by Thelma B. Freedman, M.A.
Case studies are an important method which professionals in many disciplines use to share and illustrate information and techniques. In this one, the author suggests the use of past-life reports as a technique which she found helpful in dealing with a recurrent nightmare-apparition.
Evelyn Fuqua, in her article in Volume IV, 1, of the Journal, suggests the use of past-life report therapy with children’s recurrent nightmares. She discusses her young client Ben, who suffered from a recurrent nightmare of being shot by Germans during World War II. Ben had realized at the age of nine that his recurrent nightmare might have a basis in a past life and requested appropriate therapy. Fuqua tells us that Ben was already familiar with the concept of past lives; thus, the association between a past life and his recurrent nightmare was a natural one for him to make.
To say that Ben was unusual in his nine-year-old’s awareness and acceptance of past-life report therapy is to make an extreme understatement. He was probably a lucky one in a million.
Sadly, many children in our culture suffer from recurring nightmares, and for the most part, they go right on suffering from them after they become adults. Fuqua suggests that these nightmares may sometimes have past-life roots, and I find that I agree with her. Early recognition of this possibility could lead to proper past-life therapy for the child and eliminate the nightmare and the associated psychological fears.