THE PA R T O N E INITIAL INQUIRY Addressing Client Belief Systems Before entering into the details of hypnosis methodology connected to the practice of spiritual regression, I think it is fitting to consider your approach to questions about the afterlife. As a spiritual regressionist, you will have clients who are in a personal quandary about their beliefs at the time of their first contact with you. How you respond to their respective concerns might well be the determining factor in their making an appointment. While a large majority of the people who wish you to help them access their soul memories are comfortable with their beliefs, others are conflicted by religious teachings, concerns over the mechanics of hypnosis in reaching their life between lives, or they may have some skepticism about trusting themselves to you in facilitating their mental entry into the spirit world. I begin my sessions by explaining to the unsettled potential client that it will benefit them to enter their hypnosis regression with an open mind. I might even tell them that regardless of their belief system, their unconscious memories are probably going to reveal a home in the spirit world that will be consistent with the reports from everyone who has undergone spiritual regression. A skeptic could argue that this sort of reassurance is actually preconditioning the subject. Even so, after conducting thousands of life between lives hypnosis sessions, I am comfortable with making this statement to an anxious client. When considering bias, there is also the fact that my books about the afterlife are already public knowledge. If a potential client raises the possibility of being swayed by having read these books, I explain that during the many years before my research was published I told most clients very little in advance. Either way, you will find it makes no difference. Once a subject mentally enters the spirit world through deep hypnosis, regardless of their ideology or what I have told them in advance, their reports are going to be similar to everyone who went before them. I have been told by the LBL hypnotherapists I have trained that they have had clients who never heard of me or my books who, without prompting, have also been consistent in their reports of the spirit world. The differences are in the soul activities they see clearly and those that are hazy. No two sessions are exactly the same because each soul has a specific energy pattern for recovering stored immortal memories and their own unique history of existence. If a potential client has reservations about metaphysical philosophy due to a rigid belief system, this may have created an inner turmoil that you must address at the outset. This person has contacted you because they do want spiritual information about their higher self and yet ideological reservations are holding them back. I often find in such cases that underneath this mental conflict lies unhappiness and dissatisfaction over how these individuals consciously view the world and their lives. Such people have contacted you because they have finally reached a point where they are willing to seek answers by a new approach. In these circumstances, an eclectic therapist can be a good sounding board for open-ended philosophical discussions that are reflective, interpretive, and encouraging to the potential client. For example, in America, with our prevalent Christian society, you might be told, "I want to experience what Heaven is like, but I worry that I might be committing a sin by coming to see you." Another slant on this same question could be, "I think there is an afterlife, but must one believe in reincarnation in order to be a candidate for spiritual regression?" I have had clients from cultures where there are strong convictions about life being deterministic, giving them little control over their destiny. Other societies are openminded about reincarnation and fate but their rituals involve the existence of angry gods, evil spirits, and undesirable astral regions after death. Some belief systems do not allow for a soul-ego that exists in a spirit world between lives. Atheists and agnostics, of course, find it hard to accept a higher power and a grand design in the universe. As I mentioned, regardless of ideological preconceptions in their conscious minds, once these people are in a superconscious trance state they will have the same soul memories about their life between lives as all your other clients. Thoughtful people with diverse belief systems will contact you because they are searching for meaning in their lives. They are looking for a different sort of spirituality that is consistent and makes sense to them. Once we separate out the extremists and their radical doctrines, all religions have wonderful creeds of compassion, charity, and love. Yet they are also anchored by centuries of institutional dogma that does not appeal to modern thinking. In my view, the world's great religions are too impersonal for many people. In a sense these powerful religions have lost much of the essence of individual spiritual contact with the divine which gave rise to their origins. People are disturbed by this evolution. The historian Arnold Toynbee stated that throughout the history of humankind when a belief system outlives its attraction as a spiritual model for people it is modified or discarded. We live in a world that is perceived as chaotic. There are those who believe this is of our own making, while others blame the Source that created us and turn away from all faith. Over my years of private practice, I have seen an increase in the number of people who are seeking a new spiritual awareness that is individual and unique to them without intermediaries who wish to impose their will on what they deem is spiritual. All of us have a tendency to be intolerant of people who don't think as we do. For the spiritual regressionist, having bias toward your own truths is natural but this should not cloud your receptiveness to ideas expressed by clients. As a life between lives therapist, you want to assist the client in reaching both understanding and equanimity about their existence without imposing your values. Everything the client needs to know is inside their mind. Whenever possible you must allow them to first recognize and then interpret their own memories. Your understanding and positive healing energy is vital as you work to expose the client's inner vision of their soul life. In this way you also facilitate alignment of the subject's vibrational soul energy to the rhythms of their human brains. I try to explain to my clients, who represent many philosophical belief systems, that we live in an imperfect world in order to appreciate perfection. We strive for improvement through free will and change. Searching for inner wisdom is essential because unless we find a personal inner knowledge beyond those institutional doctrines developed by others long ago, we cannot truly be wise about how to live our lives today on Earth. Current truths are succeeded by higher truths in each generation, and it is this progression of knowledge and acute awareness of ourselves that is at the core of expressing our personal identity. As spiritual regressionists utilizing the power of hypnosis, we are now blessed with a new medium of therapeutic intervention. If you are able to assist people in seeing the light of divinity within themselves and foster self-discovery, then you will have made a real contribution toward the ultimate enlightenment of our race. PREPARATION PA R T T W O FOR SPIRITUAL REGRESSION