So, regardless of your belief systems around whether you are a spiritual being reincarnating for soul growth, past life regression via hypnosis is a precious way of unearthing patterns in the subconscious that are limiting you, lessons that you are still integrating or working through 'in your body' that you may or may not be aware of. Forget you know anything for a moment about what a 'past life' is, and certainly forget what you think you know about hypnosis. While you read this, stay curious and listen to the inner voice (yes, mostly everyone has one) that reads these words. Be a scientist, objective and open to possibility at the same time. That's how I like to roll, as you're about to uncover.
When I initially thought of Past Life Regression (before I discovered Dr Brian Weiss' work - this man is well worth a look-in), I wasn't so interested in the notion. After all, the past is in the past, right? I was a 'let's just get on with it' type personality. As I worked through some of my own inherited trauma in my 20s, it became evident to me that my body had not entirely received the memo that the past was old news, and as Bessel van der Kolk so aptly named his book, 'The Body Keeps the Score', that it does, do just that. And, perhaps it doesn't just keep score for me, but also for my ancestors.
The understanding that my subconscious (and, to a degree, my genetic information) didn't exactly operate via the concept of a linear timeline became obvious. I discovered that I could even inherit something understood as generational trauma (from at least four generations prior), and while my father was a Vietnam Veteran diagnosed with PTSD, war and war lingo was all through my bloodline as both of my grandfathers – paternal and maternal - had fought in the World Wars.
By the way, it's important to note that we don't just inherit trauma; we inherit the good gear, too. I recognise that we generally work to solve problems in regressions, so I must acknowledge that we stand on our predecessor's shoulders. So many traits, abilities and strengths have come down the bloodline. I swear, on some level, that there is a beer-drinking, bare-knuckle boxer, sailor-swearing, sheriff and publican who lives inside me, and all elements surface from time to time, one that can 'roll with the punches', 'fall down seven, get up eight', and make short work of things by taking charge (which in the past has presented as a 'bull at a gate', but I like to think I've calmed the bull these days with my inner work), all dependent on the circumstances. If I like the traits, I'll keep them. I might even delight in them. If I don't, and I'm conscious of the triggers, I use my tools to change them. I'll often hear my language as I use some old colloquialism that I have no idea the etymology of, for example, 'You couldn't swing a cat in here' when space is tight. It wasn't until I was 20-something in a London prison that I realised I had been referring to a whip – a cat of nine tails - for all those years. I did often wonder as a child who was swinging a cat and how that animal abuse was ever appropriate in any day or age). Oh, and I have 'parts' that I'd liken to an Irish elf type and a Scandi Viking, and they surface occasionally, and on these, I've used some much-needed 'top-down' control. I'll write another blog on parts therapy at some stage. But I've seriously digressed.
Ok, to sum up, given that all we have is the 'Now', and we are the energetic expressions of packets of information and code that are inherited from our ancestors (even 30 generations back, we have a cumulative total of 2,097,150 ancestors), it's not so hard to imagine that chemically messages, understandings etc are possibly passed along the bloodline. It would serve for survival, no? I feel that the ability to recount is an evolutionary mechanism for the survival of the species to adapt to the stressors of our ancestors, making the information pertinent to our existence.
I mean, let's think about it. You are pretty much your genetic information, right? Where do you think that comes from? I recognise that we, too, have power over genetic expression (epigenetics), but first, we must make the unconscious conscious to have any directed influence over such things. Otherwise, as Jung said, and boy do I live for this quote, 'Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life, and you will call it fate'.
The subconscious content of patterning and its expression may be just below your conscious awareness, stored in the body as an automatic response, active or suppressed memory, and ultimately that which truly governs everything in and of the body, including thought patterns. Ultimately, the subconscious includes the conscious mind. It IS the mind-body. The subconscious is said to be processing around 40 million bits of data per second, and the conscious mind 40 bits per second. The subconscious will also determine which bits the conscious mind should focus on, always prioritising survival. It keeps your heart beating, your body regulating, and all your physiological processes operating. At the same time, you are positioned in the space around you, focused right now on reading this information. Take a moment to notice your body. Are you aware that you are breathing now? Were you tuned in to the fact that you were breathing before I asked you to notice you were breathing?
