S2 • E11 Dimaggio === Matt Kosterman: Hi, this is Matt Kosterman, and I'm back with another edition of The Permission Slip, and I'm here today with Joanne DiMaggio coming to us from Charlottesville, Virginia. Yes? Charlottesville. Charlottesville, Virginia, yes. Joanne DiMaggio: Charlottesville. Matt Kosterman: Burgs, villes. [00:01:00] Joanne, welcome. Thanks for being here. Joanne DiMaggio: Hey, thanks, man. I've Matt Kosterman: Yeah, likewise. Joanne is a reincarnation specialist and researcher and author. Joanne DiMaggio: Mm-hmm. Matt Kosterman: been a minute since I've been in front of the microphone, so it might, might take me a little bit to get warmed up. Joanne DiMaggio: okay. Matt Kosterman: so welcome Joanne. Joanne did a, a, a, guided me in a, in a re- regression, would you call it? A past life regression, uh, Joanne DiMaggio: Right. Matt Kosterman: just a couple days ago. That was super interesting. I went back to, a lifetime as a, a Black man in the '30s, very poor, very abused, and, it was an interesting contrast to, to my life today. So welcome, Joanne. Let's, let's get into it. So you're a, you're a re- reincarnation researcher and author. How, how... You know, tell me, how does one... I, I... This wasn't in my, um, syllabus in college, to, to study this. Joanne DiMaggio: Mine either, believe me. Matt Kosterman: So te- so you, you're, you're actually... You said you grew [00:02:00] up in Chicago in the Bridgeport area, which is a, a blue collar area in the South Side. So tell, tell us a little bit about, about how we got to doing what you do today. Joanne DiMaggio: Well, um, y- you know, it's a very Catholic area, and so I went to Catholic schools, for 12 years. I went to elementary school, and then I went to all-girls Catholic high school. Um, and, of course, religion class was, like, every day, and we went to, we went to church every day. And, and I took it seriously, and I really listened to the words and tried to understand, you know, what we were being taught. And some things just did not feel right to me. I couldn't understand, um, some things that were labeled as sin, the whole idea of eternal damnation if, God forbid, you were, you know ... I, I ... Th- here's the example that I used to use. Like, w- what if I went home for lunch on a [00:03:00] Friday, and I had a ham sandwich 'cause I forgot it was Friday, or my mother forgot it was Friday and made me a ham sandwich. And then I walked back to school and, and when I came to the crosswalk, I got hit by a car and I died. So technically, I had committed a, a, m- a sin, a mortal sin by having meat on Friday. Would I go straight to hell? I mean, would, would, would a just and loving God do that to a little seven-year-old girl, you know? And so it didn't make any sense to me. And so that kind, those are the kinds of questions I used to, think about. when I got older, I started asking those questions, and of course, was not encouraged to ask those questions. By the time I was in high school, every time I raised my hand in religion class, they pretty much understood I was gonna ask one of those questions, and I got a d- detention immediately. Like, "Sit down, Joanne." Matt Kosterman: Oh my goodness. Just stop. Just shut up. Joanne DiMaggio: oh, Matt Kosterman: Yeah, just shut up. We don't wanna hear it Joanne DiMaggio: exactly. Exactly. Yeah. And I had a priest take me aside and he said to me, "You know, you're looking [00:04:00] for emotional religion, and religion is intellectual. And if you would just read these books, you would see that the Catholic faith is the only Matt Kosterman: Wow Joanne DiMaggio: that there is." And I thought, "Well, I'll read some books, but I'm not reading that, Matt Kosterman: Wow Joanne DiMaggio: So when, um, I mentioned to you that my parents, my grandparents had a summer home in Indiana out at Bass Lake, which I dearly loved, and, and I used to go to the library in Chicago before I would go to the, beach there. And I would, um, I picked books about, that were written by Jess Stern and Ruth Montgomery, books about Edgar Cayce, and suddenly I'm, I'm reading these books about reincarnation. And then I read The Search for Bridey Murphy by, um, Morry Bernstein, I think his name is. And, and that was, like, the big, "oh, wow, reincarnation, past lives. Wow, karma. This makes total sense to me. Now Matt Kosterman: Yeah, but what, and so I wanna back [00:05:00] up just a second, but what, so where, what was the impetus? What was, where was the spark? Where did the, like, this interest, you know, did a book fall out of the shelf and hit you on the head? Did a friend talk about it? Was it sitting on a coffee table? 