Past Life Regression

[Jacob(smooth)]

Yeah they covered it when I did my hypnotherapy training.

Woo left aside, it's a bit like auto writing. You give the subconscious a framework to create a person, essentially saying "if you were not you, who would you be?" obviously who / what the person chooses tells you all sorts of useful information about what is going on in the persons head. Whether they believe in reincarnation or not is not really Relevant. I've done it with a few clients but only by request. I prefer the "magic mirrors" routine, serves the same purpose without the spiritualist overtones, but with Hypnosis you have to work with your clients framework, not your own.

Thank you, that is the explanation I was looking for. Now I hope I can explain it to my friend.

You're welcome.
Tread a little lightly though. The key part of your post was "how it helped him" . It may well be that his character is an amalgam of things he may not be ready to face within himself. If you go charging in and try to tell him it's his subconscious projection, you could do harm.

My advice would be to leave well alone.

[Alex K]

Sorry I specifically meant past life regression. It seems awfully irresponsible for doctors to claim that even if the patient believes it

Sorry, you lost me. You mean what kind of a clinic do people do hypnotherapy in? Or what kind of clinic would you talk about past life regression. As I said talking therapies are not like physical medicine. You work within your clients framework and belief, it's not our place impose our own.
As a btw, I have no belief in past lives whatsoever. Out of curiosity I let a colleague take me through the script and to my surprise my subconscious obediently produced a character for me. It was actually pretty cool.

[Jacob(smooth)]

Sorry I specifically meant past life regression. It seems awfully irresponsible for doctors to claim that even if the patient believes it

Yeah, there are ethical dilemmas there. It's a lot like the placebo dilemma. If a patient is taking a placebo, and it's really helping, and you stomp In with your size 12s and tell them it's just coloured water... You're telling the truth, educating the patient and potentially doing harm!

It's a tricky one. Where it's sinister is where the therapist believes it and foists their belief onto vulnerable patients. That goes on, and that's unethical for sure.

[The Valkyrie]

While I personally find the concept of past life regression interesting, and I quite enjoy listening to the stories, I've yet to encounter a claimant who did not appear to have once read about the time/life of where they claimed to have once lived (though in many cases they didn't consciously remember it), or who weren't lead by their therapist.

[Aoi Magi]

Tread a little lightly though. The key part of your post was "how it helped him" . It may well be that his character is an amalgam of things he may not be ready to face within himself. If you go charging in and try to tell him it's his subconscious projection, you could do harm.

My advice would be to leave well alone.

My friend is a Hindu, so the past life thing is sort of ingrained in him, but I don't want him getting scammed anymore than what he already has, so I am gonna take a stab at it and see if I can talk some sense into him. And finding about his past life didn't actually help him other than reinforcing his religious beliefs, so I am worried that if I don't at least give him an alternate possibility to think about, he might cause more harm to himself sooner or later.

[Jacob(smooth)]

Tread a little lightly though. The key part of your post was "how it helped him" . It may well be that his character is an amalgam of things he may not be ready to face within himself. If you go charging in and try to tell him it's his subconscious projection, you could do harm.

My advice would be to leave well alone.

My friend is a Hindu, so the past life thing is sort of ingrained in him, but I don't want him getting scammed anymore than what he already has, so I am gonna take a stab at it and see if I can talk some sense into him. And finding about his past life didn't actually help him other than reinforcing his religious beliefs, so I am worried that if I don't at least give him an alternate possibility to think about, he might cause more harm to himself sooner or later.

Hey, he's your mate! You fill your boots . I'm just saying, be careful. If he's in a fragile state, you talk to him and somehow make it worse, you will have to live with that. With great power etc.

[TaraJo]

what the heck is past life regression?

To be more specific, the idea relies on reincarnation and helping you remember a past life.

[vorlon13]

While I personally find the concept of past life regression interesting, and I quite enjoy listening to the stories, I've yet to encounter a claimant who did not appear to have once read about the time/life of where they claimed to have once lived (though in many cases they didn't consciously remember it), or who weren't lead by their therapist.

The classic example of that being Bridey Murphy.

In that case, it was stories told to her when she was a child, as an adult she thought (assuming not fraudulent intent) they were from a past life.

[Minimalist]

but I also want to know what the heck are they doing?

Making money from gullible fools.....just like the pope.

[Jacob(smooth)]

While I personally find the concept of past life regression interesting, and I quite enjoy listening to the stories, I've yet to encounter a claimant who did not appear to have once read about the time/life of where they claimed to have once lived (though in many cases they didn't consciously remember it), or who weren't lead by their therapist.

The classic example of that being Bridey Murphy.

In that case, it was stories told to her when she was a child, as an adult she thought (assuming not fraudulent intent) they were from a past life.

I suspect it's not that dissimilar for some people to being a psychic. You plug yourself in to your own subconscious, which is fine, but then believe that to be something external. Sometimes that belief makes the unpalatable palatable or the intolerable tolerable.

People use all sorts of methods to avoid themselves.