Cursed with immortality, Dermot MacKay craves death. To lift the faerie curse placed upon him and his men over 1,600 years ago, he must return the soul of his reincarnated wife to the exact place and time of her murder. Now that she's discovered, he has only one chance to end the curse, or he and his men must remain as they are forever. But her soul is currently residing in the very modern Sidney St. George—and first he has to convince her to accompany him to Scotland.This blog will be up until the 21st, and then I will draw a name from those of you who respond. I’m giving away a $25 gift certificate to Barnes & Noble or Amazon (your choice). Please be sure to check back on Thursday, or be sure to leave an email address so that I can reach you.
As part of my research for HEART OF THE DRUID LAIRD, I investigated the issue of reincarnation. My search led me to
Eric Christopher who is a licensed therapist specializing in regression hypnotherapy. He deals specifically with past life regression and helping individuals explore how past life experiences affect their present lives.
Barb: Eric, I understand you belong to an international organization involved with regression therapy. Can you say a few words about that?
Eric: Yes, this organization is called IARRT http://www.iarrt.org (International Association for Regression Research and Therapies.) It is a past life regression training and research organization, offering thorough training on how to do past life regression therapy. I’ve also served on their Board of Directors for three years on the research committee. There’s another organization that’s really specific. They don’t do regression therapy training, but they archive interesting past life case studies. That website is: http://www.iisis.net
Barb: What kinds of things did you research as a committee member?
Eric: What we are mostly concerned with is looking at the effectiveness of past life regression as a therapy modality. We look for ways to measure the benefits of past life regression therapy. One survey that we devised could be sent out by therapists to their clients, and the clients then sent the surveys back to me, so that all the responses were anonymous and confidential. We asked clients questions like, did your issue become resolved? To what degree did you experience the lessening of your issue? To what degree did you experience benefits that you didn’t even expect that you would get?
Barb: Can people fake it when you use regression hypnotherapy with them? If I came to you because of an unresolved issue, and you used regression therapy to help me look for the root cause of that issue, could I make up memories of past lives?
Eric: Absolutely, and you might be surprised when I tell you that I encourage people to fake it. I might regress you to a place where your mind is quiet, blank and very still. Then I would ask you to go to a life that has to do with your issue, fear for instance. I might ask you to show me the life that has something to do with this anxiety, or I might tell you to show me the life that has the greatest benefit for you to see. Then I tell people in a way to fake it. Imagine a tunnel, see yourself going through this tunnel to a different time and place, using a different body. First it’s going to feel like you’re making it all up, but when you focus solely on the images that come to you, I’ll ask what time of day it is, or where you are, etc. There’s something interesting that happens when a person focusses on whatever it is that is dropping in from their subconscious, any information that they’re seeing. Where are they making it up from? Something interesting happens when a person stays present moment focussed on what they’re seeing. Suddenly the information starts coming. It kicks into a higher gear. The information starts coming to the person in a different manner and starts to feel like a download of snapshot images, feelings and inner knowing.
I’ll give you an example: After the first five or ten minutes of focusing on just the image that comes to you, information starts coming to you in a flood. I had a person, who I told, “Okay now, move to the next important scene.” The man replied, “Well, it feels like I’m in an outdoor scene. I think it’s a funeral. It feels as though my sister died, and I never knew her very well.”
You don’t know why you know these things, but it comes to you intuitively. A short time later into the regression, more details dropped into his awareness. “Oh, I realize now my mother died when I was 13, and my sister was 10. She was sent off by some relatives to live in a convent. That’s why I never knew her very well.”
Imagine a past life like a painting, or the set of a play. We just get that tiny spotlight at the end of the tunnel like it’s on a blank stage. Five minutes later, and the spotlight grows, and you get more information. By the time we get to the end of that life, you get a feeling or a sense of what it’s about. When you go through the death scene, you get even more. It’s as though the spotlight grows even more. From the soul’s point of view, that’s when you get a profound sense of what that life is about. You get a lot more clarity and insight at that point.
Now, I want to come back to your question. Can people make all that up? Your own inner mind will show you a life that is somehow for your benefit to see. Sometimes that is a real past life, and I do know this because I’ve had clients go and research some of the data that came out in the sessions, and found it could be verified and correlated.
I can’t say if it’s always a past. Sometimes something from this life needs to be worked out, and your mind somehow conveniently creates metaphors that exactly relate to whatever the biggest issue is that you need to work through.
