There are generally two scientific viewpoint of life. One is that everything is perfectly engineered via the “nature” of evolution/adaptation. The other is that everything happens by chance, luck or a combination of both. There is no such thing as a soul, an afterlife, or even a reason to believe in either of these concepts. We are generally accepted to be created by the combination of sperm & egg which eventually manifests itself into a living, human being. Once we die, it is thought that life merely ends, the lights go off, and you likely never even knew you existed.
For the majority of my life I generally accepted this premise as the truth of our nature as it is based on “logical” thought process. The more I was taught science and math in school… concepts like “heaven”, “afterlife”, or a “greater reason for being” seemed hardly plausible. At some point these spiritual concepts seemed downright ridiculous with little “evidence” to back the claims.
While I cannot claim that reincarnation is real today as I have no proof eemed “scientific” enough to say so… I do believe that there are some pretty interesting, unrelated statistics when it comes to the topic.
Brian Weiss, MD, a graduate of Columbia University and Yale Medical School has written extensively about the subject of reincarnation as a psychotherapist. He has published numerous books on the subject with possibly his most famous being his first in 1988 titled “Many Lives, Many Masters”. In this book, Weiss describes how he stumbled upon the aspect of reincarnation inadvertently while conducting a hypnotherapy session on a client. He stated that hypnotherapy can be a useful tool in tapping into suppressed memories of his patients which can lead to the releasing of negative, underlying emotions. In his practice, this usually comprised of occurrences taking place at such a young age that the patient cannot consciously remember it transpiring.
In this specific case in “Many Lives, Many Masters”, while under hypnosis his patient would vividly describe scenarios in which there was no direct correlation or resemblance to the current lifetime. At times his patient would even begin speaking in a different manner, tone, and style in comparison to when they were awake. It appeared that one of the main sticking points for Weiss in this experience was when his patient accurately described his deceased son (Dr. Weiss’) who had died from an extremely rare disease at an early age as well as Weiss’ father who had passed away. The patient had no prior knowledge of Weiss’s family history or experiences. Being that this took place prior to the internet age, it is rather illogical to assume that his emotionally distressed patient would easily find obscure medical records to fabricate the story while under hypnosis.
Weiss has gone on to publish a total of ten books on the subject of “past life regression therapy” and has trained hundreds of hypnotherapists on the technique which has seemingly produced unexplainable and dramatic results for many patients. He holds workshops throughout the country regarding his experiences and techniques via the Omega Institute, The Weiss Institute, & Hay House.
Another hypnotherapist and author by the name of Michael Newton, Ph.Dholds a doctorate in counseling psychology penned a book in 1994 titled “Journey of Souls: Case Studies of Life Between Lives”. Newton was a self-proclaimed atheist who had no religious beliefs as it pertained to the after life. However much like Dr. Weiss, he inadvertently stumbled across similar, unexplainable anomalies in his hypnotherapy sessions that led him to investigate these occurrences further. In the book “Journey of Souls”, Newton would transcribe what his patient’s would describe in vivid detail as they would recall their past lives and their subsequent deaths in those past lives. The book has a focus on what happens to the “soul” once death occurs.
In Newton’s experience, there appeared to be an undeniable consistency in the description amongst his patients who had no contact with one another. I must say it is a very interesting read and makes you question either… A) the sanity & truthfulness of all parties involved OR B) the official narrative that we are merely flesh and bone in random evolution.
Newton would go on to publish two additional books on the subject as well as create TNI: The Newton Institute which is dedicated to training hundreds of hypnotherapist on his technique of “Life Between Lives” hypnotherapy. It’s not what one would envision as a typical… “hypnotize you for an hour-type session” but rather extensive inductions in which sessions could last 6 hours or possibly longer. It would not appear that any of his patients would be in our “normal”, waking “Beta” brain wave state which seems to rear it’s head quite often on this site.
The preeminent author as it pertains to hypnotherapy and “Past Life Regression” transcription books in particular is Dolores Cannon. She has written over 25 books on “past life regression” and has delved further into the subject than most can probably imagine. Much like Weiss & Newton, Cannon stumbled across the subject of reincarnation by accident. In 1968, Dolores would induce a hypnosis session on a patient at the request of a doctor at the naval base in which she and her husband were living. The doctor felt it would be beneficial to just have the patient relax.
According to Cannon, everything was going rather normally until midway through the hypnosis session, the patient began to vividly describe herself as a “flapper” living in Chicago in the 1920s. Dolores and her husband Johnny watched this inexplicable recollection and behavior but decided to continue and explore further. This was Cannon’s first introduction into the phenomenon known as “past life regression”.
