Chapter 7

ADVENTURE INTO TIME

"During deep meditation it is possible to dispel time, to see simultaneously all the past, present, and future, and then everything is good, everything is perfect, everything is Brahman. Therefore, it seems to me that everything that exists is good - death as well as life, sin as well as holiness, wisdom as well as folly." Hermann Hesse, Siddartha

A beginner in past life work is likely to focus on the personalities or the prominent figures of a time. He or she wonders, "Was I someone famous or important?" Well, yes; some of us had to have been. But the odds are against it. Sharon, who was lady- in- waiting to a queen (Chapter 6), is the only person I myself have worked with who was near the great and powerful. No, the experienced time traveler focuses on the lessons to be learned from past lives and seeks to apply that knowledge in the present.

The important question about other lives is not proving who we were, but rather evaluating what we did and how we helped others. If you wish to look at your past lives, first ask yourself why? You may find things in your past that are not necessarily pleasant or easy to accept. Some people are sidetracked by reliving the past over and over like a re-run on television. The present is where growth is experienced.

Triggers to Soul Memory

For those people who are ready, there are some good beginning steps to take. You do not have to seek a full past life regression immediately. Begin the journey inward with a prayer for protection and direction; start with a search of your motives, your reasons for wanting to do this work. Then, practice relaxation techniques like those in yoga; there are many books and teachers to help you find the methods for you. When you are in a relaxed, meditative state, try this exercise. Practice "daydreaming" by recalling a special episode from the past - a vacation, a talk with a friend, a day in summer. Everyone has such an event, a wonderful, magic, never forgotten day.

Go into your mind and relive that special day. Remember the details and the feelings; recall the other people who may have been there. Describe what you and others are wearing, what they are saying. Bring this memory into the present; think of it as happening right now. Do this exercise with other events. Later, choose sad events also; recall even a tragic time. Let the gears of your memory - your image storage and retrieval system - begin to turn.

At first, do your daydreaming as you meditate. Later you can do it in a waking state when you have a few minutes to wait when driving to work (if you are not the driver!), waiting for an appointment, standing in line at the bank. Not only is it enjoyable to review episodes in your life, but also you will learn more about how your mind functions.
You can also take some of the courses that are available for spiritual development; there are many, offered by many institutions. You can also buy or make self-help self-hypnosis tapes.(1)
Study your dreams and daydreams and keep careful journals about what you experience. Keep a notebook and pen and pencil near your bed. On awakening take a few minutes to jot down dreams. Some dreams have hints and insights into the past in this life and other lives. Dreams do not prove the existence of past lives, but many people find them a useful door into the subconscious. There are books on the interpretation of dreams, but you are the best judge of their meaning, and you are likely to see patterns of meaning very quickly. A recurring dream (a few times a year or more) is especially significant.

Travel is a good way of triggering memory. Any place in the world can bring forward impressions or memories. Some people say they are drawn to places in which they lived in a past lifetime; sometimes this hunch is confirmed later in regression sessions. Or they travel to a place, only to sense they are having a very familiar experience; the place itself reawakened the memory. Where you want to travel may be a clue that you have been there before; where you have lived before may subconsciously pull or repel you now.
Many people I know have a yen to go to some particular place for no apparent or logical reason. Now, if a person has a strong desire to go to Ireland and that person is very proud of her Irish ancestry and her family always talked in glowing terms about the Emerald Isle, that yen is pretty explainable. But - perhaps - that person has chosen Irish parents for the close tie-in with a soul memory.

Then there are the places a person never wants to go. After high school in 1964, I dated a young woman who refused to eat at any Chinese restaurant, though I love Chinese food and often coaxed her to go to one with me. She hated Chinese food, she said. Before we broke up (not over the choice of restaurants), she asked for a regression session. It was the only time we worked together. The one lifetime she explored was a very unhappy, poor, miserable time in (you guessed it) the Orient. Of course, there is no profound conclusion here that people with pleasant past lives in the Orient now love Chinese food, or vice versa. You will recall I had a short and tragic life in China on a barren trade route and I presently enjoy spring rolls and lychees more than anything else I can think of to eat.

There are many other triggers to soul memory besides traveling. For instance, sometimes in a fever state, past life insights come through, as they did for me when I was living in Spain about 20 years ago. My own past lifetimes have flashed as sudden revelations, as insights, as dreams, and as daydreams. They have come at most unusual times and places. They were not always the result of hypnotic regressions, but came spontaneously. I didn't ask to experience my life as a poverty stricken girl in China; I was in a state of reverie, watching a television program (it wasn't even about China), and the memory came very powerfully. At the end of the vision or memory, I could immediately contrast it with my lifetime in Greece as a rich and powerful prostitute, and see how in some way one life was a payment for another.

