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Re-incarnation, Co-incarnation, Pre-incarnation, Inter-carnation, or Experiential Theater?
Hi Folks.
I posted a thread with this title on HT a couple of years ago, but now, with things happening at Internet speed, I think it's time for an update.
On the thread entitled, "Re-Energizing a Mystical Experience," Carolyn Ann O'Riley said, " I work with a lot of Life Between Lives Regression and find that those experiences for my clients as well as for myself are positively life altering. It is such a freeing experience to realize that you are not really this physical presence but something so much larger and grander."
I replied:
. . .Postmodern constructionism is gaining a number of adherents in clinical psychology. It stems from a recognition that reality is constructed as the mind tries to understand the world in its own particular and personal style. The way to help someone in therapy, then, is to aid them in making sense of the world in a way that is appropriate for them as an individual. . . . More power to you!
. . .The only thing I might suggest is that perhaps there is no single experiential truth which is appropriate for everyone. If someone is more comfortable in coming to such a realization by experiencing past lives, or future lives, or parallel lives, or merging with an ocean of infinite love, perhaps you might also wish to include these or other options for those who may desire them.
My friend Roy Hunter will notice quite a change in my position since we first had this discussion several years ago over a black Russian at the International Hypnosis Hall of Fame!
As a scientist-practitioner who has been rigorously trained in the methods of experimental psychology, I frankly do not know whether or not reincarnation, co-incarnation, pre-carnation, or intercarnation exist, though half the world believes in one form or another of these.
After reviewing the experimental evidence, Lynn and Kirsch (2006, p. 204) flatly state: "In summary, hypnotically induced past-life experiences are fantasies constructed from available clinical narratives about past lives and known or surmised facts regarding historical periods, as well as cues present in the hypnotic situation." But it is also true that we cannot "prove a negative." That is, we cannot conclusively demonstrate that something does not exist,somewhere and in some form, because it is impossible to investigate all of the possibilities.
There is an old Chinese saying which goes, "It doesn't matter whether a cat is black or white, as long as it catches mice." From a postmodern constructivist point of view, since we can never fully know what "truth" is, if one particular set of beliefs helps a client towards a well-adjusted life and a more comfortable view of the world, then so be it. Personally, I would now not hesitate to take clients to whatever form of alternate lifetime they would like to visit if it will help them to feel better and make sense of their present existence. In the words of one correspondent who had previously been to several therapists of varying orientations (including past-life regression) without success, "It was the absolute professionalism, kindness and profound patience from my regression therapist that enabled me to trust enough to release my fears."
But another interpretation is also possible. If we are willing to conceptualize hypnosis as a form of experiential theater based upon "believed-in imaginings," then that is "a cat of a different color" which will allow us to account for both the experiential and the experimental evidence -- and we can catch a lot of mice with it!
When they are taken to see their first motion picture, very young children have to be cautioned, as I was, "It's only a movie," so that they can enter into the spirit of the narrative without becoming unduly excited or upset. If we think of hypnosis as a form of experiential theater, we can experience an event "inside and out," not merely with the two senses of sight and hearing, with an absorption so complete that it allows us to work with the ultimate art form -- human experience itself!
Lynn, S. J., & Kirsch, I.(2006). Essentials of clinical hypnosis: An evidence-based approach. Washington, D.C: American Psychological Association.
Tags: consciousness, mystical, mysticism, regresssion
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Bill Kennedy on -
** Like **
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Permalink Reply by Marc Whipple on -
"Is past life regression real?" is the sort of question, in the context of hypnotherapy, which should be answered "Mu."
"Mu" is a Japanese word which roughly means "no." But like many Japanese words the direct translation does not include the flavor of the thing. It has been appropriated by Discordians to mean something closer to its contextual meaning, which is "Your question cannot be answered in its present form because it depends on an incorrect assumption." (A more literal translation is "no thing," which gets across the idea that what is being negated is not the answer to the question but the question itself.) Assuming you don't beat your wife and never have, it is the correct answer to the classic "Have you stopped beating your wife?" it's really quite a useful and liberating concept and I never hesitate to spread it. :)
If using it will improve outcomes and increase quality of life, then it's a valuable tool. It matters not if it's "real." Some delusions, assuming it is a delusion, are valuable. Most people couldn't function without several "delusions" cushioning them from the negative aspects of being human. The question of whether 'tis nobler to face truth at all costs and in all contexts is for philosophers, the same as the reality of reincarnation. As a fellow once said, "Wrong department. Try down the hall."
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Permalink Reply by Barry Neale on -
I agree Don with the statment,
There is an old Chinese saying which goes, "It doesn't matter whether a cat is black or white, as long as it catches mice."
I use several regression techniques in my practice, 1, the affect bridge that I learnt from Boyne, Kein and Banyan and 2, Time Line Therapy.
Occasionally with both techniques a client will go back to a "past life". I then do whatever I do therapueticly and then emerge the client. The client often asks, "was that real?" And I say, I have no idea. (and I really don't care). I explain that if your UCM says the cause of your problem is 5 past lives ago and if you take care of that then I will stop doing the problem, then that's all I care about. I only care that it worked.
