"There is a primordial Essence characterized by unconditional love, joy, serenity, and wisdom, from which we have become
separated and to which we can return by moving out into the vaster realities of awareness. Journeying toward this universal
flow of energy is the meaning of spirituality and the purpose of our stream of lifetimes. It embraces a consciousness essentially
unlimited, that is continuous, has no boundaries, knows everything, and forms our essential core."
This quote is from
Dr. Winifred Lucas, who, along with Dr. Hazel Denning, is the driving force behind the development of Regression Therapy as
the therapeutic modality of the future. Regression Therapy is a transpersonal process for allowing the client to explore his
own inner wisdom and awareness in such a way that purpose, meaning, and understanding of the Self are accessed. The resulting
changes brought about by these new insights are stepping stones to equilibrium, integration, spirituality and wholeness.
Traditional
psychotherapy, counseling, psychiatry, medicine, etc., has ignored the spiritual aspect and tended to separate the emotional,
mental and physical in a way that defies wholeness. It is this very aspect of integration to include the spiritual that makes
this trend into the transpersonal suspect. The future paradigm is being changed and brought into the mainstream in small increments.
Like so many of the great changes in cultures, there will one day be a view of disbelief that there had been a time when this
was not accepted by everyone.
Regression Therapy can involve a memory from this life or a previous one or it may be
information that comes as a metaphor or a connection to an archetype. However it is retrieved, it is meant to awaken you to
an understanding of your present situation and just what the baggage is that you have and whether it needs to be retained
or eliminated from your life. For those of us raised in Western countries, our earthly perspective of space and time presents
our lives in a continuum, linear in nature. This gives us an opportunity to understand our current life and access the knowledge,
emotions and sensual data that can propel us forward into wholeness.
Exploring the roots of ones past, whether in
this life time or viewed as occurring in a previous life requires time to relax, be quiet and find ones inner peace and trust.
It is remarkable what insight and change can be achieved when the analytical brain is set aside and the inner wisdom we all
carry is allowed to take control. This is done through the use of hypnosis or an altered state of mind. However, unlike Hypnotherapy,
the therapist uses a non-directive approach instead of the directive one. This allows the therapist to assist the client to
move back and forth in the lifetime or situation, access several of these during a session, and bridge the information and
insights back into the present for application to the current situation thus releasing and healing issues while minimizing
any influence on the information accessed. Once the bridging process is completed, the therapist may find it useful to be
directive and make suggestions to reinforce the desired results.
Two things that often happen during Regression Therapy
are important to the healing process. The first of these is the recognition of patterns of behavior. These patterns may be
seen as behavior or situations repeated in ones current life or over several past lives. Recognition of these patterns gives
one the opportunity to see what the lesson is and work with it. The second of these is the expressing of the emotion experienced
during the regression. Once the emotion around an issue is experienced in the context of its source, a true releasing of that
issue can occur. This may mean repeating the experience several times to allow completion of the emotional reaction, but,
once this is done, the emotion will no longer be a response to the situation. Examples of this would be the child who is not
allowed to cry and express pain or the loss that is not properly grieved for. Going back to cry and grieve clears unfinished
business thus clearing a piece of the baggage being carried in the present.
Regression Therapy, like other altered
state therapies or forms of hypnosis, is not meant to be a quick fix, but does move the client through issues toward wholeness
and integration of self more quickly than some traditional therapies.
