Past Life Regression: What to Expect and How It Works
Written By Brandi Fleck
This is information on what past life regression is, how it works, and what to expect before, during, and after a session, including its benefits, types, how to choose a reputable practitioner, and FAQs.
Past life regression is a form of hypnotherapy that focuses on experiencing “past lives” to gain understanding about current life experiences, issues, setbacks, stagnation, or tendencies.
I’ve had a couple of past life regressions over the last year (my star-crossed lovers experience and my desert shaman experience), and I’ve learned a lot about what they are, how they’re conducted, and how they can help you heal. I loved the experiences I’ve had so much that I also brought hypnotherapy as a modality to the holistic wellness center I manage and have learned even more since starting that.
Now I want to share that knowledge with you here today.
Before I took the leap and finally scheduled one, I’d wanted to experience a past life regression for years. I found they can be expensive, and I was extremely nervous to try—so I didn’t get around to it until…
A friend of mine who is a licensed hypnotherapist felt so strongly that I needed one, she offered to give me one for free. Thinking there’s no way I can object to that, I readied myself.
Past life regressions can be long sessions and require a lot of energy and focus from the practitioner facilitating the experience, so I offered her a trade instead so the energetic exchange was balanced, and we got started.
Much like I experienced, nerves beforehand are normal. In this article, we’ll address those and everything else you need to know if you’re curious and want to have a past life regression but just haven’t taken that first step yet.
Being here today is your first step.
I highly recommend moving forward since you feel compelled. Listen to that guidance. You’re curious for a reason!
What Is Past Life Regression?
As mentioned earlier, past life regression is a form of hypnotherapy that focuses on showing you different lives that you can learn something from in order to change your current life.
Some argue that a past life is really a parallel life because the true nature of time isn’t real or linear. I tend to agree.
The nature of a soul incarnating is such that you could incarnate in this modern-day life first before incarnating to an ancient civilization (even on a different planet or in a different galaxy), and in each current life you experience, you can call on the knowledge from any of the others because they’re all connected by your soul.
But for the purposes of this article, we refer to all lives as past or current lives. Your current life is the incarnation you’re in right now, from which you’re seeking insight from other perspectives or past lives.
A past life regression takes you from the vantage point of your current life into the vantage point, experiences, feelings, sensations, and lessons from other incarnations.
What Happens During a Past Life Regression
During a past life regression, a hypnotherapist or other skilled (and hopefully experienced) practitioner induces you into a trance. Then the hypnotherapist guides you through different parts of the experience, asking questions and suggesting where to go to pull out information that will best help the current life situations you’re trying to resolve or gain clarity on. Once you’ve gotten enough information, the hypnotherapist will guide you back to your waking moment.
Induction
Induction processes vary by practitioner and many don't share their secret induction sauce, but an induction is where you’re guided into a trance. Think of when you see someone swinging a pendulum in front of someone or a practitioner counting backward until you’re deep under.
Trance
Trance is when you’re in a altered state of consciousness that almost feels like a daydream. It also feels like a meditative state. In other words, this is the state you’re in when you’re fully hypnotized.
According to medical doctor and sound healer, Dr. Megan Galaske, when you’re in trance, your brain is producing theta waves and you’ll be at your most aligned and relaxed.
This state makes up the bulk of a past life regression session.
According to hypnotherapist Piper Niemann who was a guest on the Human Amplified podcast, you’re in complete control when you’re in trance. She says, “If you can really get into that subconscious mind and get it on board and get its assistance, then that's why you have such a great result and you get there faster. So all we're doing in trance is we're quieting the critical mind. We're having the conversation with the unconscious mind and asking for its assistance.”
Waking Up
This is the part of the session where the hypnotherapist brings you out of trance. Similar to induction, each hypnotherapist does this a little differently. When you first wake up, you may feel a bit spacey or out of it. Take your time wiggling your fingers and toes and coming back to the present moment. It may take a little while to become fully present, and that’s okay. Let yourself take the time you need.
The Types of Past Life Regressions
All past life regressions can be therapeutic and have healing outcomes; however, your motivation for wanting to dip back into your other lives can help you determine which type of experience you’d rather have.
