Regression (parapsychology)

The regression in parapsychology encompasses a set of techniques that rely on hypnosis or other methods of altering states of consciousness, to make a person remember events from their supposed past, such as the scenes and emotions of a walk, the voices of a discussion, the taste of a meal or the aroma of the countryside in a peasant dawn. It is an esoteric and pseudo-psychotherapeutic technique that is also used in the so-called “reincarnation therapy”. When the experiences are from supposed past lives, it is common for the person to feel the certainty of being here, in the present, while at the same time having the sensation of being in the past, with another personality, which would allow them to compare and understand the possible origin of their traumas or psychosomatic conditions.

Hypothesis about the origin

Past life experiences can be attributed to genetic inheritance, akashic records, universal consciousness, telepathy, fantasies, or memories of readings or movies. However, there have been cases in which the information provided does not seem to correspond to any of the previous patterns, such as saying that the whole family died in an accident, a fact that breaks the chain of genetic descent and allows us to assume that there would be a memory extra-cerebral.

This technique was popularized by Dr. Brian Weiss, a psychiatrist trained at Columbia University and Yale Medical School. In this article in English from the New York Times you can see the disclosure of this technique, as well as its foundation and experience over the years. The translation of the article in Spanish can be seen here.

Therapeutic procedure

Systematic questioning of the data during the session, asking names, places and dates, can help to discern if it is a fantasy or a real experience. To accept it as such, it is recommended to check at least six concordant data, such as names, dates, country, language, customs, climate, clothing, etc. However, the defenders of this theory allege that since the objective is the healing of the patient, in this case the historical verification of the narrated facts is not important. However, there are cases in which the historical bases have been verified, with dates, places and situations, of which the subject was unaware. On other occasions when the subjects cannot name dates or historical situations, we must remember that in remote times or simply past times, the vast majority of the population was illiterate, there were no civil registries that could be consulted in the present, and many people they did not know the dates or the name of the place where they lived. This makes it very difficult to verify such data, except in very few cases, so the lack of historical data does not necessarily constitute proof that it is fraud or fantasies of the hypnotized person.

In Spanish, Dr. Ramón Esteban Jiménez conducted past life regression studies, alleging that there is a general plan that governs the nature of each incarnation.

Types of regression

The regression is considered clear when the sensations are clear, quite similar to experiences of episodes or events that are being experienced. The facts, names of people, places and data that come to the patient's memory are related, and he feels an intimate, absolute certainty of his reality.

The regression is pictorial when the images take place as if they were being seen in a movie, and synesthetic when the scenes are accompanied by sensations such as smell, heat, cold, weight, compression, allergic crises, fainting (transient loss of consciousness, with weak breathing and circulation), forms of epilepsy, or feelings of hate, revenge, fright, surprise, fear, phobia, or insecurity.

Intuitive regression is characterized by memories that are initially perceived intuitively, simply as a sensation, and as the hypnotic trance deepens and the patient 'lets go', they become more definite. The mixed one is a combination of sharp, pictorial, synesthetic or intuitive experiences.

Scope of application

Just as no one in good health gets surgery just to explore their body, it's a good idea not to do a regression out of curiosity or to find out "why" of something that hardly affects today's life. The mental state, such as the set of affects, emotions, fears and feelings, can be compared to water on the surface of a lake. If someone digs at the bottom, mud rises up and makes the water on the surface cloudy for a while. One of the benefits that past life regression can produce is to make the returned person lose the fear of death. The fear of death is something natural in humans, although in too deep cases it constitutes a phobia (thanatophobia) that requires treatment. But even when there is no such phobia, the fear of death is more or less present in everyone, and regression can make that fear disappear. Regression can be applied when behavior is affected by repetitive dreams or unconscious traumatic memories, in the form of severe trauma, depression, hang-ups, irrational fears, and resentment for no apparent reason, such as the terror of going over a bridge, getting on a elevator, bathing in the sea, seeing blood, making a decision or speaking in public. Regression under hypnosis, and the use of hypnosis in general, requires a professional knowledge of the subconscious mechanisms, the brain areas activated by hypnosis, and the dangers inherent in its indiscriminate use.

Memory regression is recommended only to find the origin of psychosomatic illnesses and help the patient to heal grudges, fears and traumas that may be seriously affecting their family, work or social life.

Features

The psychiatrist and graduate in philosophy Dr. Raymond Moody proposes in one of his projects, a scientific investigation on regressions from which his book Coming back (Regressions) is derived), certain characteristics that a regression experience can gather under a state of total relaxation or hypnosis. They are the following:

1. They're usually visual.
2. They seem to have their own life (the subject doesn't seem to have to think about what comes after each scene).
3. The images that are seen are familiar (although we have not lived them in this supposed present life).
4. The subject is identified in the scenes with one of the characters.
5. They can "return" to feel the emotions of that supposed past life (joy, pain, hunger, etc.).
6. The facts seen can be seen from two perspectives: in the first person (within the character, as if we were really) and in third person (from some point of the scene, but always recognizing one of the characters we see).
7. It often reflects aspects of the subject's "current" life.
8. After regression you may sometimes notice improvement of the mental state (hobias, depressions, etc.).
9. They can sometimes cure diseases (this may result from the previous one; notice improvement in dermatitis, asthma, etc.).
10. The regressions appear during a session according to their meaning, without following a timeline (for example, we can visualize being first a medieval character and then in another regression, being a Roman of the 1st century).
11. It's easier to submerge the subject in a regression as many times it's been returned.
12. Most of those supposed past lives are worldly (not of important characters in history, even if they had believed so).