It is my belief in illusions that makes them real. So hypnotized with the belief that I am a body born to die, so identified with my ego, an invention of my frightened Mind, I have forgotten who I really Am: Pure Consciousness. Eternal Spirit. Immortal and invulnerable. With the power of Love within me to create reality. With the power of love within me to move mountains, to turn water into wine, to fill endless barrels with bread and fish, to heal the sick and raise the dead.

http://forgivetowin.com

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At the Past Life Regression Therapy Training with Dr. Brian Weiss, people had experiences that ranged from fleeting impressions, images, words, and sensations to richly-detailed memories of previous existences.

The one that stood out the most for me was a woman with chronic back pain who found herself, during the past life regression, transported to World War II Poland where she, her family, and neighbors were crammed into cattle cars by the Nazis and then taken to a work camp.

She was able to describe in detail her family members, incidents, conversations, her caring for others at her own expense, the back-breaking working conditions, and her death in the work camp hospital.

When she came out of the regression, she told the group that she had been at the cattle car location during her present life and when she was there she had been overtaken with a wave of unexplainable grief.

One of the other attendees had also been to that place in this, her present life, and said that she had been inexplicably overwhelmed with tears at that time as well.

From what I understand, the woman who had the regression has been getting more impressions from that past life since having the experience, that she is using them to research that period of time, to raise awareness regarding that period of time and similar dangers our world faces today, and to heal herself.

Messages From The Other Side

Another experience at the training that stood out in my mind: A woman described, in detail, the vision of a 9 or 10 year old girl with pigtails, dancing around, full of life and happiness. The woman was overcome with great sadness, which made no sense to her in the presence of this joyous little girl.

Another attendee stood up and walked onto the stage. She pulled out of her wallet a photograph of her daughter who had died at the age of 10 and asked the woman if the girl in the photograph was the little girl she saw in her vision. It was.

Dr. Weiss explained that sometimes spirits, in their desire to help their loved ones heal and grow, will present themselves in the minds of other people, so that when the message is delivered to the loved one they want to help it has much greater impact.

Dr. Weiss stated that the woman who had the vision was experiencing the joy of the little girl and the current grief of the mother at the same time. And that the message from the little girl’s spirit to her mother was likely: Stop grieving. My spirit lives on. I’m alive and happy.

Love and Devotion

As for me, the message I got at the time of my past life regression was one of love, that we should express our love to others without fear of disapproval, ridicule or rejection, that the gift of love that we offer to others is a gift that will return to us many-fold in miraculous ways we can’t predict or imagine.

After the regression I received an additional message, that the lesson from my past life regression was not simply about love but about devotion as well, that devotion is a very important part of the lesson I’m here to learn.

When I care for my dog, I need do it with devotion to detail, with devotion to her needs being met more than mine. When I care for our horses, the same need be true, that I need be fully present, fully dedicated, fully communicative and nurturing.

And, last but not least, I need be devoted in my service to others, in the expression of my compassion, acceptance and forgiveness of everyone whose path I cross, and in my bonding with my significant others.

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It is not my intention to convince anybody that reincarnation is something that happens to each of us. For those of you who are cynical, I encourage you to temporarily turn off the logical, analytical part of your mind and just let the events described in this blog bathe your consciousness. There will be time enough later to be judgmental and critical.

Keep in mind that perhaps it doesn’t matter if reincarnation is real and if past life regression is a true phenomenon if we learn something from the experience, if it enlightens us, if it makes us wiser, more loving, more mindful, and more present. After all, that is the whole point of being here: to make sense of this life, to maximize our experiences, and to grow in wisdom and love.

On the first day of the past life regression therapy workshop, Dr. Weiss did a group regression. Then and throughout the week, approximately two-thirds of the 129 participants experienced past lives. Many of them shared those experiences in great detail and it was all very profound, moving, enlightening, and inspiring, not to mention mind-boggling.

I, personally, was unable to be regressed during the first few days. Dr. Weiss explained that some of us are very left-brained, very analytical, critical and judgmental, and that this often prevents some of us from initially going into an hypnotic state and recovering memories from past lives.

