Past life regression training.

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Past life regression training at the Northern College of Clinical Hypnotherapy. 
 
In module 9 of our Diploma in Clinical Hypnotherapy provide training in some of the multiple theories and techniques of Past Life Regression.
 
For thousands of years spiritual leaders, gurus, philosophers, sages, and theologians have attempted to define the soul.
 
Today there are still many definitions for the soul to provide a working definition in a healing and transformative context is a challenge.
 
Perhaps you understand the soul as a life force, A life force that is an eternal energy that embodies our human form. Our soul is metaphorically in the body, It animates our physical life on Earth.
 
It's the part of us that responds to life, to those in our lives, to rhythm, to joy and to love.
 

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It is becoming more and more accepted, that most of us have experienced more than one life on earth.
 
Respected T.V. programmes have made studies and recorded cases of people whilst under hypnosis remembering previous lives.
 
In some cases people can recall names, places and events which they would never have known through their normal life experiences. 
 
Respected T.V. programmes have made studies and recorded cases of people whilst under hypnosis remembering previous lives.
In some cases people can recall names, places and events which they would never have known through their normal life experiences. 
 
I myself, have now had a few very interesting regression experiences.  My first was many years ago under hypnosis and the guidance of Dave Goodfellow. An amazing hypnotherapist and my inspiration to become a clinical hypnotherapist. Sadly Dave died just before I qualified but the work I did with him inspired me and impacted my life in many ways.
 
(See Dave’s website and read some of his amazing case studies http://www.hypno-therapists.co.uk/past.htm )
 
During this regression I discovered that I had been a Cistercian Monk in Yorkshire.  Surprisingly, I wasn’t such a good man in that life but having had this, for me, a metaphorical experience, helped me to put certain current life challenges into perspective. 
 
My second experience was during a training weekend where I went back to the city of Manchester in 1742.
 
I was a young boy of around eight or nine years old and saw the building of a Wesleyan Methodist church.   During my regression I saw the church building under construction and just out of curiosity my brother checked it out on google and discovered that it was around 1742 that the Wesleyan movement
 
started in Manchester.(http://www.manchester.gov.uk/info/448/archives_and_local_history/7383/methodist_records)
 
Metaphor and data retrieved from the subconscious mind or genuine regression? I personally like to keep an open mind.    
 
However I can tell you that the experience was peaceful, very relaxing and reminded me of the importance of family, friendships and being humble. 
 
Past lives can be fascinating. Some are short and uneventful. Others are long, the person recalling various places, events and information that can be verified. Sometimes someone can experience a past life where we can check records and find evidence to suggest the person they remember existed.
 
Others have no way of checking because the person lived in a foreign country or they lived in an age before any sort of formal records were kept.
 
Perhaps it is a past life if perhaps is a collective of memories stored in the collective unconscious.
 
The collective unconscious.
 
This is a term introduced by psychiatrist Carl Jung to represent a form of the unconscious (that part of the mind containing memories and impulses of which the individual is not aware of) common to mankind as a whole and originating in the inherited structure of the brain.  We can see examples of the collective unconscious in rats.
 
When rats collectively change there behaviour in the UK, they change across the world too.
Rat behaviour changes reported in the UK were spotted in Australia too.
 
Jung recognized that we are not merely individuals and that our minds connect and influence each other in various ways, and as a result a collection of “archived” unconscious information is “stored” collectively in human species.
 
What is regression? 
 
The word regression usually means to go back to or to return to something. Yet, it is something more. It is the ability of the unconscious mind to retrieve sensory snapshots of historical memories from childhood or previous lives, usually through hypnotic regression.
 
How will it help me?
 
Past Life Regression is a therapy that has helped and healed people spiritually, emotionally, mentally, physically, and even financially. Your reflection upon the past can bring meaning, understanding, and insight to the present. It can often even lend a fresh perspective to a situation and reveal implications for working with related issues in the future. For example, an event or behaviour remembered from the past could well be a pattern that gets repeated over and over.  An awareness of this could empower positive change.  
 
Personally my reason to have a regression was purely just curiosity and I did find it to be fascinating.
 
