NL: Hi everyone! My name is Natalie Ledwell and this is The Inspiration Show. Today on the show I am going to be talking to the author of a new book called Crescendo, which is a novel here that I want to talk to you about. It is quite an interesting journey. The life story of the author is quite an inspiring story as well, so I can’t wait to share that with you. But, before we do that, I just want to remind you that after the show is finished, if you click the link below this video you can take my 30-second quiz. It will help us figure out what’s actually holding you back from success. So, please help me in introduce my friend, Amy Weiss. Hi, Amy. How are you?

AW: I’m good, Natalie. Thank you so much for having me.

NL: It’s such a pleasure to have you here. I know that we were talking about Crescendo today, which is your first novel, but it’s not the first book that you’ve written. I know that you’re a Hay House author and you’ve written other books with other authors- one of them including your father. So what I might get you to do is actually get you to tell us a little bit about your story, and your background, and how you got to this point in your life.

AW:  Well, I’ve always been a writer. I grew up just loving to write fiction and I got my MFA in fiction writing. But, I’ve also been very interested in helping people in any way I can, particularly people who are suffering from grief or fear of death. So I also became a therapist. I’m a licensed Social Worker and I was always kind of bouncing back and forth between those two things. How do I be creative and write, and also help people heal? So, finally, one day the answer came to me. “Oh, I do it through writing a book that helps people heal”. So that is how Crescendo was born. But, you’re right. I did also write another book called Miracles Happen with my father, which is a non-fiction book. It’s specifically about past lives, which Crescendo touches on too. Yeah.

NL: Yes. So your father is Dr. Brian Weiss, isn’t it? Yeah.

AW:  Yes, perfect.

NL: That’s right. And he wrote Many Lives, Many Masters, which I read many years ago. So tell us a little bit about- because I know that’s part of the theme of the book is the past- life therapy, or past- life regression. What is that all about?

AW: Well past- life is based on the idea that we’re souls in bodies and that, when our bodies’ die, our souls just go on. Our souls never die and that we’re being reunited with the souls of our loved ones, again and again, in different lifetimes. That’s the idea of reincarnation. So I grew up, since my father was writing that book and doing that work with this knowledge, and I never really had a fear of death because I believed and understood that we have so many lifetimes- many, many lifetimes with people we love and learning lessons, and all this time to enjoy the world and to get it right. So that is an idea in Crescendo. In the book, a woman loses her husband. But, she finds she never loses him because she’s finding him in the past lives, and future lives, and parallel universes- everywhere she looks. You can’t really lose another soul that you love.

NL: Yeah. No, I agree. So its’… Because- I agree with you. But, how do you think not having a fear of death shows up, or how does it help? How does that change the way that you live life?

AW: That’s a great question, Natalie. For me, it helped me do hospice work with people and that’s a very kind of clinical way of looking at it. I was able to be present with people who were dying and to see it as this beautiful transition. But, I think people would have a lot less fear and they would just enjoy life more if you knew that you could never really be harmed, that your soul was eternal, and it never died. Maybe you’d want to take more risks in your life and nothing too crazy, or out there, but really just to grasp hold of life as much as you can. It’s kind of a paradox in a way. The more you learn that you have millions of lifetimes, the more you seize the day in the present moment.

NL: Yeah. So, what do you believe is the purpose of our life?

AW: I think it’s that we’re here mostly to love and we’re also here to learn. I feel like we’re all here on earth school learning so many lessons. But, the way I see it is… Although we can take electives and all different kinds of lessons, we’re graduating with the degree in love. So we’re all here to learn how to love being alive, how to love oneself, and how to love each other. So I think that that’s the purpose of life- to be kind and compassionate, and love, and also just to enjoy being alive in the physical body.

NL: Yeah, I agree. I think love of the challenge, and love of the contrast, and love of the journey of life, as well. I think that when you can do that you get to a point where you go, “Well if this is not happening to me if this is happening for me, and my purpose is to love and be in this present moment, what is happening here? What am I learning from this? How am I expanding from this?” I think it just starts to shift from going to a place, or a point, of pain and heartache to “Okay. Well maybe this is meant to happen. So what does this mean”? It kind of helps you to look at situations in a completely different way.

AW: Yes, I love that quote that everything’s happening for us, not to us. No matter what’s happening - whether it’s something you perceive as difficult or enjoyable- no matter what, it can all be used for our learning, and our enlightenment, our growth, and our soul’s evolution. Exactly. What you mean is it’s just a matter of perspective.

