ONGOING RESEARCH. An Exploratory Study Using Regression Therapy with the Homeless – Carlos Gris (Is.4)
by Carlos Gris, M.A. In order to offer a model for regression research, the Journal is printing in full a proposal by Carlos Gris for exploring the potential of regression work with the homeless. His proposal has a theoretical grounding in the most innovative thinking of our time, out of which grow his hypotheses. A discussion of methods, measurement techniques, and population follows. The homeless are a difficult and sometimes almost intangible group, and many modifications may have to be made in the design, but it is a start. The findings may be negative—that is, psychodynamic techniques may work as well as regression therapy, or even better, but that, too, is a finding. Let us accompany Carlos sympathetically on his journey of exploration. It is certain that we will know more about regression research and also about the homeless when the investigation is complete. This research is focused on outcome,
Hypnosis and Healing – Irene Hickman (Is.3)
by Irene Hickman, D.0. Hypnosis is an effective tool for looking into the human mind, exploring its facets, and determining its potential. Its increased use will undoubtedly reveal the answers to the questions as to who, what, and why we are and how our minds function. That these answers can be found by using non-directive methods — using questions rather than just suggestions — is one of the things I have leaned from patients in my thirty-seven years of using hypnosis with them. I have constantly been reminded, as I have worked with people from all backgrounds, that they know far more about themselves than I could ever know and that they can be led gently toward ever greater freedom from conflict, increased self-awareness, and enhanced creativity. I am amazed at the ease and facility with which a hypnotized person is able to disclose facts that are totally unknown and
Two Different Uses of Past-Life Report Therapy: Synopsis of a Master’s Thesis – Thelma Freedman (Is.3)
by Thelma B. Freedman Two cases of past-life report therapy were closely examined in an attempt to test the hypothesis that this form of therapy can be effective with two very different types of presenting problems. The first was of a woman with a lifelong phobia for caterpillars; the second was of a dependent woman who suffered from severe attacks of anxiety and panic when confronted with a need to act independently. A number of sub-hypotheses were also tested. Based upon ten years of experience in past-life report therapy, I suspected that 1) no strong effect was necessary for successful outcome; 2) no therapist’s interpretation of reported events or themes was necessary as the reported events and themes would be non-symbolic and easily understood; 3) no lengthy preparation for therapy was necessary; and 4) no “protection” mechanism, such as visualized white light or spirit guardian, was necessary. Method Each client
ONGOING RESEARCH. Restoration of Health Through Hypnosis – Hazel Denning (Is.3)
by Hazel Denning In late summer of 1977 a concerned philanthropist determined to use some of his profits to mitigate the suffering he saw all around him in the lives of his friends and employees. He had been an avid student of hypnosis and was convinced that this could be used as a tool for therapy. He contacted the Parapsychology Association of Riverside and gave it over a quarter of a million dollar grant to design and administer a research project based on the hypothesis that the mind is capable of healing the body of illnesses. Two criteria were established. Every participant had to have a physical symptom, and hypnosis was to be used as the method for achieving results. He also stipulated that the number of sessions were to be held at a minimum. He first requested that they be limited to three or four, but this was challenged
Innovations in Theory and Treatment: The Analogue Regression Technique – Wayne Brown (Is.3)
The Analogue Regression Technique by M. Wayne Brown It is my belief that after an injury the body heals itself up to a certain point, but unless there is removal of the traumatic emotional factors, residual physical effects may remain. If the trauma can be completely removed and it makes no difference if it is fifteen minutes or fifteen years later—the healing process will complete itself, in some cases even restoring damaged structures. The problem is to find a procedure which will make this possible. I began my professional career as a psychologist, but after fifteen years of practicing conventional psychotherapy, I felt the need for a more complete armamentarium of holistic treatments, one that would take account of the patient’s physical condition. I returned to school and earned a D.C. degree, and in the 24 succeeding years I have moved increasingly into a holistic healing approach. One of my
Death Comes to Marie-France – Chet Snow (Is.3)
by Chet Snow, Ph.D. During the years I have been commuting between the United States and France I have made friends and lost track of many Parisians, but an exception was Marie-France, who remained a valued friend for over twenty years. As a well-known pianist she followed the vagaries of my changing career from graduate student at the Sorbonne, to researcher for the U.S. Air Force, to regression therapist and researcher into past-life experiences. Marie-France had undergone a lengthy psychoanalysis and from her long experience in introspection became interested in the idea of other lifetimes and the survival of the soul beyond physical death. This interest led her to do a session with me in which she discovered a recent past existence as a black New Orleans prostitute who had been a mistress to one of that city’s noted Dixieland musicians, a brief liaison which ended tragically when she, as