Barb: Something you said earlier triggered another question. You said making it up is not necessarily a bad thing, because your higher self is going to take you to where you need to go. As the spotlight broadens, you get a better sense of what that life is about. So does each life have a specific purpose? Do we reincarnate with a reason and something specific we need to learn?
With every life that we’ve ever been through, and I’ve worked with clients who’ve had thousands of lives, there’s always something to learn and grow from. I want to clarify something you said. Your higher self is going to take you to where you need to go. As long as you stay present moment focused it will show you, or eventually take you to what you need to see. You’ll always see some life that has a lesson to learn. A woman wanted to go to a life that had something to do with her tremendously low self-esteem, and instead of going to a life where she was lowly, she was shown a life in which she was a clan leader and looked to as a person of great wisdom. People from other clans would come to her for advice. She said it was something she’d never felt before. It was a good life, and she understood why she was taken to see that particular life. Sometimes you’ll see that your inner soul will take you to whatever life is most beneficial for you to see. Her own higher mind wanted to remind her that this confidence was a part of her too. She had this inherent within her, and she needed to step into it. We had her imagine her present day self and that past life self meeting. They hugged and they merged. She took the strength and confidence that she’d had in her past life and brought them to the present. How would she interact in her world with those strengths cloaked around her? How would others respond to her, and how would she respond to others? It caused a different vibration moving within her.
Sometimes your higher mind will show you something very positive, but whatever it is you are shown, it is for your highest benefit to see. We always have room for growth. Essentially what past life regression does is put the issue right there on a platter under your nose for you to see.
Barb: I have some basic questions that I think our readers will want to know. Do we recognize souls we’ve known from previous lives? If I meet someone today, and I feel an instant and strong affinity or antagonism, could that be indicative that I’ve met this soul before?
Yes, that can indicate previous experience with that soul. For instance, my mother, who doesn’t necessarily believe in past lives will say, “You know, there’s just one thing that makes me think there’s something to that. Sometimes I’ll meet a person, and I’ll feel like I’ve known them before.” We don’t know how, but it’s and intuitive kind of feeling. She also says that when she was traveling in Italy to a particular town, it was almost as if she knew how to get around there. She felt a sense of familiarity with a place she’d never been to before.
Occasionally people will get a sense of having been somewhere before, or a feeling a familiarity with a place. It’s a strong indication that you’ve known that person or that place from another time. In the Western world, we are stuck in thinking that our identity is this body. Our souls are pure energy, outside of time and space, infinite and eternal. That’s our true identity.
Barb: So, we come to this life with lessons to learn, and there are souls we interact with who must have something to do with those lessons. I’ve heard it said that we often incarnate with souls we’ve associated with many times. Have you found this to be true?
Eric: Yes, we often come back with family members. I’ve seen this many times in my work. Especially if the primary issue a person has to deal with is relationships. Their minds will show them times during other lives where they’ve been involved with a person, and there will be an intuitive recognition. It doesn’t always happen. I would say about 30% of the time that happens.
Our families are a wonderful means of getting soul lessons. One of the things we’re here to learn is how to give and receive love. And, boy, our families can be a wonderful challenge for that. How to let go, how to best communicate frustrations, fears, how to communicate love—our families are a great source of soul lessons. That’s why we often come back in groups.
Barb: Is that because particular souls challenge us in ways we need to challenged?
Eric: Yes.
Barb: It’s never easy, is it?
Eric: No. You can’t get through life without challenges. It’s not what comes to you in life, it’s how you respond to the challenges. That’s the key to life. How are you going to respond to the challenges?
Barb: I’d like to move into the subject I’m most interested in. Can romantic love carry over from one life to another?
Eric: I believe it does. Sometimes couples will get that first look at each other, and there will be that inner knowing that they’re supposed to be with that person. Even with all my work, and with soul-mates, I had only an intellectual understanding of it until I met my wife.
When we met for the first time, our eyes locked for 45 minutes. Within the first few hours of our meeting, we felt as if we’d merged. There was an intuitive feeling, like, wow, we finally found each other. So, I do believe romantic love can carry on.
When we first started living together, my wife would have a heartsick feeling whenever I would leave for work. A great fear would come over her, almost a panic. We explored that fear through regression. It took her to a life where she said goodbye to me as I was going off on a sea voyage. I worked on a boat or a ship, and the ship sank. Saying goodbye that time was the last she saw of me. I never came back to her. So there are fears that we experience that make no logical sense in this life, and when we go into these fears, we find these emotionally charged past lives just below the surface.
Barb: So, did that help your wife? Obviously you don’t work on a ship now, but you go off in a car, or on a bike to work.