Imagine for a moment that you are entering a room, the lights are switched off, and you only have a flashlight. The flashlight represents your conscious awareness, which you can focus on at any 'point' in time. The conscious mind is vitally important, as it can illustrate what you need to take your awareness to. The subconscious, however, is the dark room. For instance, it could be a giant library you are entering, and you can only focus on one book at a time with your flashlight, but there are shelves and rows of other books of understanding hidden everywhere in the dark. By first finding the book you need by directing focused conscious awareness, you can open it and discover what you need to know. The library is often likened to the Akashic Records – energetic information stored within the subconscious, including the collective (group) consciousness. Energetic information includes all that is the language of the subconscious, feelings, sensory understandings, and intelligence beyond the rational or conscious mind, such as gut instinct, love, or compulsion towards the orange fruit or vegetable because your body needs vitamin C, and it knows it.
Are you still with me? Great.
So, genetic/cellular memory may influence past-life recounts elaborated with imagination. Given that our subconscious IS our body, it is plausible that a deep recount communicated via emotion and imagery embodied in an individual could well be an interpretation of intergenerational 'understanding' or experience. In a way, it could be considered a chemical imprint of memory.
Of course, many past life recounts in small children show no apparent genetic relationship to an ancestor (usually before age 8, when that higher executive function has begun to kick in). Yet, they can recount exact details of the person they still believe themselves to be, so this might lead us to consider inheriting memory via the collective or being in resonance with the essence of another being, or perhaps being the actual soul of the person that they are somehow entangled with. Or it could be a past life of a soul reincarnating, as the phenomenon's name directly states, which is also the central tenet of MANY world religions. Potentially, using global surveys and regional estimations, several BILLION believers...
Past lives could also be considered virtual, in that they're a creation of the subconscious to communicate a deeper knowledge via a 'story'. Hence, the individual understands the energy and lesson of said story.
WHAT IS HYPNOSIS?
Let me quickly define self-hypnosis because I want to simplify the process as much as possible for you. It would help if you didn't think it's some whacky mind-control, as you may have inherited from collective ignorance. Hypnosis is simply a narrow point of focus in deep relaxation that has different spectrums of trance depth. Still, usually, we aim to move you into a state that feels like you do just before you go to sleep (theta brainwaves). Hypnosis is not some magical, mystical tool (although, paradoxically, it can be), but simply a state that you use to quiet the conscious mind to reach the deep mind (subconscious/unconscious mind) more readily. Hypnosis IS the ability to self-regulate utilising your autonomic (sympathetic and parasympathetic) nervous system. Changing your state is ultimately a superpower; everyone should learn how to do it.
Moreover, in theta, you can experience neuroplasticity and, therefore, 'rewire' your brain to interrupt automatic looping patterns and have different body (automatic) responses. Hypnotic technique is important as we age because our brains do not have the same plasticity as they did during our developmental years, before age 25. Between the ages of 0 and 8, we are in super-absorb mode, and theta is said to be the predominant state, as we absorb the information via osmosis from our caregivers and environment.
Some people enter trance states easier than others, and we'd term them more 'suggestible', while others are more resistant (to relaxation and 'compliance') with practice. However, EVERYBODY can learn to do this and is capable of doing this! Furthermore, I'll reiterate my firm belief that most people SHOULD learn to regulate their state. Period. I, for example, was very resistant to entering a trance, and I have had to learn to do it at will and rapidly. I have been able to do the work that hypnosis enables and to recruit the subconscious mind to make many life changes, some minor (redirect anxiety), some major (abstain from relief seeking with alcohol). Some issues improved just because I had learnt to regulate my state (nail-biting), and I didn't even need to 'do the work' as it was. I just woke up one day and realised I was no longer engaged in a lifelong habit that I had tried to give up for years consciously. You have to love those amnesic benefits that can go part and parallel with self-hypnosis.
