Have you ever met someone that you strongly felt you knew before? Or perhaps your introduction to past lives began with a reading from an intuitive person, or having direct recall with the aid of a skilled regressionist? Past Life Regression Therapy is an increasingly popular tool for Hypnotherapists whose professional training may include PLRT, and whose specialization is accessing the realm of the subconscious mind, necessary for any successful regression.

True success also includes personal growth, healing or inspiration. When choosing a facilitator, ask about their experience, credentials, induction and journeying methods, motivation and goals for you. This increases the likelihood of getting more than just the sensationalism often attached to past lives. Can the therapist not only help you go into the appropriate altered state, but assist you in reaping the deeper gifts of the experience? Will s/he assist you in integrating the regression with your current life situation?

Now, you may ask, what exactly is a "past life," and what does the experience REALLY involve? There are various theories to explore, as well as a long continuum of possible experiences from ho-hum to intensely profound. Variables include the experience of the practitioner, as well as the clients ability to relax and trust the unfolding, the unknowns. People differ also in terms of whether they are more visual, auditory or kinesthetic/feeling, and in how ready they are for growth and change, including emotional readiness.

One certainty about the "what" in what happens in a successful regression is an experience of "you" in another body, time and place. You may have just a brief snapshot view, or be looking at a moving picture, or actually feel present in another body. Best, you may also have a Witnessing consciousness in present time, as well. With experience in witnessing and trusting the unfolding, you can expand your experiences and learn the most, potentially, from them. An experienced regression expert may intuitively participate with you on all three levels, while providing guidance for the growth and healing. (Note: these same factors hold true for present life regressions as well, including peri-natal memories.)

Another matter of interest is how you interpret what has taken place philosophically or in terms of your religious or spiritual beliefs. Questions often asked are, "Is this just my imagination or a dream?" "Am I just tapping into someone elses memory thru some collective un/consciousness?" "How can present time and past time co-exist??" (Or, as in the case of a progression, how can the present and future co-exist?!)

Most Past Life Regressionists hold to some form of reincarnation theory which postulates that we each have a soul (also called psyche or oversoul), a mystical facet of Creator that exists outside the bounds and limitations of third dimensional "space-time." Not confined to earthly dimensions, it can take on many different selves or personalities, incarnating again and again (perhaps even in several simultaneous lifetimes) in order to learn about its Divine essential Nature through human, earthly vehicles, or bodyminds. The theory that Earth is a place of learning, of divine Remembering is widely held. Past Life Regression is a way to experience that this is so.

To make use of past lives, their most salient moments must be available. The term akashic records refers to the recording of all that has ever happened to us in our learning process. Body-centered therapists and others may hold that these records are stored in DNA memory.

As we tap into our specific past lives, we discover our Self along the way, what is uniquely our own soul print. We also unveil specifics about karma (results of our unconscious actions) and dharma, the loving resolutions and wisdom that accompany spiritual growth. A fascinating further possibility in regression work is that we may clearly touch the mythological and archetypal realms, where EveryWoMan plays out the arch human roles of Parent, Warrior, Holy Person, Artist, Lover, Teacher, Healer , etc. But even more awesome is to experience yourself at once as an entirely unique mother AND as an example of The Mother archetype as she appears throughout human history, AND as an expression of the Divine Mother -all three, Now.

Some of the most profoundly, spiritually life altering experiences come as we revisit a past event in order to heal injuries inflicted there. The ability to expand to lovingly embrace the past sufficiently to "see" what you couldn't "then," is humbling and uplifting. It is as if the dramas of our present life become the Hero and Heroines Journey, dissolving yet again into the Divine Mystery of our Souls evolution.

To sum up a complex phenomenon, perhaps "what really happens" is simply that in moving into our hearts, into the fullness of a Present moment, what we normally think of as space and time collapses ( a phenomenon familiar to mystics, psychics and meditators). NOW is all there is. In terms of lifetimes, it is as though you are sitting in the center of a huge wheel of Life itself, each spoke being an individual life -or souls expression. At the center, it is all happening Now. In this blessed vantage point, you can find love that was lost to you, compassion, discover meanings not uncovered before and be touched wholly by the mystery of living.