Who were you-before?

Since the Oprah Winfrey Show featured Brian Weiss, MD, a Past Life Regression expert, on her show on Tuesday, May 13, 2008, many people began wondering if a past life regression is a hoax or real. Cosmopolitan magazine reported in 1997 that 79% of people believe in reincarnation, while only 45% believe one can experience a past life. So, let's begin by taking a look at who Dr. Weiss is.

Dr. Weiss began his career as a psychiatrist and was well published and well respected by the time he was 35. In 1979, he became chairman of the psychiatry department at the prestigious Mount Sinai Hospital in Miami and was regarded as an expert in his field. His work with a patient named, "Catherine," who suffered from panic attacks, phobias, fears and nightmares changed his life forever when during a hypnosis session she began talking about being a boy in Ukraine in the 1700s. Weiss did not believe this story-chalking it up to fantasy, until one day she told him about his own family. He says while Catherine was hypnotized she told him she was with his father, who died two years earlier, and that his daughter was named after his father. "This was all true," Dr. Weiss says. "My father's Hebrew name was Avram. He died two years before and did not have an obituary so there was no place to look this up. And my daughter was named after him." Subsequently, Weiss wrote his first book, "Many Lives Many Masters".

The knowledge that reincarnation is a part of life has been believed by many since the beginning of existence on this earth plane. Such books as Researches in Reincarnation and Beyond, Volume I by A.R. Martin,1942, brought this knowledge to the masses. Albeit was not a highly discussed topic in the Western world until 1952, when Morey Bernstein a Colorado businessman and amateur hypnotist put Virginia Tighe, a housewife in a trance which revealed startling revelations about Tighe's recollection of a past life as a 19th-century Irishwoman and her rebirth 59 years later in the United States. Likewise Edgar Cayce (March 18, 1877 - January 3, 1945) an American, used his psychic abilities to channel answers to questions on subjects such as health, Atlantis, Akashic records and reincarnation while in a self-induced trance.

In the past thirty years a plethora of books, TV documentaries and research projects have further substantiated the belief in the past life phenomenon.

The purpose of experiencing a past life is to learn what has prompted you to make the choices you have made and heal the emotional distress which creates havoc. The most powerful gift of experiencing a past life is healing past emotional traumas to help one to make good choices in the current life. The more clarity you have about your past, true nature, and the nature of the universe, the more effective you can be in decision making.

One immediate benefit of experiencing a past life is seeing the consequences of your behavior. If you cheated, lied or said hurtful things which brought pain to others in a past life, you are less likely to repeat those mistakes. If you can see the growth and joy you brought with being loving and kind, you are more likely to create that in your life now.

The questions are important. What prompts you to choose one thing over another? What factors are you considering when making decisions in your life? What do you need to know to improve your decision-making process? How you make decisions in your life will reflect how you will make choices in your next incarnation. Clearing up these ineffective patterns from life times before can set you free to live your life more effectively and fully this time around. Are you ready to do that for yourself.

If so, a past life regression with a certified regression practitioner is key to your making a clear and highly effective transition to living life to the fullest versus coping in life.

I for one do not judge people for believing that they have lived in a past life and time. Disbelieving them would be almost as bad as asking a client to show me his or her pack of cigarettes to prove to me that they actually smoke. If THEY believe it and they are willing to go back in time, than that is good enough for me. Furthermore, if doing so brings a learning, closure or peach to their life in some way…then even better for them.

Joseph Gionti C.Ht., is a certified Age/Past Life Regression Practitioner.
Positive Change Hypnosis