Astrology can give insight into past lives. I learned this at The Adventure, where two astrologers looked at cyclic life patterns brought forward from the past. Possible future direction was clearly shown from past patterns. Palm, card, Tarot, and crystal ball readings can trigger past life memories in sensitive or psychic people.

The Regressologist

The bottom line is that searching into soul memory is a personal experience and a personal adventure. A regressologist can be of help, as he or she is experienced and knowledgeable as a guide. But you are the person doing the real work. As Edgar Cayce said, "Self is the best help in finding the confidence in self and then in choosing that [which] you desire to prepare" (Reading 2310-2). Probably the best way to prepare for a session with a regressologist is not to prepare. Simply go in without expectations, without wanting to explore anything specifically. Leave judgments and assumptions outside the door. Use your first session to get to know the regressologist and become familiar with the procedures.
The regressologist may suggest homework and exercises. Learning to pay attention and listen carefully to one another is the best preparation for success later. Assuming, then, that you wish to experience a past life through a hypnotic regression - or that you are interested in guiding a regression - here is what you might expect in my sessions. Other researchers and regressologists use similar techniques and procedures.

In a group, I use my standard hypnosis procedure. This has been an evolving procedure from my years of hypnosis work. It incorporates the best of what I have learned through the years. In individual sessions I often guide the person more elegantly by wording suggestions according to the temperament and needs of the subject. A very nervous person, for example, may need deep breathing exercises before we begin. On the other hand, a person with whom I have worked many times requires less time to enter his natural level of relaxation. The individual approach - sometimes called the "naturalistic" approach, pioneered by Dr. Milton H. Erickson(2) usually brings quicker and deeper results. It requires that the hypnotist listen acutely and observe closely all that the subject says and does; the hypnotist uses what he receives from the subject and rewords or reframes it in terms the subject relates to, incorporating stories, parables, and visual examples from everyday life.

As a guide and facilitator my job is to see that the entire process is orchestrated. I make sure the subject is cared for: soft lighting, a comfortable chair or recliner, a light blanket to cover the body (because the metabolism slows down), a quiet, private setting without disturbance from phones or door bells. This all builds trust and protects the subject from distraction; it is particularly important during the first stage of hypnosis. Next I help any visitors to place their chairs and get quieted (I encourage the time traveler to invite a spouse or a friend to sit in on the session). I always double check the cassette tapes and recording equipment.
Because the throat muscles are completely relaxed, many people speak in a very low voice during the sessions. I have found I need to sit close to the subject and to use a good external lapel or tie clip microphone with the recording equipment. But all of these are mechanical procedures; the truly important part of my work is helping the person simply experience the experience. That is not a cute play on words. Some people are too anxious or too self-doubting or self-critical to just let go and do it. I tell them the only real problem is in too much self-analysis. We are not trying to prove anything but just to experience the experience.

Some subjects are nervous at their first session, which is normal. Progressive relaxation and hypnosis quickly relax them. Other people are anxious - some too anxious - for dramatic results. The best subjects come with an honest and open attitude. My own first sessions were a life changing positive experience that I will always remember. I try to make it that way for others. My principal role as a regressologist is that of questioner, guide, and facilitator. My most important allies are patience, mutual trust, and an open mind.

The Hypnosis Process

When everything is ready I begin the hypnosis process. The human brain has four levels of activity, each having a particular cycle per second rate of electrical activity. Most researchers call the normal everyday waking state beta. Alpha is a transitional phase somewhere between waking and sleeping. We all experience alpha as we go into regular nighttime sleep and again later as we awaken in the morning. Theta occurs in deep hypnosis, intense meditation, and during the early stages of nighttime sleep. Delta, perhaps the least understood, is the deepest sleep or unconsciousness. Most people experience the hypnotic state when they are in alpha, and many sessions fluctuate between the levels of alpha and theta. Most people pass through alpha so quickly every morning and evening that they hardly even realize it, let alone utilize it.

