Atlas›Domain XIV · Western esoteric, divinatory & new spiritual movements›Guide 113
Guide XIV-113

Past-life regression

Brian Weiss, Roger J. Woolger1950
A 25 · L 43 · M 3221 interventions in the Trinity explorer9 described for recognition only
Client cardCompare
[source: …] where a claim comes from[uncertain] not confirmed in a primary source[synthesis] the writer's reconstruction

1. Introduction

Version followed: two published currents are described side by side: (a) hypnotic past-life regression as taught by Brian Weiss in his books and large-group Omega Institute workshops ("Miracles Happen"), and (b) Roger J. Woolger's Jungian past-life therapy, later called the Deep Memory Process, which Woolger described as a guided reliving rather than formal hypnosis. Neither has a public treatment manual; procedures are given here in outline only, as the founders' publishers, workshop pages and profiles describe them, with no induction or regression scripts. The psychotherapist's own work (assessment, meaning, risk, referral) follows each published element.

What it is. Past-life regression (PLR) is a practice in which a guide leads a person, usually with eyes closed and in a relaxed or hypnotic state, to experience scenes and identities that the person and practitioner interpret as memories of earlier lives. It is offered by hypnotherapists, regression therapists and workshop leaders, and in books and audio recordings for self-use. It is a practice within the reincarnation-oriented spiritual milieu, not a recognised psychotherapy. [source: Willin 2016, Psi Encyclopedia; Omega "Miracles Happen" page; Penguin Random House page for Woolger 1988]

History in brief. Wide public interest followed Morey Bernstein's 1956 book about a hypnotic subject given the past-life name "Bridey Murphy"; press claims that supported the story were later found untrue or exaggerated. In Britain, the Welsh hypnotherapist Arnall Bloxham recorded several hundred regressions from the early 1950s, and Joe Keeton reportedly conducted thousands. Helen Wambach ran group regression workshops from 1966, collecting reports on data sheets across set historical periods (Wambach 1978, Reliving Past Lives). Brian Weiss's Many Lives, Many Masters (1988) and Roger Woolger's Other Lives, Other Selves (Bantam, 1988) brought PLR into the therapy-adjacent market. [source: Willin 2016, Psi Encyclopedia; Penguin Random House]

Core idea of change, as proponents state it. Present symptoms (phobias, anxiety, depression, relationship patterns, some physical complaints) are held to carry over from traumas in earlier lives; re-experiencing and completing those scenes, and recognising that they belong to the past, is said to release the present symptom. Woolger frames this in Jungian terms (causes sought "within the unconscious in irrational images") and states the method works "whether you believe in reincarnation as a literal or symbolic phenomenon." Weiss's workshops present PLR as healing for "body, mind, spirit, and relationships" through "the power of love and understanding." [source: Cafébabel 2008 profile of Woolger; Penguin Random House; Omega workshop page]

Evidence status (one line). Controlled studies attribute the content of hypnotic "past lives" to suggestion, expectation and cryptomnesia (forgotten ordinary sources) rather than verified memory, and there is no controlled outcome evidence that PLR treats any condition; proponents' claims of healing, including of physical illness, are theirs and are not presented here as treatment. [source: Stevenson, UVA Division of Perceptual Studies; Willin 2016; Spanos et al. 1991 and Baker 1982 as cited by UVA DOPS]

Concepts, attributed. Reincarnation, karma and a continuing soul are held by many clients as religious or spiritual convictions (including in Hindu, Buddhist, Spiritist, Druze and New Age frameworks) and are respected as such; the therapist neither affirms nor disputes them. What is assessed clinically is the procedure (suggestion under altered states) and its effects on the client. [synthesis]

Cross-references. Domain VI 110 (regression hypnotherapy, with its harm account); VII 017 (transpersonal hypnotherapy); XIV 114 (life-between-lives, Newton), 115 (QHHT, Cannon), 116 (spirit release).

