Past Life Regression and Reenactment
Forget not that I shall come back to you.
A little while, and my longing shall gather
dust and foam for another body. A moment of rest upon
the wind, and another woman shall bear me.
~ Kahlil Gibran ~
In our culture and in some therapeutic circles, there is a certain level of controversy about the validity of past life work. The conventional scientific community does not seriously contemplate the possibility that past lives are "real"—though there has been strong documented evidence to the contrary gathered since the 1960s, accessed under strict scientific protocol. Because of this bias, some professionals consider past life regression bogus. One basic reason science has trouble with it is because it is not a material, but a spiritual reality.
As a hypnotherapist, my position is that past life regression is experiential in nature and that whatever emerges in one's consciousness resides in a deep inner knowing. Proof is beside the point. What ultimately matters is what a person gets from it.
Those called to do this work—either intentionally or inadvertently—enter the realm of transpersonal or spiritual psychology. Though it has earlier references, transpersonal psychology as we know it today grew out of the Human Potential Movement which exploded into the culture during the 1960s merging psychological and spiritual perspectives. Transpersonal psychology involves moving beyond (trans) our personal ego identity into a profound awareness that we are a part of a much larger reality. It is multi-dimensional, encompassing wider aspects of life, psyche, spirituality, cosmos and our place in the whole. It invites our conscious participation in the arena of myth, metaphor, and archetypes which exist in the realm of our subconscious.
There are many issues that may be explored in past life work such as phobias, past life relationships, physical issues and questions about your life purpose to name just a few. Past life regression through hypnotherapy is a skill that can be developed over time and with experience. As you practice the trance work you are opening up new neural pathways, entering realms that you may not have been aware existed.
Different Approaches to Past Life Regression
There are many books written about Past Life experience. One of the most grounded, even-handed and inclusive of these is Other Lives, Other Selves by Jungian psychotherapist Roger Woolger, Ph.D. According to Woolger, there are four different approaches to past life work. The first is the psychic approach, in which a person with the gift of extrasensory perception (ESP) "reads" or perceives another person's past lives. The person being "read" need do nothing. The second is the "para-psychological" approach. This approach focuses on documenting past lives, particularly of young children, and finding correlating facts that "prove" the accuracy or validity of what the person is remembering. (Notable in this area is the writing of Dr. Ian Stevenson, who has pioneered this research.) A third offers a religious approach which supports the theory of reincarnation. For millions of people in the world, reincarnation is part of an ancient belief system—although this cannot be said to be true in western culture in a traditional sense—though there has been a shift in western belief systems where reincarnation is concerned. Finally, the fourth is the psychological approach, which is focused on helping the person access the origin or origins of a current life issue, embody the past life persona, experience what needs to be experienced and move forward in their healing process. Key in this process is the psychological truth that emerges. The client's belief in past lives isn't important for the work to be effective.
It is the psychological approach that I find most relevant and in keeping with the goals of hypnotherapy. When a person seeks to transform a persistent current life issue that has resisted other approaches, past life regression offers an option to explore the heart of the issue. Hypnotherapy is a powerful tool to access that information. Moving back in time to a different life as a different self, embodying that self and getting to the source of current on-going patterns can give enormous understanding and resolution for concerns that have been unresolved by other means.
The Spiritual Bypass
Past life work through hypnotherapy is not a parlor game, nor is it for the faint of heart. Some may wish to bypass other psychological processes, such as inner child work, and move straight into these depths of spirit. They seek to avoid the work of what is happening in their current "here and now" lives seeing it as "less than." However, one kind of trance journey is not "better" than or more advanced or superior to another kind. What is important is to take whatever the next step is on your path. Being well grounded in your "here and now" is essential in finding out how it is related to the "there and then" of other lives lived. Without a strong enough foundation. attempting to undertake this voyage is counterproductive as it amounts to "pushing the river." On the other hand, I have witnessed clients who begin with an entirely different focus shift spontaneously into a past life as they move further into trance. In these cases, it is important to recognize that the wisdom of the higher self is guiding this inner movement to advance the healing journey.
Different Journeys, Mapping and Progression
To suffer one's death and to be reborn is not easy.
~ Fritz Perls ~
There is a progression involved in past life exploration. As with all hypno-therapeutic voyages, the first step is be clear about your intention and the situation or relationship in your current life that you wish to explore. Moving into and deepening the trance takes its own time, allowing the time, place, and past life persona to emerge in your awareness. As you continue, you will find the relevant experiences and events related to your quest. You may move forward or backward in a particular life. Finally, to complete that life, the death experience will follow. This may bring up intense physical and emotional feelings, yet it is important to stay with this in order to release the charge of that life and achieve catharsis. After the death experience you may move into the "interlife", (or the bardo in Tibetan Buddhism); the spirit life between lives. In this phase, you will review the newly completed past life and integrate what you have learned.
