Past Lives: Metaphors for Healing
By Judith E. Pearson, Ph.D.
The client sitting across from you has just described her reasons for seeking therapy. "I think I know the origin of these problems," she says. "What do you think?" you inquire. "I think they stem from experiences in my past lives," comes the reply. What do you say next?
Whether or not you believe in past lives, the subject holds fascination for many people. That fascination has increased with the recent publication of two books by Brian Weiss, M.D: Many Lives, Many Masters (Simon and Schuster, 1991) and Through Time into Healing (Simon and Schuster, 1992). These books advocate the use of past life regression as a legitimate tool in mental health practice. Weiss documents cases in which clients achieved alleviation of symptoms through hypnotic regression into past lives, and subsequent resolution of the traumas reviewed in those past lives. Weiss reports successful applications of past life regression to treat anxiety, depression, phobias, obesity, substance abuse, relationship difficulties, and a variety of psychosomatic illnesses.
Since the publication of Weiss' books and related television appearances, a number of clients have called me with requests for past life regression in the context of therapy. I decided to learn more about past life regression in order to accommodate such requests and to satisfy my own curiosity. While I am a novice on the subject, I am writing this article to share my thoughts with other NLP practitioners who may be receiving similar requests from their clients.
Three Issues
For the NLP practitioner, the possibility of using past life regression as a therapeutic method poses three issues: one ethical, one theoretical, and one procedural. This article will treat each issue, providing suggestions as to how past life regression may be combined with standard NLP procedures to help clients relieve their symptoms and achieve outcomes.
The Ethical Issue
The ethical issue is twofold: First, is past life regression a proper
and legitimate pursuit for the mental health profession, or does it put
clinicians and practitioners into the category of fortune-tellers, mediums,
and psychics (some of whom are probably truly gifted, well-meaning individuals,
and some of whom are charlatans)? Second, since we can't prove whether
reincarnation is "real," are we perpetrating a lie, a hoax, or
a fantasy, if we help clients investigate
"past lives?"
The answer to both questions is: Past life regression is a legitimate
pursuit for NLP practitioners, if we use past life memories metaphorically
to help clients solve problems and achieve therapeutic outcomes. Whether
we, as practitioners, believe in reincarnation isn't the point. What's
important is the client's belief. We can't prove or disprove the existence
of reincarnation. Some of us may be open to the possibility of reincarnation,
while others among us may doubt it completely. Yet, NLP's Ericksonian legacy
teaches us to utilize the client's belief system and work within his or
her paradigm of reality.
Maintaining an open mind on the subject of reincarnation helps us to meet
clients at their model of the world. If a client sincerely believes a review
of past lives will solve a problem of current-day living and remove obstacles
to goals, we can pace that belief and lead clients to increased resourcefulness.
Treating past lives as metaphors is a safe, ethical stance, because, even
if we accept reincarnation as a possibility, we cannot assure clients that
their "memories" of past lives are real. Such memories could
be the products of the client's imagination, expectations, or compliance
with suggestions.
Loftus (1993) conducted a thorough review of the literature on hypnotically induced memories with reference to the frequency and authenticity of repressed memories (which emerged in adulthood) of childhood abuse. Loftus provided ample evidence that, while many emergent memories of childhood abuse are real, others can be "false memories," caused by popular literature about childhood abuse, therapist suggestions, or even hearing accounts of other survivors. She cites research studies in which false (yet innocuous) memories were implanted in subjects' minds through hypnosis as well as through suggestions by trusted family members or authority figures.
If memories of childhood abuse can be false, memories of past lives can also be false. In light of such evidence, practitioners are obligated to inform clients that memories of past lives may be fabricated and to treat such memories strictly as metaphors, no matter how real the memories may seem. Let's not debate whether past lives are real or imagined. Instead, let's view negative past life memories as metaphors for imprints that may have given rise to fears, limiting beliefs, and unconscious blocks to self-fulfillment. Clients can then reframe past life events as opportunities to courageously review the past, dissociate from it, and declare oneself free of its influence. Perhaps we can also use positive past life experiences as images of untapped dimensions of self, helping clients metaphorically connect with resources such as bravery, leadership, love, security, or nurturance
The Theoretical Issue
The theoretical issue
is: How does past life regression work to bring about healing and alleviation
of symptoms? According to Weiss, bringing traumas into conscious awareness
is the key to healing:
Repetition compulsion is the name given by Freud to describe the often irresistible urge to redramatize or reenact emotional, typically painful experiences that occurred in one's past....Freud discovered that bringing the initial trauma to consciousness, carthartically releasing it (...abreaction), and integrating what has been felt and learned is effective. Hypnotic regression therapy...puts the patient in a hypnotic state and then gives the patient the tools needed to bring an incident like this to light....All of the traumas, not the just the most recent, need to be brought to awareness. Then complete healing can occur. (pages 27-29)
According to Weiss, each time a client reviews a past life, the emotions are less intense and the possibility for insight increases. Weiss points out that the mechanism works equally well for emotional problems and for physical symptoms. He adds that when the trance work is finished, the therapist can help clients integrate the remembered feelings, insights, and information into the current life situation. Understanding the "core reasons" for problems leads to resolution. Clients begin to view their lives from a "higher perspective." While helping the client glean new learnings from memories, the therapist can say things like "You no longer need that pain; let it go."
