What is past life regression?

Past life regression is a form of holistic therapy that deepens the subconscious mind. The therapy focuses on extracting the hidden memory in the subconscious mind. The subconscious mind records every single thing that has occurred to the consciousness even though it has taken place in the past life. The practitioners believe they can retract people to their past lives and make them record them in the present. They might also call the past lives the incarnations. 

The technique uses hypnotherapy to recover memories from the past incarnations and voice them through a suitable practitioner. Having said that, mainstream psychiatry rejects this idea due to medical ethics. Because past life regression mainly works on the principle of reincarnation, many psychiatrists oppose this because they have claimed it to be false and impossible at any cost.

The movement to use past life regression as therapy in psychiatry began in the 1950s with a well-known case, Bridey Murphy. Morey Bernstein, an amateur hypnotist, hypnotized Virginia Tighe, a woman from the US state of Colorado, in 1952.

Tighe assumed the personality of Bridey Murphy, a 19th-century Irish woman, while under hypnosis. Tighe had never been to Ireland, but during the hypnosis sessions, she spoke with a British accent and, surprisingly, provided detailed information about Irish life in the nineteenth century.

Learn how physical aliments can be due to past life experiences

1. Many psychiatrists believe that potential illnesses such as migraines, gastritis, and certain diseases that persist even with the most incredible treatments are said to be unresolved in the past. And many people were able to treat those illnesses through sessions of past life regression.
2. The memories, incidences, and feelings from the past life can affect the present life. It can manifest as trauma, diseases that can’t be treated, and some genetic mutations.
3. Past life regression expert and author of ‘The Past Life Perspective,’ Ann Barham says that “Look at what’s been carried forward [into this lifetime] so it can be processed and released. Noting that sometimes, our Past Life Perspectives and life experiences can affect us in ways we’re not consciously aware of.”
4. There have been some anecdotal reports of children making claims about past lives and saying accurate things about a period they should not know of—but more evidence is still elusive.

Do we have a past life?

As Dr. Deepak Chopra says, we are a tiny piece of the infinite matrix. Dr. Deepak Chopra says in one of the Oprah Winfrey shows, “A spirit is as real as gravity or time. It’s equally abstract, incomprehensible, mysterious, but it is much more powerful.”

He also says, “Your memories, desires, and Karma that your consciousness experiences recycle like spirals in the direction of higher consciousness. The ultimate goal is to be one with our source. Everything recycles just as plastic recycles, and there is nothing in the universe that doesn’t recycle.”

So, the answer to the question, “Is there a past life?” is yes. There is. And everyone intends to live life to heal what has happened in the past. And become one with the divine to move towards the higher consciousness.

Past life regression therapy techniques

It is frequently claimed to be a fully immersive sensory experience. You will not only be able to visualize situations, but you may also be able to hear sounds as if you were in the room and recall specific smells.

Regression therapy practitioners use hypnosis to help clients relax and open their minds. Other techniques, such as suggestions, aid in recall, and specific questions, are designed to elicit statements and memories from the client’s previous lives.

In one of his videos, Dr. Weiss shows the methods and techniques of past life regression he has done to his patients. In that video, Dr. Weiss has taken a man back to his past life, and he made him utter all the answers to the questions that were related to a past life. 

Benefits of past life regression therapy

Past life regression has become widely popular in the Eastern-Western world. Because of its effectiveness and curiosity, it has a popular demand among millennials. There are many essential benefits of past life regression therapy, some of which are listed below:

1. Understand personal relationships, including their complexities and challenges.
2. Find out what talents and abilities you can bring forward and express right now.
3. Let go of your anxiety and fear.
4. Investigate the causes of physical conditions.
5. Release physical toxins – the things that make you sick.
6. Experience death and beyond transitional states.
7. Reconnect with your soul’s mission in this lifetime.

As aforementioned, past life regression is a technique that helps us discover our past life and address past life issues. Many people who enter the world of spirituality try past life regressions once in their lifetime and avail the benefits. 

Who can be benefited from this therapy?

Past life regression can help people with unidentified chronic health issues, phobias, and persistent pregnancy issues. 

Past life regression therapy is also beneficial for anyone who has had a string of bad luck. And is unsure what to do with their life, as well as anyone who wants to know if they can work as a healer or intuitive

It’s not always about uncovering past traumas—you may be shown happiness in a previous life, which can be inspiring and help you remember how to live a good life today. Seeing how you shone in an earlier life can remind you of your worth and power.

