JANUARY 2010

REGRESSION AS A SOAP

by Hans TenDam

India has a first. It is the first country in the world where there is a daily program about regression therapy, past-life therapy to be precise. Each evening, except the weekends, at 9:30 PM there is a one-hour program showing a regression session. Of course, many newspaper journalists are skeptical, suggesting that everything is planned and rehearsed. And discussions about such things have a particular flavor in India, as networks are obliged by law, to invite a skeptic on the panel, to ensure a ‘balanced’ treatment. I have been experiencing that myself. The man representing the rationalist was more of an emotionalist and was not too precise in his argumentation. He found out that I had written a book about occultism and almost shouted “This man is an occultist!” So, if I had written a book about pigs, this would have been evidence of me being a pig. He had personally researched 300 cases of children who were purported to remember past lives. All cases were frauds. When I asked him where his research had been published, he answered “on the internet.” No web address given.

For me, his kind of skepticism is just inverted superstition. Superstitious people believe in things without a shred of evidence, even discarding all evidence to the contrary. Skeptics don’t believe in things without a shred of evidence, even discarding all evidence to the contrary. Advance is in research, in open-mindedness, neither believing nor disbelieving too easily. Regressions are not straight roads to the truth, but certainly not straight roads into untruth. Mistakes, projections, wrong impressions, especially wrong interpretation of impressions do exist. There are too many hits to declare all regression content as misses. And there are too many misses to declare all regression content as hits. And often we do not know, certainly not right-away of if a strange experience is true or not.

We are therapists, so the first criterion is if regression works, if it solves real problems of real people. Personally, I don’t think that fantasies and projections can heal, certainly not recurrent and persistent problems. They may alleviate, they may prepare us for the real work to be done later. We can be moved by stories, by novels, by drama. Catharsis was originally the emotional reaction and inner cleansing produced by tragedies, stories that were not necessarily true. But in the end, lasting relief only happens when we deal with our personal stories, our own life, our own reality. The large majority of our clients have minds, don’t they? When we have a mind, we have in in-built detective. We want to know, to understand. We want to get the story straight. Many stories, many movies are about a lonely person who is not satisfied with the story that is generally accepted, who remains doubting, WHO WANTS TO FIND OUT.

Understanding intellectually is not enough. But emotional release is also not enough. We need both to find lasting peace: peace of mind, peace of soul, peace of body. Our body should be satisfied too. Unfinished thoughts, unfinished emotions, all unfinished business sooner or later is dumped unto the body. The body suffers, the soul suffers, the mind suffers. We work on all levels. We want also the body to cry out that IT HAS FOUND OUT.

Have a productive, rewarding, insightful 2010!

Hans TenDam