Why You Shouldn’t Do Past Life Hypnotic Regression Therapy (on purpose)

Do you think there are things like past lives? Do you think you could have lived before? Is it part of your religion or is it completely against it? What I believe is not important in this article and of course it is up to you to think what you want to think or believe regarding the existence of past lives.

I won’t do past life regression as some kind of therapy, on purpose. By this I mean that I will not do a past life regression simply because a potential client requests therapy. Every now and then, I will have someone call our office for Past Life Regression Therapy (PLRT) for fear of snakes, a relationship problem, or some other problem. When I meet with them, I will ask these potential clients how they know the problem was caused by something in a past life. Usually the answer is like this: “Well, I can’t imagine what else could have caused it. I don’t remember anything in this life that could have caused it. So it must have been something that happened in a past life.”

Proceed with caution if you find yourself in such a situation. Our client is simply doing his best to try to understand what could be causing his problem. And who can blame her? She is not aware of anything in her personal history that indicates where the problem came from, nothing that she can consciously remember anyway. On the other hand, any hypnotherapist who has experience using age regression hypnotic techniques can tell you that it is common for the client to discover material that they were not aware of, but that is important to the origin of a particular issue or problem. .

The National Guild of Hypnotist training covers the concept of hypermnesia and the hypnotic age regression process in their certification training materials. It is well documented that just by placing a client into hypnosis, an individual can experience an improvement in the ability to recall events from their past. Also, in the sleepwalking state, an individual may experience hypnotic age regression and may relive past events. This revival of a past event is called revival. This revival is a “true regression of age” and is a re-experience of the event, including all associated sensations: touch, taste, sight, smell and hearing. In an age regression, all (or almost all) of the information associated with the event can be discovered (remembered). Age regression is the “royal road to therapy” because
It can quickly discover the cause of a problem and provide valuable information that leads to rapid healing of old problems and problems.

When a client tries to understand or treat a problem without hypnosis, he is using only the conscious mind. Because the conscious mind tries to find a reason for the problem based on incomplete information, conclusions are likely to be often wrong, especially if the problem has been a long-standing and difficult topic in your client’s life.

This brings us back to the customer who thinks their problem stems from a past life event. Unless this individual has an ability that most of us seem incapable of displaying (the ability to have knowledge about our past lives while in the conscious state), then these conclusions are probably wrong. Therefore, it is important that you, as a therapist, do not be fooled by it as well.

Few if any hypnotherapists have the ability to look at someone and know that a particular problem stems from a past life. Therefore, it would be wrong to participate in PLRT or any kind of guess-based therapy. In addition, it would be inadvisable to suggest any type of therapy because the therapist or client may find it enjoyable or interesting to do that type of work. Unfortunately, many PLRT sessions are held for precisely those reasons.

In my opinion, doing PLRT under these conditions is unethical. I think it is unethical because you should certainly avoid guiding your client when performing hypnotherapy. Hypnosis, by definition, is a state of heightened suggestion, and if you suggest to a client that they go back to a past life “where this problem began,” you are guiding your client, which can result in collusion. A conspiracy occurs when the subconscious
the mind gets things done or “fills in the blanks” when information is not available based on real life experience.

Here’s another reason I suggest you don’t do PLRT (on purpose). Within the philosophies associated with the different religions that include the concept of having lived more than one life, is the concept of karma. For these people, it is believed that we have a karmic debt that must be paid off. Or, at least, that we have something to learn that requires more than one existence, and that is why we enter life.
after life.

> From this point of view, we come into this life because we have problems that we have to work on. Most of the clients I work with are adults over thirty. Logic suggests that if someone came into this life to work on some issue left over from a previous existence, then the experiences necessary to be able to do that work would arise in this life. The fact that your client has requested your services to work on a particular problem indicates that the problem has probably arisen. So it makes sense that you most likely don’t need to perform hypnotic age regression to a past life to work on this issue.

In the vast majority of cases that I have seen where my client wanted PLRT, hypnotic age regression successfully uncovered an Initial Awareness Event (ISE) in this lifetime. (The ISE is the event that is the genesis of the problem). A full examination of an ISE involves discovering compelling evidence that prior to the event, the problem did not exist. For example, before the event, the child (customer in the regression state) was a
happy child, and after the event she was sad or scared, insecure or whatever emotion or belief was associated with the problem.

