Past Life Regression in Hypnosis: Clearing Past Lives Trauma

In the first article in our past life regression series, we
discussed the question of whether a past life memory was
"real", that is could it be a historically valid recollection.
We also addressed the question of the validity of past life
regression (henceforth referred to as PLR) therapy as an
appropriate therapeutic intervention for client's problems. I
pointed out that PLR has become popularized by a number of
recent books. These books have proven the value of PLR as a
subject of historical research and as a sub-specialty of
Hypnotherapy. As PLR is still in its infancy, therapists have
only begun to explore its potential as a technology for
helping people with their problems.

In order to develop a more systematic and scientific approach
to PLR as a valid form of therapy, I have developed five new
procedures for PLR therapy for different types of
interventions. These include: healing past life trauma,
discovering creative abilities from past lives, healing our
karmic transgression from past lives, altering contracts with
significant others from past lives, and changing the
preconception contract that we made with our higher self just
prior to entering this life. In the next several articles, I
will address each of these procedures in detail, along with
examples of their effectiveness in real client situations.

One of the best known forms of PLR is working with traumatic
memories from past lives. We use this method for discovering
the source in the subconscious mind of an emotional or
physical problem. Or we can look at the source of a core
belief in the client's subconscious mind which is limiting
their success in life. Some examples could include a phobic
reaction such as a fear of entering the water, not explained
by any present life experience, or a pain or disease which a
client was born with, or a limiting core belief that "anyone I
love will always abandon me." The procedure for accessing
these memories is simple, and is often quite effective whether
the client believes in past lives or not. We simply use a
standard induction technique combined with instructions that
the subconscious mind will now take us to the source of the
client's presenting problem. The hard part, which requires
substantial training, is knowing what to do when the memories
emerge.

An example is a client whose life-long fear of water has kept
her from swimming. The instructions were simple: "Let's go
into hypnosis now ... back to the time when you first became
afraid of the water". While many clients will return to
terrifying experiences from their current childhood, many
others will, without any previous discussion of "past lives",
go back to a past life memory. Frequently, the incident ended
in death. If so, we simply review the circumstances of that
death, the meaning that death had for the client, and what
decision was made by the client after death and carried from
then on. To continue my water phobia example:

the client goes back to a recent past life where she drowned
in a fast-flowing river and lost her 2 young children when her
boat capsized. After feeling the terrible pain of this loss
(not only of her own life, but her children's!) we move
forward to her death, and the decision she made at the time:
"I'll never go in the water again!" We then have the
opportunity to "solve" the situation using one or more of the
following techniques.

With the therapists help, she can convince her past life
personality (PLP) that this decision is no longer necessary,
and help her PLP to change it. (She may simply vow never to
travel on big, dangerous rivers again in a small boat?)

We need in some cases to allow the client to express their
grief, anger, and or remorse to significant others and allow
the others to respond. ("I'm sorry I took this boat and
drowned you my darling children! Sob. Can you forgive me? -
Pause - Yes, they forgive me. I feel such a burden lifted!")

In some cases, we can even rescue the PLP, and allow that
person to live out the remainder of their lives in safety and
harmony. This allows them to complete and resolve the feelings
of incompleteness that often result from a sudden death. ("Now
I'm seeing myself swimming to shore with my children. Now I'm
seeing how happy we are in our new home on the western
frontier. What a happy life...now the children are leaving
home...I'm dying of old age...how complete this feels!") This
client chose all of these 3 methods, and was able to swim in
deep water and without fear within a few hours of her session.

In some cases, we can rescue the past life personality and
bring this person forward to the present life. My favorite
example is a client who was blocked by a deep but persistent
fear of building a practice as a hypnotherapist. In going back
to where she discovered that it was dangerous to be a healer,
she returned to an extremely painful experience of being
burned as a witch. First, we examined her post-death decision
- "I'll never heal anyone again!" Her past life self was at
first unwilling to change the decision. After all, she had
once been a beloved healer in her community, before it turned
against her under the influence of the Inquisition. Only when
we told her about California's totally accepting culture and
invited her former self to join my client in a safe new life
as a hypnotherapist in California, did she brighten up, and
step up to the 20th century bringing with her those healing
abilities from her past. Within 3 months, she had set up a
highly successful hypnosis clinic.

Within these deceptively simple procedures lie a nearly
endless collection of possibilities. The easiest way for the
PLR therapist to sort through these choices is simply to ask
the client, "What would you like to do with this memory? How
can we change this decision, or this experience that will feel
right to you?"

Until recently, most PLR therapists had no training in
altering either the core decisions the client made in a past
life or in changing the memories from past lives. This is why
many of my clients have said to me that they've seen a
particular memory in a previous PLR session, but it didn't
solve their problem. Now, after experiencing these methods
applied to their memory, everything is different.