Healing the Effects of Negative Near-Death Experiences Through Progression Therapy -Joyce Strom Paikin (Is.3)
by Joyce Strom-Paikin, M.S., R.N.C. The Negative Near-Death Experience (NDE), as we classified such at the first International Association of Near-Death Studies (IANDS) conference in February 1984, is an experience where the person feels fear, loneliness, isolation, and separation. The negative NDErs do not see the tunnel, the light, feel or see the presence of others, and do not have a positive after-effect feeling of the experience. Rather, they fear death and its impact. We have been working with NDErs consistently since the IANDS conference. The percentage of negative experiences seems to equate to about two to five percent of all near-death experiences. Ring and Moody have also worked with the negative experiencers in attempting to research why some have such an experience while others seem to move farther beyond. At the IANDS conference, Raymond Moody and Ken Ring initiated discussion on both the negative NDErs along with the psychic
Exploring One’s Death – Ernest Pecci (Is.3)
by Ernest Pecci, M.D. It is important that we learn not to fear death. One way of accomplishing this is to explore the various realms of consciousness between the waking dream of earth-plane existence and consciousness after death. In recent years a number of books by Moody, Ring, and others regarding near-death experiences have helped to focus my interest on the possible reproduction of the death experience in a clinical setting by using direct suggestion. In dealing with past lives it is important to complete the lessons of given lifetimes by taking subjects through the death experience up to higher planes of learning where they can review those lifetimes and their lessons. They can then make more positive and constructive ego decisions regarding attitudes to bring with them into their next lifetime. This is one of the most important aspects of past-life work. It seemed to me that forward movement
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 a technique that is growing rapidly, as the recognition spreads that this is a method for attaining vastly deeper and more life-transforming results in strikingly less time. On the other hand,
Comments On Healing – Norman Shealy (Is.3)
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
Experiential Data: Karmic Case of Polio – Garrett Oppenheim (Is.3)
by Garrett Oppenheim, Ph.D. Late in 1986 I asked a colleague of mine to do a past-life regression with me to find out, if possible, why I was afflicted with polio. This conspicuous handicap has been with me since the age of 14 months—which is to say, longer than I can consciously remember. It affected both legs and the lower spine and entailed the use of two leg braces and two crutches to enable me to get around. As I look back on it from today, there is no doubt that it has had a profound effect on my life history.
The Psyche and the Body: Partners in Healing – Barbara Findeisen (Is.3)
by Barbara Findeisen, M.A., M.F.C.C. The mind-body dichotomy has been entrenched in Western thought for so long most medical doctors have felt little need to concern themselves with the psyches of their patients. Conversely, traditional psychotherapy has shown little concern with physical problems. Recently the popularity and effectiveness of body therapies have prompted the acceptance of a concept of partnership between body and mind and a realization that they are not separate entities. The majority of my clients enter therapy for psychological reasons, only to discover that change in the psyche affects the body, also. Conversely, colleagues who practice physical therapies frequently tell me that body work effects emotional breakthroughs and psychological insights. The two modalities are emerging as collaborators, avenues to the same goal of healing. In regression work there are many instances where healing of both mind and body takes place. An example is Jessica, who came for
Post-Accident Trauma Release: Release of Body Trauma From Current and Past-Life Traumas -Paul Hansen (Is.3)
by Paul Hansen, Ph.D. Patients occasionally appear in a psychotherapy practice who are suffering the residual effects of accidents or other body trauma that occurred in a previous period of their lives. According to medical feedback, the body has healed, or should have healed, but for some reason it has not yet released the memory of the event. Such patients typically have chronic pain or strange body reactions and are frequently referred for psychotherapy to deal with the somatic complaint. They “know” that there is something the matter with their bodies, even though most practitioners cannot find or treat the problem. It was in an effort to understand and treat this phenomenon that the technique of post-accident trauma release (ATR) was born. The ATR technique evolved three years ago after fourteen years of past-life experience. I was working with a woman under hypnosis who had been in an auto accident
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 he remembers being tied to a post during torture. To the inexperienced observer this may appear distressing, if not dangerous. Even trained therapists (more often those using Freudian, cognitive, or
