Past Life Regression and Child abuse

Few of us get out of childhood without some trauma, no matter how loving our caretakers were. It may have been an accident, an animal attack, or witnessing a trauma like war or abuse. It could, as we know, be a trusted adult who acts incredibly selfish and irresponsibly towards a vulnerable child.

When a trauma occurs the young child makes a decision that, at the time may be a useful survival strategy, and later becomes a part of his or her unconscious operating system. The trauma event is long over but the early decision still operates in the adult's life creating difficulty.

All childhood abuse leaves emotional scars in the mind and these play out through ones life in a multitude of ways. Low confidence, aggression, relationship troubles, sexual problems, self-sabotage, guilt, anxiety, depression… all are common symptoms one may experience as a result of abuse as a child.

When the child experiences the abuse, it is like an “emotion overload”, and when the subconscious mind just cannot cope at that moment, it uses a process called “repression” to protect the child from being emotionally overwhelmed. The downside of this process is that emotions become “trapped” back there, and cause problems and symptoms in ones present day life.

Memories of abuse as a child are often repressed through the very mechanism, which enables the child to survive the horror - dissociation. He or she gets through the betrayal, the physical assault, the pain and the helplessness by mentally separating from the body. It seems as though the abuse is happening to someone else.

Sometimes this dissociation can be so effective that all conscious memory of the abuse is lost. Sometimes memories surface later, in adulthood. Often as flashbacks or nightmares.

All childhood abuse leaves deep scars, affecting your beliefs about yourself for the rest of your life. And even though the abuse may have happened a long time ago, it may still be affecting your life today. Many abuse victims admit to having low confidence, exhibiting higher than normal levels of aggression, having relationship difficulties, experiencing sexual problems, indulging in self-sabotage or even self-harm, harboring guilty feelings, and feeling generally anxious.

Individuals are imprisoned on the ‘evidence’ provided by memories that come back in dreams and flashbacks. What type of impact can repressed memories have on someone's overall life? 

"Unconscious behavior and unexpressed emotion from repressed memories can create uncomfortable patterns in ones life. These patterns tend to keep reappearing and create difficulties, like addictions and their consequences. It may also show up as a strong reaction to a situation, a sudden eruption of anger, or obsessive thinking. As in the case of young children who have been subjected to sexual abuse will exhibit symptoms of increased autonomic arousal in their later life which can be recognized when they:

·         experiences sleep disturbances which can magnify symptoms and can encourage psychoactive substance abuse

·         becomes irritable or prone to explosive outbursts of fear, panic or anger particularly when the original trauma is recollected or re-enacted

·         experiences difficulty in concentrating or remembering

·         is continually hyper vigilant and employs survivalist tactics or victimization mechanisms of relevance to the original trauma

·         exhibits an exaggerated startle response and increased hypersensitivity.

Past Life Regression Therapy addresses these problems by going to the root cause which either occurred in a previous life or in an earlier part of this life memory of which has since been repressed.

Past Life Regression and Bhagavad Gita

Past Life Regression Therapy is based on the principles of cause and effect also known as the law of Reincarnation / Karma. An action that has been set in motion at a specific time in the past resulting in a corresponding effect on a person’s present emotional, physical, mental or spiritual well being, at this moment. This cause may be a past desire, past promise, past talent, past thought, past feeling, past vow, past emotion, past decision, past evasion or past traumatic experience.

As very appropriately quoted in the Gita, the soul of a person is immortal and through the process of Past Life Regression one can tap into these memories of his/her soul’s experience in different lives before the present. As the present is the sum total of the past, the Law of Karma or Reincarnation allows you to re-live and release the issues by awareness and realization with the help of Past Life Regression.

Past live regression therapy also incorporates Age Regression which is a time travel technique that makes one travel backwards in time in the present lifetime to unravel hidden powers and uncover and release blockages created to embrace a fulfilling and beautiful life ahead.

In the Bhagavad Gita 4:5, Lord Krishna told Arjun “Many, many births both you and I have passed. I can remember all of them, but you cannot, O subduer of the enemy!”