It is the door to the subconscious and is sometimes called waking hypnosis. In a way, alpha hypnosis massages the mind and relieves mental stress. As a session continues many people automatically enter theta as more and more trust develops. Theta is deep hypnosis usually accompanied by clear strong recall and accessing of deeply stored memory. The entire process for time travel, or hypnotic past life age regression, has five distinct stages, although each stage progresses naturally into the next.
They are hypnosis (the subject's natural level of deep relaxation); present life regression; prenatal regression; past life regression (the Blue Mist); and the return to present life and awakening.

As the person enters the hypnotic state, the natural level of relaxation, he or she is automatically guided into the second stage, present life regression. Present life regression is simply recalling, mentally viewing, or remembering events or impressions from this present life, something we do almost every day of our lives. Hypnosis simply starts the gears of the mind turning, as in an audio or visual playback, and opens the door to clear recall. During this experience, different senses come into focus. As new levels of perception and awareness are reached, some people may see an image, others hear a memory, some feel an experience, and others sense an impression. Occasionally someone begins by smelling a recollection, and there are even people who mentally read inner records from their own book of life.

I have found that responses of different people vary widely, even from session to session. The time traveler is simply asked to relate what comes to him or her, no matter how it comes through, to simply state the impressions he or she receives without analyzing, censoring, questioning, or passing judgment. Time travel is usually easy and enjoyable.

Beginning sessions usually look at happy, pleasant experiences, and during subsequent sessions, more in-depth exploration can be experienced. I begin therapeutic sessions by requesting pleasant memory stores and files. Soul disorders and stressful material will surely erupt soon enough, without rushing it. Most people like the active dialogue of questions and answers, but others relate a flood of information with little questioning required. After a present life regression the subject may explore the third stage, the birth and pre-birth experience.

This "rebirthing" can be intense, so I usually pass through this step without lingering. But many pscyhologists and regressologists explore this time in great detail. Prenatal regression is a term given to exploring the formative months before birth and has shown that the unborn child has perceptions and reacts to stimuli from the outer world. The perceptions of the forming child are somehow also connected to the mother's thoughts.

I recall a case where a prenatal regression subject realized that she was an unwanted baby. (This fact was later confirmed by a parent.) This realization was so strong and the subject cried so much that she could not continue her session at that time.

The Blue Mist Approach Past life regression is the fourth stage. The procedure I have developed to help the subject reach it is called the "Blue Mist Approach."
This terminology is not intended to sound mystical. You may call it anything you like. Previously, I used the approach that Morey Bernstein used in the Bridey Murphy book. Later I used an awareness technique called the Christos Experience, in which the subject is asked to imagine getting larger, then smaller, floating safely above the body, floating safely above the building, and then returning and standing upon the earth in a different time and place. I designed the Blue Mist Approach while working with regression subjects at Virginia Beach. It was inspired by the near-death experiences of clinically dead patients and by what my subjects described specifically as the transition state between lives. Different regressologists have adapted it to fit their individual styles.

The approach goes like this. (Compare Chapter 19 to see how this is integrated into the full session.) '...Continue back to when you are two - and then one. You find that you can even go to the time of your birth. And you can go beyond this time. Going now to that very warm, very safe, and very secure place where nothing can harm you. Where you feel so very good - so protected. This is a good time - a forming and growing time. And you find you can go beyond this even - going now into the Blue Mist. And the Blue Mist protects you. This is a time of trust and a time of understanding. This is a time of rest, of ancient echoes and quiet movement. A time you only thought you had misplaced. Looking into the deep recesses of your own mind. Opening your memory banks to the remembrances of your innermost feelings. For through the avenue of the heart all things are revealed to you. Embrace the feeling - reach deep within. You are happy here. Yet part of you longs for movement - and you look out toward the horizon or as if looking through a long tunnel - and you see a light. You begin going, flowing, moving toward the light. You merge and converge within the light. The light surrounds you and protects you. You feel the life energies flowing throughout your being. As you look down at your feet - describe what you see on your feet. What do you have on your feet? The more you tell me, the more clear and vivid it all becomes...'

At this time, I usually wait, giving the person the necessary time to respond before continuing to ask questions about the description of the clothing and the body. As in present life work, this can be give and take of questions and answers, or it can be a monologue delivered by the subject. Some people require little questioning to pour out a veritable fountain of information. Either way, past patterns and hidden clues emerge from the deep recesses of the subconscious.

Experiencing Time Travel

There are at least two different ways of experiencing past life time travel, reviewing and reliving. In the first, the subject is a detached observer. Many memories and impressions are recalled and related from the viewpoint of a spectator of the scene rather than as a participant. It is almost as if the person is looking through a family photo album and commenting on some of his or her favorite pictures. Reliving can be more intense and dramatic and is not always desirable in an early session. This level is a deeper soul level but may be too intense for the first times.

