Estafet 6 | Video Interview with Mario Resende

ANNA:
Yes. So hello everyone and welcome to the next episode of the Estafet that we continue to go around the globe, but for now ,we are staying still in Portugal, and today we have with us, dear Mario.

And we’re very happy that he joined us today and happy for your time, Mario, how are you today?

MARIO:
Well, I feel well. I mean, uh, I’m resting. I worked at the weekend in the training, so it’s a nice day for me.

ANNA:
Nice. We interrupt a little bit here your free day.

MARIO:
Yeah.

ANNA:
So let me bombard you with a few questions right away. So if you can introduce yourself and tell us where you’re from and where you’re living now.

MARIO:
But yeah, from Portugal and I’m living in Portugal. And um, yeah, I’m 56, almost 57. And I’m training regression therapists and transpersonal psychotherapist since 2005. So I’ve already 17 years on the go. And yeah, let’s say I come from philosophy and I studied psychology later. Already in this field in the kind of 1996. So yeah, I’m very involved. I’m very devoted to this field. I’m training always since 2005. We now never stopped any year. So we already have some hundreds of therapists working and I’m still passioned by it. In our institute we have a strong focus on in this life. We still, we also teach, teach past lives also with Hans TenDam. He comes here every two years, but we have a strong focus on this life and in the perinatal and the birth process in regression therapy. And we also, we also include intensively the transpersonal psychology approach because we have a four year training. So our training, it lasts 4 years with supervision and psychotherapy included. So it’s a big project and we have a big team of 15 persons and I’m- I’m in it with my partner Ilja van de Griend, she’s Dutch and the first EARTh president. We are together and we, we, we, we do this together, let’s say with the help of our team. So yeah, it’s a little bit. I have three daughters and yeah, have a life, let’s say.

ANNA:
Wonderful. And what is the name of your institute for everyone to know and where is?

MARIO:
Yeah. It’s, uh, it’s uh, it’s in Lisbon and it’s called Alma SomaTranspersonal Institute- Instituto de Transpessoal.

ANNA:
Alright. Amazing. And so such a long already experience for so many years, How did you actually arrive to regression therapy in the first place?

MARIO:
Ohh yeah I I was wanting- ready as an adult after I was a school teacher and then, I felt  a huge urge to study psychology. And I went to to do a clinical master in psychology and in my research part I was wanting to research something out of the ordinary. So I was not wanting to go for psychoanalysis or I was wanting something practical but not, let’s say, more traditional fields. Yeah, so one day a blessed friend came to me and said, well, you should study this. And I get the passion by regression therapy. I was not a client in that time. I was not knowing much. I had read a book, I think this goes to 1996-1995. So more than, yeah, long ago. Let’s say it’s more than 30 years ago. And yeah, I was passioned and I was accepted in my university and it started like that and never stopped so. I’m still now going from that initial moment and the passion stays and so the pleasure of doing it. So, yeah, keep going.

ANNA:
Alright. So if- if there are- for sure there were, I don’t know, how do you ever count how many clients you had in regression therapy?

MARIO:
No, I don’t do that kind of statistics. No, I don’t have patience for that. I’m a Pisces, so I like to flow, not accountability. I didn’t know.


ANNA: I was just wondering. But maybe you can share with us like a favorite episode or a favorite situation with a client, like a story, maybe that was extraordinary or funny or-

MARIO:
Yeah, well, for- I don’t collect much this kind of things.

ANNA:
Something that stuck out of ordinary maybe? I mean it is not very ordinary in general.

MARIO:
I can. I can. Maybe it’s what comes to mind is something more that is happening here in our institute with my partner Ilja. She did a session, still in the Netherlands with a Dutch journalist called Bas (Steman) and then he has-

ANNA: Yes, I know him.
MARIO: So, you know the story.

ANNA: But please tell.

MARIO: So yeah, it’s very interesting because he really found a past life that you could, you know, study and, you know, prove that existed.* And we are very excited because recently came out a English book. From the English writer Santa- Santa something- I’m not good in names. And yeah, it was a story about someone else that was more or less telling the same things, the same battle, the same- yeah, same- he was also a parachuter. And then they could find out that they were in the same plane- and it’s unbelievable. It’s an unbelievable story. Now they met and they were in the Netherlands for an event -that we were there. So it’s really one of these amazing stories, uh, that sometimes we have in this field. Yeah, with very concrete evidence that it happened and two persons alive with also met in a past life- that’s extremely uncommon. It’s the only story I know with some research in between with this. So yeah, that’s what comes now to mind. Yeah.

