One of my original, but much less talked about offerings as a part of 'Soul Healing with Michelle' is the Hypnosis Regression reading. It is essentially what it sounds like -- I put the client into a hypnotic state and as a result we are able to have them 'regress' or go back to review current life experiences, past life memories, speak with guides or ancestors, or do other spiritual work that engages their own subconscious, whatever is most needed for the person in that moment. I'd like to talk about my journey into hypnosis regression, past lives, and how I came to do this work.
My Journey To This Work
This is a long and tangled story, that I'm still piecing together, but I think it's fair to say I always wanted to know there is more to life than what meets they eye. It was important for me to know there is something bigger than just what's in front of us, and that there is a world of unseen that happens around us. I was thinking about this throughout my childhood -- when I would hear voices in the wind, when I would get to explore nature, and as I felt more than I could explain. My grandfather was known to be a very spiritual person in addition to very religiously Jewish. I was too young to know this side of him, and he passed away before we could ever have a real conversation about these things. I only knew that he liked dragons and fantasy, like I did. When he passed away, several of his books came into our possession, I think because no one else wanted them. There were several religious books and books that explored Jewish mysticism.
At some point in my middle school years, I got curious and picked one of these books up. It was notable to me because it had one of my favorite prayers written on the cover:
The prayer on the book reads "The entire world is a narrow bridge but the main thing is not to fear"
Reincarnation and Judaism explored aspects and stories within Judaism that I'd never learned about before (and we certainly never learned in Hebrew school), like golems and dybbuks, for example. There was one particular page that I probably read hundreds of times that discussed the possibility of past lives. On that page, Pinson summarizes the findings of a Dr. Brian Weiss in his book titled Many Lives, Many Masters, which is essentially his work doing hypnosis therapy with his therapy patient and accidentally regressing her to several past lives that allow her to heal a variety of psychiatric diagnoses and live a happier life. I must have read over the page hundreds of times at 12 and 13 years old and I would have give anything to get my hands on a copy of Many Lives, Many Masters. But I was literally a child with no money of my own and no means to even find such a book (this was the very early days of internet). My parents had recently lost their jobs in the aftermath of 9-11, so finances were rough. Over the years, I would reread that page and wish with my whole heart and promise that one day, I would read that book.
Something incredibly happened 4-5 years later. I was in high school, and I was mostly too busy with schoolwork to spend time thinking about exploring past lives. My mom came back from a trip to Costco with a 3-book bundle in hand -- three books written by Dr. Brian Weiss, one of which was Many Lives, Many Masters. I was so shocked, but so ecstatic because this thing I had wanted for so long was real, in my hands, and apparently sold at Costco of all places. The fact that my mom even bought it was definitely some kind of divine intervention because it was so uncharacteristic of her. I dropped everything and tore through that book immediately. It was everything I wanted and needed it to be. And from that point on, I wanted nothing more than to be regressed by him, meet him, something. I read all 3 of the books in the pack, I loved them, and I wanted to immerse myself even more. However, I was just a high school student, again with no money or means, and I had to focus on school and getting into college, so this was all put on the back burner.
A few years later, I'm at university and I was somehow made aware that Dr. Brian Weiss was doing a past life group regression workshop in LA, which wasn't too far away from where I was. I desperately wanted to go. I had become really close with one of my roommates whose family lived nearby to the school, and especially her grandmother, who is the most amazing, warm, incredible person. She was someone who was very open and interested in spirituality -- she'd done my astrology chart, she'd taken me to the local spiritual stores, etc. I told her about the workshop, and she offered to attend it with me! So we spent this day in LA, me and my roommate's grandmother. The workshop was at a small Church. I don't remember it being very full. Overall, it was a great experience. I had several memories come through for me, and I did psychometry for the first time. This allowed me to dive in to the world of past life regression and realize I could do this on my own. I used to regress myself on the flight home from university when I would go visit because it was the perfect amount of time to put myself down and know I wouldn't be disturbed for an hour and fifteen minutes.