I think if we as therapists deny these things then we are limiting ourselves and our clients. If you do a regression and then (without leading) you are back in some "past life" event and you as the therapist, tell them, you can't be in a past life because I don't believe in them, then you have lost a perfect chance to help the client.
I have even had it the other way where the client was a strict catholic who said at the start of the session, "I hope you are not one of those past life therapists because I am a catholic and I don't believe in that rubbish!" Then guess where we went? Yup, past life. (Dont you just love an UCM with a sense of humour!)
My problem with Past lives etc. is leading and "past life tourists" who just want to see who they were in a past life and then blame all their problems on the "fact" that they were burned at the stake 400 years ago. Most of the past life techniques presuppose by their very nature the existence of past lives and this is where leading comes in. Just even having a "past life regression" on your advertising/ cards etc creates expectancy. I prefer not to discuss the types of therapy I am going to use.
I think if you tell a client just before you hypnotise them, "Ok, we are now going to regress you back to the cause of your problem" (in this life or other) then that in and of itself will create resistance in the client. (Oh no, I don't want to go back there!)
I think we have to keep an open mind. Despite what many people on this forum think there are 1000s of therapists using one form of regression or another and THEY ARE ALL GETTING RESULTS.
From PLR, to Spirit Release, life between lives etc They all get results. Doesn't mean that any of them are "real" ( I am not even convinced that what someone says happened in this life is real either!) Just means they work with some UCMs.
So as I say I agree with the Chinese proverb "It doesn't matter whether a cat is black or white, as long as it catches mice."
barry
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Permalink Reply by Don on -
Barry and Marc,
Experientialism is the philosophical position that the source of truth is in one's personal experience. Someone who is having a panic attack, for example, may be absolutely convinced that they are going to die, or that they are going crazy, and no amount of persuasion we can muster can talk them out of it. Then, they live in mortal fear of having another panic attack!
By using hyperempiria to provide a corrective experience of mystical intensity, in which a highly responsive client felt as if she were dissolving in an ocean of infinite, unbounded love at the center of the Universe, her panic attacks ceased almost immediately. Is there an ocean of infinite, unbounded love at the center of the Universe? Are you really guaranteed a place in Heaven if you have a fundamentalist experience of Salvation? Or, as Steven Hawking says, is the brain a computer that simply stops when you die? We can never know truth directly, but if experience is the source of truth for each person, then the truths by which we live are as good a guide as any. So let's help people to construct their own truths that help them to live healthy and fulfilling lives, as in the exercise entitled, Hyperempiria for Facilitating meditation and Prayer, and not worry about which belief is really true, since we can never know that.
Don
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Permalink Reply by James Hazlerig - HypnosisAustin on -
I follow a couple of important guidelines concerning Past Life Regression.
1. I never recommend or advertise it. If a client asks for it, then I'll proceed.
2. I always caution my client that the experience might or might not be a memory; it could simply be a message that the unconscious mind wishes to convey. In either case, it may be important for some reason. However, I always remind my clients that no matter what happened in the past, they are here to live this life now.
3. I'm very careful not to lead the experience by suggesting details. As my first teacher once said, "Doing PLR is boring. You basically just say, 'Now what?' over and over."
It's interesting to me that PLR seems to be anathema to proponents of the utilization approach. It would make sense that if your client walks through the door expecting to be healed by experiencing a past life, you should facilitate that healing. Yet, Yapko writes regarding PLR and other esoteric practices, "The goal of any treatment is to empower people, not to disempower them by encouraging magical thinking." (Trancework, 3rd ed, p. 552)
In fairness, the context of that statement is an admonition to clinicians not to indulge their own interest in PLR at the expense of their clients. However, Yapko never even considers the possibility that the client may have a religious belief in reincarnation. It's worth noting that Erickson had no problem appealing to a Catholic's belief in God--despite the fact that such a belief is every bit as "magical" as a reincarnationist's belief in past lives.
James
P.S. Mu is a good answer to the question, "Is it real?" The translation I learned for mu was "unask the question." What I find personally ironic about that answer is that in one PLR, I experienced life as a cow, so the best comment I could make on it was muuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu, :-)
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Permalink Reply by Don on
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Hi James,
I believe that sometimes leading can be okay if you're sure that you're putting the best interests of the client first. When I was teaching at a Catholic college, a student told me that when her grandmother was dying, the priest had everyone in the room chant, "Jesus, Mary, and Joseph" over and over again until she saw Jesus, Mary, and Joseph at the foot of her bed. When I repeated this anecdote during a paper presentation ("Were you Saved or Were you Hypnortized?") at the American Humanist Association, i asked, "Would anyone refuse to comfort a dying Catholic in this way?" Not a hand went up, even among the bigwigs who were in attendance.
Don
James Hazlerig said:I follow a couple of important guidelines concerning Past Life Regression.