Spiritual, Fun, and Curiosity-Driven Experiences
When I first started learning about past life regressions, they seemed so mystical to me. I knew you could get them done at metaphysical shops by psychics or meditation facilitators—maybe even shamans.
If you’re curious about your past lives because you’re diving into metaphysical topics for the first time or have only started delving into the esoteric recently, this type of past life regression could be for you.
You want to explore what’s out there, perhaps learn a little more about who you are and why you do the things you do, and you consider yourself highly esoteric, mystical, and love metaphysical topics and experiences. Perhaps you’re more comfortable with a psychic than a hypnotherapist who approaches the experience more clinically over mystically. (There could even be some psychic hypnotherapists out there!)
Now, with these types of past life regressions, be sure you choose a reputable practitioner who knows how to hold space for you safely.
These types of sessions can be the most fun, in my opinion, but also carry the most risk. So be sure to read the section on how to find a reputable practitioner.
Therapeutic Experiences
More often than not, these days, you’ll find practitioners who aren’t working in metaphysical shops. These practitioners are hypnotherapists and healers focused on supporting you in healing trauma or other wounds that are keeping you stuck in this lifetime. While it can still be a metaphysical experience, it’s more focused on holistic health and is considered a holistic modality rather than a psychic reading or facilitation.
People who go this route are typically finding themselves stuck in modalities such as therapy, life coaching, massage therapy, acupuncture, and more. Or perhaps you’re having success in these other alternative therapies but need one more modality to round out your specific mix of trauma-healing support.
These types of past life regressions are often labeled “clinical” and may not even have past life regression mentioned in the service name at all. For example, one hypnotherapist I know calls it “quantum healing.”
Group Events
A group past life regression is a lighter version of the experience that you do with others. It’s similar to a one-on-one past life regression, but the practitioner will induce everyone into trance at the same time using the same prompts. So, while it can be fun to experience this in a group, you’ll get less tailored attention if you experience conscious interference. The experience is also a bit more generic because the practitioner must use prompts that will guide everyone in the group, even though you’ll still be having your own past life experience.
At the end of the ones I’ve been to, everyone then gets to share their experience with the group and talk about lessons learned for a collective healing. Oftentimes, there is overlap in the archetypes or themes that pop up among participants, which points to a collective consciousness that we’re tapping into as part of a group past life regression.
Oftentimes, a group past life regression will also be shorter than a one-on-one session, so you don’t get as emotionally attached to the experiences. For me personally, I experience a lot more emotional release during a one-on-one than I do in a group, and both the deeper and shallower experiences have value.
It was really fun to experience what could have been considered an intensely painful past life and understand and see the pain without having an emotional attachment to it. And how much you choose to share with the group is up to you. You don’t have to share anything you’re uncomfortable sharing.
If you’re in a group that pressures you to do so, that’s a red flag.
Plant-Medicine–Induced Experiences
I personally have never taken part in an ayahuasca ceremony, but I know people who have. Each one of them has regaled me with stories of difficult purges followed by complete immersion into past life experiences where the ancient energy of the plant showed them scenes they needed to see in that moment to resolve their most pressing issues in their current life. This type of immersion feels more real than hypnosis, from what I've heard.
This is a rather intense way to experience a past life regression and can be lifelong work. And even while it can be lifelong work to unravel many lives of trauma and conditioning, it also seems to me to be the fastest way to get where you want to go in this type of work because of the intensity.
You Might Also Like: From Trauma to Unity: Ayahuasca Lessons on Forgiveness, Healing, and the Illusion of Separation
Each past life regression type of experience requires integration afterward, though. More on that in the following sections.
Who a Past Life Regression Can Help
A past life regression can help anyone who’s open to it. However, some people are more likely to benefit at certain times than others. Mostly, if you feel stuck using other healing modalities in a certain area of your life or you think there’s something missing in your cocktail of healing modalities, past life regression might be perfect for you.
If you’re having trouble reframing or embracing a different perspective, it could be helpful.
And if you have a trauma history and you’re not at a point where you can process present-day memories—or maybe don’t want to—a past life regression can present similar lessons and resolution in an alternate reality that’s not as personal, even though it’s personal, if that makes sense. You can visit lessons and have breakthroughs based on archetypal and symbolic information.
