Past Lives Regression: Is It Real or Not?

Does past lives regression mean reincarnation is real? What if you don’t believe it? Couldn’t it just be made-up stories?

Perhaps you are intrigued by regression hypnotherapy and would like to see if it can help resolve an issue or pattern that keeps affecting your life. Yet, you are asking yourself the above questions.

First of all, my purpose is not to convince you to believe in reincarnation. Nor does it matter.

There are scientists and researchers keen on proving (and disproving) reincarnation. There are many books on past lives recollections that have been proven accurate (even providing details the recalling subjects couldn’t possibly have known unless they had lived that life). There are also many instances of past lives memories that didn’t hold up well to scrutiny. 

Before I came to this work, I was one of those people who occasionally say, “in a past life, I must have been…” In reality, I didn’t know what I believed. However, I would often wonder about the origin of some of my crippling fears, which seemed to defy logic and I couldn’t trace back to any particular triggering event in my life.

When I had my first regression, I was surprised by how much I felt I was the person in the past life. I was back in that body, with her thoughts, beliefs, insecurities. Details of the life came to me effortlessly, not as if I was imagining them but as if I just knew them. Emotions were raw and real.

I see the same thing with my clients. Some plunge quickly into the memories, recalling details and even using expressions that don’t belong to our times. On occasion, I’ve had to play catch-up because the client was talking as if I knew what life was like in the historic period and place they were reliving!

Yet, other times the regressions may feel more like journeys at the edge between reality and metaphor.

All sessions have one thing in common, though: they are effective in helping people understand the issues they are encountering in the present life, in letting go of stuck emotions, and gaining a new perspective.

And that’s the intent of the session.

The purpose of regression hypnotherapy is NOT to dig for historical or biographical information that might help confirm the veracity of the past life. In most cases, those details won’t even come up because they are not essential to your healing goal. The details you will become aware of are the ones that are connected to – and influencing – what’s happening to you right now.

At the end of the day, what matters is: How can the regression help you in the present life? Did you gain new insights you couldn’t have gotten in any other way? Did it create useful shifts in thoughts, emotions, beliefs? Did it cause physical pain to decrease or disappear? (this can happen, too, in some cases).

If so, what difference does it make if the past life is real or not?

There’s nothing wrong with wanting to know but, in my opinion, regression for healing beats regression for curiosity, any time.

Also, in regressions done solely for research purposes, the client might revisit what can look like a hard life with no tools or support to comprehend its greater meaning. A skilled hypnotherapist, on the other hand, will facilitate the regression so that, if painful memories arise, you experience them only to the extent that’s needed (and you are comfortable with) to understand their significance and release them safely.

This leaves you with a positive cathartic experience and an opportunity to close the door on what’s been holding you back.