Back to the Future
May 2007
By Dr Akila Jaikumar
A dramatic past-life experience healed the writer of a painful ankle and enhanced her stores of creativity, freedom and Moving back to go forward in life sounds paradoxical, but it works. Past Life Regression Therapy (PLRT) – a technique of going back in time, including to past lives, to the origin of current problems whether physiological or psychological, is unbelievably efficacious. I must confess that being a left-brained person, I was rather a sceptic myself. Though I had read books of Brian Weiss in the year 2000 and also read an article about Dr Newton, a renowned past-life regression therapist based in Hyderabad, around the same time, I did not take it further, in spite of being based in Hyderabad myself. I believed that PLRT was for serious issues and I was fine in all respects – with just a nagging little problem with my left ankle. The problem had been persisting for over 10 years, had defied all forms of modern medicare, had forced me to take six months off work, had compelled me to walk on crutches – yet…I was not convinced enough to try PLRT for a cure. Eventually, I did attend the basic workshop conducted by Dr Newton in January 2005. I had no regression experiences during the workshop – which seemed to reinforce my conviction that PLRT was not for me. However, through a combination of favourable circumstances, I found myself enrolling for the Therapist Training Programme conducted by Dr Newton in December 2006 – a step I took with no clear intent in mind. It has been a momentous turning point in my life. My dramatic experience came along when Dr Newton was demonstrating the “Psycho Drama” technique. This is especially helpful when the trauma has been lodged in the cellular memory – yes, your body cells have a memory! In this technique, a traumatic event from a past life is brought back into the conscious mind. The subject lives through the trauma as it happened earlier, and with the therapist’s support, she is guided to a healing condition. But the therapy does not end there. The subject is made to relive the experience again and again. It has been observed that with each visit, the incident becomes less and less traumatic and in the end, deep healing does occur. In my case, we decided to take the problem in the ankle to see if we could trace it back to a past-life cause. During the preparatory meditation session, an image of a Roman soldier being bitten at his left ankle by an alligator had flashed through my mind. After that, the actual regression started, leading to the most dramatic experience of my life. I relate it as I relived it – in the present tense, fully fleshed out and alive. Personal Regression ExperienceI find myself a Roman soldier around 30 years of age, wearing a yellow hat and a green shirt with a helmet on my head, black sandals with leather straps on my feet, carrying a sword. I am walking through a marsh. It is a sunny morning; I am sweaty and mosquitoes are biting my arms and neck. I come to a lake in a clearing. I walk through to clear waters and wash my sweaty face. As I pause to take in the scenery, there is a splash and before I know it, an alligator clutches my left ankle in its powerful jaws. I fall down with a thud into the water and thrash about as the alligator bites. I am trying to pull out my sword; the pain is shooting in my leg and I am almost drowning. I finally manage to free my right arm and with the sword, start hitting the alligator. Since it is not leaving my ankle, I finally cut off my leg with my sword, a few inches above the ankle. The alligator swims off with its booty – my ankle and left foot. The water is full of blood. I drag myself out of the water and lie exhausted on my side. There is shooting pain in my leg, my bone is sticking out. I drag myself to the field nearby. I am spent, my leg is heavy and agonizingly painful, and I am thirsty. (All these sensations – the pain, the heaviness, the exhaustion, were felt in my body during the session, just as if it was happening all over again). Finally towards evening, I drag myself to a tree and cut a branch. With the help of this branch as a support, I hobble painfully to a nearby village. I collapse outside a house. An old man in a white dress comes close to me. With the help of the villagers, he cleans my wounds and applies a green paste. Aaahh, it burns. I toss with the pain. The wound heals slowly. The bone jutting out has been cut and the leg bound in a cloth. I start walking about on crutches. The village is small. I begin to teach the children mathematics and science and spend my time with the old man. He is a counselor and healer. The people come to him with problems. He counsels and heals them. The thought flashes into my mind: “Do whatever small good you can in every moment. It is not necessary to do great things. Help in the current moment, which is all that matters.” As I pause to take in the scenery, there is a splash and before I know it, an alligator clutches my left ankle in its powerful jaws. The remaining life in the village is pretty uneventful. I am progressed towards the time of my death. The villagers are respectfully silent. They understand that this life for me is over and they pray for my soul to rest in peace, knowing the trauma that I went through. I am so thankful to them for their care, love and prayers. Dr Newton took me back to relive the experience three more times. With each experience, the pain was lesser and lesser. In the last visit, I am smiling at the alligator and singing a song to it to take my ankle if it needs to – I have no pain as it bites into my leg! In the closing session, Dr Newton guided me to take the help of masters and guides to heal the problem. I feel the presence of Jesus Christ sending healing energy to my ankle. I feel and see my body completely healed. ResolutionIt may appear to some that I am suffering from an overdose of imagination. However, that is not my nature in my current life; I am given more to logic than creative pursuits. I cannot make up a story or a song – both of which I did very spontaneously during the session. The more clinching point is the result – my ankle problem has reduced by 80 per cent. I am able to stand for two hours at a stretch, drive more than 100 kms and walk a lot, without any discomfort. Years of pain and restricted movement have suddenly gone away. It seems to be getting better day-by-day, and that means a lot to me. I feel very confident at work also – answers to complex problems come very quickly. There is a sense of freedom and joy – an inner transformation which is very difficult to express in the limited medium of words. I am conscious of my thoughts, my words, my actions, I am living and enjoying the current moment, I am learning to be more humble, and stand in awe of the beauty and grandeur of life. With the guidance of Dr Newton, I have started therapy sessions for other subjects and have handled four cases over the ensuing four weeks since my regression. The results are wonderful. Let me share another experience where PLRT helps – one of relationships. Relating Through TimeSindhu (name changed) was a young lady working as a finance executive, very pleasant and well-educated. She was facing emotional issues of abandonment, insecurity and a feeling of being a victim. The cause – her first marriage ended in a divorce and the second marriage is headed in the same direction – both within a space of three years. During a series of regression sessions over five weeks, she saw that she had lived with both her husbands in previous lives. In one lifetime, she had been stabbed and killed by the person who was her first husband in this current life. In another lifetime, her second husband in this life was her spouse. He had been very loving towards her, but she had committed suicide. In a third lifetime, she was married to her second husband. She was very happy until her four-year-old daughter had died accidentally due to a fall from the parapet. (The daughter who died is incidentally her niece in the current life, and Sindhu has felt a special affinity for her from the day of her birth). Her husband blamed her for the death. In that lifetime, their relationship had been quarrelsome. She felt he had cheated her and taken her money, and she was ready to kill him. In this lifetime, she had met him through the Internet, and he convinced her family for two years to get married to her. Evidently, they have been brought together to work out past-life karmas. During one of the subsequent sessions, Sindhu spontaneously progressed to the future in this lifetime, where she has seen herself with her current husband and two children, attending the marriage of her niece. Her niece has been instrumental in getting her back to her husband. She has been given the message to wait, that things would work out. The sessions have helped Sindhu to become calmer and accept the present circumstances. The sense of abandonment and guilt have been released. The last update from her was that she was being interviewed for a double promotion. She was excited at how things were falling into place in her life and was hopeful that on the personal level also, matters would get resolved. What about you?I understand that it is difficult to get convinced by reading these experiences. Even now when I talk about PLRT to friends and relatives, I get blank looks and hear comments like, In one lifetime, she had been stabbed and killed by the person who was her first husband in this current life. “What if we discover something about ourselves in our past lives that makes us uncomfortable?” or “We can’t handle our current lives – why would we go to past lives?” or “Is it just imagination?” Fortunately, these are acceptable now.