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!

Reference

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

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Permalink Reply by Roy Hunter on February 25, 2012 at 6:38pm

Hi Don,

I well remember our conversation about past life regressions while drinking Black Russians.

As discussed in Chapter 13 of THE ART OF HYPNOTHERAPY, there are several possible explanations:

1. Fantasy and metaphor (false memories): While this can easily be the result of inappropriate leading, an Egyptian Princess wannabe can easily confabulate. This is the most likely explanation for anyone who regresses into the past life of someone famous.

2. Soul memories (reincarnation): some people believe it takes more than one life to evolve spiritually.

3. Soul tapping (or channeling): somehow tapping into the soul memories of someone who passed on.

4. Universal consciousness: tapping into Universal Consciousness, akashic records, Holy Spirit, etc., and accessing the memories of someone else who lived.

5. Genetic memory (passed on through heredity): this failes to explain how someone could regress into being another race in a previous life.

You are free to draw your own conclusions; but I am certain that many PLR's fall into category #1. However, some past life regressions definitely fall into one of the other categories, because they have been validated by research. Your guess is as good as mine as to which...and who knows? Maybe all of the above are explanations at one time or another.

ETHICS: If you are a PLR believer, do NOT initiate a PLR unless the client initiates the request. If you are a skeptic, either refer the client (without criticizing) OR learn how to facilitate a past life regression knowing there are other explanations besides reincarnation. If you are undecided, you can safely share that opinion with a client.

Should you choose to facilitate a PLR, please KNOW the difference between leading and guiding.

Roy Hunter
PS: THE ART OF HYPNOTHERAPY (mentioned above) is available on my website:
http://www.royhunter.com/hypnosis_books.htm

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Permalink Reply by Roy Hunter on February 26, 2012 at 11:05am

Regarding alleged alien contact, some years back a client put on an Oscar caliber performance. While there could be a remote possibility of some truth, I'm about 99% sure it was total fantasy. Maybe he watched too many X-File episodes?

Regarding PLR into being someone famous, I have virtual proof that at least some regressions fall into the "fantasy or metaphor (false memory)" category. Even though most PLR's are into mundane lives (rather than someone famous), two different clients in past years regressed into an alleged life as Mary Magdalene...and they both could not have been her unless the soul divides like cells.

Roy
PS: I've also had two different clients recall a past life as Joan of Arc.

Don said:

Hi Roy,

I think you have fully covered all the possibilities, plus the ethical considerations that might come up in each case. Bravo!

But there is one more possibility. What if, as Lisa has asked, you should encounter in your PLR work, an Alien who is psychically trying to contact us but is unable to do so physically because of the immense distances of time and space that would be involved?

For this one, it seems to me that two explanations are possible. The first possibility is a psychiatric explanation. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of the American Psychiatric Association lists delusional disorders (which used to be called paranoia) as false beliefs which are impervious to logic because they meet the personality needs of those who are involved with them. Believing that one has "discovered" that he or she is the reincarnation of Jesus, or Mohammad, or King Solomon, for example, would fall into this caegory. And so would a diagnosis of schizophrenia, if other criteria are also met.

The other possibility, of course, is that there really are Aliens out there who are trying to contact us, but their signal is distorted due quirks of the sixteen-dimensional reality which is currently postulated by string-theory physicists. People who are trained in the tradition of Western science are used to taking the simpler of two equally possible explanations as the correct one, and are inclined to automatically conclude that such an individual is either delusional or psychotic. (This decision rule is technically referred to as Occam's razor.) But, while a habitual preference for taking the simpler explanation is usually a good decision rule when we don't know what other course to take, it does not guarantee that this decision is the correct one.

I would be interested in learning your thoughts on the matter, as well as the opinions of other friends and colleagues on Hypnothoughts.

Don

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Permalink Reply by Don on February 26, 2012 at 2:51pm

Hi Roy,

As an old friend going way back to our Hall of Fame days, you know me well enough to know that I don't believe all this stuff about Aliens. I knew that you wouldn't mind, so I was frankly putting you on a little bit in order to see what other people might say. . .

