Now then, as most of you know and as I tell my students enquiring about past life regression in hypnosis… I am not sure where I sit on the subject… My thought process is such that if I do not wholeheartedly believe in something, I do not feel that I should do it with other people… I think you need congruence to do things effectively and do not think I would be congruent because i am not sure what I believe on this subject.
I have experienced and heard a variety of arguments for it, against it and in favour it’s therapeutic applications and those that think we have enough to deal with in this life… That is not what I am discussing today… With regards to past life regression, here is a fabulous question (inspired by my wonderful pal Ellie Blunt) that is sure to get your moral thermometer fluctuating…
If you had a hypnosis session for past life regression and subsequently discovered that you had lived a past life, if you then went and verified the information that was elicited from that session, knowing that loved ones from that past life were still alive, would you contact them?
Hmmm… Would you be worried about them thinking you were a crazy? Or would you expect them to embrace it and appreciate your story?
Well Jenny Cockell did all those things in that order described above and then wrote a book about it that was mentioned in this hypnosis article in the Independent newspaper.
The intriguing article states:
Twenty years ago, Jenny Cockell travelled from her home in the UK to Malahide in Co Dublin. She was visiting for the weekend and she instantly started to recognise places in the local area.
“I noticed things that had changed — like the builder’s yard being replaced by a supermarket and the old jetty being updated to a nice new concrete jetty,” she says.
It was a homecoming of sorts for Jenny but the strange thing is that she had never set foot in Malahide before that first visit in June 1989. Her vivid memories came from what she says is her past life as an Irishwoman called Mary Sutton, who actually died 21 years before Jenny was born.
One of the places that Jenny felt compelled to visit during her trip was the small house where Mary had lived with her husband and children up until the 1930s.
“I knew the house was grouped with a few other houses, opposite a boggy meadow. When I walked to where I thought the house was, there were just ruins there. I had got there just in time because the ruins were only there for a short time afterwards until a development was built on the land.”
Jenny still didn’t know what the family’s surname was. It was only through writing to a local man who remembered them that she pieced together that the woman concerned was called Mary Sutton.
Jenny then went and wrote about her experiences in a book she titled: Journeys Through Time, she says that first started to get flashes of past lives during her early childhood:
“I started talking about these memories before I turned four and I thought it was what everyone experienced,” she says. “I had tiny fragments of dozens and dozens of memories but there were four past lives that came through the strongest and the memories of Mary were the strongest ones of all.”
The most vivid of all the memories was Mary’s death in 1932, at the age of 35. She had died in the Rotunda Hospital, soon after giving birth to her eighth child.
“I remembered feeling so upset and guilty at leaving the children,” says Jenny. “There was this sense of wanting to see what had happened to them and make sure they were alright.”
As a child, Jenny drew a map of the village where Mary lived. She had a strong sense that it was in Ireland but had no idea whereabouts it was.
“I got out my school atlas and looked at a map of Ireland,” she recalls. “Again and again, I was drawn to this place called Malahide.”
So then came the morally chalenging stuff I asked about earlier… Because it was when Jenny got married and had children that she started thinking about tracking down Mary Sutton’s family in Ireland… She says:
“I wanted to make sure that if I traced the family, I had every detail right,” she says. “I was afraid that I might find a family quite similar but that it mightn’t turn out to be them.”
In early 1988, Jenny was put in touch with a regressionist who agreed to put her under hypnosis.
“I didn’t think hypnosis would work,” she says, “because despite all expectations, I’m actually quite a sceptical person. It was a frustrating experience at times and I wasn’t comfortable with it until it confirmed that some of the details were spot-on.”
This is fascinating, isn;t it? I hear many of these kinds of things and have seen this happen in sessions I have witnessed… many sceptics believe the unconcious mind picks up this kind of information throughout life, however obscure the link…
Jenny actually visited Ireland after further thought and wanting to progress further. Just after that trip, she made the connection to the Sutton name and further investigations revealed the first names of some of the children.
“I did worry for a long time about contacting Mary’s children,” she says. “I was concerned that by approaching them, it might do some harm. But ultimately I thought I would make contact and leave the decision to them on whether they wanted to talk to me.”
