Do you have a phobia, such as fear of fire, fear of heights, fear of anything imaginable, for which there is no logical explanation? Nothing in your past explains this irrational fear, limiting belief, or odd compulsion. Or perhaps you’re simply curious if you have ever lived before.
As a hypnotherapist, I’ve learned that the subconscious mind has a vast storehouse of hidden content. If you approach your hypnosis session with a clear intention, your subconscious will often reveal what you seek, but it will communicate in its own way. Part of the hypnosis skill is to know how to access this level of the mind and how to communicate on its terms. The conscious mind often interprets the world through logic and critical thinking. In contrast, the subconscious mind communicates through imagination using metaphors, symbols, and sensory images. You travel from place to place with the speed of thought, and intuition often results in a brilliant flash of instant knowledge.
For example, a recent male client suffered from a lifelong conviction that he lacked the normal strength of other men, but he didn’t know why he always felt this way. Paul is of average height and build, and there is no obvious reason for the inferiority complex. Past life regression revealed a neighborhood of brick rowhouses, reminiscent of Boston in the early 1900s. A childhood memory appeared in which, as a four-year-old boy, he was desperately trying to open his bedroom window to hear a passing parade on the street below. The window was stuck. He tried and failed repeatedly to open it. He was so frustrated, he started crying in rage. His 12-year-old brother came into his room and opened the window for him on his first try. He then mocked his little brother mercilessly for being a weakling. This was the causal memory of his conviction that he is an inferior man, a weakling. Discovering the root cause of a toxic problem allows the hypnotherapist to mitigate the hold this has on his client; by creating a new neural pathway that transcends the old negative loop, clients will often be released from their inner prisons.
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Paul’s story exemplifies how the subconscious can reveal what you seek, and that includes scenes of past lives. Recently, I had a past life regression session myself with a highly qualified practitioner. Suddenly, I was in a dusty town with dirt roads. There were one and two-story buildings on both sides of the road. Walking along while scanning the scene, I sensed that I lived in a simple garret above some kind of retail shop. With the speed of thought, I was inside the one room living space where I saw my bed, a few possessions, and a desk with an inkwell. Seeing the inkwell made me realize that I was a pamphleteer living in France during the revolution. Just before the session ended, I heard the word “Lyons” from an unknown source.
Returning to the conscious external world, I rushed to discover what happened in Lyons, France during the revolution. I discovered that the 1793 Revolt in Lyons was the scene of a major counter-revolutionary rebellion which led to the deaths of over 2,000 citizens by guillotine or cannon fire. Evidently, I lived during this violent time and was advocating for one side or the other as a pamphleteer.
I share these stories to illustrate how the subconscious speaks when approached with clear intention. Moreover, it will often show us closeup images, such as the stuck window or the inkwell, which results in an instant knowledge of deeper significance. Stuck window, frustration, weakling. Revolutionary France, inkwell, pamphleteer.
Here is a simple image I often show clients that allows them to get a feeling for the depth of the subconscious. The image isn’t proportional, but people easily grasp the idea.
Hopefully, this brief overview will help you decide if you’re ready to try hypnotherapy or past life regression. If you describe the word “abyss” as a deep, bottomless cavern, you can see how the word can apply to the subconscious. In that sense, let’s close with this quote from the great 19th century philosopher, Friedrich Nietzsche:
“If you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss also gazes into you.”