Phil's Law

• Past Life Regression by Maryann K. Schumm, 5/16/98
  • Past Lives Reincarnated by Philip H. Farber, 5/16/98
    • Ashby's Law by Stephen Lankton, 5/18/98
      
      

Stephen Lankton writes:
While it is indeed helpful to have a great number of choices, the person (client or therapist) who begins to characterize experience in terms of a past life has most certainly run out of choices having to do with describing and making useful sense out of behavior.

IMO, the therapist who has shut his mind to a possibility has limited his own effectiveness.

Personally, as I mentioned in other posts here, I don't have a religious or philosophical belief in past lives or reincarnation. However, I don't discount the possibility. Frankly, we just don't know what happens at death, or even what a particular client believes about death when they enter the office... and if you say that you do know "most certainly" then you have run up against one of your own belief limitations. There's as much proof of reincarnation as there is of most beliefs concerning death. That is, virtually none.

In our culture "past lives" or reincarnation are not mainstream beliefs, but in other cultures they are. It is very likely that if you had grown up in, say, Tibet or India, you would be more ready to accept such a concept in your belief structures. And, I might add, you might be inclined to poo-poo the idea that consciousness or some part of the human being ends entirely at death, and to deny such a concept a place in your professional repertoire.

Here's a question for you... Would you be willing to use a metaphor with a fundamentalist Christian client that involved the concept of "heaven"? Or, with an atheistic client, would you use a metaphor that was based on the end of consciousness at death?

Seems like a good practice to join your client's model, not reject it. That is, if you encounter a client who has a particular belief... even if that belief is psychotic or something that you personally don't believe in... you can utilize that belief before leading to something else... if you reject it, you run the risk of losing rapport with the client, IMO.

Again, I'm not advocating past life therapy as a blanket treatment (and, indeed, as I said, have not used it myself), merely pointing out that circumstances and possibilities exist where it might be effective.

Phil
Phil's Page O'Pages

• Depends on One's Frame of Reference by Doug W., 5/20/98
  • Unframed References by Philip H. Farber, 5/20/98
• Why bother? by Stephen Lankton, 5/20/98