Despite my being one who embraces the unknown and the inexplicable with an open mind and open heart, I’m also a psychiatrist with a job that requires judgment and critical analysis, which is why Dr. Weiss’s explanation for my difficulty regressing resonated with me.

Nonetheless, during the first regression exercise I did have an image that came into my mind two times. It was shocking to me because I have always been inept at visualization and imagery. The image that came to mind was that of two cupped hands. More on this later.

“There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.” ~ Shakespeare

On the first day, Dr. Weiss also did a psychometry exercise during which people were paired up, personal items were exchanged, and each individual had the goal of acquiring information about their partner based upon the object they were holding in their hands.

The impressions I received were sparse and fleeting: A small brown and white dog growling. A howling wind. The word book came to mind. And the left side of my face was tingling and hot for several seconds.

When the exercise was over and I shared what I had experienced with my partner, he did not relate to any of it. Dr. Weiss remarked that sometimes, even though we are focused on our partner’s object, we may pick up images and experiences from the minds of others in the room.

And with that, Dr. Weiss described what he and his wife Carole had observed during the break prior to the psychometry exercise: He and Carole were walking through the woods. The wind was howling and they observed a small brown and white dog growling while chasing a buck through the woods.

I commented that the words buck and book are similar. Dr. Weiss concurred that words can get distorted in these situations. He also said that while observing the dog chasing the buck he had also observed a man who seemed to have something wrong with the left side of his face.

On the fourth day, Dr. Weiss offered to do a past life regression on individuals who had had no past life experiences. I volunteered to be one of these subjects.

During the break, prior to this happening, I decided to kill some time by walking through the bookstore. Imagine my surprise when I walked into the back room of the bookstore and, upon looking down, saw a perfect replica of the two cupped hands I had envisioned during the first regression exercise on the first day. The sculpture was titled, “The hands of God.”

After the break, when I was on stage with Dr. Weiss, we decided that it would be best if he used a rapid induction technique rather than the progressive relaxation technique he had been using during the group regressions so that my analytical mind would have less time to be distracted and derail me.

This rapid induction was a shocking experience for me. I had seen it performed on other people and never, in a thousand years, did I think it would work on me, but it did! Within a matter of seconds, I fell back in the chair and was in a deep state of relaxation.

Dr. Weiss decided to use the image of the hands as a starting point. He remarked that when people have hands they usually have feet as well, and he guided me to look down at my feet. The imagery I received was not clear. It was difficult to discern. It was as if I were looking through a thick fog.

Nonetheless, I did get the sense of feet in leather sandals, that I was a man, and that I was wearing a garment of cloth. When Dr. Weiss asked me why I was cupping my hands, I perceived I was by a river and that I was cupping my hands to give water to my dying dog who was laying on the ground beside me.

When he asked me to fast forward in that lifetime I found myself alone. The dog had passed. I felt very sad. Dr. Weiss asked me if there was a lesson from that lifetime. The word “Love” entered my mind. He suggested that I would receive additional information regarding that life and he advised me to signal him with my left index finger when I had finished receiving the information, which I did.

Was the experience real or did I imagine it?

As far as I’m concerned, it’s a moot point: When the regression was over and I opened my eyes, I was in an elevated state of consciousness. I was euphoric and giddy. I was giggling uncontrollably for several moments.

Several of the workshop participants who had observed my regression commented that when I was on the stage at the beginning of the regression I had appeared anxious, contracted and pale, and that afterwards I appeared radiant and joyous.

When one of the participants asked about the additional information I received during the regression, this is what I shared with them: “Love others fully and with all your heart and do not fear disapproval or rejection. Do not hold back. The more you give the more will be returned to you.” People applauded. People were exhilarated. People were inspired.

The rest of that day and the following day as well I experienced an incredible lightness of being. I was relaxed and joyous, I was truly in the moment, feeling very mindful of all the blessings in my life and feeling great love for those around me.

I truly was transformed by the experience and not just for a few days afterwards. When I returned home to the business of my life I was different. I am different.  I am calmer, less reactive, more appreciative, more patient, more loving, and more devoted to the care and well-being of others. My soul journey has changed me forever.