Where do past life memories come from?
 
It could be said that Past-life memories come from long-term memory banks that are stored within the subconscious and or the universal consciousness.
 
Through regression sessions, you can gain access to your memories.
 
How long does it take to access a past life?
 
You may or may not gain access to your past memories in the first session. While some people can access these within minutes or during their first session itself, there are some who take up to a few sessions. Sometimes the mind takes a bit longer than you like to reveal its secrets. 
 
How many sessions will I need?
 
It’s different from individual to individual. Some people find the answers to what they need right in the first session, while others need a few sessions to go through different lives to find their answers. In case your regression sessions are to take you back to your current life time, these may also take one to four sessions as sometimes the subconscious is not willing to let go of the control over the metaphoric "key" to your hidden matters.
 
Will I remember what I see, hear and experience while accessing my past life?
 
Yes, everyone remembers most details of what they see, hear and experience, even when they are back in their state of full awareness in the present life. For me I seemed to also remember more after the session, it felt like the session had connected me to lost memories.  Your memories could be as clear and as a vivid as a dream. Or they may be faint impressions.  During the regression I always take notes of all the critical points and I am happy to record the sessions for you so that you can listen again later.
 
Can I stop my journey into a past life at any time if I want to?
 
Yes, certainly.

At any time you require you can return to your regular state of awareness in your present life and at any point during the session. Remember that you are always in control and conscious, so if you do not want to explore something or go down a certain path or life, you can just say so and I will guide you back. Do bear in mind though that some memories might make you uncomfortable, sad or angry, but experiencing them could be helpful for you in your present life.
 
Soul Entanglement
 
Shamanic soul retrieval is one way to restore and maintain our life force and power. Through this technique we receive our own life force. Another way to maintain our life force is not to hold on to anybody else’s. In our lives, we take and sometimes hold on to the energy of others. Although this is often called soul theft, I find the term to be far too emotive and prejudicial; I prefer to call this soul entanglement. This is something that many of us do, and it should be looked at in a non-judgmental way. In some respects, it is the other side of soul retrieval and soul retrieval techniques can still be applied.
 
Soul entanglement can be a learned generational behaviour and often occurs within families. It is an unconscious act. In fact, if the people involved knew what they were doing, they might well be very upset and readily gravitate to shamanic soul retrieval techniques.
 
We become entangled with people’s life force in many ways, as these examples illustrate:
 
+ When we are jealous of another person’s position, abilities, or status. Envy is a common cause.
 
+ When a person wants another person’s identity or feels the need to be like him or her. This also occurs when we hero worship or idolize someone.
 
+ A very common way to take another person’s power is to judge that person. An additional facet here is that the judgment on another person reveals more about the person who is making the judgment than the person being judged.
 
+ When we over care for someone, causing that person to become too dependent on us. This can result in the person losing the strength and will to support him or herself.
 
Soul entanglement creates a number of problems that may require shamanic soul retrieval work:
 
+ The life-force energy of all parties can become diminished. The entanglement becomes a burden, a weight. Interactions are sticky and inconclusive.
 
+ Relationships can be held on to, causing difficult, ragged, and unsatisfactory completions.
 
+ We may even take on someone else’s shadow and find ourselves working with another’s feelings, which may be an uncomfortable and challenging experience. The “shadow” in this context refers to the Jungian metaphorical concept of our unknown, even unenlightened, emotions that conflict with our conscious self or personality. These emotions are denied the light of expression within our conscious personality and hence are experienced as darker or as shadows.
 
Workshop participants taking part in the soul retrieval/release exercise outlined below have expressed the sensations of entanglement in a number of ways. One said that the soul parts felt like “barnacles on the hull of a ship holding me back and weighing me down.” Another said, “It felt like I was covered in clinging seeds and leaves.”
 
All parties experience benefits when we return another person’s life force through shamanic healing techniques. This is some of the most profound and healing work individuals can undertake. I get a lot of feedback from people who do this soul retrieval work, and I have been told many times about relationships between partners, parents, and children changing and improving.