This life is a University where we come to learn our lessons & evolve spiritually. Until and unless we evolve spiritually we can neither be happy nor can we transcend the cycle of birth & death.

The soul has lived many lives. This life is one page or one life of the endless life’s our soul has lived. Our real self is ‘Atman’, the supreme consciousness. Only when we know our true self, can we be free from this vicious circle of birth & death.

Each soul, by his own choice, passes through many earthly sojourns and is given a chance to develop spiritually. In the process, mistakes may also be made, and actions may be taken that move us farther away from God; but in each lifetime we are also free to act so as to make up for those errors.

It is through our actions that we create many of our own rewards and punishments. Of course, it is up to us to alter or redirect our lives at any time. It is through various experiences that we grow and develop. All experiences are for our good and sometimes it takes what we would consider a negative experience to help develop our spirits. We chose many of our weaknesses and difficult situations in our lives so that we could grow. We were very willing, even anxious, as spirits to accept all of our ailments, illness, and accidents on earth, to help better ourselves spiritually. Our most sever challenges will one day reveal themselves to be our greatest teachers. Grief is growth. Soul cleansing can come through illness. We should not consider ourselves to be the unfortunate victims of the circumstances we are in. Some of us have come to earth to unite in a cause to change certain things, some to strengthen a course already set and to pave the way for those who may follow. Some come to earth for a short time, living only hours or days after birth.

Each lifetime is another opportunity to move the transmigration of our soul forward through the accumulation of positive Karma. We must strive over onward through many cycles until we achieve sufficient perfection to rejoin God. It is the law, for no imperfect thing will ever have the opportunity to become a part of Godhead.

According to the Bhagavad-Gita, Lord Krishna said man's real self or soul is immortal and independent of the body, it neither kills nor is killed. It is indestructible, imperishable and inaccessible to the sufferings, which afflict the body. Eternal, omnipresent, fixed, immovable, everlasting is the human soul. “He is not slain when the body is slain”. Bhagavad Gita (2:20)

As laying aside worn-out garments, a man takes on other new ones, so laying aside worn out bodies, the embodied (soul) enters into other new ones. Rebirth is under the control of karma or "actions" and salvation is through ultimate release from the round of rebirths. All creatures are composed of two distinct elements, namely soul and body. The body including what are called "psychic" elements, is material; is subject to evolution, devolution and changes of all sorts; and consists of a blend of various elements or qualities. The material body, upon other material bodies or substances performs all action. The soul neither acts nor is affected by action. It has only contemplative powers.

Any action, good or bad, must normally have its effect in continued existence for the doer. According to the Bhagavad Gita, this is due not to the action as such, but due to desire underlying the action.

 

 

Addiction and Past Life Regression Therapy ...cont.

Addiction is a compulsion that makes an individual yield to addictive causes unmindful of the hazardous consequences. There are no specific causes of any addiction aside from use of a substance or activity, and there is also no way to predict who will become dependent on use.  Any substance or activity that has the capacity to be pleasurable can provide the conditions for addiction, as all addictions impact various neural circuits of the brain, including those related to reward, motivation, and memory.

Our addiction theories and policies are woefully outdated. Research shows that there are no demon drugs. Nor are addicts innately defective. Nature has supplied us all with the ability to become hooked—and we all engage in addictive behaviors to some degree.

Millions of people are "hooked," not only on heroin, morphine, amphetamines, tranquilizers, and cocaine, but also nicotine, caffeine, sugar, steroids, work, theft, gambling, exercise, and even love and sex, despite every kind of addiction treatment from psychosurgery, psychoanalysis, psychedelics, and self-help to acupuncture, group confrontation, family therapy, hypnosis, meditation, education and tough love.

Scientists have learned that every animal, from the ancient hagfish to reptiles, rodents, and humans, share the same basic pleasure and "reward" circuits in the brain, circuits that all turn on when in contact with addictive substances or during pleasurable acts such as eating or orgasm One conclusion from this evidence is that addictive behaviors are normal, a natural part of our "wiring." If they weren't, or if they were rare, nature would not have let the capacity to be addicted evolve, survive, and stick around in every living creature.