I want to apologize, however, for mentioning Lisa's name in conjunction with telepathic contact by Aliens. There must have been some sort of a mix-up, as she made no such statement.

Don

Roy Hunter said:

Regarding alleged alien contact, some years back a client put on an Oscar caliber performance. While there could be a remote possibility of some truth, I'm about 99% sure it was total fantasy. Maybe he watched too many X-File episodes?

Regarding PLR into being someone famous, I have virtual proof that at least some regressions fall into the "fantasy or metaphor (false memory)" category. Even though most PLR's are into mundane lives (rather than someone famous), two different clients in past years regressed into an alleged life as Mary Magdalene...and they both could not have been her unless the soul divides like cells.

Roy
PS: I've also had two different clients recall a past life as Joan of Arc.

Don said:

Hi Roy,

I think you have fully covered all the possibilities, plus the ethical considerations that might come up in each case. Bravo!

But there is one more possibility. What if, as Lisa has asked, you should encounter in your PLR work, an Alien who is psychically trying to contact us but is unable to do so physically because of the immense distances of time and space that would be involved?

For this one, it seems to me that two explanations are possible. The first possibility is a psychiatric explanation. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of the American Psychiatric Association lists delusional disorders (which used to be called paranoia) as false beliefs which are impervious to logic because they meet the personality needs of those who are involved with them. Believing that one has "discovered" that he or she is the reincarnation of Jesus, or Mohammad, or King Solomon, for example, would fall into this caegory. And so would a diagnosis of schizophrenia, if other criteria are also met.

The other possibility, of course, is that there really are Aliens out there who are trying to contact us, but their signal is distorted due quirks of the sixteen-dimensional reality which is currently postulated by string-theory physicists. People who are trained in the tradition of Western science are used to taking the simpler of two equally possible explanations as the correct one, and are inclined to automatically conclude that such an individual is either delusional or psychotic. (This decision rule is technically referred to as Occam's razor.) But, while a habitual preference for taking the simpler explanation is usually a good decision rule when we don't know what other course to take, it does not guarantee that this decision is the correct one.

I would be interested in learning your thoughts on the matter, as well as the opinions of other friends and colleagues on Hypnothoughts.

Don

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Permalink Reply by Roy Hunter on February 26, 2012 at 6:51pm

I'm not certain how I feel about aliens; but it is a very large universe for God to put life on only one planet. That being said, I believe that many of the alleged UFO abductions remembered during hypnosis are the result of inappropriate leading.

Years ago a UFO "researcher" asked me to give her name to any of my students who had childhood OBE's (out of body experiences). Since I had one at age six after a scorpion sting, I told her that I would be her first volunteer.

While the details will appear in my regression book when published, the summary is that she did considerable leading. When I described the globe of light, she said: "Go through the Light and tell me if you are in a flying saucer." The only thing missing from that regression was X-Files background music.

She went on to ask several more leading questions; and after the regression I told her to seek competent training in hypnotic regression. Her response was to try to reinforce the false memories that she planted during my regression.

Two years later another hypnotherapist regressed me to the same event; and my subconscious perceived the globe of Light as the Death Angel, who was there to PREVENT me from passing too soon.

Each regression seems just as real, and just as fantasized...but both cannot be true. I could have created my own false memories with Regression #2 in order to prove that the first one was false memories.

While I certainly could discover the truth, it serves me and my students to look them in the eye and say that if you are on the receiving end of a mishandled regresstion, you won't know for sure which memories are real.

Needless to say, that "researcher" never got to hypnotize any of my students.

Roy

Don said:

Hi Roy,

As an old friend going way back to our Hall of Fame days, you know me well enough to know that I don't believe all this stuff about Aliens. I knew that you wouldn't mind, so I was frankly putting you on a little bit in order to see what other people might say. . .

