Past-life regression: a lecture by John Richardson

This is a text by another author, published as a personal opinion. It is not medical or psychological advice and does not represent the approach of this practice. Participants’ personal details have been omitted.

A lecture by John Richardson (Jayadeva) at Brunel University, England, in 1992.

I am not a television hypnotist who makes you burn your trousers or sing like Elton John. Through hypnotherapy and hypnosis, I help people gain a deeper understanding of who this ‘I’ is. I hope you will be able to remember previous lives. The reason for forgetting them, briefly, is the covering you are in now. It is real, but temporary. The soul, or person, has a different, eternal nature.

In the seventies, I played in the Rubettes. Please do not hold that against me. I left show business to become a healer, partly because I needed healing myself. I began learning massage and selling medicinal herbs.

Many people I worked with had problems at a deep mental level, so I began studying hypnotherapy and the structure of the mind more deeply. I turned to Eastern wisdom, mainly the Bhagavad Gita, which some of you may have heard of. This book is five thousand years old. It describes the mind, the body, the soul’s reincarnation, destiny, and much else. I thought that if the body results from subtle mental causes, past lives, and so on, I should study this thoroughly in order to heal people and help them understand why they suffer. The book says that each of us lived a particular previous life that became the source of pleasure or suffering in the next.

[…]

My first patient was a […] woman with multiple sclerosis. It is well known that this illness damages the nervous system. […]. … I only gave her reflexology massage. You have probably heard something about it: you work on the feet, where many nerve endings send subtle impulses to particular organs, stimulating or relaxing parts of the body.

I kept giving the massage, but it produced no results. I thought I was wasting my time. Then suddenly—I do not know where the thought came from. You sometimes act intuitively too, don’t you? Sometimes you feel completely certain; a thought comes from somewhere: ‘I need to do this.’ Sometimes an answer appears instantly, and you do not know where it came from.
Yet you have a sense of what to do. I felt that something was wrong with this woman’s subtle body.

Our ‘gross’ body consists of four elements. It really is gross (laughter), being made of air, fire, earth, and water. But there are also subtle bodies made of mind, intelligence, and false ego. The soul is influenced by these surrounding subtle coverings, which in turn influence the gross body. Worry, difficulties, depression—all these states and moods affect the body. Someone who is depressed stoops; someone happy stands upright. Picture this, and you can understand how the mind influences the body.

At a subtler level, we are influenced by the conditions of childhood and by how our parents treated us, according to their knowledge and education, seeing us as difficult children or otherwise. Even with a good upbringing, problems remain. You might be born lucky, with no problems, open, successful, and happy, and then suddenly a bus hits you and it is ‘Hello, nurse.’ It is not a matter of good education or upbringing. You have to look both ways when crossing the road. Past lives are rather similar.

[…]. I told her I had seen hypnosis, read many books about it, but had never done it myself. Now I had an opportunity to explore it. ‘Perhaps I can hypnotise you, find out what the problem is, and understand what is happening to you,’ I suggested. She replied, ‘Of course, do whatever you think necessary.’ She had nearly given up hope. I put her into trance.

Trance is a state of complete relaxation that lets you reach deeper levels of consciousness. People tend to become afraid at the word ‘trance’, but it simply means an altered state of consciousness. You might be driving, with unrelated thoughts crowding your head, and suddenly realise you have gone fifty miles and missed your turning. The subconscious has taken over the driving while the conscious mind has wandered off to think about this and that. That is one way to explain the altered state. Watching television is another altered state. There are many such states. I think explaining how it works will remove your fear of these funny words, ‘hypnosis’ and ‘trance’. It is not at all what people without the experience imagine. We will return to that later.

[…]

At death, the soul leaves the gross body and remains in the subtle one, carrying pain and suffering, good or bad experiences, indifferent to attachments. Entangled in confusion, the living being carries its ideas from one body to another as the wind carries scents.

