Past life regression hypnotherapy is a robustly contested topic. It is based on the assumption that people re-incarnate multiple life cycles to experience different lessons that can only be achieved in a physical form. Advocates of this form of therapy believe that under hypnosis, the patient can access the subconscious where repressed memories from their previous lives are stored. Understanding these elements may bring clarity into one's current life cycle thus allowing the patient to move forward into a more fulfilling path. Skeptics argue that these memories are false and created under the power of suggestions from the hypnosis, imagination and previous experiences. At its best, these confabulations are more like metaphors for your life's issues.
I am a believer and a non-believer. I believe that under the ideal conditions, the power of suggestion can create many untruths. I see it everyday in my own store when I am hawking my wares. With the correct amount of nurturing I can create a compelling argument as to why you do need to spend $3,000 on a dining room table even though there is a perfectly good one sitting at home. And this is done while your eyes are wide open. I also believe that before we were born into our physical capsule, we chose the blueprint of our life, what lessons we would like to learn and appoint a designated team of "spirits" whom we entrusted to help achieve this goal of learning. So somewhere up there, I have my life's blueprints stored in the akashic records. Some life cycles we are successful in achieving the lessons we seek out to learn, some life cycles we are off track and totally miss the mark and in other life cycles we are not the students but the appointed teachers to assist someone else. This I believe.
So Laura soothingly asks permission from my "soul" to access my previous lives. I raise a finger to show that accessing the vault is permitted. She tells me to look down at my feet and ask what color are they. I tell her I am wearing boots. I look around and notice that I am in a peaceful forest and I am riding a spotted brown horse. Well this is bizarre... Laura instructs me to hold a mirror up to my face and tell her what I see. What the? I see a white, young male in his 20's staring back at me with warm brown eyes and brown wavy hair. I also am wearing a green cap. The awareness that I was a white male made me almost fall off my hypnosis-created horse. Oh my stars, am I wearing green tights and a tunic? How dreadful... wow, I think I smell... Laura asks what I was doing. I told her I am not sure. I think I am just riding a horse. "Where are you going?" she prods. I don't know... I am just in a forest. Wait a minute, am I Robin Hood? I check my back and sure enough there is a carrier of arrows. Hmmmm... my gut tells me I was looking for something but not sure what. Laura encourages me to forward to a time when it was significant. She snaps her fingers. I am surrounded by fog. Oh wait... maybe it was smoke... I can't tell. The images don't come clearly to me like one would see in a movie. Instead, thoughts come to me and I just blab them out loud to Laura. After I blab something, the images in my head come into vision clearer. She asks what was happening. Houses are burning, people are running, there is lots of screaming and mayhem. Laura ask what I was doing. I am confused. I think I am fighting someone. I reach for my bow and arrow and expertly pierced the torso of another man that appeared to be a Viking. I am still confused. Realizing she wasn't going to get more details so she moves me to another event with a snap of her fingers. I look down and I am holding a beautiful baby boy. Laura asks who's baby was it? I think he's mine. Suddenly I feel wetness on my cheeks. What the hell? Am I crying? Why the hell am I crying? Consciously I am fully aware that I am crying but unconsciously I have no idea why. Maybe I just witnessed the birth of my own child so I am crying out of joy? Holy shit, this hynosis is so weird. Laura asks how I died. I blurted out that I died of old age. She asks what I advice I can tell my current self. To live a good honest life and to help as many people as possible. The tears stopped.
Laura snaps her fingers again and I am suddenly transported to the middle of a field. It's grassy and flat and there are endless blue skies stretched out before me. She asks me to look down at my feet and tell her what I see. I see brown skinned toes. Eeeeewww... I see dirt under my unclipped toenails. Man I need a bath. She asks me to hold a mirror up and tell her what I see. I hold up the mirror and see a dark skinned 12 year old boy with a shaved head. She asks what was I doing. I don't know. Hmmmm... why am I constantly hanging out in the middle of no where and not having a clue why? Laura realizes that I really don't have a clue so she moves me forward with another snap.
