Seeing Patterns in Regression

The main advantage of regression therapy is help the patient to see "patterns" in his/her lives, both past and present. With a knowledge of patterns, the relief of symptoms is facilitated. Patients can then see how past mistakes are still interfering with their physical and emotional functioning and make new choices to improve their performance.

All of us live somewhat in our past and never completely in the present. Whenever our past obtrudes upon the present and distorts it, a return to the orginal event that that has "sensitised" us to the distortion can often provide the necessary enlightenment to free ourselves from the torture of the distorted present. For instance, a whole range of psychological symptoms and emotional dysfunctions are the outcome of past injustice, e.g. fear, stress, irrational behaviour, rage, etc. For patients who have lost all their sense of self-worth or experiencing personality clashes in their relationships, the use of regression therapy to work out their patterns has been noted to be of immense value in healing. A past life regression helps to ferret out and resolve patterns in the current life that are rooted in the past and that which cannot be dealt with by conventional methods of healing.

Almost any symptom can be an entry point for regression therapy. Even incidents such as illnesses, accidents or death can be important targets for recall. However, the use of regression therapy is not confined to the alleviation of symptoms. Simply pinpointing the origin of a symptom to a past life may not be adequate to bring about transformation. It is more important to re-live the experience, and examine the dynamics and attitudes that support the symptoms. This has often got to be explored at the physical, emotional and mental levels.

Patients who experience problems which cannot be formulated in terms of anything known about their current life may find the origin in a past life and use it to search for a pattern to deepen their understanding of themselves at a subconscious level. Very often healing, or a resolution of the problem occurs along the way and he/she may become aware that the discovery process is part of an embedded spiritual journey.

Uses of Hypnosis in Healing

Hypnosis works in many clinical conditions and effective in many people. The key to success in hypnotherapy is really the therapist-client relationship.

Below is a list of legitimate uses of hypnotherapy, as defined by the American Society of Clinical Hypnosis:

• Allergies
• Anxiety and stress management
• Asthma
• Bedwetting
• Bowel Syndrome
• Colitis, Crohn's disease
  
• Concentration
• Depression
  
• Dermatological disorders (eczema, herpes, neurodermatitis, pruritus, psoriasis, warts)
• Hypertension
• Learning disorders
• Obesity and Weight control
• Pain (back pain, cancer pain, dental anaesthesia, headaches, migraines, arthritis, rheumatism)
  
• Sleep disorders
  
• Sports, athletic performance
• Smoking cessation
• Raynaud's disease
• Test anxiety

(Source: Richard K Nongard, "Clinical Hypnosis - a Primer)

Stress-related Illness

Most of the disorders that responds well to hypnotherapy are related to stress. Stressors are numerous and varied in our environment. Some are current while others are related to experiences earlier in an individual's life. These experiences vary from major life events such as death of a spouse or family member, a divorce, relocation and retirement to low-severity situations such as a holiday, change in eating habits, or change in sleep pattern. Not all stressors come from major life events. Many daily hassles can be stressful to the individual, e.g. health of a family member, concerns about body weight and shape, rising prices of everyday goods, misplacing objects, busy work schedules etc.

Many individuals cope with stress by using strategies such as overeating and smoking but these are not necessarily effective measures. If the stress continues serious psychosomatic problems evolve and are often accompanied by increased cardiovascular morbidity.

Stress-related illness can be a result of behavioural or physiological change. Often health behaviours that are affected include smoking, alcoholism, changes in diet, unsafe sexual practices and drug abuse. Illness may also be caused by stress through physiological pathways. Examples are: (i) increase in gastric acid secretion resulting in peptic ulcers (ii) increased catecholamines production and clotting tendencies with increased risk of heart attack, kidney disease and stroke (iii) increase in corticosteroids leading to arthritis and a lowering of the immune system.

