Mysterious Universe

Hi, guys -

Really loving the show! You are a great team and are my favorite podcast. Happy to be a plus member, totally worth it.

As for this “past life regression” business. I find it all very entertaining, but I just want to say one thing: I'm a bit disappointed at the lack of objectivity you guys are showing about this subject. Aaron seems entirely convinced based upon his comments. Ben keeps saying “I can't understand why I wouldn't go under” and “I was disappointed that I couldn't experience” this or that that Aaron experienced. Umm… as a skeptic I find that leaning heavily towards having a confirmation bias.

I think what I'm saying is: there are some people listening who basically see this as B.S. and they want to see you guys approach it with some basic objectivity. The fact that you pull up clear mental images in a hypnagogic or somnambulistic state does NOT automatically mean that “they are past life experiences!” As I listened to your latest podcast the reality of P.L.E. seems like a foregone conclusion.

The woman doing the regressions is very charismatic and seems like a sweetheart, but I wonder how much that plays into your belief in this as actual past life experience, rather than an interesting display of how the mind works in altered states.

I believe in reincarnation for whatever that is worth. I just have some skepticism about past lives being accessible/viewable via hypnosis.

Keep up the great work.

You should read up on material written by Brian Weiss, my fellow MU listener. Being a skeptic in this area once upon a time; evidence is gathering that hypnosis arranges your neural synapses to unlock this deep state of “consciousness”. You can thank neural plasticity for that. Why this practice is still considered hocus pocus with mind blowing revelations, who knows? Granted, there are individuals who make it seem like a freak show, but those are few and far between. At least in California..

Now, I haven't under gone regression. However, researching this topic has only yielded results that defy modern day logic. Which is obviously a problem. It seems as if we're trying to base results on standard empirical models rather than the results themselves. Backwards. You know people have actually been reunited with their previous family/loved ones/friends? How can you explain that? Maybe they're mischievous psychics trying to pull a fast one…? But that's a whole different matter…

I do agree with ya, to an extent, the two should definitely take an objective approach, BUT, considering they undergone the process themselves..I don't blame them for taking these regressions so personally. To be honest, their approach hit right at home, which made it all that much better. Then again, that's me.

Either way, it's nice to see people approach MU with a critical ear. Good to know that there's a diverse listenership in this growing MU family.

Cheers dude.

BTW: Ben & Aaron. Give yourselves a well deserved pat on the back. ;P

Maybe I should have made it a little clearer in the show, but I don't trust that much (if any) of the “past life” I viewed was real. I came away feeling the majority of it was conjured by my mind. In saying that I was definitely not in a deep hypnotic state. It wasn't even a deep tranquility I experience during meditation. If anything I was relaxed but also slightly agitated.

Ironically I put slightly more trust in what I experienced during the whole “light being” meeting that occurred after. I was definitely in a deeper state at that stage.

Real or not, the past life regression sessions are interesting. And what if folks are only accessing subconscious thoughts that are manifesting themselves as memories? It seems like either way these sessions have some sort of therapeutic effect on some folks. And what's crazier/less convenient, being put on anti-anxiety drug for a phobia or taking a trip to a “fake” past life?

On another note, I've always wondered if reincarnation were accepted as fact, would that change how people relate to their parents and other relatives? Would people feel less connected to their heritage?

And I would love to hear a story on how various reincarnation therapists explain the mathematics of souls. Where do they all come from if there's more people here than ever? I guess some would say the souls come from other planets.

Good stuff! I can't wait for Aaron's Ayahuasca trip to Peru.

Honestly Ben's PLR sounds like a good plot for the next big SciFi movie. Maybe you could get James Cameron to direct it?

Oh, and the regression piece was very interesting!

Regarding Ayahuasca. Aaron, it's not from one plant, but two. Wikipedia lists it as: “…prepared from the Banisteriopsis spp. vine, usually mixed with the leaves of dimethyltryptamine-containing species of shrubs from the Psychotria genus.”

The Banisteriopsis caapi vine is the MAO-A inhibitor, and is the plant known as Ayahuasca. So Ben's question was valid… how did they know to combine these two plants? The natives told Terence McKenna that the plants had directed them to combine the two!

Just finished listening to this program (I'm catching up), and I wanted to make a comment about the channelled material. Ben and Aaron were discussing whether the operator influences the information that comes through. It absolutely can and does – though to varying degrees depending on the operator who the info comes through.

I've been an occult practitioner for 13 years, and have while I've never felt all that resonant with the bulk of channelled material, I did go through some channelling training in order to see if I could do it, and what it was like. So I have some first-hand experience of what it is like.

I'll say up front that I was trained in semi-conscious channelling, which is where the operator remains fully awake and aware of everything that is going on, even though you sort of push your own personality back during the process and share your mind with the being, allowing them the spotlight. This is very different than deep trance chanelling, where the operator loses consciousness completely, while the being is allowed to take full control of the operator.

The hardest part of semi-conscious chanelling was keeping your conscious mind pulled out of the way, while the presence spoke through you. This took a concerted and constant effort. My instructor who had been channelling for more than 20 years, and primarily worked through deep-trance even said that doing semi-conscious channelling was still mentally exhausting for her. I can certainly attest to that.

In my case, the spirit that spoke through me was the Group Mind of my soul group. So sort of like the collective intelligence of my soul group (the concept of which you explored in your past-life regression).

When “she” was providing answers, it was obvious that she was limited by what info was available in my mind through my own knowledge and experiences. When someone would ask a question, I would experience the answer being provided instantaneously in a sort of thought-emotion-picture. The knowledge would be there in it's entirety, but then would have to be translated into words and concepts to be communicated. This is where the limitation came in.

I could feel “her” sort of sifting through my mind like a file cabinet for knowledge and language that was akin to what she was trying to communicate. In most cases the language “she” could come up with to articulate the answer was just severely inferior and only told a fraction of what the whole of the answer was. (Very similar to when Ben and Aaron would try to talk about their past-life regressions – you see and know things there that just aren't able to be sufficiently put into words. William James referred to this as the ineffable nature of spiritual experience.)

This was further complicated by trying to make sure that the explanation that was provided was on that the questioner would understand – there was a sense of just knowing roughly what that person's limitations were, and trying to come up with ways to explain the concept in a way that would make the most sense to that person. Alot of metaphors were used to try and get concepts across.

In any case, being inside my head when the answers were kind of “downloaded” in their raw, and accurate form, and then seeing how vague it become as it had to be filtered through language and knowledge that I had readily available, and can absolutely say that what comes through is influenced by the operator…even if they are not consciously doing it. There is no way that it cannot be. Even in deep-trace when the being gets full control, it is still utilizing that specific flesh-puppet to speak through and will be limited by it's inherent limitation.