My Therapy Stories (#5): Hypnotherapy & Past Life Regression

I was instantly fascinated by Dr. Brian Weiss’ books about past lives. So in November 2017, I scheduled my first Past Life Regression session.

After that, I did multiple more with different practitioners, and also learned how to self-hypnotize so I could continue doing the work at my own pace.

I’m excited to share the science behind past life regression (that’s the first section of this post), and then lots of interesting stories from personal and professional work (second half of this post).

Let’s dive in.

How does one actually do Past Life Regression work?

When I found the healer I wanted to work with, I was asked to be well-rested, listen to some guided meditations, and come on a light stomach. Why? Let me explain by going into the science of past life regression. This will also be fundamental in helping you learn how to do past life regression for yourself, in case you’re interested.

Hypnotherapy is the underlying tool used to review past lives, by working with the subconscious mind.

A person is regressed back into a certain period of their life, using steps that I’ll discuss shortly. The end-to-end process takes up a lot of mental energy! And if unrested or on a heavy stomach, it can make you tire easily. In some cases, you could even doze off.

Hypnotherapy is not exclusive to past life regression though.

When hypnotherapy is used to access past life memories, we call it past life regression therapy. However, the same technique can also be used for inner child healing, overcoming addiction, or getting closure from a traumatic experience from the past.

Is hypnosis dangerous?

Hypnosis is NOTHING like the dramatic TV shows where a person is influenced and taken captive!

In the words of the pioneer in the field, Dave Elman, you must understand that “all hypnosis is self-hypnosis“.

This means that when you’re hypnotized, it simply means you’ve been given a suggestion by another person, and you have willingly taken action on it. For example, in your day-to-day life, if someone says, “come, have a seat” and you go sit down, you’ve accepted their suggestion.

On the contrary, if someone said, “let’s go eat chicken wings” and you’re a vegetarian, you will reject the suggestion.

When you undergo a hypnotherapy session, the only difference is that you’re given several layers of suggestions in order to achieve deeper stages of relaxation.

This helps you experience your past memories, without the excessive resistance of the conscious mind. What are some examples of steps taken to deepen the hypnosis?

You may first be asked to count back from 50 to 1, while staring at a wall. Then, you might be asked to close your eyes and visualize a pleasant situation, like walking around a garden. Eventually, you’ll be asked to travel back in time to a specific memory, which is the part called regression.

This process is a rather artificial means to tire your conscious mind that operates in beta waves. Thus allowing you to experience the subconscious thoughts by moving towards alpha waves. The different brain wavelengths and their purpose can further be understood through this source.

If you’ve listened to a guided meditation before, you’ll realize that the process is the same. Because guided meditation is also a form of hypnotherapy.

There’s nothing more dramatic or fanciful to it!

So, no, it is NOT a dangerous process. Even under hypnosis, you are fully aware of sounds around you, you can talk and you will remember everything that happened. You are just more relaxed while experiencing your subconscious thoughts.

This is why you’ll even find self-hypnosis videos on YouTube. Many people claim to have experienced healing through it too. It hasn’t worked for me though, for various reasons but it doesn’t mean it doesn’t work for you.

Here are four other common myths that hypnotherapy practitioner, Serena and I debunked in a workshop with the tribe.

“Isn’t hypnotherapy scary?”

Accessing memories isn’t always pleasant. It can stir emotions like anger, insecurity, or sorrow. Sometimes, hypnotherapy can bring up traumatic events from the past that are seeking our attention for healing.

The whole point of any healing modality, including hypnotherapy, is to help create ease. Not to re-traumatize us or create further distress. So, here are three things you need to know as the client:

1. It’s the practitioner’s responsibility to help you navigate any emotion and overcome any potential distress. This is why, it’s important to work with a credible individual, preferably “trauma-informed” so that they have a solid skillset to help you heal through even the most challenging scenarios.
2. Your soul will not access something that you don’t need to. There have been times when my clients don’t see a past life: we find other ways to help them heal their current life’s challenges. So if you feel worried about this modality, know that you have options!
3. When done right, a past life regression session, no matter how intense, leads to beautiful healing and integration! I’ve seen major breakthroughs with my clients: whether it’s a behaviour change like no longer needing to use substances, feeling more secure in their relationships or having a massive karmic shift in their otherwise “stuck” situation. I’ve seen shame dissolve, and self-confidence reignite. Clarity and faith return, and a deeper spiritual connection develop. This can be a magical and powerful experience!

How long does it take to actually start seeing past lives?

Every hypnotherapist has their style. It isn’t necessary for you to access your past life right away.

As an example, your guide may walk you through different ‘doors’ or walk you ‘down the stairs’ in your imagination – but ultimately it is your soul that decides what happens when you cross the door or take the stairs to the “other side”.

In some cases, past life regression may not even be necessary to heal something, which is why it’s important to let the healer suggest what they feel is best. I’ve often told clients that I’d rather have them do inner child exploration first because a lot is revealed and healed there too.

Ultimately, whatever may be the area of concern, your guide helps you navigate different thoughts, images and sensations to find your answers.

Are Past Life Regression Experiences Real?

There have been countless validated cases, where exact details were mapped to lesser-known family history. The works of Dr. Ian Stevenson and Jim B Tucker focused precisely on validating such claims, by children.

There is compelling evidence in Dr. Brian’s books too, especially in Only Love Is Real where two people narrated the same past lives with each other, without even knowing about each other. It was magical to read!

