It is Paris 1789, the beginning of the French Revolution. A heavyset woman hurries along the street in front of a row of grand houses. She’s dressed in fine clothing, wearing a long dress, brocade overcoat, and a hat with feathered plumes. She arrives at the door of a friend and uses the ornate door-knocker to let him know she’s arrived. A tall well-dressed man opens the door and ushers her in. These two know each other very well. She’s been his trusted friend and confidant for years.
Once inside they go to the richly furnished front parlor and sit in front of a marble fireplace. A servant has prepared a lovely tea with cakes and sandwiches. The woman settles in before the crackling fire. She picks a frosted cake with her plump fingers, eats it and reaches for another. “Should we begin?” she asks. “Yes, please” the man answers. The woman draws a beautiful Tarot deck from her handbag and begins to shuffle the cards. “What questions do you have?” the woman asks the man. He leans in and says, “Tell me about my son. Will he have success if he joins the revolution?”
The woman stops shuffling the cards. She begins to lay them out in a pattern on a nearby tabletop. She looks thoughtfully at the cards. She seems to hesitate as she says, “If he decides to join the revolution, he will not return home to you alive.” The man bristles and gets upset. He decides to change the subject. The two of them continue with the card reading for a while and talk about other things. After the woman has had her fill of food, tea, and talk, the man pays her for her time and she takes her leave.
Several months later, the man rides his horse alongside a coffin as a procession slowly makes its way through the streets. His young son who took part in the revolution has been killed. The man is devastated. He thinks back to the time his friend the Tarot Reader warned him of this very outcome. “It’s her fault he’s dead!” he thinks. She brought this on with her terrible prediction. He blames her completely, even though her insight did not cause his son’s death. If only he heeded the warning and begged his son not to join. In any case his friendship with the woman is over. He will never speak to her again. He sends out the word to all he knows, not to trust her, because she brings on tragedy. The woman’s reputation among her wealthy clients is ruined. She knows the situation was not her fault, yet she is blamed and is banned by her patrons.
The above story of the Tarot Reader and her friend is the result of a past life regression I went through, and the woman in the story is supposed to be me in that lifetime. The reason I wanted to do a past life regression was I was curious to see if I had lived before and if I were interested in psychic work in previous lifetimes. This regression happened in a class facilitated by a well-known hypnotist. I began the regression by being guided into a deep meditative state. While in this state, the hypnotist instructed me to begin to remember a past life where I used psychic talents. A scene in Paris instantly appeared in my mind and started to play out just like a movie. I watched it unfold in a very detached way, yet it was vivid and very detailed. It was happening so fast during the process that I couldn’t have made it up. Unlike a dream, which you may forget in the next day, week or year, this experience has never left me. I can see it today in my mind’s eye as if it happened yesterday, even though it’s been over 20 years since this regression took place.
How do I know this was me in a past life? I don’t know for sure, but it was very real to me. I didn’t learn the names of anyone in this regression, yet I did see years and time markers such as the French Revolution. Maybe the names aren’t important, but instead, the overall message being delivered had meaning.
Intuitively, I feel we all have past lives. The concept makes sense to me. Why would we only get one shot at life? If our souls evolve and grow, that could take some time! Maybe over several lifetimes we need to experience being different genders and races to know what it’s like to be fully human. In a way, it almost doesn’t matter if this particular lifetime really happened or not because I gained insight by going through the regression.
Often I realize that I am holding back on sharing my psychic thoughts and experiences with the people around me. I’ve had times in my life where I was afraid to admit to anyone that I’ve seen ghosts or had premonitions even though it’s been a big part of my history. With this regression, I was suddenly presented with a reason for my reluctance: fear of being blamed for a terrible end to a young man’s life, and the fear of ridicule over the subject of the paranormal. If I really lived as this woman in a past life, I now began to see a pattern emerging of blame for a bad outcome from my prediction.
This real-life story about my experience has been hard for me to write about. I’m opening myself up to my deep fears of blame and rejection to tell my story. I have a history of being afraid to talk about and develop my gifts even though I’ve spent many years working on them. This past life regression provides an example and reasons why I may have been holding back talking about paranormal subjects even though it’s woven into who I am. I can see the pattern of fear that no longer serves me on my journey.
Sometimes past-life regression as a technique, is used by modern-day therapists to help people identify and heal trauma, explain anxiety, or a disease a person is living with. It can also be used to unlock the nature of relationships one has with significant people in their lives. For me it’s a healing tool that revealed something about myself I didn’t realize was stuck in my subconscious. I believe past life regression has given me unexpected personal insight.