Our brains didn't develop opiate receptors to tempt us with heroin addiction. The coca plant didn't develop cocaine to produce what we call crack addicts. This plant doesn't care two hoots about our brain. But heroin and cocaine addiction certainly tell us a great deal about how brains work. And how they work is that if you taste or experience something that you like, that feels good, you're reinforced to do that again. Basic drives, for food, sex, and pleasure, activate reward centers in the brain. They're part of human nature.

One of the methods of curing a person from addiction is Past Life Regression Therapy, leading to the question as to what transpires during Past Life Regression Therapy ? And how does this help.

When the person is taken into one of his/her past lives by the therapist, the subconscious mind begins to pour out the deepest emotions, wounds and sorrow of that particular life. This pour out in itself is considered a big step in rehabilitation because grief shared is grief halved. It is found by research that more than 10 percent of the addictions are because of moments of sorrow in the child hood whose causes could be very trivial. Once those trivial causes are treated through Past Life Regression Therapy, the addict can easily do away with addiction. Reliving events of the past can also give the subconscious mind a better picture of the sequence of events. Any misconceptions could also be cleared because of this pour out.

 

 

 

Past Life Regression and Dreams

The question often asked  is, are Past Life Dreams just dreams or are they memories of past life experiences that are buried deep within the recesses of our mind?

Originally the dream was held to be the voice of God. Most indigenous cultures hold that the dream is sent by the Great Spirit and serves to offer advice and instruction. This idea of the divinity of the dream can also to be found in the ancient Egyptian and Greek cultures. There existed temples where one would go to dream and receive healing or instruction from the gods. Homer's Iliad (8th century BC) tells the story of Agamemnon who receives instruction from Zeus through a dream. Hippocrates, the father of modern medicine, used dreams as a diagnostic aid.

In the Middle East the dream was considered to be a source of divine inspiration. Mohammed, the founding Prophet of Islam, is said to have received much of what is written in the Koran through his dreams.

We all dream. Every night – as we dim the light of consciousness – we enter the realm of the dream. In this dream state our imagination runs free with little or no interference from our conscious mind. In the morning, when we wake and return to consciousness, we may bring with us a recollection of the wanderings of our imagination – we remember the dream.

To dream is natural, it is a universal experience. All people of all cultures enter into this dream state when they sleep. As sleep research has shown even animals dream. How we regard the dream, however, varies from culture to culture and from person to person.

Unfortunately most of us remain unaware of our dreams. We fail to remember them. Even if we do remember a dream it is typically dismissed as meaningless and unimportant. For those of us who do place an importance on the dream it still remains a mystery. 

The dream world is a world which has found fascination with many people, as dreams can tell us so much. There are many different types of dreams, and many different reasons for them. It is actually amazing how many people remember aspects of their past lives through dreams. What is also fascinating, is how often they start to have the recurring past lives dreams just as they have met someone or as someone has become a part of their lives here and now that is somehow connected to that past time. Often past life dreams show more and more as time passes, and as the current life relationship that has brought them grows. Although, it is important to note, past life dreams do not always coincide with the entrance of others connected in that time period. They may also coincide with life situations that parallel.

When you find yourself dreaming about historical people, places, and things that is the surest sign you are in the process of tapping into your past lives. You may see yourself as other than we are during our waking hours. Meaning that in dreams we see someone who we know to be ourselves, but maybe a different gender or race.

In Past Life Dreams, we are not able to change the sequences of events no matter how hard we try. Just as the events in the past life cannot be changed, neither can the replay of those events in your dream be changed. Our minds do register the logical sequence of events in our dreams but are unable to alter them because they are replays of past.

Our past life dream may display talents, skills, and abilities that we have not acquired in our present life. We might have the ability to speak and understand a foreign language. 

One of the tragedies of modern life is that sleep is often regarded as unproductive down time… an annoying habit that cannot be broken. Since sleep cannot be avoided, it is often minimized, to "get it over with" and to get on with life. And yet, from a spiritual standpoint, sleep is incredibly productive. 

