Regression taps into the huge pool of inner wisdom we all have deep down and uses this to show us in a relaxed state of mind what we need to know and work on. This inner wisdom of ours also makes sure that what we experience is relevant and is a priority for us now.

Of course as each person is different, so sessions vary greatly from person to person. What is consistent is that there is always a significant message for the person from what they experience in the session.

While there are many kinds of experiences in regression, there are some common themes that keep coming up:

• Affirmation - a session can reveal positive traits or hidden talents that have been demonstrated or mastered in past lifetimes. This is very useful for building faith and self-confidence, especially when we realise have mastered so much in the past and can achieve success again in this lifetime.

• Cautionary tales - where the session reveals a way of thinking and/or acting that failed for them in the past with the corresponding unfortunate results. The purpose of this is to inspire the client to avoid making the same mistakes again in their current life (which consciously or not, they still are).
• Sourcing and healing relationships - where the lifetime(s) viewed illustrate reasons for positive or problematic links to particular places or to other people. This is especially useful for attempting to resolve difficult personal relationships.
• Catharsis and release - where repressed emotions have been locked in the person's being and are now finally given an opportunity to be released. While they unreleased, these old emotions weigh people down and can adversely affect a person's health at all levels - mentally, emotionally and physically.

The role of the subconscious
The standard theory is that the subconscious is the part of the mind that remembers every single thing that has ever happened to us throughout the whole of time - including all of our past lives.

As an illustration of this, the subconscious often brings up special feelings when we meet people or places in this life who we know from past lives. Also practitioners of hypnosis in the medical field have shown that people who are under general anaesthetic can later recall everything that happened in the operating theatre and the conversations between the operating staff. So even if our conscious waking mind cannot recall an event, the information is still accessible at a deeper level.

Accessing the memories
Firstly, I currently do not use formal hypnosis. My style of regression simply involves relaxing clients into a deeper state of consciousness where past lives become accessible.

I find it's best for people to regard the process of regression as something between daydreaming and dreaming - where the external world is gradually phased out and the internal visionary space becomes progressively more and more engrossing. Have you ever been so engrossed in a daydream that you completely phased out the world around you? Regression is a lot like being in that state, except that your subconscious takes control of what you are experiencing.

However unlike most daydreams, people are often surprised at the unexpected nature of the stories and visions that unfold during the session - and also at the relevance of those past life stories to their current life.