Introduction

Is there any possibility that reincarnation can be true? If yes, what was one’s previous life like? Could one have been a railroad worker from the 1800s, a World War I soldier, a businessman, or perhaps a housewife? If reincarnation is true then is it possible to access one’s previous life? Could one’s past life or lives affect one’s current life?

In the realm of hypnotherapy or hypnosis, there is a practice called age regression. This is where a person is supposedly taken back into childhood to experience an alleged trauma that is said to be causing problems in the present. I have even seen something similar practiced by certain deliverance ministers! However, there is also the practice of the alleged age regression into “past lives” or “other personalities,” which will be the focus here. Such a practice presents significant issues, and sadly even some Christians are getting involved in this.

On Instagram, there are many posts where people promote such therapy, touting its supposed benefits. Some claim it can help with self-discovery, overcome fears, anxiety, stress, relationship issues, emotional conflicts, fertility issues, and emotional issues, and can heal traumas. Unsurprisingly, those involved with such practices seem to also engage in other New Age/occult practices that have been exposed here to be demonic door openers such as kundalini awakening, (angelic) reiki, spiritual guides, guided visualization, psychic readings, shamanism, and tarot, etc.

What is Past-Life Therapy?

One website describes past life therapy this way:

Past Life Regression Therapy is said to be rooted in the concept of reincarnation, the belief that our souls have lived multiple lives to learn and grow. This therapy involves a guided relaxation process, often aided by hypnosis, to access memories supposedly buried deep within our subconscious. These memories, proponents argue, hold the key to understanding the persistent issues we face today.

(Source)

Another website that promotes it describes the process:

Past Life therapists generally use hypnosis or an altered state of consciousness. Following an initial interview and clarification of the  symptoms the client rests comfortably on a reclining couch and is gently guided through a breathing and relaxation exercise. As the trance deepens, guided imagery is used to lead the person into a scene of a past event. 

(Source)

Essentially, “Past-life” therapy employs hypnosis to place the person into a trance state or an altered state of consciousness. During a session, a subject answers questions while hypnotized to reveal details about their “past lives.” That purpose is to send the individual “back” into his/her supposed former life or lives to resolve hidden emotional or spiritual conflicts allegedly affecting his/her physical, emotional, or spiritual health today. Yet the results of such therapy typically support occult New Age philosophy and goals (more about that later).

Common names for the practice are Past Life Regression (PLR), Past Life Therapy (PLT), regression or memory regression, or so-called “reincarnation” therapy. It seems more likely to be practiced in the United States, Western Europe, and India. Numerous books have been written on the subject by clinical psychologists, and literally thousands of people have been hypnotically regressed to experience their alleged “past lives.” There have even been professional societies and journals related to the practice.

The Dangers and Demonic Implications

Since hypnosis has been established to be demonic (more on this later), and past life therapy uses hypnosis, then that alone should be enough to completely avoid it. But allow me to build a stronger case against it.

The roots of it can be traced to the renown Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud:

PLT goes beyond traditional psychotherapy. Psychiatrists Carl G. Jung and Sigmund Freud both said that the individual’s worst fears, pain, and trauma are buried deep within the unconcious mind. Freud believed the roots of those problems could be uncovered in early childhood experiences. Psychoanalyst Otto Rank advocated going back further, to the time spent in the womb. With the increase in hypnotherapy, some therapists discovered that many patients automatically regressed to what seemed to be previous lives when asked to identify the source of a problem, thus prompting experimentation with regression.

The use of PLT as an alternative therapy led to the formation of the Association for Past Life, Research and Therapy (APRT) in Riverside, California, in 1980. It is estimated that roughly 80 percent of patients who seek PLT do so in order to eliminate a phobia, habit, or negative tendency.

(Encyclopedia of New Age Beliefs, p. 337)

What’s interesting is that Jung had an enormous influence on New Age thinking – far greater than most people realize, and was deeply interested in psychical research and the occult. He actively participated in séances, and by his own admission, he had spirit guides, one was called Philemon. There is a lot of evidence that Jung was demon-possessed or heavily demonically influenced. As for Freud, he was also involved in the occult. As emphasized here, getting involved in the occult is a huge demonic opener and will almost lead to demonization.