'Cause I mean, that's a pretty l- that's, that's about as big a leap as you can make Joanne DiMaggio: That's Matt Kosterman: from the Catholic face- faith- Joanne DiMaggio: I, I think I was so, disillusioned that I was desperate. I thought, "I'll read about different, faiths and, and I'll start exploring." And I don't really remember how those books, unless their titles Matt Kosterman: Ja, ja Joanne DiMaggio: could have been. Yeah. Or, you know, but I know that The Search for Bridey Murphy was the first book I ever read about reinc- s- strictly about reincarnation. And like I said, that made perfect sense to me. But, you know, I was a child, so I finished, I finished high school. I went to the University of Illinois after that. you know, eventually got married, had a family, sort of forgot about it. I was living the dream in, [00:06:00] in Naperville, in suburbia. Matt Kosterman: Did, did you get a, did you get a Joanne DiMaggio: and then Matt Kosterman: mas-, did you go straight through and get a, 'cause you have a master's degree. Was that at Illinois? Joanne DiMaggio: No, I got, Matt Kosterman: You want Joanne DiMaggio: got my, bachelor's degree. It was, majored in Matt Kosterman: Okay Joanne DiMaggio: And the interesting thing about that, Matt, is that I had a history professor at U of I, and he was one of those professors that you were Matt Kosterman: Hmm. Joanne DiMaggio: of. You didn't want him to call on you, you know, because he was just so intellectually superior to everybody that you just didn't wanna be caught short. And, um, he gave us an assignment to write about, whoever we wanted to write about that was in the, um, of the delegates to the Constitutional Convention, and I picked one, and I can't remember who it was. But anyway, I went to the library, and I was just in heaven to be doing research in this library. And, and so I wrote the paper, and then when we went to class, he said, "These were the worst papers I've ever Matt Kosterman: Mm-hmm. Joanne DiMaggio: want each one of you to come to my office." And I was so scared. And I went to his [00:07:00] office, and he just sat back in his chair with his arms crossed, and he just kept looking at me. And I thought, "Uh-oh, I'm in for it." And he said, "You know, Joanne, you are the, um..." I don't know how he put it. Um, like, I had this, instinctive understanding, of the 18th century of any student he Matt Kosterman: Hmm. Hmm. Joanne DiMaggio: And I thought, "You know, I kinda do." I didn't realize at the time that I was pulling on two things. One, I was doing the soul writing, because I had star- I had actually stumbled on that when I was about seven years old. And then the other thing was the history, of, of being able to tap into that time. I actually had a past life in the Matt Kosterman: Hmm Joanne DiMaggio: So I was writing more from memory than I was from what I learned Matt Kosterman: How fascinating Joanne DiMaggio: and that's why he said I had this uncanny feel for the 18th century. So again, I sort of forgot about it. Then in 1987, Shirley MacLaine came out with Out on a [00:08:00] Limb, the miniseries that was on ABC in January of '87. And I watched that, and it was like the light bulb went off, and the veil was lifted, and I th- because she was talking about Matt Kosterman: Okay Joanne DiMaggio: and channeling, and all of that stuff. I thought, "Yeah, yeah, yeah. I used to be so passionate about this." And that's what started me on the path again. So 1987, I joined the A- Edgar Cayce's A.R.E., then I ... Which is the Association for Research and Enlightenment, in case your listeners don't know that. And then I, um, founded my own past life organization Matt Kosterman: Oh, wow Joanne DiMaggio: And, and started to br- I wor- through the A.R.E., I was working with the Chicago, core team, and we would bring speakers into Chicago. And I met a lot of the leading edge past life therapists and authors. And so that was suddenly my inner circle. And from there, I just, I just eventually started to do re- [00:09:00] I got my hypnotherapy certification. And, later on I got my master's in transpersonal studies from Atlantic University, which is part of the A.R.E. um, and I've been doing this work Matt Kosterman: Oh, that's amazing. Wow. And you've written, how many books? Seven books. and, Joanne DiMaggio: Mm-hmm. And, I did a journal too. Yeah. Matt Kosterman: wrote a, Joanne DiMaggio: Yeah Matt Kosterman: wrote a j- ran a journal, for, for these topics? When you... Or you, when you say Joanne DiMaggio: I did a, I, I did a, I did a, um, it's an actual journal you can write in. It's a Matt Kosterman: Oh, oh, got it. Got it, got it. I was thinking from like a medical journal or something Joanne DiMaggio: My focus, yeah, my focus is in two areas. It's in past life research and, therapy. I do past life regressions, privately for people. And then also it's in soul writing, which was my thesis for my master's