I have a firm belief in reincarnation; one of my favorite sessions to facilitate is a past life regression. I do not hypnotize my clients. Rather, I use guided meditation which allows them to be fully conscious and in a deep meditative state in which they are able to view and experience past lives. There is great value that may be ascertained from awareness of a past life. I have found that when a client is unable to let go of an undesirable behavior, fear, or a physical symptom that does not appear to tie into an experience from this current lifetime, I will be guided to explore past life experiences. The reason past life regression sessions are one of my favorites is because there is so much potential for understanding, releasing, and healing the behavior or condition that was created from another lifetime but is currently demonstrating in this lifetime.

 

One of my teachers is psychiatrist Dr. Brian Weiss. In Many Lives, Many

Masters, a national best seller, Dr. Weiss writes about how he came to believe in reincarnation through hypnotizing his patients. He found that when he asked his patients to go back to the time from which their symptoms arose (such as anxiety, panic attacks, depression, etc.), he was expecting them to go back to their childhood; instead he had patients go back to past life memories. Some of the accounts from his patients gave historic details that were able to be validated. I really appreciate that Dr. Weiss came from a scientific bias. He had been a skeptic of afterlife, and reincarnation until he experienced the past life memories of his patients. His book opened the door to a more widely accepted belief in reincarnation.

 

I had a client with phantom physical pain go back to the lifetime that the injury occurred and have the pain released. I have witnessed clients who had extreme fear that could not be explained by experiences in this lifetime, go back to a past life where this fear originated. When they have an awareness and understanding of the reason or source of their fear, they then can release the fear. Sometimes it is not easy to simply release a fear; in those cases, we will do a spiritual healing process which has had profound success in releasing past life and current life issues. (Please see the section on Spiritual Counsel/Mentoring.)

 

I worked with a female client whom I will name Sarah; she could not understand the attachment she felt for a certain man whom I will call Ben. They had very different and contradictory lifestyles and beliefs. He was not the type of man she would have chosen because of their differences; however, she felt helpless to let him go. We did several past life sessions in which Ben and Sarah had played many roles together. They were brother and sister, husband and wife, and neighbors married to someone else but longing to be together. Each lifetime had a theme of love and devotion to one another; their devotion was so extreme that no one else mattered but them. Each lifetime left them paralyzed when the other left. What Sarah learned through these past lives is that there wasn’t any balance in their love for one another. It was so focused on the other that they had no sense of being able to live without the other. Again, their experience was imbalanced in this lifetime. They both tried to accommodate the other by attempting to sacrifice themselves and their loved ones. It wasn’t working. That was why she came to me. She wanted to understand the connection she had and why she couldn’t let go; she was terrified to let him go. Once we completed the last past life session, Sarah had an understanding of the themes of several lifetimes with Ben, and she decided to let go of Ben in this lifetime. She has let go of hoping Ben will change and come to her. Sarah let him go with love, and she is doing really well.

 

Past life exploration may also give clarity as to the dynamics of a relationship in this lifetime. We all come here to heal and grow spiritually; all circumstances and conditions provide opportunities for our soul’s growth and healing. A person may mirror behavior from a past life so there is an opportunity to perhaps behave differently in this life. Sarah and Ben’s story is a great example of this. In this lifetime Sarah and Ben considered the feelings of other members of their family that may have been adversely impacted by their coming together. They chose to release the possibility of being in relationship with each other; instead, they chose balance, and did not sacrifice themselves or others for the sake of being together.

 

I will share a personal past life experience. I have always been drawn to Native American culture for as long as I can remember. I studied Native American Studies in college and attended Pow Wows. When I was a child my father loved cowboy and Indian movies. I would root for the Native Americans and cry when they were depicted as screaming, idiotic savages. My father asked what was wrong with me because, as he saw it, his blond-haired, blue-eyed, Scottish/Irish girl, was pulling for the wrong side. I knew in my heart and mind that the Native Americans were not as the films depicted. I couldn’t explain it, but I just knew it. My family was watching the film, “I Will Fight No

More Forever,” which is the story of the Nez Perce tribe who tried to flee to Canada to avoid being put on a reservation after the U.S. Army did not honor the treaty that allowed the Nez Perce to remain on their tribal lands. As the tribe made it within 40 miles of the Canadian border I knew most would not succeed. I was young and had not studied the history of the tribe, nor had I seen the movie before. Most did not make it. Under the leadership of Chief Joseph, the Nez Perce surrendered, and I sobbed uncontrollably. My heart was broken and I could not stop crying. I was so angry that the U.S. Army Generals had not allowed let them go to freedom in Canada; instead, they were transported for Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. I did a past life regression and saw that I was a Nez Perce child, a young girl. I was not part of the small band of the tribe that made it to Canada but was forced onto a reservation. It still brings up sadness that we were not allowed to go to Canada. That past life regression helped explain my devotion to Native Americans and my desire for Native American studies in this life time. I love to collect Native American pottery, baskets, and rugs, and I align with a great deal of Native American beliefs. I used to have a huge aversion and tremendous fear of traveling to Kansas. After my regression, I no longer have the huge fear of going that state.

 

A word of caution: Past life information is just that - information. I had a client who became obsessed with his past life. It was as if he was living in that era. He desired the circumstances of that past lifetime over his current life. Eventually, I was able to redirect him to being focused on this lifetime and living in the present. His obsession was the result of being so unhappy with his current life. Whenever I am about to do a past life regression session, I caution my clients to understand that this information is just history, a story from the past. The feelings that arise during a regression are very real, and after the session I guide my clients on releasing those emotions from the session.