Examining the person who originated or pioneered a practice can help discern if it is godly or ungodly. The modern form of past life regression, at least in America, was believed to have been pioneered by A.R. Martin, a 32nd-degree Freemason who was also involved in hypnosis, and a teacher of meditation (by the way, getting involved in Freemasonry, hypnosis, and meditation are huge demonic door openers). Martin was even associated with the infamous psychic Edgar Cayce.

Martin’s daughter, Lois, seemed to have inherited the evil spirits from her father [read about inheriting demons from your ancestors] as she was psychic and a channeler. She even supposedly channeled a message concerning Martin after he died in 1949.

What exactly went on when Martin conducted a past life regression session with a subject? Bizarre phenomena would occur that I would interpret as demonic.

According to his daughter:

…he would hold his hand above the center of the reviewer’s forehead—not touching it, however—all the while suggesting to the reviewer in a low voice, gently but firmly, to relax, first physically and then mentally

When Dad sensed that relaxation was complete enough, he would ask the reviewer to go back in time to her/his early years, when she was perhaps six years old, then five, then four, and so forth, and to recall where she was at those times, what she was doing, who was with her, how she was dressed.

Then often, quite suddenly, the reviewer would be recalling a past life, speaking in a different voice or language—a high pitched voice or a child’s voice, for example—or many times reviewing what she was doing between lives, how she was planning to return to a physical body and was choosing her parents. For example, a woman who desired to be an opera singer was selecting parents who genetically could give her the vocal chords which would be required to accomplish her goal in her next life.

Dad always suggested to the reviewers, just before they came out of regression, that they would be able to recall and remember everything at will, which they could and did. After leaving our home, many reviewers kept on reliving and recalling their past lives—hours, days, and sometimes weeks later.

(Source)

Other strange phenomena would happen that I would interpret as demonic:

For example, when asked to open their eyes during regression and identify anyone there whom they knew, reviewers would either say they recognized no one present—even though relatives and friends were in the room—or would identify someone present as one whom they had known or been related to in the past life. In addition, the person regressed would take on the age, physical and vocal characteristics, and sometimes the facial features of the past-life personality. People would walk around, bow, do temple rituals, or perform other physical actions. They would talk, sing, and chant in languages of which they had no knowledge—Chinese, Arabic, German, for example—and their grammar and syntax would reflect their past personalities. One individual gave a lengthy lecture on the true meaning of the Buddha.

(Source)

How can anyone know how to speak in other languages while under this “therapy” he/she didn’t know before? It’s obvious the evil spirits took over the person to act out the person from their alleged previous life.

Past-life episodes occurring spontaneously in routine therapeutic hypnosis are written about in Raymond Moody’s Coming Back: A Psychiatrist Explores Past-Life Journeys:

When asked about past lives, it was difficult for me to hide my skepticism…. There the matter stood until I met Diana Denholm. She is a lovely and persuasive psychologist who used hypnosis in her practice. Originally she used it to help people stop smoking, lose weight, and even to find lost objects. But some strange things had happened, she said. Every once in a while, a patient would start talking about experiences from a past life. Most of the time these events occurred when she took people back through their lives to recover a lost, traumatic memory, a process known as age regression therapy. This technique would help them find the source of phobias or neuroses that were creating problems…. The intention of regression therapy was not to go beyond the date of the patient’s birth certificate, just far back in their current life.

But occasionally, patients would slip back even further than seemed possible. They would suddenly begin talking about another life, place, and time as though it were right there before their very eyes…. At first these experiences frightened Denhohn. She thought she had done something wrong in her hypnotherapy, or perhaps she was treating someone with multiple personalities. But when this happened a few times, Denholm began to realize that she could use these experiences to help treat the patient’s disorder.

With research and practice, she became quite proficient at eliciting past lives from people who would allow it. Now she uses regression therapy regularly in her practice because it frequently cuts through hours of therapy by plunging right to the heart of the problem.

(Quoted in Encyclopedia of New Age Beliefs, p. 338)

It’s disturbing that some people spontaneously experience their alleged past lives. This indicates that something spiritual is likely going on.

Parapsychologist Dr. Ian Stevenson (1918-2007) of the University of Virginia was an authority on reincarnation. He even accepted spirit possession as one of the possible explanations for reincarnation phenomena. As far as I know, he wasn’t even a Christian! Interestingly, even a non-Christian can recognize something spiritual is going on.

