People use the term soul mate in ways which can give it different meanings. For some, a soul mate is a person who they feel incredibly close to, or have a deep affinity with. For others it means a person who they have shared a past life with, in which case one may have several soul mates with whom you have shared different past lives. For many people they simply yearn to meet their one true love in this life, and wonder how they can optimize their chances of attracting this soul mate.

Any discussion of soul mates inevitably involves the question of past life regression and how it actually works. For anyone who is skeptical, yet curious, I would definitely recommend that you read any book by Dr Brain Weiss, a prominent psychiatrist whose young patient in therapy suddenly drifted back into a past life, to both of their immense surprise. This experience triggered a major turning point in his career. Dr Weiss is one of many well educated, extremely experienced, main stream medical professionals whose beliefs have been altered through such events; they have become enlightened. Of course, if is difficult to provide scientific proof, although much evidence has been compiled which supports the fact that we do in actual fact live through many life cycles; and during each cycle we may meet another soul, or several, with whom we have spent time in one or more of our past lives.

Fewer people question what happens between lives; where do we go? What do we do? Michael Newton PhD has devoted 20 years of his amazing career to this end and has compiled too much correlating evidence of lives between lives for it to be ignored. His research indicates that we live within our own soul group, our own family if you like, with our extended family nearby, and close neighbors, and so on, in a similar way to how we live on earth. Souls spend much time in learning, and in planning their next incarnation; the aim of which is to provide the most conducive environment for the next chosen learning curve. Thus souls plan who will be certain key people in their next life, and take on different roles in each life, so as to learn through real experience. This adds new meaning to the terms "old soul" or "twin soul"; terms which are often used in a somewhat flippant manner actually have a far more significant meaning when understood from this perspective.

The experience of déjà-vu can also take on a deeper meaning. Perhaps you really have been here before, or perhaps it was something which you saw when you were preparing to enter this life; part of your preparation for this incarnation, maybe.

Returning to the original question of how many soul mates one can have, Newton's research would indicate that souls live in a family group which totals perhaps 20 in all and some within this group will often choose to incarnate at the same time, each taking on a different role. It is quite likely that you have three or four of your closer soul mates appearing at some point or another during your current incarnation. A trickier question, however, is whether or not you will recognize them as your soul mate or appreciate the role which you or they are meant to play. Remember that each incarnation is a learning curve, and your soul mate isn't necessarily destined to be your partner in love during this life-cycle.

If you are looking to attract the correct love partner into your life, the term soul mate conveys a slightly different meaning to that above. And it's amazing what you can do in order to attract this soul mate into your life. No matter what types of relationships you have attracted in the past, you can change now and attract the most wonderful fulfilling relationship into your reality, simply by learning to relax your thoughts, calm your mind and allow new possibilities to present themselves to you. With the help of hypnosis downloads you can learn to imagine yourself as you want to be, in the type of relationship which you want to be in, feeling a deep sense of joy and bliss in your day to day life. There is a soul mate for everyone, as long as you are in the right mental state to connect with them.

Roseanna Leaton, specialist in hypnosis downloads for relationship issues