[…]

Have you seen the film Ghost? (Murmurs.) A good film, isn’t it? (Laughter.) Nevertheless, that really is how it happens. The Yamadutas, described in India’s sacred scriptures, from which I get this information, pull an impious soul out of the body at death with subtle ropes of mind around the arms and neck. It is not always as the Christian idea suggests, going either ‘up’ or ‘down’. The point is that every soul has a chance to escape the material world and return to spiritual reality.

[…]

Incidentally, birthmarks and large marks on the body are echoes of past lives in which we died in a particular way.

I asked her to take several deep breaths and let go of all the negativity I had listed. ‘Please leave behind what you certainly cannot take into your next birth, or wherever you are going: this shock.’ I was playing God, as we all sometimes do. And she recovered from multiple sclerosis; she could control her body again! You might now reasonably question whether it really was multiple sclerosis. Perhaps it was not healing but a temporary easing of the illness, or something else. […]. Perhaps it was not multiple sclerosis; I give this example to offer some idea of the process. If you can let go of a fear that remains at a subconscious level, you can change your life now and cut off the routes through which new fears arise.

Fear of drowning.

Many people are afraid of water. Often, you find that they drowned in a previous life. Here is how to obtain corresponding evidence: send them to their last previous life and quickly take them through that period again. Under hypnosis, you can finish with it in seconds: ‘One, two, three, and that is it,’ because you can give your mind orders. ‘I will take you quickly through that time: one, two, three’—a snap of the fingers—and it all goes away for good. You need to experience that time again. It is a form of catharsis or abreaction. Afterwards, the fear of drowning disappears for good; you just still have to learn to swim.

The man who would control God.

Another short story. […]. On the first evening, a man jumped up and said, ‘This is as old as the hills!’ […]. Then I asked him to come over to me.

I put him into trance, though he did not believe in any of it. I took him to a previous life in which he was a vicar […]. I addressed him as a clergyman. He was bursting with pride, worse than me. In a deep voice he said, ‘I am such-and-such a priest.’ I replied, ‘Wonderful. Father, I understand this may be outside your field, but have you heard of reincarnation or the transmigration of souls?’ The vicar said, ‘Yes, I have.’ Judging by their reaction, about two hundred people were fascinated to hear what he would say. ‘And what do you think of it?’ I asked. The vicar said loudly, ‘Complete rubbish!’ (Laughter.) I said, ‘All right, all right…’

Then I took him through his death, which showed how a tendency of thought from previous lives passes into the present one in a remarkable way. As the Bhagavad Gita says (quotes Sanskrit), ‘The living being carries ideas from one life to another as the air carries scents.’

In his previous life, he had loved ruling the villagers. Everyone came to him for advice, and he enjoyed helping them, but God clearly came second. He was the ruler and doer. Towards the end of his life, many problems arose. You know, if someone in the audience believes in God, you can call on Him and do things, but sometimes it feels as though we are doing Him a favour by our actions.

This man was like that. He loved being in control. At the end of his life, because he wanted to rule rather than asking his Boss to take on those functions, he was exhausted by the weight of the problems he had wanted for himself. In the next life, he became a shepherd. I do not know whether you can see how he still wants to show his importance on the subtle level. Look for yourselves, but none of his followers pays attention. (Laughter.)

That is how it works.

I took him through that death and several more until he reached his present life. He was truly shaken…

Burned at the stake.

On another occasion, I put an audience into light trance. There was a young woman who smirked whenever I took the microphone, all evening. Suddenly she came to me and said, ‘My whole body is burning!’ I thought something was wrong and asked her to sit and calm down. As soon as I put her into a deeper trance, a clear picture appeared in her mind: she saw herself tied to a stake and surrounded by fire. Together we got rid of this image for good. Afterwards she said, ‘I came tonight to enjoy watching you fail, because I did not believe any of it.’

I was a sheep!

Here is another interesting point, just for reflection and discussion. I am a Hare Krishna. Everything that happened over these years led me to study the Bhagavad Gita, which proved its statements in my own clinic. We are strict vegetarians and believe that the soul moves between different forms of life. Animals are souls just as people are. I used to think: they are souls and we are souls, but the two will never meet. Yet the Gita says that if the human form is misused, the soul can fall into lower species. I thought, ‘NEVER! THAT COULD NEVER HAPPEN!’