Jenny put adverts in Irish newspapers and was contacted by John, one of Mary’s sons.
“I did feel awkward talking to him — what should I say?” says Jenny. “He gave me the details for his oldest brother Sonny in Leeds and I spoke to him on the phone.”
At this time, a TV producer in the UK was interested in making a documentary about the story. Before Jenny met with Sonny, the producer interviewed them separately to get their recollections.
‘There were nine pages of information that matched with Sonny,” says Jenny.
“It was important that there was independent research by a third party but for me, this was less about proving reincarnation than it was about finding what had happened to the family.”
I am not being sceptic here… But I am guessing there would be a good case for some written cold reading type stuff here, no?
It turned out that most of the older children had been placed in orphanages and that the youngest daughter had been adopted. Only five of the siblings were still living when they reunited in the 90s.
Unsurprisingly I’d say, not everyone was fully convinced that Jenny was the reincarnation of Mary Sutton.
“Sonny accepted me as Mary, mostly because there were things that I knew that he said, ‘How can you know that?’
“Some of the girls couldn’t quite see it as reincarnation and I said they didn’t have to look at it that way. I think, instead, they saw it as their mother working through me.”
Jenny remained in contact with Mary’s children and was particularly close to Sonny up until his death in 2002.
There are of course sceptics who remain unconvinced by Jenny’s past lives.
It makes for fascinating and stimulating discussion, does it not? 🙂
It is an interesting discussion, isn’t it? It is interesting that such a recent past life came up for Jenny, on the involves people that are still living. I am not sure I would do what she did and let the the people involved know about the past life. I suppose I would be circumspect. I might try to locate them and even get to know them first. Then I might consider telling them.
How about you?
Hi Ellie, it certainly is… This topic has sparked a HUGE debate on my facebook page… Blimey…
I don’t think I’d contact people to be honest… Though my mind may change depending on the depth of my belief in it.
Hmmm… (puzzled look, rubbing head…)
I think past lives are very real…I have had some personal experience and it was quite a surprise!
There is a lot of well documented evidence from around the world of past life experience from children as well as adults.
I also believe it is linked in to a kind of collective memory held in the energy fields around us and the energy dimensions around us. I believe that 99% of things/ buildings/ objects hold the history of their past within them, and this can be accessed if you know how.
What do you think?
Hmmm, having read the book Many Lives, Many Masters by Brian Weiss, I have to say for me he provides a strong argument into the benefits of past life regression, using hypnosis, for many of the clients he has worked with…if of course, you believe his words in the first place?
What intriqued me more was that he is a psychiatrist, highly regarded and at the top of his game and came to believe in something that he had often disregarded as nonsense, especially coming from a background that is fundamentally research and evidentially orientated and abides by the awful labelling of the DSM1V categories…well, he appears to have challenged the establishment, which I do like about a person…anyway, whether you believe or not, I consider this book to be a good read and kept me glued!!
Karen Brown
this book
I have encountered so very many fabulous opinions, documented evidence and much more besides over the years… I have had lots of personal experiences, I have worked alongside and discussed in depth with some of the most erudite minds in this field… and I am still utterly undecided.
Karen, Elaine, thank you both for your comments 🙂
Speaking as a past life regression therapist…Dr Ian Stevenson has done some fascinating research on past lives in children, particularly in India, where the concept is much more accepted. In my own practice, I get contacted by many who are just idly curious about the idea of having lived before, whereas the most compelling reason for doing it, is to resolve issues in the present. Even more ‘common’ issues like weightloss, smoking and fertility have been resolved with plr. My personal opinion matters little in my work (although chosing this line of work speaks for itself) it’s the client’s belief that matters – and the issues resolved. In a plr session, many people will recognise a present partner, family member or friend who played a role in a past life as well, and perhaps it would have been an idea to explore further what connections Jenny had – or indeed what lessons could be learned. I can also recommend Barbara Ford-Hammond’s book ‘Past Life Tourism’ for a down to earth approach to the subject!
