by Russel C. Davis, Ph.D.
Did you ever have to take one of those frustratingly annoying classes in college in which you were required to write a paper detailing a process in such a way that any reader could follow your directions successfully without any prior knowledge? The illustration comes from attempting to translate something which is clear in your mind to something which will be equally clear in the mind of your audience. It’s sort of like trying to explain to a sales clerk a particular shade of orange you want for your patio furniture or telling a friend exactly where it itches on your back. We can see it in our minds and we know what we mean. It’s just a little hard to describe sometimes.
We are called The Journal of Regression Therapy. In publishing each issue our primary goal is to present our readers with a selection of articles which address this topic. But what, exactly, is regression therapy? How is it defined? Is there a clear, comprehensive, and agreed-to definition? How does it differ from other kinds of therapies? What special characteristics does it have?
For some answers we invited several persons to share his/her thoughts on the topic. Quite simply, we asked each to address the question, “Past-Life Therapy: What is it? A spiritual experience? A clinical process? Some combination thereof? Or perhaps even something else entirely?” We then left it up to each individual to “tell us where it itches” and the results were, we believe, rather insightful.
Not everyone who was invited to respond to the question did so, but those five who did, provided us with an interesting variety of view points which are, simultaneously, thoughtful and thought-provoking. And, in our opinion, well worth sharing with our readership.
Like everything else we include in the pages of this journal, we hope these articles will add to your knowledge, help clarify your thoughts, and stimulate your thinking. It is also our hope that others, after having read the following five articles, will feel encouraged to submit their own thoughts on the topic and make this a regular feature of JRT.
A final note for those who might wonder about such things. The order in which the articles in this section appear was determined by a simple and pragmatic method: chronologically, in the order in which the acceptances to our invitations were received. Thus, we lead off with George Schwimmer, Paul Hansen, Thelma Freedman, Hans TenDam and end with Brad Steiger.
Russel C. Davis