OK before we explore if past lives are real or not, let me just say that it will ultimately come down to what you choose to believe. As a hypnotherapist, I offer past life regression for those who want it. I also advise clients that the unconscious mind may be presenting a metaphor, rather than actual recall, but essentially, I can’t say if the information is reliable or not.
Past Lives in Practice
There are many examples now of people who have claimed past life recall, where the information that was presented in the session was later confirmed through historical fact checking, and often where those facts are not readily available. Then there is the Dalai Lama who is said to be the reincarnated version of himself, over and over again. And next time, he suggests, he may reincarnate as a she for the first time.
In my clinic I often do regression sessions because I find that they really work to shift old, stuck feelings and beliefs, but I never direct people to go back to a past life when we trace that problem feeling back to its origins. If they happen to go back there, that’s fine. It doesn’t really matter for the purposes of reframing that problem belief or emotion.
However, when I worked in Byron Bay, NSW, it seemed peculiar that every second person regressed back to a past life, or two. On the Sunshine Coast by comparison, I might get one in 100 who will spontaneously regress to a past life. Byron, being the ‘woo woo’ capital of Australia either attracts more spiritually aware people who can access their past lives more easily, OR it attracts those who feel a compulsion to experience a past life. You be the judge.
The Superstars of Past Life Regression
Dr Michael Newton was a hypnotist who started the Newton Institute, which is a research and training body into past lives, and more specifically, the time or life experienced between lives, in the afterlife. He created a complex model of life between lives, or LBL. The many thousands of clients he has worked with create a strong case for reincarnation and the development of the soul through these past lives.
Dr Brian Weiss was a psychiatrist who also stumbled upon past life regression through working with his patients. One patient in particular, provided the impetus for his book, Many Lives, Many Masters. He has since, over the decades, embedded himself into teaching an studying past life recall. As a former member of the medical and scientific community, he turned his back on conventional psychiatry because his findings were so convincing that he decided that the best way to help his patients was to regress them and resolve the problem theme at its core. This is essentially what i do, but as said, not necessarily through past lives. I simply take the client back to the origin of the issue, wherever that may be.
What the Medium Told Me
I recently consulted a Medium, for the second time. A Medium converses with the spirits of the dead. The first time he literally blew me away. The circumstances, names and dates of my dearly departed were around 95 per cent accurate, and most of the messages he communicated were about private issues, not possible to research. That first visit I sat down on the chair and he immediately said to me, “They’re telling me that you have your dog’s ashes in your bag”.
“Yes”, I said, “I do”. The urn was nicely concealed at the bottom of my bag, and it my jaw kept hitting the ground from that moment.
The session, three years later, only grew more astounding. I could write a book about this session. This second visit was very similar to the first in terms of content, with some important updates, such as the passing of another loved one and so this session was, for me, dedicated to that person. However most of the information from session one was recapped in session two also – the same message from my key spirit guide, the accurate comments about certain relatives and specific family dramas, the advice for me to delve more deeply into certain pursuits, the age that I would be when key events would take place (which extended past that 3 year interval), the status and accurate description of my beautiful dog, his age when he died and how he died. It was as impressive the second time around as it was the first.
When I asked the Medium about past lives he said that he did not believe it. In his vast experience, reading for thousands of people in this impressively accurate way, it is the spirit of that departed person who communicates to the person having a past life regression. In this way, the regression client is actually open, in hypnosis, to the messages of that spirit, but thinking that the story or recollection has happened to them, in times gone by. What a fascinating concept.
You Be the Judge
Each of these perspectives offers unlimited fascination for anyone interested in exploring the topic of, ‘what happens to us after we die’. Personally I found the Medium so impressive that I cannot discount his theory, but yet the tens of thousands of cases that support reincarnation by the Newton Institute, are equally impressive.
For my focus on helping people to heal, it really makes no difference whether someone travels back before their birth, or not. And when i perform a past life regression for someone, I always find it fascinating, but I cannot guarantee you that what you present is fact.
If you are interested in experiencing a timeline regression to help you to resolve limiting behaviours, emotions or beliefs; or if you are curious as to past lives, we can help. Horizons Clinical Hypnotherapy Sunshine Coast