What do you think about past regression?

Posted by Primrose

And I quote:

“Even if it seems to help some patients, it is known to have harmed others.

The recovered memories can be very frightening. They can cause anxiety: one inquirer on the IBRT website was worried that he would become stuck in a memory and turn into a different person. Memories fabricated under hypnosis can seem more real than true memories, and it can be difficult or impossible for patients to accept that they are not true, even when presented with clear evidence that the events could not possibly have occurred. Various other kinds of harm have been documented.

The Israeli Health Ministry told hypnotists to refrain from helping patients explore past lives after receiving complaints from clients who said they had sustained serious emotional damage. One patient reported that he “became emotionally stuck in an experience which made him feel as though he was enclosed in a coffin. He began to gasp for breath. After the session the man suffered repeated panic attacks and respiratory problems, and he was referred for medical and psychiatric care.”

One past life regression therapist, Dr. Rakesh Jain, has reported that “In some subjects, hypnosis and past life regression can result in side effects which can range from mild to severe one and be temporary or durable.” He describes several incidents, including development of new physical symptoms, a patient who attacked the therapist during a session, and a patient who identified past enemies and announced that he would be taking revenge on them in this life. One female patient recalled five past lives as a male and became so afraid that she wouldn’t come out of the trance. He points out that reducing pain through hypnotherapy without identifying the cause of the pain could harm the patient. He cautions that abreactions might harm cardiac patients by causing elevations of heart rate and BP and might cause further tissue damage in patients with wounds or fractures. He cites research that documents 50 complications from hypnosis, including psychotic symptoms, panic attacks, depression with suicidal behavior, symptoms resulting from inadvertent suggestions, symptom substitution, masking physical pathology, etc.”

Source: www.sciencebasedmedicine.org

For me, i’d rather stick with CBT and learn ways to cope with reality by moving forward rather than relive painful memories from the past that would just delay my progress.