2. Framework

PLR has no standard phased protocol. The published formats are:

  • Large-group workshop (Weiss). Multi-day residential workshop (the Omega listing allows up to 425 participants) for professionals and non-professionals: lectures, group hypnotic regression exercises, "healing visualizations", meditation, "intuitional and right-brain training", and live regressions of volunteers from the audience with question-and-answer time. No screening, contraindications or aftercare are listed on the public page. [source: Omega "Miracles Happen" page]
  • Individual sessions (Woolger, Deep Memory Process). Each session opens with conversation to focus the client on the presenting fear; the client then relives scenes with eyes closed; the past-life hurt is re-enacted psychodramatically; the practitioner helps the client accept that the trauma "is actually in the past", then works on self-esteem. Woolger said he worked with any one client for no more than six months. Woolger's later training (Roger Woolger Training) drew, per a trained representative, on Gestalt, psychodrama, Reichian and Jungian work. [source: Cafébabel 2008; Georgia Straight 2009]
  • Self-guided recordings. Woolger's Healing Your Past Lives came with five guided regressions on CD aimed at letting go of anger, shame and self-criticism; Weiss also publishes recordings [uncertain: not verified]. [source: C.G. Jung Bookstore listing]
  • Research-style group sessions (Wambach). Group hypnotic sessions with defined historical periods and post-hypnotic suggestions to record experiences afterwards on data sheets. [source: Willin 2016]

Typical session count. Not standardised in any source; Woolger's six-month ceiling is the only figure in the sources cited here. [source: Cafébabel 2008]

Criteria for moving between phases. None are published. For the psychotherapist's own work with a client who is considering, undergoing or has undergone PLR, use these stages [synthesis]:

  1. Engagement and meaning: understand what PLR means to the client and why now. Move on when the client's goals and beliefs are clear in their own words.
  2. Assessment: Cultural Formulation Interview including the spirituality, religion and moral traditions module; screen for dissociation, psychosis, mania, PTSD, recent bereavement, suggestibility and current crisis. Move on when risk is formulated.
  3. Informed decision support: if the client intends to attend PLR elsewhere, discuss memory and suggestion, consent, choosing a practitioner, costs and aftercare. The therapist does not conduct PLR. Move on when the client has made an informed choice.
  4. Integration or repair: work with what emerged as narrative and meaning; treat distress, intrusive imagery, derealisation or new beliefs about abuse with standard evidence-based care. End when the client is stable and the material no longer drives decisions or distress.

3. Guiding principles

  • Respect the belief, assess the procedure. Practical meaning: reincarnation beliefs are not symptoms; the risks come from suggestion in altered states, not from faith. [synthesis]
  • Imagery is not evidence. Vivid, emotional scenes and symptom relief do not show that a real past life was recalled; relief may reflect general effects of therapy. Practical meaning: never confirm a "memory" as historical. [source: Stevenson, UVA DOPS]
  • Suggestion shapes content. Experimental work shows that what the hypnotist says about the past life shapes the persona that appears. Practical meaning: the therapist avoids leading questions and expectations about what "should" emerge. [source: Stevenson, UVA DOPS, citing Baker 1982 and Spanos et al. 1991]
  • No recovered-memory work. Practical meaning: do not use hypnosis, regression or guided imagery to search for hidden trauma in this or any "previous" life; cross-refer Domain VI 110. [synthesis; source: professional-body positions summarised in B7]
  • Role clarity. The therapist is not a regressionist, reader, medium or guide to other lives in therapy. Practical meaning: refer out for spiritual practice; keep any personal practice of PLR entirely separate from clinical work. In British Columbia the College of Psychologists bars registered psychologists from advertising as past-life regressionists. [source: Georgia Straight 2009; synthesis]
  • Client-led meaning. Practical meaning: use the client's words ("my life as …", "my soul"), ask what the story means for them now, and let them decide whether it is literal, symbolic or uncertain. Woolger himself allowed a symbolic reading. [source: Penguin Random House; synthesis]
  • Consent covers memory risk. Practical meaning: any client considering PLR is told, in plain terms, that sessions can produce convincing but inaccurate memories and strong distress. [synthesis]
  • Safety before depth. Practical meaning: no exploration of traumatic imagery while a client is dissociating, psychotic, manic, acutely suicidal or newly bereaved; stabilise first. [synthesis]
  • Watch money and dependency. Practical meaning: ask how often and how much the client pays for sessions, workshops and recordings; Stevenson disapproved of practitioners who promise a real past life or charge fees for it. [source: Stevenson, UVA DOPS]
  • Cultural humility. Practical meaning: reincarnation is mainstream in many traditions; ask about the client's community and, if the client wishes, involve its leaders. [synthesis]

4. Intervention inventory

Part A gives the elements of PLR as its proponents publish them, in outline so that the therapist can recognise what a client has been through or is about to undergo. There are no induction, deepening or regression scripts here, and the therapist does not run these in therapy. Part B gives the psychotherapist's own interventions.

