Case #5 - PLR and Pteromerhanophobia

Pteromerhanophobia  or fear of flying may be a distinct phobia in itself, or it may be an indirect combination of one or more other phobias related to flying, such as claustrophobia (a fear of enclosed spaces) oracrophobia (a fear of heights). It may have other causes as well, such as agoraphobia (especially the type that has to do with fear of open spaces). It is a symptom rather than a disease, and different causes may bring it about in different individuals.


The fear receives more attention than most other phobias because air travel is often difficult for people to avoid.  A fear of flying may prevent a person from going on vacations or visiting family and friends, and it can cripple the career of a businessperson by preventing them from traveling on work-related business.


The fear of flying may be created by various other phobias and fears: 
* fear of crashing which most likely result in death.
* a fear of closed in spaces (claustrophobia), such as that of an aircraft cabin
* a fear of heights (acrophobia)
* a feeling of not being in control
* fear of vomiting, motion sickness can make the person vomit, thus making flying hard.
* fear of having panic attacks in certain places, where escape would be difficult and/or embarrassing (agoraphobia)
* fear of hijacking or terrorism
* fear of turbulence
* fear of flying over water or night flying


A previous traumatizing experience with air travel or somehow connected to flying can also trigger a fear of flying. 


Rahul* a 13 year old young man was brought to me by his parents due to his fear of travelling in an aircraft. As the family was bases in U.S. and travelled to India at least once a year to look up  the aging elders, this travel initially was done by sedating Rahul, but as he started growing up was becoming a difficult proposition.


On being regressed, Rahul found himself in Europe in the year 1934 as a successful businessman, who used to travel a lot all  over Europe. During the course of one of these travels, he had to take a flight from London to Paris for concluding a business deal. However, the flight never reached Paris and crashed into the sea taking him and the other passengers down with it.


His parents subsequently a couple of months later called me to tell that Rahul now seemed to have got over his fear and could now travel by air without any problem.


*  Name changed to protect patient’s identity. 

Karma cont...

Karma does not necessarily mean past actions. It embraces both past and present deeds. Hence in one sense, we are the result of what we were; we will be the result of what we are. In another sense, it should be added, we are not totally the result of what we were; we will not absolutely be the result of what we are. The present is no doubt the offspring of the past and is the present of the future, but the present is not always a true index of either the past or the future; so complex is the working of Karma.

Just as every object is accompanied by a shadow, even so every volitional activity is inevitably accompanied by its due effect. As we sow, we reap somewhere and sometime, in this life or in a future birth. What we reap today is what we have sown either in the present or in the past. Karma is a law in itself, which operates in its own field without the intervention of any external, independent ruling agency.

Thus on the one hand, one could infer that if the present life is totally conditioned or wholly controlled by our past actions, then it could be said that Karma is tantamount to fatalism or determinism or predestination. If this were true, free will would be an absurdity. Life would be purely mechanistic, not much different from a machine. Being created by an Almighty God who controls our destinies and predetermines our future, or being produced by an irresistible Karma that completely determines our fate and controls our life’s course, independent of any free action on our part, is essentially the same. The only difference lies in the two words God and Karma. One could easily be substituted for the other, because the ultimate operation of both forces would be identical.

However, from a Buddhist point of view, our present mental, moral intellectual and temperamental differences are, for the most part, due to our own actions and tendencies, both past and present. Although Buddhism attributes this variation to Karma, as being the chief cause among a variety, it does not, however, assert that everything is due to Karma. The law of Karma, important as it is, is only one of the twenty-four conditions described in Buddhist Philosophy. Thus refuting the view that "whatsoever fortune or misfortune experienced is all due to some previous action".

Every mainstream religion teaches us about the consequences of our actions. The explanations may differ, but does it really matter in the end whether the law of karma causes us trouble or God himself in his final judgement?

When we meet with big problems; disease, loss of family or friends, getting trapped in a war or natural disaster. At those times, we suddenly wonder: "Why me?" The law of karma does not look for a reason outside ourselves for our good or bad fortune, it simply explains our own suffering as a result of our negative deeds towards others, and our happiness as a result of our actions to help others.

Watch your thoughts, for they become words.
Watch your words, for they become actions.
Watch your actions, for they become habits.
Watch your habits, for they become character.
Watch your character, for it becomes your destiny.

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. 

PLR and Karma cont.