I want to apologize, however, for mentioning Lisa's name in conjunction with telepathic contact by Aliens. There must have been some sort of a mix-up, as she made no such statement.

Don

Roy Hunter said:

Regarding alleged alien contact, some years back a client put on an Oscar caliber performance. While there could be a remote possibility of some truth, I'm about 99% sure it was total fantasy. Maybe he watched too many X-File episodes?

Regarding PLR into being someone famous, I have virtual proof that at least some regressions fall into the "fantasy or metaphor (false memory)" category. Even though most PLR's are into mundane lives (rather than someone famous), two different clients in past years regressed into an alleged life as Mary Magdalene...and they both could not have been her unless the soul divides like cells.

Roy
PS: I've also had two different clients recall a past life as Joan of Arc.

Don said:

Hi Roy,

I think you have fully covered all the possibilities, plus the ethical considerations that might come up in each case. Bravo!

But there is one more possibility. What if, as Lisa has asked, you should encounter in your PLR work, an Alien who is psychically trying to contact us but is unable to do so physically because of the immense distances of time and space that would be involved?

For this one, it seems to me that two explanations are possible. The first possibility is a psychiatric explanation. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of the American Psychiatric Association lists delusional disorders (which used to be called paranoia) as false beliefs which are impervious to logic because they meet the personality needs of those who are involved with them. Believing that one has "discovered" that he or she is the reincarnation of Jesus, or Mohammad, or King Solomon, for example, would fall into this caegory. And so would a diagnosis of schizophrenia, if other criteria are also met.

The other possibility, of course, is that there really are Aliens out there who are trying to contact us, but their signal is distorted due quirks of the sixteen-dimensional reality which is currently postulated by string-theory physicists. People who are trained in the tradition of Western science are used to taking the simpler of two equally possible explanations as the correct one, and are inclined to automatically conclude that such an individual is either delusional or psychotic. (This decision rule is technically referred to as Occam's razor.) But, while a habitual preference for taking the simpler explanation is usually a good decision rule when we don't know what other course to take, it does not guarantee that this decision is the correct one.

I would be interested in learning your thoughts on the matter, as well as the opinions of other friends and colleagues on Hypnothoughts.

Don

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Permalink Reply by Lisa on February 26, 2012 at 7:07pm

Hi Don,

Thanks and it is fine. My personal opinion on the options beautifully presented by Roy and you in his post is that it is most likely metaphorically related to feelings of affinity for certain figures in history or mythology with possible leading by the therapist or to a kind of accessing of a possible universal/collective consciousness. As an idea the possibility of reincarnation is very appealing to me, who wouldn't like a second or 1000nth chance to get it right. To know that someone passing from life into death will be back in life again. I just don't think it is likely given life span and nature of resources in a system as well as the shakiness of the evidence offered. I could be totally wrong and would be delighted to find it so.

I do think it is probable other life forms exist in the universe. Life exists on Earth in tremendous diversity and in conditions that seem quite hostile to life as we understand it currently. I used to work in a nursing home in my younger days and I remember when the announcement of possible evidence of fossilized extraterrestrial life found in Martian meteorite ALH 84001 in August 1996. I was elated by the possibility of evidence that perhaps we were not alone in the universe and was stunned that in contrast this idea that Earth wasn't necessarily anything super special in terms of the development and evolution of life elsewhere threatened some people. One lady I spoke with was threatened and appalled by the idea because of religious reasons. It just hadn't occurred to me that because it conflicted with a religious belief that it might be feared or rejected by people. It seemed to me that this would just make their God or Gods even bigger and more amazing than if he or she or they had created life on a single planet. It didn't have to be a negative thing at all. It could be a really cool thing all around.

Guess I was pretty naive and still am, of course.

I hope there is life and sentient life in the universe because if they ever do make first contact with humans on Earth maybe it would shock humanity into pulling together and stop the stupid fighting about whose religion or beliefs are "right" on this planet and whose skin color, nationality, and physical features means whatever. That we are all connected and precious and worthwhile simply for what we are-simply human beings.