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We are losing our moral center. We are losing our compassion for others. Due to the severity of our economic climate, we are allowing our resentments, our anger and our fear to dictate our actions to the point of our making choices that are cruel, unloving, unjust, and, ironically, extremely short-sighted and self-destructive.

Despite it being understandable that, amidst our anger, frustration and sense of injustice, we might get pleasure from fantasy thoughts about a guy’s house burning down because he didn’t want to pay his fair share, it is unacceptable that thoughts of vengeance such as this should be acted out in the real world to the detriment of others.

Letting a house burn down out of indignation and to “teach a lesson” is an immature and infantile approach to problem solving and conflict resolution. It is an acting out behavior. It is inappropriate, unchecked aggression.

Letting a house burn down is also shortsighted. To quote Newton’s Third Law of Thermodynamics: “Every action has an equal and opposite reaction.”  When we do things that are petty, petulant, impulsive and aggressive, we set into play anger, resentment, hostility and a desire for vengeance, all of which leads to more aggression, violence and wasted resources.

How can we apply this to our lives and our personal relationships? What must we do?

• We need to pay attention to our thoughts and appreciate that when we are frustrated, depressed, anxious, or angry, we aren’t going to be thinking as clearly as when we are calm and stress-free.  Should thoughts of ego, pride and vengeance occur, it is best we censor those thoughts. It is best we recognize that they are not healthy thoughts, that they are not compassionate thoughts, and that they are not who we want to be.

• We need to not act out when we become angry. We need to remind ourselves that although instant gratification of our anger and displeasure would be extremely exhilarating, aggression against others is a self-destructive tactic in the long run.

• When we perceive others as deserving of harsh judgment and punishment, we need to ask ourselves how we would feel if the shoe were on the other foot. We need to ask ourselves how we would feel if it was our own house burning down while others watched with smug, self-righteous satisfaction.

• Amidst our struggles to survive and overcome the lack and limitations in our lives, we need to recall the words of Albert Einstein: “Remember your humanity. Forget the rest.”

CHECK OUT MY OTHER BLOG, HEARTS & MINDS, AT: http://www.familyhealthguide.co.uk/fhg-blogs/hm/

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Oftentimes when something is suggested to us as a possibility or we are asked if we’d like to do something, our first impulse is to say no. “I can’t… I’m too busy… It won’t work… That’s never going to happen.”

It appears to be a natural tendency for people to be doubtful, cynical, pessimistic, fatalistic, and passive. Perhaps it is born of a need for self-preservation and security. Perhaps we think that by saying no, by not pushing the envelope, by not taking risks, and by not investigating something prior to rejecting it out of hand, we are somehow going to keep ourselves safe.

Certainty, there is truth to that old expression, “Better safe than sorry.” If we don’t take risks, don’t investigate possibilities, and don’t venture forth into uncharted territory, we won’t get hurt. We won’t get disappointed. We won’t get rejected. We won’t feel the sting of failure.

However, the way I see it, sometimes safe equals sorry, in the sense that regret is one of the greatest sorrows and burdens to bear as we grow older.

To have had the opportunity to try something new and to not have done it or to believe that there was potential for us to achieve something great and to have allowed the ultimate naysayer in our mind to discourage us, can leave us with a haunting regret that no sense of safety can soothe.

Truth be told, who’s to say that safe is actually safe? Sometimes doing nothing is a decision that can lead to greater insecurity, frustration, and disappointment, insofar as sometimes passiveness, inertia, apathy, negativity, resistance, and procrastination can leave us in the dust as the future rushes past us and we’re left scrambling for crumbs.

It’s easy to say no. Everybody does it. You’ll be in good company. You’ll never be lonely for the companionship of the mundane and mediocre.

It’s not easy to say yes. It takes courage. It takes the willingness to coexist with uncertainty and be okay with it. Should our efforts not yield the hoped-for results, we still pat ourselves on the back for being an activist and not a passive-ist, for being proactive and not reactive, for being at cause and not at effect in the making of our world.

Bottom line: Don’t be so quick to say no. Don’t be so quick to reject opportunities and possibilities. We needn’t be impulsive and reckless in our commitment to open-mindedness and new frontiers. We just need to keep our eyes open as we venture forth.