I was too proud to accept it. Yet, for the last ten years, I had been taking people into regression without having read the Bhagavad Gita. Someone would sometimes say, ‘I am a dog,’ or ‘I am a cat,’ and I would answer, ‘No, that cannot be; perhaps it is…’ It did not fit my understanding. Perhaps tonight you will see yourself in a lower form of life. Do not be afraid; it is normal. (Laughter.)

If you wish, we can spend the whole evening on this subject without entering trance. I have millions of stories (laughter), and if you do not want to experience it for yourselves, I will not insist. I do not mind. My greatest pleasure is talking with all of you. Now I will tell you a truly interesting and remarkable story.

A man and a woman once came into my shop. […]. They said, ‘You helped us a great deal. Could you see our son? He did not want to come with us because he was very nervous.’ I asked about his problem. ‘He does not eat meat.’ That is wonderful! What is the problem? (Laughter.) They explained, ‘He eats Milky Way, white bread, and candyfloss, because those foods seem to be made from dry ingredients.’ They had taken him to psychiatrists and psychoanalysts and tried hypnosis, all to no avail. ‘Can you help him?’ I said, ‘Probably not, but I would like to meet him.’ We went to their home. Before the boy came in, his father said, ‘I do not know whether this is relevant, but […], he told us God had said not to eat meat.’ ‘God! Goodness!’ He asked, ‘Do you believe that?’ I replied, ‘There is certainly some meaning in it.’

When the boy came in, I asked, ‘Did you say that God told you not to eat meat?’ He replied, uncooperatively—children are not very cooperative—‘No.’ He really was an uncooperative little fellow (laughter), having already met many specialists who did not understand him. I had also asked a silly question: who can remember […]? I apologised. His father looked at him and said, ‘[…], son, you did say…’ I tried to win him over a little.

Eventually, I put him into trance and helped him reach the time […]. I continued, ‘Go to the time when you heard that voice.’ He began speaking in a little child’s innocent voice. ‘I am lying in my cot.’ I said, ‘Very good.’ ‘I have fallen asleep.’ ‘All right, but keep in touch with me.’ He replied, ‘All right,’ and ‘fell asleep’: ‘I hear his voice.’ His parents sat on the edge of their chairs, anxiously waiting for what would happen. (Laughter.)

‘Do not worry; everything is all right,’ I told them. Then his voice changed, and he said, ‘I will speak to you as a human being.’ I asked him to continue. He spoke in another voice: ‘[…], I want to tell you something. Out of concern for you, I think you should not eat meat. I do not want you to offer it to Me. But you must make your own choice.’ I asked, ‘Who is that?’

The child: ‘It is God!’ (Laughter.)

I asked, ‘Can you see Him?’ The child said, ‘I know for certain that He is God.’ ‘Very good,’ I said. ‘Thank you.’ I had said nothing about reincarnation, but intuitively, and through experience and insight, I already knew the background and what had happened.

I did not say, ‘Go back to a past life; something certainly happened there.’ Instead, I said, ‘[…].’ That was all I said, and in this way I placed him in a past life.

[…]

[…]. I said to him again, ‘You can eat all sorts of foods; there is no need to eat meat. That is wonderful.’ Previously, he had thought, ‘You cannot touch anything, because it might be meat.’ There were no alternatives. When he woke up, his parents looked as though they wanted to throw me out immediately. The boy sat up and said, ‘I understand! We need to do this, then that… oh!’ He really understood how to live…

Precious existence.

Tonight I intend to discuss the very important responsibility we all bear: being human. Obtaining a human body is not simple. Some schools of thought say, ‘Reincarnation? What nonsense. Get on with your life; afterwards you will get another body. Getting another body is normal.’ But it is serious. To enter a human body, inhabitants of heavenly planets queue up. There are planets above and below ours—a child cries—there is the confirmation. (Laughter.) The human form on a planet such as Earth is the most important of all. Through it, you can and should make a great leap straight into the spiritual world. This is all connected with the cycle of birth and death. Perhaps only this mad Hare Krishna wants to get out of here.