Eric: After the session she could see she had spent the rest of that past life living with the grief, and she understood where the feelings stemmed from. With higher awareness she can see that the issue is over. It doesn’t pertain to this life anymore, and then she could let go and heal. You get this understanding that it’s okay. You’ll meet again.
Barb: Knowing that you will be with that soul again is reassuring.
Eric: Yes. This happens often, about 70% of the time, where people will do a session because there’s a void in their life, or a sadness because someone has died. We’ll go back into a past life, and they’ll recognize that same soul in other lives.
(At this point, we kind of went off on another tangent about souls sending messages to family members, and maybe I’ll use that material for another blog in the future if there’s interest.)
Now I’d like to open it up for questions from our readers, and I’d like to caution you that both Eric and I work day jobs. You might not get an immediate response, but both of us will be checking in throughout the next few days, and we will respond. Thanks for stopping by!
Great topic! Something I'm really interested in. Reminds me of Dick Sutphen's book "We are Born Again to be Together"...
ReplyDeleteThanks for stopping by, Pepper!
ReplyDeleteVery cool post. It actually gave me an idea for a story too. (Damn you, Plot Bunnies!)
ReplyDeleteHey Barb,
ReplyDeleteThis is always a fascinating subject and Eric is very erudite on it. I can see why past life regression makes a wonderful plot springboard, and why it could be comforting to someone trying to figure out things in this life. My question for Eric is, have you ever had a client regress only to find something very traumatic--something that disturbs rather than helps or heals?
Thanks for the interesting ideas! Congrats on release day, Barb!
Very cool blog topic. My question would be, even if you don't feel you have issues to resolve, would there be a good reason to do a past life regression (to learn from the past maybe)?
ReplyDeleteTami
Wow! Interesting topic and interview! Makes me wonder if some of the ideas authors get could stem from some kind of unconscious regression. Congratulations, Barbara, and best of luck! : )
ReplyDeleteEric will drop by when he can, but were you there when he spoke to MFW? HIs own phobia about speaking in public stemmed from a past life trauma. Most people who seek him out have inexplicable phobias that stem from traumas in previous lives. I'll butt out and hopefully Eric will be by soon. We are both at work now.
ReplyDeleteWonderful interview Barbara. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteEric I’ve followed your work from a distance. Thought about contacting you more than once. As a child (younger than 5) I had strong memories of a life in Chicago. They were more vivid when a family friend (who was involved in some illegal activities) was around, usually Sunday afternoons. I told him one afternoon I remembered him from when I was big. I described a building and began to sing a song. I clearly remember the look on his face and change in body language. There were other things I remembered and ‘shared’ with my large extended family who delighted in making fun of me. Well, it was kinda wacky. I learned more about this in my adult life and watched for signs of it in my children. Happened once, only briefly. I was stunned on day to hear a grandson say “before, when I was big.” I would ask him what he remembered about being big and it was being a young man and able to do anything he wanted. I have heard other children say much the same thing and be dismissed by parents. I wish I remembered more. Even the words of the song “Blue Moon” have faded. I have another memory that is not connected to this one and is bizarre.
Well, that’s my story and I’m sticking to it.
Rita
Barb sorry I had to go in as anonymous but think I have comments posting now
ReplyDeleteI left Eric a message letting him know he has some comments waiting. He might be at work and unable to respond yet.
ReplyDeleteBarb and Eric, fascinating stuff. I've done some past life meditation on my own and found it fascinating.
ReplyDeleteThanks for stopping by, Cat! We had Eric come talk to us at MFW a few years ago. Maybe it's time to have him back. :0)
ReplyDeleteShawna, I've wondered about that as well, or if we somehow tap into the collective unconscious and glean ideas that way. I've often noticed that the same idea manifests simultaneously in a big way.
ReplyDeleteLizbeth, to answer your question, the only time a client's inner mind will take them to a traumatic past life scene would be because it is somehow affecting him or her in this present life on a mental, emotional or physical level. This happens once in awhile. Your inner mind will take you there to "clear" it so it no longer affects you. Even if the situation feels fearful, you can quickly move to the end of the scene when it's over if you want, or else view the scene from above. You are always in touch with the present moment aware self that knows you are safe, and the past is over. There are various things an experienced past life regression therapist can do to release the residual energy of past life trauma on the mental, emotional or physical level so the fear-based energy is cleared from the system. So, to answer your question, I've never experienced a situation where the person left with more trauma rather than a sense of release or relief in the two thousand or so regressions I've done.