Dr. Stevenson once said:

“… We can grade the cases along a continuum in which the distinction between reincarnation and possession becomes blurred.”

(Quoted in Encyclopedia of the New Age Beliefs, p. 337)

Psychologist Edith Fiore, clinical psychotherapist and hypnotherapist, and author of You Have Been Here Before, related MPD to past lives. She first observed:

“…sometimes multiple personalities emerge under hypnosis.” Then she theorizes they may be “nonintegrated” past-life personalities, or split personalities, in this life. But she also accepts that “they could also be [spirit] entities of some sort”.

(Encyclopedia of the New Age Beliefs, p. 338)

I don’t think Edith Fiore was/is a Christian, yet even she recognized that those past-life personalities or multiple personalities could be spirits. I believe they are demonic spirits masquerading under the guise of “personalities.”

Another reason why hypnosis is very dangerous is that when it’s employed, it’s difficult to separate truth from fiction. Compounding the issue, under hypnosis it is difficult to separate purely human suggestion from spiritistic suggestion when the latter is present.

Perhaps the biggest reason why it’s dangerous is that being under hypnosis can lead to demonization —  i.e., it can open the doors for evil spirits to indwell a person. I can attest, being involved in deliverance ministry, that I have dealt with demonized people who have opened the doors to evil spirits by getting involved in hypnosis.

It is said that those who have past life regression experiences, which are similar in impact to alleged UFO abductions can be profoundly affected by them. They may produce dramatic life and worldview changes that harmonize with occultism. People who undergo PLT say they come into contact with their own supposed “inner wisdom,” which continues to guide them long after the therapy, seeing it as part of a spiritual progression in which the soul constantly strives for perfection. They say they become aware of certain supposed universal laws, such as karma. They learn there is no “good” or “bad,” but that everything is relative, an opportunity to learn and advance. Wouldn’t it make sense for the devil to be working behind this practice when it leads people to such an unbiblical worldview?

In essence, past-life therapy is a form of questionable or occult practice that can open doors for patients to adopt an occult worldview and to seek out such activities as developing altered states of consciousness, psychic powers, or spirit contact, and can even lead to demonization.

As a side note, there is also the issue of “false memory syndrome,” associated with past life regression. False memory syndrome was coined to define a set of behaviors and actions resulting from false memories of trauma and/or sexual abuse. The memories are recovered as an adult, usually during therapy, and contested by the person accused. It has resulted in many damaged lives as a result of family members recalling alleged past abuse which, in many cases, never occurred. There was even a non-profit organization, The False Memory Syndrome Foundation, which was comprised of prominent researchers and clinicians from the fields of psychiatry, psychology, social work, law, and education that provided assistance to victims of this syndrome. If a person is under hypnosis or hypnotherapy, these false memories are likely implanted by evil spirits. Thus, satan’s kingdom is causing damage to innocent lives because of false accusations due to false memories.

Via hypnosis, the demonic spirit world may take advantage of any person in an altered state of consciousness. False memories seem to be a key method for taking advantage, whether the memories are of sexual abuse, satanic abuse, past lives, UFO abductions, or others. The purpose is to deceive and destroy. The spirits could care less what someone believes, whether he has good motives, or if the person has a Ph.D. in psychology or theology.

How is Past-Life Therapy Explained?

The truth is there is no such thing as a past life, which will be substantiated Biblically later. So what is the source of the information people give when they go under past life therapy? The logical conclusion is that it comes from either 1) suggestions of the therapist; 2) inventions or delusions of the patient; or 3) spiritistic manipulation of the mind. In other words, a person may have “memories” of past lives due to suggestion, mere imagination, or spiritual deception intended to keep people from believing in Christ.

How does one explain corroborating stories that seem to support past lives? I can vaguely remember as a child watching TV programs about people who have claimed to have been reincarnated from a person who lived before they were born. One such program was The Oprah Winfrey Show. They had investigators to verify if the details about the deceased person were accurate. I was astonished and it got me thinking that perhaps reincarnation was real.