Later in university, I realized the school library might have a paranormal section and that I should check out their selection. For a school that was famous for churning out doctors and engineers (neither of which was my major), they did have a small paranormal section, most of the books were about a psychic named Edgar Cayce, who I'd never heard of before. The work was interesting so I read about him, and did my own internet research and learned about the ARE out in Virginia Beach, VA and thought maybe one day I'll be able to go there and learn more. At some point that I don't remember, I signed up for their email and mailing list. Over the next 10 years, I carried on with my life, and would dabble back with regressing myself here and there, if I was in the mood. Dr. Brian Weiss had another tour of regression workshops, and my parents actually wanted to come too. I got to meet him on the second tour and get all my books signed, which was really exciting. Meeting someone whose work has impacted you is always a strange moment, because you can't really convey how much their work means to you and you are also acutely aware that they are just a person and you don't want to make them uncomfortable or make it weird.
Skipping to 2020 -- the pandemic, lockdowns, etc. My work was open on and off starting in June 2020, but as county rules changed every month, sometimes we would be open and then get shut down for a few months, then try to reopen again, etc. It was exhausting, but I was really grateful for the down time because I had been burned out for so long. I saw online, either through email or facebook that there was going to be a Past Life Regression training course put on through the ARE. I decided I really wanted to do that, but I wanted to learn from the best. I wanted to learn from Dr. Brian Weiss. Upon further research and reflection on his age, I realized he was probably retired and wasn't teaching anymore. Disappointed, I decided I could settle for second best -- someone who was trained by Dr. Weiss. That ended up being Peter Woodbury, the instructor of the ARE course and the course I took that October to become certified in conducting a PLR session.
The decision to get certified in this discipline lead to a whole other string of events in my life, including traveling to Egypt with Peter in November 2022. There's something so beautiful about watching destiny unfold, and I love to look back at the journey. I was so eager and impatient for things to finally start when I was young. Seeing how they finally unfolded and how every moment was a sort of breadcrumb to the next is so fun to think about. I love the adventure of it all! I hope I continue to be pleasantly blessed and surprised. (It's also incredibly fun to track through astrology ;-))
Going Into A Hypnosis Session
There are a lot of ways you can learn about your past lives. There are plenty of psychics who will tell you about some of them. I've learned through this journey of exploring PLR that what I'm really interested in is "soul healing" and having someone tell me about a past life doesn't actually help me. What's actually helpful and healing is experiencing the catharsis within yourself, and moving through the feelings, the memory, the experience of that perceived moment. This is where things really click, where empathy and new understanding are formed, where something deeper happens and changes within us. When it comes from inside yourself, there's something that becomes more real for us, because it becomes part of our lived experience. We can empathize, not just sympathize.
A common and understandable question people might have is "What if all of it is made up?"
The short answer is "it doesn't matter".
The longer I do this work, the more I have realized it doesn't matter if it was real or not. It's not the point of the work. The point of the work is healing. Soul healing. And you can still experience that healing through an experience your brain completely made up. I believe that Spirit will show us what will be most helpful for us. That could be an actual past life. That could be the life of your ancestor who may or may not be you. That could be a made up fantasy world. Whether it was made up or not isn't the point. The point is, did it move you? Did you feel something, or gain a greater understanding of yourself or something in your life? That's where the healing happens. You can tell people all day long you were Cleopatra in a past life but I find (1) most people aren't going to care, and (2) when we make this about status, its a reflection of ego and not grace. If your goal going into a regression is to hear about how you were someone famous who did great things in a past life, you're probably going to be disappointed. Or it won't be as glamorous as you thought it would be.
The reason I call this offering "Hypnosis Regression" instead of "Past Life Regression" is because I can't guarantee you will experience a past life memory. If this is something you really want, and it's your intention going into the session, then you probably will have that experience. Ultimately you, your subconscious and your spirit team are in control here, so I have no say over what type of experience you will have. I've had clients who don't want to experience a past life memory and that's perfectly fine. You don't have to have that experience. Some clients just want a space to engage with their guides or want to see what will come up for them. The beauty of this session is it leaves space for all of that. You don't have to do anything that makes you uncomfortable!
Ultimately, this is a really beautiful offering that can be very emotional (it's normal to cry during!) and vulnerable, but deeply impactful and healing on a soul level. If you feel called to it, I would love to meet you for a session.
