PSI Annual Journal 2000

In the "Divine Pymander of Hermes Trismegistus", it is stated that Hermes said to his disciple, Tat, "I would, my Son, that thou hadst gone forth out of thyself, as they do in sleep perceive dreams apart from their slumber."

Down through the ages, there has been a belief in metempsychosis, or reincarnation. Pherecydes taught reincarnation in Greece in 550 B.C. He himself was taught by Chaldeans and Egyptian teachers and later taught his more famous pupil, Pythagoras. Plato wrote about it (reincarnation) in 400 BC It is in the works of Ovid, written about the time of the birth of Jesus of Nazareth. It was certainly accepted at that time. We find it in the New Testament in the Book of John, Chapter 9.

"And as Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was blind from birth. And his disciples asked him, saying, ‘Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind?

Jesus answered, ‘Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him."

Origen (2-3rd C AD), called the Father of the Christian Church, taught it; St. Jerome (4-5th C AD) wrote of it. Then at the Ecumenical Council of Constantinople in the 6th C AD (which was a rigged Council if there ever was one – Emperor Justinian invited over 150 Bishops from the East and only 6 from the West where Origen' s teachings were more widely accepted), reincarnation was declared Anathema and, it is believed, references to it were struck from the Bible although, with careful reading, you can still see traces of it. In the example I gave from St. John, it is startlingly evident. It is particularly interesting to note that, whilst the Pope was in Constantinople at the time of the Council, he was not present. Some say that he was not invited and others say that he was invited but refused to attend.

With the publication of the Articles of Anathema, the persecutions and the burning of heretics began across Europe. Despite this, the belief was still held. It was found necessary to condemn the belief in reincarnation at the Council of Lyons in AD1274 and again at the Council of Florence in 1439. It must have been a pretty widely held belief for it to be necessary to condemn it.

Still the belief was held. The great 16th century astronomer, Giordano Bruno, included it in his philosophy. He was burned for stating that the Earth revolved around the Sun.

To give just a few examples, in the 17th century we have the French novelist de Balzac; in the 18th century Frederick the Great, the German writer Goethe, the English poet William Blake, the American statesman Benjamin Franklin; in the 19th century Victor Hugo, the composers Richard Wagner and Gustav Mahler; in the 20th century the English poet John Maesfield, all testifying to their belief in reincarnation. It was the same in Poland, Russia, Denmark, and Sweden.

On a lesser scale, there have been those who have stated that they can recall their past lives. Pythagoras, according to Diogener Laertius, was one of these. It is stated that the lives he could recall were those of Aethelides, Euphorbus who was fatally wounded by Menelaus at Troy, Hermotimus, Pyrrus a Delian fisherman and then Pythagoras. Apollonius of Tyana, (1st C AD) said that he could recall a former life as the pilot of an Egyptian vessel. Macrobius (4-5th C AD) commented on the memories some men have of former lives. Rider Haggard believed that in previous lives he had also been Norsemen, Zulu and Egyptian. Sibelius and Salvador Dali also referred to some knowledge of past lives. And so it goes on right up to the present day. It is not really necessary to name and date all these people except to demonstrate that it is not something new "discovered" in the last thirty or forty years. It' s always been there over the whole of Europe.

All this, of course, refers only to the West. The East have a different understanding and acceptance of the matter.

Plotinus (3rd C AD) was against remembering past lives. He felt that only goal ahead and not the discarded suits of clothing was important. This is very true. If one merely takes the statements, "I was a Delian fisherman, I was a Zulu, or, I was the pilot of an Egyptian vessel", and that is the end of the matter, then they are merely, as Plotinus said, discarded suits of clothing. If, however, the person, in remembering their past lives, experienced the thoughts, feelings and emotions during the actions of those lives then it is an entirely different matter. Instead of the outer suit of clothing, we are dealing with the inner being and the effect on the Soul – the part that is striving for perfection and gaining experience from the lives it leads whilst wearing the suits of clothing (the mortal bodies).

In the book "Creative Meditation and Multidimensional Consciousness", Lama Anegarika Govinda states, "As long as we cannot re-establish the connection between one life and another, our immortality remains a mere concept and never becomes a reality."

How do people come to have knowledge of their past lives? Many have spontaneous memories – this is particularly active in children – others have dreams or visions, knowledge in meditation or through mediumship.

What about those who have not had these experiences but thirst for knowledge and wish to drink from the Lake of Memory?

I shall write very briefly on two methods about which I have read but have not experiences personally, and then write a little longer on the one method which I have experiences but about which I have read nothing. I am not suggesting that these are the only methods.

According to David Christie-Murray, in his book "Reincarnation," the most likely person to have first explored the possibility of regressing subjects to a life before the present by means of hypnosis was Colonel Albert de Rochas. He was a Frenchman who, in 1911, published an account of the work he had carried out in the first decade of the 20th century. However, it is likely that he was doing this work also in the late 19th century.