degree. Soul writing is basically a written form of Matt Kosterman: Okay[00:10:00] Joanne DiMaggio: Edgar Cayce taught it. He called it inspirational writing. So I've written a couple of books about that, and I teach that as well. So those two areas are my, my Matt Kosterman: Got it. Got it. And so how would... T- talk about working with somebody with, let's say we'll go through both of them, but with the past life regression. are you, have you met or worked with, Brian Weiss, who was, uh Joanne DiMaggio: I met Brian Weiss at an ARE conference. I, Matt Kosterman: Haven't worked with him. Joanne DiMaggio: with Matt Kosterman: Yeah, he w- that, that-- His book, I don't remember who recommended it, but that was an early one in my sort of awakening, like, "Oh, wow, here's this guy who's, like, as intellectual, medicalized as they come," and just crazy, the s- the stuff that he saw with his m- his initial patient Joanne DiMaggio: Well, I think it's great because, you know, being that he was so, um, you know, Matt Kosterman: Yeah Joanne DiMaggio: and, and, and that lent some, credibility the work [00:11:00] that we're doing because prior to that, um, you know, we're kind of thought of as pretty Matt Kosterman: Right. Para- para- paranormal, right? Joanne DiMaggio: in- Yeah, at least in, in the West we are, yeah. But, um, once y- you know, he's not the only one. There are several, doctors, surgeon, people like that. I know that, um, Eben Alexander did a lot of work in the area of, near-death experience Matt Kosterman: Mm-hmm. Joanne DiMaggio: one himself. And so those kind of, um, people with that kind of credibility really have helped us some respectability, I think, in the Matt Kosterman: Yeah, 100%. 100%. Yeah, another, that's another area that I find fascinating is the near-death thing. And I, and I feel as though, you know, we, we had to build the internet in order that people could, come together and under- you know, e- e- p- all these people around the world having the very, very similar experiences of out of the body and witnessing the body wherever it is on the table, you know, [00:12:00] in, in the car crash, whatever, and realize that, hey, there's something more to this than, than... I, I remember as a kid, um, it was th- that concept was really fascinating to me, along with the, the whole like, the mother who, who rescues their trapped children, like gets this, you know, massive burst of energy to lift the car off her children or whatever, and it's like, Joanne DiMaggio: Yeah. Matt Kosterman: it's all, it's all very fluid, kids. It's not as solid as you might think it is. Joanne DiMaggio: Exactly. Matt Kosterman: when w- w- what-- Who, who typically comes to you for, for this kind of work? Joanne DiMaggio: You know, um, I, I have people from all over the world, obviously now because I do Matt Kosterman: Mm-hmm. Joanne DiMaggio: And, I, I'll give COVID that credit because prior to that I had an office and only people who lived out this way would come and see me, unless I was traveling and I was doing a conference somewhere. but now with, with the advent of Zoom, um, I'm able to do, clients all over the world. So they may either read one of my books [00:13:00] or they may have heard me on a Matt Kosterman: Mm, mm-hmm Joanne DiMaggio: and then they'll say, you know... They, they'll, they'll feel a sense of, of rapport with me. then they'll go to my website, which is joannedimaggio.com, very easy. And they'll s- they'll read about me, read about my work, and they'll, be compelled to, get in touch with me and say, "I, I, you know, I would really love to, to work with you." So, so then we'll schedule a, a regression, whatever type of regression they want. I do several different types. Or they may wanna learn soul writing, and then I'll, I'll go through that with Matt Kosterman: And are there, are there, is there a typical, you know, set of three or five issues that are, people are looking to resolve in their li- I mean, what are, what are they, are they stuck? Are they curious? Is it all of the above? What's the... Joanne DiMaggio: Yeah, they're, they're usually at a crossroads and, the biggest question is, "Why Matt Kosterman: Hmm. Joanne DiMaggio: You know, "I don't know why I'm here. I think I'm supposed to do something, but I don't know what it [00:14:00] is." You know, "So what's my soul's purpose?" or they'll see a pattern that's repeating over and over again, and they'll wanna know the origin of it. Or they'll have a chronic illness of some sort, they've exhausted, um, the, um, mainstream medical profession and they're not getting any answers, and so then I'll do a physical karma, Matt Kosterman: Hmm Joanne DiMaggio: regression on them- Mm ... which will, indicate whether it is, condition is, past life related. um, Dr. Norm Shealy did