I think basically that evolution supports the development of life into sentience inherently. Of course, I look at the upcoming American political circus and wonder if it doesn't work in reverse sometimes...

gentle eve'

Lisa

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Permalink Reply by Roy Hunter on February 26, 2012 at 7:57pm

Hi Lisa,

Apparently last year the pope acknowledged that there might be life elsewhere in the universe. Also, I well remember a line from the movie "Contact" stating that if there is no other life in the Universe, it is a lot of wasted space.

In the dark ages, we thought the Earth was the center of the universe, and many people thought the earth was flat with all the heavenly bodies revolving around us. Now we know better.

Who are we to limit God (or Divine Intelligence) by claiming that this is the only planet with intelligent life among possible billions or trillions of planets?

I will never forget my first visit to the Louvre in Paris during the 1990's. A painting over five centuries old showed Mary with the infant Jesus. The light shining down on baby Jesus came from a flying saucer. How did an artist know what a flying saucer looked like over five hundred years ago?

Also, I looked at ancient Egyptian heiroglyphs on loan from the Cairo museum, and one etching in stone (several thousand years old) depicted a man in a space suit holding what looked like a phaser from Star Trek. Another looked like a flying saucer with a dome and antenna...and these were created over 2000 years BC?

This is food for hypnothoughts...but it still does not excuse inappropriate leading.

Roy

Lisa said:

Hi Don,

Thanks and it is fine. My personal opinion on the options beautifully presented by Roy and you in his post is that it is most likely metaphorically related to feelings of affinity for certain figures in history or mythology with possible leading by the therapist or to a kind of accessing of a possible universal/collective consciousness. As an idea the possibility of reincarnation is very appealing to me, who wouldn't like a second or 1000nth chance to get it right. To know that someone passing from life into death will be back in life again. I just don't think it is likely given life span and nature of resources in a system as well as the shakiness of the evidence offered. I could be totally wrong and would be delighted to find it so.

I do think it is probable other life forms exist in the universe. Life exists on Earth in tremendous diversity and in conditions that seem quite hostile to life as we understand it currently. I used to work in a nursing home in my younger days and I remember when the announcement of possible evidence of fossilized extraterrestrial life found in Martian meteorite ALH 84001 in August 1996. I was elated by the possibility of evidence that perhaps we were not alone in the universe and was stunned that in contrast this idea that Earth wasn't necessarily anything super special in terms of the development and evolution of life elsewhere threatened some people. One lady I spoke with was threatened and appalled by the idea because of religious reasons. It just hadn't occurred to me that because it conflicted with a religious belief that it might be feared or rejected by people. It seemed to me that this would just make their God or Gods even bigger and more amazing than if he or she or they had created life on a single planet. It didn't have to be a negative thing at all. It could be a really cool thing all around.

Guess I was pretty naive and still am, of course.

I hope there is life and sentient life in the universe because if they ever do make first contact with humans on Earth maybe it would shock humanity into pulling together and stop the stupid fighting about whose religion or beliefs are "right" on this planet and whose skin color, nationality, and physical features means whatever. That we are all connected and precious and worthwhile simply for what we are-simply human beings.

I think basically that evolution supports the development of life into sentience inherently. Of course, I look at the upcoming American political circus and wonder if it doesn't work in reverse sometimes...

gentle eve'

Lisa

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Permalink Reply by Lisa on February 26, 2012 at 8:50pm

Hi Roy,

That is an interesting experience. I have had some of the same experiences and the same concerns about them. Because I am very highly suggestible and always have been, I am extra concerned about leading. For most things that I do as a subject it just doesn't matter at all. For something forensic in nature, leading of course matters very much. I don't think people generally take leading very seriously enough. I don't think they really get how easily malleable memory and perception is. The case that concerns me the most is the one involving "Sybil" Shirley Mason and Dr. Cornelia Wilbur. While that was on an entirely different thing some of the dynamics of what was done should make people cautious in how they guide another person, what their intentions may be (hypnotist and client), and how they create their suggestions.