[…]

I am sorry if I have upset anyone, but you should still reflect on my words. If you disagree, well… I know I sometimes talk a great deal, but I am confident in what I do. Any questions?

A sheep question.

I read somewhere that if a person commits no sinful actions, they become God. Can we commit a sin at all in a sheep’s body? (Laughter.)

You cannot. Once you descend the evolutionary ladder, you have to remain there until the Lords of Destiny allow you to rise. Once in an animal body, you slowly pass through different forms of life. It does not happen only because of sin. Attachment can cause you to be born in a lower form of life.

Once I put […] into trance. She remembered being a servant in a wealthy household. She had left her village for city life. She soon hated the city, but remained in service there for the rest of her life. […] she died in the attic, bitterly disappointed in her life. At the moment of death, I asked what she was thinking. She said, ‘I was thinking about the beautiful black horses I saw as a child.’ I took her into the next life, where she was a black horse. The Bhagavad Gita says, ‘Whatever a living being thinks of at death, that is where it goes.’ She was not sinful; she was simply attached to horses…

Another man I worked with was thoroughly fed up with everything. […]. He did not want to be around people; he just wanted to escape. I brought him to the moment of death, when he was flying above fields and thinking, ‘Isn’t it wonderful? What a lovely tree, standing there by itself, with nothing troubling it.’ And suddenly, there he was in a young tree growing nearby.

Is vegetarianism a sin too?

The soul is present in every form of life. You may ask about vegetarianism: you still kill something. That is a sin too, but you have to keep the body alive somehow. Better this way.

[…]

Do we have connections with particular souls?

Certainly. When you meet people, you immediately know whether you like them, and practically know what they are going to say. These are people you knew before. There is also a process I can demonstrate. I point out someone: ‘Do I know this person? What did they do? What was their life like? In what context did you meet?’ I can do that too; it simply takes more time.

Can a soul be broken?

The soul is invisible and cannot be broken, split, or burned. Some say, ‘That is your soulmate.’ According to the Vedas, I suppose it can seem so, and I would like to think of certain people as soulmates. But there is no such thing as a soulmate in that sense; it is a misconception based on attachments and the way you vibrate when the other vibrates (demonstrates). Oh, my love! (Laughter.)

In reality, these feelings arise from subtle but very strong emotions coming from both of you. According to the Vedas, a soulmate does not mean ‘Stay with me and put up with me no matter what.’ The soulmate is He, God. He alone can make your hair stand on end. But two people who are strongly attached, such as husband and wife, live for one another and die for one another too.

I remember giving hypnosis sessions at my clinic. There was a husband, […]. They were so attached to each other that the sight of him alone brought heartache. I told him, ‘Do not worry; everything will work out.’ […] he died because his heart could not bear the separation. […].

If we all believe in reincarnation, what stops us from killing ourselves?

Hmm, do not tell me you will want to do that afterwards. The human form of life is a priceless gift. It may not seem so, especially when university studies are driving you mad. Tonight I will try to help you with your studies through a special hypnosis session.

[…]

According to the Vedic scriptures, a living being enters the material world believing it can occupy the centre of the universe instead of God. God says, ‘All right, since I love you without any reason,’ like a prodigal son, ‘you too can go wherever you like, without any reason.’ The being enters material worlds subject to birth, death, old age, and illness, none of which exist in the spiritual world.

Souls enter the material world and come under the influence of material nature, first declining in the bodies of demigods and acquiring attachments. They keep falling until they suddenly find themselves at this university, thinking, ‘Ah, I could do with a joint.’ (Laughter.) You know how it is. We say, ‘There is no God! Who played this trick on me? I did not ask to be born there…’ That is how it happens. A country might have fifty million people and five hundred million ghosts.

