting to the core awareness of what was always there that I might have even forgotten at such a young age.
Would you say that would be from the amnesia most of us get when we’re born and then they came back to you?
Yes. When we come up off the ships of the eternal waters and we get to the shorelines of this body, at times, that could happen. Some people drink less or more of those waters of amnesia, as the Greek philosophers would refer to. At our core, there’s some type of degree of recall within all of us, and we continue to develop that. I was a lot more empowered. From looking at that, I was awakened. Our bodies were used to timelines and linearity. We’re used to worrying about Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, one year from now or five years from now.
When I went to the other side, infinite or eternity was not a finite principle. It didn’t have a limit to it. Everything was like that, infinite joy, time and awareness. There was no limitation to what I experienced. When we’re in the body, sometimes it could be quite limited bio neurochemically or within our minds and linear awareness. I was taught that death is not an ending but rather a new awakening and remembering this eternal journey that we all have.
Death is not an ending, but rather a new awakening and remembering of this eternal journey that we all have. Click To Tweet
If people reading would take one thing out of it, that would be the thing to take out of it. Your death is not an ending. It’s a reawakening. It’s not over when it’s over.
It’s not something that you couldn’t fully grasp with the left brain fully because the left brain works diametrically opposite to that. The left brain works on beginnings, middles, and endings. That’s how so much of our life is governed. To have the juxtaposition of a different dichotomy of that, where there is none of that, is something that we have not been taught, rather something that is in the doorway of our truth.
It’s more like a continuation that we have?
Yes.
What would you like to tell everyone about your out-of-body experiences? That’s not a near-death experience. An out-of-body experience is different. You’ve had the whole menu. What would you like to teach them about that out-of-body experience?
It’s interesting with the near-death experiences. Under that umbrella, you do have an OBE, technically, without necessarily having an NDE or something traumatic to your physiological body. The OBE, for most people, it’s like an out-of-my-left-brain experience in a way. Most people are not in their bodies. They’re in the left brain.
I ask people to point to their hearts and heads or stuff like that. Now, we have the entire body. Many people aren’t fully connected to their full body. That’s why so much of the other work that I do is important. It allows the soul not just to be a point of light within one part but to be fully present within all parts of it.
You did leave your body a couple of other times?
Yes. I was in my early years of college. It’s like something that you see in a movie. One day, I woke up looking down on my body. I thought I was having a psychotic break. The fear part of me was in judgment. There was another part of me that said, “No, this is something familiar. There’s something deeper going on to this.”
I firmly believe when we evolve and develop, there are different points of shake-up periods or enlightening pockets that we have. We almost need to have a full-throttle experience to carry that over to the next stage of our evolution. One door closes, and this beautiful room opens up. For me, it’s this homecoming to this truth that was always there. Much like a three-year-old, I didn’t have full conscious, 24/7 awareness.
Near Death Experience: As we grow and progress, we encounter moments that shake us or enlighten us. These moments are like intense experiences that propel us to the next level of our development. One door closes, this beautiful room opens up.
For a number of weeks, I was looking down on my body. The parts of my body that I didn’t feel in that great depth were there. For instance, I could feel my heart in a full experience. I was able at times to feel as if there was this wetness in my forehead where I kept on taking tissue and trying to dry it off, and there was nothing.
There was a full blinking large eyeball in the middle of my forehead that was solely opening and closing. My energetic body was opening. It’s not like I was becoming something that I wasn’t, but rather I was connecting to this body that was always there that was at times blocked energetically. I was getting in touch with the real me without blockages. It was windows without walls. It was a clear sight with no barriers.
I was in a synagogue. Normally, the synagogue is a place of a little bit of discomfort, not a place that I feel comfortable in. You’re in a suit. I’m not very eye to eye with a lot of the religious dogmatic approaches toward finding God. God exists beyond the four walls and the donations of organized religion. God exists not because of it but despite it.
For me, I had this experience in a synagogue where I saw my soul flying around the room with a spirit totem. I was able to look down at myself and see the silver thread connecting each congregant within the synagogue. Intellectually, I could learn about swimming until I’m blue in the face, but until I go into the pool, that’s a different experience.
This is all that I knew intellectually, and it was right in front of me to translate faith and hope into a knowing. Having that experience taught me that ego, as they say, is edging God out. The God part is the light within each other. I was able to translate into clear sight and awareness of one being that we are all forever connected to.