Part A. Published PLR elements (outline only)

A1. Group hypnotic regression in a large workshop (Weiss)

  • Purpose and when used: offered to a whole audience at once so that participants can have their own past-life experience; presented as healing and self-exploration. [source: Omega "Miracles Happen" page]
  • Steps (public outline): lecture framing; a guided hypnotic exercise delivered to the whole room; participants experience imagery privately; time for questions. Content of the induction is not reproduced here. [source: Omega page]
  • Example language (therapist, discussing it with a client; illustrative): "What did you hope the workshop would give you, and what actually happened for you in the room?"
  • Watch for: no individual screening is described in the public listing; people in acute grief, crisis or with dissociative or psychotic vulnerability may attend without support; strong emotion in a large group with limited follow-up. [source: Omega page; synthesis]

A2. Live regression of an audience volunteer

  • Purpose and when used: demonstration of the method in front of the group. [source: Omega page]
  • Steps (public outline): a volunteer is regressed on stage while the group watches, followed by discussion. [source: Omega page]
  • Example language (illustrative): "How was it to have something so personal happen in front of hundreds of people? How have you felt about it since?"
  • Watch for: public exposure of private material, social pressure to produce a story, embarrassment or shame afterwards, and the audience learning what kinds of "memories" are expected (a route for suggestion). [synthesis; Stevenson on suggestion, UVA DOPS]

A3. Healing visualisations, meditation and "intuitional" training

  • Purpose and when used: listed workshop components alongside regression, aimed at healing and intuition. [source: Omega page]
  • Steps (public outline): guided imagery and meditation in a group; no technique details are published on the listing. [source: Omega page]
  • Example language (illustrative): "Which parts of the workshop felt helpful, and were there any that left you feeling unreal or shaky afterwards?"
  • Watch for: derealisation or depersonalisation after intensive guided imagery; meditation-related adverse effects are documented in the literature (Lindahl et al. 2017, PLOS ONE; Farias et al. 2020, Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica). Use trauma-sensitive principles if the client continues such practices (Treleaven 2018) [uncertain: not verified].

A4. Focusing conversation on the presenting fear (Woolger)

  • Purpose and when used: opening of each Deep Memory Process session, to bring the client's fear or complaint into focus before reliving. [source: Cafébabel 2008]
  • Steps (public outline): the practitioner talks with the client about the fear until it is vivid; Woolger described what follows as a form of regression that allows previous lives to be visualised, not true hypnosis. [source: Cafébabel 2008]
  • Example language (illustrative): "When the practitioner asked you to stay with the fear, what images or phrases came up, and how did they arrive?"
  • Watch for: practitioner framing of the complaint as past-life in origin before anything emerges (an expectation that shapes content); clients with phobias or panic being moved straight into intense affect without stabilisation. [synthesis; Stevenson, UVA DOPS]

A5. Eyes-closed reliving of past-life scenes

  • Purpose and when used: the core of DMP and Weiss-style PLR: the client experiences scenes and an identity as if remembered. [source: Cafébabel 2008; Willin 2016]
  • Steps (public outline): with eyes closed, the client describes scenes in the present tense while the practitioner prompts for detail; reports describe changes in speech and manner and strong emotional identification with the persona. [source: Willin 2016; Cafébabel 2008]
  • Example language (illustrative): "You described being someone else in another time. As you look back on it now, what feels important about that person's story for your life today?"
  • Watch for: the persona persisting after the session; Stevenson reported cases where the "previous personality" did not leave when instructed and the subject stayed altered for several days or longer. Overwhelming tragic content (Pandarakalam, as cited by Willin). Details later traced to novels, films and popular history (cryptomnesia). [source: Stevenson, UVA DOPS; Willin 2016]

A6. Psychodramatic re-enactment of the past-life hurt (Woolger)

  • Purpose and when used: to complete the traumatic scene by acting it out rather than only describing it. [source: Cafébabel 2008; Georgia Straight 2009]
  • Steps (public outline): the remembered hurt is re-enacted as a psychodrama; Woolger's training lineage drew on Gestalt, psychodrama and Reichian body-oriented work. Woolger also described calling on shamans and working with the aura in some cases; these are his reports and are not presented here as treatment. [source: Cafébabel 2008; Georgia Straight 2009]
  • Example language (illustrative): "Your body went through a lot in that session. Where do you still feel it, and what helps it settle?"
  • Watch for: abreaction without containment; physical re-enactment triggering present-life trauma; a client's account of the experience as "terrifying" (a trained practitioner described her own session this way) even where relief followed; any healing claim about physical illness. [source: Georgia Straight 2009; synthesis]

