What do past-life regression and dreams have in common?
Regression is a technique that uses a light form of hypnosis in order to “recall” memories from past incarnations of the soul. During a regression a person may, depending on their dominant sense or their degree of intuition, have various sensory impressions — images, sounds, smells, or simply an intuitive knowing about the past life in question. In these spontaneous, sensory experiences a person may find the root of their fears, answer questions about relationships with those close to them, or discover the reason behind recurring patterns of behaviour or difficulties in the present life. Regression is generally used as a means of spiritual experience and/or as part of psychotherapeutic work. Its name comes from the Latin regressionem, meaning a going back, a return. It takes place through deep relaxation intended to relax the body and loosen the grip of the rational mind, tuning the brainwaves to the frequency observed during active sleep — the REM phase, or rapid eye movement. Dreams during this phase most often reach the more conscious level of the psyche, and therefore human memory, which is why they can be recalled while awake. By comparison, brainwaves of even lower frequency belong to deep sleep, during which there is no link with the conscious psyche, and which therefore leaves no trace in the dreamer’s active memory.
Even so, there is an element of hypnosis in regression, since the therapist guides the whole process from relaxation through to coming out of it. The guide’s voice serves to help a person quiet the mind and relax the body, and then to lead the soul into the past life in question, where together they explore that earlier incarnation. What is decisive in a regression is not only the guide’s experience and attitude, but also the ability to formulate together a specific intention for the session — something a person often cannot do alone and needs help with. From my own observation, I find a connection between the intensity of a regression and the precision of that intention. When someone is simply curious, without seeking anything in particular, the images, sounds and the whole of the sensory material often — though not always — remain somewhat fragmentary and disjointed. It is as if the waking mind cannot connect the different elements well enough to assimilate the material and arrange it into a sequence of scenes telling one or several distinct stories. This also depends on the person’s overall level of awareness — in other words, on whether they have built a good connection between the conscious and the unconscious within themselves.
At best, the spontaneous images, sounds, smells, sensations, feelings or simple knowing that come from the unconscious are first distinguished and then joined by the conscious mind into a single picture. Every such connection allows a person to illuminate and recognise parts of themselves they had not been aware of, becoming more whole and more authentic. An experience of this kind has the potential to reveal the root of our fears, or of the difficulties we meet in relating to others and to ourselves, and to answer questions about recurring patterns of behaviour we are trying to change. The more a person works towards strengthening the link between the conscious and unconscious parts of the psyche, the richer in material and the more useful in effect their regressions will be. Interestingly, the same holds for dreams — precisely because both arise from the unconscious.
Like regression, dreams are independent, spontaneous expressions of the unconscious, or fragments of involuntary psychic activity appearing as images, feelings, sensations and thoughts. Their purpose is to present the current situation of the psyche from the standpoint of the unconscious, and they can reveal material that complements, compensates for, or conflicts with a person’s conscious attitude towards a given situation. Dreams are able to change a person’s behaviour entirely, through the balancing function they perform in relation to consciousness. This is because the unconscious is boundless, all-knowing, and contains within itself consciousness — which is in turn built up by illuminating and integrating unconscious parts. Just as a person cannot stay concentrated for very long, they cannot remain conscious for long without tiring and slipping straight back into the unconscious. The fact is that we live a great part of our lives there, whether asleep, or saying and doing things without knowing quite why.
Dreams, like regression, are able to speak of things we no longer remember — from childhood, for instance — and of things yet to happen, much like progression, the counterpart of regression directed towards the future. This is because human memory has only limited access to the unconscious, which in turn holds all the information about everything that has happened to us in this life and in past ones, and much of what is still to come — the so-called prognostic dreams. The reason for this lies in the fact that the unconscious has no dimension of time. This is why the things we see in a dream or a regression often seem incomprehensible, and why it can be impossible to connect them and set them in chronological or logical order. In regression, on the other hand, the soul itself decides how much the conscious self is able to assimilate of what is experienced, and which elements matter more than others. For this reason some elements are experienced or seen more vividly than others, while a large part of the whole picture is missing altogether — presumably because it is not important, or because we are not ready to take it in. In much the same way, in dreams we meet a particular set of elements that may stand out through their colour, their shape, or the feeling they stir in us.
Despite the many similarities between regression and dreams, owing to their common origin in the unconscious, there are two essential differences. The first is the presence of an intention — the stated request made before a regression. The other is the participation of an “outside” person, the guide, who carries responsibility for leading the whole process. These two elements make regression a more conscious and therefore more purposeful process. The presence of another person, entrusted with guiding the work and with making sure the client feels safe enough to explore that past incarnation calmly, strengthens the therapeutic effect further. It should be said that dreams in themselves also have a therapeutic or healing effect, sometimes even without our consciously understanding them. Although no one else is present during dreaming, someone can be present afterwards in work with a psychotherapist, which can considerably speed up and deepen the process of consciously connecting with the content of dreams. According to analytical psychology, founded by C. G. Jung, alongside dreams of a personal nature there are also dreams of a non-personal nature, known as archetypal dreams. In these, collective and mythological images prevail over personal ones, and the role of the depth (Jungian) psychotherapist becomes more important still, since it is they who can help uncover their meaning, drawing on their knowledge of mythology and fairy tales.
From all of the above we may conclude that dreams and past-life regressions share a common origin in the unconscious and have many similar characteristics, and can therefore be used effectively in the course of deep psychotherapeutic or analytical work. To that end, the role of the therapist is in both cases decisive for the process, bringing calm, unreserved acceptance, curiosity, support, and the skill to work with unconscious material.