a lot of work in this ar- he's a, he was a medical doctor, too, and I heard him speak at ARE once. And the first thing he said when he got on stage was he felt that all illness was past life related, and I Matt Kosterman: Mm-hmm. Joanne DiMaggio: a medical doctor is saying this. I'm paying attention to this." And that's what got me on the, um, I started a research, project. All my books are based on research projects, by the way. and so this one in particular, I brought, I asked for anybody that had a [00:15:00] chronic illness who felt like it might be past life related to come, and I did a regression with them. We did some soul writing. um, and it was, it was actually phenomenal the, the results that we were getting. I had, like, about a 35%, rate of simul- of, spontaneous healing. So, and just knowing what the issue was, created the, the Matt Kosterman: Mm-hmm. Joanne DiMaggio: of it. And, so I had some really fascinating stories, and that's in my book, um, Karma Can Be a Real Pain. So if anybody's interested in l- reading about that, they can read about it there. Yeah, so, um, yeah, so that's basically, the, the... You know, they may have relationship issues, they wanna know, "Was this person with me before, and what happened then, and did, am I responsible? Did I set this up this way?" sometimes they wanna know about a talent, skill, or an ability that they brought in with them. Because remember, karma is not a, Matt Kosterman: Right. Joanne DiMaggio: a bad [00:16:00] thing, it's just simply Matt Kosterman: it's balance Joanne DiMaggio: So sometimes if- Wow ... yeah, if they've created a, um, if in the past they have done something, really positive, it goes into what I call a positive karmic bank account, and then they can pull on that at any time. So, um, if you, if you have a specific... A lot of healers come to me because they wanna, they want to do healing in this life, but there's Matt Kosterman: Yeah Joanne DiMaggio: them. There's an obstacle there. And usually what it is is the subconscious re- remembrance of Matt Kosterman: Like a wi- the witch wound. Joanne DiMaggio: when they did it before. Matt Kosterman: Yeah Joanne DiMaggio: exactly. So they, um, they, you know, so we, we work through that, and then that frees them up to start doing the work that they're actually Matt Kosterman: Like that, that's that old Catholic Church come in again, right? Burn, burn, burn the witch. Burn the witch. Joanne DiMaggio: Burn, baby, burn. Yeah. Matt Kosterman: Um, Joanne DiMaggio: Mm-hmm Matt Kosterman: the spon- yeah, spontaneous healing. The other, the other per-- I'm, I'm imagining that like Bessel van der Kolk probably took, [00:17:00] influence from, you know, he's the... Was his Body, Body Keeps the Score? Body Says No, one of those. Like, I have it over here somewhere. but again, a medical doctor and, and, and looking at the energetic underpinnings of, of disease and, and, you know, grief around like breast cancer and heart disease and anger around men with prostate issues. And, and, and, and I think what we're, we're starting to see also is the epigenetic, the scientific study of it. It's really the, the way the genes express, and you come in, you, you, you come in with a certain predisposition based on your ancestral line, and that is stored in your genetic code. and it can be shifted. It can be changed, um, which is what you're doing w-when the, this, with the spontaneous regression. The, the spontaneous healing, right? Um- Joanne DiMaggio: right. Yeah, I had, I had one fellow, I'll never forget, he had arthritis only in his Matt Kosterman: Hmm.[00:18:00] Joanne DiMaggio: Nowhere else in his body, just his thumbs. went back to a past life in which he was in the Civil War. He was a cavalry man. He was on the Confederate side, and he had a sword, and all he wanted to do was lop off the thumbs of the Union soldiers because he didn't wanna kill them, but he didn't want them to be able to hold a Matt Kosterman: Sure Joanne DiMaggio: gun. And so in this life, what happens, he Matt Kosterman: Wow. Amazing. Yeah Joanne DiMaggio: I have lots of stories like that, Matt, and they're fascinating, just f- And even for me, I've been doing this for 40 years, and I, I, when I, when something comes up like that, I'm Matt Kosterman: Yeah. What are some-- So share some of the other s- the, the other interesting, connections and ka-karmic, karmic entanglements, if you will Joanne DiMaggio: Yeah, I had a woman who had, chronic sciatica and, um, she wanted to know, where that was from. So she went back to a past life in which she was in, um, France in around the time of the revolution, and she was a ballerina. She was a prima [00:19:00] ballerina. And, there was a young, young girl coming up who was very talented and, and the, my client was, very jealous