Do you believe in past life regression?

[Diemme]

I can't actually believe I'm asking that! But an old work colleague of mine gave it a go for help with her very complex relationship with her mum. She swears it's the best thing she's ever done and that she now has complete closure over difficulties which have plagued her for years. She gave me the name of her therapist and I started following him on facebook. He makes crazy claims about a massive success rate and close to 100% of his clients say that it works where other therapies have failed. So got curious. Has anyone used it?

[EatsFartsAndLeaves]

No. It's nonsense, and 100% of clients are satisfied because only very gullible people try it. Sorry.

[PurpleDaisies]

No.

[Diemme]

100% of clients are satisfied because only very gullible people try it

Good way of explaining it. Fascinating though, that an educated rational woman which this person is would be so taken in.

[Gubbeen]

The only person I knew who claimed to believe in it was a deeply confused woman I babysat for in my teens — looking back now, she was gullible, skint and having a huge identity crisis, alone with two small children and hardly a stick of furniture, after a spectacularly nasty divorce.

Exactly the type purveyors of this kind of nonsense prey on.

[VenusClapTrap]

I secretly believe in past lives but only admit it when drunk.

[Valkadin]

This messed up my SIL head. She was given it as a gift for Christmas. Already vulnerable as she was desperate for a family and DH and close to 40. The woman told her that her souls had always been alone and that her future lives would also be the same.

It was one of the worst Christmas ever, she was distressed but also in her distress but all’s deeply resentful to anyone who did have dc. It really messed her up.

[HeddaGarbled]

No.

[PercyKirke]

Fascinating though, that an educated rational woman which this person is would be so taken in.

"Educated" and "rational" does not automatically exclude "gullible".

[uniglowooljumper]

No. It's bullshit.

[DramaAlpaca]

No. It's a load of old nonsense.

[Whyarewefruit]

Its cruel and exploitative.

[WaxOnFeckOff]

Agree with all comments above.

However, i'm open to some sort of inherited memory the same as they've found with birds and others. We only know a fraction of the power of the brain but seem to use the bit we know about to waste on gobshite.

[AfterSchoolWorry]

Nope.

[maras2]

No.
It's nonsense.

[GrumpyHoonMain]

The science aroumd Buddhist transmigration ideals (rather than reincarnation) could potentially stand up. If we believe that energy doesn’t leave the universe (just transforms) then it’s possible the energy our brains use to power our thoughts / memories could influence the universe.

On top of this we already know that mental health affects telomere length. For example pregnant women who live under extreme anxiety (think domestic violence / war zones) not only have shorter telomeres themselve but can potentially pass this on to their children and grandchildren (through daughters). Who knows whether some Memories / phobias could be be passed on in the same way?

[Chitlin]

About as much as I believe in pixies.

[babydisney]

Tried it and researched it absolutely is not a thing and does not work.

[Icantreachthepretzels]

I'm a trained hypnotherapist - I studied memory regression in my training though not actually past life regression, though it did get talked about during that particular course and the trainers gave their stories of people they had regressed (and of one of their friends who performed a past life regression on a man who turned out to be Robert the Bruce - much to every one's amusement).

The thing with ethical hypnotherapy is you have to make it abundantly clear that whilst the process can help you come up with details you had buried, there is absolutely no proof or evidence that they are in fact correct. The memories can be false whether invented or mixed up with something you saw on T.V or read or just plain misremembering.

This obviously goes doubly triply quadruply ad infinitum when doing past life regression. Just because you remember a 'past life' does not make it in any way shape or form real.

According to the people who trained me (who were very open about the fact that they - like everyone on the course - did not actually believe) people did tend to claim to be just ordinary people from the past (Robert the Bruce not withstanding) and sometimes they did come out with details that when later checked were uncannily accurate ... but there are a million and six more reasonable explanations about why a person might know something and then bring it up in past life regression than that they are actually that person. Whether they once saw a documentary about fishermen of the Shetland Isles or took a school trip to a place where Mary Jones once worked as a washer woman or they saw an old photo of Bert the groundskeeper in a local museum ... it all gets stored somewhere in the brain and can potentially be accessed when in trance - and then mistaken for a past life. To the casual observer it seems amazing but - it's not.

If you want to have past life regression for a bit of fun then it probably is a huge amount of fun - being put into trance is lovely even if nothing happens. And I guess if you want to believe then you're not harming anyone - but any ethical practitioner will make it clear that there is no proof any memories are real. However, if you think you're really going to get some kind of understanding from it or fulfil an emotional need and the practitioner gives you any kind of assurances then they are dodgy as fuck and you need to back away from them.

[lipstickonapig]

I don't, but a friend gave me this book, which I found interesting. A lot of people believe there is an omnipotent celestial being, how is that different? I think it's best not to judge other people's beliefs.
www.amazon.co.uk/Journey-Souls-Studies-Between-Lives-ebook/dp/B001MTENOC/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=journey%20of%20souls&qid=1597030248&sr=8-1&tag=mumsnet&ascsubtag=mnforum-21

[Diemme]

That's so interesting icantreach and makes the whole thing sound seriously unethical. Do you think that every plg therapist has also been trained to understand this and chooses to ignore it? Or do specific plg trainings teach that there actually is proof that the memories emerging under hypnosis are of a past life?

[bottleofbeer]

If it helps then I promise you it's the placebo effect.

[DaisyDreaming]

I don’t believe it at all but find it fascinating the crap people come out with during its. The brain is an amazing thing and it’s amazing all the detail people ramble during it but it’s just the human brain

[GETTINGLIKEMYMOTHER]

Half of me thinks past lives etc. are a load of tosh.
The other half doesn’t, esp. after a friend told me how a small grandson (not yet at school so couldn’t read) said at once, ‘I used to live here!’ when they were on holiday and visited a site of Graeco-Roman ruins where none of them had ever been before.

Grandson went on very happily to point out remains of his former house, and a friend’s house, plus the cave they used to hide in, and the pool (bath) where they used to swim. He even gave the friend an appropriate, though slightly garbled, name.
Needless to say, all the rest of the family got the serious shivers!
GS was perfectly happy though.

[GETTINGLIKEMYMOTHER]

Should add, after about 5 he had completely forgotten these ‘memories‘ or whatever they were.

[GoshHashana]

People were never humble housemaids in past lives, were they? Or gnats or amoebas. They were always Cleopatra or Ivan the Great.