A7. Placing the trauma in the past and rebuilding self-esteem (Woolger)

  • Purpose and when used: after reliving, to help the client accept that the hurt is "actually in the past", then to work on self-esteem. [source: Cafébabel 2008]
  • Steps (public outline): reflective conversation linking the past-life scene to the present complaint; follow-up sessions on self-worth. [source: Cafébabel 2008]
  • Example language (illustrative): "What sense have you made of the link between that story and how you live now? Does the link still feel right, a few weeks on?"
  • Watch for: a new causal story replacing ordinary explanations (e.g. a present relationship problem attributed to karma with a named person), blame of family members, and self-blame for "past-life" wrongs. [synthesis]

A8. Self-guided regression recordings

  • Purpose and when used: home use; Woolger's book included five guided regressions aimed at releasing anger, shame and self-criticism. [source: C.G. Jung Bookstore listing]
  • Steps (public outline): the listener follows a recorded guided exercise alone. Not reproduced here.
  • Example language (illustrative): "How often are you listening to the recordings, and what happens when you stop?"
  • Watch for: use when alone and distressed, nightly or compulsive use, dissociation with no one present, and use by people with psychosis or bipolar disorder. [synthesis]

A9. Group recording of past-life details (Wambach)

  • Purpose and when used: historical research-style workshops gathering reports from many participants. [source: Willin 2016]
  • Steps (public outline): group hypnosis with set historical periods; post-hypnotic suggestions to record experiences afterwards on data sheets. [source: Willin 2016]
  • Example language (illustrative): "Were you given a list of periods or prompts beforehand? How much of what you saw do you think came from those prompts?"
  • Watch for: pre-set periods and questions are themselves suggestions that shape reports. [source: Stevenson, UVA DOPS; synthesis]

Part B. The psychotherapist's interventions

All Part B guidance is [synthesis] unless a source is named.

B1. Client-led exploration of meaning

  • Purpose and when to use: whenever a client mentions past lives, a planned or past PLR session, or a reincarnation belief; to understand the experience in the client's own frame before any assessment.
  • Steps: (1) ask permission to explore; (2) invite the client to tell the story in their own words and note their terms ("soul", "karma", "that life"); (3) ask what it means for them now: relief, explanation, guilt, purpose, connection to a lost person; (4) ask how literally they hold it (certain, symbolic, unsure) and accept the answer; (5) link it to their goals for therapy.
  • Example language (illustrative): "Would it be all right if we spent some time on what happened in the regression? I'm interested in what it means to you, not in judging whether it was real."
  • Watch for: the client watching for your verdict; relief that the story is heard is a sign it is working; rising distress, pressure of speech or fixed new certainties call for B3.

B2. Cultural Formulation Interview with the spirituality, religion and moral traditions module

  • Purpose and when to use: at assessment, to place reincarnation beliefs and PLR in the client's cultural and religious context (DSM-5-TR Cultural Formulation Interview and its supplementary module on spirituality, religion and moral traditions [uncertain: not verified]).
  • Steps: use the CFI domains in your own words: how the client and their community understand the problem, what causes they see (including karmic or spiritual ones), what helps, where they seek help, and how religious identity and community shape choices; then cover spiritual practices, community support and conflicts. Do not read items aloud from the instrument; ask open questions.
  • Example language (illustrative): "In your tradition, how are past lives understood? Would people in your community see regression as part of that, or as something separate?"
  • Watch for: reincarnation held within a living tradition (e.g. Hindu, Buddhist, Spiritist or Druze communities) versus PLR as a commercial workshop experience; family or community conflict about the practice; the need to involve a religious adviser if the client wishes.