Thank you for your input Ewa, I am very aware of the texts you quote… Let me also quote some other references…
Mainstream psychological research on memory clearly demonstrates the “reconstructive” nature of this sort of memory and clinicians are (or should be) well aware of the issues surrounding the false memory syndrome controversies of the 1990s. Research on past-life regression has consistently failed to produce any credible positive evidence. Meanwhile, research on age regression has consistently shown how easy it is to install false memories of early childhood experiences.
There are obvious criticisms of past-life regression methodology. I think the most telling one is that people who are regressed have never been shown to re-acquire the language spoken. (Despite some anecdotal claims.) I’ve seen people “regressed” to ancient India and Rome, etc., but they continued to speak modern English and any conversations were recalled in English -though they must have been spoken in Sanskrit or Latin, etc.
Some believe that it is blatantly a glorified role-playing game.
I would say that it is natural and reasonable to be sceptical when there’s such an obvious lack of basic evidence, and a weight of counter-evidence in relation to past-life regression. I was not claiming to be sceptical by the way, just speaking for the other side of your argument…
Not one single instance of someone acquiring the ability to speak an ancient language like Latin, for example, has ever been demonstrated under controlled conditions. The problems with recovered memory techniques have been well-publicised for several decades now. The notorious case of Bridey Murphey exposed the gullibility of people when it comes to these kind of supernatural claims.
I assure you I am not being dismissive but I’d prefer to think I’ve weighed up the facts carefully and chosen to be congruent to my own beliefs… Many PLR therapists seem to reject the counter-evidence out of hand, though, without even wanting to read it. Which strikes me as a much more dismissive attitude, no?
😉
Okay, so here’s the real moral dilemma… If the client says, “I want regression”, do we have a legal/moral obligation to explain the reconstructive nature of memory to clients, for informed consent?
A recent review of the clinical and research literature in this area by five leading authorities on the subject concluded by recommending that the American Psychological Association (APA) should actually change its codes to make it mandatory for psychologists to have clients sign an informed consent agreement before undertaking regression of any kind, that explained in writing that contemporary research provides overwhelming evidence that these memories are “reconstructed” rather than “recovered.”
Arguably, that just takes the existing duty of care under civil law and elevates it to the status of a more explicit written contract, because they were concerned that psychologists were fudging it when it was purely verbal, failing to properly explain the issues to their clients.
I think we also need to look what the evidence says and what’s legal, ethical, and in the client’s interests.
If you don’t think it matters whether recovered memories are real or not then I suggest you might want to look at the literature on victims of false memory syndrome. FMS has been the basis for the most expensive (multi-million dollar) civil litigation in the history of the American psychiatric profession. It’s a massive legal and moral issue with extremely serious implications for the whole field of psychotherapy and hypnotherapy.
This whole debate exploded in the media in the 1990s and so it should be thoroughly common knowledge by now that there’s cause for concern. Most professional bodies were forced to issue policy statements on the risks attached to false memory syndrome, including past-life regression.
FYI: Here’s the conclusion of the systematic review of the research on recovered memory, I mentioned,
“We further contend that if therapists decide to use memory recovery techniques, then they should provide their clients with a written informed consent document that apprises them of
(1) accurate, scientifically grounded information about the reconstructive nature of memory, … Read more
(2) the fact that recovered memories must be corroborated before they can be given special credence, and
(3) information regarding laboratory studies of memory pertinent to the technique employed.”
(Lynn, Lock, Loftus, Krackow, & Lilienfeld, 2003)
Do you think that telling a client that research on recovered/false memories is irrelevent (because you think the Western scientific world-view is flawed) is ethical and meets your legal duty of care in regard to past-life regression?
The contention of the research team quoted above was that therapists have a legal and ethical obligation to explain current evidence regarding the reconstructive nature of memory, etc., in order to fulfil their duty of care and obtain informed consent from their clients. I guess that’s a tough point to swallow, and raises some interesting and pretty deep moral questions about the practice of therapy.
I know it’s a controversial issue, and with it being your field, I hope you do not take offence, but it’s also a very interesting dilemma in professional ethics.
If anyone else reading this really is not familiar with the issue see, for example, the website of the British False Memory Society, a group set up to protect victims of false memory syndrome. To be clear, I’ve met several people over the past 15 years who have been left pretty disturbed by false memories installed during past-life regression.