People are staring intensely at me. Not just a couple, a whole crap load of them. The group of noble looking men and women, dressed in what looked like Medival garb. Oh... the people staring at me are my councillors or... maybe advisors or... maybe they are just admiring my nice clothes. Oh my... these are nice clothes! Well, thank goodness they aren't staring at me because I'm naked... and thank goodness my hygiene level is much better in this lifetime. I think they are waiting for me to make an important decision. Laura asks what it was. I don't know. She snaps me forward and this time I am staring out from what I think is my balcony. I am admiring the beauty and happiness of that lovely morning and appreciating that my kingdom is at peace. I enjoyed the view but since there was not much going on but me gawking at my own work, Laura moves me to my time of death. I am in war. My sword is really heavy and my opponent strikes it out of my hand. He triumphantly stabs me through the torso. I feel wetness on my cheeks again. What the hell? Am I crying again? Laura reminds my soul that this was a past life and the pain I am feeling is not real. I tell her I am not crying because of the pain. I am crying because I feel guilty. "Why do you feel guilty?" I feel guilty that I let my kingdom down but I am so happy and so relieved that I am finally dead because I don't have to do this King thing anymore. I am sobbing uncontrollably and the tears are mixing in with my lovely boogers. Gawd... I am an emotional wreck.
Laura attempts to release my guilt through some therapeutic words. I am not really listening. Instead I some how got transported to another scene where I am witnessing a lovely pale maiden with flowing red locks burn to death at the stake while people are angrily chanting,"Witch, witch, witch!" I realized that she was the same maiden that was staring at me in the first scene. Oh my gawd, this maiden is Laura! I tried to save her but I couldn't. I think she was a Priestess that healed people as well and she was a close confidante to me. The guilt from not being able to save her created another wave of uncontrollable sobbing. Laura eases my sobbing by bringing me back slowly to this lifetime.
My eyes flew open and I immediately grabbed the tissue box beside me. I am exhausted but relieved to see me sitting on a Poang chair. I felt like I ran a marathon, and then got hit by a train, and then got up to drink to the point I couldn't see. I was speechless. I fully knew what I said and remembered everything.
Laura hands me a card that she pulled from her Tarot deck prior to me seeing her. She asked the Universe what my lesson here was. I look at the card and see a bunch of orbs in the modern artwork. Laura explains that it means I am surrounded my Angels. I smiled. This does not surprise me. She tells me that she asked the Universe to send me messages that I am on the right path by creating rainbows and pennies from Heaven.
The natural skeptic in me digested the events that night. Was I a King because I am an ego maniac so therefore I conjured up this need as an affirmation for my grandiosity? Or am I an ego maniac because I was a King in my past life therefore remnants of my grandeur permenated through this lifetime. Well, if that was the case then it sure explains my lack of humbleness. Hmmmm... And why on Earth did I hook up with Laura? Bizarre. I felt quite strongly that in my lifetime as a King, Priestess Laura was a teacher for me. Coincidental that she has been guiding me on this spiritual exploration in this life time? Hmmmm... You know what's really infuriating? Answering questions with questions.
Thank you Sensei Laura. I promise to not let you burn at the stake in this lifetime.
Thursday, June 9, 2011
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
Going With The Flow
It was a long drive.
I had an appointment to meet with Laura yesterday after work. When she gave me her address I sarcastically commented that my passport had expired and so I wasn't sure if the delegates of Maple Ridge would let me in her neck of the woods. I was chatting with her on Facebook and I could sense she was rolling her eyes at my witty retort.
Traffic was at it's peak and of course the weather started to turn ugly. "Great... this is freaking fantastic." I call Chris to let Laura know I would be late. As I manuever myself through the GVRD my mind started wandering back to our Facebook chats. Laura is a clinically trained hynotherapist who I just recently started befriending. During her own journey into her life's purpose she had recalled two past lives. In one lifetime she was a Priestess who healed people but eventually felt so burdened with her talents that she decided to stop practicing her gift. She died from someone carving her heart out. She learned that she doesn't have to feel obligated to serve her entire lifetime. In another life cycle she was a Viking soldier who couldn't save his wife from being kidnapped and probably tortured. He did re-marry and lived a long life but the guilt was never let go. Such fascinating stories.
