Use of Meditative Hypnosis for Past Life Regression as Therapyfor Drug Abuse

by
David P. Armentrout, PhD, CHT

Board Certified Past Life Therapist

MBS HypnpoClinic
3031 Tisch Way, Suite 810

San Jose CA 95128

Voice and Appointments: 408-378-7799
Automated Information & Fax: 408-781-0999
Copyright 2000

 

Meditative Hypnosis and Past Life Therapy.

Meditative hypnosis is a technique which employs both the
general methods of hypnosis, and also the general techniques of
meditation. As an example, meditation in which a person focuses
on the breath will, if one develops the meditative skill, lead
to a profound trance in which it is possible to regress to
review of past lives. When used with traditional hypnotic
suggestions to relax, the usual pranayama meditation leads to a
state which is equally useful in general hypnotherapy
applications. In the same way, prana control methods originally
developed for kundalini yoga have been found to be effective in
producing greater energy for those who complained of lassitudeand somnolence.
One of the specializations at MBS HypnoClinic is past life
regression and past life therapy. In this state of deep hypnosis
a person is enabled to shut out immediate conflicting stimuli
to the extent required to get in touch with memories of past
lives. The usual benefits of past life therapy involve
elimination of attachments from a prior life which have carried
over into the present one. For example, lovers separated by an
ancient accident and who bump into one another in today's world
may feel a compulsion to be reunited which might not fit well
into the practical details of life. By discovery of their
history, it is possible to deal rationally with the problem.
Another issue past life therapy treats is pains which seem to
have no origin, yet which limit activity. When medical
techniques can do nothing, and the sufferer prefers to avoid
taking drugs which dull the mind, regression often is a
solution. Such pains frequently turn out to be wounds inflicted
by an enemy to which the victim became attached through rage.
After reviewing the scene, it is usually possible to forgive the
enemy and go on with life. Forgiveness releases the rage which
connects the body to the pain or disability, enabling healing to
occur. Often the effects are dramatically rapid.
Other issues treated by this method include limitations which
people impose upon themselves due to past experiences which they
regret. As an example, a girl who drowned by accident was reborn
with a fear of water, which would obviously protect her.
However, when it got to be a problem to take a shower, it was
useful to go back and reconsider how much protection she really
needed. A man who falsified his pilot credentials to take a
dangerous flying job crashed an airliner, killing only himself
and his co-pilot. In his next life, he was afraid to fly. The
cause was his fear that he would now have to be killed in a
crash. Regression discovered the cause, and also that he was
extremely remorseful about what he had done. There was no
possibility that he would repeat any action of the sort. Thus,
there was no value in his being killed by an airplane crash. His
change of heart had eliminated his karmic attachment. The next
week he was on a flight to London.Audio Recordings and Their Audiences
To popularize past life work, a set of audio tapes had been
planned which were to provide experience with many of the
principles of meditative hypnosis. During this development, some
ad hoc research done by a number of young people in the
Haight-Ashbury district in the 1960's came to light. In essence,
hypnosis, meditation and drug experiences were found to be
essentially similar in many ways. The recordings were intended
for those who sought to develop their spiritual awareness in
areas opened by the experience of past life regression and yoga.
The goal was to bring a number of experiences, usually available
through more traditional meditative methods, to a listener who
has little experience in meditation so that the listener might
experience some of the phenomena associated with meditation and
regression. This turned out to be more than a trivial problem,
but opened the possibility of another potential use for past
life regression, treatment of drug abuse.
As the material was initially being developed, it became clear
that there was no way to repeat the conditions under which yoga
had initially been created. One of the problems in developing
simple audio programs for yoga and spiritual development is that
yoga has traditionally been associated with use of drugs. The
Vedas, dating back over five thousand years, mention a substance
called Soma. This material altered the mind so as to produce a
vision of the gods. Just what Soma was is unknown. There is
speculation that it was a combination of materials involving
hemp derivatives and perhaps mushroom extracts.
Without use of Soma, or some similar material, the initial
conditions in which yoga was initially developed cannot be
exactly replicated. Both social norms and availability have
changed radically. This has led, in the past, to a division of
spiritual seekers into two general camps. In one camp are the
purists who feel that the efforts of he mind alone should be
used for spiritual development. As a result, these people spend
a great deal of time and effort in their metaphysical
development. They rely more upon intellect than direct
awareness, and have a tendency to feel that experiences of a
more dramatic nature are unusual. On the other hand, these yogis
never are guilty of the excesses to which many others fall prey.
The other camp consists of those who feel that the use of drugs
to mimic the previously divine Soma is a fully appropriate
measure. They point to the quality of their experiences, as
opposed to the means by which they arise. For example, they say,
if a person has a transcendental experience through a severe
fever it is generally accepted as valid. If the experience
occurs through a near death event, that too is generally
accepted as valid. Thus, they argue, there is no basis to reject
the use of drugs. Unfortunately, the social norms of the modern
world tell us that drugs as inappropriate, which means that all
drugs have been socially rejected. Not only has this eliminated
any possibility that drug use might be beneficial if the user is
sincere, but it has eliminated all information about the
appropriate types of drugs for any purpose.
Lack of information has encouraged many misguided young people
to seek things which make them stupid, such as PCP, or which
make them delirious, such as atropine or toluene vapors. There
are also those who desire to escape from the world, choosing
opiates and barbiturates, and the other extreme, those who
desire to become more aware of the world, choosing amphetamine
or cocaine, mistaking manipulations of factual information about
the physical world for enlightenment. The major danger, aside