B3. Differential assessment without pathologising belief

  • Purpose and when to use: when the experience is followed by distress, impairment, unusual experiences or a change in functioning.
  • Steps: (1) separate belief (culturally shared, flexible, not distressing) from symptoms; (2) screen for dissociation (amnesia, identity alteration, a persona that persists, as Stevenson described), derealisation and depersonalisation; (3) screen for psychosis (fixed idiosyncratic beliefs, hallucinations outside the session, thought disorder) and mania (reduced sleep, grandiosity such as "I was a great historical figure and have a mission"); (4) screen for PTSD and intrusive imagery from session content; (5) screen for OCD-type checking or reassurance-seeking about karma; (6) consider complicated grief where regression was sought to meet a lost person; (7) if spiritual distress without disorder, the ICD-10-CM code Z65.8 includes "Religious or spiritual problem" [source: ICD-10-CM Z65.8, Unbound Medicine]; the debate on spiritual emergency (Grof; Lukoff) is relevant background [uncertain: not verified].
  • Example language (illustrative): "Since the session, have there been times when you felt you were still that other person, or the world looked strange or unreal?"
  • Watch for: persistence beyond days, loss of insight, risk to self or others, which require psychiatric review the same day if acute.

B4. Informed-decision conversation before PLR (therapist does not perform it)

  • Purpose and when to use: when a client in therapy plans to attend PLR, a workshop or self-guided recordings.
  • Steps: (1) explore the hope behind it; (2) explain memory and suggestion in plain words: hypnotic "past lives" can feel real and emotional and still be built from expectation and forgotten sources; experimental work found suggestions shaped the persona [source: Stevenson, UVA DOPS, citing Baker 1982 and Spanos et al. 1991]; (3) name risks: overwhelming distress, a persona that lingers, new and possibly false beliefs about abuse; (4) agree warning signs and a plan for the days after; (5) suggest the client ask any practitioner about screening, aftercare, fees and whether they promise a real past life (which Stevenson disapproved of); (6) say clearly if you think it is unwise now (e.g. active psychosis, mania, dissociative disorder, acute crisis, recent bereavement) and why; (7) respect the decision and document the discussion.
  • Example language (illustrative): "It's your choice. What I want you to know is that these sessions can produce very convincing images that aren't reliable as memories, and some people feel shaken for days. Can we plan for that?"
  • Watch for: the client feeling judged (return to B1); impulsive booking during crisis; pressure from a group or partner.

B5. Working with past-life material as narrative and metaphor

  • Purpose and when to use: after a PLR experience the client wants to understand; keeps the work in the present without disputing belief. Woolger himself allowed a symbolic reading [source: Penguin Random House].
  • Steps: (1) ask which themes in the story echo the client's present life (abandonment, guilt, powerlessness); (2) explore those themes in present relationships and history using your usual model; (3) let the story stay as the client holds it; (4) avoid adding detail or asking "what happened next" in an imagery state; (5) check whether the story helps or burdens.
  • Example language (illustrative): "Whatever that story is, it seems to carry something about feeling trapped. Where do you notice that feeling in your life now?"
  • Watch for: working means present-day insight and behaviour change; not working means more searching for past-life causes or blaming others for karmic debts.

B6. Stabilisation after a distressing session

  • Purpose and when to use: when a client arrives shaken, flooded with imagery, derealised or unable to shake off the persona.
  • Steps: (1) orient to present time, place and person; (2) use grounding through the senses and ordinary activity; (3) normalise that intense imagery can linger without implying it is true or false; (4) reduce further exposure: pause PLR, recordings and related online content; (5) restore sleep, routine and social contact; (6) assess risk and dissociation (B3); (7) if the altered state persists, arrange psychiatric review.
  • Example language (illustrative): "Right now you're here with me, in this room, today. Let's notice what you can see and hear, and then we'll talk about the session."
  • Watch for: improvement over hours to days; worsening, persistent identity change or psychotic features need urgent referral.

B7. Responding when abuse "memories" emerge from regression

  • Purpose and when to use: when PLR (or any regression) has produced new beliefs about abuse in this or a "past" life, especially accusations against living people. Cross-refer Domain VI 110 harm account.
  • Steps: (1) stay neutral: neither confirm nor dismiss; (2) do not use hypnosis, regression or guided imagery to explore further; (3) explain that memories formed under suggestion can be vivid and still inaccurate; (4) focus on present distress and safety; (5) discourage irreversible actions (confrontation, cutting off family, legal steps) while the client is in acute distress, without overriding their autonomy; (6) if there is any current risk to a child or adult, follow safeguarding procedures regardless of how the memory arose; (7) seek supervision. Professional bodies in the UK and US have issued guidance on recovered memories cautioning against memory-recovery techniques (Brandon, Boakes, Glaser & Green 1998, British Journal of Psychiatry, a review linked to the Royal College of Psychiatrists' working group on recovered memories, concludes that memories recovered after long amnesia, especially through extraordinary methods, are highly likely to be false; an American Psychiatric Association statement on memories of sexual abuse is also cited [uncertain: not verified]).
  • Example language (illustrative): "What came up is clearly very painful. I can't tell you whether it happened, and neither can a regression. What we can do is look after how you're feeling now and think carefully before any big decisions."
  • Watch for: escalation of "memories" with each session, new accusations, isolation from family; these are signs to slow down and consult.