When individuals experience stress, there is an initial tendency to become stoic, because a stoical approach is often considered a constructive approach to personal stress management. Hypnosis as a clinical intervention may come in useful because it assists the patient to realistically appraise his daily hassles and help him to deal with the stress by techniques such as relaxation, ego-strengthening, reframing or cognitive restructuring. Hypnosis can also help the patient to identify the stressors deal with the longer-term effects of chronic stress e.g. psychosomatic problems, alcoholism, obesity, smoking, etc.

In general the hypnotherapist makes the assumption that the patient has inner resources for change and transformation. These resources include creativity and a potential for healing. Hypnosis is required for these resources to be accessed. The most common hypnotherapeutic methods used for stress management are those of relaxation, ego-strengthening, suggestion and reframing. In particular relaxation is very easily taught to patients and very useful for a variety of anxiety and stress disorders.

What do we understanding by "Healing"?

How Regression Therapy differs from Psychotherapy

Past lives were originally recovered out of curiosity and interest, but accidentally it was discovered that it has therapeutic value. In the early development of the past-life regression technique therapists have found it difficult to explain how the intervention brought about changes in the patient's life. Today, our understanding of the process has progressed.

In psychotherapy, the process assists the patient in bringing his energy field into a state of harmony and balance. Past life regression differs from psychotherapy in that the former is conducted in an altered state of consciousness, or in other words, a trance state. In this altered state, the patient retrieves the experience of another personality in a different life time. It is an autonomous personality that has its own history and makes its own decisions. All the patient needs to do to watch the drama of this personality unfold, but he cannot determine what the script will be. However, since he himself is in someways part of this autonomous personality, he is often drawn into its strivings and sufferings. Simply living out a regression with its physical and emotional aspects has been noted to lead to remission of the presenting symptom or problem. Examples of problems being treated include phobias, compulsions, allergies, headaches, fears, and emotional and mental problems of all kinds, just to name a few.

The principle of past life regression therapy by which patient changes are implemented is the same as that of psychotherapy or psychoanalysis. It is to make the unconscious conscious. The idea is to restore choice to the patient. However the technique does it with the patient in a trance state and involves viewing a sequence of lifetimes to bring about an understanding of problems. The process of viewing and participating in the past life story augments self-acceptance and facilitates the alleviation of the symptom.

The object of past life therapy is to unravel distortions and guide the patientto a clear perception and experiential understanding of the truth of what actually happened in a past life trauma. This brings about healing because knowing the truth leads to freedom.

Clarifying Life Purpose with Past Life Regression.

Existence and consciousness are the two basic ingredients in our life and these two basic qualities are interdependent. Our existence provides us with a location in time and space whereas our consciousness makes us aware of our existence. It is the continuation of existence and consciousness that constitutes the fundamental purpose of our life. Everything that we do as an individual is based on our ability to survive, both as a physical human during a lifetime and a spirit throughout etermity. The consciousness of our spirit, at its origin, determines and shape a personal purpose.

However, our misconceptions about our personal purpose and the reality within our personal philosophy can produce self-sabotaging behaviours. Such behaviours can perpetuate one's lifetime or many life times, and by investigating our past lives, we can gain greater clarity about our life purpose. This process can be greatly assisted through hypnotherapy techniques through a past life regression process.

Past life regression is the deliberate use of a variety of methods to retrieve memories of experiences that occurred in other life times. Memories of past lives may reveal why we have a natural talent for certain skills, such as art, music, poetry, sports, etc. Past lives can also explain relationships, hobbies, phobias, habits, etc. When we reconnect with the talents and skills we accrued in former lifetimes, we can bring the same ability, focus and knowledge into our present lives. By doing so, we can generate ideas about new directions in our lives and acquire greater confidence in using our talents. After we experience a number of past lives we often fee more connected to our greater life plan and a stronger connection to our personal values. When we look at our lives from the perspective of the evolution of our human society and history rather than in the context of our personal issues, our individual hardships appear less overwhelming and our struggles acquire greater meaning.

In essence, the pursuit of past life memories comes from the desire to put our character, personality and present-life experiences into context within the full progression of our soul. What is remarkable is the fact that during the process of re-experiencing past life events we often also experience healing and change.