Once considered a “new age” gimmick, past life regression (PLR) therapy is rapidly becoming accepted in the mainstream as an exceptionally useful therapeutic tool. It can be a rapid way to bring up material in a single or just a few sessions, which might otherwise take many months of traditional counseling to address. It can also be useful for those who would not otherwise consider themselves in need of counseling or therapy services who even so want to expand their experience, draw on inner wisdom and connect with loved ones across the ages.
People are drawn to past-life regression for a many reasons. You might want to explore your past lives because you find it exciting and interesting and to see yourself as someone different. It would just be an excursion through time. A more compelling motive may be that you might want to regress for therapeutic reasons. A lot of emotional problems and conflicts are quickly and effectively resolved by regressing to past lifetimes to release old beliefs and blocks that no longer serve you in your current lifetime. Clients discover that present life conflicts and problems often stem from traumatic events in prior lifetimes. “Aha” experiences continue for weeks after a session as more and more patterns, blocks and emotional reactions become clear.
A typical session begins by bringing the client into deep relaxation. When the client is deeply relaxed, the subconscious memories are able to surface and the client is guided into a past incarnation. By bringing these memories into conscious awareness, we can release or diffuse the energy and emotional blockages that keep us stuck. Typically, the therapist guides the client through the significant events of the lifetime, through the death experience, and then a “life review.” This is where the purpose of that lifetime, the lessons learned and forgiveness and understanding are examined from a higher, spiritual perspective. We particularly look at what is most important about that prior life in terms of what the client is experiencing in their present life.
Almost anyone can recall a past-life memory. Remembered or not, your subconscious mind harbors the memories of many past lives. Past-life memories may come to us in many guises: the deja vu experience, recurrent dreams, a crippling phobia or unexplained fear. For example, someone who has a fear of water may have had a life where they drowned. Someone afraid of heights may have fallen from a cliff. Someone afraid of fire might have been burned at the stake. People with continuous neck and shoulder pains could have been hung or decapitated in a previous lifetime. As these past-life traumas are explored and released during therapy, the phobias cease to exist for the client.
What will I experience during a PLR?
The experience is usually different for each person. For some people, past-life recall is slow and careful. For others, information flows so fast that they find it hard to keep up with it. Many people expect that they are going to see their past life in great detail. This isn’t always the case, especially when experiencing a first regression. Although some clients find they “see” things in their mind’s eye quite clearly, others may find the impressions somewhat vague, only portions coming in clearly.
The format of regression work is to allow a life story to present itself from deep within the subconscious mind where the soul records all its experiences. Those stories lead to a deeper understanding of whom we are and our purposes in the present life. This is particularly evident following a number of regression sessions where we can recognize patterns in the various lives. Those patterns reveal an honest connection between present and past-life experiences and many parallel present-life experiences. Often, present-life episodes have a past-life origin and the stories contain amazing lessons.
As the story of a particular lifetime is revealed, most people identify with themselves even though they have a different body. Some people recognized in other lives are often present in the current life. Even though in a different body, you can recognize a person through their eyes. Many of our important relationships are rooted in the past. Family members are almost always people you have known before. Sometimes we come together with a particular person for many lifetimes because we are comfortable with each other and enjoy being together. But most of the time, we reincarnate with particular souls because we have a joint mission to accomplish or unfinished business that needs healing.
Have you ever met someone for the first time and immediately felt like you “were like old friends.” Most of us have at one time or another. Or we have experienced visiting a new part of the world, only to find it feeling very familiar to us somehow. These are instances of re-encountering people and places we have known in prior lifetimes.
Many people who have chronic relationship problems in their current life are actually dealing with past-life issues they have had with this person. To break the pattern, we need to heal these issues in this life to avoid a future lifetime dealing with this person and issues again.
Wisdom is learned only through experience, often the accumulated experience of many lifetimes. Regression work enables the processing of soul lessons, adding to the wisdom of the individual soul. Your life becomes richer in detail and clearer in purpose.
What is the Focus of Past-Life Regression Work?
Past-life regression work is largely focused on forgiveness and releasing guilt. The hurts of the past can be healed and released but the lessons are retained so the hurt can be avoided in the future. Consequently, the past holds the keys to unlock the future. Of course, it’s always up to the client as to whether she or he is ready to forgive. A client is never pushed to do so if they are not ready. But it is highly encouraged.