Many sessions are actually a combination of the two, with an ebb and flow of involvement and detachment, or reviewing and reliving. If you will look back over the transcripts of sessions in this book, you will see how often subjects change from one state to the next and where I tend to guide them back into the reviewing stage. One lifetime or several can be explored in a single session. A detached view of the death experience is also valuable near the end of the session. Death is simply a stage of growth and most people with whom I have worked are amazed to discover their awareness does not end with death. Many people achieve their greatest personal insight through reviewing their former death experiences and the many passages from life to life.

I have discovered that most memories are recorded and stored as images, emotions, emblems, and symbols. Often a person will describe at length his or her feelings about just one image. The more emotion involved with an image, the more vivid it becomes. But because the mind more easily stores and retrieves images, names and dates may be difficult to remember. There is no credibility gap but merely the lack of a stored image or emotion for a particular name or date.
Emotion filled scenes and memories are usually much easier for most people to remember and relate. Experiences differ from person to person, session to session.

Some people speak in languages they do not know in their present lives. When I talk about time travel and regression it may seem that the work centers in the mind or in the head. This is not usually so; most soul work centers on what people call the heart. The heart encompasses the emotions, the attitudes, the will, and the feeling part of a person. This is where real past life therapy is - at the feeling level. We begin by going through the mind, but the accomplishment is in the feelings, the soul or spirit. Minds store dates; the heart stores sorrow, anger, fear, and joy, hope, and love.

Returning to the Present

The fifth stage is returning to the present and waking. Closing the mental, emotional, and spiritual door to a past life memory is as important as opening it. A person's subconscious usually has the final say as to which memories are to be consciously retained and brought back, and which are to be refiled for future reference. Just because the subconscious mind can understand the lessons of a past life does not guarantee that the subject's conscious mind can also deal with it in the present.

Most information can be processed in the present but some is best refiled and stored for future work at another time. This type of healing suggestion can be used near the end of the session.

'...Now see in your mind's eye all the people you recognized in this life [or lives]. Look into their eyes. Now, send love from your eyes into their eyes and they begin to fade. Bless them. Release them and let them fade. Let them go. You will retain in your conscious mind only that information which is beneficial and helpful for you to retain at this time...'
These suggestions are a gentle yet definite way of closing the door to the past, and allow the subject's subconscious the choice of what to remember. Two of the biggest lessons I have learned in this work are the closing of the door to soul's memory and the careful return to the waking state. The transition back to everyday, beta level awareness (the normal waking state) should be smooth, whole, and complete; otherwise, people can come back temporarily disoriented. I call it "spiritual jet lag." The considerate guide or facilitator does not cut corners or rush the wakeup process. In fact, this can be a special time for the subject's full spiritual comprehension and digestion of information. Returning to the present and wakeup suggestions similar to this approach can be used.

'...Returning through the Blue Mist - going to that warm and safe and very secure place. Returning to the present and feeling the life energies throughout your being. Your conscious mind may forget to remember(3) all that you accomplished here today. You are in the present, the date today is ............... and the place is .............. I will count from one to ten, at the count of ten you can be wide awake, clear headed, refreshed and relaxed. One, coming back now. Two, coming out now. Three, coming up slowly. Four, feel total normalization at every level of your being. Five, feel the circulation returning to the extremities. Six, awakening to your full potential. Seven, perfect equilibrium. Eight, energized. Nine, in full strength. And ten, wide awake and feeling great...'

As the person awakens, because of the suggestion or their own subconscious regulators, there may be little or no conscious recall of the session, or only certain parts may be recalled. Most commonly the person recalls the entire session and can add more details and information not mentioned during the actual experience.

Past Life Insight

Subsequent sessions can complete the narrative and give insight into the patterns that link past to present. Past life insight doesn't usually come in one big flash. Information comes as pieces of a puzzle. As the pieces come to me I size them up, hold them up to the light, and turn them one way and another, until they all fit in and the overall picture becomes clear.

Memory can be stored and accessed as emotion, word, emblem, image, or symbol. At crisis times or with traumatic events in present or past times, some people need to tell their story over and over and over. In regression work I always listen carefully to what each person is telling me. A story may sound strange or disjointed at first because memory is not always sequential. However, by the time the sessions are completed, the individual pieces form a clear picture. Listening carefully reminds me of the tombstone that says, "I told you I was sick."