Personally, whatever I saw did not have concrete geographical information or detailed timelines. I still consider a past life regression experience logically powerful because:

• When you revisit a subconscious fear and retrain your brain to look at it differently, you alter your conscious behaviour too. This is precisely what we want to achieve,

• Our brain uses the knowledge and dictionary we have created from our experience, so what you see is the closest possibility of what happened. Good enough to help you understand the significance, at the least,

• Irrational and unexplained fears are explained through the story you see. At the time, it feels so real that it can shift your point of view. Thus lifelong fears can be transmuted in a short span within a few hours of hypnosis,

• Even if it’s a figment of your imagination, or confabulated, the fact that your subconscious is conducive to healing can be a breakthrough in itself for people who otherwise struggle to make lasting changes in their lives consciously.

For me, it didn’t matter whether what I saw was factually correct. But it did help me see aspects of myself that I wasn’t aware of, at least not consciously. One such example is intense anger and anguish.

How Reviewing A Past Life Helped Me Mourn A Child I Didn’t Have

I wasn’t even married at that point, let alone a mother. But regressing back in time, I saw a woman badly starved and beaten by her drunk husband.

She held a baby, her baby. Their baby; force-fed alcohol by that man.

As her child passed away, she grieved intensely. And so did I. I could deeply feel her pain and anger.

Now to put things into perspective, I’m not easily emotionally swayed. It takes a lot to make me cry, but this vision felt so personal, so real, it really felt like my loss.

And the kind of anger I felt was nothing like I’d experienced before. My healer worked diligently to help me release the emotional charge that was discovered in that lifetime.

I was stunned when I recognized that baby in the past was a friend from college in my present. The next day, out of curiosity and upon my healer’s recommendation, I asked that friend if he had “stomach issues”. He mentioned that he did, but he healed from them in college. Which was when WE had met. I never shared my PLR story with my friend, but I do go back and share the uncanny revelation with the guide.

“Mother healed baby”, said the healer, as a beautiful closure.

I’ve also experienced other little synchronicities along the way, such as the night I had a past life dream that my best friend from this lifetime, was a Buddhist monk and brother in past life with me, and he sent me a picture that very hour saying he’d just been cleaning and rediscovered his Tibetan prayer flags!

How do you recognize other people?

You might have an instant knowing (feeling), you might recognize their characteristics (visual), or in introspection, a name might come to you (auditory). It’s my theory that perhaps the psychic sense which is strongest in you will be utilized during this process.

Past life regression in itself is like seeing a dream. Except it’s not illogical, and you can remember it long after you wake up.

But just like a dream, you can experience the past life by being a passive viewer, an active participant, or somewhere in between. You will see places, people, and important events in ways that are unique to you.

I’ve had the privilege to see a significant past life in one of my dreams, which I’ve talked about in a post analyzing the spiritual meanings of dreams.

How many past lives do we have?

To be honest, I don’t have an answer for that because each soul is unique. Some choose to incarnate often, while others try to learn their lessons through the other realms. I’m not a huge fan of religious scriptures that put a number on our births and deaths because healing, once conscious, is timeless.

This means that you could take several lifetimes to overcome a pattern or you could finally sit down and “get it” one day. The process of incarnation is so fluid and dynamic. But it’s safe to say that we have had many, many lifetimes. At this point, I’ve seen over a dozen glimpses from mine and they have all served in my healing.

Instead of worrying about how old your soul is, it’s important to focus on what you’ve been doing with your time while you’ve been around. And of course, what can you do ahead, to make the most of your time here?

Why is it good or bad to get a past life review?

While the benefits outweigh the flaws, here are some things to be mindful of during subconscious work:

Unless you heal the memory after seeing it, it may not be useful having seen it. For example, when I saw the black cats, I didn’t know what to do because I was scared. A professional hypnotist needs to help you navigate such incidents. My healer suggested I turn the black cats into beautiful, vibrant butterflies and let them carry my body into the Light.

NOTE: This isn’t about denying something happened, but to creatively help you reconnect with the bigger picture.

Therefore, on most occasions, you will not be able to see a past life yourself, unless you’re capable enough of dealing with it.

• It can seem exciting to retrieve your soul’s journey. But becoming overly obsessed with the past is one of many spiritual vices that can get in the way of actually living our current reality. Trust me, I’ve been there! So please remember that though past life regression is useful to understand our fears or explain why we’re facing a certain challenge, we need to actually live through our life’s lessons to move past them!

• It is expensive. And while it can be deeply transformative, it usually isn’t a one-stop shop. It may require multiple sessions AND like I shared before, each past life needs to be reviewed and integrated properly for the benefits to show. So if you feel limited by the investment consider trying a self-guided hypnosis from YouTube. Also, Dr. Brian Weiss has a fantastic collection of resources for self-hypnosis, layered into his books.

All that being said, let’s talk about the benefits of a past life review with one more story.

How I Finally Stopped Being Scared of Diving

In my first session, I regressed a total of five lifetimes. They were all tragic in their own ways. But brought me great insight into the trauma I was carrying subconsciously.

One recurring pattern I saw was about drowning. Two of my lifetimes came to an end because I drowned in the deep side of a river and pool. It had to do with swimming and losing control.

Growing up, I used to learn to swim at the YMCA. But every time I was led to the 10-foot diving board, I would panic. My body would freeze, and I would become a fetus in mid-air. I ended up scraping my wrists very badly, twice.

When I finally learned why my inner child took a deep sigh of relief too. She wasn’t scared without reason, was she?

Concluding Thoughts

I could go on and on about my regression stories, and the messages I gained from them. But my objective here is to help you understand the beauty and empowerment that comes with all this.

If you have any other questions for me, please drop them in the comments below. I will edit this post to include them, in the due course of time!

UPDATE: I am officially offering past life regression sessions (combined with afterlife regression and soul guide work)! I’d love to support your journey too. You can book your session or a complimentary consult here.

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