B8. Psychoeducation on cryptomnesia and source confusion

  • Purpose and when to use: when the client asks you whether the memories could be real, or is distressed by doubt.
  • Steps: (1) offer balanced information: researchers have traced details in famous regressions to novels and popular history, and when asked, subjects often recalled books they had forgotten reading [source: Willin 2016, citing Kampman and Harris]; (2) note that the research division that studies children's past-life reports does not use hypnotic regression and does not verify regression details except in rare cases [source: Stevenson, UVA DOPS]; (3) leave the spiritual question with the client.
  • Example language (illustrative): "Researchers, including some who take reincarnation seriously, are cautious about hypnosis because the mind can weave in things we've read or seen. That doesn't settle what you believe, but it may help with the doubt."
  • Watch for: the client experiencing this as dismissal (return to B1) or as relief.

B9. Reviewing dependency and costs

  • Purpose and when to use: repeated sessions, multiple workshops, paid trainings or nightly recordings.
  • Steps: (1) map frequency and spending; (2) ask how decisions are made (does the client check a regressionist before life choices?); (3) look at what the practice soothes (anxiety, grief, loneliness) and build other supports; (4) note promises of cure or of real past lives, which Stevenson criticised [source: Stevenson, UVA DOPS]; (5) agree limits if the client wants them.
  • Example language (illustrative): "Can we look together at how much time and money the sessions take each month, and how you feel about that?"
  • Watch for: debt, upsell to practitioner training, a practitioner discouraging other help.

B10. Referral and liaison

  • Purpose and when to use: psychosis, mania, persistent dissociation, PTSD, complicated grief, or a physical complaint attributed to past lives.
  • Steps: refer to psychiatry, trauma-focused therapy, grief services or the GP as indicated; route any physical symptom to medical assessment and never present PLR as treating physical illness; with consent, involve a faith leader the client trusts.
  • Example language (illustrative): "I'd like a doctor to look at the pain as well, so nothing gets missed while we work on the rest."
  • Watch for: the client stopping medical care on a practitioner's advice.

B11. Boundaries for therapists who also practise PLR

  • Purpose and when to use: always, if you are trained in or interested in regression.
  • Steps: keep PLR out of the therapy room; do not offer it to current or former clients; do not advertise it alongside your clinical title; check your regulator's position (the B.C. College of Psychologists bars registered psychologists from advertising as past-life regressionists [source: Georgia Straight 2009]); limit self-disclosure about your own beliefs to what serves the client; draw on spiritual and religious competencies for psychologists (Vieten et al. 2013) [uncertain: not verified].
  • Example language (illustrative): "That isn't something I offer as part of therapy, but I'm glad to help you think it through."
  • Watch for: blurred roles, clients seeking you as a guide rather than a therapist.

B12. Children and family

  • Purpose and when to use: a parent reports a child's spontaneous past-life talk or plans regression for a child.
  • Steps: distinguish spontaneous statements by young children (the subject of the UVA research, which did not use hypnosis [source: Stevenson, UVA DOPS]) from guided regression; advise against hypnotic regression of children [synthesis]; assess the child's anxiety, nightmares or phobias in the usual way; refer for developmental assessment if labels are replacing assessment; follow safeguarding procedures for any concern. Never name the child in notes shared outside the service.
  • Example language (illustrative): "Children often talk in imaginative ways. Rather than guiding him into it, let's look at what is worrying him and what's happening when he says these things."
  • Watch for: a child's fears increasing after adult attention to past-life talk; a child's difficulties being explained by past lives instead of assessed.

5. Handling problems

Sources address few of these problems directly. Unless a source is named, the guidance is [synthesis].