Why You Should Try Having a Past Life Regression
Past life regression can be really cathartic if you have a block in your current life that hasn’t been able to be explained by any current life experiences.
Now, you may have repressed memories from this current life if you’ve had a lot of trauma, and you should talk to your hypnotherapist about whether you need to delve into that type of work first, but eventually, you may be ready to try past life work. Or, past life work may be a great first step into remembering current-life circumstances because it can help you be ready to process certain events.
In my experience, even though past life work can feel very real—like you actually experienced the life you’re looking at—it can present symbols and archetypes that are gentler to work with than current-life memories.
Secondly, past life work provides an outside perspective or different vantage point of living through a certain issue that can give you novel insight into current life blockages. Perspective shifting is a powerful tool in healing, and what better way to perspective shift than to look into a completely different life than the one you’re in now?
Thirdly, past life work can help you heal generational patterns. Whether you prefer to refer to that as generational trauma or karmic loops, it’s all the same—issues that have been following you and your lineage for ages can be worked on.
And if nothing else, it’s fun and mind-opening.
After the Regression: Integrating Lessons From Your Past Lives
Integration is part of a healing process where information comes together—whether from your subconscious or a past life, for example—and starts to make sense as part of who you are and how you interact in the world. As you learn a lesson—whether that be from a past experience or a past life—you process what it means, how you want it to show up for you now that you’re aware of it (it’s no longer running a program in the background that you have no control over), and you’re able to transmute the part of yourself that the program was running before it came into your awareness.
That being said, during a past life regression, you bring experiences to light that you had forgotten when you chose to come into your current life.
Once those experiences come to light (and no longer live in the unacknowledged shadow), you can process them and take what resonates from them, break cycles shown to you in them, and even change your beliefs or actions in your current life once you’ve applied the lessons learned.
To do this, you can use tools like journaling and even ChatGPT to help you remember and process the information you gained from the experience. You can spend time meditating or thinking on what you saw, felt, and sensed—and what you want to take from it—so that it becomes a meaningful experience.
Basically, with some processing, understanding, and action, the wisdom gained from a past life regression can become part of you and therefore change your current life.
Finding the Right Past Life Regression Practitioner
When looking for a practitioner to guide your past life regression, your trust in them and your ability to feel safe and held in the space is the most important thing.
You want someone who knows how to keep guardrails up during a session and facilitate your journey in a gentle, peaceful way. If you become too ungrounded in a session, you’ll want to know if this person can assist you with becoming more grounded and experiencing a more pleasant energy during the session.
Pay attention to your intuition. If the practitioner feels off—even if you can’t put your finger on it—they’re probably not the practitioner for you. Pay attention to what your body, gut, and heart are telling you and act accordingly.
A board-certified hypnotherapist who’s open about their experience and how their other clients respond to past life regression is a major green flag. That means this person took the time to become educated in the intricacies of hypnotherapy and can act in a therapeutic capacity. And being open about their experience, training, and client experience shows a transparency that is important.
A podcast guest who’s an expert in plant medicine, Dr. Richard Grossman, recently gave me a list of red flags in ayahuasca ceremony leaders, but one thing he said about those facilitators applies here too, and that is:
Is the person you’re going to for a past life regression someone who dropped acid at a music festival, had a spiritual experience, and then decided they’re a shaman, or have they actually done the spiritual and educational work to back up what they’re claiming to be an expert in?
Be mindful that there are different levels of practitioners and know the risks before choosing one. This doesn’t mean that different levels of practitioners are bad, but you must know the risks and benefits before going in.
Have a list of questions ready and make sure it’s a good fit for your personality, state of mind, goals for pursuing this modality, your values, and your energetic (and physical) safety.
Answering Your Most Pressing Questions About Past Life Regression
If you’re looking for quick reference material, browse this FAQs section if you have pressing questions about the process. If you have a burning question that I haven’t answered below, drop it in the comments and I’ll get back to you.
What if I can’t be hypnotized?
In my experience, everyone can be hypnotized. However, it is possible to have what hypnotherapists call conscious interference, and that means your analytical mind starts inserting itself into the experience and trying to make it fit what you think you know. When you have an experienced practitioner, they can gently guide you back under and help you deal with this type of interference throughout the session. If you’ve never been hypnotized before, you may experience more of this at first, but not necessarily. However, the more sessions you have, the easier it gets if you do experience conscious interference.
