Past Life Regression: A Safe Method for Personal Growth and Therapeutic Change

Hypnosis is the main method used to take someone back to a past life. As a result, clients often express concerns about the safety of both hypnosis and the regression process. Therefore, any misconceptions or apprehensions about hypnosis need to be dispelled before the question of whether or not past life regression is safe can be addressed.

Many years ago, I was asked to participate in a radio telephone show on past life regression. I remember a person who called and asked me if I knew that hypnosis was a tool of the devil. I responded by saying that I wasn’t as familiar with the Devil as he might be, but if the Devil used hypnosis, it must be a very effective tool. A frequent concern about hypnosis is that of control. Is the hypnotized person controlled by the hypnotist? The answer is that all hypnosis is self-hypnosis and the hypnotist is a facilitator who allows his client to go into a trance. The customer is always in control and won’t do anything he doesn’t want to do. There are several other common misconceptions and concerns about hypnosis that I won’t address in this article.

Some clients or students who have not experienced past life regression have concerns about the safety of the process. A common fear is that they may be exposed to being possessed by some malevolent spirit. This sentiment has been expressed by certain well-known writers. I do not hold this conviction, but I will place a protective white light around a client who expresses this concern. I do not believe in possession by evil spirits and I certainly do not believe that you expose yourself to any external harm during a regression session. There is the concept of walk-ins that can occur, but only by mutual consent and never during a regression session. (A walk-in is a soul that takes over a body when the original soul decides it can’t continue in the life it’s in. The new soul takes over because it feels it can benefit from that life.)

Another fear that is frequently expressed is that the person could go through a traumatic event in a past life and that the experience would damage them psychologically. It is possible to go through a traumatic episode during a regression, but while the experience can be quite dramatic, it is invariably constructive. In a therapeutic setting, the therapist’s goal is often to allow the patient to remember a traumatic event that is at the root of a particular symptom and thereby purge any associated pathogenic memories through the process of catharsis. In a non-therapeutic setting, it is advantageous to temporarily remove the client from the scene so they can look down and see what is happening while remaining calm and relaxed. The client can view events through to completion while remaining composed.

Yet another concern is that one may discover that they were extremely evil in a past life. While this is possible, most people who come across such a life tend to avoid exploring it unless it is particularly relevant to their current life. If they go to a life like that, all I say is, “Look how far you’ve come!” It is also important to remember that you may have chosen such a life to facilitate the development of other souls. The knowledge of having lived a life of evil is not something to brag about, but it is not going to be devastating. It is easy to counter such a life with a selfless and noble one.

Past life regression is a powerful technique for therapeutic change and personal growth. However, it is no more dangerous than meditation, which is also a powerful tool for personal development. The only problem with meditation is that it requires self-discipline and years of practice to achieve constructive results. Past life regression can achieve results in a much shorter period of time. It is not uncommon for a phobia to be removed or a relationship issue resolved in one session. Both past life regression and meditation are valuable techniques; both are completely safe. The only danger that can arise from past life exploration comes from those people who disapprove of past life regression. Such disapproval often stems from ignorance.