Thanks For The Memories

Freud believed that the trouble began from the moment we were ripped from the womb. Aparna Jha goes back a bit further.

Jha belongs to a new and very small school of pychoanalysts whove given regression a new meaning. The trouble, they insist, starts a long time before birth and childhood. In fact, it all begins in another life.

Are we talking reincarnation? And memories from another life? Make that lives. According to Jha, Delhis only past life therapist, the rewind button will ultimately create a happier future for you and me. Identifying the patterns that dominated your previous lives will help you in this life, she says confidently.

 

At present, Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore combined play host to seven past life therapists peanuts compared to the number of reincarnation experts youll find in any temple. But they attract a growing band of enthusiasts who prefer their retroanalyst to look more like the yuppie next door than Ma Anand Sheela. Jha holds three sessions a day and sees 20 regular clients (counting families as one unit) a month.

Nothing in Jhas office, located in her plush South Delhi house, gives away the unusual nature of her work. Paperbacks mingle with medical journals and computer magazines. The only telltale sign is the New Age guides and a book entitled Russian Gypsy Fortune Telling Cards. Theres soft lighting, comfortable furniture, and yes, a couch that would have warmed Freuds heart.

I try to create a soothing atmosphere, says Jha. Past life therapy isnt for treating mental illnesses. What my clients need is a long-term therapeutic effect.

Theories about past lives need a spoonful of faith to make them easy to swallow. It starts with rebirth, or the belief that we are recycled into a new life when we die. Not to be confused with reincarnation, where youre reborn as yourself, but in another body.

Genetic memory says that each cell in the body remembers everything thats happened from the Big Bang onwards. (Treat your dandruff with respect!) And cryptomnesia explains why we dont walk around wondering which life were in because memories of our past stay buried in the mind until we choose to have them recovered. The past life therapists job is to play archaeologist in your personal drama.

Heres where Catch 22 comes into play. Jha says that theres nothing wrong with being sceptical. In fact, some of her best clients were sceptics. I had doubts at first, says R Prabha, a social worker. But it took just two sessions for me to get in touch with my selves, and I cant tell you the difference that its made.

But if youre a hardcore believer in one life, chances are that your memory wont let you pass go. Nobody can be hypnotised against their will, admits Jha. And hypnotism is the Open Sesame to finding out whether you were Napoleon or merely a footsoldier in Akbars army.

Probably the footsoldier. Most peoples lives are very mundane, Jha says. In other words, this is what you were doing circa 1100 AD: The plumbings gone again, dear, and the price of onions is up again.

There are two exceptions: people whore reality-challenged tend to conjure up larger-than-life roles for themselves. And then again, theres always the chance that you actually were Cleopatra or Akbar and that this life is simply Fate spitting in your eye.

Jha admits to few failures in the 11 years that shes been practising. India has few doubters, she says. Actually, people who dont believe benefit the most, because they come in with fewer preconceived notions.

Many people try out past life therapy as a last resort, continues Jha. Shes careful about whom she takes, and wont handle people with mental problems. Thats for the psychiatrists to deal with, not me, says the therapist firmly.

Whats it like, going back into the past? Its not an exciting process, says Jha. It can take anything from one to four sessions each lasting 90 minutes for a karmic connection to be made between yourself and your former self. While your past is being excavated, so is your wallet: many past life therapists charge more than psychiatrists do per session.

The process isnt complicated. Jha puts her clients into a light hypnotic trance and asks them to return to any lifetime connected with their present life. Some regress instantly; others merely go to sleep. Thats an expensive 90 minute nap, but it can take up to about four sessions before you make contact.

What was it like for her? Melodramatic, is all shes prepared to say. Shes a bit more forthcoming on how one becomes a qualified expert on other peoples past lives: Practice.

Oddly enough, Jha received her training in the home of the burger, not the land of reincarnation. Shed been thinking about past lives ever since she read a book on the subject as a 14-year-old. She studied art at a US college, taught herself hypnosis as a sideline and practised on anyone whod be a guinea pig. Her guru arrived in the form of a Polish-American woman who was a respected past life therapist.

She taught me how to send myself back into the past, and she gave me tapes of Dick Sutphen hes Americas best known past life expert at work. Sutphen would have 50 or 60 people trying out past life therapy. The largest group Ive had was eight people!

With practice, seasoned travellers can return to a previous life at will. And Jha offers reassurance to beginners: You will not be trapped in another life.

Rajiv Narayan, a computer professional who spent 16 sessions in therapy, says: I saw myself the way you see a movie, from a distance. Its not going back into the past in that sense.

Once you have enough frequent flyer points, you might could even hit fast-forward. Theres also future lives, parallel live, even alternate lives, smiles Jha.

But how do you know youre dealing with a genuine memory and not a self-created one? Psychiatrists were tossed this conundrum when some adults in the US responded to suggestions that they had been sexually abused as children by obligingly recreating a set of false memories. The debate that ensued hasnt ended yet.

Past life therapy doesnt throw much light on the issue. Memories are very subjective, Jha admits, instantly adding, I dont think that people are making up stories. Youd be amazed at what the mind can do.

Thats just the point. Is your brain playing mind games with you, or is past life therapy the ultimate good trip? Its a tough question to answer, but theres hope.

If Jha and her fellow past life therapists progress and regress long enough, theyll find concrete evidence some day. The truth is out there. And it might give us all serious deja vu if it ever emerges.