Reprinted from Open Exchange Magazine, Oct/Dec, 1999. Dr. Pollack was one of the first practitioners in the US to be certified as a Past Life Regression Therapist by the International Board of Regression Therapy.

In many ways, our mind is like a huge hard drive on a computer. It contains a recording of everything that has ever occurred to us since our first perception, our first existence, our very creation. This record includes thoughts, sounds, feelings, attitudes, biases, all experiences. Everything is recorded in the mind and is therefore accessible through the subconscious. This includes memories of earlier in this lifetime as well as memories of past lives.

Do past lives really exist? This has been argued philosophically for perhaps thousands of years. What is true is that about 85% of the religions on this planet profess a fundamental belief in reincarnation and past lives. As Benjamin Franklin once said, "I believe I shall, in some shape or other, always exist; and, with all the inconveniences human life is liable to, I shall not object to a new edition of mine, hoping, however, that the errata of the last may be corrected."

Within that quote is a basic foundation of Past Life Regression Therapy, that we can learn from the past. As the philosopher Santayana once said, "Those who do not learn from the past are condemned to repeat it."

In my practice, people have three basic reasons for seeking Past Life Regression: curiosity (did I ever live before? Did I live in Atlantis? Etc.); spiritual growth (discovering one's path or purpose, accelerating one's growth by learning from the past); and therapeutic (resolving current issues that have their origins in past lives).

One of the great innovators in Past Life Therapy, Dr. Edith Fiore, said that upwards of 95% of the issues we are dealing with today have their origins in past lives -- unfinished business, unresolved experiences. Some of these might be fears and phobias, physical ailments, weight, addictions, abandonment, self-image issues, relationship difficulties, and many, many more.

As Souls, when we are ready to enter a new lifetime, we make various decisions about our "lesson plan" for the upcoming life. We decide our gender, race, geographic location, religion, physical appearance, what karmic lessons to learn, even disabilities. We decide what life lessons we are going to work on in the next lifetime, perhaps what old issues we want to resolve. Each soul is fully responsible for making it's own decisions. These choices are buried deep in our unconscious mind and most of us do not consciously remember them once birth occurs.

Once the life begins, as Souls, we retain the ability and accountability of individual choice. Therefore, we can change our life plan at any time during any lifetime. Just because we plan to learn about trust, let's say, doesn't mean that we will stay on that path throughout the lifetime. We always have free will to make changes, to make new choices based on changing circumstances. These changes, when they do occur, do not happen at the level of the conscious mind. Rather, they occur deep in our unconscious, at the Soul level.

One does not even have to believe in Past Lives to benefit from this work. Some clients ask me after a regression, if they experienced real memories or made it all up. I don't know! My viewpoint is that if the "memories" are useful to you today, that is all that matters.

Copyright© 1999, Dr. Michael C. Pollack, Ph.D., CCHT