I am a strong believer in re-incarnation and cycling back into this physical plane with the purpose of experiencing lessons. I am also what you may call an "easy" subject when it comes to the power of suggestion thanks to my vivid imagination. If a person said, "Hey Huong, you want a caeser?" my mouth, like a seasoned Pavlov's dog, would start watering right on cue. For this same reason, I refuse to watch scary movies because I am very talented at impressing the images I saw onto my own landscape... for like... weeks. With this level of awareness I try to keep my expectations in check. On the one hand I am also very nervous to see what past life issues I have been harboring unconsciously. On the other hand, I wonder if my highly tuned and conditioned analytical mind would even allow me to be seduced to the hynotic level where the lymbic system runs automatically without the conscious mind.
Laura walks me through the technical aspects of hypnosis to clear up any apprehensions and misconceptions. Laura has set aside a cozy, dimly lit room where I happily plunk myself into a comfy Poang chair. I smile at the familiar IKEA best seller and start recalling how many units of this favorite lounger I sold as a sales manager. I then notice the sounds of water falling and realized she owns one of those table top Zen rock waterfalls things... the same one in fact that Chris got for Christmas from his step grandma 4 years ago. It then occurred to me that I totally tuned out what Laura was saying. I reshift my body language to focus on her. See? This is how my mind works. It rambles and rambles and rambles... all the time. The really freaky thing? I have these random thoughts but I totally heard EVERYTHING Laura had said down to the statistic that we use only 5% of our brain, leaving 95% of it unused in the sub-conscious mind. If you really know me, you would know that I recall details vividly and with impeccable accuracy. So how is it that I can have a separate conversation with myself about minute, trivial information but somehow can conduct a full conversation and acquire new information at the same time? So... I guess Miss Laura has her work cut out for her.
She starts the session by turning on the CD with the new age music. I feel like I'm at a spa. I uncross my legs, slip into a cozy throw, close my eyes and follow her instructions as she reads a script. She tells me to imagine myself floating out of my body and looking back down at it. I envision myself doing this and start giggling - in my mind so I don't get in trouble. I find it so funny that the person I imagined floating out of my body was not the actual image of the real me. Instead, I imagine myself as a blue energy being with very little facial features and long blue energy hair down to my bum. Laura instructs me to move my floating self to the left as far as the wall, or perhaps beyond it and even beyond this planet if I choose to. In my head, I methodically repeat her instructions: Okay Laura I will float my weird, unclothed blue energy being to my left... ummmm... go past your wall... go outside your home... oh wait, is your home on a greenbelt? Does that mean if I float too far a bear might eat me? I started silently smiling in my head again because apparently I am being highly amused at my own running monologue. Laura brings my floating self back to my core and instructs me to start creating a safe zone where I am at peace. My mind starts imagining a peaceful forest where the sun trickles through the lush trees and shines softly onto the... ummm... pond? Why on earth would you pick a pond? Ponds are stagnant bodies of water which means it's a ripe environment for leeches to grow. Eeeeewwww... great sanctuary if you're an animal that feasts on leeches. For pete's sake if you're going to imagine a water feature go all out and do a waterfall. Okay.. the sun trickles through the lush trees and shines softly on the small lake where it is being fed by a waterfall. Is the waterfall being fed by a glacier or an underground aquifer? Holy geezes, why do I have fairies dancing around me? Shoo! Dancing fairies you need to fly back to Care Bear Land before Laura finds out your distracting me from following her instructions. The fairies ignore my request but they politely bring me a rock where I delightfully sit in the signature yoga pose of ohm. Laura's voice then focusses my attention and tells me that I am so relaxed that my left leg is feeling so, so, so heavy. It is so heavy that I can't even lift it. Oh sure, I am so, so, so relaxed that I can't EVEN lift my left foot. Apparently my blue energy being is sarcastic to the core. Laura softly tests my state and tells me to lift my left leg. I skeptically ignore her warning that I had no control over my leg and triumphantly... failed? Wait a minute... holy geezes I can't lift my leg?! What the hell just happened here? One second ago I was shooing away fairies like they were mosquitoes and the next thing I can't lift my own leg? This can't be right. I test my other limbs, everything is dead weight. In fact, even after Laura gives me permission to float my left hand up into the air like a helium balloon I couldn't oblige. She had to come over and lift it for me. I am utterly flabbergasted. Suddenly it dawned on me that somewhere between my own running monolgue and my conscious mind following Laura's instructions I was able to relax to a state of unconsciousness. My mind goes quiet. I feel that my limbs are frozen but I sense some tingling at the extremities. I am aware that if I really wanted to, I probably can open my eyes and regain control of this physical ship so I can move limbs. But then what? That's seem silly trying to undo what you came to discover.