of her and didn't want her to take her place. And so what she did was she put a broom down or some, yeah, a broom I think it was, in the dark. And when this girl over it, she tripped, and she broke her leg, and that was the end of her, um, her, her career. in this life Matt Kosterman: It's like Na- like Nancy Har- like Nancy Harding's... It's like Nancy Harding's, ancestor Joanne DiMaggio: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You're right. I remember that. and so, but the curious thing is she's got the pain in the same place that the girl had the pain, the girl turns out to be her daughter in Matt Kosterman: Ah. Joanne DiMaggio: So she's gotta work things out with the daughter because she said, "We've never really gotten along, and I've never understood why." I go, "Well, you crippled the Matt Kosterman: Yeah Joanne DiMaggio: Um, [00:20:00] yeah. So there's, that's what I mean. There's, there's a connection, constant connection. And when people see that, they have an Matt Kosterman: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Joanne DiMaggio: I call it. And suddenly it's like they say a burden's been lifted from their shoulders. They've been wondering about this for years and years and years, and suddenly there's the answer. And once they get the answer, you know, the, the condition either abates completely, it's gone, or it Matt Kosterman: It's better Joanne DiMaggio: or at least they know, they have an understanding about it. And so their attitude, their perspective toward it is, is different, and that, that's a healing unto itself. So yeah, so we do some forgiveness work, in those regressions, you know, to forgive themselves, to forgive the person that, that, you know, initiated this or whatever, or did Matt Kosterman: Mm-hmm. Joanne DiMaggio: and then, and then, it's, so it's very healing, in, in many, Matt Kosterman: Do, does it, d- does it ever show up, I, I know I, does it ever show up like a, like a contract, like the soul agreement? Like I had a, I had a, a, a client at a big law firm, and she was the [00:21:00] marketing or the administrator or whatever, and we got to talking about this stuff. It was shortly after my ayahuasca experience. And, and she said, yeah, she'd had all this trouble with her former husband and, and financial... He got, got her into all kinds of financial trouble, and then, and then they got divorced, and then he was still literally, like, stole her ID and opened credit cards in her name. And she went to a, a, you know, past life soul contract kind of person, and they said, "Well," I don't remember what, I don't remember what his agreement, his side of the agreement was, but her side of the agreement was that in this life she would hold him accountable. And so she ended up, she ended up turning state's evidence and putting him in prison, and her whole life got better. Like, her life was a mess. She couldn't get out from, you know, and so she fulfilled her side of the agreement, and boom. Joanne DiMaggio: Wow. Matt Kosterman: I just am more ... Yeah Joanne DiMaggio: Wow. Yeah, that happens all the time. Yeah, that happens all the time. a lot of times, um, of the things I, I, I really stress is that you can't [00:22:00] really judge somebody else. In other words, if you see somebody Say you see somebody that has a, a handicap of some sort, you know, whether it's mental or physical, don't d- you know, don't jump to the conclusion that that's, kar- their karma, because sometimes really advanced souls will come in with, with that in order to be a, to teach somebody el- to teach their parents a lesson or the people around them a lesson. In other words, how do the parents react to them? How does other people react to them? So the, they're coming in to, uh, Matt Kosterman: Yep Joanne DiMaggio: in whatever karmic issues they're working on. So, so we never know, you know, why somebody's, the, the way that they are, what they're dealing with. It's best not to judge, obviously, but when you do a regression, you can get to the bottom of it, and Matt Kosterman: Figure out the, the, the source of the reason why. Yeah. Joanne DiMaggio: of it, right. The Matt Kosterman: Yeah, I know Ram, Ram Dass in one or more of his lectures talks about, like, blue babies and, you know, stillborn and, and, like, the ca- you know, I think people of faith or the [00:23:00] ca- like, "How can God do this? And it's so terrible." And he said, "You know, they might just be cleaning up some karma. They might, you know... Or they might just ca- they might..." Joanne DiMaggio: God has Matt Kosterman: Right. I mean, Joanne DiMaggio: Yeah. Matt Kosterman: just coming in to, like you said, to provide a mirror for their, their parents or some learning experience. Um, a-as, as awful as it, as it seems in, in our 3D