The problem is that people do not understand that they are not the body and have an eternal nature. They think they can simply fall asleep and everything will end. But no! The subtle body comes out, looks around, and thinks, ‘Oh no! I am still here. Well, I could do with a drink. But I cannot!’ That fellow wants again to have and do what he had and did before, but cannot. Many desires remain because bodily desires were so strong and were never satisfied. Ghosts cannot drink, have sex, or do what they did while embodied. What do they do? They hang around people who enjoy those things.

People who enjoy such things weaken their auras. A life of ‘sex, drugs, and rock and roll’ greatly weakens the astral body. It starts breaking down, especially around the head while taking a drug. Those who die from drugs still want to latch on somehow. They see a young woman and jump (demonstrates a ghost entering someone’s head). She then thinks, ‘I cannot live without this. Do not listen to those church people or what Jayadeva is selling you. Who says it is bad? Come on, you cannot live without it.’ She takes a joint, and the ghosts get what they want and think, ‘Fantastic!’ This is happening around us all the time.

There are so many stories of so-called visitations. These things happen. Indeed, the more often you misuse the human body, the more your astral body breaks down.

My daughter sees auras. For several years, we have held special programmes at home, chanting the Hare Krishna mantra. Once, a pleasant-looking man came. He sat down, and my daughter pulled me into another room and said, ‘That man is doing all sorts of things. He smokes a lot; his aura is badly cracked around his head. Seven or eight spirits are sitting on him, all feeding off him.’ I went over and asked, ‘Do you smoke cannabis?’ ‘No, no,’ he replied. We talked a little. As he was leaving, he asked why I had asked. I said, ‘My daughter sees auras. She says you have seven or eight uninvited passengers, and they all want’—laughter—‘a smoke.’ More laughter. He asked, ‘Where do you think I smoke?’ My daughter came over and said, ‘[…].’ He left saying, ‘Damn! What sort of people are these Krishnas!’

What I am trying to say is a serious matter, however amusingly I tell it.

The smoking ghost phenomenon.

[…] a woman came to me who wanted to stop smoking. The situation showed how interconnected everything is in this wonderful material world. She asked me to help her stop. In fact, I can help someone stop smoking in just two visits. With her, I was struggling for the fifth time, and she kept returning, saying, ‘The treatment has not completely freed me from the habit.’ I wondered what was happening. She entered trance, but nothing changed.

Perhaps I was contacting only a ‘part’. I may try something like this with some of you tonight: contacting the part that knows more about you than you imagine. I asked, ‘Can you tell me something we have overlooked?’ This part said, ‘Yes, yes, yes.’ Then I asked whether another living being was stopping my patient from quitting smoking. ‘Yes, yes, yes.’ I thought for a moment and asked, ‘Has your mother died?’ She replied, ‘Oh, that old cow.’

‘Does she smoke?’

‘Constantly!’

I asked her to wait a moment.

Then I asked this being:

‘Is that MOTHER?’

And it replied:

‘Yeeees!’

Even after you die, you may still want to attach yourself to a younger relative. You want to stay in the same house: ‘Oh, my daughter, my son.’ You understand. ‘This is my house; get out if you cannot live without rock and roll!’ But it is no longer their house. Often a soul is drawn towards someone it loved and cared for.

This woman’s mother was constantly with her, or on her, making her take another cigarette and making the urge to smoke unbearable. I asked, ‘Do you believe in God?’ She said, ‘Not particularly.’ She had been an ignorant woman here and remained so in the next world.

Your habits do not change when you die; they remain with you. ‘Mother,’ I said, ‘could you do me a favour? You are like a leech. I want to do something wonderful with you and your insatiable dissatisfaction.’ I was really getting through to her, and she became angry. ‘Are you doing right by your own daughter by behaving like a leech?’ My words partly shook her, and she became a little insolent. I continued, ‘You have your own place in the universe. You can go somewhere better. There is certainly a place for you, but it is not here. You should leave.’