I think people should experiment, try different things, see where something goes but with an open mind towards all the possibilities not just what they believe and want-especially what the guide wants to believe. Without balance the therapeutic relationship may not be safe at all. Perhaps a delusion wont take root but perhaps it will. Given the powerful nature of suggestion and the dynamics of authority and power in any relationship it is by nature risky and bears careful and objective as possible watching. That is the responsibility of the guide. The one on the receiving end of a regression can't really know as you say, wont know for sure which memories are real in a mishandled regression. Leading is very definitely mishandling the regression and terribly irresponsible of a practitioner.

gentle day,

Lisa

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Permalink Reply by Lisa on February 26, 2012 at 10:05pm

Hi Roy,

That certainly is food for thought. I've had experiences I can't explain. I accept them as interesting things that I just can't find an explanation for right now with what I currently know and see. They make for engaging discussion or conjecture, of the many possibilities in the universe but truly I can't claim to know either way. In much less than 500 years people will look back upon this "modern" time of ours and be appalled, and amazed and puzzled. Likewise the same will happen to those who peer back into history at us and they too will likely feel the same.

I read a book and saw the documentary "A Midwife's Tale" From the diary of Martha Ballard 1785-1812. One part made me laugh in recognition. Martha was complaining about the disrespectful, sloven, shiftless, wicked behavior of the next generation of youths. I work at a university police department and found that very amusing and telling. One of the officers and I discussed Grimm's Fairy Tales, mythology and modern perceptions of safety and crime this past weekend. He thought that modern forensics and investigation advances had changed parenting practices in that instead of parents teaching their kids to be ware of dark magic in the outside world as a way to protect them from danger we teach children to beware strangers bearing candy. That myths and fairy tales (which as you probably know many were quite grim) had spawned magical supernatural explanations of what was happening when people disappeared into the forests never to be found again. Science replacing magic and what was once magic becoming known as science. Some of those things are no less magical even though they now have scientific explanations. Some things have a foot in both science and magic.

gentle day,

Lisa

Roy Hunter said:

Hi Lisa,

Apparently last year the pope acknowledged that there might be life elsewhere in the universe. Also, I well remember a line from the movie "Contact" stating that if there is no other life in the Universe, it is a lot of wasted space.

In the dark ages, we thought the Earth was the center of the universe, and many people thought the earth was flat with all the heavenly bodies revolving around us. Now we know better.

Who are we to limit God (or Divine Intelligence) by claiming that this is the only planet with intelligent life among possible billions or trillions of planets?

I will never forget my first visit to the Louvre in Paris during the 1990's. A painting over five centuries old showed Mary with the infant Jesus. The light shining down on baby Jesus came from a flying saucer. How did an artist know what a flying saucer looked like over five hundred years ago?

Also, I looked at ancient Egyptian heiroglyphs on loan from the Cairo museum, and one etching in stone (several thousand years old) depicted a man in a space suit holding what looked like a phaser from Star Trek. Another looked like a flying saucer with a dome and antenna...and these were created over 2000 years BC?

This is food for hypnothoughts...but it still does not excuse inappropriate leading.

Roy

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Permalink Reply by Don on February 27, 2012 at 12:56am

Roy and Lisa,

Although I have been trained to be a skeptic, my personality leads me to be a maverick. It is the constant tension between these two inclinations that has played itself out in my life work.

Viewing hypnosis as experiential theater allows us to sidestep the debate about other lives and other universes, and engage in a low-cost form of space-time tourism without running the risk of creating a false memory syndrome. As long as a client knows that hypnosis is experiential theater, for example, if she should happen to "discover" during a PLR session that her current husband was her father in a previous lifetime, this would not leave her with serious doubts as to whether her current husband is a "soul mate or soul mistake" when the session is concluded.

