Author: Nourishing Happiness

In April of 2014, I found myself (much to my surprise) asking a Qigong instructor, my friend Elmer, for information about reincarnation. After all, he did, in passing, solicit interest in the subject while teaching. The funny thing is that I was unaware of my interest in reincarnation or past lives, or that a year later I would be a past life regressionist, until I approached him after class. Prior to this, if you had asked me if I believed in reincarnation, I would have responded, “Um, no”.

Elmer gave me his reading list of books by Brian Weiss, Michael Newton, and others that utilize hypnosis as a means to access past lives. As I began devouring these recommendations, I also downloaded a free Kindle book promising to teach me self-hypnosis in a weekend. The e-book lived up to its claim as I quickly mastered self-hypnosis, enjoying my daily 15-20 minutes of relaxation, reflection, and intuitive counsel at the subconscious level. I experienced peace for the first time in my life. My interest in reincarnation, peaked by Elmer, morphed into a passion for hypnotherapy.

Hypnotherapy offers peace, purpose, and positive change. I know. I’ve experienced it.

In one of my past lives, I was a mentally simple male living in a one room house on the plains somewhere in Russia in the 1800’s. My father died when I was five. My mother doted on me until she died when I was 33. (Tears rolled down my face in the hypnotherapy chair at her passing.) I lived my remaining years by myself in the same one room house while working at a mill in a nearby town, finding contentment in nature and animals. I died alone at the age of 68 with my dog curled up on the bed beside me. This past life lacks flash and glam. It’s an ordinary, unnoteworthy, invisible life. It does however hold a lesson for my current life. I no longer have to be invisible. I no longer have to doubt my abilities. I’m in a body in this life without the physical and mental limitations of the Russian fellow. I’m free. (Words fail to convey the powerful emotions and transformative connections made during a past life regression.)

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, ‘Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?’ Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.” ― Marianne Williamson

Hypnotherapy frees us from that which is holding us back, whether it’s a session for smoking cessation, weight release, anxiety reduction, phobia relief, confidence building, relationship insight, womb regression, past life regression, or any other focus. Hypnotherapy opens up the world of possibilities for our lives now, liberating us so that we can follow the admonition of Thoreau.

“Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you’ve imagined.”― Henry David Thoreau

My journey that started with me walking up to my Qigong instructor after class, turned inward for a personal discovery of peace and purpose, then to North Carolina to study hypnotherapy, and now, confidently in the direction of my dreams, as I guide others to experience peace, purpose, and positive change.

P.S. All hypnosis is self-hypnosis, whether guided by a hypnotherapist, a recording, or yourself. You are in control. You are the one experiencing it. Hypnosis is similar to deep meditation.

“All the world’s a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances.” – William Shakepeare

Living in the beautiful event-loving town of Winona, MN, nestled between the mighty Mississippi River and scenic bluffs, I experienced The Glass Menagerie during this summer’s Great River Shakespeare Festival. Below is a fictionalized past life regression featuring the shy and fearful Laura Wingfield of Tennessee Williams’ play to illuminate the function and flow of this time traveling hypnotherapeutic specialty.

A graphic designer in his twenties by the ironic name of Tom (a fictitious client in this fictitious story) details his anxiety and self-sabotaging tendencies to me prior to his past life regression while sitting in the relaxing and reclinable blue hypnotherapy chair in my office.

During the hypnosis induction, I ask for guidance to a past life that is most significant for him right now. (As much fun as it is to discover past lives, the insights to current life issues and purpose can be life altering.) Tom, after drifting deeper within, notices that he is in an apartment in St. Louis. The year is 1937. He is a female named Laura. (As genderless beings, souls often choose to incarnate as different genders to learn different life lessons.) Laura has a limp as a result of a childhood illness and possesses an almost paralyzing shyness.

Tom agrees that I may call him Laura as we discuss this past life. Laura lives in a fantasy world of glass figurines whose only chance at love is her brother’s coworker, Jim, who comes over for dinner. Jim, Laura’s only “gentleman caller”, happened to also be her secret high school crush. It turns out that Jim is engaged to marry someone else, dashing Laura’s hopes of a loving relationship.

I guide Tom to a later date in Laura’s life to discover that Laura lived alone, once her overbearing mother died, receiving checks in the mail from her world traveling merchant marine brother. After Laura’s peaceful death in her sleep at the age of 87, I guided Tom up out of that body to meet his spirit guide. His guide, looking like a ball of white light, took Tom to a restful healing place to reset and refresh his spirit from the life as Laura. For further healing, I asked Tom to individually look into the eyes of Laura’s mother and brother, the eyes of Jim, and finally into Laura’s eyes to send and receive insight, love, and forgiveness.

The past life regression showed Tom that he does not have to play it small anymore like he did in the lifetime as Laura. Unlike Laura, Tom has supportive parents, a great education, and plentiful opportunities. The shared imagination and creativity of both Laura and Tom serve him well as an artist. Tom left my office with a sense of renewed purpose.

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, ‘Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?’ Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.” ― Marianne Williamson

I received an email of gratitude from Tom six months after his session. Overcoming his anxiety and procrastination, he updated his portfolio and landed a better job. He now feels free to try new things because one of the reasons he choose his current life was to chart his own course, undefined by social or familial constraints of his previous lifetime (or the pen of Tennessee Williams). Tom became the playwright of his own life.

(Hope you have enjoyed this fabricated glimpse into a past life regression. Of course, real people do not experience past lives as fictional characters. Rarely, do people experience past lives of real famous people. However, almost always, people tap into the potential and magnificence of their authentic selves.)