Since then, Cannon has continued to examine the outer limits of what we describe as the bizarre findings of deep, extended hypnosis. When I say bizarre… I’m merely stating that if one were to take her books out of context, without having a rather wide perspective on the mechanics behind these transcriptions they would be immediately classified as pure fiction.
Dolores would develop a protocol known as “Quantum Healing Hypnosis Therapy” in which she would travel the world and hold workshops presenting and teaching other aspiring hypnotherapists her techniques. She stated that her patients generally stayed in the Theta brain wave state during her sessions. The “healing” aspect of her system was based on reports that many of her patients that suffered from physical disease would reverse course and miraculously recover when undergoing her deep hypnosis sessions. In October of 2014, at the age of 83, Dolores would pass away due to unknown causes.
The one thing that definitely sticks out amongst all three author’s books is the consistency of the message of their transcriptions. Their patients interactions with “beings of the afterlife” were very detailed and eerily similar. The sensation of “dying” and “floating up” from one’s body were nearly identical amongst all three authors. The reported “reason for being” from important “god-like” figures all seemed so similar based on their numerous reports with unrelated patients regardless of background.
There are other books from hypnotherapists on past-life regression hypnotherapy that I have yet to read in totality but in general, it appears as though many of these therapists have been exposed to “past lives” purely based on accident. None of them seemed to be actively probing for explanations beyond current science and it appears as though religion played little role in their conclusions based on experience. Based on the workshops from Weiss and the directories of both Cannon’s QHHT practitioners and Newton’s LBL hypnotherapists… it appears as though there are hundreds of trained specialists across the globe that are familiar with this type of hypnosis.
Here are books by eleven different authors that outline their experiences with potential reincarnation subjects. There are dozens of books on the subject that I have not included in this piece:
The Big Book of Reincarnation: Examining the Evidence that We Have All Lived Before by Roy Stemman
Reincarnation: The Missing Link In Christianity by Elizabeth Clare Prophet
Reincarnation: Life After Death Explained by James Lexon
Soul Survivor: The Reincarnation of a World War II Fighter Pilot by Bruce Leninger
Old Souls: Compelling Evidence from Children Who Remember Past Lives by Tom Shroder
Reincarnation: Past Lives and the Akashic Records by Lois J. Wetzel
Children Who Have Lived Before: Reincarnation Today by Trutz Hardo
Reincarnation: The Cycle of Necessity by Manly P. Hall
Many Mansions: The Edgar Cayce Story on Reincarnation by Gina Cerminara
A particular detractor of note of “past life regression” hypnotherapy was Ian Stevenson, M.D. He was a psychiatrist that worked for the University of the Virginia School of Medicine for 50 years. He passed away in 2007 and spent much of his life working on developing the University’s Division of Perceptual Studies. The majority of his work centered on the study of past life recollection amongst children. He traveled extensively throughout the world and collected data from three thousand children who reported details of past lives that were unexplainable and unaccounted for.
One of Stevenson’s most notable books was written in 1997 titled “Reincarnation and Biology: A Contribution to the Etiology of Birthmarks and Birth Defects Volume 1: Birthmarks”. The book comprises of cases in which young children with birth marks that recall “past lives” in which their birth correlate to physical “wounds” experienced in the past life. Stevenson’s investigation leads him to verify that these children recall lives of people he can verify in which they have been wounded in a manner that corresponds with the child’s birthmark(s).
While Stevenson was not a supporter of past-life regression hypnotherapy, he does admit he had an interest in the rare, responsive xenoglossy (speaking a foreign language not normally learned) phenomenon taking place during hypnosis sessions. This is interesting due to the fact that Brian Weiss would update “Many Lives, Many Masters” in 2008 with an excerpt at the end of the book describing an instance when he experienced xenoglossy with a patient.
“I have seen patients during regressions speaking foreign languages that they have never learned. This is called xenoglossy. For example, while working in my office with a surgeon from China who had never before been outside her country and who could not speak any English, a remarkable example of this language ability emerged. We were working through a translator, and the surgeon was remembering a past life in Northern California around the year 1850. She was recalling an argument with her husband in that lifetime, and she began speaking in very fluent and colorful English. At first, the translator did not recognize what was happening, and he began to translate her words back into Chinese for me. I had to tell him to stop translating because I understood her English. When the interpreter realized that his client, who just twenty minutes earlier could not even say “hello” in English, was now speaking fluent English, he nearly fainted.“ – Many Lives, Many Masters (Brian Weiss)
Stevenson would write numerous books on the subject of past life recollection amongst children and Jim Tucker, M.D. author of “Return to Life: Extraordinary cases of Children Who Remember Past Lives” would continue research in the field at the University of Virginia.