While some may judge Weiss' explanation as incomplete or vague, it apparently makes sense to his clients. If we view past lives as metaphor, the theory works just as well. Metaphors are tools for teaching, and when people are taught, they learn, and learning leads to change.
The Procedural Issue
The procedural issue is to define NLP procedures that might be applicable
to past life regression. Weiss does not articulate his procedures in a
step-by-step fashion, although the appendix to Through Time into Healing
provides a useful script for trance induction and regression. He does not
mention in his book that he encourages clients to seek well-formed outcomes.
He describes his work as symptom relief, which, in turn, leads to personal
growth and enhanced living.
If we generically model the procedures Weiss describes in Through Time into Healing, the vital elements might be these:
- Identify the current life problem. Induce trance and regress the client to the past. Have the client access a past life and review the memory associated with the current life problem.
- Suggest new learnings and insights that can lead to healing (establish cause-effect). Suggest that the client can now release any negative effects from this remembered event.
- Allow the client to experience any associated emotions.
- Reorient the client to the present.
- Discuss how the learnings and insights can be applied to the client's current life.
A wide range of NLP procedures can be adapted to working with past life memories. The first task is to help clients regress to past life memories; the second task is to conduct therapeutic change processes with those memories.
Achieving Regression
A number of methods are available for achieving regression to past lives. The most direct route, of course, is to induce trance, have the client concentrate on a symptom or problematic behavior, and then tell the client to go back through time to remember the event(s), in this life, or another, that gave rise to the symptom or behavior.
A second regression method is to use metaphors and guided imagery. One example is to imagine being in bed and falling into a restful sleep and having a dream about living in a long-ago time and place, seeing oneself dressed in unusual clothes, perhaps living in another country, and seeing the details of important events in that life. Another example is to imagine being in a library, with books containing biographies, and there, on one shelf are several biographies of one's past lives. Your client can pick out a book and begin to read it, becoming so engrossed in the story that he or she begins to have a feeling of actually living the story. Another example is to imagine visiting a gypsy fortune-teller and gazing into a crystal ball that reveals pictures of past lives.
In the 1991 movie, "Defending Your Life," with Albert Brooks and Meryl Streep, the characters, after death, visit Judgment City where they review the events of the lives they just finished. For entertainment, they visit the Past Lives Pavilion, where they view their past lives on a giant screen television. This movie provides a good metaphor for regression.
A third regression method is to anchor the negative feelings and cognitions
associated with the client's presented problem and apply the anchor to
help the client track back across time at intervals, identifying, in each
time frame, an event associated with the anchored state. Starting with
the current lifetime, sequentially identify three or four relevant events
(at ten to 15 year intervals) and then instruct the client to keep traveling
backward in time into another life to find a memory that matches the anchored
state.
A fourth regression method is to invite the client to envision his or her
time line, dissociate from it, and see it stretching backwards into infinity.
Then tell the client to mark the present and begin traveling back along
the time line until he or she finds a "dark spot" that signifies
an unresolved past life event. Then the client can peer into the dark spot
and see a significant past life event that relates to the presented problem.
Change Processes
NLP change processes for resolving past traumas are easily applied to past lives. Through Visual/Kinesthetic Dissociation (Bandler, 1985), for example, the client can dissociate from a past life trauma and view it from a distance, and them imagine stepping into the scene to comfort and instruct a former self. Reimprinting (see Dilts, Hallbom, and Smith, 1990) may be useful for reframing the traumatic events of past lives, thus helping clients derive new learnings and beliefs.
