This series of articles addresses some new and powerful applications of Past Life Regression (henceforth referred to as PLR) therapy. In the last article we showed how past life creative abilities can be brought forward to increase our skills and abilities in present life. This article will address how we can discover and change our patterns of luck by altering patterns of karmic suffering that were generated by the acts committed in past lives.

For centuries the advanced religions of the east and the writings and teachings of innumerable spiritual masters have taught that the patterns of suffering or fortune we experience are the direct result of the "karma" (good or evil deeds) we have accumulated in past lives. This philosophical perspective is possibly the only way one can reconcile one's belief in the existence of an omnipotent creator with compassion for all His/Her creations with the vast realms of suffering, especially of innocent children, in our world. But for many the word "karma" is far more than a mere philosophy. Many clients of PLR therapy have seen horrific and often unsolicited visions of terrible things they have done to others. And they have seen these visions when searching in the subconscious mind for the cause of their present life problems.

Until recently, however, no systematic training or procedures have been developed for finding, and solving, the negative karma that underlies our patterns of suffering. In 1983, I began developing this technology for the first time at a hypnotherapy training program. Since then I have used "Overt Acts Process", as I call it, to address a host of problems, from chronic and life-threatening illness also chronic relationship problems, to patterns of repeating financial disaster. Many of these problems have benefited greatly with overt acts process (OAP). Here's how it works.

The first step in OAP is to determine whether the client's issue is an appropriate one for this method. What we are looking for is not anything about the client's behavior, but rather a consistent pattern of bad luck that has followed the client, in most cases for years. If a client asks the question "Why does this always happen to me?" Then OAP could give them the answerand stop the pattern as well!

While performing a deep induction, the hypnotherapist gives instruction to the subconscious mind to take the client "down to something you did long ago that is the cause of this pattern." In one case, a client who was continually being lied to and betrayed by his choice of lovers discovered a past life when he was himself a seducer and betrayer of women in renaissance Paris. This client's story became especially credible when he explained that he had met two women in his present life that astonishingly still remembered his seduction, knew that it was in Paris, and had not forgiven him.

The second step is to convince the perpetrator of these crimes to apologize to the victims of his crimes and ask for their forgiveness. Sometimes, this is easy. A former ruler of China was eager to apologize to his people and to his "enemies" because he felt guilty all along about starting a pre-emptive war of aggression against a neighboring kingdom. He had lost the war and watched his people massacred as well. The task was more difficult for a Viking war leader who, far from being remorseful for his murder and rape, was proud of his exploits, and expected his heroic feats of war to be sung by the bards for a thousand years. A number of methods can be employed by the therapist to solicit repentance from these individuals, however, including an angry confrontation with the client's present self, a victim of numerous rapes and sexual abuse. While not always easy, such repentance must be solicited before we can complete the process.

The next step is for this overt actor to listen carefully to his victims. Do they forgive him? Sometimes when he explains to these abuse victims the faulty and evil programming he endured since childhood, they begin to understand. Sometimes the perpetrator sheds genuine tears of remorse. Sometimes the client can explain about the heaps of suffering already endured for many lifetimes, including the present one. In many cases this testimony is enough to solicit forgiveness. But many times it isn't. A client may need in these cases to ask the victims of their crime, or their own higher self, to give them some real acts of atonement that they must complete in the present that will mitigate their karmic debt. A client who had raped many women as a Christian crusader in the holy land was told to volunteer at a rape crisis clinic as atonement for his misdeeds, so that he could finally achieve a satisfying relationship with a woman.

If the client receives this atonement, it must be done. I do not believe that overt acts can be cleared in all cases without actually making amends, either directly to those we have hurt or to others in the world. On the other hand, I believe it far better to perform works of kindness with a repentant heart than it is to suffer victimization over and over for our misdeeds. Of course it is our own choice whether conscious or subconscious to continue to suffer karmic patterns of suffering or to learn the lessons of love which our higher self is trying to teach us.

The final step in the process is to move toward self forgiveness. This may not be as easy as it sounds. I find most people are harder on themselves than they are on others. The self-forgiveness process begins by asking the present self of the client "Do you forgive yourself for what you have done?" If the answer is no then the present self is encouraged to express aloud all of their rage against this perpetrator. Then they become the perpetrator and again express their remorse and the terrible circumstances that led them to pursue this wickedness. In time, this dialogue eventually leads to self-forgiveness. This step is a critical part of recovery.

The results? Although the mechanisms behind the changing of ones karmic patterns may be difficult to trace without belief in some form of divine justice, the results I've seen have often been amazing. Poverty can turn into opportunity; abusive relationships are replaced by safe and loving family. I've seen all this and more. Is there a pattern of bad luck in your life you would like to change? Are you willing to learn the lesson there so you can move on?

Sometimes we find ourselves in a very uniquely painful relationship, a love/hate bond perhaps in which we can't live with them, and can't live without them. If you are suffering in such a relationship now, in our next article you'll learn what to do to free yourself from this painful obsession as we examine past life contracts.

Copyright 2005 By David Quigley, CHT