When you think of hypnosis, you automatically get one of two mental pictures. Either you see the evil Svengali character making people do his bidding or you picture an audience in a nightclub bouncing around squawking like a chicken. In reality, hypnosis is more the second than the first and has medical and psychic benefits.
According to Mayo Clinic, hypnosis is useful to quit certain habits, work with pain management but also treat ailments such as high blood pressure, migraines, asthma, and even treat warts, psoriasis and dermatitis. It also was a powerful tool used to access the subconscious mind and bring out the psychic knowledge of Edgar Cayce. Just like meditation, hypnosis is not a lack of control but a controlled focus. It helps direct the mind to areas we overpower with the chattering of consciousness.
Edgar Cayce used his trance like state to access the bodies of people he never met and diagnose their maladies. Not only had he not met them, often they were thousands of miles away from him. He simply read the letter requesting a healing. Focused on the name and then gave a diagnosis and cure for their disease. Since he was in a trance, he had a secretary that wrote down his dictation. When he awoke, he remembered nothing.
Therapists, in an attempt to find the cause of a mental condition, use hypnosis. Often they get more than they bargained for with some patients. These patients tell of a life that doesn't exist today. Often it doesn't exist in this century or the last. While different theories exist, those that believe, think the therapist tapped into a past life.
Past life regression has many doubters. Primarily because there are so many Napoleons, Ben Franklins and Julius Caesars found in the group that claim to experience a past life. There are, however, justified claims. These are past life regressions brought on by hypnosis that either contain information that it would be almost impossible for the average person to glean or proof positive that the person is truly experiencing another life.
There are several cases where past life regression induced by hypnosis lead individuals to know bits of information they had no other means of experiencing, except through their past life. One man in Russia could read in a different language. A woman in the United States that had no German ties spoke German. A young person in India knew an entire family an their history but at the young age of nine, had never met them. She recognized her brothers and husband immediately.
Using hypnosis to make explore a past life or increase the psychic ability is within the grasp of people that choose that route. During the cold war, both sides, the Soviet Union and the United States, used hypnosis to increase abilities of distant viewing and other mental powers. While these projects were under secret file at that time, the records are now open to the public.