world, um, it's... There, there's an underlying purpose. Um, so with the, um... Now, now do people, do people come back to you, for more than one t- more than one time for the, for the regressions to look at d-different lives? Is it... How, how, what's the sort of incidence of that? Joanne DiMaggio: Very seldom, Matt. Very seldom, because the, unlike traditional therapy where you have to go see the therapist week after week after week after week, lay on their little chaise and things through, the past life re- regression, past life work gets to the core of the problem. It goes right to the source of it. So it's not like you're [00:24:00] pulling away all these layers to get to it. It goes directly to it. And when you find the source of it and you're able to, to reconcile with it in some way, you feel you don't need any Matt Kosterman: Mm-hmm. Joanne DiMaggio: that. That's a, it, that's why Matt Kosterman: Mm-hmm Joanne DiMaggio: It's one of the most transformative tools I've ever encountered. Now, you can come for more than one session if you choose to. I mean, in my own case, I, I went over and over and over and over again with the Matt Kosterman: Okay Joanne DiMaggio: life. But there are people who usually Matt Kosterman: don't do that Joanne DiMaggio: that, or, or they'll wait. They'll wait maybe a couple years, then I'll hear from them, and they've got a different problem that they're dealing with, and they wanna know if that's past life related, which, you know, usually it is. So, so I'll work with them then. But no, it's usually one time and, and Matt Kosterman: One and done. And w- what about with this, with the-- So talk about the soul writing. How is this, how is this different? And what's Joanne DiMaggio: like I said, is a written form of meditation. So if you think of prayer as you talking to God, and meditation as God talking to you, [00:25:00] soul writing is you Matt Kosterman: Okay Joanne DiMaggio: So it's writing, it's writing in an altered state of consciousness. So you go into, your meditation, you surround yourself with, white light and say a prayer of protection, then you, um, open yourself up to, to getting a message from Spirit in writing. it's something almost everybody can do. famous people have, have used it. My, my book outlines, famous composers that have used it, everyone from Mozart to Matt Kosterman: Mm-hmm Joanne DiMaggio: and, and, artists use it. It's, it's just a method of, of connecting to the divine and getting assistance coming through from, from a higher source, and it's coming out usually in, in the form of a written word. Now, you could get poetry, you could get drawings out of it, but most people get, you know... They'll start out with maybe a word here and there, then they'll get a [00:26:00] phrase, then they'll get a sentence, and then they'll start getting Matt Kosterman: Okay Joanne DiMaggio: So it's, it's a 24/7 phone home Matt Kosterman: Mm-hmm. Joanne DiMaggio: that you can contact Spirit, you contact your guides or whoever you believe in, and ask for help. Ask for some... ask the tough questions that your s- soul is yearning to know and you've exhausted every conceivable way of finding out. You've asked your friends and family, you've Matt Kosterman: Your therapist. Joanne DiMaggio: you've asked, uh, Matt Kosterman: Yeah Joanne DiMaggio: everybody, and nobody c- nobody gives you the answer that you need. With a soul writing, you can get that answer. You can ask Matt Kosterman: Mm-hmm. Joanne DiMaggio: And it can be applied to a lot of ways in your life. It could be applied for past life exploration, it could be applied to, enhancing your psychic abilities or healing and psychoanalysis. you could use it to, in various art forms. It, it has limitless, uses, and I've about each of those in my book, and I've recently added... [00:27:00] The, the new version of the book includes a chapter about soul writing Matt Kosterman: Okay Joanne DiMaggio: and also soul writing for practitioners, that they could use it then in their Matt Kosterman: Got it. And, and is it, are you writing with the dominant hand or the non-dominant hand? 