ANNA:
Yes, Also, they were saying that- one of them might have stolen the story from the other until before they realized that they were actually together in the same war-

MARIO:
Same- exactly. That’s- that’s why Bas (Steman) was interested and saying to his publisher, “well someone stealing our story” and then they found out this amazing thing that they are even buried 20 meters apart in the same cemetery.

ANNA: Amazing.

MARIO: It’s really unbelievable. And what is interesting is that the English guy that now came with the book later. He gave already an interview in 2000 with the these memories that were spontaneous memories since he was a child. Umm, and so the session that Ilja did with Bas was in 2005. So it was five years later and Bas, yeah, he was, he is Dutch so he was not following this small interviews that were done in England. And it was very difficult for Bas to make it happen. He would not make it up because we know him. He’s a serious guy, so it wasn’t believable. Yeah.

ANNA:
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Bas actually joined us when we had the online conference 2021, I think.

MARIO:
Ohh maybe. Yeah, yeah.

ANNA:
Yeah, yeah. He came for one of the events on he joined us online. So we do know him a little bit, those who were there. Yeah. So actually, going back to EARTh, how long have you been a member of EARTh?

MARIO:
Well, I’m a founder, a founder of EARTt. Yeah. So you know, my partner Ilja, we worked together in that time. So we were in the beginning of EARTh. So we were members since its start, yeah.

ANNA:
Wow, wonderful. So, you’ve been there, you’ve seen it evolve and now that we are, we’re quite now a big association, right? Would you have any kind of message or anything to share or say to the members as a advice to them?

MARIO:
Yeah, many things I could say. I really think in one side we should be empowered to to really trust that we have a very powerful tool to help people. Also in this life and also around birth and life in the womb. But I would say that, for me, uh, it’s very important at first, you know, it does two things: One is it integrates I would say more the psychotherapy field. Because I always felt it was- the was two separate in my perspective from the the knowledge that in the last 100 years we we developed it’s real knowledge. It’s not nonsense. Some things can be wrong, of course like in in all the fields. So I really think it’s- it’s very important to integrate- let’s say, more knowledge from the psychotherapy field, from psychoanalysis, from body work. And that’s what I do in my training. We really integrate this more conventional knowledge into the field. So that’s one point that I think is extremely important, also for the credibility of our field. for the larger world, uh, not just inside of our group. And the second thing is that we really integrate transpersonal psychology and the field of spirituality. That what I also do in my training. So the research in the in spirituality is really growing and it’s already very. It’s a lot. It’s already a lot. So hundreds and hundreds of articles. So I think it’s very important for the credibility of our field and also for the quality of our therapists that spirituality is integrated from the point of view of the knowledge that we know what’s going on, and also from the point of view of the experience, so that we have experience in spiritual practices and we have our own spiritual practice. Everyone is different, so should be adapted. But so I think that combination would make really, not only regression therapists, but real psychotherapists, people that can deal with the huge- let’s say with a large field of problems and can help a large field of clients.
Some clients they are not entitled for regression therapy or regression should be combined with other approaches and let’s say we can enrich our field in this way and it’s a strong belief I have. And let’s say the last two years of experience confirmed that.

ANNA:
Thank you. It is important. I agree absolutely. So and to go, I’m going to change the course again of that. So just as the last question, I would ask the question that Mario, your colleague also from Portugal have asked you which is: what did you learn for your personal life from regression therapy?

MARIO:
Ohh yeah that’s well so much. But let’s say what, what, what comes now and so, so process of last let’s say years. It’s really the the impact of birth, More than everything, I would say regression showed me the impact of birth also in my personal life. And let’s say how deep certain patterns get ingraved. And let’s say patterns that come out in the moments of stress. And that they are really very engraved because they belong to the the first memories we have. Of course we have also during the nine months in the womb, but let’s say the birth is like a risky event where our life may be in danger. Or people around us feel the life can be in danger, I think more easily, stays stuck in the memory and then can really shape personality aspects. Yeah. So it’s really, it’s a very strong contribution of this field to me personally, I’d say I’m still working my birth because still tricks me. And yeah, that’s- that would be my answer to my Simmons. Thank you for that question, professional.