1. I never recommend or advertise it. If a client asks for it, then I'll proceed.
2. I always caution my client that the experience might or might not be a memory; it could simply be a message that the unconscious mind wishes to convey. In either case, it may be important for some reason. However, I always remind my clients that no matter what happened in the past, they are here to live this life now.
3. I'm very careful not to lead the experience by suggesting details. As my first teacher once said, "Doing PLR is boring. You basically just say, 'Now what?' over and over."
It's interesting to me that PLR seems to be anathema to proponents of the utilization approach. It would make sense that if your client walks through the door expecting to be healed by experiencing a past life, you should facilitate that healing. Yet, Yapko writes regarding PLR and other esoteric practices, "The goal of any treatment is to empower people, not to disempower them by encouraging magical thinking." (Trancework, 3rd ed, p. 552)
In fairness, the context of that statement is an admonition to clinicians not to indulge their own interest in PLR at the expense of their clients. However, Yapko never even considers the possibility that the client may have a religious belief in reincarnation. It's worth noting that Erickson had no problem appealing to a Catholic's belief in God--despite the fact that such a belief is every bit as "magical" as a reincarnationist's belief in past lives.
James
P.S. Mu is a good answer to the question, "Is it real?" The translation I learned for mu was "unask the question." What I find personally ironic about that answer is that in one PLR, I experienced life as a cow, so the best comment I could make on it was muuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu, :-)
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Permalink Reply by Don on
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James,
I wouldn't be worried about how real the experience was at that point. I'd be too busy being on the lookout for bulls. . . .
Don
James Hazlerig said:P.S. Mu is a good answer to the question, "Is it real?" The translation I learned for mu was "unask the question." What I find personally ironic about that answer is that in one PLR, I experienced life as a cow, so the best comment I could make on it was muuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu, :-)
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Permalink Reply by David R J Brown on -
How is "mu" pronounced?
Moo?
Mew?
Muh?
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Permalink Reply by Michael Ellner on -
@ Don and Barry-
Are we men or are we mice? =^..^=@ Don,Yapko is making big contributions to the field, but in my opinion, he just doesn't get it -- Hypnosis Is MAGICAL THINKING! The instant pain relief power of a mother's kiss is "magical"@ Newly certified hypnos and students --Who am I to disagree? It truly does NOT matter, if your cat is black or white as long as he or she catches unwanted mice, but it DOES matter to the tens of millions of people who believe that black cats are good or bad luck. "They" say it is wise to meet our clients where they are and I agree. I believe that it makes sense to know where clients are coming from and what they believe before helping them decide on the best way to reach their desired destinations... Example, it's good to know if people think that you are powerful warlock or wizard because you are a hypnotist, or if people think that you are a powerful warlock or wizard because you own a regal, black cat or if people think that you are a powerful warlock or wizard because you tell them that you are a powerful warlock or wizard so that you can utilize their beliefs and expectations to help them reach their goals.Regardless, it is widely believed that when the cat is away the mice will ____. (That's Right!)I recommend remembering that when we help people activate belief we are working in the magical realm...©¿©¬
Feel the purrrrr...Michael E.
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Permalink Reply by Don on
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Hi Michael,
I agree that we are the heirs of a long line of witch doctors and medicine men stretching back to the dawn of pre-history. It's no accident that hypnosis is referred to as the second oldest profession. But I'll wager that even the practitioners of the oldest profession have picked up a few "tricks" that their predecessors were either not aware of or did not practice -- and so have we!
Don
Michael Ellner said:@ Don and Barry-
Are we men or are we mice? =^..^=@ Don,Yapko is making big contributions to the field, but in my opinion, he just doesn't get it -- Hypnosis Is MAGICAL THINKING! The instant pain relief power of a mother's kiss is "magical"@ Newly certified hypnos and students --Who am I to disagree? It truly does NOT matter, if your cat is black or white as long as he or she catches unwanted mice, but it DOES matter to the tens of millions of people who believe that black cats are good or bad luck. "They" say it is wise to meet our clients where they are and I agree. I believe that it makes sense to know where clients are coming from and what they believe before helping them decide on the best way to reach their desired destinations... Example, it's good to know if people think that you are powerful warlock or wizard because you are a hypnotist, or if people think that you are a powerful warlock or wizard because you own a regal, black cat or if people think that you are a powerful warlock or wizard because you tell them that you are a powerful warlock or wizard so that you can utilize their beliefs and expectations to help them reach their goals.Regardless, it is widely believed that when the cat is away the mice will ____. (That's Right!)I recommend remembering that when we help people activate belief we are working in the magical realm...©¿©¬
Feel the purrrrr...Michael E.
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Permalink Reply by Don on
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Hi Sasha,
It's my term for life between lives, to make it fit with reincarnation, and pre-incarnation (future lives), all of which are equally easy and which, taken together, are evidence that hypnosis can most usefully be viewed as a form of experiential theater -- because it's also just as easy to tell them that they are a tree stump or a chicken!
Don.
sasha belcher said:Don, what is inter-carnation?
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