Most importantly, as a Clinical Hypnotherapist, I needed to be able to enter a trance and change my physiology to support your relaxation, and your state of trance. As the facilitator, I enter rapport with you. We sync and link, as I like to say.
WHEN IS PAST-LIFE HYPNOSIS USEFUL?
COEX may be identified via an interview process and past life regression (and in my clinical opinion, as I offer several approaches, the Quantum Healing Hypnosis Technique is as complete a past life protocol as you will ever participate in. It truly ticks the boxes regarding clinical protocol, from induction, deepener, safe place, and content to thorough trance termination. And that is very important.).
What is a COEX? It is a system of condensed experience that GROF coined, and it primarily refers to how the mind organises itself. A COEX basically has its own energetic imprint. It can feel vast and deep-rooted, and we are often identified with it, perhaps as though it is part of ourselves. It will always be charged with emotion and usually cemented with deep belief. And it may exist entirely without your conscious awareness. It does NOT need to be traumatic or painful. It is determined by the intensity of the experience and the emotional relevance of it.
If you have a problem with me using the word energetic, I simply agree with the scientists. Everything is energy. Or, as Hermes Trismegistus proposed, the universe is mental. But let us leave that for another exploration.
At the end of the day, whether the experience of past life regression is real or perceived (and in a trance, we can cross those lines either way, which is why your hypnotherapist should NEVER LEAD YOU to create false memory), the process of past life regression enables you to (via your imagination which is recruited heavily to recount/describe and articulate subconscious communication) reconsolidate material in your body that is stored, regardless of HOW it got there. It may be understood that those suffering from trauma, especially PTSD, have been unable to reconsolidate the event in the body and, therefore, continually experience the event when triggered, as though it is happening now. Consolidation typically happens while you are sleeping (in delta).
Past life regression allows you to identify and learn from patterns that limit you. As should be the objective of all good therapy, it enables you to engage in alchemy to transform stored emotion into wisdom.
I will share this with you. Some magical phenomena have also and often been experienced via these sessions, and so many times, I am left awestruck by the inner genius that reveals itself via this process. It indeed cuts through the confabulation that is the conscious mind, all the while using it to relay narratives to take us to root issues.
No offence is intended to you, but I WILL look for and to this inner genius within, which hides behind your conscious awareness. This inner genius is ultimately why you will attend the session in the first place, and we are meeting to do the business of harmonising your internal symphony.
Will past life hypnosis solve all my problems?
It is not necessarily a panacea (although it also could be, and I won't limit your miracles in my sessions because I am all about that possibility).
I would, however, recommend acquiring some 'real-time' tools to deal with your 'real-time' self-management. I offer two approaches to that. The first is the LOTUS program, a life satisfaction course that incorporates mindfulness, self-regulation, and clinical protocols to seriously get you on the path to realising your inner potential (aka self-actualisation via transpersonal development). The second is the beliefit® wellness program. As a Personal Trainer for 15+ years, this program utilises my understandings as SIMPLIFIED as possible into holistic lifestyle management – think self-management and behaviours that prioritise the fundamentals upon which to support longevity, harmonised mental health and wellness. I recommend it, in particular, for weight release.
In the meantime, if you're still considering your options, I've released a fun hypno in the subscription library (which has over 30 recorded clinical and psycho-spiritual hypnos and hypno-meditations), where you can experience hypnosis and the Akashic Records for yourself.
Come deep dive, link, and sync with me. I've got you covered, and I can't wait to teach you all I know about inner work- or rather, all you want to know about what I know- because some of those rabbit holes are deep. Lol.
If the protocol has yet to work for me, I NEVER offer it to anyone else.
Big love already, and welcome to this space.
xxT