NL: Yeah. So tell us a little bit of the storyline. I know the main character in the book is a woman called Aria. Now I actually have written a book as well, which was also fiction. I call it a transformational novel. I found that I peppered myself, a lot of my personal experience, throughout the book. Did you do something similar when you were writing Crescendo?

AW: No, actually none of those things in the story really happened to me. But, all the feelings and emotions that any character experiences were very true- things that I felt maybe in a different context at a point in my life. But - I identify with Aria in some ways because she’s a seeker. Really, I identify with the narrator because I think it’s important to always remember that yes, we’re the characters in our lives. But we’re really the consciousness, or the awareness, behind the character, or the actor in the play, witnessing everything that’s happening. So that was really what resonated with me, who I felt the most like.

NL: Yeah. I think, too, that when we understand that we can be the observer… I think it helps us to emotionally detach from a situation, so that gives us a better choice as to how we want to respond, or to move through it. If you know anything about quantum physics, or anything like that, we understand that whatever we see we’re affecting because we are observing it anyway.

AW: Yeah, exactly.

NL:  I have to ask… Have you ever had any past- life regressions with your dad?

AW: I’ve never done it one-on-one with him, which some people can’t believe. But, I used to see- I have done it in his workshops. I’ve had I would say maybe three past lives… One of them came to me in a dream spontaneously, which can happen for people. The other was doing regression and I had- if you want me to tell you a little bit about it?

NL: Love to- yeah!

AW:  Okay. So, in this life, when I was about 25 years old I was diagnosed with cataracts, which is a little bit unusual for 25- year- old. So I did a regression and I discovered that I was a hermit living in the middle- ages… Like in France, or Germany. I was just going about my ways and I liked collecting little rocks and things, but the townspeople thought I was some kind of wizard and they didn’t understand. So they burned down my home and everything I owned with these torches, and the smoke burned my eyes. So I was blinded; it clouded my eyes. A cataract is a clouding of the lens of the eye. So the message I got - how that related to my present life- was sadness clouds the eyes and the idea was I was carrying that man’s sadness from hundreds of years ago into the present life- wondering why people would hurt me, why people would be so cruel, feeling victimized, not being able to really trust people, and that had actually physically clouded my eyes. That had also clouded my vision metaphorically. So, when I released that man’s pain, the cataracts in my eyes actually went away.

NL: Yeah, because that- and for those people who maybe haven’t heard of past- life regression, what is the purpose of doing that? Why would we have a past life regression done?

AW: Well, the main purpose is really to help heal people. It could be a physical symptom like I experienced a cataract, or migraines, or back pain. It can also be emotional symptoms, usually phobias and anxieties. If you’re really scared about heights, chances are you might have fallen from a height in a past life. So if those fears, or the symptoms, are getting in the way of you enjoying your present life, then understanding the source of them can help remove that and can help you live the present life more joyfully.

NL: Yeah. Absolutely. So, do we always have events from other lives affecting us in this life? Or - answer that one first. I have another one for you after; I’ve got so many questions!

AW: Oh. I don’t necessarily think that like all traumas from past lives affecting present lives, but I think when you can feel a deep connection to someone you just met that kind of defies explanation, and you feel like you’re catching up with that person, you may have known them forever. That’s something you’re bringing with you probably from a past life, or a relationship. It could be a soulmate, or a different kind of relationship. So we can bring positive things too, and talents, like Mozart playing the music at age 5. I mean, who knows what he was doing in a past life to be able to bring that talent.

NL: Absolutely. So you just mentioned the soulmate. Is there such a thing as a soulmate? Do we only have one of them in each of our lifetimes?

AW: I believe that there are soul mates. The way I think of it, it’s not just a romantic partner, but it could be a parent, a child’s best friend, a teacher, who sets you in a different path in your life. So, yeah, I definitely believe that we have more than one. The way I define a soulmate is anybody who helps us grow. So there are people who are here for our soul’s evolution and that’s not all butterflies and rainbows. Growth can be a little bit challenging. So a soulmate might be pushing your buttons, but it’s all for the benefit of your souls evolving and learning.

NL: Alright. So um there is a concept that you know we have different souls that keeps showing up multiple times in multiple lifetimes, is that what happens?

AW: I think so, yeah. I kind of believe that every soul- my cat is making a little noise. Animals have souls too, so he wants to speak up… That every soul we’ve ever been with we’re encountering again in this life. It may not be a huge relationship. It could be your Starbucks barista, or somebody you passed in the roads in ancient Egypt. But, the important people will connect with you over and over again, and it might be in different roles. So your mother becomes a child, or a friend becomes a spouse. But, yeah, same souls.