Humanistic Considerations in Regression Therapy – Edward Reynolds (Is.2)
by Edward Reynolds The humanistic approach to therapy, as developed by Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow, shifted the focus in the therapeutic process from the patient as an object to be “fixed,” to the relationship between therapist and patient as a powerful agent in producing therapeutic results. Nearly half the research in psychotherapy and thirty-five years of observing and documenting the process, ground these humanist assumptions. In a new modality such as regression therapy where the dominant legacy comes from an authoritarian approach, namely, hypnotic induction, it is important that the gains in psychotherapy as a total field are not overlooked or lost. In every stage of regression work there is a choice between the non-authoritarian humanistic approach and authoritarian techniques. Even in the actual philosophical hypotheses and psychotherapeutic assumptions, before the patient ever enters the picture, the contrast between the two approaches is salient. It is difficult to be
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 in this one. Case histories suggest that remission in regression therapy can be explained in terms of known therapeutic principles like emotional catharsis, desensitization cognitive restructuring, and post-hypnotic suggestion. As
Past-Life Therapy: The Experiences of Twenty-Six Therapists – Helen Wambach (Is.2)
by Helen Wambach Introductory Note: Helen Wambach became famous because her pioneering spirit and indomitable curiosity about what lies behind everyday life problems led her to continually explore ahead, opening new windows on truths of the human condition. This survey, conducted among her peers, demonstrates once again the debt we owe her and our duty to continue to investigate past lives and similar phenomena concerning human consciousness at the same high levels of originality, integrity, and scientific method. It has been my privilege to have worked intimately with Dr. Wambach for two years and to have enjoyed her trust and affection. In adapting and presenting this article to our mutual colleagues and peers I feel I am repaying a small part of the immense debt that I owe her and hopefully demonstrating the great loyalty her memory continues to elicit in me. While remaining scrupulously faithful to Helen’s research results
Philosophical Assumptions Underlying Past-Life Therapy – Hazel Denning (Is.2)
by Hazel Denning The effectiveness of past-life therapy grows out of its philosophical underpinnings as a plant grows out of rich and nourishing soil. To understand its potential for change and healing without grasping the significance of the underlying assumptions would be like trying to understand how psychoanalysis works without postulating the existence of unconscious motivation and psychic determinism. In a sense, past-life therapy is an extension of these principles: that which happens later depends on the groundwork set earlier with the enrichment of transpersonal and spiritual factors. Psychoanalysis subjected itself to grave limitations by its myopia regarding the spiritual nature of man. It limited itself by considering birth to be the cut-off point of psychic determinism. Past-life therapy remedies these truncations and restores the total nature and scope of the human being. The first and underlying assumption in past-life work is that each individual possesses an inner wisdom that
ONGOING RESEARCH. Substance Addiction: Searching for Causes – Joseph Lucas (Is.2)
by Joseph Lucas Alcohol and drug addictions are the most pervasive public health problems on the American scene today and rank only slightly below heart disease and cancer as killers and disablers. They contribute to escalating crime rates, to business and industrial inefficiencies and waste, to family turmoil and relationship problems, and to accidents at home, in the workplace, and on streets and highways. An ongoing research project called ADDICTO/KARMA has been designed to expiate possible causes for addiction through the use of regressive hypnosis. Subjects for the project are volunteer alcohol and/or drug addicts who receive regression hypnotherapy in exchange for a written consent to tape sessions. A record is kept of pertinent factors regarding each volunteer’s addiction problems and the amount of time he has been free from mood-altering chemicals.Each volunteer receives careful hypnosis conditioning. Using standardized regression techniques a search is made forthe cause of each particular
Clinical Depossession: Releasement of Attached Entities From Unsuspecting Hosts – Louise Ireland-Frey (Is.2)
by Louise Ireland-Frey Through the ages the belief has persisted in many cultures that disembodied spirits or psyches can enter and take possession of a living person’s body and dispossess that person’s mind. In the Catholic priesthood the occurrence of possession is taken for granted and priests are taught how to exorcise the invading spirits. In modem times more and more therapists, especially hypnotherapists, are turning to this once common assumption that discarnate entities can and often do invade living persons. Sometimes this change in therapists’ attitudes is due to the spontaneous complaints of clients and sometimes to the suspected presence of an invading entity from various clues presented by the client, who himself may be entirely unsuspecting.