Where was that silver thread coming from? Was it when you saw that silver thread coming from everyone?
This silver thread was connecting the participants. It was more energetically but by the solar plexus. What I saw was that people were not aware of the love inside of them and the love around them or their true bodies inside of them and the love around them. That’s something that stuck with me in a sense. The biggest mistake that people could forget is who they are, what they are and what they’re connected to, which at the end of the day is pure, eternal divine love. We forget that if we knew that, we’d be a lot less likely to inflict pain on the oneness that we are.
Your book is enlightening, Jacob. In Life After Breath, you speak to a soul’s purpose and the difference between listening to the voice of intuition and the voice of fear. Could you talk about those for everyone? Does every single person reading this have a sole purpose?
That’s one thing that I took from a near-death experience where I had this experience and it reminded me that there was such an infinite greater awareness and intelligence far surpassing our awareness that sometimes we forget about. This awareness was inbred and embodied in us before we got here. There’s a plane. It’s not just a frivolous biological material life that we live. We’re here to not just pay the bills, have our pensions and play material games. Rather indeed, every single person is made of the same stuff but we forget that.
We sometimes monopolize spirituality with a guru or someone who’s been in Apollo for a period. Those are all deep spiritual practices. At our core, we’re all made of the same stuff but not everyone remembers or is connected to that same stuff. Some people are in the process of involution, which is a process of going away from who you are, versus evolution, which is a process of becoming yourself and further developing the God part of you within.
That is not my quote. Edgar Cayce spoke very heavily about evolution versus involution. A lot of these transformative experiences are for individuals on a collective basis. If we were meant to be born on a stranded island, we would, but we’re here to have a ripple effect, which is much contrary to the material world, which says, “Take.” At the end of the day, what’s left of your existence? You can’t have your home behind the hearse.
In other words, in this lifetime or any lifetime, we come here and those of us who are evolving as opposed to going backward, the involution, are supposed to have a ripple effect on other people to help bring other people along.
Some people go away. If life isn’t being your teacher, you’re not listening enough. Sometimes, the linearity of a teacher in the upper trajectory is there, but also the downward trajectory of what not to do is a teacher too. It’s all a part of a learning plan.
Tell us about the voice of intuition instead of the voice of fear. I am sure many people reading this are mostly listening to the voice of fear. God knows what’s going on in the world. There are a lot of reasons to have a voice of fear.
Much of that is getting to the still waters of your core. Within my book, I’ve made a quote by Thich Nhat Hanh. I highly recommend checking out his work. He said, “Within the still waters of the mind and the heart, the truth will present itself.” When we’re able to quiet down a lot of the outer chatter, not necessarily quiet down the mind, because the mind always does its work, but to have an awareness of that and to allow ourselves to get a little bit quieter within our awareness, we could be able to be a little bit more intuitive, whether that’s on a micro or macro basis. By that, I mean, if that’s on a personal or more of a grander basis, where we have these downloads about reality and consciousness.
There are many forms of intuition. A lot of people think of intuition as being a psychic. Authors and people who speak on a broader scale of consciousness are intuitive. There’s a micro and macro or a smaller and larger degree of intuition. We all have downloads. This whisper of wisdom is always there. We just have to learn how to trust the streamline and flow of consciousness and allow that to allow the tire to be put on the pavement and what we know to be put into place. I do believe in all of us as pure divine knowing but it’s about the application of that which we know will lead to transformation, evolution and growth.
A lot of people don’t listen to their inner wisdom. They listen to the outer voices.
That’s not to point fingers. That is something that we were programmed from day one. From day one, we’re assigned to a classroom. We were taught by our parents, teachers or people bigger than us all knowing omnipresent in a way. That’s not true, as we know. The kids are often the wisest because they hear from the other side and they have a lot more clarity than a lot more adults who have gotten world-weary or are very away from the inner wisdom within. The spiritual path is about empowerment and honoring the stillness within. It’s not about judging that.
What I learned from my NDE in so many ways, and this has parlayed a little bit more in my other book, is love is eternal. Miracle says, “What’s real could only last. What is not real cannot last in a way.” Only that which is real could last. Something like fear, anger, strife, and all those things run their course. At the end of the day, we’re all a part of this grand ocean of love. We have to come back and return to that awareness and embodiment within our lives.
