Twin Cities Metro Magazine Interview on Past Life Regression and Healing

1) How did you become interested in past life regression?

It was more of a process than an event. It began when I traveled around India a couple of times many years ago, and was exposed to a different kind of thought. There, the prevalent concept is: “We are far more than these bodies and thoughts about ourselves. Our larger identity is an eternal, indestructible soul that has donned the costumes of hundreds of bodies.” Years later, I read a fascinating researched-based book by Dr. Michael Newton called Journey of Souls that supported this idea. Newton was a skeptical psychologist who initially did not believe in reincarnation, but his clients continued to go into past lives under hypnosis. After noticing the therapeutic benefits of these sessions, he continued to use past life regression, but became most interested in regressing them further into the life-between-life state. After over 3,500 regressions with different clients, he was astonished at the amazing consistencies reported by his clients, despite the varying religious or cultural persuasions. What he also noted, however, was the therapeutic healing benefits the experience had on his clients, as they saw themselves and their life situations from the much wider, higher context of their soul’s perspective. I was glued to the book as I read it, and deep in my gut I was saying, “I’m going to do this, both as a client and a therapist.” The subject intrigued me so much that my masters thesis in the Marriage and Family Therapy program I was in was titled, “Exploring the Effectiveness of Past Life Regression Therapy.” The more I studied and practiced it, the more I discovered how effective it was in overcoming all kinds of problems. Finally, when I got rid of about 90% of my public speaking fear in one past life session, I was sold on it.

2) How does past life regression work?

It works because not only is there a large part of us that is eternal and very wise, but we all have the capability to tap into this vast ocean of information. For example, many of our dreams at night are rich in symbols and messages for us to use to gain better awareness of ourselves and how we’re dealing with current life circumstances. I even had one friend whose dreams were consistently prophetic. This wisdom and imagery that comes from our right-brain is what we tap into during a past life regression, only we’re awake and in a conscious trance state at the same time. When we allow our left-brain analytical minds to relax, and then go beneath the continual stream of chatter from our ego, in other words, when our mind gets to that “blank” void, we can tap into a wellspring of peace, joy, and other resources from our soul to aid in our human experience. Many people have attested to this. Lao-Tzu said: “At the center of your being you have unimagined resources.” Jesus: “The kingdom of God is within you.” Paramahansa Yogananda: “Within you lies the sea of infinite knowledge and inspiration.” It is available for all of us, so in this receptive state, when you tell your Higher Mind to take you to a life that’s for your highest good to see, it is excited to do so because your eternal Self can now reach out to connect with your human self for the purpose of balancing energies toward the Soul’s natural harmony. Thus, what happens is a “story” will tend to unfold and you will perceive a life that relates to one of your deepest needs or issues. It seems uncanny the first time you experience it, and a common response is: “I couldn’t have made that up.” It’s simply a matter of relaxing your mind enough to get your left-brain “thinking” mind out of the way because it will block the process of the “true” information streaming to you. Anyone can do it, but it can take a bit of practice at first to quiet the mind down and still be awake and focused. A good guide can assist the first time in this process, and later a guide is no longer necessary.

3) What is the farthest back you have ever regressed someone?

A few people went back to times when they were wearing animal skins and lived in cave dwellings or primitive shelters. Another person described his life on another planet.

4) Is there a particular regression you’ve done that really stands out in your mind?

They all sort of run together in my mind, but one in particular stands out because I did it over the phone at 3 AM. Let me explain: A few days prior I asked a client to describe the thoughts beneath her chronic anxiety. She replied: “I’m all alone…I didn’t do something…Someone’s going to be mad at me.” A few nights later I awoke at 3AM wanting a glass of water. As I was in the kitchen, the phone rang. It was my client, profusely apologizing for calling at that hour. She was frightened, hyperventilating, and experiencing a panic attack. After releasing the panic energy, we explored where that stuck thought-form energy in her system began. She intermittently saw herself above and in the past life scene which unfolded as follows: Her husband, Dave, had gone fishing with his buddies. She didn’t lock the back door before going to bed. A robber came in the back door in the middle of the night. While he was in the bedroom, she awoke and screamed. This startled him, and he panicked and smothered her face in a pillow. She then lifted out of her body and saw it struggling below her. Her dying thoughts were: “I should have locked the back door. Dave is going to be mad at me. I wish he were here – I’m all alone.” That intense thought and feeling energy was “stuck” or “brought along” into her physical, mental and emotional energy bodies in this lifetime. She had felt that anxiety her entire life beginning at the age of six, when some event may have reawakened that dormant fear energy within her. She had visited the Emergency Room numerous times to deal with it, and they gave her a sedative which blanketed the feeling each time. Once we uncovered the origin of the fear, however, she felt that it was completely gone and never experienced it again. This case is a good example of why the Tibetans, a very spiritual cultural group, are careful to try to die with peaceful feelings, as they believe we can carry our dying thoughts and feelings into other incarnations.

