“Am I really going to relive a past life?” It’s one of the questions I’m asked most often about spiritual regressive hypnosis. Before answering it, let’s take the time to understand what it is — without needless mystery, but without taking anything away from the beauty of this exploration either.

Spiritual regressive hypnosis is a practice of inner exploration. In a state of deep relaxation — and not sleep, since you remain conscious from beginning to end — I guide you on a journey where images, sensations and symbols may emerge. Many people experience it as a way to understand themselves better and to give meaning to their path.

I’m sharing here what I understand of this tradition, as an explorer of the subject — not as a scientist.

A practice with ancient roots

The idea of reaching, within oneself, memories that would go beyond the present life is nothing new. Traces of it appear more than two thousand years ago in the Yoga Sūtra of Patañjali, which evoke a form of “turning back” of consciousness. In the 19th century, the spiritism of Allan Kardec (whose Spirit Codification appeared between 1857 and 1868) placed reincarnation back at the heart of a major Western current. And in 1952, the famous case of “Bridey Murphy” — an American woman recounting, under hypnosis, the life of a 19th-century Irishwoman — introduced regression to the general public.

Three modern figures of regression

Three names almost always come up when this approach is discussed.

The first is Dr. Brian Weiss, a psychiatrist trained at Yale and for many years head of psychiatry at Mount Sinai Medical Center… in Miami, right here in Florida. In 1980, a person he was working with began to evoke, under hypnosis, scenes she described as past lives. Skeptical at first, Weiss drew from it in 1988 a book that became a classic, Many Lives, Many Masters. He says he has since accompanied several thousand people on this kind of journey.

The second is Dr. Michael Newton (1931–2016), to whom we owe the very expression “spiritual regression.” In Journey of Souls (1994), he gathers the accounts of 29 people who, in a state of hypnosis, describe not a past life but what he calls the “life between lives” — an in-between where the soul would travel from one existence to the next.

The third is Dolores Cannon (1931–2014), who developed the Quantum Healing Hypnosis Technique (QHHT). Her approach consisted of entering into dialogue with what she called the “higher self” — that vaster part of ourselves.

Closer to our own time, a more contemporary and esoteric branch has emerged: esoteric regressive hypnosis (ERH), the method of Calogero Grifasi. Self-taught, he shaped it from his own practice, with a distinctive feature — the presence of a “telepath” during the dialogue. It is in this lineage that I trained, and it is the heart of my specialty: the dialogue with the Higher Self.

How a session unfolds

A spiritual regressive hypnosis session is nothing like a show. You settle in comfortably, I guide you toward a state of deep relaxation, and it is your subconscious that takes you where it is needed for you. Every image, every sensation, every symbol that emerges is welcomed with kindness, without judgment, and explored together as a possible key to personal transformation. You remain, at every moment, the author of your own journey.

What research suggests — and what I offer

In all honesty, it must be said plainly: science does not validate the idea that these accounts are genuine memories of past lives. In the 1990s, researcher Nicholas Spanos showed, experiment after experiment, that the “memories” evoked under hypnosis are more likely constructions of the mind — a mix of imagination, forgotten knowledge (what is called cryptomnesia), suggestion and expectation. Tellingly, what best predicts that a person will report a “past life” is not their capacity to be hypnotized, but their prior beliefs about reincarnation. Health circles therefore do not recognize this approach as a proven medical or therapeutic method.

So what’s the point? Because the value of an exploration is not measured by its literal truth alone. What I observe, session after session, is that these inner images — whether taken literally or as metaphors of our unconscious — often help a person put words to what they are going through, let go, and regain a sense of coherence. That is what I offer: a space for personal and spiritual exploration, where the meaning you give to your experience belongs entirely to you. Neither proof nor promise — an invitation to discover yourself differently.

The spirit in which to approach it

Spiritual regressive hypnosis is for people who are curious, open, in search of meaning, or simply wishing to live an extraordinary inner experience. It is best approached without any expectation of a result, the way one sets off on a journey: for what one discovers along the way.

It is a matter of wellbeing and of personal and spiritual exploration. It is neither therapeutic nor medical, and in no way replaces the advice, diagnosis or treatment of a licensed health professional.

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Curious to learn more? The best way to know whether this practice speaks to you is to talk about it. I offer a free consultation, with no obligation, to answer your questions and define together what would suit you best.

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To go further (sources)

• Allan Kardec, The Spirits’ Book (Le Livre des Esprits), 1857.
• Morey Bernstein, The Search for Bridey Murphy, Doubleday, 1956.
• Brian L. Weiss, Many Lives, Many Masters, Simon & Schuster, 1988.
• Dolores Cannon, Between Death and Life: Conversations with a Spirit, Gateway, 1993.
• Michael Newton, Journey of Souls: Case Studies of Life Between Lives, Llewellyn, 1994.
• Nicholas P. Spanos, Multiple Identities and False Memories: A Sociocognitive Perspective, American Psychological Association, 1996.