As with those who have gone through Near Death Experiences, those who complete past life regression and who move into and through the death experience often lose their fear of death. They discover that physical death is just a stop on the journey, and that the soul's consciousness lives on. The true self never dies. Like space, time is a continuum, and in a metaphysical sense, we find we exist beyond time and space as we experience it in our conscious state. As one individual said after their past life hypnotherapy regression, "I am thousands of years old, and all time is now."
415.231.6119
As a hypnotherapist, my position is that past life regression is experiential in nature and that whatever emerges in one's consciousness resides in a deep inner knowing. Proof is beside the point. What ultimately matters is what a person gets from it.
Those called to do this work—either intentionally or inadvertently—enter the realm of transpersonal or spiritual psychology. Though it has earlier references, transpersonal psychology as we know it today grew out of the Human Potential Movement which exploded into the culture during the 1960s merging psychological and spiritual perspectives. Transpersonal psychology involves moving beyond (trans) our personal ego identity into a profound awareness that we are a part of a much larger reality. It is multi-dimensional, encompassing wider aspects of life, psyche, spirituality, cosmos and our place in the whole. It invites our conscious participation in the arena of myth, metaphor, and archetypes which exist in the realm of our subconscious.
There are many issues that may be explored in past life work such as phobias, past life relationships, physical issues and questions about your life purpose to name just a few. Past life regression through hypnotherapy is a skill that can be developed over time and with experience. As you practice the trance work you are opening up new neural pathways, entering realms that you may not have been aware existed.
Different Approaches to Past Life Regression
There are many books written about Past Life experience. One of the most grounded, even-handed and inclusive of these is Other Lives, Other Selves by Jungian psychotherapist Roger Woolger, Ph.D. According to Woolger, there are four different approaches to past life work. The first is the psychic approach, in which a person with the gift of extrasensory perception (ESP) "reads" or perceives another person's past lives. The person being "read" need do nothing. The second is the "para-psychological" approach. This approach focuses on documenting past lives, particularly of young children, and finding correlating facts that "prove" the accuracy or validity of what the person is remembering. (Notable in this area is the writing of Dr. Ian Stevenson, who has pioneered this research.) A third offers a religious approach which supports the theory of reincarnation. For millions of people in the world, reincarnation is part of an ancient belief system—although this cannot be said to be true in western culture in a traditional sense—though there has been a shift in western belief systems where reincarnation is concerned. Finally, the fourth is the psychological approach, which is focused on helping the person access the origin or origins of a current life issue, embody the past life persona, experience what needs to be experienced and move forward in their healing process. Key in this process is the psychological truth that emerges. The client's belief in past lives isn't important for the work to be effective.
It is the psychological approach that I find most relevant and in keeping with the goals of hypnotherapy. When a person seeks to transform a persistent current life issue that has resisted other approaches, past life regression offers an option to explore the heart of the issue. Hypnotherapy is a powerful tool to access that information. Moving back in time to a different life as a different self, embodying that self and getting to the source of current on-going patterns can give enormous understanding and resolution for concerns that have been unresolved by other means.
The Spiritual Bypass
Past life work through hypnotherapy is not a parlor game, nor is it for the faint of heart. Some may wish to bypass other psychological processes, such as inner child work, and move straight into these depths of spirit. They seek to avoid the work of what is happening in their current "here and now" lives seeing it as "less than." However, one kind of trance journey is not "better" than or more advanced or superior to another kind. What is important is to take whatever the next step is on your path. Being well grounded in your "here and now" is essential in finding out how it is related to the "there and then" of other lives lived. Without a strong enough foundation. attempting to undertake this voyage is counterproductive as it amounts to "pushing the river." On the other hand, I have witnessed clients who begin with an entirely different focus shift spontaneously into a past life as they move further into trance. In these cases, it is important to recognize that the wisdom of the higher self is guiding this inner movement to advance the healing journey.
Different Journeys, Mapping and Progression
To suffer one's death and to be reborn is not easy.
~ Fritz Perls ~
There is a progression involved in past life exploration. As with all hypno-therapeutic voyages, the first step is be clear about your intention and the situation or relationship in your current life that you wish to explore. Moving into and deepening the trance takes its own time, allowing the time, place, and past life persona to emerge in your awareness. As you continue, you will find the relevant experiences and events related to your quest. You may move forward or backward in a particular life. Finally, to complete that life, the death experience will follow. This may bring up intense physical and emotional feelings, yet it is important to stay with this in order to release the charge of that life and achieve catharsis. After the death experience you may move into the "interlife", (or the bardo in Tibetan Buddhism); the spirit life between lives. In this phase, you will review the newly completed past life and integrate what you have learned.
As with those who have gone through Near Death Experiences, those who complete past life regression and who move into and through the death experience often lose their fear of death. They discover that physical death is just a stop on the journey, and that the soul's consciousness lives on. The true self never dies. Like space, time is a continuum, and in a metaphysical sense, we find we exist beyond time and space as we experience it in our conscious state. As one individual said after their past life hypnotherapy regression, "I am thousands of years old, and all time is now."
415.231.6119