NL: Yeah. You know, I know I’ve said this before. Like my husband and I we separated about four years ago and we’re still good friends and business partners. I’m like…. There’s no doubt in my mind that our souls are meant to be together in some capacity- and maybe a soul contract is over now, or whatever. We’ve- you know- we’ve transitioned it to something different. It’s not over; it’s just something different. There’s no doubt in my mind that we were meant to be connected in this lifetime, so I believe that that definitely does happen.

AW: Yeah. We bring up a good point about soul contracts. I think we look for- When we incarnate, we plan what we’re going learn on with different souls. Like you said, with your husband sometimes the learning is complete. Then it’s your choice whether or not you want to stay together, but there are so many souls here in this world that are teaching us many things. So it’s really a variety of lessons and things to explore.

NL: Absolutely. I was just mentioning before that I call my book like a transformational novel. So are there lessons that people can learn in your novel Crescendo?

AW: Yeah. There’s a lot of different subjects that were interesting to me. So I wrote it not only to help people heal, but to teach all the spiritual subjects that I enjoy. So the power of kindness is a really big lesson in the book, and learning about near death experiences and how the soul goes on, and animals souls, and soul contract like we’re talking about, and parallel universes of lucid dreaming, and astral travel. These are all in there and so they’re explored a little bit- all those lessons. I think people can learn from it and then, if they’re interested in exploring one more in depth, they can say, “Oh. Lucid dreaming really interested me. I’m going to look into lucid dreaming”.

NL: Yeah and I think that’s what it’s like with everything. Like when we’re seeking, and then we come across something that really lights something up in us, and there’s something that we want to pursue. So I’m sure that there’s many concepts that you cover in the book that could really excite a lot of our community when they’re reading it. Now, the other thing I want to touch on, and you mentioned before, about playing music. You actually play the harp in for healing; Tell us a little bit more about that.

AW: Yeah, I’m studying to be a therapeutic musician. What those do is-. The harp I play is not a big floor harp. You just kind of wear it on like a guitar.

NL: Right.

AW: Therapeutic musicians play that a live music at the bedside hospital and hospice patients. So it’s then not for entertainment, but for actually clinical healing. There’s research that shows that doing this can help stabilize patient’s vital rhythms, lower their stress hormones, help their immune system, regulate their brainwaves. So we play a song, or a type of music, based on the patient’s condition and need, and then play accordingly. So it’s really- there’s no side effects. It’s safe, and easy, and every patient enjoys it so much.

NL: Yeah, I can now imagine. Now I know that with the book you also offer guided meditations, do you use that music when you’re creating those meditations?

AW: No, I don’t feel if mine is good enough. I’d rather use ___ but maybe one day. It’s a good idea, Natalie.

NL: Alright. So we look at your guided meditations so these in relation to some of the lessons that you did your list rating here in the book.

AW: Yeah, I have. I put a free guided meditation on my website and it is in relation to a book. In the book Aria meets her higher self, or a kind of a spirit guide. I want it to give readers, or anybody (you don’t have to read the book), an opportunity to do the same for themselves. So if you wanted to do the guided meditation on the website, it helps you. I think there’s a physical healing and then you meet your guides, or higher self, and they give you a perspective on what’s happening in your current life.

NL: Absolutely. So what is the website, Amy?

AW: It’s Amy-Weiss.com

NL: Right. We’ll make sure that we have the link here somewhere as well and will people be able to get their hands on the book through that website as well?

AW: Yeah. They can order it right from the website. It’s on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and in major bookstores- and through Hay House. There’s actually a Kindle deal going on right now. If you’re in the US, it’s 99 cents for the Kindle version; so it’s a great deal.

NL: A great deal! Amy, thank you so much for joining me today. It’s- I’m so fascinated by this subject because I do believe that it helps us to understand certain personality traits, or unexplained fears, or things that we have in our life that, if we can look at our past lives, it kind of- Like, “Oh. Now I know where that comes from”.

AW: Yeah- and relationships too. If you’re having a trouble in relationship with a parent, or spouse, or child, the answer might be in a past life.

NL: Yeah, absolutely. Well, thank you again, Amy, for joining me. It’s an absolute pleasure talking to you today.

AW: Likewise. Thank you.

NL: So, guys. Don’t forget to click on the link to be able to go through to Amy’s website, so you can get your hands on the book, and connect with her, and actually download that guided visualization.  Don’t forget that once the show is over to click the link below the video so that you can take our 30-second quiz to figure out what’s holding you back from success. To share this video, click the Facebook and the Twitter share buttons on this page. So let’s get the message out about this incredible new novel Crescendo- absolutely amazing. So, until next time- remember to live large, choose courageously and love without limits. We’ll see you soon.