I received an email asking for information and my take on past life regressions. Since I get this sort of query every once in awhile, I am posting my response here as well . . .

"Hi Brian, two people have called and want a past life regression. I’m actually certified in this, but I haven’t done this before….well, not intentionally. … but somehow I shied away from PLR as it’s a tricky topic…reincarnation and all. I believe I finally have some sort of understanding of the value of a PLR which doesn’t require me to either believe or not believe in reincarnation….or even fully understand reincarnation if it’s an actual event."

My take on doing Past Life Regression (PLR) is pretty much unchanged since I posted on how some folks approach Past Life Regression as an Agenda . . . basically, if someone asks for PLR as a curiousity or as an entertainment or as a part of an introspective self-discovery type thing, I will go ahead with it. However, if someone is asking for PLR as a modality for a specific therapy, I don’t. If I do regression as part of an approach for therapy, then I don’t couch it as searching for a particular type of memory but just go with the flow. Sometimes people will spontaneously enter what seems to be a pastlife event or at least a metaphor for such an experience. In such cases, I handle it the same way I do any other regression . . . albeit, I am also going to be watching out for other factors that could be in play such as creating false experiences as a means of avoidance and the like or simple noise coming in from the creative mind based upon anything from movies to song or the like.

When I do therapy, I find it much more useful to focus on the here and now of the experience. Regression to cause is very valuable at clearning out trapped emotional energy but I find it very unhelpful and unprofessional for anyone to go into a regression session with the premise that they know what sort of memory or event in this life or any other has setup the circumstances for the issue. In regression, we need to be very careful not to lead our clients but to guide them. That also means not allowing the client’s presumptions to get in the way of clearing an issue.

So, if it’s for therapy, I run my processes clean.

However, if the PLR is for a recreational or introspective exploration, then I am good to go . . . but first I explain very clearly that while a hypnotic session for past life regression is very interesting and may yield some very valuable results . . . and even though the experience can feel very very very real when entered into experientially . . . this does NOT mean that the regression experience is a bona fide past life. Hypnosis does not in and of itself prove past lives . . . neither does it disprove them.

I believe in reincarnation and past lives, this belief is part of my personal faith that I would consider one of my core beliefs. However, even though I believe in the phenomenon, this does not mean I believe hypnotic regressions are a proof of the pudding . . . perhaps some hypnotic regressions are bona fide past life memories, perhaps, or, perhaps not. One has to have other evidence to back up that sort of an assertion before taking it as evidence of reincarnation and even then one can’t prove the information didn’t come from another source. It doesn’t really matter though as that is not the purpose of past life regressions . . . we are not attempting to "prove" life spins upon the wheel. As long as we take it as an introspective journey of discovery that can be taken as a metaphor for what we’re dealing with or experiencing in our life context at the moment, then the experience is valuable regardless of whether or not it is a valid past life . . . as long as the experience is valuable to the client, we’re okay (just be clear on guiding and not leading and of keeping the experience as clean from suggestion as possible and then making sure they interpret it meditatively or recreationally rather than as historical certainty). I know with certainty that many past life regressions are indeed phantasy or confabulation and many regressions that touch upon so-called fringe belief systems are not clean. Over the years, I’ve seen a lot of videos of hypnosis sessions presented as factual proof of past lives, alien abductions, and time travellers . . . in the vast majority of these videos, I have seen very clear leading questions and trance management manipulation on the part of the hypnotist that sets up a presupposition for certain circumstances to be givens. I wouldn’t just point the finger at the PLR and alien abductee folks here either, I’ve seen many examples of poorly managed regression to cause sessions as well. Many folks who do regression work, need to learn a bit more about agendas as well as accidental influence and memory manipulation (my blog has a number of posts on this subject) along with getting in more hours of practice in the basic skills before hanging up their shingles and using sloppy procedures with the general public.

"So, question is, can you steer me anywhere on line where I might read a script effective in regressing them back before birth? I’m also concerned with what to do with them once they have the past life."

This is going to depend upon what they are looking for. If they’re after therapy, then I would strongly strongly uberstrongly suggest that you NOT use a PLR process with them for the presenting issue but that you use clean processes that don’t make presuppositions or assumptions regarding the cause or nature of the cause.

If they’re after a recreational experience then you’re already good to go as you don’t actually have to "do" anything, just let the experience unfold as it does while you run the process.

I don’t really reccommend a "script" per se but rather would suggest you run an intereractive process or regression and then dialog as the experience unfolds.