5) What do you want people in the Twin Cities to know about past life regression?

Past life regression therapy is a great way to karma cleanse. That is, take care of any “unfinished business” from other lives. Roger Woolger, a Jungian psychologist and past life therapist for 30 years, once said: “We remember past lives in order to forget them.” What he means is that these past life memories and influences are not in some deep, dark crevice of our minds. Rather, they are just below the surface, in the repeating thought and behavior patterns, the phobias, fears, abandonment issues, musical abilities, etc. We are eternal, and past life regression therapy is a great way to free stuck thought and behavior patterns brought over from other life experiences, overcome most issues, or simply to gain a larger perspective of your Self. In fact, you don’t even have to believe in reincarnation. You can interpret the images that inevitably arise as symbolic metaphors that the mind is creating. Positive therapeutic results seem to happen either way you interpret it.

6) Do you have any advice for people who are considering trying to regress to past lives?

As I mentioned before, it takes a bit of practice the first time to get your “thinking” mind out of the way. Once you do, it’s so simple and easy, it can feel as though you are just making up the information that streams to you in the form of feelings, ideas and thoughts because you are conscious and aware during the process. To satisfy clients’ logical minds, I like to tell them about the numerous examples of people who thought they made up the information, then later researched their past life to find that such a person not only existed, but most of the details accurately matched up. A good example involves Captain Robert Snow, detective for the Indianapolis Police Department for 35 years. He didn’t believe in reincarnation, nor accurate recall under hypnosis, so he decided to do a past life regression only to prove it was “new age nonsense” which he simply “imagined.” He got details of a life of an 18th century artist named Carroll Beckwith, and listed out 28 pieces of information to either refute or verify. After a long, strange and synchronistic search, he astounded himself by verifying 27 out of 28 pieces of data, including names, locations of residence, etc. He then wrote a book about this profound experience titled, Looking for Carroll Beckwith.

When our continually chattering ego mind finally quiets, who knows where that information comes from that we consider our “imagination?” It reminds me of a quote by Edgar Cayce, famous mystic: “Imagination is the gateway to the soul.”

7) Is there anything else?

Numerous teachers and mystics allude to the “growing pains” that the earth is experiencing now with religious wars, natural disasters, etc., and mark 2012-2013 as the climax of a necessary transition time for the consciousness on the planet to raise toward an interconnected “oneness.” Simply Google “2012” to get a glimpse of it. The Mayan calendar, among others, comes to an end at this time, hopefully marking a transcendent time. In correspondence, what also seems to be happening lately is that many people’s emotional issues are beginning to surface – the particular issue or lesson their soul wants them to “get” or move past. The cleansing of these issues often involves releasing and healing the energy of unwanted thoughts and feelings that people are dragging with them. Healing isn’t difficult – it can be done by a change of perspective, by seeing turmoil or pain through the soul’s eyes of love and security, rather than through the human ego’s eyes of fear or lack. Past life regression can aid us with seeing any issue or conflict through the clarity and wisdom of the eyes of one’s Higher Mind. It’s available for anyone. The process is automatically healing as it guides us to experience our Selves and our issues from a higher, “eternal,” and more interconnected perspective, which in turn, subtly aids us in ridding our consciousness from the fear of death and all the other interlinked subtle fears that trail from that common base fear. I realize that viewing ourselves as everlasting beings who have lived before is new for most western minds. However, as the scope of “Who We Are” widens, our inner and world view naturally shifts with it, much like how our perspective of earth life can shift when we view our planet from the larger reality of the Hubble Space telescope, and we see earth as a tiny dot drifting amidst billions of other galaxies. When we view our selves from a higher perspective, it is empowering, there is a stronger feeling of connecting to a larger whole, and we can awaken to a great realization: “I can create which direction I want this life of mine to go, irregardless of what obstacles are in its path.” Past life regression is one tool that can aid us in this process of growth. I often call the process “past life therapy,” because it usually turns out to be therapeutic, even when it is not intended to be.

I received my past life therapy training through an organization called the International Association for Regression Research and Therapies (IARRT). A person can learn many similar modalities of healing through this organization. For more information about past life regression and therapy, visit www.iarrt.org.

Eric Christopher, MS, MFT, CHT, is a Marriage and Family Therapist, Transpersonal Hypnotherapist and Releasement Therapist with a private practice in St. Paul, MN. His website is www.ericjchristopher.com.