Laura moves onto the next phase of the session and ask permission from my soul to explore it's past lives. I give her permission by raising my right finger. She starts describing elements of a carnival scene and although I am sure I heard her voice in the background, I really didn't follow her instructions as strictly as the first part. Instead my mind starts wandering into a bizarre silence where its quiet... I have never experienced that before. No monologue laden with sarcasm. No silently smiling at my own reflections. No digesting stimulation. No fairies dancing on mushroom tops. No going over a to do list. It was just... nothing. Just me embraced in a white light.
Laura's voice jolts me out of the nothingness and she guides me to recall a past life.
I had an appointment to meet with Laura yesterday after work. When she gave me her address I sarcastically commented that my passport had expired and so I wasn't sure if the delegates of Maple Ridge would let me in her neck of the woods. I was chatting with her on Facebook and I could sense she was rolling her eyes at my witty retort.
Traffic was at it's peak and of course the weather started to turn ugly. "Great... this is freaking fantastic." I call Chris to let Laura know I would be late. As I manuever myself through the GVRD my mind started wandering back to our Facebook chats. Laura is a clinically trained hynotherapist who I just recently started befriending. During her own journey into her life's purpose she had recalled two past lives. In one lifetime she was a Priestess who healed people but eventually felt so burdened with her talents that she decided to stop practicing her gift. She died from someone carving her heart out. She learned that she doesn't have to feel obligated to serve her entire lifetime. In another life cycle she was a Viking soldier who couldn't save his wife from being kidnapped and probably tortured. He did re-marry and lived a long life but the guilt was never let go. Such fascinating stories.
I am a strong believer in re-incarnation and cycling back into this physical plane with the purpose of experiencing lessons. I am also what you may call an "easy" subject when it comes to the power of suggestion thanks to my vivid imagination. If a person said, "Hey Huong, you want a caeser?" my mouth, like a seasoned Pavlov's dog, would start watering right on cue. For this same reason, I refuse to watch scary movies because I am very talented at impressing the images I saw onto my own landscape... for like... weeks. With this level of awareness I try to keep my expectations in check. On the one hand I am also very nervous to see what past life issues I have been harboring unconsciously. On the other hand, I wonder if my highly tuned and conditioned analytical mind would even allow me to be seduced to the hynotic level where the lymbic system runs automatically without the conscious mind.
Laura walks me through the technical aspects of hypnosis to clear up any apprehensions and misconceptions. Laura has set aside a cozy, dimly lit room where I happily plunk myself into a comfy Poang chair. I smile at the familiar IKEA best seller and start recalling how many units of this favorite lounger I sold as a sales manager. I then notice the sounds of water falling and realized she owns one of those table top Zen rock waterfalls things... the same one in fact that Chris got for Christmas from his step grandma 4 years ago. It then occurred to me that I totally tuned out what Laura was saying. I reshift my body language to focus on her. See? This is how my mind works. It rambles and rambles and rambles... all the time. The really freaky thing? I have these random thoughts but I totally heard EVERYTHING Laura had said down to the statistic that we use only 5% of our brain, leaving 95% of it unused in the sub-conscious mind. If you really know me, you would know that I recall details vividly and with impeccable accuracy. So how is it that I can have a separate conversation with myself about minute, trivial information but somehow can conduct a full conversation and acquire new information at the same time? So... I guess Miss Laura has her work cut out for her.
