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?

[Gubbeen]

Look, small kids are imaginative. My now eight-year-old had dozens of imaginary friends, all with their own intricate backstories and characters and interactions. He also talked for years with remarkable casualness and detail about 'Babyland' where he lived before 'I zoomed down into your tummy.'

This does not make me believe either in the reality of his imaginary friends or his pre-life 'life'.

[Icantreachthepretzels]

@Diemme it's not really a regulated field at all so a lot of them won't have had the ethical side instilled in them - but a lot of them will know it and just won't care (for example stage hypnotism is riddled with unethical behaviour but is wildly popular and no one does anything about it). There are bodies hypnotherapists can belong to like the NCH and those practitioners tend to be more above board - they have recognised qualifications but having membership or even having qualifications isn't mandatory and isn't regulated in any way - so it's easy to get away with being unethical.

A red flag from the guy your friend went to see is that he makes claims about success rates. Practitioners shouldn't do that because how are they measuring? If someone comes to see him to quit smoking and they give up for a week is he claiming that as a success? What about if they go back to smoking six months after he last saw them? How would he know? How is he tracking this success rate?
Besides, when using hypnotherapy the real work is done by the client. It will work if they want it to work and it won't if they don't - the therapist is just facilitating and helping that and giving them some strategies. It is not magic and there are no guarantees. Again - any one claiming there are is best avoided.

[AtLeastThreeDrinks]

I'm not sure I believe in it but I find it fascinating.

There was a news story recently where a once-lost fallen jet from the first or second world war was uncovered by someone claiming they were the pilot in a past life. And occasionally those stories come out of children knowing minute details of people/places they've never been to. Although I suppose you never know how much the parents are hamming it up for the press.

I'd love to learn more about inherited memory. I had no idea about the birds @WaxOnFeckOff, incredible! There's a BBC article here that talks more about it if anyone's interested.

[Paperdolly]

My mate’s DH went for a session and when we asked her what he discovered he was in his previous life she said “A pig!” 😂

I must say the first time I went to York as a teenager it felt really familiar. I was on the walls and felt drawn to a certain area up from the railway station. I felt ‘at home’. I normally don’t believe in such things and think spiritualists get people when they’re vulnerable.

[VenusClapTrap]

It’s the stuff that small children come out with, plus those sensations of ‘feeling at home’ in places people have never been before, and of thinking ‘oh it’s you’ on meeting someone for the first time that make me think there’s something in it.

[CathyorClaire]

Haven't used it and never would.

I don't subscribe to any form of woo.

[SidesteppinTheRona]

Excellent and informative posts, @Icantreachthepretzels 👏

As a PP said, so many past lives that people claim are of famous figures; or at least people in easy to imagine professions/situations. How convenient!

Up until relatively recently you were lucky to survive your own birth. If you did, you may not make it to 5. Or to ten. If you reached adulthood then you may live a longish life if you were lucky and managed not to due in childbirth.
Of all the possible past lives one could have, a sick or dying baby or child is most likely, but funnily enough we don't hear about those much. Wonder why.

[SidesteppinTheRona]

*die