Back in the late 80's I belonged to a group that explored past life memory through group hypnosis (using tapes by Robert Monroe and the Monroe Institute), as well as individual sessions with a therapist. Many of the "regressions" were like film clips - I observed what was happening, without entirely understanding what the meaning of the scenes I saw meant. What was convincing about the experiences I had was how very mundane most of them were. I have a good imagination, and unconsciously or in a dream state can no doubt invent colorful stories about Atlantis or ancient Egypt.
But my regression sessions were none of that. A young soldier in some middle eastern time or country, whose most treasured experience was drinking beer with an admired captain, shortly before being speared and dying at the age of 17. A life in the 1700's as a French nanny, always in service to people to whom she was invisible and disposable, never having anything of her own. (
It is strange how I always found French pronunciation easy). Many of the regression experiences were, seemingly, lifetimes (
as I think the majority of humanity has also had throughout the ages) essentially lifetimes with very little freedom, one way or another. It may be these "regressions" arose because of my need to work on these issues in this time. Freedom is historically a very new idea, and for women, slaves, and various ethnic groups to be included in the equation, an even newer idea........perhaps I needed to see these imprints in order to live a more empowered life. Not to sound completely grim - there were also some inexplicable, and beautiful, regressive visions as well.
I wrote about
Michael Newton a while back, a well known hypno-therapist who spent many years developing his work with what he calls "between life states". One of his best known books is
Journey of Souls, and his therapy is now practiced internationally. I have never experienced regression of the kind he described, but I do find his work fascinating. I was pleased to learn recently, thanks to
Darren's Blog about a recent movie by
Richard Martini about Newton, other colleagues, and excerpts of interviews and regressions. The film maker describes the inception of his project on his blog
Flipsidethefilm.blogspot.com:
"I began this project wanting to make a documentary about the Afterlife
from a spiritual perspective, with a number of points of view. When I
came across Michael Newton's work ("Journey of Souls") I
realized that if what he was saying was true, it was revolutionary. I
set about to either disprove or prove what he claimed; that 7000 of his
clients said the same things about the afterlife during a deep hypnosis
session, before he'd published his first book. So I chose 15 different
subjects and filmed them under deep hypnosis. And remarkably; the
confirmed his research. There are interviews with a number of
hypnotherapists who practice his technique - who are now in many
countries around the world. (You can find a Michael Newton trained
therapist near you at NewtonInstitute.Org).
This is not past life regression - this is way beyond that, where a
person gets to see why they chose their previous lives, why they chose
this life and what the two have in common."
I look forward to seeing the film, and applaud Mr. Martini for his work.
http://youtu.be/xK7vndjaUJg