Of all of the purposes or uses of hypnosis, there is possibly none more controversial or intriguing than past-life regression.  Is it really possible?  Can you really remember elements of a past life?  There is of course a certain amount of faith involved in this.  In order to believe in past-life regression, there is a pre-requisite belief in reincarnation.  As the old joke goes "I don't believe in reincarnation now, and nor did I in my last life!"

The purpose of this article isn't to convince you one way or the other regarding reincarnation, but rather to put the various arguments forward and allow you to make up your own mind.

When it comes to accessing hidden or trapped memories, there can surely be few better means of doing so than hypnosis.  If there is a memory there, chances are you will be able to access it through hypnosis. 

The big question that skeptics put forward is:

"Why do so many people who undergo past-life regression believe that they were Beethoven or Napoleon or some other famous figure from history?"

Surely a very valid question.  Added to that, I would also ask why they never seem to speak any foreign languages? Are spirits confined to a specific geography?  Believers of course have well-rehearsed retorts to these and many other questions.  On the famous figure question, they argue that there is no proof that the spirit cannot or does not split into various parts, which would indeed explain why so many people believe themselves to have been a historic celebrity.  Recently, some recipients of donor organs have reported cravings for specific foods and tastes, which they later found out was the favourite of the donor from whom their transplanted organ came.  If that can happen with internal organs, who knows what the spirit is capable of.

On the foreign languages they remind us that most people undergo regression with few, if any, other people around, so if the hypnotist doesn't speak the language, it may be mistaken for gibberish.  In addition, given that they are under hypnosis, and therefore working with the subconscious mind, they will be aware that there is nobody present who speaks that language, and therefore may be actively translating as they go.  This too is extremely plausible.

Even when the subject of a regression does not claim to be a famous character from history, the skeptics remain unconvinced.  How, they ask, do you explain the fact that many people regress back to simple lives and recall working on farms, in Victorian sweat houses, or dying of plague.  Indeed many people who undergo regression do claim to experience real pain when they pass from one life to the next, and many recall details that they have no other means of explaining. 

Aha! Say the doubters, this must be imagination! Memories of old movies, history books, idle chat, anything but the truth!

Past life regression is not a million miles away from what some people call spiritualism.  In Spiritualist churches all over the world people gather to be put in touch with loved ones who have passed to "the other side".  They hope for a comforting word, a confirmation that their loved one is safe and comfortable, enjoying their new existence.  Perhaps to appease their guilt for not having done as much as they could have during that person's mortal life.

The job of spiritualists is do act as a bridge.  To be the link from between the living and the dead, and if we believe that the dead can be contacted as spirits, why is it such a huge leap to believe that our spirits can be recycled into new mortal bodies?

Or perhaps it could be that past-life regression is nothing more than another form of spiritualism where the subject takes the role of the spiritualist, accessing the spirits of those of have passed.

As an experienced hypnotist, I cannot claim to know for sure if past-life regression is fact or fiction.  And therein I think lies its attraction.  Not knowing is thrilling.  The idea that we may or may not have been through the life experience previously is quite an exciting if perhaps frightening thought.

Perhaps the most difficult position to accept, is one of absolutism.  The perspective that claims categorically  to believe absolutely one wayor the other--that pas-life regression is totally feasible or totally infeasible.  If nothing else, we should at least remain open minded to it.