In Time Line Therapy and the Basis of Personality (1988) James presents a demonstration script for past life regression on the subject's time line. When James inquires about the root cause of the subject's fears, the subject says the cause lies in a past life. James instructs him to float above his time line and see previous lives, locating the one where the trauma occurred. The subject says he was stabbed 18 lives before. As an intervention, James uses language to juxtapose the past, present, and future:
...go back now eighteen times (lives) ago to the moment when you got stabbed....And...look toward now, across...the eighteen lifetimes and notice....the ones through the eighteen where you've actually let go (of fear), already, haven't you?....I want you to go to the future now...and...look back toward now....to notice the moment that you're changed and all the events that have changed in your Time Line both forward and back from five years from now. (p. 76-77)
Positive images of self from past lives can provide access to resources such as nurturance, heroism, confidence, courage, and patience. These images can be incorporated into Swish Patterns (see Bandler, 1985). A variation on Bandler's Visual Squash (see Bandler, 1979) procedure might be to integrate positive, resourceful, past life "parts" with current-day, poorly-functioning "parts," thus reframing problems and promoting additional learnings.
Ecological Issues
The revelation of past life memories may be disturbing to some clients,
particularly when such representations depict traumatic events. Therefore
it is prudent to take precautions with regard to the client's ecology,
sensitivity, and emotional well-being during the process. First, it is
recommended that NLP practitioners prepare clients for the possibility
that the so-called memories uncovered during regression may be frightening
or unsettling, and may not be true memories at all. Second, practitioners
are advised to encourage clients to approach regression from an attitude
of curiosity and discovery; thus the client has not "failed" if
memories do not surface.
Although Weiss supports the opinion that abreaction has curative value, the NLP approach is to minimize client discomfort during change work and avert the possibility of severe abreaction. Practitioners can help clients install anchors for security and comfort prior to regression work. Practitioners can teach clients to dissociate from unpleasant representations and to view a "former self" as though watching a movie or video tape. From a dissociated position, the client can then decide whether or not to associate to the image. Clients can also learn to adjust the submodalities of a memory to lessen its intensity.
Practitioners can also arrange a quick procedure for clients to leave a memory, return to the present, and exit trance, should a representation become too unpleasant or result on abreaction. Finally, after trance work, practitioners are advised to encourage clients to discuss and process the content of the regression experience, clearing up questions, fears, or concerns about the meaning of the representations that emerged during trance. Practitioners should exercise extreme caution in interpreting these representations, and avoid leading the client to unsupported or unfounded, doubtful extrapolations.
Summary
With the current resurgence of interest in past lives, NLP practitioners may encounter client requests for hypnosis to retrieve past life memories. From an ethical viewpoint, NLP practitioners are advised to treat such memories as metaphoric expressions of current-day symptoms and limiting beliefs, as there is no proof that such memories are real; indeed there is ample evidence that such memories may be false.
A number of NLP change processes lend themselves to past life regression and change work regarding past life memories. The focus of change work can be on dissociating from traumas of the past, acquiring resources and new perspectives, and returning to the present with new beliefs and coping skills. Practitioners working with past life memories can take measures to respect client ecology, minimize client discomfort, and avert abreaction.
As in all change procedures, past life regression can begin with a clear commitment to a well-formed outcome, and can end with a future rehearsal of the desired outcome. Past life work is valuable only if it empowers clients to find solutions to present life problems, so that they may live this life more joyfully.
References
Bandler, R. (1979) Frogs into princes. Moab, UT: Real People Press.
Bandler, R. (1985) Using your brain for a change. Moab UT: Real People Press.
Dilts, R., Hallbom, T., and Smith, S. (1990) Beliefs: Pathways to health
and well-being.
Portland, OR: Metamorphous Press.
James, T. and Woodsmall, W. (1988) Time line therapy and the basis of
personality.
Cupertino, CA: Meta Publications.
Loftus, E. F. (1993) The reality of repressed memories. American Psychologist, 48 (5), 518-537.
Weiss, B. L. (1991) Many lives, many masters. New York: Simon and Schuster.
Weiss, B. L. (1992) Through time into healing. New York: Simon and Schuster.
This article originally appeared in Anchor Point, The Practical Journal
of NLP.
Judith E. Pearson, Ph.D. is a Licensed Professional Counselor, writer, and speaker with a counseling and coaching practice in Springfield, Virginia, specializing in hypnotherapy and Neuro-Linguistic Programming. Her web site is www.engagethepower.com.