As I trust people's information, I listen to their truths no matter where it comes from, or how, when, or even why. Whatever occurs in a time travel session is a legitimate part of the process of self-discovery. The keys to a soul's memory are trust and patience. Trust cannot be created artificially. Above all, it takes time. It grows from the foundation up, just as a house is built. The foundation is the most important (and often seems the most time consuming) part. Trust in the process builds as both people work on the foundation projects. A foundation project is any one in which the hypnotist and client work together on preliminary exercises, like a session whose only purpose is for the client to experience hypnosis.
The object is for the client to learn the procedures, and I prefer a couple of sessions for preliminary work before we begin an advanced project like psychic development or exploring the chakra system. Similarly, in my book on self-hypnosis I recommend people tackle the easiest, most entertaining procedures first.

If I have learned one lesson, it is the need for patience. In this age of fast food and faster living, people are accustomed to quick and easy - the dollar buys everything, fast. But wisdom cannot be bought. Some people, it seems, want their soul's evolution revealed to them in full in a few hours. The mind does not work like that. Knowledge comes as the person is ready and able to accept it. Not everyone is able to digest the food of memory; it must be eaten slowly and carefully.

Except for the unusual and unexpected session (the one with Chuck, Chapter 3, for instance), I do not work with past life subjects until we have completed the proper preliminary foundation sessions. If I detect impatience in the early sessions, I will usually go even more slowly. This is not intended to be annoying, but rather to allow the subject to prepare more fully for what is usually a major life experience. For those who insist on instant enlightenment, I usually suggest 40 days and 40 nights of fasting in the desert.

Notes to Chapter 7
(1) The Association for Research and Enlightenment (ARE) and Atlantic University offer year-round courses in psychic and soul development. They also offer home study courses and courses in many parts of the U.S. For information write ARE, P.O. Box 595, Virginia Beach, VA 23451.
Another excellent course is Silva Mind Control. For an introduction, read The Silva Mind Control Method, by Jose Silva (New York: Pocket Books, 1978).
Two magazines, New Age Journal, 342 Western Ave., Brighton, MA 02135, and Psychic Guide, Box 701, Providence, RI 02901, publish regular calendars of events for people seeking soul development, and you will find other publications in bookstores, natural foods stores, libraries, and pharmacies. The same kinds of places sell self-help hypnosis tapes. The commercial tapes are usually very good, but it is far better to make your own tapes. If you wish to try my book on making self-help tapes, Self-Hypnosis: Creating Your Own Destiny, it is available from ARE Press, Box 595, Virginia Beach, VA, 23451, and at bookstores. The price is $7.95.
The four cycles I recommend for preparation for age regression are "Developing Psychic Ability" (p. 138), "Beyond Tomorrow" (p. 146), "Friends and Soul Mates" (p. 152), and "Chakra Attunement" (p. 156).

(2) Milton H. Erickson, M.D.(1901-1980). A pioneer in the development of modern hypnosis and psychotherapy. Erickson developed a nonauthoritarian, indirect approach to suggestion, demonstrating that patients could use their own unconsicous minds to solve their own problems. In the 1930s, when he began his work in hypnosis, it was regarded as a dark and fearful art. He was one of the first to demonstrate experimentally that hypnosis is a safe procedure.
He was an authority on the use of naturalistic induction techniques, hypnotic utilization, metaphorical and subconscious communication, and the use of behavioral tasks in order to effect change, according to one description of his work. Erickson spent his formative years in rural Wisconsin. At 17, he was paralyzed by poliomyelitis. He recovered largely through his own efforts, developing techniques for relaxation, use of sense memory, and observation that later became the foundation for his work as a hypnotherapist. He received his medical degree from the University of Wisconsin. After years of experience as a clinical therapist in mental hospitals, he went into private practice in Phoenix, AZ, remaining a private therapist there until his death. He was president of the American Society of Clinical Hypnosis and a Life Fellow of the Americian Psychiatric Association and the American Psychopathological Association. He was the founder and editor of the American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis, and is the coauthor of Hypnotic Realities, Hypnotherapy, Time Distortion in Hypnosis, and Practical Application of Medical and Dental Hypnosis. I have learned much about his work from The Collected Papers of Milton H. Erickson on Hypnosis, a four volume work edited by Ernest L. Rossi (New York: Irvington Publishers Inc., v. 1, 1983)
(3) This reads oddly, but it is a very advanced suggestion, derived from Erickson.