At first, recalling the books I had read, I thought that it seemed as though the person who obtained the most benefit from this method was the hypnotist himself on an academic level, research, etc. It appeared that the person being regressed, on awakening, had no personal recollection of the experience. To make sure of this point, I read some of the books again and found that in fact the subjects did have recollection of the experiences and were aware of themselves and their other self at the same time. They could hear the questions being asked and their 20th century self sometimes knew the answer but their other self did not and said so, however hard the subject tried to convey the knowledge to the life they were reliving. This was not given a great deal of prominence, nor how the regressed person felt about their experience. The main prominence was given to the regressed lives and the supporting evidence for reincarnation, which is how I came to miss the crucial part – the actual experiencing of the regressed life by the subject and remembering it afterwards. Also being aware of their 20th century surroundings at the same time.

To take an example of a method of hypnotic regression, I' ll use the famous Joe Keeton. He relaxes the subject into the lightest hypnotic state and then continues until he judges the trance to be deep enough when he gives the subject a codeword, to which they will respond at any time, and then awakens them. In the general conversation that naturally follows, Keeton will quite unexpectedly and out of context let slip the codeword. The subject gives a deep sigh and falls back on the chair with closing eyes. He is taken deeper still into a trance and told to go back to some point in childhood of this life. If this is successful he then takes them to an even earlier age. The subject is not taken any further in the first session, as a general rule. Someone else has a go. At a later stage, possibly the next day, the subject is encouraged deeper and deeper into relaxation before searching for a memory in the immensity of all time.

In his book "Encounters with the Past", Peter Moss with Joe Keeton, there is the strange statement – "There appears to be a strong geographical element in the regression and subjects in England so far have always returned to a personality somewhere in the British Isles, often within a relatively short distance of where they now live."

The subjects of the other famous hypnotist, Arnall Bloxham, appear a little more international in their past lives although those contained in the book "More Lives Than One" do seem to have taken place mainly in this country, with a few exceptions.

With regression under hypnotism, the subject is very much dependent upon the hypnotist. It is the hypnotist who asks the questions and concludes the session. It is therefore vital if you are going to use this method to have a hypnotist of the highest integrity. It could be downright dangerous to experiment with an amateur hypnotist or one of dubious integrity.

We now come to something entirely different. In his book, "Windows of the Mind", the Australian author, G.M. Glaskin, states that in 1971 he picked up the journal "Open Mind", published locally in Western Australia, and read of "The Christos Experiment – A Method to Remember Past Lives". The method' s origin isn' t known. The author of the "Open Mind" article learned it from her first husband and he was taught it by a Mr. Bill Swygard of Miami, Florida. The technique requires the subject to lie on the floor on his back with his eyes closed, having first removed his shoes. He has a pillow under his head. Two other people are needed, one to massage the feet and the other to massage the ‘third eye' part of the forehead in a particular way and to instruct the subject to carry out stretching and other exercises. The system of exercises produce relaxation and an extended consciousness on the part of the subject. The preliminaries usually take about 20 minutes and the experience itself can take between half and hour to over an hour or even longer.

Glaskin says that he was skeptical about the whole thing but a friend had heard of it and was enthusiastic so he decided to try it. He went on to describe the experience in vivid detail. The important thing was that he was actually living the experience and afterwards could recall with great clarity every detail and nuance of feeling. It was still just as vivid a month later.

His book then goes on to give the experiences of friends and acquaintances with whom he tried the experiment. He gives the background of the subject being regressed, personality etc., the experience itself and how the subject felt about it. Two or three didn' t have very much success but even they exclaimed about the vividness of the experience, however short it may have been. A number of the subjects experienced a life in the past and they said that they' d been themselves though in a different body. They all said that it was as real as the present moment. Just as important, they were aware of being in the 20th century at the same time as they were experiencing the other life – in one case many thousands of years ago. They also had the ability to return to their present at any time they wished during the experience and were not dependent upon anyone else to recall them. The common comment afterwards from the subjects was that it made them feel very relaxed and calmer towards things in general. A number said that it had helped them with problems in their present lives.

The one tiny drawback to the Christos method as far as I can see is that it requires two assistants and about three hours for one person to gain the experience – and discuss it afterwards when the subject is able to give even more detail and elaborate on the questions/answers.

A far simpler method, with somewhat similar results, is Psycho Expansion. This is the method I' ve experienced. Barney Camfield is very well known in the South West of England and indeed in other parts of the country too. He is a Unitarian Minister, a psychologist, a healer and a lecturer. As far back as 1953, Barney started using a system of relaxation to regress individuals undergoing Psychotherapy as sometimes the problem lay not in this life but in a previous one. In mid-1979 he helped with the production of a TV program involving regression and the studio was immediately besieged with letters and telephone calls from people who were interested in experiencing for themselves. In the end, it was all put in Barney' s lap and there followed a public meeting, a sifting out of those who wanted to do it for a lark, who were happy with their beliefs and couldn' t conceive of changing them etc. Finally, a much smaller group met, including at least one person who wanted to prove it a load of rubbish, and Psycho Expansion started on its present path.