from spiritual damage, is that "speed kills", usually by either
ruptured embolism or cardiac arhythmias. This encouraged
inclusion in the tapes of a strategy for drug abuse therapy
called "harm avoidance", specifically aimed at young people who
are drug users, with the intent of reducing and eliminating
their dangerous drug use.
For the remainder of the world, those who feel that drugs are
inappropriate, a very different substitute had already been
found. Experimenters from the 1960's Haight-Ashbury era had
previously found that deep hypnosis can produce virtually every
effect of drugs, and also that hypnosis can produce all the
effects of meditation. In particular, it is possible for
hypnosis to duplicate whatever the effects of Soma might have
been. These effects can only be guessed at, so it is difficult
to simple give suggestions for that purpose. However, combined
with pranayama for kundalini yoga, hypnosis produces an intense
exhilaration and excitement of the same general type as is
produced through psilcybin mushrooms, but without physiologicalside effects.
Drugs Get In The Way
The benefits of substituting hypnosis and kundalini yoga for
psychedelic drugs are that the mind is used as the sole means of
creating the trance state, so the use of drugs is no longer
necessary. Second, a normal meditative trance is greatly
enhanced by the combined yogic and hypnotic techniques used.
This is quite similar to the imagery and pranayama methods used
in drug free Tibetan practice. As a result, this is a technique
available to everybody, regardless of their drug experiences. A
third benefit is that kundalini, once fully aroused, provides a
natural trance state which maintains contact with the interlife
and Cosmic Consciousness. In other words, the effects can be
made permanent through these simple methods.
Hypnotic methods, in conjunction with kundalini yoga, were
incorporated into two tapes intended specifically for those who
use drugs. Vague references to the value of meditative hypnosis
as a drug replacement were also incorporated into other tapes
which were intended for general release. The expectations for
those who initially use drugs are quite good due to the
reinforcement quality of the experience. The same Haight-Ashbury
informal study indicated that the pleasurable effects of all
drugs can be equaled or exceeded by psychedelics. This is
probably due to their hypnophilic quality. Maximization of
pleasure through psychedelic drugs occurs through their use in
conjunction with meditative methods. Because this seems to be
equal or superior to the pleasurable effects of any other drug,
the experience of meditation with psychedelics is more strongly
reinforcing, and thus will tend to replace previous behaviors.
Accordingly, the use of any drugs but psychedelics tends todecline .
An additional benefit is that hypnosis is capable of producing
the same effects as the psychedelic drugs without any of the
usual side effects, such as nervousness, dry mouth, mucous
discharges etc, nor the rather discouraging appearance of iron
bars and courtrooms. Further, as hypnotic skill increases, the
desirable effects are progressively easier to attain. That means
that as the skill of the meditator increases, the reinforcement
value increases. With increasing meditative skills, the
meditator gets "more bang for the buck":, so that the quantities
of drugs required to produce the same level of bliss declines.
An impromptu follow up study found that many of the researchers
from the Haight-Ashbury who experimented with these techniques
now completely avoid drugs because they actually interfere with
higher levels of meditation. There is no need for drug use,
which is potentially dangerous, always expensive and socially
unacceptable, when they have already developed the ability to
attain a trance which takes them to transcendental levels by
sheer power of mind. Of the rest, most have limited themselves
to rare use of marijuana, typically a few times per year. For
them too, there is no need for anything else.
Utility Values and Cost Benefit Tradeoffs
Although this approach is not intended, nor was it developed as
a clinically approved drug abuse therapy, there is good reason
to view it as such. The underlying philosophy is that there are
only three good reasons for drug use: (a) drug use intended for
therapeutic purposes, such as when medication is prescribed by a
physician, or an aspirin is taken for a headache; (b) drug use
for research purposes, such as researchers developing a new
antihistamine, or a superior antibiotic; (c) drug use for
religious purposes, such as Communion Wine, or Native American
peyote use. The claims that there is a justifiable use for drugs
which is purely "recreational" would be acceptable if drug use
truly "re-created" the individuals. However, most drug based
recreation appears to be justified by the same logic as would be
recreational masturbation.
The same objections apply to use of drugs for recreation as
would apply to any other dangerous substance, tobacco and
alcohol being the major offenders in this category. Saint Paul
suggested "a little wine for thy stomach's sake and thy many
infirmities." Were people to have the good sense to limit
themselves to moderate amounts of anything, there would be no
tendency for restrictions of it. Until the society can limit its
consumption to "a little" there is little point in liberalizing
attitudes toward potentially deadly substances.
This entire issue becomes moot in the case of psychedelic use
for meditation. Not only are psychedelics physiologically
harmless, so that they provide a safer alternative to "speed",
they provide a more useful experience. The end product of
meditation is a better stabilized individual with more coping
capabilities. When the meditation adds transcendental awareness,
and the ability to discover therapeutically beneficial facts
through which bad habits, anxieties and physical pain can be
ameliorated, it clearly is worthwhile. To this can now be added
one more benefit, that meditation and past life regression are
effective against chronic use of dangerous drugs.Access To Tapes and Services
The set of two audio cassettes directly aimed at harm prevention
drug abuse therapy can be ordered from MBS HypnoClinic. They are
described elsewhere on the Changework.com web site. The title is
"Dope Yoga", which seems appropriate. The cost is $24.95 (+ S&H)
for the set. The tapes are not available individually.
A number of individual cassettes are also available including
related yoga and past life therapy related material, including
kundalini yoga, a transcendental meditation which collapses time
and space, as well other material which is useful for
establishing a realistic direction, enhancing meditation, and
regressing to review past lives, etc.

For more information, send e-mail to info@changework.com

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