Past Life Regression

[Aoi Magi]

One of my friends told me recently about "past life regression" and how it has supposedly helped him remember about his past life. He went to a clinic last week for his session, and supposedly his past life was an average chap from 200 years ago, with apparently no way to verify the details. So I went online to see what this is all about, but really didn't find any explanations apart from some random stuff with hypnosis and such. Do any of you have any actual information on what the heck is past life regression?

[FatAndFaithless]

Just a guess, call me a cynic: It's bullshit.

[Aoi Magi]

Just a guess, call me a cynic: It's bullshit.

Logically I know it's a scam, but I also want to know what the heck are they doing? Are they giving hypnotic suggestions? Or is it just our brains cooking up the stories on it's own... It costs quite a bit, so I'd rather not go myself to figure it out.

[Exian]

Kind of reminds me of near death experiences. People always see some detailed symbol of the religion they follow. They never come back a say "We got it all wrong! All hail the FSM!" Heaven is for real comes to mind.

I'd put good money on these guys never seeing themselves as hunter-gatherers, 100,000 years ago in Africa.

Also, no; I have nothing informative to add. Sorry.

[Napoléon]

Kind of reminds me of near death experiences. People always see some detailed symbol of the religion they follow.

Gary Busey anyone?

[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.

[Alex K]

At a clinic they did that??? What kind of clinic is that...

[Jackalope]

At a clinic they did that??? What kind of clinic is that...

I'm gonna go out on a limb and say "the fraudulent kind".

ETA: I'm referring to the clinic in the OP, not Jacob's.

[Jacob(smooth)]

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.

[Aoi Magi]

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.