herself as a result of that constant criticism in the past.
However, the ‘disease’ went deeper than that. As a teenager, Muriel had suffered from nocturnal epilepsy. A chiropractor had then realigned the vertebrae in her neck, and she never suffered another fit. In the regression, she commented that her body jerking at the end of the rope was just like having convulsions. As her neck was not broken, the vertebrae were pushed out of alignment. In her present life, her ‘etheric blueprint’ had recreated that pattern.
When we began to look at the healing options, she simply wanted to leave that body there. To get away as quickly as possible and go into the halls of healing, which she described as ‘absolute bliss’. In a spontaneous soul retrieval, she then saw a man rushing in and taking her in a 1950s taxi to the hospital where she was born.
It became clear that, whilst that part of herself had ‘slept’ in the halls of healing, other parts of Muriel had had other lives. In order to be born whole in this present life, that ‘sleeping part’ had had to be rushed to join the rest of herself at birth. Its memories had been activated when she went back into the theatre. Past life therapy then healed the ‘cause’ and she was able to perform without difficulties. Later, when she visited a chiropractor again, she saw herself just prior to putting the rope around her, neck. Her guide said to her, “You don’t have to damage your body, you have come to the end of that life and can come with me.” She then saw the empty rope. The situation had been reframed and her body was able to release the memory.
SOUL RETRIEVAL
Reconnecting to a part of the overall self that has been ‘left behind’ in a past life.
ETHERIC BLUEPRINT
The ‘seed’ from which the physical body develops in the present life. The etheric blueprint carries all the information, and scars, from past lives that will affect emotional and physical health and well-being in the life to come.
SEXUAL DIFFICULTIES
Sexual difficulties too can stem from varied past life causes. One of the most common problems is that vows, such as celibacy or everlasting faithfulness, taken in other lives are not rescinded before reincarnation. They then subtly interfere with present life relationships. Having taken a vow of celibacy, for example, may result in impotence when faced with a sexual partner. The subconscious can simply switch off sexual arousal when confronted with the deep inner conflict of ‘I desire this woman’ and ‘I vow eternal celibacy.’ The time frame may need to be renegotiated: ‘for ever’ becoming ‘for this life only’.
Old patterns of behaviour can also be carried over. Some people endlessly recreate their past relationships, sometimes compelled by a vision of what they did not have, at others obsessed with the search for what they did have. They may also carry inappropriate patterns of behaviour. One man, suffering from premature ejaculation, experienced furtive sex with another servant in his past life. There was always an urgent need to ‘be quick’, someone might find them. Another man was sexually hung up on his mother. All his fantasies were about sex with her. Not surprisingly, he regressed to being her lover in a former life.
More difficult to adjust to are gender changes which can create underlying problems. Both men and women find themselves ‘in the wrong body’. Some necessitate a sex change, others respond to past life therapy. Some conditions are complex. Not every case of homosexuality necessarily relates to a man having been a woman before and retaining the desire for sexual contact with a man (or vice versa), but some do. If that person is happy to accept their sexual orientation, then all is well. But it can create a painful conflict in someone who cannot adapt or who comes under pressure to conform to ‘a norm’. (Most homosexuals and lesbians are following their consciously-made life plan just as heterosexuals are, their orientation is different not wrong.)
I regressed a woman who said she had always felt like a young boy with homosexual tendencies. She ‘fancied older men’. This did not appear on the surface as a problem because older men were only too pleased to have an affair with this attractive woman. But, inside herself she felt cheated. She was in the wrong body for the experience she craved. When she regressed, she was indeed a young homosexual. In the between life state, she had wanted to experience life in a woman’s body but she had not sufficiently planned and programmed her new identity. The old patterns took over.
CHAPTER 3
The techniques used to induce regression are many and varied. Some have been in existence for immeasurable time, others are new. Shamans, and other spiritual disciplines, have used drugs, chanting and repetitive dance to induce trance states for hundreds of years. In a trance state there are no boundaries, time does not exist. Memories can be accessed, knowledge harvested, blockages removed. The shamanic culture is both ancient and universal. The note of a Buddhist cymbal, or an African tribal drum, will take you into a different state of being. Sound, smell and touch can stimulate memory, as can places or people.
Some therapists will use touch, others imagery, some hypnosis, but all are creating an altered state of consciousness in which it is possible to access the otherwise inaccessible parts of our being. Many start by achieving a state of deep relaxation, others by pressing appropriate parts of the body. Regression may be incidental to the main purpose of the technique as in body or energy-based therapies such as Shen, Shiatsu, Process Acupressure, etc, where the intention is to release an energy blockage rather than necessarily stimulate past life memories. Many regression therapists combine several different approaches in their therapeutic work.
HYPNOTIC TRANCE
An artificially induced state of so-called ‘sleep’, deep relaxation or altered awareness, is called ‘trance’. From brainwave measurements, it is clearly not sleep as the brain remains active. The subject may, when brought out of trance, be unaware of actions or activities undertaken in this state, although in many levels of hypnosis the subject is fully aware of what is going on and retains that consciousness. Hypnosis accesses the subconscious mind, that level of consciousness that lies ‘beneath’ ordinary, everyday awareness, and which retains all our memories. The subconscious mind is extremely powerful and can bring about deep healing.
There is a difference between a hypnotist, who merely accesses the memories, and a hypnotherapist, who uses those memories therapeutically to effect change.
In hypnotic trance, the subject is directed back through time or told to go straight to a particular time or experience. Appropriate questions are used to guide the process. Control of the experience remains with the therapist.
Regression under hypnosis is vivid, the subject experiences all the feelings, pains and joys of the life. The therapeutic value varies according to whether or not the therapist believes rerunning the life is all that is required and whether the therapist recognizes symbolic and other states. If healing and reframing techniques are also used, the therapeutic value of the experience is likely to be enhanced and longer lasting.
ACTIVE IMAGINATION
In active imagination, the subject is encouraged to ‘act as if’ until the scene becomes real. So, for instance, the therapist may ‘see’ the scene first, describing it until the subject joins in; or may direct the subject through various actions such as opening a wardrobe and selecting clothing. Control of the process is transferred to the subject when possible.
The