To provide a simple analogy, it is like an energetic tug-of-war in which both parties are pulling on the rope. When one person releases the other’s entangled life force, that person has effectively let go of the rope. Then when the other person responds, there is no more rope to pull or exert pressure on.
 
Even though we may understand this instinctively and would like to untangle and release another person’s life force, it may be difficult to recall or remember people’s names or faces. Either we were embroiled in an unpleasant event or, in most cases, the act was carried out unconsciously, without awareness. This is the clear problem.
 
The tools, methods, and practices of shamanism and shamanic soul retrieval can be very useful in this act of releasing. Unconscious memories are hard to access, while spirit guides and higher order consciousness provide a means to gain entry. Spirit guides and our higher order consciousness know us perfectly: they know our personal history, our strengths, our qualities, our foibles, and our personal symbology. (Higher order consciousness is the term I use to denote the universal interconnectivity of a vast infinite field of consciousness. We are an integral element within this field even though we may not perceive the wider field, in much the same way that an individual water droplet forms part of a raincloud.)
 
Soul Retrieval Exercise: A Ceremony to Release the Life Force of Those with Whom You Are Entangled
 
Embark on this shamanic healing journey with the intention of asking the spirits to tell the names, or show the faces, or let you know in any way you can understand the people whose life force you are entangled with and are still holding on to. This journey can be carried out in either the upper or lower world. You can also meditate with this intention and allow the insights to surface.
 
Allow yourself about twenty minutes for this shamanic healing journey. You may be guided by your spirit guide to a place where people whose soul parts you are entangled with are gathered, or you may simply become aware of who they are. All methods are valid in this soul retrieval exercise; there is no right or wrong way to do this. Sometimes people in the journey are guided to a lake and find reflected in the water the faces of those with whom they are entangled.
 
When you have returned from the soul retrieval journey, it is a good idea to write down the names while the memories of the journey are still fresh in your mind. Please keep in your mind that you should not judge yourself for the entanglements; it is something we all do. The difference is that you have an opportunity to restore the balance.
 
Now you know what you need to release and return. This can be best achieved by a ritual or ceremony or another shamanic healing technique. These methods have great power in this reality; they are ways of combining the heart, mind, spirit, and body in a single physical action and intention.

Religions from all over the world have long recognised the importance of ritual and ceremony. They offer a means for us to communicate with spirit guides and higher order consciousness. In Western culture, we have forgotten that ordinary and non-ordinary reality belong together; they are two halves of one whole.
 
A fire ceremony is one option for releasing soul parts. This can be carried out alone or with others, and it can be very healing if this ritual is witnessed by friends. The participants can support you by using a rattle, gently drumming, or chanting. To start the ceremony, you need a location, preferably outdoors, that provides a way to safely contain a fire. If you are holding this ceremony indoors, you will need a metal or ceramic bowl and a candle. Feel free to improvise; a pan lid works well too.
 
Call in the spirits, ask for their assistance, and state your intention very clearly: “I am releasing the soul parts of others that I am holding on to.” Then, still maintaining a ceremonial space, tear the paper into strips, one name to a strip, and burn each strip of paper. As each strip burns, visualize, imagine, feel, sense, and intuit the soul part being released from you and returning to the person. After each name has burned, you may want to make an offering to the spirits to thank them. You can add a pinch of cedar or sage to the fire. The act of releasing and returning the life-force energy of others through shamanic soul retrieval techniques and meditation brings with it a sense of completion and a general feeling of satisfaction. To use a metaphor, it is like finishing a chapter in your life.
 
After completing the ceremony, it is still possible over a period of time to recall additional names, faces, incidents, and so on. This is normal. You have opened the door to these submerged memories. The fire ceremony can be repeated at any time.

Can I do Past Life Regression in a group session?
 
Although it is possible for me to do group regressions, the actual value and benefits are far more pronounced during individual sessions. In group sessions, it is more challenging to guide you individually. Nor can you talk about what you are experiencing or seeing. You have to do all this silently and internally and I can only give more generic guidance to all those participating.
 
Small groups are better than large groups and I do run past life teaching workshops at
 
The NCCH as a part of the Accredited Hypnotherapy Training, our practitioner diploma in clinical hypnotherapy course.