First, I would use whatever process you normally use to induce somnambulism (deep trance . . . I would not do regression processes in light trance) . . . personally, I use my own variation of the Elman induction. I like the Elman as it has some nice processes to test and deepen towards somnambulsim so you can see where they are in terms of experience a bit more easily than progressive relaxation. My variation includes a couple more deepeners and tests related to physical experience and running the emotional suggestion set. I want a regression experience to be fully experiential so I will make certain the client is experiencing all of my suggestion sets before I proceed.

Once you’ve got your deep trance and you’ve established compliance to suggestions and experiential sets (positive and/or negative hallucinations, physical response sets, and the like) then, you’re pretty much good to go.

Getting them into the past life experience is pretty straightforward. A simple process is to have them imagine themselves floating backward along the timeline with each number you count they float further back until you reach the number one and as you reach the number one they’ll find themselves in a "positive" or "happy" or "pleasurable" moment in a past life where they are experiencing the moment as if they are there right now. Ten, nine, eight, floating backward, seven, six, all the way back to before you were born in this life, five, four, almost in the past life experiencing a moment that is very special, five, four, almost there, feel yourself beginning to descend into that past life, three, feel the feelings, my voice is with you as you enter that past life experience, two, entering the past you, and, one, right now, experience it, feel it, taste it, see it, hear it, become it, be this experience . . . right now." Or something to that effect.

Once there, manage the trance session as you would any session, careful to guide the experience but not lead it. Ask questions to establish orientation and experience. "Are you inside or outside? Alone or with others? Who? Look at your hands, describe them. Your clothes. Are you male or female? How old are you? What are you doing? Describe what is happening and how you feel . . . "

Make sure they’re experiencing it as if it is happening now and not as if it is merely a memory or manufactured tale. Ask present tense active questions. Make certain it is associated experience of "I am" and not a dissociated experience of "she is" within the responses.

There is a short example of a simple past life regression process in episode five of the hypnocast at http://briandavidphillips.libsyn.com (the whole episode is only fifteen minutes and part of that is the explanation on how to do the process rather than the process itself). That might give you some ideas on one take on approaching this stuff in a way that focuses in on a positive experience that can be used by itself or as a leverage into gaining experience to later explore other aspects of the "life" (or, metaphor). Some folks go right into the death moment as a powerful moment but I prefer to go into a positive experience that is used as an anchor point or touchstone from which other moments and experiences can be used.

Another take, is the "life lesson" process where you bring them into an experience or moment that sums up an important lesson for that life which carries over into the present life.

You can also go wholly freeform and just let whatever pops into the person’s head lead them into the experience.

To me, the experiential part of the experience is valuable so I want to do a real revivification or fully associated experience. Others, especially the folks who are writing books about group sessions with one hundred or more participants that do not use deep trance but merely light relaxation and day dreaming, are just interested in random images which are then used as proof of past lives . . . in my very strong opinion, these don’t prove anything other than that a bunch or people attending a past life regression event have the ability to daydream.

"I have books and tapes and all my materials from the schools I’ve studied with…on the east coast. Since moving out west again, I’m at a loss for any reference material."

I know how you feel . . . I’m on the other side of the planet in a country where my native toungue is a foreign language so I have to be creative when it comes to finding resources. The internet is a wonderful resource . . . albeit, folks need to learn to be critical of some sites that profess information as they teach more myth and fantasy than reality.

Give it a go and see how things happen for you. You can also post at the Hypnosis Technique Exchange as a number of folks there are doing this sort of work regularly (there is always someone doing some sort of work there as the membership is quite large and diverse). I am crossposting this response (with personal details removed so the topic will be open and folks can put in their own tidbits on how they proceed, either in general or by specifics).

Note: No, the illustrating photos for this entry are not really myself and my past life. The handsome Amerindian fellow is actually my great great great grandfather, Quanah Parker. If you want to, you can look him up as he’s in the history books, sometimes near deified and sometimes daemonized. The truth of the matter is in between in that he was an exceptional man who was called to greatness by the context of his life. I have a great affinity with him and a tremendous amount of respect for what he accomplished, but don’t have any past life association with him. I just really like this collage.

All the best,
Brian

Brian David Phillips, PhD, CH [phillips@nccu.edu.tw]Certified Hypnotherapist
Associate Professor, NCCU, Taipei, Taiwan
http://www.briandavidphillips.com