From the perspective of Stevenson and Tucker, it appears as though they believe that the “past life regression” hypnotherapy transcriptions can be inadvertently influenced and manipulated by the hypnotherapist. Both Stevenson and Tucker have been quoted as relating these “recollections” as having nothing to distinctly differentiate them from the dreams we experience during sleep every night. In essence, they can be vivid and extremely detailed but it doesn’t necessarily equate to any quantifiable proof of a past life. The topic of dreams and how they relate to our waking consciousness is another field altogether. In this Epoch Times article, writer TaraMacIsaac outlines 5 key scientific discoveries that took place in dreams. It makes you question the general consensus that all dreams are merely forms of meaningless “hallucinations” that have no correlation to our waking state.
When it comes to the explanation of their own research, Stevenson and Tucker both conducted meticulous research and interviews to ensure that the influences amongst the children is minimal to non-existent. It appears as though it would be extremely difficult for anyone to succinctly identify who or what is causing these young children to recollect a “past life” with such precise detail that is verifiable according to records of the person in question. It is definitely distinctly different in terms of past life research compared to their hypnotherapist counterparts but the findings do seem to correlate. For instance, in the work of Weiss and Cannon, birth marks of their patients can tend to correlate with physical altercations of a past life according to their recollections.
Does it really matter whether these statements come from conscious young children recalling past lives or patients under deep hypnotic trances recalling past lives?
Is there any correlation between the external or internal environments amongst adults under deep hypnosis and young children recalling past lives?It is a rather straight forward concept that adults undergoing deep hypnosis are no longer in an active “Beta” brain wave state. According to Dolores Cannon and Michael Newton, their patients aren’t even in a light hypnotic state of “Alpha”. Instead her patients are in a “Theta” state which is just prior to sleeping. The breathing patterns of patients undergoing deep hypnosis can generally be characterized as deep and deliberate especially when the induction period is being implemented. The physical activity of a patient undergoing deep hypnosis can generally be considered as negligible being that they are either sitting still or lying down with their eyes closed.
There have been numerous studies that showcase the fact that young children predominantly operate in the Theta brain wave state during their normal waking hours. So it appears that we might have one commonality between children recalling past lives and adults in deep hypnosis recalling past lives. A potentially similar brain wave state of Theta can definitely be considered an important factor when analyzing both parties of unexplainable recollection.
Another similarity between the two sets of past life re collectors could possibly be elevated internal melatonin production. There have been multiple studies showcasing the fact that children experience their highest melatonin levels at their youngest while it gradually decreases until puberty. A scientific Journal titled “Age” published a thorough review of this facet titled “Aging and Oxygen Toxicity Relation to Changes in Melatonin”. The same phenomenon was observed in rats. Based on their environmental influences, it would appear that adults in deep hypnosis would likely be producing elevated levels of melatonin levels compared to their normal waking states. While there doesn’t seem to be many peer reviewed studies on increased internal melatonin production during hypnosis, there are studies that show increased levels of melatonin production during meditation, Chinese original quiet sitting, and diaphragmatic breathing.
Do these Melatonin levels allow for possible DMT (dimethyltryptamine) transmutation to take place during interactive states such as young children and deep hypnotic patients?
It would appear that just from a basic viewpoint of brain waves (Theta), melatonin levels, possibility of suppressed blood CO2 levels, and the potentiality for upregulation of DMT… that there just might be some commonalities between young children who recall past lives and adults under deep hypnosis that recall the same.
It is very easy to dismiss it all as simply grand fabrications from one’s imagination but simply based on the sheer number of anecdotal statistics alone and a basic analysis of the internal environment of the subjects body’s, it does raise some curiosity amongst the average skeptical American. The amusing aspect of living in the U.S. is that while the majority of the country doesn’t believe in reincarnation, when considering the world population and the beliefs of collective humanity… it would appear that Americans are the minority. China and India both command huge populations that largely believe in the concept of reincarnation. While we can attribute their beliefs to the unscientific realm of “religion” and “outdated beliefs”, we need to find a much more calculated way to explain the thousands of children and adults who have experienced an eerily similar and unexplainable phenomena here in America.
If reincarnation has a leg or two to stand on based on the meticulous research conducted by non-spiritual, non religious based probing… what does that mean for our existence? Our history? Our reason for being? Our future?
So many questions arise when you are not only open to the concept of reincarnation but rather actually believe it is part of our cycle. It makes you wonder what this entire game of life is truly all about.
There just might be more to this circus than you think there is…
E-mail me at jchavez@dmtquest.org with any comments or questions.
DMT Quest is a non-profit 501(c)3 dedicated to raising awareness and funds for endogenous DMT Research. This specific field of psychedelic research has been underfunded for many decades now. It’s time to take our understanding of human physiology, abilities, and perception to the next level. You can also follow us at Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter.
(Here are some interesting videos from the subjects cited in this piece and their experiences.)