Introduction

The Beginning

When I was doing my psychiatric residency, there were times when I felt very discouragedbecause there was no single treatment which worked for every patient. Medication works,but not in every patient; and it can make some patients more dysfunctional because of theside effects. Traditional talk therapy helps only a small percentage of patients. I sawpatients who suffered for years, going from doctor to doctor and from hospital to hospital,searching for relief from their symptoms.

During my residency, I strived to learn different types of available treatment methods. Ilearned individual psychotherapy, family therapy, group therapy, psychodrama,transactional analysis, hypnosis, and hypnotherapy so I could use these varioustechniques with different patients to suit their needs for healing.

Medication, in some cases, does correct the chemical imbalance in the brain; in othercases, however, it just pushes the problems back into the subconscious and covers themup. The patient feels better temporarily but the problems continue to surface. More andmore medication is required over a long period, restricting patients' day-to-day functioning.In some cases, patients become addicted to these medications, creating additionalproblems.

With talk therapy, whether individual, family, or group, patients deal with only theconscious mind. They relate to the reasons of which they are aware, consciously andintellectually. As a result, months and years of talk therapy can work to some extent, butthis is only a Band-Aid approach. The problems keep recurring.

Traditional talk therapy has its successes; it also has its failures. Unfortunately, thenumber of failures in any given period far exceeds the number of successes. Even whenaugmented by psychotropic medications, the success rate of traditional talk therapyremains low.

Dismayed by the lack of success of traditional talk therapies, I decided to utilize othertechniques, especially hypnotherapy, in combination with the traditional talk therapies.Hypnosis allows patients to uncover the underlying subconscious reasons for theiremotional and physical problems. The unresolved problems are brought from thesubconscious mind to the conscious mind. By recalling, reliving, releasing, understanding,and resolving the unresolved traumas and issues, patients can be freed from theirlongstanding problems in just a few sessions. Very little or no medication is required andthe time involved is relatively short. I have used hypnosis effectively for insomnia, anxiety,habit control, pain control, positive suggestions for day-to-day functioning, and inhypnotherapy to uncover the underlying problems to help people.

Over the years of my psychiatric practice, I always felt good about the quality of my workand the results I had with my patients. I was able to help people with combinations oftreatment modalities depending on the patients' needs. But still, at times, there werepatients for whom I could not do much except use medications and supportivepsychotherapy. I continued to search for ways to help my patients.

My Accidental Discovery of a Past Life

About eleven years ago, I saw Martha, a thirty-four-year-old housewife and mother ofthree children who was suffering from a longstanding claustrophobia, which crippled herdaily life. The problem was getting worse and as a result she was becoming severelydepressed and at times suicidal.

She had severe panic attacks, several times a day, every day. During these panic attacksshe had difficulty breathing, palpitations, dizziness, feelings of intense fear andapprehension, and fear of dying. I began to treat her with medication and traditional talktherapy. These helped her to some extent, but her claustrophobia and panic attackscontinued.

During a session, I asked her about the last time she had a panic attack. All of a suddenshe became anxious and said, "Doctor, I am having one right now," and she started togasp for breath.

I asked her to close her eyes, focus on her emotional and physical feelings, and allowthose feelings to take her back to another time, to the source of her problems when shefelt the same way. Martha slipped into a self-induced trance state. I thought she wouldprobably remember a childhood incident when she was being locked in a closet, attic,bathroom, or other small room from where she could not get out.

Instead, she said she was in a different time, different life, and in a different body as ayoung girl. "I am in a coffin," Martha cried. "They think I am dead! They are closing the lid.I am afraid to die but what if they close the lid of the coffin and I do not die? Then what amI going to do?"

I was taken by complete surprise, but I let her continue the story and release the emotionsassociated with it. When she came out of this self-induced trance, she looked puzzled butrelaxed. I did not know what to make of that session. To my surprise, her panic attacksdisappeared right after the session. In the next session she reported that she was free ofher crippling claustrophobia, depression, and panic attacks.

I was pleasantly surprised. I had not had such a miraculous result before. Many thoughtswent through my mind. I wondered if any other psychiatrist or psychologist had similaroccurrences where a patient spontaneously regressed to a past life and had suchdramatic results.

None of my patients had ever before regressed to another life. I had heard of anaccidental regression into a past life during a hypnosis conference and had seen a personbeing regressed to a past life on TV. I found the concept interesting, but I had not thoughtof utilizing it in the treatment of my patients.

I was impressed with Martha's cure. I started to search for literature on the subject of pastlife regression. To my surprise, there were many books written on the subject. There weremany psychologists, psychotherapists, hypnotherapists, and a few psychiatrists who wereusing what they called "Past Life Regression Therapy."

I was upset with myself, thinking, "Where was I all this time? Why didn't I find out about itbefore?" I began to utilize this method in combination with other traditional therapies, oftenwith fast and dramatic success in relieving patients' crippling symptoms.

What amazed me even more was that later, while working with other patients withclaustrophobia, "being buried alive" is one of the most common themes presented by mypatients and by recalling, reliving, releasing, and understanding the event, they were freeof their symptoms too.

I realized that past life regression is an extension of age regression, only it takes thepatient back into another life to a traumatic event that caused...