Archives: JRT Articles

Past-Life Therapy with Difficult Phobics – Johannes M. Cladder (Is.2)

by Johannes M. Cladder

There are many books and articles dealing with regressions in trance to so-called past lives. Some include fascinating case histories using past-life therapy. Others attempt to establish the authenticity of reincarnation and the reality of past lives, though the question of whether reincarnation is or is not a possibility can best be determined by lines of investigation other than hypnotic regression, such as the work of Stevenson. Systematic research to determine the possible use of past-life regression with certain kinds of patients is just beginning.

Experimenting with past-life regressions in the hypnotherapy of difficult phobics gives the impression that patients are flooded with traumatic material from the hypothesized past lives and cannot avoid experiencing strong anxiety … Read the rest

21 September 1986

Aspects of Past-Life Bodywork: Understanding Subtle Energy Fields Part I: Theory – Roger Woolger (Is.3)

by Roger J. Woolger

Introduction

A striking aspect of much past-life therapy, when seen for the first time by an observer, is the obvious physical involvement of the client in the story that is being relived. In many sessions the client doesn’t just sit or lie passively recounting an inner vision of a past life with his or her eyes closed. Instead he or she may be subject to the most dramatic convulsions, contortions, heavings, and thrashings imaginable. One client may clutch his chest in apparent pain as he recounts a sword wound, another may turn almost blue during a choking fit as she remembers a strangulation, while yet another may become rigidly fixed with arms above the head as … Read the rest

1 March 1987

ONGOING RESEARCH. Brain Wave States Underlying the Regression Process – Lucas/Snow (Is.2)

by Winafred Lucas and Chet Snow

Research with a biofeedback device called the Mind Mirror established that various levels of brain activity—Beta, Alpha, Theta, and Delta—are active at all times. The Mind Mirror, which monitors the states on a small television screen, shows the proportions in which the states are experienced. There is no one state in which one experiences a past life, any more than there is one state in which dreaming occurs, or any other activity of consciousness.

Preliminary work with the Mind Mirror suggests that regression recall takes place with a high amount of Theta, and an equally high amount of Delta is also present. Mind Mirror research suggests that Delta is actually a radar state. This … Read the rest

21 August 1986

Imaginal Techniques in Past-Life Therapy – Roger Woolger (Is.1)

by Roger Woolger

The notion that physical and psychological illnesses may be derived from the psychic residues of events in previous lives is accepted in a great many non-western cultures. The opening lines of the classic Buddhist text, the Dhammapada, sums up this view succinctly: “All that we are is the result of what we have thought.” It hardly need be added that in the Buddhist world view, earlier thoughts can most certainly belong to earlier incarnations.

In the West, however, such an idea has never been seriously entertained by orthodox science or by the orthodox versions of Christianity and Judaism (McGregor, 1978 and Langley, 1967) in recent history. On the other hand fully articulated doctrines of karma and reincarnation … Read the rest

3 April 1986

Using Past-Life Concepts in Child Therapy – Evelyn Fuqua (Is.7)

by Evelyn Fuqua, Ph.D., M.F.C.C.

The primary goal of therapy with children is to strengthen self-esteem. In working with children I do not advocate using regression therapy except in cases where all other methods have failed to help the child. One must always use caution since the ego strength of children is quite fragile. Children need to develop a sense of their unique personality and talents of this lifetime. However, the metaphysical concepts of past lives can at times be used very effectively with children.

I have found four major methods of using regression concepts in working with children: 1) Using hypnotherapy, with the therapist giving suggestions to the child; 2) Encouraging a child to talk about a past … Read the rest

1 April 1989

Past-Life Therapy in the Netherlands – Rob Bontenbal (Is.7)

by Rob Bontenbal, M.A.

Ten years ago past-life therapy was still an almost unknown form of therapy in the Netherlands. Books by past-life therapists such as Thorwald Dethlefsen, Morris Netherton, Edith Fiore, and Denys Kelsey had become available, and hypnotherapy had grown increasingly accepted, bringing many hypnotists into contact with past-life material, but in general few members of either the public or the professions had yet become aware of the potentials of PLT for solving mental, emotional, and physical problems.

This situation existed in part because most hypnotherapists did not know how to work with past-life material. Whenever a client revealed experiences he could not relate to this life, the therapist either neglected the material or worked with the … Read the rest

1 April 1989

Healing the Dying: Contributions to Thanatology – Franklin Loehr (Is. 3)

Death Preview: A New Direction in Psychography

 by Franklin Loehr, D.D.

Psychography is that branch of psychology which attempts to map out the forces in the human personality and trace their sources. Since heredity and environment as sources of human personality forces have been comparatively well examined by conventional psychological research, psychography concentrates on the less explored areas of past lives, the push from the past, and, to a lesser extent on cosmic purpose, the pull from the future. It pays attention always to the crucial significance of the individual’s own decisions.

The usefulness of past-life recall has already been strikingly demonstrated in the results of those counselors who have used it in their psychotherapy with clients. It is … Read the rest

1 March 1987

Who Were You Before You Were You? Garret Oppenheim (Is.1)

by Garrett Oppenheim (1911-1995)*

“When I started doing regressions with my own patients, I read all the literature I could find on the subject. By now I’ve read a considerable body of it. I’m impressed by the quantity of evidence that these books contain, particularly the evidence so painstakingly accumulated by Dr. Ian Stevenson.

I am also impressed by the enormous difficulty of seeing through our biases when it comes to interpreting all this evidence. In reading a wide range of views on reincarnation, one can’t help but realize how individual belief systems can color interpretations and influence the way we gather evidence.

Then where do I stand? While I know that we don’t have a final answer to the … Read the rest

3 April 1986

I Am an Honest Child, I Do Not Lie: It Happened. Regressions to Early Childhood Abuse – Atticus Fleury (Is.7)

by Atticus Fleury*

(Editor’s Note: This actor, writer, and poet was regressed to a period of childhood abuse following a year of therapeutic work with Dr. Afton Blake. His three regressions illustrate the importance of establishing an atmosphere of trust before retrieving such painful memories. They also make clear the necessity of ongoing work to deepen, transform, and integrate the material recovered, a process which in this patient is not yet complete. Work with childhood abuse cannot be hurried. We thank this author for his candid and courageous sharing).

Forgiveness will reign as the clouds
Will rain, and the tears of my sorrow will
Water this patch of earth, and I shall play
In the spray, in the deep … Read the rest

1 April 1989

The Child Is Innocent: Releasing The Effects Of Child Abuse – Alice M. Givens (Is.7)

by Alice M. Givens, Ph.D.

Even with the spotlight of publicity on child abuse today, confusion and misunderstanding reign regarding its occurrence. Hostility and even hatred of children exist in our culture and in other cultures as well, but the prevalence of abuse and the enormity of its effects are still not recognized. A large segment of the population still believes that child abuse is insignificant and are convinced that children lie about and exaggerate such abuse.

When Freud first wrote about sexual abuse in 1896, his theory that neurosis was caused by sexual abuse in childhood drew a horrified reaction from medical and lay communities. Thus, he was forced to rescind his theory and shift the source of … Read the rest

1 April 1989