'Cause I know there's some... Dominant hand, okay. Um Joanne DiMaggio: The dominant hand. The dominant hand. Yeah. Mm-hmm. you could do it on a key- you could do it on a keyboard, but I prefer to do it by hand because, when you write by hand, you can really feel the energy going down your arm and out your fingers, and you can see the flow of the ink on the paper, and it, um, Matt Kosterman: Yeah Joanne DiMaggio: a lot so that you can take your time and get this message out. If you're on a key- you can do it on a keyboard. I have done it on a keyboard, but the problem with that is it, because your eyes are slightly closed 'cause you're in this altered state, you don't wanna Matt Kosterman: Okay Joanne DiMaggio: state, and if you shift over just a little bit on that keyboard, you're Matt Kosterman: Yeah Joanne DiMaggio: So what I tell folks, I said, "You could do either one, but if you suggest you do it by hand and then transfer it if you [00:28:00] wanna, if you wanna have a copy of Matt Kosterman: Mm-hmm. Joanne DiMaggio: computer, whatever you wanna do with it." So, so that's best. I like to write with a fountain pen in a journal, but you could write on a paper bag with a pencil. Matt Kosterman: Doesn't matter Joanne DiMaggio: it doesn't really And you can do it anywhere. I mean, I you first start doing it, it's best to do it at the same time every day and in the same place. You'll find your sacred space in your home and, and make a date with Spirit. But once you start doing it often enough, then you can do it anywhere. I've done it on an airplane. I've done it on a balcony of a hotel. I've done it in a conference. You, you know, you, you tune in so that you know when Spirit wants to be in touch with you. You Matt Kosterman: Mm-hmm. Mm, mm-hmm Joanne DiMaggio: and they laugh. They think that's hysterical. Um, and then I, I'll get a message Matt Kosterman: Yeah, I know when the, uh, Joanne DiMaggio: Yeah. Matt Kosterman: the other day when we were doing the regression, it was one of the first times, 'cause I've, I've done a, a decent bit of jour- of journeying like that with Renee and McKenna. Um, but I noticed that it, [00:29:00] it, it's coming from a spot on the right half of my head, the, the information. I, 'cause I don't see anything. I'm aphantasic, so there's no, there's no imagery. Um, but the words, if you will, the thoughts were coming from a very specific place in my head that I would... or above my head, but on, up and to the right, and I would tune in, and that's where I was listening, basically. Joanne DiMaggio: Yeah. Yeah, I used to get that when I would take a walk. I could hear them. I could hear one of them. And I had one that was so funny. and I mean, I'm walking alone on a path and all of a sudden I burst out laughing. I'm glad nobody saw me. They would've thought I was crazy. But, yeah, you can hear them, the way you do, as well. And just write down what you hear, what you think, what they're s- what they're sharing with you. Um, which I think is what you were doing with the regression, Matt Kosterman: yeah. I was just ... Yeah, you would ask, you would ask me a question and, guiding me through and I would, I would just kinda wait. "Okay, what's..." You know, it, it was not, [00:30:00] a, a thinking about the answer like, "Okay, what's the answer to this question?" It was a listening for the answer. Uh, Joanne DiMaggio: Mm-hmm. Matt Kosterman: like, "What color are your shoes?" And I'd listen and I'd hear, "Black." "Okay, great." And then, "Black." Yeah. I g- Joanne DiMaggio: Yeah. Matt Kosterman: um Joanne DiMaggio: And that's, that's accu- I mean, as, as I mentioned to you, you can use all of your senses when you're doing a regression. Most people, um, are visual, so they'll see it. But, as a matter of fact, one of the, i- if the, if the, r- script that I used for you, like walking into the forest, doesn't work, then I also have one where they have them coming into a, a movie Matt Kosterman: Oh, okay Joanne DiMaggio: and then sitting down and watching a movie and, of their past life. And then I say, "Describe to me what you're see- what's you're experiencing on the screen," and most people can do that. So, Matt Kosterman: yeah, that wouldn't, that wouldn't... Joanne DiMaggio: you Matt Kosterman: Yeah, that wouldn't work for me at all. I mean, the, the, the i- the irony is that I work as a photographer, so I'm highly visual in the 3D, but when I close my eyes, it's [00:31:00] black. It is, there's nothing there Joanne DiMaggio: yeah, yeah. That's why I say you can tell me if you feel something, if you Matt Kosterman: Hmm. Joanne DiMaggio: if you, if your intuition is telling you there's something, if you smell something. I had one person do a, a regression with me who could, had, who smelled, and she was, she regressed to being a, a cowboy in the, in the Old West, and they were sitting around a campfire, and she's, "Oh, I smell terrible." So it was, it was really kind of funny 'cause most people don't, don't use that, that sense. you know, they, they can see something or feel something or hear, sometimes you hear things, that you, that, you know, and, and that's all appropriate every, every way. There's no wrong answer when you're doing this work. It's whatever spirit is presenting to you. It may not make any sense, in and of itself, but when you put it together, it's like this beautiful mosaic that presents a Matt Kosterman: Mm-hmm. Joanne DiMaggio: of a, of a scene in a, in a lifetime that's