For while our body sleeps and our mind rests, they and "we" are put in touch with the healing and regulating currents of the universe. It is the longest part of the day that we - all of us - spend in touch with the inner worlds of God. 

If you think nothing happens while we are sleeping, why is it that we can go to sleep upset about a problem and wake up feeling better about it? Nothing in our situation has changed… so if nothing had gone on while sleeping, how could this happen? Yet, it is dreams that are the real evidence "something is going on" while we sleep. And part of what dreams are used for is to work through past life karma.

Millions of people have reported past life memories, many of these in Past Life Dream or Karmic Dream.

At the edge of dreams, at the fringe of memory, where body, mind, and spirit become one, there lies a bridge across time. It is a bridge which connects who you were with who you are with who you will be. It is a bridge as close to you as your breath and as far away from you as it must be to keep you safe and sane. It is a bridge that at some point in our lifetimes we all must cross.

The dream serves as a bridge between the conscious and unconscious mind. For the dream belongs to the twilight zone of consciousness – where the ego and the unconscious meet.

The conscious element of the dream lies in its remembrance, the unconscious element lies in its mystery and perplexity. Half conscious, half unconscious, the dream unites the known and the unknown.

To listen to the dream is to listen to the unconscious. Through doing so one relieves the need for the unconscious to force itself.

Reincarnation

The word "reincarnation" derives from Latin, literally meaning, "entering the flesh again". The Greek equivalent metempsychosis (μετεμψύχωσις) roughly corresponds to the common English phrase "transmigration of the soul" and also usually connotes reincarnation after death. Reincarnation may be said to be a repertoire of states of consciousness which guides our behaviour in productive adaptive ways.

Some southern European Christians believed in reincarnation until the Council of Nice banned such beliefs in 553 A.D. In The Republic, Plato described souls about to be reborn as choosing their future lives. Schopenhauer took it seriously, and Voltaire's observation that it is no more surprising to be born twice than once is well known. In Memories, Dreams, and Reflections, Carl Jung wrote that as a boy he remembered in great detail being a very old man in the eighteenth century. Yet most scientists nowadays do not believe in survival after death. Presumably Darwinian ideas contributed to a sort of dethroning of the soul.

However, more than half the world’s people believe in reincarnation. What is the basis of this belief? Is it rooted in delusions or wishful thinking? Or, is there a tangible basis for such ideas?

The philosopher David Hume said, in his essay ‘Of the immortality of the soul’  – Metempsychosis is …. The only system of this kind that philosophy can hearken to. Some philosophers, psychologists and thinkers admit that reincarnation is a very sensible idea, because it would answer so many questions and problems about human existence.

Charles Darwin had concluded that that human facilities are a result of their evolutionary history. Neurotheologists have further expanded on this, saying - If reincarnation is true and Darwin right, then isn’t reincarnation evolutionary adaptation that contributed to the survival of our species.

A human being has a bio-plasma body, which the evidence tells us must contain a structure of consciousness - the soul. The soul has structured the bio-plasma by recording the essence of a person’s life experience. Because bio-plasma is a property of living matter an unborn child would also have a bio-plasma, but would not yet have had any concrete experiences that would form a soul structure in the bio-plasma. At a certain stage the unborn human child, in short, does not yet have a soul. Therefore, when a person dies, their soul must be transmitted to an unborn child, which then structures the bio-plasma of the child with the bio-plasmic pattern of the dying person’s soul. The death and transfer are part of the method of the evolution of consciousness.

If child psychologists and psychiatrists, as well as paediatricians, family doctors, and parents, would listen to children and observe them with reincarnation in mind, they would make valuable discoveries. Children often seem to express memories of previous lives in their play and sometimes in their drawings.

Dr. Ian Stevenson, an academic psychiatrist, led the study of reincarnation in the United States until his death in 2007. The lab, which later became known as the Division of Perceptual Studies, focuses on examining children who remember former lives, near-death experiences, apparitions and after-death communications, out-of-body experiences and deathbed visions.

