March 27, 2002
Seminar promotes living in the past
Past Life Regression session draws eager participants
By Carol South
Herald contributing writer
From Roman times to the Civil War to a Native American village, participants in a Past Life Regression session got a snapshot of what they believe are pieces of their former lives.
Nine students attended the session, held Saturday afternoon at the Higher Self Bookstore. Guided by Daniele DeVoe of Frankfort, the session led attendees through five guided meditations designed to take them to their past lives. DeVoe encouraged participants to focus on telling details about these lives, including clothing, smells, other people, surroundings, feelings and sounds.
"Guided meditation is self-hypnosis, one of the oldest techniques to get into past lives," DeVoe, who has been studying this topic since her childhood and leading guided meditations for more than 25 years. "It gets clear enough that eventually you can get past lives with memories as clear as your childhood memories."
DeVoe has found that a person's degree of willingness to venture into the unknown affects their experience in her past life seminars.
"Usually in seminars there is a variety of experiences," she continued. "A really good cross section of people attend: out and out believers who get great results, people who are nervous so they get mixed results and always someone who doesn't get anything."
Saturday's seminar was no exception, with participants having a broad range of memories. Some found themselves in tears while others found comfort in linking up with a lost loved one while others saw very little.
DeVoe also suggested that people who want to pursue their past lives further use some of the meditation techniques she demonstrated on Saturday. They should also keep a journal of their experiences.
Lisa, who declined to give her last name, has been studying various aspects of metaphysics for two years. She said metaphysics as a study beyond physics into what can't be seen. Like Einstein's theories have eventually been proven by science, she believes many concepts of metaphysics also reflect a universal truth, even if science has not yet caught up.
Lisa attended the past-lives seminar Saturday to explore another aspect of this study. She found herself transported to a number of different scenarios that she believes are snippets of her past lives.
"I do believe it can give you useful information and that what I felt and came to me was true," she said. "I believe it had meaning even though it might have been allegory."
Lisa has been drawn to metaphysics after a tragic loss of a child suffered by close friends. When her friends' young son was killed, a person she saw as the embodiment of joy and life, she began questioning some of the teachings of her High Episcopalian upbringing as she worked through her grief.
Going from the high mass of her youth to past lives is not a stretch for Lisa, who still considers herself a Christian.
"Today so many religious teachings have been kind of modified through the ages, sort of like the old telephone game where by the time you get to the end of the line, it's a different story," she said. "That has happened to, for example, the teachings of Jesus Christ."
Skepticism is a common outgrowth of many conversations about past lives. Even for people who believe in this concept, DeVoe fields many questions about the value of delving into past lives. She responds that she realizes the past is dead and gone and people are who they are in the present.
However, DeVoe still believes the inquiry into past lives is worthwhile.
"At the very least people will experience a very interesting psychology study," she said. "You'll find stories about yourself that will tell you a lot about yourself."
Called soul retrieval by Native Americans, past life regression can have therapeutic elements as well.
"You can welcome home past personalities, find powers coming back," DeVoe said. "If little pieces of your self are missing you can do soul retrieval. Traumas that you hold in this lifetime can be relieved and explained by past live experience."