Will the hypnotherapist make me cluck like a chicken or do other funny things?
No. You have complete control of yourself within a real past life regression session. You often see people clucking like chickens during stage hypnotherapy, which is completely different than the modality of clinical hypnotherapy.
Do you feel the experience as if you’re there?
No. The experience can be extremely immersive, but you’re aware that you’re a body in this present moment the entire time, even if you have an extremely visual or sensory experience, which is possible.
Do you feel physical pain?
No. During the session, you gain a knowing of what happened—can sense it, see it, hear it—and basically receive it through your psychic senses known as the Clairs. I’ve never known anyone to feel physical pain that is out of the ordinary. However, before my first session, I did get a tension headache that was related to an experience that my body knew was about to be released. So, your body can respond, but it won’t be in an unbearable way. Like, if you are taken to the moment you were unalived by another person, you won’t physically feel like you’re being unalived.
Do you feel emotional pain?
It depends on how deep into trance you go and how long you’re in session.
How does the information come to you?
You’ll receive information from your psychic senses, the Clairs. You’ll have more access to these senses while you’re in trance.
Do you remember everything from the session?
Yes, you typically do, although experiences may vary depending on the individual. I find that my memory of the event is clear and strong for a couple of weeks after. A lot happens during a one-on-one past life regression session, so some hypnotherapists give you audio recordings of the experience. However, there’s a lot more going on under the surface and in your experience than what can be recorded. I recommend journaling exactly what you experienced above and beyond what you said out loud soon after your session so you can refer back to the experience once the detailed memories start to fade.
Are you really experiencing a past life in a past life regression?
This can be a controversial topic. It’s hard for me to explain unless you really dive into the nature of a soul, how it forms from consciousness, how it animates the body, and how different soul parts can make up a current life and change from life to life while still being mostly you. I’ll save that for a different blog post. Until then…
When asking my hypnotherapist friend, Hannah Bethel, about this very question, she says:
“In sessions, I stay open to several possibilities that could explain what we’re accessing:
A life your soul actually lived.
An experience within your ancestral lineage—generational memory passed down in the cells of the body.
An elaborate metaphor your subconscious created to help you look at a block in a new way.
If we’re all one, tapping into the collective and ‘choosing’ an experience that most closely resonates with what you’re trying to break through now.”
She also adds:
“Sometimes I sense, ‘This feels very generational,’ or ‘This feels like a past life.’ I can’t say definitively. Other times it feels constructed by imagination—and there’s no judgment. If it serves the purpose of helping us break through… then it’s useful.”
Why have a past life regression over normal, present-day–focused hypnotherapy?
Present-day, normal therapeutic hypnotherapy is wonderful. A reputable, experienced hypnotherapist can help you determine which type of hypnotherapy can work best for your specific situation. In general, you’d want to do present-day hypnotherapy if you have present life issues you want to work through and aren’t quite ready to regress back further. Sometimes present-day hypnotherapy is a great stepping stone into past life work.
Some people respond better to present-life than they do past-life work and vice versa. Past life work can be incredibly helpful if you learn symbolically or through archetypes as well as over needing to explore real memories that you know you’ve had.
Final Thoughts: I Highly Recommend Past Life Regression Work
Ultimately, I recommend that anyone who’s interested and curious about past life regressions go try it. It’s fun, cathartic, and deep work that can support your healing journey and unlock insights that other modalities can’t. There’s nothing to be worried about as long as you find a reputable, experienced practitioner. Have fun with it.
If you decide to try it or have questions about it, let me know in the comments! I’d love to hear your experience.
Also, if you are in the Middle Tennessee area, you can join a group past life regression (if we have one on the event schedule—check back later if we don’t because we’re always adding new ones) or come see my personal hypnotherapist, Hannah Bethel, for an in-depth session.
Join the conversation!
Feel free to let me know if you have any questions in the comments.
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Hi, I’m the founder of Human Amplified. I’m Brandi Fleck, a recognized communications and interviewing expert, a writer, an artist, and a private practice, certified trauma-informed life coach and Reiki healer. No matter how you interact with me, I help you tell and change your story so you can feel more like yourself. So welcome!
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