Dr. Stevenson, who often called reincarnation the "survival of personality after death," saw the existence of past lives as a potential explanation for the differences in human condition. He believed past experiences plus genetics and the environment could help elucidate gender dysphoria, phobias and other unexplained personality traits.

To sum it up, the question often asked is, if rebirth is possible, is there any scientific basis for believing in rebirth? Since time immemorial, man has been struggling to find a solution to this mystery but conclusive evidence has thus far eluded him. Can science uphold the belief in rebirth? It is beyond the current tools of science to definitively prove the general theory of reincarnation to a sceptical public. Likewise, it is also beyond the tools of modern science to disprove it.

Karma cont....

When people are happy and contented, they tend to take life for granted. It is when they suffer, when they find life difficult, that they begin to search for a reason and a way out of their difficulty. They may ask why some are born in poverty and suffering, while others are born in fortunate circumstances. Some people believe that it is due to fate, chance, or an invisible power beyond their control - Karma. In this world nothing happens to a person that he does not for some reason or other deserve. Usually, men of ordinary intellect cannot comprehend the actual reason or reasons. The definite invisible cause or causes of the visible effect is not necessarily confined to the present life, they may be traced to a proximate or remote past birth.

The Pali term Karma literally means action or doing. Any kind of intentional action whether mental, verbal, or physical, is regarded as Karma. It covers all that is included in the phrase "thought, word and deed". Buddhism teaches that one's present condition, whether of happiness or suffering, is the result of the accumulated force of all past actions or karma.

Karma is the law of moral causation. It is action and reaction in the ethical realm. It is natural law that every action produces a certain effect. So if one performs wholesome actions such as donating money to charitable organizations, happiness will ensue. On the other hand, if one performs unwholesome actions, such as killing a living being, the result will be suffering. This is the law of cause and effect at work. In this way, the effect of past karma determines the nature of one's present situation in life.

It is a concept in Hinduism which explains causality through a system where beneficial effects are derived from past beneficial actions and harmful effects from past harmful actions, creating a system of actions and reactions throughout a soul's reincarnated lives forming a cycle of rebirth. The causality is said to be applicable not only to the material world but also to our thoughts, words, actions and actions that others do under our instructions. When the cycle of rebirth comes to an end, a person is said to have attained moksha, or salvation.

 

The theory of karma harps on the Newtonian principle that every action produces an equal and opposite reaction. Every time we think or do something, we create a cause, which in time will bear its corresponding effects. And this cyclical cause and effect generates the concepts of samsara, birth and reincarnation. It is the personality of a human being - with its positive and negative actions - that causes karma.

According to Buddhism, rebirth takes place at the end of this life. Rebirth is regarded as a fact. There is evidence that each person has lived many lives in the past and will continue to live more in the future. Rebirth therefore for the Buddhist is a reality although one may not be aware of it. Those who have developed their minds through meditation have confirmed the existence of past lives. Meditators who have attained powers of concentration have been able to recall their previous lives in great detail. In the same trend, Buddhism teaches that birth, death and rebirth are part of the continuing process of change. This is similar to the continuous process of growth, decay and replacement of cells in one's body. According to medical experts, every seven years, all body cells are replaced.

At the moment of death, when this life is over, and the body can no longer survive, the mind is separated from the body. At that time, the craving for life causes one to seek a new existence, and the previous karma determines the place of one's rebirth.

Every person is responsible for his or her acts and thoughts, so each person's karma is entirely his or her own. Occidentals see the operation of karma as fatalistic. But that is far from true since it is in the hands of an individual to shape his own future by schooling his present. Hindu philosophy, which believes in the doctrine that if the life after death, holds karma of an individual is good enough, the next birth will be rewarding, and if not, the person may actually devolve and degenerate into a lower life form. Therefore in order to achieve good karma it is important to live life according to dharma or what is right.

We create our own Heaven. We create our own Hell. We are the architects of our own fate.

PLR - Goal and Methodology

The goal of past life regression is to heal blocks from your past lives that are interfering with your present day physical, mental, emotional, or spiritual well being. Just as people carry the pain they suffered earlier in their current life to their later years, people carry unresolved pain with them from one life to another.

