Surrounding all of this is the ‘higher consciousness’ of our spiritual self. Time does not exist for the higher consciousness. This consciousness is past, present and future – there is no distinction. Higher consciousness is more than global, it is cosmic: we are everything else at this level.
In past life work, all these levels of consciousness may be activated.
The Levels of Consciousness
IS RELIVING A LIFE ENOUGH?
It depends on your reason for regressing. It is sufficient to satisfy curiosity, to give a sense of: ‘Yes, I have lived before’. It may give you an insight into what is going on. However, as Denys Kelsey, one of the pioneers of past life therapy, puts it: “Insight does not necessarily imply cure.” Simply reliving a life is rarely enough for more serious purposes. Most of the therapeutic work involves freeing something which has become stuck in the past, the burden of which has been carried forward into the present. That burden may have created a pattern of reaction, based on the now inappropriate past. This pattern needs to be rewoven so that a new response is possible. The primary cause may be emotional, physical or mental, but it will imprint on the present life and may be experienced as some form of illness or other dis-ease, not necessarily physical. Past life therapy seeks to clear the cause, and the dis-ease is healed.
IS THERE A DIFFERENCE BETWEEN RELIVING A PAST LIFE AND HAVING PAST LIFE THERAPY?
Most definitely. Rerunning a past life is for the curious. The ‘who was I’ approach is not therapeutic. It rarely makes any major difference to your present life or brings about permanent change. It may give an insight, an ‘Aha, so that’s why …’ moment. It may also boost your ego for a short time, depending on the experience. But the effect usually fades.
The therapy approach uncovers the reasons behind your present behaviour or difficulty and changes the picture. It expands your understanding of yourself. Therapy means healing. It is curative. Your life or health should improve, sometimes dramatically, after past life therapy.
WILL I RETAIN CONTROL OF THE PROCESS?
It all depends on the method used and on the individual therapist. Some regression therapists are strongly directive, retaining control of the process at all times; others work with a client-centred approach that allows the client to work at their own pace and in their own way (with help or direction from the therapist when needed).
CAN OTHER PEOPLE ‘SEE’ MY PAST LIVES?
Yes. Psychics, astrologers and shamans all have ways of reading past lives for other people. I use a combination of astrology and far memory to do karmic readings, for example. When I first started doing this work I would see lives unrolling in front of my eyes just like watching a film. It was most graphic. If I looked at someone’s face, I would see their past life faces superimposed. I still use this ability, but now ‘see’ much more subjectively, and often work without meeting my client face to face.
Far Memory
The psychic ability to tune into other lives, whether one’s own or other people’s.
Some psychics and shamans use ‘far memory’, some contact your Higher Self, others contact a guide who knows your past, while others may use a ‘set formula’. One astrological approach has a formula which purports to tell you exactly who you were, whilst karmic astrology identifies your patterns and probable experiences but not the precise detail of your lives. People reading for you may use the aura, the Akashic Record or the birth chart, or journey into other realms to gather information. These readings can be extremely useful in giving you an overview, or in pinpointing particular problems. Sometimes simply knowing, accepting at a deep inner level: “This is true for me,” is enough to recognize the root cause or change the pattern. At other times this is a starting point for personal regression work. Indeed, some regressionists work by tuning into a past life for you and having you tune in too.
Guides
Guides are discarnate beings, that is they inhabit the spiritual dimensions rather than the physical. They come to assist us when required. It is widely believed that our guides are souls who have known us in other lives, although it is also possible that they are another aspect of ourself.
There are psychics who can enter into the other life with you, using their energy to bring about change. They are fully involved with you as you were then, feeling what you felt (or feel, if you yourself are doing the regression). At a subtle level they heal the past and you receive the benefit in your present life. Joan Grant and Christine Hartley frequently utilized this approach. I may do so myself during karmic readings or regression sessions but I prefer to facilitate my clients doing the work themselves in regression as I believe we each need to take responsibility for our own healing. Shamans, particularly those using North or South American Indian methods, may well journey to your past lives, ‘recovering’ a lost part of yourself, bringing it back and helping you to integrate this into your present life.
The Akashic Record
The Akashic Record is an esoteric narrative of all that has been, and will be. It is woven into the fabric of the universe. It encompasses all possibilities. It can be ‘read’ by psychics, amongst others, to give details of past lives and present purpose.
The Higher Self
The eternal, spiritual part of us that is immortal and which, because it experiences all our lives, contains our totality of being. It is ‘higher’ because it is vibrating at a faster rate than the physical body.
THE ADVANTAGES AND THE DANGERS
The advantage of any form of past life therapy is that it enables extremely deep change to take place at the source of the problem. It is not dealing with symptoms, it addresses the cause. In fully experiencing or reliving the past, in reconnecting to lost parts of the self, in integrating previously unacceptable facets or in allowing oneself to fully feel the feelings and emotions of that life, and in reframing and rewriting the past, profound healing takes place.
The greatest danger lies perhaps in the ego. If there is an underlying need to compensate for any feelings of inadequacy in the present life, then an ego trip is an ever-present possibility. So too is getting caught up in a ‘fantasy in fancy dress’; wishful thinking is hardly therapeutic. An experienced practitioner will know how to recognize a fantasy, and how to work with it symbolically to bring about healing. The danger from the practitioner’s ego arises when the practitioner is over-confident: “I’ve seen it all, I can handle everything.” Life has a funny way of throwing up a few surprises, so retaining humility and the ability to learn on the job are vital.
The other great danger lies in practitioners who are inexperienced and/or unable or unwilling to stay with the process if deep trauma surfaces. Many hypnotists immediately instruct their clients to forget all about it, thus driving the trauma even deeper. Other practitioners tell their clients to detach, to move away from the experience instead of reliving the pain and blocked emotions that they failed to allow themselves to feel the first time round: thus perpetuating the blockage. They try to ‘make it better’, putting a plaster on it rather than real healing – which may require cauterization and catharsis. Just because it is forgotten at the conscious level does not mean it goes away. It wreaks havoc from the depths of the unconscious. The opposite may apply, someone may go back into an emotion in which they are