impacting you right Matt Kosterman: Yeah, [00:32:00] yeah. Amazing. Yeah, it's beautiful. Um, so what are, what, what's, what's got your attention these days? What re- books or podcasts, what, what are you, what have you been consuming? Joanne DiMaggio: I am finishing Matt Kosterman: that you've liked Joanne DiMaggio: that I started many, many years ago. was given, it was a suggestion given to me by Frank DeMarco, who was one of the founders of Hampton Roads Publishing Company. And he said to me, "I'm gonna give you a, a, an assignment, Joannie." He said, "I want you to go home and write the first questions about reincarnation that come into your mind." And so I did that. I came up with about 25 or 30 of them. These are the commonly asked questions about reincarnation. And so, um, I'm turning that into a book, and it's being called, I'm calling it Why Are There So Many Cleopatras? and, commonly, answers to commonly asked questions about reincarnation. So it will have 30 chapters, 30 different questions that, that I'm answering from the how did we get here, the [00:33:00] creation story, you know, all the way through, is reincarnation really necessary, um, and Matt Kosterman: Ne-necessary according to whom? Joanne DiMaggio: well, yeah, right. I mean, I do get people who tell me, "This is my last lifetime." I said, "Really? It's not my last lifetime. I know I still have a Matt Kosterman: Yeah Joanne DiMaggio: to do." but anyway, that, I'm working on that. I've got a new podcast, that I'm working on called, um, Healing Through Past Life Exploration, and, that's kind of in the final stages of, of production. Um, and I've got some speaking engagements coming up. I'll be speaking in Chicago, in Des Plaines, Unity of Des Plaines on August 1st. I'm doing Journey to the Akashic Records through soul writing for them. And then I'm gonna be at the Reincarnation Symposium in Richmond, in October and, um, and then at the Psychic Development, A.R.E. Conference in Virginia Beach in November. So, I've got those things kind of coming up. I'm [00:34:00] launching a new website. So a lot of little, exciting new things Matt Kosterman: Yeah. So you've recorded, who are your guests on the podcast that you're... Joanne DiMaggio: I Matt Kosterman: Oh, you're... Got it Joanne DiMaggio: we, we just did, we just did the trailer, did the intro and outro. They've got the Matt Kosterman: Okay Joanne DiMaggio: done. I've got some outlines of shows I'm going to do. Um, some of them will not have guests. It'll just be, Matt Kosterman: Oh, sure, sure. Yeah. Yeah Joanne DiMaggio: and once in a while I will have a, a guest if I feel like... When I do a program on famous past lives, I, I have done some people who've had famous past lives, one in particular, I, I just get such a kick out of him. He was, Stonewall Jackson in a previous lifetime. And I don't, you know, a lot of people think that they were famous or Matt Kosterman: Sure Joanne DiMaggio: be famous, but they weren't. But I don't discount their experience. You know, their Matt Kosterman: Right Joanne DiMaggio: truth, right? but he, I really believe truly that he was, 'cause I've [00:35:00] worked with him several times, and his, information he's come up with has been extraordinary. So I'll have, um, once in a while I'll have a, you know, a, a guest speaker, depending on, um, what Matt Kosterman: Sure. Oh, very cool. And do you have a, a title, the title for the podcast? Did you say that? Joanne DiMaggio: It was Matt Kosterman: He- Joanne DiMaggio: life Matt Kosterman: healing's path, okay. Uh, Joanne DiMaggio: Yeah. Matt Kosterman: and so that'll- Joanne DiMaggio: I'll, I'll announce it in my newsletter. I have a monthly newsletter that I put out. Anybody that's interested, they can go on my website and sign up for it, and then you'll know all the things that I'm doing. My speaking engagements are on there. I always have a monthly soul writing message Matt Kosterman: Okay Joanne DiMaggio: and I do a, a past life case history, to share with people, besides the news of, of what I'm, Matt Kosterman: Yeah, very cool. And, and it's, it's Joanne with a... It's J-O-A-N-N-E D-I-M-A-G-G-I-O.com, correct? And it'll, it'll, it'll be, uh... Just to make sure, there's a couple ways to spell Joanne. [00:36:00] Um, Joanne DiMaggio: Yeah Matt Kosterman: well, fabulous, Joanne. Thanks so much for being here, and, uh Joanne DiMaggio: Hey, man, thank you so much. I enjoyed talking Matt Kosterman: likewise. Um, so like I said, folks, you can look in the little metadata and find, Joanne's information, um, if you'd like to reach out and, and schedule something. It was a, it was a very cool experience, and I, I highly recommend it if you're curious at all. All right. Thanks, Joanne. Enjoy your day. Bye-bye. Joanne DiMaggio: Bye-bye. Thanks. Bye