If our path takes us into shadows, we remind ourselves that love is the light that dispels the darkness of fear.

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In politics, people don’t play fair. When we don’t like a politician, we will find any excuse to attack the person. We will use anything that person says or does as an opportunity to vilify or blame them in some way.

We will distort what was said or done. We will twist the truth. In most cases, we’re not even aware that we’re doing it.

Filled with self-righteous bile and bias, with rage and resentment, our perception of reality becomes distorted without our knowing it and despite how intelligent we might be, to the point of our honestly believing that our judgments are justified and that our outrage is reasonable.

Although this appears to be the nature of the beast as far as politics is concerned, when this happens with our partners and where our goal is a sustainable, long-term relationship, this type of behavior is highly destructive.

Here’s how works: Let’s say we are angry at our partner for something that was done days, weeks, months or perhaps even years ago. Either the perceived offense was never discussed or it was never resolved to our satisfaction such that a powerful resentment has been smoldering and festering under the surface. We are angry and in an attack mode, and we don’t even know it.

Subsequently, when our partner says or does something that is fairly innocuous and inconsequential, it is distorted by our anger and resentments such that we perceive what they’ve said or done as one more unloving attack upon us, one more act of selfishness and inconsideration, which provides us with the justification, in our mind, to go ballistic on them, which is what we do.

We give them both barrels. We spew our rage and venom. We call them names and do everything we can to guilt and shame them.

Our partner, having no clue where our rage is coming from, unaware that we are fuming over something that happened sometime in the past, and knowing that they have done nothing inconsiderate or unloving in the present moment, gets defensive and angry at having been unfairly attacked.

We then take their reaction as one more example of their unwillingness to own what they have done, admit when they are wrong, and apologize for their bad behavior, not yet realizing that we are completely in the wrong and out of our mind.

Obviously, this scenario can’t help but weaken the relationship and possibly damage it beyond repair. The take-home lesson here isn’t all that tricky:

Best that we not harbor resentments towards our partner. Best that we bring our grievances to the table and not sweep them under the rug.

If we have a problem with something that they’ve said or done, we should address it when it happens and make every effort to resolve it.

If our attempts at communication fail, our grievance falls on deaf ears, and our partner is unwilling to validate our position such that compromise and reconciliation remain elusive, it behooves us to either continue the discussion at a later date and hope it can be resolved at that time when tempers have subsided and both parties have had a chance to think about the issue, or to let the issue go.

If we choose to let it go, we truly have to do that. We have to accept our partner’s flaws and the relationship’s limitations without anger or resentment. If we can’t do this, we will likely repeat our behavior of picking fights with our partner and venting our anger towards them inappropriately.

Eventually, the relationship is likely to crumble. Should it manage to survive, it will surely be an unpleasant journey.

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When we are doing somebody a favor, it’s best we do it graciously. It’s best we don’t make them feel like they are burdening us or that they are a nuisance because when we do this we are essentially shooting ourselves in the foot.

Despite the fact that we are doing them a favor, when we do it begrudgingly we are actually destroying a substantial amount of good will in the process. At the same time that we are helping them, we are also generating bad feelings.

Basically, what we’re saying is that there are conditions to our helping them. We’re saying that, “I will help you but I will make you feel bad about it. I will make you feel less than. I will make you feel shamed and guilty. I will make you feel like you owe me something in return for putting me out.”

It makes no sense to behave this way. It’s much better to maximize the situation so that we come up smelling like roses.

Consequently, if we have decided we will help someone, it behooves us to offer the assistance graciously and joyously. When we do this, we demonstrate how incredibly wonderful, magnanimous, selfless and generous we are, and in the process we strengthen our bond with the person, we advance our reputation in the community as word spreads about our estimable actions, we like ourselves more for truly being a class act, and we increase the odds of people going out of their way to help us in the future should we ever be in need.

BUILDING SELF ESTEEM

Bottom line: No matter what we are doing, whether it be a favor for others, a task at work, or some leisure activity, it always behooves us to do it with grace, a smile, and a positive attitude. In the long run, this will improve our self esteem and serve us well.

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