Eventually, I persuaded her: ‘You have nothing to lose by accepting God’s names. I became a Hare Krishna. “Hare” means this, “Krishna” that, and “Rama” something else. I will chant the Holy Names; I do not insist that you repeat them. If I do, angels will come to help you change your situation. You can be a very good mother by doing this, if you do not want simply to be thrown out. Who knows how much longer you can stay here without knowing who you are or where you will go?’ She thought about it. I began chanting, making her do the same through her daughter. Angels came and took her away. The daughter was astonished: ‘I saw it with my own eyes!’

This was not the first time I had done such a thing. I am not a conventional devotee of God. I feel fear. I did this experimentally, which is not always right, but I had strong faith, and it worked. The following week and the week after, she did not touch a cigarette. She said, ‘I feel wonderful, as if a weight has been lifted.’

There are many different ways of working with your lives. So many hidden forces surround you, some good and some less so. Through your actions and consciousness, you attract particular kinds of living beings. If you could only imagine the great, loving, invisible work being done with us, to help us rise to a higher level. I have not eaten meat for twenty years. As soon as I understood, I told myself, ‘I will no longer be part of this suffering,’ and that was the end of it. Knowledge will not come until you are ready to receive it. Few people here have probably killed an animal, but children are brought up as if McDonald’s grows on trees. They know nothing of it and see only a finished product that looks nothing like meat. Most of us do not need meat at all. At two or three, mothers feed us, saying, ‘Eat it; it is good for you. Swallow. You must.’ It becomes part of life, and you cannot live without it. It becomes a necessity. Most people are, in fact, innocent.

The question of eating meat.

Suppose you have eaten meat for a long time, then turn against the idea of eating it, yet still want it. Can that make you ill?

That has happened to you, hasn’t it? You are a wonderful spiritual being, but do not know it yet. You struggle because you are conditioned and that is your reality. ‘Oh God, I must try to do this,’ while thousands of hours of childhood keep telling you, ‘It is good for you.’

A man once came to me. It is a long story, but anyway. It began […]… I had to go through all his years in hospital to change his life at all, because his illness was deeply established at a subconscious level. Even if you change the original cause, its shoots still reach into the present.

[…]. A young woman lives there. […]. I asked about her childhood. She said, ‘As soon as I began to understand real life and all the double standards, I could not bear it and did not want to see it.’ She actually used the words, ‘I did not want to see all that.’ Her eyesight gradually weakened. She kept buying new spectacles until she had those protective shields.

I practise reflexology. Strange as it may seem, your feet really can reveal where the problem is. I work quickly, and the person immediately understands where it lies: perhaps the liver or kidneys. As soon as you feel my precise touch on the foot, you understand.

When I began learning therapy, I visited clubs, round-table groups, and similar places. I knew all the men there. They were tough, stubborn, cynical, and materialistic, and did not much want to do what I proposed. I would come in and say, ‘This block tells us… excuse me… it tells us… it is all clear from the feet!’ Everyone roared with laughter.

I suggested, ‘Is there anyone here with a concern that cannot be seen? That way, I cannot pretend I have found something.’ […]. He needed to be quicker, otherwise everyone would lose interest and start drinking more, and so on.

I quickly found two problems: one with his left testicle and another with the frontal lobe of the brain. I asked permission to voice these rather interesting suggestions publicly. I did not want to tell him first. I wanted to announce the diagnosis to everyone, then have him say whether I was right. It was time, as they say, to put my cards on the table and work.

I announced, ‘Something is wrong with your left testicle.’ Everyone went ‘Waaah!’ (Imitates laughter.) It took about ten minutes for them to settle. ‘Have you finished?’ I asked. They looked at him. ‘That is true; I have atrophy of the left testicle.’ I continued, ‘And I found something else.’ They were astonished. Atrophy means the organ no longer grows. ‘I do not know exactly what it is, but something is wrong with the frontal lobe of your brain.’ He replied, ‘Yes, I have frontal lobe epilepsy.’

Back to the young woman. I checked her feet and eye reactions: no pain, nothing. There was nothing wrong with her eyes! The problems were in her mind. Everything had overwhelmed this sensitive young woman who was afraid of the world. She could not bear people’s hypocrisy; it was too much.

