About Past Life Regression
WHAT IS PAST LIFE REGRESSION?
Past Life Regression ("PLR") is a method of accessing your soul's memories. People want to remember other lifetimes for a variety of reasons: to better understand their Purpose in this life, to understand present-day patterns and issues, to gain insight into difficult relationships, and to relieve or eliminate the fear of death. Some people just want "evidence" that they are in fact a soul having a physical life; this evidence comes in the form of Knowing that goes beyond simple belief. Past Life Regression can happen spontaneously for many people, in the form of dreams, or flashes of images or Knowing when they see certain people or places. While not mainstream by any measure, neither is it a new concept or without meaningful scientific research.
IS REINCARNATION REAL?
Many of us feel drawn to the idea of reincarnation, despite western religious traditions that teach "one life". We tend to become more flexible about our beliefs over the course of our lives, and more humble about how much we don't know. While beliefs can come with a certain amount of logical doubt, they can give way to a sense of Knowing which is beyond doubt. Things that can be Known beyond doubt are big things: That I am More Than My Physical Body, That I Am Loved, That I Am Never Alone, That I Am Never Separate From God (Source), That Only The Body Can Die. These Knowings are not dogmatic; they will liberate you, not constrain you. I can assist you through the process of past life regression; your own first-person experiential memories, rich with detail and emotion, are always the most powerful evidence.
WHAT HAPPENS DURING A PAST LIFE REGRESSION SESSION?
Past Life Regression is conducted during a private, 110-minute session. A 30-minute consult is required before scheduling the regression. The consult is an important part of making sure you have the best experience possible. I have a very high success rate and I attribute this in large part to adequate preparation, and to my clients having a good sense of me and my space, which allows for greater trust, which allows for a deeper hypnotic trance, which allows for the best outcome. The consult is held on zoom. I prefer to facilitate the regression in person; however, a remote regression is workable, and we can discuss during your consult.
During the regression session, we spend the first 5 minutes of the session relaxing and setting intentions. We then begin with a hypnotic induction, which typically takes another 25 minutes, in the form of progressive relaxation, but other induction methods can be used depending on your history with hypnosis. The active regression is usually a little over an hour, with a few minutes at the end to come back into an alert state and talk a little about your experience. All sessions are audio-recorded so that you can listen to the session again later if you want. You will be in a deeply-relaxed hypnotic trance, but you will be able to talk and (usually) remember the experience.
Depending on your motivations for coming to therapy, we will determine how best to guide you back in time, to an earlier time in this life, and/or directly to another lifetime. People have remembered detailed experiences from both past and future lives (see the Resources page of this website for information on reincarnation, quantum physics and the concept of "progression".) There is usually enough time for two lifetime reviews in each regression session. You are welcome to schedule a regular talk therapy session after the regression to process the regression experience.
WHAT IF I CAN'T BE HYPNOTIZED?
A certain number of people will have a more difficult time relaxing; it will typically take those people longer to achieve a deep-enough trance, but will not prevent them from getting there. As a rule, no one is incapable of entering a "trance" or "hypnotic" state. We enter trances every day - when you are lost in thought or daydreaming, you're in a trance state. When you sit quietly in meditation, whether focused on a word, sound or image, or letting go of all focus, you're in a trance state. Hypnosis is a state of focused awareness; when we "go inside" and listen to our own breath and get in touch with our own body, it is generally easy for anyone to relax enough to be in a measurable trance state. If you have had trouble in the past with relaxing enough to stay in trance, we would schedule one or two regular hypnosis sessions in advance of the PLR session to practice and identify techniques that work best for you.
WHAT IF I REMEMBER SOMETHING TRAUMATIC?
Part of my role as therapist is to guide you carefully through the regression process, which includes specific instruction for how to view, experience and remember any traumatic memories, which are invariably part of every life, though some traumas are certainly worse than others. You can experience some memories in vivid first-person, but when necessary, you can "watch" or "know" what is happening without re-experiencing it. It is part of the value and objective of PLR to identify past traumatic experiences which may be related to present day struggles, resistances or patterns. For this reason, we do not avoid these memories. In my experience, no one has ever been "re-traumatized" by remembering a traumatic memory during regression; in fact, remembering certain traumas can release and transform issues related to present-life traumas.
HOW MUCH DETAIL WILL I REMEMBER?
In my experience (and from all of my training), you will remember more or less detail from memories of other lifetimes depending on a number of factors: relevance to your goals, the depth of trance, the intensity of any left-brain chatter or interference, and the time we take to explore each scene. Most clients are able to remember at least a first name and a general sense of place and time, as well as significant events across the lifetime being explored, including the presence of other significant people in that lifetime. Sometimes you will have an immediate sense of "who someone is" from this lifetime when you encounter them in the past. Other times it will feel vague, or you may know intuitively that they are not with you in this life.
OTHER FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
This is a link to a long list of frequently asked questions on the website of Dr. Brian Weiss, the author of Many Lives, Many Masters. I have attended intensive past-live regression training for therapists with Dr. Weiss, as well as other one-day workshops with him over the last ten years. I believe you will find other information and resources on his website to be enormously helpful.