by C. Norman Shealy, M.D., Ph.D.

Past-Life Therapy: A Tool for Releasing the Subconscious

I began using past-life therapy in 1972 and consider it the single most important psychotherapeutic tool we have. Unfortunately, not every patient is open to considering it. After all, 35% of Americans are fundamentalists and reject everything, including themselves! Even those who are somewhat open to the possibility of past lives sometimes are hesitant to open what they consider a Pandora’s can of worms. Furthermore, it is somewhat time consuming but I believe that in general the benefits far outweigh the time involved and I know of no other tool that will yield such rapid progress. A single case report from my files may serve to illustrate these concepts.

A 32-year old woman presented as her problem excruciating pain in her legs. She gave a history of having shot herself while cleaning her husband’s gun. The bullet penetrated her abdomen and lodged in the spinal cord near the cauda equina and rendered her paraplegic. She had the typical paraplegic pain syndrome, which generally is one of the most difficult of all pain problems to treat.

I suggested a past-life therapy session, to which she readily agreed. During the session she gave a fantastic historical account of being Anne Boleyn. At the end of the session she was totally amnesic. Fortunately, I had recorded the entire session, played it back to her, and at the end of the tape she began to cry. I asked her, “Lilly what is the meaning of that?”

She replied, “I don’t know.”

I replied, “I know, you think your husband shot you, don’t you?”

Her reply: “I don’t know. The first thing I remember after the injury was awakening in the recovery room. I was told that I had shot myself while cleaning my husband’s gun. The last thing I remember is that we were having an argument.”

Following this single episode, she made rapid progress, brought her pain under control, divorced her husband, and went on to become a successful counselor herself.

This particular case is striking, for neither Lilly nor I would consider that she actually was Anne Boleyn but believe that the episode represented an allegorical symbol which allowed us to see her as the martyred wife. She had apparently not voiced that concern to anyone prior to the regression session.

Although I personally believe in reincarnation, I think that a majority of the time the episodes which patients recount probably represent allegories and symbolic messages from the subconscious. The importance of past-life therapy is in allowing patients to experience the intense imagery and, frequently, the emotional release that occurs with that. Healing then takes place because of the insight gained during such sessions.

AIDS: Pathways to Transformation

In 1985 a young man with enlarged lymph nodes, weight loss, and a positive WV antibody test, consulted with Caroline Myss, one of the most talented clairvoyants I have met. In earlier tests with her, I found her to be 93% accurate in making medical diagnoses when she had only the patient’s name and birth date or age. She confirmed the diagnosis of AIDS and made a suggestion that this young man begin daily soaks of his feet in sea salt with a visualization technique of seeing the crystalline structure of the body as being perfect. At the same time he went onto a diet which would be more similar to macrobiotics than anything else that I can describe easily. Six weeks later his antibody test had reverted to negative and has remained so since then.

This young man, although he had what Caroline calls a victim consciousness, received tremendous love and support from his family and friends. I have talked with him and have met his father and sister and believe that this case represents a cure from AIDS, which I call the “One White Crow Syndrome.” If there is one White Crow, there should be others.

Caroline and I have worked together to publish a book which will be published in the early spring of 1988 entitled The Creation of Health. One part of that will include our suggestions in relation to AIDS.

To me it appears that AIDS carries a wide variety of implications. One of the most striking is that it seems to be a global epidemic, perhaps more widespread than any epidemic in known history. Considering the fact that most epidemics of this nature take place after a war, and considering the long incubation period of AIDS, it has occurred to me that perhaps this is the delayed response to the war in Vietnam. Caroline considers it to be primarily a result of the tremendous contamination that the earth has suffered from nuclear and chemical pollution, and she looks upon the planet itself as having AIDS. She believes that all patients who develop AIDS have a basic victim consciousness that goes back usually to childhood. It is the type of victim consciousness from which there is no escape. It is as if a person has to say “I am hemophiliac, it cannot change, I am therefore a victim”; or “I am a homosexual, I cannot change, I am therefore a victim.”

Genesis, a non-physical teacher with whom Caroline communicates, has emphasized that sexual communion is one of the ultimate spiritual experiences. Genesis does not feel that there is necessarily right or wrong in male-female vs. male-male or female-female sexual activity but that it is the attitude and intent with which individuals enter sexual relations that determines their spirituality. It seems inconceivable to me that an individual could have an intimate spiritual relationship with hundreds of individuals, as some gay people do, and, thus, my personal impression is that AIDS is not the result of homosexual behavior per se but the result of fairly flagrant sexual experiences without true love, caring, and spiritual communication. Obviously, depression and potential karmic influences are prevalent in AIDS patients. After all, what sets them up to become victims?

During the next few years the United States is likely to enter a stage of panic over that whole AIDS problem. Insurance companies may well be bankrupt by it. The population of the world may experience a greater decimation than in any previous known epidemic. One can look at these potentials either with horror, fear, depression, resignation, or with intelligence, compassion, and detachment as an opportunity for growth and learning.

If AIDS is indeed a karmic problem, it is almost what Mary Ann Woodward has called “cash karma,” for it would seem to represent a response within one generation to the devastating chemical and nuclear contamination of the earth with the totally non-spiritual Vietnam War. Of all the wars, at least in recent history, that particular one probably had less moral reason to occur and led to greater moral conflict than any other. The implications are obvious. Humanity must clean up its act chemically, at the nuclear energy level and spiritually. If the human race can indeed use AIDS as a stepping stone to spiritual growth, the tremendous suffering may somehow prove valuable.