Other questions.

Can you hypnotise animals?

Personally, no. I hypnotised a rabbit as a child, but that is not enough. You lay it on its back and look into its eyes. It is fascinating; you feel like God! (Laughter.)

Why do carnivorous animals eat meat?

I am often asked this. Some say they do not even enjoy meat, but must eat it because material energy has programmed them to. Others think they enjoy it. Some really dislike killing, but must do it because that is the law; otherwise they would not survive. That is the body they have received, and they have to live with it. That is how you have been programmed.

Like Mozart. He did not compose his own music; it was willed from above. It was already written, and he was programmed to receive it. How did he receive it? A past life. We did a regression recently; I wanted to know why he received it. He worshipped a demigod. Some Hindus are very wealthy through worshipping demigods, because they really know how to make money. They work hard too, as do Asians. They know a great deal about worship that brings material benefits. But you receive material benefits, not spiritual ones. I have nothing against Hindus (laughter), or the others. Worshipping demigods gives wealth in this life and the next.

Can you hypnotise someone to break through the barrier of the subconscious or give easy access to subtle energies?

I can, but only in secret. I would not recommend it. I once told a man he would be able to see subtle energy. […]. He went remarkably well into trance. Let me explain. His spectacles had thick lenses. I put him into deep trance and took him to a time when he did not need glasses. I asked him to read something. I said, ‘I will teach you to see subtle energy.’ He replied, ‘I do not believe any of it.’ I said, ‘Look through your glasses again.’ He agreed. I put him into a very deep trance, and he could see subtle energy. When he opened his eyes, he cried, ‘Ah!’ He was almost shouting, ‘I cannot believe it! LIGHT, angels… Amazing!’ He did not want to be programmed, […].

Hypnosis is intended to replace one so-called reality with another. After all, everything is illusion. A great saint, Bhaktivinoda Thakura, lived in India in the last century. He said, ‘There are only two things in this world: the soul and God. Nothing else. Everything else is a phantasmagoria. Nothing. […]’

The experiment.

Before we begin, I do not want anyone to do anything they feel is wrong. If you do not want to do what I suggest, simply sit and observe, stay with us, and enjoy it. Bear with us until the end if you can.

Those who want to try the experiment will be able to hear, stay in touch with me, and follow me. Even if you fall asleep, you will still hear me. None of you will experience anything you do not want to experience. Please understand: even if you encounter something unpleasant, you will be observing, as if standing aside, as though it were not happening to you. Everyone will continue to hear my voice and be able to enter and leave trance.

Relax now and imagine yourself on your own beach. If someone comes in, knocks on the door, or makes another noise, it will not disturb you, because you are entering a very deep relaxation.

First, simply relax and find yourself on your own beach with palm trees. I hope you do not mind beaches and palms. Relaxing is also useful because this procedure will encourage you with exams and continued study, before you travel back through this life into a past one. Some of you will not want to do it, perhaps because you need to work with me one-to-one, the time is not right, or I am not the right person. But some will certainly find something important. Many will think, ‘This is happening to me! I know I am at Brunel University and this fellow is in front of me. I feel wide awake, yet I see something else.’ Do not worry: you are in light trance, but can see and feel quite a lot.

The recording stops. Jayadeva advises everyone to go to a sad or happy time, and to the moment of death. He asks for volunteers from the audience to take part in a regression experiment.

After the experiment.

– – – 1 – – –

Student: When you asked us to go to a sad time, I saw a cross. When you said death, I was on that cross and could look down from it.
Jayadeva: You rose up, as it were, and could see everything happening. Is that right?
Student: Yes.
Jayadeva: Interesting, isn’t it? If I asked you to imagine that now, it would be difficult to look at yourself from above with such a clear perspective. Were there happy times in that life?
Student: Not really.
Jayadeva: It was not a happy life. Many people lived unhappily, especially then. I forgot to ask: did a name come to mind?
Student: No.
Jayadeva: Sometimes a name comes crashing into your thoughts. Perhaps we will do something with you later, with your permission. Think about it, all right?