She starts the session by turning on the CD with the new age music. I feel like I'm at a spa. I uncross my legs, slip into a cozy throw, close my eyes and follow her instructions as she reads a script. She tells me to imagine myself floating out of my body and looking back down at it. I envision myself doing this and start giggling - in my mind so I don't get in trouble. I find it so funny that the person I imagined floating out of my body was not the actual image of the real me. Instead, I imagine myself as a blue energy being with very little facial features and long blue energy hair down to my bum. Laura instructs me to move my floating self to the left as far as the wall, or perhaps beyond it and even beyond this planet if I choose to. In my head, I methodically repeat her instructions: Okay Laura I will float my weird, unclothed blue energy being to my left... ummmm... go past your wall... go outside your home... oh wait, is your home on a greenbelt? Does that mean if I float too far a bear might eat me? I started silently smiling in my head again because apparently I am being highly amused at my own running monologue. Laura brings my floating self back to my core and instructs me to start creating a safe zone where I am at peace. My mind starts imagining a peaceful forest where the sun trickles through the lush trees and shines softly onto the... ummm... pond? Why on earth would you pick a pond? Ponds are stagnant bodies of water which means it's a ripe environment for leeches to grow. Eeeeewwww... great sanctuary if you're an animal that feasts on leeches. For pete's sake if you're going to imagine a water feature go all out and do a waterfall. Okay.. the sun trickles through the lush trees and shines softly on the small lake where it is being fed by a waterfall. Is the waterfall being fed by a glacier or an underground aquifer? Holy geezes, why do I have fairies dancing around me? Shoo! Dancing fairies you need to fly back to Care Bear Land before Laura finds out your distracting me from following her instructions. The fairies ignore my request but they politely bring me a rock where I delightfully sit in the signature yoga pose of ohm. Laura's voice then focusses my attention and tells me that I am so relaxed that my left leg is feeling so, so, so heavy. It is so heavy that I can't even lift it. Oh sure, I am so, so, so relaxed that I can't EVEN lift my left foot. Apparently my blue energy being is sarcastic to the core. Laura softly tests my state and tells me to lift my left leg. I skeptically ignore her warning that I had no control over my leg and triumphantly... failed? Wait a minute... holy geezes I can't lift my leg?! What the hell just happened here? One second ago I was shooing away fairies like they were mosquitoes and the next thing I can't lift my own leg? This can't be right. I test my other limbs, everything is dead weight. In fact, even after Laura gives me permission to float my left hand up into the air like a helium balloon I couldn't oblige. She had to come over and lift it for me. I am utterly flabbergasted. Suddenly it dawned on me that somewhere between my own running monolgue and my conscious mind following Laura's instructions I was able to relax to a state of unconsciousness. My mind goes quiet. I feel that my limbs are frozen but I sense some tingling at the extremities. I am aware that if I really wanted to, I probably can open my eyes and regain control of this physical ship so I can move limbs. But then what? That's seem silly trying to undo what you came to discover.
Laura moves onto the next phase of the session and ask permission from my soul to explore it's past lives. I give her permission by raising my right finger. She starts describing elements of a carnival scene and although I am sure I heard her voice in the background, I really didn't follow her instructions as strictly as the first part. Instead my mind starts wandering into a bizarre silence where its quiet... I have never experienced that before. No monologue laden with sarcasm. No silently smiling at my own reflections. No digesting stimulation. No fairies dancing on mushroom tops. No going over a to do list. It was just... nothing. Just me embraced in a white light.
Laura's voice jolts me out of the nothingness and she guides me to recall a past life.