Bending Time: Access Past Lives to Heal Current Pain

Past Life Regression is one of the most interesting, innovative, and insightful hypnotherapy techniques. What’s particularly interesting is that it doesn’t require a belief in reincarnation to work - either from the client perspective or from the hypnotherapist perspective. In fact, images, impressions, sensations, and other experiences cultivated during a past life regression may be interpreted as metaphor (like dreams), memories of a movie or TV show, or even as Jungian archetypes contained in the collective unconscious. Not having absolute certainty about the source of these experiences isn’t required for the therapy to work. No matter the reason why past life regression works, the point is, it works. In profound ways.

The more open you can be about the experience, the more beneficial the process will be. In fact, because you experience being in a body that’s unlike your current body, you’ll find it is much easier to understand what it’s like to be someone else - of a different gender, age, race, sexual orientation, nationality, status, or religion. I often consider how much good past life regression could do in terms of healing the societal ills of racism, misogyny, xenophobia, homophobia and the violence these perpetuate. 

On an individual level, you can choose to focus on a specific relationship problem you’d like to solve, a fear you can’t understand but would like to overcome, behavioral patterns you’d like to release, or simply better insight to “how you got here” or what your life purpose is. 

It may seem strange that belief in reincarnation is not a pre-requisite for Past Life Regression therapy to work. But it’s true. The only requirement is being open to the experience. The bottom line is that our subconscious is extremely creative. Our imagination may take us to living as a character in a book or movie, even though we may not be able to recall which book or movie or the character we’re inhabiting. At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter if the experience itself is healing - and brings us to a new understanding of a relationship, relationship pattern or issue showing up in our current lifetime. 

Since experience is the best way to understand something, Past Life Regression - as with many hypnotherapy practices - can result in profound revelations and insights. Many clients I work with find it helpful to know what the steps in the process are, as well as what to expect during the experience.  

Here are the key steps:

1. Goal Setting - It’s important to know what the client wants to know, understand, and experience during the Past Life Regression. Sometimes the goal is to shed light on a relationship with a specific person, other times it's to understand something about oneself. The hypnotherapist guides everything based on these goals - specific aspects of each step, as well as the types of questions asked during the interview (the ‘meat’ of the process, step 4).
2. Induction - The hypnotherapist guides the client into a relaxed state of consciousness, helping to disassociate from the current body and be free to enter a past one. It’s a good idea to avoid using ‘progressive body relaxation’ types of induction because they can ‘keep’ the client in the current body. I find that breathing in the colors of each chakra is a good induction to use for past life regression. The bonus is that it also helps to balance and harmonize the chakras, which helps provide grounding and support for the healing process.
3. Higher Self / Spirit Guide Invitation - Whether a client’s support system is via their Higher Self, God, Goddess, Divine Source Energy, Spirit Guides, or Power Animals, it’s important to invite this energy in to support the client throughout their healing exploration and journey. 
4. Beach / Cave Portal - The client and their Higher Self (or other term for client’s support system) walk over to a cave that’s embedded into the side of a beach cliff or sand dune (forests or other natural places are good too!). Inside the cave walls are carvings of symbols that represent each life the client has lived. With the help of their Higher Self, the client finds the symbol that is relevant to solving their current life issue. As soon as they touch it, they are transported to this lifetime.
5. Past Life Experience / Interview - The hypnotherapist asks the client to experience themselves from the feet up. We start with the feet because this helps the client feel grounded, and attach deeply to the sensory experience. This way, the client can explore and experience all aspects of the past life - work, home life, key milestones, relationships, etc. The hypnotherapist asks a number of questions so the client can access as much information as possible, guided by the key goals set in the first step.
6. Death Experience / Inter-life - Once the client has captured the key details of this life experience, the hypnotherapist guides them to experience the death of this past life. Experiencing the death process (as well as understanding who is there, and how it happens) may seem a bit morbid but it is essential because it brings the client to the ‘Inter-life’.The Inter-life is a place ‘outside of time’ - it resides between lives where the client has unlimited access to what happened (and why) in the previous lifetime, and how it is connected to the current lifetime issue. Also, depending upon how the death experience happens, going through the death process may bring awareness to any current life fears or phobias. The hypnotherapist assist the client in reviewing soul agreements and contracts between significant others - all with a clear perspective. This is where the ‘magic’ happens.
7. Reawakening / De-brief - After summarizing and reinforcing the key insights gained during the process, the hypnotherapist guides the client back to awake and alert consciousness. At this point, the hypnotherapist and client discuss the key insights gained during the process, and how these new insights can heal the current life issue.

Some key tips to keep in mind. 

1. Past Life Regressions do take a bit longer than other hypnotherapy practices. Generally, I recommend at least 90 minutes for each session vs. 60 minutes for other types of techniques.
2. Keep an open mind. You may be surprised at what ‘shows up’. And it may feel really strange to experience being a woman when you’re a man. Or vice versa. The more open to these slightly uncomfortable experiences, the more likely you’ll experience transformative healing on the other side.
3. Past Life Regressions work better for (slightly more) experienced clients. In other words, if you’ve never tried hypnotherapy before, you may not want to try a Past Life Regression as your first hypnotherapy session. That said, I have seen first time clients be successful and many of my clients try it on their second or third visit. It’s still a good idea to ‘work up to it’.
4. Past Life Regressions can unfold slowly. Some of my clients report that they discover more about their experience days or weeks after our session. They’ll notice connections they hadn’t seen at first, or remember something similar in a familiar dream or memory.
5. Past Life Regressions can unlock your creativity. And your creativity can unlock more past life memories and epiphanies. For example, I wrote a song after having a particularly healing past life regression. It felt as if the lyrics just fell out of me… very quickly and without much effort. Plus, it helped make the past life experience much more real to me. 

Ready to schedule a Past Life Regression today? Book now.

Want more information?
Dr. Brian Weiss, M.D. and psychiatrist, has written dozens of best-selling books containing hundreds of case studies where an exploration of past lives (and future ones too) supports healing and personal transformation. Check him out at your local library or favorite book store.

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