ANNA:
Great. Thank you so much. So now it’s the your turn to name the next person.


MARIO:
So, yeah- I would say Victor Rodriguez, Victor is in this field before me was my teacher. And he was also president of the European Transpersonal Association. So my question to him would be or can be: Victor, how you see this intersection between regression therapy and the transpersonal field? How you see the connection between the two fields? How you see what’s important? In one, let’s say in the transpersonal field to help to ground the regression field. So I would ask him about this: how you see the the links between these two fields that you know maybe are just one field. But I would like to listen him about.

ANNA:
Very good. I will make sure I will ask him next time when I see him. Thank you so much, Mario. Thank you for your time and for sharing, and we do hope to see you soon in one of our events. Maybe you will.be able to join us, OK.

MARIO:
Thank you so much for that and thank you for the invitation again.

ANNA:
Thanks everyone for watching, and make sure to check the next episode coming after this one.

***

(*) From Ilja van de Griend’s Facebook post: “Sometimes we are lifted up out of our day-to-day life where our mind leads to that space outside of time, where we find ourselves connected to a palpable field of love that instills in us a sense of peace and awe, and where it feels we are all breathing the same breath. That was definitely what I experienced this Sunday as I was present at the book presentation of Santa Montefiore´s new book Wait for Me (currently available in Dutch, Wacht op Mij; the English version will appear in July). Her novel is based on a real story, that of her longtime friend Simon Jacobs, who as a child has nightmares of being in a battlefield, waking up terrified. His search to understand himself better leads him, through regression therapy, to the life and death of Myles Henry in the Battle of Arnhem, the Netherlands, in September 1944. After researching many facts, and a lot of synchronicities, for Simon it is clear: he was Myles Henry. In Wait for Me Santa Montefiore beautifully captures that timeless dimension of the soul, its journey through hardships and blessings, and how love can be the eternal flame that transcends life and death and brings us to the realm of pure existence.

That same journey of the soul and the unbreakable bond of eternal love is brought to life by Bas Steman, in a deeply moving way, in his book Morgan een Liefde (the Dutch 10th edition will arrive soon; there is an English version called Morgan my Love).

Bas, after having done a regression therapy session with me wanting to understand better his uncharacteristic overwhelming fear of parachute jumping, finds himself to be the possible reincarnation of Morgan Probert, who died in the Battle of Arnhem in September 1944. I say possible because although it feels true on the level of his inner knowing, his skeptical journalistic mind has a hard time wrapping itself around this new-found reality. WTF is something I have heard him say many times since our regression session back in 2005, as he stumbles upon new facts, also helped by a good dose of synchronicity, that lead him to reconnect with the family of Morgan, visit the house where he grew up, the grave of Morgan; a journey beautifully documented by Ariane Greep https://www.gld.nl/…/gld-doc-het-wonderlijke-verhaal… ).

Bas publishes Morgan een Liefde in 2018, a novel based on his own story, thinking that now this crazy roller-coaster journey has kind of come to an end. Time to move on. Until Wacht op Mij appears, at the end of January. Bas is flabbergasted… it seems to be based on his story! And back he is on the rollercoaster, as it becomes clear that Wacht op Mij is based on the story of a Simon Jacobs, who remembers himself to be Myles Henry; that Myles Henry and Morgan Probert both made part of the 10th Battalion, The Parachute Regiment; and that both jumped on the 18th of September 1944, died on the next day 300 meters apart, and are buried close to each other near Arnhem.

And so it came that on this Sunday, 19 of February 2023, Bas and Simon shared their story at Santa Montefiore´s book presentation, inspiring us to listen to that voice within and to trust that there is more than we can grasp with our mind and see with our eyes. I had the pleasure to share dinner with Bas and Simon and their gracious life companions, and it was fascinating to see both men many times speaking the same sentences, one finishing the thought of the other, separated on the physical level yet united on the level of the higher mind.”