There are many bodies that a soul can take after death, and the astral body is one such form. This is also referred to in the Hindu puranas as Sukshma sarira - the link between the nervous system and the cosmic reservoir, which is invisible to human eyes, but  can be sensed by animals. That’s why dogs bark sometimes without any reason 

However, the Bhagavad Gita says that the soul doesn’t carry any karma or doesn’t attach itself to anything. Then how is human karma carried from one life to other?

 During death, the mind merges all the sense into itself, storing all memories of that particular body, and gets itself attached to the soul, thus making it an aspect of the soul, in the sense of being both divine and immortal, linking human thinking with the un-changing ordering principle of the cosmos itself.

 The soul however, doesn’t want this burden with it and it tries to get rid of this karma carrying mind, and so looks for suitable conditions where it can reincarnate itself into a body where that existing karma can be balanced.

 It is these past life memories in the reincarnated body that Past Life Regression helps in unraveling to help solve current day issues.

Regression Therapy

Regression therapy is based on the belief that the mind is divided into 3 states of consciousness that affects their physical and mental well being.

Active conscious

Sub conscious

Super conscious

Active conscious state is the state which dictates what one does, fully aware of the implications of one’s actions. The sub conscious mind is what one actually is while the super conscious mind is the soul.

In regression therapy, it is believed that all the three states should be in coherence in order for the person to be well physically as well as mentally. Positive emotions like love are good for the physical being of a person while negative emotions like fear that leads to other negative emotions like guilt, jealousy, anger and hatred are detrimental to one’s physical being.

A person is born with negative and positive emotions, more emotions are imprinted on the child till about 5 years of age.  It is believed that these re-enforcements can lead to physical ailments later in life. Sometimes it may take even up to 10 years. According to the beliefs of regression therapy the following ailments are caused as a result of negative emotions experienced.

Emotion                                               Physical ailment caused

Extreme anger or hatred                         Frequent pain in the head , migraines

Bitterness harboured                              Arthritis, pain in the lower back

Emotions that result from                       Hip, leg or knee problems

a lack of support or excessive

restrictions imposed.

Shame                                                 Psoriasis

Feelings of rejection                              Diabetes

  

Emotional upheavals or stress               Multiple sclerosis

Extreme anger                                     Cancer

The presence of these intense emotions creates a negative feeling that is reflected in one’s physical condition. When these physical emotions are controlled or completely alleviated, then the physical system will be able to recuperate and get back to normal functioning.

In order to set right the emotional aspect of one’s character, it is necessary to understand the root cause for the emotion. Emotions are generally triggered by specific situations. The reaction towards such situations could have been negative, positive or neutral. By choosing the negative way of reacting to a particular situation, the person is exposed to the negative impact that causes the various physical ailments. While attempting to set this right, the situation that acted as the trigger should be re-lived and the best positive outcome should be chosen. The subconscious mind should then be used to re-live all the experiences that would have taken place if the positive outcome was chosen.

Hypnosis is generally used to help the individual re-live his/ her past experiences and replace all the negative reactions with positive ones. This will completely erase all the negative feelings that have led to the physical ailments. A single session of hypnosis under a trained regression therapist has been shown to change as many as 10-12 negative experiences, replacing them with positive ones. Regression therapy, therefore, focuses in creating a positive feeling that leaves one feeling light and extremely happy. This will create a sea change in their physical state and improve their condition.

Emotional Freedom Technique

Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT) is a form of alternative psychotherapy that manipulates the body's energy field by tapping on acupuncture points while a specific traumatic memory is focused on, in order to alleviate a psychological problem. The principle behind EFT is that negative emotions can cause disturbances in the body's energy field. EFT theory derives from similar principles behind those of acupuncture.


EFT is based on the premise that the body’s energy system is linked to energy circuits, or meridians, that run throughout the body. The state of these meridians is directly affected by your emotional and physical health. By analogy, think of the meridians as rivers. Upsets in emotional or physical health lead to the equivalent of blockages or overflows in the rivers. By setting right the meridians-- i.e. restoring the body’s energy status--, the emotional/physical disorder is righted.

Using EFT involves 'tuning into' the issue and then tapping with ones fingers on specific acupressure points.  For example if you still carry anger towards someone who has hurt you in the past, you would be asked to think about them, and notice how you feel. But you do not have to relive past events. You just have to be aware that the negative feeling is there. Having therefore 'tuned in' to it, you are shown which acupressure points to tap, and what words to say as you do so. (Saying a few things also helps to disperse the emotion from the system).


Having done that you are then asked to think about the person or situation again and check how you feel. Typically you will notice a significant reduction in the intensity of the feeling. If it's not completely gone then the EFT practitioner repeats the process, bringing the intensity down each time until full balance is restored.