In such cases when it comes to accurate information about a person who once lived that a person supposedly reincarnated from, the source of the information that could provide this information would be spirits. The Bible reads that spirit beings such as angels have existed even before human beings (Gen. 3:1; Job 38:4-7), and they can see people, interact with them, and even possess them (Matt. 8:28-29). Godly angels are ruled out for obvious reasons thus it must be evil spirits or demons. They somehow can provide false memories of “past lives” via hypnosis deceitfully making people think they have lived a previous life that is now reincarnated. Such spirits can feed such information to people like mediums or psychics, which is how they can have supernatural knowledge. For instance, in Acts 16:16, the apostle Paul expelled a demon from the psychic girl by the power and authority of the Lord Jesus Christ, consequently losing her supernatural ability. Her supernatural knowledge was tied to the evil spirit indwelt in her. Because hypnosis induces a state of trance conducive to spiritistic manipulation, spiritistic influence is certainly one logical explanation for the otherwise unexplainable information.

The Biblical condemnation of hypnosis and past life therapy

I am completely convinced that all forms of hypnosis and hypnotherapy are demonic and the Bible prohibits the practice of it. The prohibitions can be found in Leviticus 19:26,31 and Deuteronomy 18:10-12. From the Biblical perspective, in places like Deuteronomy 18, when it speaks of “charmers” and “enchanters,” the practice involved anciently was exactly what has recently become acceptable in medicine and psychiatry as hypnosis. Just because hypnosis has surfaced in medicine does not mean that it is different from the ancient practices of charmers and enchanters or from those which have been used more recently by witchdoctors and occult hypnotists.

As read in the Encyclopedia of New Age Beliefs:

Wilson’s Old Testament Word Studies defines the various Hebrew words for “charmer” as, in part, referring to one who speaks in a soft, gentle manner or who uses soft, silent motions (much like the hypnotist); also, as “to join together, to bind, to fascinate”. Some have translated the “interpreters of omens” or “observer” as relating to a whispering magician or as one “who fascinates through an evil eye”. The Hebrew-Greek Key Study Bible defines “enchanter” (nachash) in part as “to hiss, to whisper (a magical spell), to practice sorcery or enchantment…” A “charmer” (cheber) is defined, in part, as “a spell, a charm, an enchantment,” and it has the added connotation of “to unite” or “to tie a magic knot”.

(p. 340)

One editor gave his take on the possible relevance to the practice of hypnosis as quoted in the Encyclopedia of New Age Beliefs:

Of the several Hebrew words used in the Old Testament in connection with divination, none directly or explicity refer to Mesmerism or hypnosis. The more general terms, ‘ōb qāsam nāhash, and kāshaph, are too broad for making a specific reference to hypnotism.

However, words with a more narrow connotation– lākash (to charm, enchant), nākash (to whisper sorceries, to take auguries), and hābar (to charm), (Deut. 18:11)– may very well involve activity which was designed by its esoteric and secretive nature to induce various states of mind by the power of suggestion, i.e., hypnosis. In such cases, the audience becomes captivated and influenced by the very spell itself.

In fact, commentator R.E. Clements noted that the term “expert enchanter” in Isaiah 3.3. (NKJV) “was a person skilled in incantations, and who was believed thereby to be able to cast spells on people and so undermined their strengths and rational faculties” (R.E. Clements, The New Century Bible Commentary, Isaiah 1-39, Grand Rapids: Erdmans, 198-, p. 48).

Of interest also is the fact that in 2 Kings 21:6 and 23:24, the LXX [Septuagint] uses thelētēs for the Hebrew ‘ōb. One older authority observed that thelētēs “meant perhaps a person with a strong will who could act upon the feelings of others” (Rober Gidlestone, Synonyms of the Old Testament, Grand Rapids: Erdmans, 1951, p. 299).

(p. 340)

The Biblical Refutation of Reincarnation

Sadly, reincarnation is a popular belief. According to PewResearch.Org, 33% of the American population believes in reincarnation. What’s appalling is that 38% of Catholics and 26% of Protestants say that they believe in reincarnation. But there is a gap among Protestants: “48% of members of the historically Black Protestant tradition say they believe in reincarnation, while just 31% of mainline Protestants and only 16% of evangelical Protestants say the same.”

Reincarnation is one of the fundamental beliefs of Eastern religions such as Buddhism and Jainism. In Hinduism, it’s an ancient idea based upon the concept of karma, that people slowly “atone” for and eliminate their own “sins” in each successive life until they finally achieve perfection at some distant point in the future.