You’re giving people a lot of things to think about here, Jacob. You already touched upon the change from your Orthodox Jewish upbringing to a more universal consciousness. Is there anything else you want to add about that?
Much of the spirituality and religion has to do with what’s happening. Astrologically, we’ve entered the Aquarian Age. A lot of people are familiar with the 5th Dimension and the age of Aquarius song. Back in the day, the Aquarius comes out of the Piscean Age. The Piscean Age is about organization, control and structure. Sometimes could be a little bit disempowered versus the Aquarian age as a very much of free, liberated awareness. It’s a lot more expansive and innovative. It’s something that comes from a higher dimension.
If you think about it, everything that we are experiencing was once imagined before. Technically, the computer that we’re on, the couch behind you, was once, at some day, imagined by someone else. Imagination is our reality but people forget that. We think that regurgitation is reality but it’s not. The world that we’re living in is a world of dreamers and imagination. We have to get back to trusting that voice and pull and acting on that wisdom and imagination to allow our lives to go forward within that trust.
It sounds like that structured upbringing you had was you grew way past that.
At the end of the day, if I’m inheriting a set of belief systems, I’m a leaf in water. If I’m generating my current, then I’m making a difference. Many people are inheriting this belief system. Generation is their thing. How are you making your imprint? How is it personalized? It’s very much collectively based versus individually personalized. The song has been sung. The dance has been danced, but nobody could sing it or dance it like you. You’re there for a reason to sing it or dance it your unique way.
Talk about two people in your life who were here to sing it and dance it in their way and had a tremendous influence on you. Tell us about your grandfather, who unconditionally loved and mentored you. Seymour taught you about seeing more than what meets the eye. You had this amazing Spiritually Aware, Anne Seal, who guided and inspired you and taught you about being governed from the inside out instead of the outside in. Tell us about them, the two big blessings in your life.
My grandfather came from a different angle. As a parent, as we know, you’re with your kids day in and day out. Unconditional love might be a little bit more challenging for kids because they’re day-to-day. As grandparents, we try to perfect what we did with our kids and evolve that. Certainly, my grandfather was a prime example. As a parent, he might have been a little bit edgy, harsh and difficult, but then in an afternoon of his life, he was in that place of pure enjoyment and love. He evolved throughout that time. I was very lucky enough to be in his presence in those last couple of years of enjoyment and bliss. The work has been done.
One thing I learned from him, for parents, is minute to minute, there’s a constant evaluation of our kid and their behaviors, “If you get that good grade, we love you. If you don’t, we don’t.” It’s no wonder that a lot of people have a very large degree of insecurity of self because they’re constantly used to being edited or self-evaluated about what we do versus who we are.
My grandfather was a real spirit guide because the angelic world doesn’t look at you minute to minute and judge you but rather they see the light within you, and they love that light for that light. It’s that spark within. Someone was once talking to me and said, “How could you doubt yourself? If you do believe that you are a part of God, then technically doubting and limiting yourself would be to limit and doubt God.” It’s profound. He was someone who looked up at me and did not doubt me.
What I loved about him is he was such a free thinker. He wanted to get to the root to the core. He wasn’t there to pass judgment or get angry but rather to come out of a place of understanding, wisdom, love and harmony versus the ego, which seeks to be right or wrong. “I’m bigger than you. You’re the kid, I know better than you,” versus the soul, which seeks to unify and harmonize relationships.
It sounds like he was a real role model to you. Let’s talk about Anne Seal, the lady who taught you inside out versus outside in.
What’s funny is she was a Virgo born a couple of days ago. It’s her birthday and continuation day on the other side. She was someone who taught the blind to be a part of this world. She was a teacher for the blind. One of her students was José Feliciano, the singer of Feliz Navidad. She’s gotten tons and tons of letters throughout her life about all the lives that she changed. At her funeral, there were all these people with vision impairments, but they were sobbing or crying from the impact that she had.
In college, there were students who wouldn’t be able to pass the class. She would tutor them until the wee hours of the moment. Whenever you were stuck, she was able to see. When you weren’t able to see, she believed that anyone could see clearly. There was a path and a way. No one was ever trapped. That’s very symbolic of the near-death experience.