In Past life regression, people can recall past life memories regressing into past life experiences, a process that is similar to hypnotism. Learning about a past life can be an amazing process. Is it really possible to have lived before, and for the soul to still carry at least some of those burdens into your current incarnation?

At one point, the subject of past lives and past lives stories were the stuff of a skeptic's dream. However in recent years, this controversial subject has seeped into what Carl Jung termed "the collective unconscious", to the point where even Dr. Brian Weiss, a respected therapist, was featured on Oprah to discuss the topic.

While there are many ways that you can recall past life memories, the number one factor, common to almost all methods, is relaxation. In order to let your mind wander deeper into the past, your body must be as relaxed as possible so that you are not physically or mentally distracted by your present carnation.

The second factor is to not over analyze or stress about what you might possibly experience. Over analysis prevents you from relaxing completely, and it also causes you to judge your past memories. At this point, you are simply observing past events and are unable to change them. It is important to avoid judging past life experiences if you want to learn anything new from them.

The third factor is to open your mind to the possibility that what you are seeing is true. If you begin seeing flashes of memory, but automatically dismiss them, what's the point? In order to make any progress in past life regression, you need to be open to what you see and prepared to take it seriously.

 

Past Life Regression - Cause and Effect

Our mind is divided into two main parts: Conscious and Sub-conscious. The Conscious mind is the reasoning, thinking, logical and creative mind that we use all the time when we are awake. The Sub-conscious mind is a repository of all our experiences and memories of all lifetimes. It is part of the core of the human being, and hence survives after death, taking with it every memory of that lifetime.

 

Upon rebirth, this core reincarnates, bringing with it memories both good and traumatic of all the lifetimes in its repository. These memories ultimately manifest themselves at various levels of our current existence and cause problems which could be either physical, psychological or both combined resulting in among other things, blocks in relationships, business, financial and spiritual growth.

 

Past Life Regression allows us to retrieve these past life memories, and in so doing address the current life problems. Through Past Life Regression, the sub-conscious mind goes back in time and accesses the origins of old patterns or emotions thus enabling release and healing. Past Life Therapy helps in clearing emotional blocks and bringing a greater sense of inner peace. It also assists in unraveling the deep mysteries that can lie within and simply explain the sometimes inexplicable.

 

Past Life Regression Therapy is most effective in cases of:

 

Physical problems where the medical tests do not reveal the cause and no traditional medical procedures work.

Problems that the traditional medical world may consider untreatable.

Behavioral problems, like obsessive-compulsive behavior, which have no diagnosable cause in the current life.

Fears & phobias that have no known origin in the current life.

Relationship problems which are totally unexplainable.

Spiritual likes or dislikes (usually extreme cases).

Weight reduction problems.

Cases of stammering or stuttering. - These cases always involve a trauma in childhood, in the current life, where the child wanted to say something but was so afraid that he could not talk.

Past Life Recall

At birth, you had the gift of two types of memory, current life and past life. You also had the gift of having a veil dropped over the past. That veil can be lifted, should you choose to do so.

 

Perhaps it is easy for children to recall past lives because their minds are not cluttered by confronting the lessons and challenges of their current lives. By the time children reach adulthood, they will have experienced many things that might cloud past-life memories, including admonishment by some adults that those memories are only creative imagination. A wise parent who realizes that a child is recalling past life memories can provide encouragement by asking the child to make up a bedtime story. Your child's reaction can be surprisingly straightforward. Your child might ask, "Do you remember when I was the mommy (or daddy) and you were little like me?" In a playful way, s/he might describe a past-life event as a personal story. By talking with your child just before sleep, you can learn much about the past-life experiences that went into the making of that soul's character--your little child.

 

Parents who punish their child for play-acting what the child believes to be real could damage or stunt the emotional and spiritual life of that child who is simply remembering the past. Such an unwise approach on the part of the parents could cause serious problems to develop later as the child develops and must deal with issues rooted in a past life. The freedom to remember is essential.