Jayadeva looks for someone in the audience who has already come out of trance.

Are you all right? You will be all right. Would you like to tell us anything? Good. Were the sensations strong? Very strong.

If anything has come up and you want to talk to me privately, I will try to do something to get rid of the problem for good.

– – – 2 – – –

Jayadeva: What happened with you? Are you all right? Can you tell us anything?
Student: Yes. It was strange. I am certain I was a nun! I could not understand how it happened. I slept on the floor. I know the floor and walls were grey. When you said to look around, I saw familiar surroundings and objects.
Jayadeva: Was it a sad time for you?
Student: Someone died.
Jayadeva: What about a happy time?
Student: We watched people dancing, probably in a village.
Jayadeva: You were surprised to see yourself like that. Do you think you were the last person you saw?
Student: No.
Jayadeva: Did you enjoy that life? (Laughter.)
Student: No.
Jayadeva: Were you surprised this happened to you?

People point to those still in trance. Jayadeva looks around to make sure everyone has come out.

A little deeper.

Student: (Snorts.)
Jayadeva: Nothing unusual. It is all right. Come back. When I count down from ten, you will be in the womb. Do not be afraid of the pleasant, relaxed state there. Ten, nine, you are in the womb; eight, seven, you grow smaller. What do you feel?
Student: I do not feel anything.
Jayadeva: You are in the time between births, floating, relaxing more and more.
The regression continues.
Jayadeva: When I snap my fingers, you can leave the body and see who you were. (Snaps.) Can you say anything?
Student: It is dark.
Jayadeva: You see only black. All right. What comes to mind? What body are you in? Do you see yourself in water?
Student: It is not a body.
Jayadeva: Who do you think you were? What consciousness enters the water and makes you be there?
Student: I do not know.
Jayadeva: Do you feel like a spirit?
Student: I do not know.
Jayadeva: Are you all right? […]. Go to that body, to that happy time. […]. Look at your body and hands. Can you see your hands? What do you see?
Student: I think I see four, or two or three people.
Jayadeva: You are one of them. When I snap my fingers, you will see which one. (Snaps.) […]
Student: I think I am the child on the left, near a spring by a mountain.
Jayadeva: When I snap my fingers, you will approach the moment of death. You will not be afraid.
The student has trouble breathing.
Jayadeva: How do you die? Go through it. You drowned. When I count to three, you will open your eyes and be here.
The person is still having difficulty breathing.
Jayadeva: You will be free of this pain and will suffer no more. One, enter […], two, three. (Snaps.) Let the shock go. You will feel very good. Hold your breath and settle. You are better; the feeling has gone. You have returned and are with us again.

Terrible, isn’t it? This university is full of horror stories. (Laughter.) Curiously, tonight we had four people who died truly dreadful deaths. I would like you to stay until the end, just to be sure.

You were a small child near a mountain, with parents or other people. Was it really so dark when you had trouble breathing?

It suggests that you lost physical consciousness after drowning. I imagine it was unpleasant. It does not look very nice.

Closing reflections.

The point is to do everything therapeutically, or not at all. Never mind the demonstration. Although I came to demonstrate something, if someone has a problem, my first concern is to help that person; everyone else can go home.

That is how it happens. I can visit many places without any problems, then one evening, like tonight, four or five really difficult past lives appear and need immediate work. That is why hypnosis is dangerous. People seem to stick to their seats, and so on. Working in this way carries great responsibility. Honestly, I do not think anyone will feel worse after tonight. Those I have worked with have come to understand that they love this body and that they are spirit and soul.

To some extent, I feel guilty that many people went through so much tonight. Yet it leaves an indelible impression on consciousness. This life is special and deserves particular attention. I would like to do this with more people, a hundred and eighty. Sometimes one or two cases arise, as tonight. Some say nothing and leave with their problem.

What happens is that someone coughs and sneezes terribly and continues to suffer, but seems untroubled by it. In fact, it takes a week to recover completely.

I came to demonstrate regression, but it should not be done carelessly.

[…]

Thank you.