Now, on the other hand:

I will, and have deliberately done past life regression sessions for reasons other than therapeutic. For example, if a client comes to my office and requests that I do a past life regression session because they just want to have the experience or for spiritual development, I am happy to do so. These types of past life regression sessions can often be very fruitful and beneficial to my clients, as they often provide inspiration, self-understanding, insight, and spiritual renewal. The key here is that we
they are not conducting therapy based on the assumption that a problem or issue started in an unknown past life.

I never do past life regression therapy sessions (on purpose). However, after reading this far, you might be surprised to learn that I also believe that there is a time when I consider doing a past life regression for therapy to be appropriate. This occurs when past life regression occurs spontaneously, without any suggestion from the hypnotherapist that the client reverts to a past life. I have performed about a thousand hypnotics
age regression sessions, and I have encountered cases where, without my suggestion, some of those clients have regressed to a “past life” or have had an experience that can only be described as a past life regression. The percentage is low, averaging one to two percent among the hypnotherapists who work at our Center.

During these spontaneously occurring past life regressions, your client may experience being of a different gender or race. It will be obvious that she is not the same person who walked into your office. Interestingly, the event that she is experiencing in the past life will be associated with the problem she came to see me for. For example, a client may seek services to overcome fear of water and, in past life regression, may relive a drowning experience at sea. (Since this is not an article on how to conduct a
life regression or how to do PLRT, I will not go into the process of how to do PLRT. That would require a series of articles or a book dedicated to the subject).

As a professional hypnotherapist, you should be aware that if you do more age regression sessions, the more and more likely you are to encounter a spontaneous past life regression. It doesn’t matter what your opinion is on the subject. Therefore, it is the responsibility of each hypnotherapist to establish in his mind how the situation will be handled beforehand.

If you are trained to do past life regression work, when spontaneous past life regression occurs, it will not be a problem for you. However, if you are not trained to perform PLRT, be careful. Our first concern for our clients is not to harm them in any way. Handling a spontaneous past life regression unprofessionally could certainly do it. That is why I recommend that you decide (based on your beliefs and principles) whether or not to conduct a PLRT session if it occurs spontaneously.

If you decide that you would like to be able to provide PLRT to your clients, look for the right hypnosis training[cdb1] . If you decide that you will not provide PLRT, then you owe it to your clients to respect your beliefs and what they may have experienced in the hypnosis session. Find someone you can trust and feel good about using as a referral source in such cases.

I know of a hypnotherapist who informed his client that she was mentally ill because she spontaneously experienced a past life regression during her hypnosis session with him. In this case, the hypnotherapist was a psychiatrist in Sweden. In my opinion, the way you handled your patient was unethical and careless. Your patient is a member of my family. Years later, she told me how terrible this made her feel. From what he had told her, she believed she was “going crazy.” She was particularly vulnerable to the suggestion of mental illness from this psychiatrist due to her credentials and due to the emotional problems she was experiencing at the time, which led her to see the psychiatrist. Diagnostic manuals that I am aware of (i.e. DMS-IV) do not have criteria to diagnose
mental illness due to an individual’s belief in past lives, or because such an experience occurred during hypnosis.

In the event that you have a client who experiences a spontaneous past life regression and you have decided not to do PLRT, I suggest that you bring your client up and inform them that they have had an experience in which you have not had training. But she knows someone who is trained in that area and can refer her to that therapist if she wishes.

So I don’t do PLRT sessions on purpose, but I do do them from time to time. I perform PLRT when a past life experience occurs spontaneously during the course of age regression hypnotic therapy. Such spontaneously occurring past life regressions are rare in my experience. However, as you continue to practice the “Royal Path of Therapies,” the likelihood that one will eventually occur during one of your age regression sessions increases. Be prepared to use it if you want to perform PLRT, and have a reference source handy if you do not intend to offer this service. This way, you can always respect your customer’s beliefs and experiences.

Calvin D. Banyan has a Master’s Degree in Psychology and is the Executive Director of the Banyan Hypnosis Service and Training Center, Inc. He is an NGH-certified hypnotherapist, certified instructor, and member of the NGH. He also serves on the NGH Advisory Board and the Ethics Board. For hypnosis in Orange County, California, you can call his office at 800-965-3390. You can find more information on hypnosis training, hypnosis sessions, and a wide range of hypnosis training materials, articles, books, CDs and DVDs available on our websites.