I had this degree of suffocation. I was able to look at the lowest abyss of experience that you could have in the body to see past it and remember that only eternal love is real. Everything else is a distraction or turbulence, but that’s all that lasts. She was someone who mentored me. She gave me all the spiritual books to read in my teen years. She was into the metaphysical stuff.
What a blessing she was. She was reading and seeing you.
She was so bright. She could have been a new-age teacher with books with Hay House if she wanted to. She liked to do this more in private. She didn’t need the glitz and the glam. She wanted to help people when no one was watching. Her phone calls would last the wee hours of the morning. What I learned from Seal and my grandfather was that angels aren’t just there with wings. On the other realm, they come from the human form. We all have guides within our lifetime who are contracted, who have a deeper knowing of who we are and what our purpose is and their involvement within that purpose, which is more of a biological, emotional and psychological influence but rather, undeniable spiritual tie within each person a part of the soul family.
I’ve met a few earthbound angels myself who have helped me in my life. I can relate to that. As a psychotherapist, you work with individuals, groups and families. You manage emotional barriers. Tell us what an emotional barrier is. How can it be managed? How does a person’s life improve with the help of psychotherapy? You’re talking to the choir here because I have had psychotherapy in my life, and it was invaluable. It changed so much in my life. I would love for you, as a psychotherapist, to share your wisdom about that with our audience.
As a hypnotherapist and psychotherapist, 85% of our lives, they say, are not spent with thoughts that we are immediately aware of. They’re governed by something called the unconscious mind. It’s a reel of thoughts that we’re not always aware of and all these ideas and perceptions of ourselves that we’re not aware of. Technically, our reality is governed by this real stream of consciousness that we might have inherited about ourselves, which could be very limited and could interfere with our ability to be all that we truly are. It’s important to understand that every behavior and pattern has a point of origin and entry. Things don’t happen randomly.
Certainly, as a psychotherapist, I do believe in visiting the deeper-rooted thoughts, perceptions and belief systems, which might get in the way of our behavior so that everything is in the high gear or allowing ourselves to take in the high road of our life. Many times, our lives are taken on the lower road by a lot of those thoughts and perceptions that we’re not aware of and are getting in our way of creating a life based on what we might have inherited or limitations versus a degree of unlimited potential. It’s to make the unaware aware.
That’s what you do. You help people to find out what’s cooking with them under the surface and make some choices about that.
A lot of it. I have anxiety. You don’t just have that for no reason. It’s very hard to have a feeling without a thought. We have all these thoughts that we’re not aware of and all these downloads that we take on the environment or within our family. At our core, we don’t come through life like that. We come through with some subconscious memories from different carnations. At our core, we’re pure infinite love and wisdom. Sometimes we could get very much in our heads, or we can inherit a lot of different perceptions of reality that are very different from the deep inner being that we are.
Tell us about some of our past lives and how they’re significant to the current life we are living. Would you like to relate a story of someone whose past life led to insights into Aiden healing? I’ll bet you’ve got a few in his or her life.
I use the term past life. Having the NDE, it’s like taking a bucket out of the water and trying to think that that’s going to make a difference within time or the total volume of water. We try to chop up the infinite into finite, but we’re on the other side. You can’t chop that up or divide that. You’re an infinite awareness. There’s no division or separation of it. It’s all unfolding almost as one, which is something that we can’t understand.
You’re saying we have many different lives at the same time?
It’s all unfolding in a lot more of a deeper way than we’re aware of. Time is not separated. Time is just one, which is something that you probably need a hallucinogenic to have a full understanding of but I don’t want to actively promote that program. For some people, if it’s in a supervised setting, at a last stop on the train, it might have some differences but there are a lot of dangers to it as well too. Everyone has to use caution.
I do believe that we’re here to continually express and evolve what we carry over within our karma and life and what we’re here to work on within our dharma and soul’s purpose, which are both Hindu terms. It’s about having the expression of what we want to feel and experience. We’re all here to have different ways of expressing the divine. I like what Holocaust survivor and Nobel Peace Prize winner, Elie Wiesel said, “God created a man because he or she likes stories.” We’re here to have different experiences and stories.
Give me a story of someone who you helped to understand a “past life” experience that aided their healing.
