Over the years, I have realized that patients’ experiences during their past life regressions vary widely. For some, it is a firsthand, in-the-body experience. For others there remains a degree of detachment, almost as if they were viewing a rerun on TV. Following are the different types of past life experiences my patients have reported.
1. Sometimes patients see and hear nothing. The knowledge simply flows into them that they are now a different person, in a different place and the meaning of the words that are spoken comes to them. They are aware of the feelings and the situations, but they really see or hear nothing. This is the most elemental way of perceiving.
2. Some patients report experiencing their past life as watching a movie, where they observe a life on the screen. In this case they do not hear a voice but simply observe the action and receive the feelings and the knowledge from within, as in the first category.
3. In some cases patients see the scenes being played out on a movie screen. They hear the voices, conduct the action, and receive the feelings and the knowledge from within.
The most important part in all the above examples is the fact that the patients receive the feelings and the emotional turmoil while perceiving the conflict going on.
4. In most advanced cases, patients report they actually entered the life and it is as if they are actually reliving it with the real people around them. They describe receiving the feelings directly, not just having the knowledge of the feelings. However, they also receive knowledge of the situation in the most elemental way, as in the first category. They also have the perception of what is going on with other people rather than just the interpretation they have of that life. They have more knowledge in reliving and looking back than when they lived that life the first time.
All of these experiences are therapeutic and promise success in releasing symptoms. As patients move up the scale in experiencing, the success of therapy increases.
During a past life regression, patients often have parallel awareness of both the past life and the current life. At other times they forget about the person they are now and go completely back into the former life as in the most advanced case. Patients still can respond to my questions. They say that they are aware of me but have forgotten they have a self in the present.
Some patients relive every moment emotionally, physically, and mentally. Others remain calm and unemotional while reliving their memories. Either way, the experience can be therapeutic and can release the symptoms.