PAST LIVES

There are just as many (if not more) charlatans and snake oil salesmen populating the spiritual wellness scene than in Hollywood. I’ve spent enough time in both worlds to separate the bullshit from the legit. Here is my unbiased report from the past lives field…

I have psychics on speed dial and know sound healers on every continent. I travel with my pendulum, a piece of black tourmaline to ward off negative energy, and bespoke protection oil from a witch in Southern California. I’ve been known to gift friends tarot decks and fairy chimes, and even offer house sage’ing services - just ask Plum Sykes. When I moved out of Los Angeles, I had to edit my vast collection of magic sticks, rocks and pine cones gathered around the world at vortex spots.

What I didn’t know, until I attended a Workshop at Omega Institute in Rhinebeck, New York, a couple of weeks ago, held by preeminent psychiatrist, hypnotherapist and best selling author, Dr. Brian Weiss, was that past lives would be the great equalizer of all the esoteric realms I’ve traversed.

For three days I sat in a darkened room alongside 500 people hailing from every continent, as Dr. Weiss led us in group past life regression hypnosis. There were attendees from Poland, Sweden, India, China and even an entire delegation from Japan. I met Christian, Hindu, Buddhist, Jewish and Muslim folks, many who had attended Dr. Weiss’s workshops for consecutive years. Several of the Christians I spoke with shared that they were disillusioned with the strict doctrine of their faith. They said that learning about reincarnation was the first time they’d felt something they could relate to. Others were seeking comfort from the beyond, assurance that a deceased loved one was at peace. I talked to a retired physician with Stage 4 cancer looking into alternative therapies, and a woman who stopped me whilst I was staring at a butterfly to lay claim to it as her dead mother. I overhead people expressing frustration about not being able to access any past life memories during the hypnosis, and a girl in her twenties wearing a t-shirt that read “Brujas Abolish Ice” bragging to her friend about how easily she regressed but wanted to get to the group healing exercises in order to work through trauma.

And then there was me.