An Insight from past life regression therapist – Sadhvi Nishtha Om

Even though I have discontinued the practice, but for many years I did PLR (Past Life Regression) as a part of my psychotherapy and healing sessions, I’ll like to through light on two important facts about this technique:

a) it is not supported by psychiatric associations; rather more or less vilified as unethical.

b) considering the fact that it is not supported by any evidence, in all probability, it implants fictitious memories in patients. Unpleasant memories can cause significant harm by believing in something resulting from their disoriented conscious mind.  

In my opinion, granting the fact that it is not an evidence-based technique or even out of line with medical ethics, still, this therapy is helping and healing a lot of people.

PLR is a unique tool used by therapists, psychologists, and healers that helps a seeker identify the reason behind their anxieties, fears, and phobias. They want to understand the struggles in personal relationships, indecisiveness, the roots of unexplained or chronic illness, enduring feelings of anger, guilt or finding the cause of repeated patterns.

Some people simply want to experience this and find their life’s purpose. Others want to explore this theory just by quenching their curiosity, and some for a sheer joyride. But as a therapist, I had my own ethics and never entertained such requests. 

Once the presenting issue is identified, half the battle is won! Accepting what we are carrying forward into this lifetime, a seeker is able to process and release the past imprints with the help of a guided therapeutic session.

In conjunction with going to the root cause of the surface issue, one significant factor that contributes to complete healing is – ‘Faith in the process and the technique’. For a believer, the entire process can be amazingly beneficial, transformative, and therapeutic.

For instance, one of my clients had difficulty trusting and getting intimate with her partner. Once taken through regression therapy, it was revealed that she was sexually abused by one of his close relatives in her past life. She cried and mourned in that deep hypnotic state. Then came the time for healing, and she was guided through the adequate tools that helped her release the past psychic imprints of mistrust and fear of intimacy. This healing rejuvenated their relationship, and she eventually married her boyfriend with very little inhibitions.  

During my practice tenure, sometimes I noticed apprehensions towards PLR therapy, a misconception running in people’s minds that they will witness only unpleasant memories, or they will be stuck in their past life; whereas the truth differs.

It’s not always about uncovering only the past traumas; sometimes, you observe your talents; happy and healthy relationships that you carry in this life as your support system. Witnessing your strengths can be very inspiring for a seeker who is going through a difficult phase. Grasping how you excelled in the past life helps a seeker to integrate his/her worth and talents in the here and now.

Sharing my experience as a seeker

While at the receiving end, I found that this therapy took me on an exhilarating journey; my consciousness navigated through the aisles of my conscious and subconscious mind while in a relaxed meditative state. I could recall my childhood and past life incidents by seeing, sensing, hearing, or feelings.

It was like watching a movie or video clip; I perceived myself as a different character and saw unknown faces, animals, plants, and uncharted places. I not only heard sounds and smelled odors but felt deep emotions which often made me cry.

Sometimes, those unstoppable tears on my delicate face gave me a sense of release from my pent-up emotions. I learned my mistakes, forgave people and sought forgiveness for my misdeeds, took those learning as my building blocks in this lifetime and prayed for Divine grace for the healing. 

क्लेशमूलः कर्माशयो दृष्टादृष्टजन्मवेदनीयः । 

Psychic imprints, resulting from karma, accumulated over many lives condition the mind and cause one grief. (Patanjali Yoga Sutras,2.12)

One of the most profound understandings I received during those sessions is that even when the heart stops beating, our consciousness doesn’t die.

It was a feeling unparalleled to another that my soul has been travelling for eons, though taking different bodies, each time striving to clear the karmic debts and learning new lessons to evolve at the soul level. I experienced that it does not erase the memories, but it aids in disconnecting us from heavy emotions attached with that event/memory.  

And my most significant learning, if you may ask- is “taking responsibility for my karma”.

I thoroughly understood the depth of the saying “what goes around comes around” or “as you sow, so shall you reap”. The basic understanding of how karma, the law of cause and effect, works made a remarkable influence on my conscience that inspired me to become a better human being. This verse from Srimad Bhagavad Gita resonates with me till date.  

उद्धरेदात्मनात्मानं नात्मानमवसादयेत् |

आत्मैव ह्यात्मनो बन्धुरात्मैव रिपुरात्मन: || 5||

uddhared ātmanātmānaṁ nātmānam avasādayet

ātmaiva hyātmano bandhur ātmaiva ripur ātmanaḥ

Elevate yourself through the power of your mind, and not degrade yourself, for the mind can be the friend and also the enemy of the self.  (Bhagavad Gita:Chapter 6,Verse 5)

This understanding from Divine wisdom elevated my awareness and encouraged me to take responsibility for my own actions and free myself from shackles of guilt and blame. It inspired me to take charge of my karmic account and focus on the present.