On the other hand, if a client does believe that other lives can be pre-experienced or re-experienced by means of hypnosis, post-modern constructionism holds that since nobody really knows what "truth" is, the ethical choice is to help your clients make sense of life in whatever way they find to be personally meaningful, as illustrated by the following comedy clip by Bob Newhart -- although in the real world, we would not appeal to fear motivation in such a manner. (He is also illustrating the use of a widely-used cognitive-behavioral technique known as thought-stopping!)

Don

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Permalink Reply by Don on March 3, 2012 at 4:01am

Most of us who have practiced hypnosis long enough have been asked (usually in jest), "You aren't going to turn me into a chicken, are you?" Of course, I always reassure my clients that I have no intention of doing so, because it would be unprofessional on my part. But there was one instance where it was not. . . .

Several years ago, when I was discussing the topic of hypnosis and reincarnation in an Introductory Psychology class, I mentioned that it was just as easy to suggest to people who respond well to suggestion that they are a chicken as it is to suggest that they are regressing to the womb, or to a previous lifetime. On the spur of the moment, I asked a student who had volunteered in a previous demonstration if she would be willing to help me illustrate the point. She readily agreed, and at the conclusion of an induction, I told her that I would count backwards from ten to one, and that at the count of one she would be turned into a chicken.

"You will always be able to hear and to respond to my voice," I continued, "and I will return you to your normal state in a few minutes, before I bring you out of hypnosis. But until I do, you will experience the world exactly as if you had been turned into a chicken. You will remember everything I have said, and it will be a thoroughly enjoyable experience that you will enjoy telling to others. Okay?"

She nodded her agreement, and I counted slowly backwards from ten to one, providing suggestions along the way that she could feel herself changing into a chicken, and at the count of one I announced that she had become a chicken. "Would you like to open your eyes and walk around a bit?" I asked. She did so, walking slowly as I grabbed hold of her extended elbow. "Why are you walking like that?" I asked.

"I'm a chicken," she croaked in a high voice, much to the amusement of the class.

I told her to stop walking and close her eyes once more, counted from one to ten to restore her to her usual perceptions, and then concluded the hypnotic demonstration. "If I had told her that she was re-entering a previous life, and if she believed in reincarnation," I concluded, "it would have been just as easy."

Demonstrations such as this, while real to the participant, provide insight into what Martin Orne has termed "trance logic," a logic similar to that which is often found in dreams. Orne demonstrated that genuinely hypnotized high-responsive subjects could be distinguished from simulators if, after being given an induction, they were told to open their eyes and describe the back of a chair in which a man was sitting. The simulators, after opening their eyes, stated that they could not describe the back of the chair because there was a man sitting in it. The hypnotized subjects, on the other hand, proceeded to describe their perception of it. Hence, it is possible for a hypnotized volunteer to "talk" (or at least intelligibly cluck!) at the same time that she is subjectively experiencing life as a chicken.

Young children (especially those with "cool" parents who encourage this kind of active imagination) often have this kind of involvement as part of their natural play life. Kelley Woods described it as, "Rather like when my son was small and, living in his delightful trance state, had no limits on his imagination...he thrilled at becoming a dog, a car, a monster! . . .I love reminding clients of similar "resource states" and once the door is opened, they can go there at will."

Adults, however, usually need what Michael Ellner called the "transformational magic" of an induction in order to attain this degree of imaginative involvement. With sufficient experiential training in hyperempiria, we should be able to experience any number of transformative experiences, and determine their dimensions.

But once this door is opened, adults should be able to imagine even more transformational things than children can. With our adult ability to conceptualize, and with sufficient experiential training using hyperempiria and the Best Me technique, we can build an almost unlimited number of resource states, with an almost unlimited number of dimensions. Infinity? No problem. Beyond eternity? Check. Or, in the words of the mystical poet William Blake, "Hold infinity in the palm of your hand, and eternity in an hour?" Hang on, here we go. . . ..