I have had equally good arguments made FOR past life regression and can make an equally good case for it… Certainly much better than most past life regression therapists seem able to offer up… I’ve had some amazing experiences, however, my key point is that I do not believe you should work with people if you do not believe or have the conviction in what you are doing… because I think it is rendered impotent.
Best wishes, Adam.
Really interesting debate this, which does throw up many issues and a few hot potatoes on the way. I saw a programme once where a woman had undergone this process. She could recall things that could not have been known. I was entrigued but realised the program would have been edited too. If you do regress someone and then at that point possibly open a can of worms. However as Adam says for some it might prove hugely beneficial.
For once, I am with Adam on this one. If you are comfortable with this form of therapy great but I too would, at this stage, refer clients to someone with whom is confident. If you do not believe in what you are doing how can you expect your clients to benefit.
Well it’s funny you should mention this one as it is something that is of real interest to me. For me it goes like this…
Research = well in my experience, whoever can do the best google search wins the argument. There is always research to back up an argument for and against. And what research could prove that past lives exist in such away as to persuade Richard Dawkins and Sri Sathya Sai Baba that they don’t?
Experience = personally I have loads of experiences since childhood that I could term either as spiritual or as psychological. I have benefited gratefully from working with shamans, yogis and spiritualists on all sorts of things but they can mostly be explained in western psychological terms too.
So I guess for me it comes down to two things, belief and personal ethics / responsibility.
Belief = for me, while I have tried hard to resist believing in reincarnation for a long time, I do now. At a core level of being, there is something energetic that I can only interpret in those terms. However…I don’t see the need to delve in past lives in the way that others do. If reincarnation is about learning life’s lessons, for me it is about learning them in this life. Although eastern religions give a framework of understanding with which to understand those lessons, surely the idea is that they are played out in this life? Isn’t that the whole point? At school, I never understood people that role played and stayed as far away from the drama department as possible so maybe this is just an adult extension of that. I found expression in other ways.
Ethics and personal responsibility = I must admit at times, I found the shamanic, spiritual and tantric interpretation of ‘things’ disturbing as it was completely outside of anything experience I have had previously. My mind looks for commonality and even if I believed that the symbolism and metaphors were just that, symbols and metaphors, those symbols and metaphors are so open to interpretation that they may not be wholly therapeutic as regards the presenting issue. Although I (fingers crossed) believe that I haven’t been adversely effected by any of it, I believe that anyone who is happy to take others into past lives in a therapeutic setting needs to caveat what they are doing somehow, otherwise they run the risk of completely traumatising people who are looking generally looking for relief from pain, not answers to the great questions of life (although a sense of purpose and understanding may be a deeper part of the same issue). This is especially true if the client has no reference points outside of the therapeutic session which is generally true of most people in our society.
Also, one of the most important things for me is the accessibility of therapy to people.
Access = a lot of people looking for therapy are new to any kind of ‘self help’ and may be running the risk of derision and resistance from their family and friends and doctors. One of the benefits of hypnotherapy is that it is more acceptable to a western mind than other therapeutic practices so steeping it in the mysticism that surrounds reincarnation may alienate people who would benefit from it from going for therapy in the first place. For example, I have a friend who has breast cancer and whilst around her home the other day, I witnessed her family deride quite nastily for even contemplating complementary therapy to sit along side the western medicine, however they were quite open to hypnotherapy as they new that famous sports people used it. So to my mind, if an issue can be dealt with as effectively using current patterns of behaviour in this life time, I wonder why there is a need to delve into past lives at all?
Anthony De Mello writes about the difficulties of believing in a spiritual and therapeutic path at the same time in ‘Awareness’. They don’t always sit comfortably together.
So…it goes back to results.
Results = If past life regression works just as well or more effectively than not using it (and it may do simply because of the metaphoric nature of it) then I am all up for people doing it, especially as there are those that will actively want that kind of therapy. However, how do you prove that it does? Even if the presenting issues and therapists are consistent, the life experience of the client will never be.