A lot of my clients come through entertainment purposes to work on family dynamics but so many of them are able to look at their family dynamics and understand that “So-and-so is a lot more than just the presented of the iceberg.” They’re there to fulfill their roles. Life is a stage. We all have our different roles. With the understanding from different lifetimes, some of them are symmetry, and some have the same dynamics. If you’re able to look at the University of Virginia, they have so many different case studies. An example is the most respected passive regression practitioner. One of them is a Yale-trained psychiatrist, Brian Weiss, who has a daughter who is a licensed social worker.
In one of his presentations, she was about to go through cataract surgery. She had difficulty seeing. As you know, when you have a parent, you don’t look at them in a professional way. That’s like his thing. You have your dynamic with him many times. There are boundaries to their professional, personal and private lives. She’s finally decided to attend one of the seminars. She found that she was burned in the eyes in one of her past lifetimes. That lifetime was repeating itself on a cellular memory basis, which was happening in this lifetime. When she had that, she was able to see clearly. She didn’t have any visual impairments.
The realization healed her eyes.
On the spot. Not only on an emotional basis or spiritual basis but also physiologically. Sometimes we hold onto different traumas and memories that repeat themselves within our cell memories and cellular bodies. It’s learning the technical terms of “That was on the last CD. I’m here to get the CD in the groove within this lifetime on this song, not playing other songs from other lifetimes.”
There are healers who will heal issues from past life. I’m sure you do that too if they come up, which is wonderful. I loved your book. It was fascinating and wonderful. I couldn’t put it down. I recommended it to everyone. What would you like everyone to know from you about Life After Breath? You also have a book titled, The Wisdom of Jacob’s Ladder. What would you like to tell us about each book?
Life After Breath. I do believe that having a whipping cough in 1993, I saw so many similarities and parallels with the public health issues that were happening at the time where I said, “This is a book that needs to come out.” There was a knowing that felt in me. From losing the breath of the body, I was able to tap into the eternal breath of creation, the breath that God birthed us with. Judaism refers to it as Ruach or the wind of God. When we lose the breath of the body, there’s a breath of spirit that we are always connected to, and that’s the breath that God created us with. That can never be taken from us.
On a literal, allegorical or metaphorical basis, in one way, shape or form, we had our breath taken from us. Within those times, we have to tune into a deeper breath and deeper part of ourselves because the breath that we were breathing and experiencing was not the ultimate awareness and state of consciousness. It was not inhaling our truth or allowing us.
Hopefully, within the shakeup period, with all these wins coming our way, we could have a solid foundation to withstand time to translate adversity into meaning and purpose, as so many of the sages have been able to express and embody throughout history. It’s not the narrative that we walked into but finding ways to define the narrative. People all have the capacity to do that but it has to come from a foundation.
You think we’re in a period of shakeup where that’s going to end up with a great deal of meaning or purpose.
Undeniably, we haven’t seen something like this in 100 years. When this is happening on such a global scale, there’s something to it. There’s always a purpose behind everything but this is right in front of us undeniable. Life After Breath was giving back what I was given when I was breathless and lifeless, that breath of air from God and that reminder of that eternal breath that I was given from the onset of my creation.
It’s about giving back when people are feeling paralyzed. When people are feeling as if there is no hope or way, there always is. What’s inside of us and the breath inside of us is infinitely stronger than the suffocation around us. I experienced that, and I’m a living embodiment of that. People have to remember that.
If you’re going through whatever you’re going through, this book is going to be a comfort to you. It’s a great read. What are we going to learn from The Wisdom of Jacob’s Ladder?
Everyone says my book is great. What I heard is that it’s funny, and that’s the greatest compliment I’ve ever gotten. When you’re in a state of joy and laughter, that’s like seeing the sun in a cloudless state of truth. Seeing truth with laughter is very easy and seamless. For people to find the truth, get into a state of joy and laughter. Truth is a lot easier to access when things are lighter. It’s a lot more difficult when things are dense. If our patience is a lot lighter, we’re able to see a lot clearer in a state of joy.
The Wisdom of Jacob’s Ladder is about shifting ladders. We’ve inherited a ladder in this life from the day we were born, which is this ladder that we have to climb up a different set of stairs, and this material ladder that we’re taught that to do something, we have to climb up this ladder. This ladder is about shifting the ladder of the ego to the ladder of the spirit. The ladder is about being yourself on each step of the journey but understanding each part of your life as an opportunity to embody this knowledge in different parts of yourself so you’re not becoming what you aren’t but embodying who you truly are the divine place within.