Its big advantage is that it can be done as a group. With this method everyone relaxes the body and mind (no massage required) until a state of not thinking, just being, is achieved. At the same time, there is a heightened awareness. A date is given. At first, it could be a peaceful or happy time on our third birthday – not to try to remember but to see what the subconscious reveals. Later, it could be a peaceful or happy time in our entity' s existence – this can produce some extraordinary results. Or again, it may be just a date, say 3,000 BC or thereabouts at a time when you are in a human body. You are not instructed or directed what to experience nor are you hypnotized. No claim is made that you will or have experienced a past life. At all times one is aware of being in the 20th century although this fades to some extent into the background when immersed in the activities of another time. Equally, you are able to terminate an experience at any time at will. Also, if undergoing something unpleasant, which you do not wish to experience, instead of terminating the experience, you can detach and observe what is happening.

Nor is it just regression, or possible regression. One of the exercises may be to think of a problem before the relaxation and then see what comes from the subconscious. Another exercise is to look at your own front door and after examining it go above the house and look around. Then to above your nearest town, then off to, say, Rome in 1983, sty where you are in Rome 83 AD etc. Another exercise could be, say, "Go to the Time of Moses." Someone may pick up the word "Moses" and indeed observe what is going on. Someone else may, however, pick up "Time of Moses" and be nowhere near Egypt but somewhere else entirely at the same period but with no knowledge whatsoever of Moses himself.

How does one experience you may well ask? Personally, I find that sometimes it' s like watching a film on television (that is my 20th century self) and, at the same time, I' m the central character in the film seeing and feeling everything as that person – this is the life I' m experiencing. At other times, they' re overwhelming impressions. I know that I' m walking down a dusty street and that there are three people standing in a doorway and that they' re smiling or scowling, although I can' t actually see their faces. I' m aware of them being there. I feel that I' m a young woman of about 23. I know that I' m in southern Italy. It' s a completely different feeling and experience to ‘observing' a long ago time when you' re not actually in a physical body a that particular period. You know the difference. Sometimes you may go to a date expecting to observe but find that you had a life then, perhaps thousands of miles away from the occurrence that you were intending to observe and with no knowledge of it.

Explanations given by people who do not understand and who want to ridicule is that it' s just dreaming. Dreaming of course but not the sort that they mean/ Who can vividly remember every detail of a dream immediately upon waking, equally vivid two months later and equally vividly a year later. Some dream if they can.

Another cry is, "It' s over-active imagination". It could well be. In a very few it is, without them perhaps being consciously aware of it. In fact you can tell the difference between someone who has imagined it and someone who had experiences it when you listen to them recounting. It' s very subtle. I can' t explain it but it' s there. I should have mentioned earlier that immediately after each experience everyone writes it down before there is any recounting and discussion. This is useful for a number of reasons. I find it particularly useful for trying to sort out symbology.

To come back to imagination. In my very first session, I found myself walking down the middle of a tunnel. My 20th century self immediately thought, I don' t want to be in a tunnel, I want to be in the open air to see the architecture and what the countryside looks like. I then tried to move myself into the open air. No way. I kept walking along the tunnel, however hard I tried to move somewhere else and still be the same person at the same time. In fact the tunnel experience was fascinating and, although it was 18 months ago, I can still recall it in great detail without reference to notes. If it had been merely imagination, I should have been able to alter it at will. When I started practicing Psycho-Expansion on a more regular basis, I wasn' t entirely convinced that I couldn' t be using my own imagination so, remembering the tunnel experience, I kept testing myself by trying to change something. It never worked. It was and that was it. I couldn' t change anything. On one later occasion, I tried to change something not as a test but because I really very much wanted it changed. It was the first time I experienced being a man. I just wouldn' t accept it. I was a woman, had always been a woman, and always would be a woman. It was impossible. I was a man and that was that. Since then I have had other male experiences and it no longer bothers me.

For the imagination to work, it has to be fed with information and words. What happens when you have an experience which you don' t fully understand and have the greatest difficulty in finding words to explain because there aren' t any in the dictionary which meet your requirements. This sometimes happens in an experience between lives. You' re left groping, trying to explain something which is unexplainable. Even your imagination doesn' t supply you with the necessary equipment. I find myself flinging my arms around trying to grab at a word which will express what I' ve experienced and talking incoherently.

I mentioned earlier that, in the very first group, at least one person took part to prove that it was a load of rubbish. The same person is now a leader of one of the many groups and is co-ordinator of all groups. On a later TV program on the subject, a psychologist was brought into the program to speak against it. By the end of the program, he decided to try it for himself and became a regular member of a group until he moved away to another part of the country. He has since returned to Plymouth and teaches Psychology, incorporating Psycho Expansion into his teaching.

I mention groups. They are great fun, hearing and talking about other people' s experiences as well as your own. However, with practice, you can later do it on your own if you wish.

I think that the one thing to bear in mind in all of this is that the most important life of all is the life you' re living at the present. However fascinating the possible past lives may be, their only real relevance is the knowing they bring into the now. In my present life, I' ve experienced events, emotions, ideas etc. and to a certain extent have been limited to within that framework. By experiencing a little of the events, emotions, ideas etc. of the completely different personalities of other life experiences – together with the other Psycho-Expansion exercises, I have a much wider understanding of other people and myself.

PSI Symposium Annual Journal 2000