Personal Demands on the Spiritual Regressionist At one of my workshops, I was discussing the effort required in taking people to their life between lives. At the first break a hypnotherapist came up to me and said, "Thank you very much for your time, but I'm leaving. I now realize this work is just too difficult. I have a nice, regulated practice. The hypnosis management requirements of spiritual regression is just not an area of therapy I feel equipped to handle." I told this honest person it was a good thing he recognized these concerns now rather than later. There is no question that three to four hours of intense work, juggling many balls at once, without rest, is demanding. Essentially, you must contend with the simultaneous interaction of a client's immortal soul and the mental processes of their current human brain. These two egos may be conflicted by disrupted integration. An LBL facilitator must cope with this duality of the client's mind while refining and adjusting long phases of spiritual imagery to support a comfortable passage. To do this you must constantly track their mental journey through the geography of the spirit world. This is called mapping. The motivations, fears, self-image, and expectations of your client will be determined by the physical, emotional, and mental makeup of their host body. These elements of temperament are influenced by what I call "the I signs of the soul": insight, intuition, and imagination. While your hypnosis subject is telling you about their spiritual life, they are communicating this information through their current mortal body. This can be both confusing and gutwrenching for them. As the drama of the afterlife unfolds in the mind of the client, their transpersonal view of the other side is affected by how well they can face truths about their real self. In addition to everything else, you will also be required to concentrate on the many previous karmic experiences your client has had in other bodies so they will comprehend patterns of cause and effect that affect their life today. Practicing LBL therapy will increase your past life regression skills greatly as you move from life to life using the spirit world as a bridge. You may be required to alternate both permissive and authoritarian hypnosis techniques while shifting back and forth between the client's past lives, soul experiences, and current life. Much depends upon their receptivity, which may vary from past life to spirit world settings. Your task as a spiritual regressionist is to help the client manage their visualizations by allowing them to bring all this information into focus so that they can see relationships by truly understanding their soul and purpose in life and thus be empowered by their session. As an LBL facilitator, this effort can be arduous and requires both skill and tenacity. Certainly we don't engage in personal attachments, but it is a cold therapist who does not feel compassion and empathy for a client who may be going through a difficult time recounting all the reasons why they are in their current body and what their guides and masters have to tell them. No motivated, caring hypnotherapist can remain detached in this work. After a demanding spiritual regression session I usually find myself drained. Clearing my head with hard exercise in the mountains helps me a great deal. Importance of Training and Experience My LBL training classes have a mixture of licensed therapists and certified hypnosis professionals. Typically, a substantial number of hours in basic and advanced hypnotherapy training is required, along with a few years of private practice. Having some background in past life experience is of great benefit before tackling the demanding work of a spiritual regressionist. One does not need to be licensed as a psychologist, psychotherapist, or counselor to be a skilled hypnosis facilitator. However, when working with troubled clients, some background in counseling guidance is invaluable. Ethically, therapists are expected to recognize their level of competence and professional qualifications and not employ treatment procedures that are beyond the scope of their training. To all practitioners of spiritual regression who assist clients in seeking the truth about themselves, I would say the more exposure to academic training and professional experience, the better. The issue of self-awareness is important to you as an LBL therapist since it directly relates to your influence on the client. Your energy is affected by your own intuition, motivation, and integrity. I have great respect for Taoist philosophy. The Taoists believe that inspiration occurs when one's conscious mind gets out of the way of their natural unconscious energy. In a sense, our cosmic chi (energy) is what brings harmony and clarity to the body. Having a keen internal focus also makes you a better therapist. The best regressionists have a perception that allows them to know something without the use of conscious reasoning. These therapists sense things at appropriate moments when working with people. During LBL therapy it is possible for both facilitator and subject to receive help from their respective guides, and these moments should be recognized, especially in the behavioral areas of making choices and problem solving. I believe it is possible to train yourself to recognize and analyze symbols which illustrate spirit-world experiences that cannot be defined in a material way. These metaphors may be symbolic of something on Earth that has applications to a visualized spirit-world event. Frankly, there are times during a session when I feel I am somewhat telepathic. This can be a hindrance when I don't consciously block what I am thinking at critical moments with a client who can pick up my thoughts. I find daily meditation and controlled breathing to be helpful in my LBL practice. In yoga, prana refers to the life force or energy that is manifested in each of us through our breath. As a spiritual regressionist, I manipulate my breathing at times during a session in an attempt to extend my mind into a higher state of consciousness. I may even enter into a self-induced light trance state to be more open to the spiritual forces I feel around me. Please understand that prana is not the breath itself nor the oxygen involved with breathing but the energy connected to the breath. It is a connection to the energy of all living things as a universal life force. I have worked to train myself to seek the energy pathways necessary to reach a particular client's mind while asking for help from my guide and my subject's guide. I begin by opening my mind and asking for guidance. In this way I try to receive information and not send it. What I do send to my clients are messages of confidence and reassurance. The key to being a good therapist is to listen. Another is allowing your client to first interpret their own metaphoric symbols based upon what they are experiencing before you engage in your own interpretations. There is a delicate balance between listening and questioning. To know when to speak and when to be quiet is not easy to teach students. In LBL work one must learn when to gently assist a client in understanding a visualization after they have spent time analyzing what they are seeing themselves. This comes with training and practice, and along the way this exercise and your own creativity may enable you to become more intuitive. Excerpted from Life Between Lives: Hypnotherapy for Spiritual Regression by Michael Newton All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.