Many people who believe in reincarnation falsely believe that when they die, they will NOT encounter Judgment from God, but simply other lifetimes in which to continue their spiritual evolution and goal of self-perfection. If this is true, there is no need for any person to receive Jesus Christ as their personal Savior from sin and judgment.

However, the Holy Bible clearly teaches in Hebrews 9:27-28 that “… it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment: So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation.” This passage alone destroys any possibility of remembering past lives — reincarnation cannot be possible.

It also reads in Luke 23:42-43 that Jesus said to the thief on the cross that He will be with Him in paradise that very day. This assumes that the thief will not be reincarnated back into earthly life. Moreover, human souls can’t be reincarnated over and over since some people in the Bible saw the spirits of long-dead people like Moses being seen by the apostles in Matthew 17:3 during the transfiguration on the Mount. How come Moses wasn’t reincarnated?

There are a lot more scriptures that stand against reincarnation. Abraham, Lazarus, and the rich man were not reincarnated (Luke 16:20-31). With Lazarus being tormented it’s easy to assume that he would love for reincarnation to be a reality to get out of the torment. The souls in Sheol/Hades Christ preached to weren’t reincarnated (Eph. 4:8-10). The martyred tribulation souls didn’t reincarnate (Rev. 6:9-11; 20:11). The great multitude redeemed from the great tribulation didn’t reincarnate either (Rev 7:9, 14). There is no suggestion in the Bible that reincarnation is real.

I have come across New Agers appealing to the Bible to say that John the Baptist was Elijah reincarnated to support the idea of reincarnation. But is it true? Firstly, Elijah didn’t die, he was taken into heaven in a whirlwind on a chariot of fire (2 Kings 2:11). The Jews were expecting Elijah to physically return from heaven, not to be reincarnated. The fact that Elijah did not die but was taken up bodily into heaven rules out him as the reincarnated John. Secondly, John the Baptist came in “the spirit and power” of Elijah (Luke 1:17), not because he was Elijah in a literal sense. Thirdly, Elijah appeared with Moses at Jesus’ transfiguration after John the Baptist’s death. This would not have happened if Elijah had changed his identity into that of John (Matthew 17:11-13). Lastly, John the Baptist even goes so far as to explicitly deny that he was Elijah (John 1:19–23).

Indeed, the belief in reincarnation is a clever deception of the devil as it insulates those who accept it against the basic gospel message. How can one who believes in reincarnation logically accept his/her need to believe in the Lord Jesus as Savior from sin? If the person is going to atone for one’s own sins (pay off one’s “bad karma”) over many lifetimes and achieve one’s own perfection, why does anyone need to believe in Jesus Christ for salvation? Indeed, Christ could not have atoned for our sins if we were to atone for them ourselves. On the other hand, if through His death on the cross, Christ atoned once and for all, for all sin (Hebrews 10:10, 14), then reincarnation could not possibly be true. If Jesus Christ paid for all sin, what sin (or “karma”) remains for us to atone for? Jesus bore “our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed” (1 Peter 2:24).

As emphasized here, satan is a liar. The Lord Jesus said of satan while addressing the religious leaders of His time: “Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it” (John 8:44). He deceived Eve in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3), and in fact still deceives the whole world today (Revelation 12:9). Deception is used by the enemy to fool people into believing unbiblical ideas that lead people away from the truth of God and the Bible.

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If you don’t know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, you can receive Him into your heart, and He can deliver you from darkness and sin and have your name written in His Book of Life.

If you are sincere, you can say this simple prayer to the Father (it doesn’t have to be word for word):

“God, I recognize that I have not lived my life for You up until now. I have been living for myself and that is wrong. Please forgive me of all of my sins just as I forgive others. I need You in my life; I want You in my life. I acknowledge the completed work of Your only begotten Son Jesus Christ in giving His life for me on the cross, I believe in my heart Jesus is Lord and was raised from the dead and I long to receive the forgiveness you have made freely available to me through this sacrifice. Come into my life now, Lord. Take up residence in my heart and be my king, my Lord, and my Savior. From this day forward, I will no longer be controlled by sin, or the desire to please myself, but I will follow You all the days of my life. Those days are in Your hands. I ask this in the Lord and GOD Jesus’ precious and holy name. Amen.”