One of the really great experiences I’ve had was learning from the wonderful Psychiatrist, Dr. Brian Weiss and his wife Carol. Soaking up their methods of Hypnotherapy and how to conduct a successful Past Life Regression. Many of you may know who this gracious man is through his books. My favorite is his first – Many Lives, Many Masters. You may have seen him on the Oprah show or more recently on Super Soul Sunday. As a result of this training I have been conducting hypnotherapy sessions with my own clients for a number of years now. I am still excited by the idea that we can go back and see another lifetime, another existence. We can understand the things that have happened and the people we knew then and how they are impacting us in our current lives.
My training was held at The Crossings in Austin Texas. The beautiful hilltop secluded setting was icing on the cake. I splurged and stayed in one of the private small bungalow rooms (bare bones but nice). My husband was horrified to learn that I has spent the entire time with no TV ? Many of the 100 trainees shared rooms or stayed in the group accommodations. The food was vegetarian and healthy (another thing that would have scared my husband!) I saw many people walking the trails to reflection sites on the property, the Sanctuary garden or meditating while walking the interwoven path of the labyrinth outlined in stones. Spa treatments were available too, but I was focused on learning. I didn’t even bring a camera and I’m still kicking myself… This was before iPhones or I would have been all over it!
We found out that about 60% of the students were from countries other than The US. Many students were from Japan, China and South America, but really everywhere. 70% of the students were Doctors, Nurses, and Psychologists and yes there were even 3 other engineering types besides me! One interesting man described a near death experience after his plane crashed. During that time I heard so many interesting stories about the paths that lead people to attend. I also realized how lucky I was to live in California where I have many friends that are intuitive and don’t think I’m peculiar (At least so they’ve said!) A couple of ladies from Oklahoma said they wouldn’t be able to share their experiences with anyone else where they lived for fear of ridicule. I heard the same thing from some fun ladies from the UK.
Lesson 1. It is possible to see your potential lives into the future.
Brian Weiss hypnotized the whole room a couple of times and lead us through past lives, but then he lead us through a future life progression. The future life I saw struck me as particularly funny because I was a big strong athletic guy in my late 20’s. I was running in mud and leaping between the bases of tall pine trees on very uneven muddy ground. I was leading wilderness fitness runs through the forests of Canada. This seemed to be way off the beaten path and extreme. I’m sure it’s something I need to learn because I don’t even like camping in this life time… and I’m not exactly an fitness buff!
Lesson 2. The Fastest Way to come back as something else (part of a group) is to hate them.
I kept thinking about one of the things that Brian Weiss said: “The fastest way to come back as something else is to hate them”. So, OK… That may explain my future life… I’m not exactly fond of exercising! If your are prejudice against a race, religion or gender… Look out! We come back in all shapes, sizes, nationalities and belief systems. I’m imagining there are a lot of Cavalry soldiers who came back as Native Americans, Slave-owners who are now African American, Men who repressed women that are now petite little ladies dealing with repression… You get the drill; these various skin costumes we wear help us learn that we are really all the same underneath. One guy said, “Well then, I hate rich people!” Good try ?.
Lesson 3. There is no set Formula to conduct a Past Life Regression.
Brian Weiss then had us break down into smaller groups and try out the Past life hypnosis techniques on each other. The first lady in our group hypnotized another male student and he didn’t go all of the way under. I went next and the lady I was practicing on started talking about a past life as an Indian woman being attacked by a bear. I really didn’t expect her to go into a past life, because we were not to that part of the training yet! Dr. Weiss said to just go ahead and lead her through it. I did my best imitation of him and we got through it. Whew! It did help my confidence and now years later, I know that It’s not the exact words or techniques that work. It’s a combination of the subject being willing to trust the process and suspend their analysis of the information until the recall is complete. The hypnotherapist also needs to be flexible and follow the client’s lead.
Lesson 4. Our bodies will sometimes recreate physical ailments to communicate a past life trauma or scar.
During a demonstration Dr. Weiss worked with a Medical Doctor from Austria. She expressed feeling a lot of anxiety that her children and other family members would die. In the beginning of her regression he took her back to a happy time in her childhood. She described playing and happily spending time with her grandmother. He next took her into a past life and she described being a “woodsman” lying in bed, in pain, dying from an ax injury to the leg. (Her) his wife and son were at the bedside. She cried at leaving them behind as she died. She recognized the wife’s soul as her grandmothers in her current life. When she was awakened, she told him that she realized her fear of her family dying began when her grandmother passed away 20 years before. She also realized that her own leg had caused her a lot of pain ever since that time and nothing medically had helped. After her regression, her leg felt completely better and her anxiety was gone. Somehow the pain of her grandmother’s death awoke in her the physical pain from the previous life. Once her conscious mind understood that it was a loss and injury from another time, then her body and subconscious were able to let it go. I rode back to the airport with her and she said that her leg pain and anxiety were still completely gone.
Lesson 5. Even Brian Weiss took over 30 tries to recall his own past Lives.
People worry that they won’t be able to experience a past life. Brian Weiss confessed that his medical training as well as his scientific and analytical mind slowed him down in his own recall. He had to try over and over again with self-hypnosis until he was able to experience his Past Lives. I’m sure that because he is the godfather of bringing credibility to this subject matter that he may not have had a hypnotherapist to work with when he decided to explore his own past lives. In my own practice I have a very high success rate with the analytical. It is all in the approach!
Lesson 6. Our souls meet in many lifetimes.
I remember Dr. Weiss describing a past life of his in answer to a question about people recognizing other souls. I wish I could do this better justice, but here goes: He described that he was an injured man whose family was relegated to living on the outskirts of a town and scraping for his family to get by. He described seeing a commotion going on in town, with a crowd of people and soldiers. He went up to see what was happening and saw a man, who he realized was Jesus, being mocked and tormented through town while he was dragging a large wooden cross toward his crucifixion. He realized that he knew of and loved Jesus from the periphery. He wanted to give him something to drink or try to help him. Jesus gave him a look of don’t risk it! and a slight shake of his head.
He had never publically told this story and during one of Dr. Weiss’s other experiential seminars he lead a group through a Past Life Regression and had a surprise. A few of the participants were relaying their experiences and a woman from Japan described the exact scene of being a woman in the crowd and had experienced seeing Jesus from the opposite side. Then she told Dr. Weiss “I saw you there, across the crowd!” She described his appearance and the scene in enough detail that they seemed to have both shared the same experience.
Somehow hearing that he was there doesn’t surprise me. Brian Weiss is such a kind and humble man. He risked his education from Columbia University and Yale Medical School, his Psychiatry career, and his position as a founding chairman and chairman emeritus for the department of psychiatry at the Mount Sinai Medical Center in Miami to help you and I learn about living and healing from our Past Lives. He shares his knowledge freely with so much love and compassion. I am one lucky person!