Near Death Experience: The ladder is about being yourself on each step of the journey. View every aspect of your life as a chance to manifest this realization in varying parts of your being.
You’re evolving. You’re not going through involution. You’re getting past the material ladder and going into the embodiment of the true ladder within coming back home. You don’t have to wait until you die to get to the light but that light could be filled at each rung of the ladder. Eventually, you don’t need the ladder. You are the light.
Jacob, you and I are certainly trying to work on that consciously. Tell us about the value of meditation. You have meditation and mindfulness seminars. Tell us about that. How can people with busy schedules fit meditation that focuses on being instead of doing it into their lives?
A lot of the issue is when people are doing, they’re not doing. Being is the ultimate doing. For instance, when you’re doing it, you’re not there. You’re just an autopilot. You’re not present. Mindfulness meditation allows you to be 2 feet in a room so that you’re present in the moment. You understand that the present is our greatest present, but so much of life has not been lived. Meditation allows you to live while you live. Many people die before they die. That’s a problem. They’re not fully there. They’re not fully present and connected to the full-throttle degree of experience.
A lot of people feel very empty after hearing about a near-death experience or someone who’ve had all these transformative experiences. There’s a lot of anecdotal evidence behind what we speak of but they have an experience it themselves. As Thich Nhat Hanh says, “Within the still heart and mind, the truth will present itself.” Meditation is a great way to develop rapport with eternity. When you’re meditating, the more you do it, there’s this part of you beyond thought, time and emotion. You’re able to step into this place of eternal awareness.
Meditation is a great way to develop rapport with eternity. When you often meditate, you can reach a state beyond thoughts, time, and emotions. You can enter a place of eternal awareness and self-recognition. Click To Tweet
It’s like what I call the observer of life and soul. You recognized, “That’s not produced by my brain or body. This is me. This is who I am. I recognize that you can’t take this away from me. This is filtering itself throughout the body, but I know that’s tapping into my deeper reservoirs of myself.” When I had my near-death experience, it was beyond this limited three-year-old. It was the depths of the waters of myself and eternity. When you’re meditating, you’re going past this place that you know undeniably you’ll carry with you when you cross over. There’ll be even more of an awareness of what’s inside of you and what’s around you but you could carry it within your life.
When you have these meditation and mindfulness seminars, if anyone reading this, after getting to know you through this interview, would like to participate in your meditation and mindfulness seminars, are they online or do they have to see you in person?
I am working on developing a Zoom mindfulness group, so please stay posted.
You have to let us know because we’ll let everyone know.
I do mindfulness one-on-one sessions and private sessions. I do past life aggression sessions. I do consciousness consulting, psychotherapy sessions and reiki healing sessions, which is a whole other thing that we didn’t get into. That is about healing. Reiki is universal, and the key is energy, which allows people to get into the place of healing and openness to the healer within and allows a lot more flow of their subtle energies to come into their life. I am working on developing a mindfulness online group, which is what we need because the world that we live in is very mindless and not connected. Jesus speaks, “When the winds are the strongest, that’s when we need our foundation to be rock solid.” That’s what’s needed.
Jacob, I’m going to have you give everybody the best ways to connect with you because I bet you have a way. Do you send newsletters and all that? When this is developed, you can let us know, and we will let everyone know about that. By all means, I’m going to ask you two questions. Why should people want to heal their issues from whatever has gone on? What is the importance of healing? Tell us all the ways people can connect with you.
Healing is something beautiful because healing allows you to feel more like you. I look at all of us as hot air balloons. When we have these weights in ourselves, we’re not able to ascend to fly off and be our true selves in a way. It allows you to be a full unencumbered expression of yourself. Many people lose sight of that, and that’s when life gets stolen because we’re not connected to our true selves, but rather we’re connected to all that that’s weighing us down. Healing allows us to get more in touch with ourselves.
It starts with that shift. The moment that we’re able to see, feel and touch that divine spark within, we start to find ways to have a task to see it in the world around us, on the inside and the outside. All of a sudden, we look at life as an opportunity to see the seat of God within all of the things and give life meaning versus feeling a victim of life and feeling very powerless in life. Understand that life begins from our ability to process and connect.