  • Client wants you to regress them. Decline clearly and kindly, explain role limits, offer B4 and B5. If the client leaves therapy for a regressionist, keep the door open and agree warning signs.
  • Client insists you confirm the memory is real. Say honestly that no one, including the practitioner, can confirm it from a session; UVA's research division does not verify regression details except in rare cases [source: Stevenson, UVA DOPS]. Return to what the story means.
  • Client experiences your caution as an attack on their faith. Repair the rupture: name that their belief in reincarnation is theirs and respected, and that your concern is the hypnotic procedure, not their tradition. Use the CFI (B2) to show interest.
  • Overwhelm or flooding during therapy when recounting the session. Stop narration, ground (B6), shift to present-day coping; resume only in small doses and outside any imagery state.
  • Persona or altered state persisting. Stevenson reported subjects remaining altered for days or longer [source: Stevenson, UVA DOPS]. Orient, reduce exposure, arrange same-day psychiatric review if insight, safety or functioning are impaired; screen for dissociative disorder and psychosis.
  • Grandiose or mission-driven past-life identity. Screen for mania or psychosis (sleep, energy, speech, risk); involve psychiatry; do not argue with the content.
  • New abuse "memories" and plans to confront family. Follow B7: neutrality, no further regression, safeguarding if a current risk exists, supervision. Cross-refer Domain VI 110 harm account.
  • Guilt and scrupulosity about "past-life" wrongdoing or karma. Assess for OCD-type reassurance-seeking and rituals; where present, use exposure and response prevention as IOCDF and standard OCD resources describe it [uncertain: not verified], coordinated with the client's own religious understanding.
  • Grief: regression sought to meet a dead loved one. Treat as a grief process; explore what the client hopes to say or hear; use grief-focused work; be alert to exploitation of bereaved people by paid practitioners and to complicated grief.
  • Stuck: every problem is traced to past lives. Gently widen the frame: "and in this life, what else might be feeding it?" Agree a trial period of present-focused work and review together.
  • Non-adherence: client keeps using recordings or booking sessions against the agreed plan. Explore what the practice gives them without shaming; agree harm-reduction steps (no use when alone and distressed, no use before driving or sleep if it unsettles them) and review costs (B9).
  • Physical illness attributed to past lives. Woolger and Weiss reported physical healing [source: Cafébabel 2008; Penguin Random House; Omega page]; this is not presented as treatment. Route to medical assessment, never advise on medicines, and document.
  • Practitioner discouraging therapy or medical care, or making large demands for money. Name the concern, support the client's choices, and, where a regulated professional is involved, the client may complain to that regulator.
  • Therapist's own beliefs pulling in either direction. Use supervision; avoid both enthusiasm and ridicule.

Documented risks. No separate harm account is included. The sources cited here document expert cautions (persisting altered states, overwhelming distress, suggestion-shaped content) and a regulator's advertising bar; they include no court records, regulator findings or independent investigations of injury specific to past-life regression. These risks are set out in sections 4 and 5. The documented harms of regression-based memory recovery in general are covered in the Domain VI 110 harm account. [synthesis]

Sources

Web sources:

Books and papers cited (as cited in the sources above):

  • Baker, R. A. (1982). The effect of suggestion on past-lives regression. American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis, 25(1), 71–76.
  • Spanos, N. P., Menary, E., Gabora, N. J., DuBreuil, S. C., & Dewhirst, B. (1991). Secondary identity enactments during hypnotic past-life regression: A sociocognitive perspective. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 61(2), 308–320.
  • Kampman, R., & Hirvenoja, R. (1978). Dynamic relation of the secondary personality induced by hypnosis to the present personality. In F. H. Frankel & H. S. Zamansky (Eds.), Hypnosis at Its Bicentennial. Plenum.
  • Bernstein, M. (1956). The Search for Bridey Murphy.
  • Wambach, H. (1978). Reliving Past Lives.
  • Weiss, B. (1988). Many Lives, Many Masters.
  • Woolger, R. J. (1988). Other Lives, Other Selves: A Jungian Psychotherapist Discovers Past Lives. Bantam.
  • Harris, M. (1986). Sorry, You've Been Duped!

Also cited: Lindahl et al. 2017, PLOS ONE; Farias et al. 2020, Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica. Further references [uncertain: not verified]: American Psychiatric Association statement on memories of sexual abuse; DSM-5-TR Cultural Formulation Interview and supplementary modules; Treleaven (2018), Trauma-Sensitive Mindfulness; Vieten et al. (2013); Grof and Lukoff on spiritual emergency; IOCDF resources on ERP.

← Previous · XIV-112Akashic-record readingsNext · XIV-114 →Life-between-lives work (Newton)