I reckon that Past Life Regression is a very personal affair and the outcome depends entirely on one’s openness to accept the unknown, as well as ‘Faith’ in the therapy. We cannot validate its authenticity; however, it inspires us to take complete responsibility for our actions and focus on good karma; hence we have nothing to lose! 

Disclaimer: PLR therapy is about personal growth and taking self-responsibility. This is a tool for alternate healing; therefore, it should not be taken as a substitute for any medical diagnosis or treatment. In case of chronic illness and mental/ emotional disorder, please consult a specialist.

Personal experiences and questions on past life regression trending in os.me community.

Praveen Sagar shares a personal experience on past life regression.

He says, “I personally met a south African (Vandy) of Indian origin has very interesting tale of his own past life .  Vandy is poet-spiritual gypsy who led hippie life.

Dabbling with drugs and substance abuse, he travelled across the world before resting for few days in Nepal. Here he separated from his group and travelled to India (Apparently to die in land of his forefathers as he said).

Being broke financially,  he lived through odd works in ashrams where he met an Estonian (Past life regression) PLR practitioner . Born as Christian he couldn’t fathom concept of past life…..till he experienced it. That Estonian took him to past life through hypnosis where he saw himself as a bald monk in Uttar Kashi. Even Uttar kashi didn’t ring any bell as he never visited India before. Read about this personal experience on past life regression .

Author Lina shares her personal experience on pilgrimage to Mt.Kalish

Oh yes, endings can be excruciatingly painful at times. But without embracing these ‘mini-deaths’, we just cannot write new chapters in our lives. We continue ‘fighting’ these closures, we carry on putting Botox injections into a frame that holds a movie of our life.

We want to freeze long-gone scenes, old chapters; we prefer things to stay as they are, even when they don’t seem right at times. We hold on to material objects, people, events, lifestyles without ever allowing fresh breeze to pass through. Yuck, it stinks! But we’d rather put up with a foul odor than go through pain. Oh boy, how many times I’ve failed in this department!

For the Buddhists, too, this kora around Kailash is symbolic of going through a cycle of life and rebirth. This sacred place gives each sojourner an opportunity to shed off old clothes, to discard the muck, accumulated over many years/lifetimes, to LET GO.

The in-between moments of releasing the ‘old’ and welcoming the ‘unknown’ (or ‘bardo’ states, as Vajrayana Buddhists would call it) oftentimes can feel agonizing. But these ‘gaps’ are the most opportune moments for our souls to advance.

The space between an old chapter, that we cling on to, and a potential next, like a natural kumbhak between two breaths, is the most felicitous moment for us to make a conscious choice to either progress or regress on our journey back Home. Read Lina’s personal thoughts on birth and death.

How to prove existence of soul and rebirth cycle ?

I become exhausted thinking and researching, why are we here, is our universe a sole universe, why are things happen certain way etc. And the only plausible explanation is soul and rebirth. But it is hard for me to accept without any proof as there isn’t any. Is there any way to prove it ? 

 And why I am so curious about this that it makes me restless ? Read this conversation thread on past life regression in os.me community or share your experience, help by answering this question.

Can saints predict future and read past?

Do saints really predict future and read past life or in certain occasion they able to tell those thing? According to me , not everything is predictable. It means saints can only predict certain things because of which either they avoid telling future or they keep mauna. Read this conversation thread on past and present life in os.me community or share your experience, help by answering this question.

Conclusion

The concept of reincarnation states that an individual may be reborn into a different body after death. This concept has existed for at least 3,000 years and in many ancient cultures for much longer, including Shamanism, Druidism, Native American tribes, and Norse mythology.

There is a widely held belief that we go through a series of lifetimes to grow spiritually and develop our souls. Reincarnation is closely related to the concept of Karma, which is a Sanskrit term for cause and effect. It is said that more people believe in reincarnation and, as a result, are more open to past life regression than do not.

Since the 1950s, Past Life Regression therapy has been developed. According to studies, 25% to 30% of people in the United States and Western Europe believe in reincarnation.

Reincarnation is a philosophical as well as a religious concept. Reincarnation was believed in by philosophers such as Orpheus, Plato, Pythagoras, and Socrates. Benjamin Franklin, Henry Ford, and General George S. Patton are among the other notable believers. Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism, and Sikhism are the principal Indian religions that believe in reincarnation.

Although other major religions do not believe in reincarnation in general, particular groups within these religions, such as Kabbalah, do. Regardless of their faith’s teachings, a proportion of people from all religions believe in reincarnation.