It’s got very little to do with this series of narrative events, but it’s our ability to engage with those narratives. That keeps life exciting. Every day is an opportunity to fill that space in between with different energy and space. Ultimately, that’s where the influence and control happen. What happens outside of us has never been more out of control.
Near Death Experience: Every day is an opportunity to fill that space in between with a different energy, with a different space.
If anything, it gives people a lot less anxiety in knowing that only that I can control is what’s in front of me and my ability. Attitude is everything. We want to choose a good one. We also open ourselves up to infinite energies around us and infinite awareness to allow this life to be a life that’s within flow, meaning and purpose versus a life that feels very much disempowered, victimized, or boggled down. It’s the growth mode versus the victim mode. That’s where we have to be.
What are the many ways that people can connect with you? They want to buy your book and go to your seminars. They’re waiting for your Zoom notification. Let it rip.
We’re doing it at the right time because it’s a Virgo season. A Virgo is about organizational structure. Everything has to be in order with professionalism. For people interested, you can contact me or look at events that are going to be uploaded to come. You could view my website at JacobLCooper.com. Once you’re on the page, you could connect on my social media or pages through Instagram and Facebook. Click on the Instagram or Facebook icon. My phone number and Contact Me options are there. My website is my primary source of traffic, connection, and ways for people to follow me.
Stay posted because we are working in the process of doing a mindfulness Zoom group. I look young but I’m very old school. I’m getting up to time with all this technology state. It’s such a beautiful gift where we could speak to someone in New Zealand, and they could be right in front of us. We could feel and touch them right across the screen. It does speak to the oneness that we are where there’s no separation in technology.
How do you like this? We have a massive one here. Pick one. Let’s charge New Jersey.
You could be a 26-plane ride away, click end, and that’s it.
Tell me the Jacob Cooper tip for finding joy in life.
It’s about being in the present or the moment. A lot of things that happen in our life that are taken away from us happen right in between our two ears in the separation between the brain and the heart, which are a couple of inches apart but could be miles away. Life as it is, as it unfolds, is a beautiful thing. The sun does not judge the moon or say, “You’re a little bit too hot.” The mountains don’t complain about the rain. It’s about saying, “This is what it is,” and embracing things as they unfold.
I like that quote that said, “Who judges a sunset by its imperfection? We allow it to unfold as it is.” I forget who said that. It might have been Carl Jung but I forget at the time. It’s allowing things to unfold as they are and not have as much judgment. Understand that when we’re in the moment, it’s pure joy. It’s what takes us away from that within our judgment, the editing of life, that might take us away from that true awareness. At our core, when we burn everything away, that’s what’s left.
“Who judges a sunset by its imperfection? We just allow it to unfold as it is.” Click To Tweet
Wayne Dyer would say, “If you take an orange and squeeze it out, what’s left is orange juice.” If you take yourself out and squeeze it out, what’s left? For a lot of us, we could have a lot of different things, but at our core, what’s left is pure joy and love. It’s not trying to find something outside of ourselves. It’s being in symphony and harmony with the music within.
I’m going to talk about two of my favorite quotes from your insightful book, Life After Breath. “Power brush with fatality gave me a glimpse of immortality. To me, being spiritual always meant seeing past face value and looking at life in a deeper and larger context.” I also loved this one, Jacob. “I looked up at the stars in the galaxy and became aware that only in darkness could I see the light of their beauty. Through the darkness, I remembered the eternal, infinite light that shines deeply in each of us in any season, in any situation.”
Many in our audience surely want to read Life After Breath and also connect with you. Your significant healing gifts and elevated insights are filled with such compassion and grace. Thank you, Jacob, from my heart, for sharing your light and wisdom with all of us. Here’s a reminder, everyone. Make sure to follow us and like us on social, @IreneSWeinberg on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. As I like to say, to be continued. Many blessings. Bye for now.
Guest Links:
- Jacob Cooper’s Website
- Jacob Cooper’s book: Life After Breath: How a Brush with Fatality Gave Me a Glimpse of Immortality, The Wisdom of Jacob’s Ladder
- Connect with Jacob Copper on Instagram and Facebook
Host Links:
- @IreneSWeinberg on Instagram
- Irene Weinberg on Facebook
- Irene Weinberg on Twitter
- Irene Weinberg – Grief, Rebirth + Healing Podcast on YouTube