Therefore…I would agree that in a western environment, clients and therapists who want to use past life regression therapy should enjoy the benefits it brings but at the same time thoroughly explain the process upfront and the fact that it isn’t proven, temper it with a little caution and a lot of sensitivity and discuss and provide aftercare.
I think having a client sign a informed consent form is ridiculous. Clients already have soooo many papers to fill out. And really, I don’t always plan on doing a regression. There have been plenty of times where I wasn’t even going to use hypnosis with a client – just straight-up NLP, but then they go into a highly emotionalized state and it’s just the perfect opportunity to jump on the emotions as an affect bridge and go into a spontaneous regression. Afterward, I do feel that it’s important to reiterate to clients that memories are always a mixture of fact and fantasy, which is something I tell all clients in our first session together as part of the educating/consultation/intake phase. Even if someone remembers something from this morning, there are filters and perceptions and biases in place that color that memory. And that doesn’t even take into account that everyone is fully capable of hallucination, and that people do it unknowingly all the time (ever lost your keys, and then found them right where you had looked dozens of times before?).
I believe that the factuality and reality of PLR doesn’t matter as much as long as the regressions or recall are done ethically and for therapeutic value. I don’t know what I believe about the phenomenon either, but whether it’s real or not, the therapeutic modality can be powerfully healing and transformative. Is it all just metaphor or archetypes, or maybe tapping into some kind of subtle energy, cellular memory, or quantum entanglement? Or is it real? Who knows. But it works as a therapy if handled correctly whether or not people believe in it. And hey, what about rescripting and rebirthing and reframing and all of those modalities where people consciously re-write their memories and play out an idealized birth or childhood or whatever? Do people have to sign waivers for those too? I totally understand the harm FMS can do, but on the other hand, I don’t think it needs more legislation and government-mandated paperwork. I think it’s probably more about educating both the client and the practitioner.
Very nicely put Eric… It is a big discussion and a fascinating debate, isn’t it? Thank you for your much valued input 🙂
Sara… Excellently put… Such aplomb and diplomacy – beautifully written 🙂
I have been given many, many similar arguments with as much passion running through them as yours, I do feel that the results are important…
Ali, thank you also for your input.
Your responses are warmly received. Thanks again.
I was at a fortieth party with about 20 other women at my local pub this lunchtime and the subject of regression came up….
I listened and watched as the tale of a local man who is supposed to have had a past life as a warrior (he is very good with a bow and arrow apparently) was told… He has bought 23 acres somewhere in the local area because he knew he had to … and is now under the guidance of a shaman. …..
Some had the look of ‘Absolute rubbish!’, others commented, ‘Oh, I believe in all that’…. ‘Me too!’ yet others remained on the fence…
For me, until I meet the warrior I can only listen to a story …
It is a great story anyway, and certainly keeps life interesting …
From personal experience with regression where I have been among other things .. a tiger … For me each experience was a symbol or metaphor for something I was/had experienced and made absolute sense to me. The tiger I was drawing upon an animalistic motherly protection as during the regression a huge male tiger was going for my cubs. … (he didn’t get anywhere near them!!). Whether I was a tiger in a past life … who knows?! I could speculate about being born in another culture …
As a trainee therapist I have read with interest the discussion and comments on disclaimers and False Memory Syndrome. At the moment I don’t intend promoting myself as a past life regressor though feel comfortable working with regression in general and theoretically if a client’s past life came up I would be happy to go with it.
I am aware, and now even more so, of how aware I am to be as a therapist!
Would I be happy to ask my client to sign a disclaimer ?.. Yes, if I had to (not just before they were about to be regressed!) Would it protect the general public against FMS? … I will learn more about it before I comment.
FAscinating stuff…
Hi there, this is a subject which has always fascinated me. I’d love to look into this more, and wondered if you could recomend hypnotists/therapists that would be able to help me explore this further. Ive read “journeys through time” by Jenny Cockell, and even though I find her theory’s plausable and in a way comforting, my curiosity has not been satisfied. Any ideas?
There are hundreds of people out there Jon, hundreds. Google it.
Look up Jon Chase for example, he runs full on seminars on this subject and past life parties.