ReplyDeleteTo answer Tami's question, I find that even if you don't have an issue that you can think of to work on, your inner mind will tend to show you a life that has to do with a soul lesson anyway. So, without any effort on your part, your inner mind will show you something that will be beneficial for you to see. Ultimately, towards the end of the session, you are basking in a part of yourself that feels profoundly peaceful, and "more awake" than you do in this present level of consciousness, and that in itself can have benefits that are deeply felt. It's hard to describe unless you've done one.
Rita, a great question that Brian Weiss says to ask a 2-4 year old child, "Do you ever remember when you were older or bigger than you are now?" I've gotten some interesting responses from that.
Also, in reponse to Shawna, I think that past lives are just below the surface and can be the inspiration to many author's work, or a musician's ability or an artist's talent as well. This has been an enjoyable discussion. Thank you for the good questions.
Barb, this is fascinating. What a great post and interview. As Shawna speculates, I've actually had things sort of "come" to me in my writing that I can't explain. They feel like things I'm somehow tapping into from another time. I'm an atheist, and I don't really believe in anything supernatural, and yet...sometimes I could almost believe in this, especially when there are emotions attached that seem out of proportion with a fictional event. I prefer to think that it's more along the lines of subconscious "faking" that serves a useful purpose, but who knows? :)
ReplyDeleteThere are times when I "know" something, that I have no prior experience with. There have been times when I've been somewhere, and I've had that sense of being there before. Eric suggested some books for me to read when I first visited him. There's just way too much evidence in favor of reincarnation. Visit iisis.
ReplyDeleteGreat interview, Barb! I am a huge believer in reincarnation. My husband and I had an instant attraction when we met. We eloped six weeks later and are still together. It's not been a completely smooth ride, but when I discovered astrology, I compared our horoscopes. I owed him a karmic debt (which I have repaid now.)
ReplyDeleteI always look for past life karma when advising on love, business, parent-child relationships.
My youngest daughter developed a lump in her breast at age 25 (three years ago). She recorded her past life regressionist as part of her senior show for art school. She described being stalked and killed by a fishmonger whom she rebuffed. She's had issues with low-esteem around boyfrields. The breast lump was a blessing--negative emotions coalesced into physical form so they could be released--all in timing with a major progression in her horoscope. She did holistic therapy for a year and is cancer-free. She describes herself as being reborn now.
Reincarnarnation is the only thing that makes sense of the world, to me.
Fascinating subject. I'm glad you mentioned that families can come back together. I'm forever telling my daughter that in this life I'm the parent and she has to listen to me. Actually, she gives me a funny look and says okay. She's the only one of my children where I've felt this reversal.
ReplyDeleteQuestion for Eric--have you tried to do a regression on someone and they've not had a previous life?
Because that would be a fascinating story.
Hi Linda...because a soul is pure light, energy, and consciousness, it's eternal and indestructible. It would be very rare to find a soul who has not had some type of existence somewhere. Usually in the cases someone doesn't go to a past life during a regression, it's because of some type of fear they have of the process, or they are not used to how the information comes to them. The information comes to or "through" a person only when they get their "thinking" or "analytical mind" out of the way. Sometimes this takes some practice, but it's rather easy once you understand that it's similar to how an artist will paint, or a musician plays, or an author writes.
ReplyDeleteReally interesting post, Barbara!
ReplyDeleteThanks for putting it together. Very true how so many story ideas could stem from this topic!
Kris
Oh, I know. I want to do a whole series on the topic. I have a few ideas. I have a friend who checks out Craig's List personals for her muse. I'm checking out iisis!
ReplyDeleteI always wonder what happened in a past life that I have been blessed with such an easy life this go around. I don't know why, but I have an uneasy suspicion that it must have been traumatic. All my life I've had nightmares of finding dead bodies / being stalked by a killer, to the point that I thought they were normal and everyone had them until someone pointed out that wasn't necessarily so. Fascinating subject. Someday I'll get up enough courage to find out what really happened. Maybe.
ReplyDeleteDo it, Ellen! Like Eric says, while you're doing regression, you are always aware that the information you get is in the past, and in the present you are safe.
ReplyDeleteAn interesting post topic. It definitely gave me a deeper look into regression. I think understanding your past and being aware if your feelings plays a major role in helping you heal and move forward.
ReplyDeleteI read and enjoy a lot of Scottish stories and will definitely keep "Heart of the Druid Laird" in mind for future readings.
Thanks so much for stopping by. I agree. Understanding your past plays a huge part in your future.
ReplyDelete