Trauma and issues from the past can be reactivated by events in our current lifetime without our conscious awareness. We might react to people and situations in ways that seem counterproductive, or we have a “gridlock” problem that we can’t seem to resolve no matter what we try. It may be because the problem is actually rooted in dynamics set up in prior lifetimes.
Regression work is a compassionate and effective therapy. The focus on wounds is balanced with gifts such as skills and talents that are the bonuses brought forth from the past. Of course, not all problems and issues are rooted in experiences from prior lifetimes. It is important to distinguish that not all issues stem from past lives. A current life issue should be addressed through regression therapy or other means.
What are the benefits of PLR?
We will probably never be able to prove that we have lived before. Even if we were able to produce dates, names, and places, it still doesn’t “prove” that we lived those lives. So why explore past lives? Because even without conclusive proof, the benefits for personal empowerment, healing and enlightenment are incredible!
For the majority of people who experience a past-life regression, the most significant benefit is the opportunity to remember and heal past-life wounds that influence the present lifetime. Frequently, traumatic experiences from other incarnations leave scars on the soul creating fears, phobias, self limitations, emotional and physical disturbances that get in the way of your experiencing your current lifetime to its full potential.
Some significant areas in which past-life therapy has been used are:
- Self defeating patterns of behavior, despite attempts to change.
- Relationship dynamics: intense attraction or aversion to another person.
- Phobias—intense fears that seem unconnected to any experience in the current life.
- Anxiety, panic attacks and chronic worrying
- Obsessive Compulsive Disorders
- Obesity, bulimia, anorexia
- Physical pain for which a cause cannot be determined.
- Dominant attitudes or emotions that seem to persist throughout your life.
- Accessing strengths and accomplishments from prior lifetimes that can be brought forward to increase confidence and effectiveness in the present.
- Re-experiencing a happy, successful lifetime; this can bring a sense of balance and peace when undergoing difficult times, fortifying us to work through our temporary difficulties.
- Finding prior lifetimes shared with current loved ones, bringing a great sense of reassurance that we are indeed never parted from those we love
Will a Past-Life Regression Benefit Me?
It is only on rare occasions that clients do not bring up past life material. Instead, an early childhood memory seems pertinent to the issue of concern comes up, or we find that current life situations or anxieties intervene and need to be worked on first. What works best is to approach the experience with an open mind, not expecting anything in particular. For example, if you approach a regression just knowing you are going to discover a lifetime when you were Cleopatra, this might get in the way of what really comes up.
Typically, people who have a regular meditation or relaxation practice move most quickly into a past-life regression experience. The less controlling you are, the more easier it is for you to relax and let the information flow. The more you practice, the more detailed your experiences will be and the more easily memories will be recovered. However, there are also people who have never done any relaxation practice that recover detailed information quickly and easily. The only way to know how it works for you is to give it a try. It is helpful if you have a specific question or issue you would like to explore, but it can also be left open to your higher self to bring up a memory that is relevant to your learning. Keep in mind that the therapist is there as a guide, moving you though the lifetime memory. How deeply you relax and regress is completely up to you.
This Work Seems Rather Scary to Me
Sometimes the self-discovery process can be daunting but if you wish to take control of your life, make conscious choices and set new patterns, you must be able to identify old patterns at their roots, embrace them, then let them go if they no longer serve you. Taking responsibility for your own growth and awareness means that you open yourself to life on many levels of existence. Being responsible means that you take what you can find from whatever source you can find, extract it, reshape it and then synthesize it into a system of perpetual growth that works for you as an individual. It is using what you learn and experience in the manner that is best for you. The recognition of this and the creative use of it is what makes the wonder and magic of life — past, present and future.
Conclusion
Past-life regression is a truly enlightening experience. Many people are using this therapy to help them to quickly identify unresolved emotions, problems and conflicts. When brought to a conscious level, the healing process begins. Keep an open mind when experiencing a past-life regression — relax and let the process flow naturally without judgment. Fully experience what you are seeing, feeling or sensing and let your subconscious wisdom come though. Afterwards you can analyze the experience to your hearts desire! And you will. For weeks you will have “aha” moments where you realize correlations from that life to your current life.
