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All of the books that I have included below have been and remain dramatic in their impact on the professions of psychotherapy and hypnotherapy. The authors are all leaders and explorers of the human psyche who have brought forward great tools that work and facilitate true emotional (and often physically reflective) healing. The case histories of their clients and the work of other similar practitioners in this field should be regular front page stories. The experiences of clients in this work is so transformative as to be quite beyond the comprehension of the rational mind. It is really not far from the true alchemy of the Philosopher’s Stone.

The books below are listed in the order of reading that I generally recommend for clients and psychotherapists with little knowledge or experience in the field of hypnotherapy.

Most of these are available through Amazon.com.

Brian l. Weiss, M.D.     -Many Lives, Many Masters
This best selling work is required reading for anyone initially curious about past lives and any professional therapist who is thinking about venturing into the field of effective hypnotherapy and past lives regression.

Brian Weiss is a psychiatrist who had not been predisposed to accept the concept of reincarnation. In this best selling true case history his patient spontaneously regresses into a “past life”and leads him through session after session on the track of healing of her life through reliving significant experiences in other lives. The patient’s life stories, alone, are poignant and moving. Brian Weiss’s growth and reaction to the gift of her healing in his life is dramatic and perhaps just as life transforming as the patient’s transforming experiences in hypnotherapy.

Weiss has written other books since the publication of this one, Messages from the Masters and Only Love is Real.

Hazel M. Denning, Ph.D.      -Life without Guilt, Healing through Past Life Regression
Hazel is one of the contributors to the two volume manual Regression Therapy (see below) and is the Executive Director Emeritus and Founder of the International Association for Regression Research and Therapies. William Baldwin has called her the grande dame of past life regression therapy. Life without Guilt is really a wake up call to the profession and the public alike about how, until now, we have been missing the boat in our traditional western approaches to mental and emotional healing.

Hazel writes in a very clear and lucid manner. She presents very succinct summaries of the histories of reincarnation as a belief and the law of Cause and Effect, or Karma and how past life regression repeatedly teaches us of these principles in all our lives. Her narrative on case histories is very well framed within the context of the theme of guilt. The selection of verbatim transcripts of the sessions with clients is extremely helpful. She weaves the case stories and themes so the reader can easily see and comprehend how easily yet dramatically past life regression therapy brings about surprising revelation and deep healing of the client’s presenting complaints and symptoms

Randal Churchill       -Become the Dream, The Transformative Power of Hypnotic Dream Work
On sale through Randal’s Hypnotherapy Training Institute web site at http//:www.hypnoschool.com
Become the Dream is a welcome addition to the literature of both Gestalt Therapy and Regression Therapy. It is a well thought out piece on bringing the principles of Gestalt Therapy dream work into the hypnotherapy realm.

Many hypnotherapists and psychotherapists may be unaware of the depth of the influence of Gestalt therapy through out the field of Regression Therapy. Fritz Perls’ Gestalt Therapy is the basis of many processes adapted into the regression protocols, trainings, and treatment modalities such as Roger Woolger’s Matrix Therapy and David Quigly’s Alchemical Hypnotherapy.

This easily readable book begins with an introductory chapter to the work of hypnotherapy and then gives a good overview of the principles of Gestalt, Gestalt dreamwork methods, and how to combine hypnotic processes with Gestalt dreamwork.

Churchill follows through with case transcriptions of client sessions (most done in a class setting). While this reviewer does not agree with some of the author’s directive processes at the end of the sessions, these elements in no way dampen the positive impact this book can have for the psychotherapist seeking to add a significant tool to their kit bag.

Roger Woolger, Ph.D.      -Other Lives, Other Selves
Already a classic in this field, the book stories the author’s journey into the practice of past life therapy, descriptions of how past life therapy works, an accounting of other approaches to past lives, relates the emerging synthesis of psychotherapy and hypnotic regression, draws upon the Law of Karma and Buddhist scripture as points of reference to support an understanding of case histories and then through sections with other correlated case examples delves into categorical areas such as childhood trauma, sexual and reproductive problems, phobias and other problems.

A major contribution to Regression and Past Life Therapy is brought forward in his work on the significance of the birth and death processes and how the themes and residues from unfinished business from other lives are carried into the compression space of the womb and the emergence of the personality at birth. The scenarios and dynamics to be played out in this life have already been compacted into the conception - womb - birth experience. Thus, this period in a client’s life can offer tremendous ground for profound clearing and healing.

In a note to readers who are searching for his book at Woolger expresses that his work has developed significantly further since the 1988 publication of this book and that it includes more “subtle” bodies work and work based on the Tibetan Book of the Dead.

Barbara Brennan      -Hands of Light and Light Emerging
http://www.barbarabrennan.com
Barbara Brennan is a recognized leader and healer in the field of energy work. Her approach is powerful and whole. In this life, she entered the doorway of the healer through her work as a scientist and then as a seeker.

Her first book, Hands of Light, was a landmark in the field, with clear and lucid instructions on how the bodies of energy and mind and spirit work together, interface, hold our true nature, and hold trauma and blocks to it’s clear flow. The inspiration and direction from her guide is wonderful.

The second book, Emerging Light, is another step up in consciousness. In addition to bringing insight to the energy of relationship in healing work and development of ones “sight”, Barbara also provides a solid integration of the conceptual holographic model with her work, the recent profound developments in hypnotherapy and past lives regression work, and others.

Jack Elias, C. Ht.       -Finding True Magic, Transpersonal Hypnotherapy/NLP
http://www.findingtruemagic.com
No other author (that I have read or studied) in this field brings such passion and consciousness to the how to of hypnotherapy as Jack Elias. When I first started with this manual of technique I was pushed back a little by his “process” and then shortly realized that he was literally attempting to move me to an altered state while writing of his purposes and concepts. I could feel the compression of wisdom and mind wrenching and concept blowing sentences that brought whole realms of my own belief systems to the fore to be examined in an instant. Often, I would have to read and reread whole paragraphs and then put the book down and breathe deeply as minirealizations of the Truth of Elias’s monologue seeped in. I found my self celebrating “eurekas” often.

Elias teaches that “exploring attaining . . .wholeness and inner peace” is an integral part of his manual for practitioners because he believes that success with clients is directly related to the depth and experience of the therapist’s own contemplation and conscious inner life.

So the process of the practitioner becoming more “awake”, if you will, is easily woven into the teaching and training process of this manual. Detailed scripts are integrated into the discussions of various areas.

Elias breaks the training in the manual into phases. First is a basic introduction to hypnosis and the nature of the egoic mind.

Second is an illumination of Regression/Past Life Therapy with discussion on accessing the Higher Self or True Self, coverage of the Vedic traditions of India and its view of Shakti and the power of illusion in an interplay of the psyche that Elias calls “egoic minding” and the awakening from egoic trance. He also includes a model of the psyche that correlates the Neuro Linguistic Programming model of the Psyche with the Five Skandhas of Buddhism.

The manual continues with a great piece on subpersonalities and trance work and an effective (though brief) work on “Shame and the Addictive Personality”.

Elias gives a whole section to archetypes, which can minimally play a very helpful role for the hypnotherapist seeking to do a thorough assessment of the client and develop a very “whole” case plan. This section has extensive scripts and commentary on accessing archetypes and utilizing them for the hypnotherapeutic processes.

Finally, the manual deals with shadow work, entity attachment and releasing, couples and group hypnosis, and developing a practice.

Winafred Blake Lucas, Ph.D.     -Regression Therapy: A Handbook for Professionals, Vols I and II (1993)
This is an extraordinary opus on regression therapy. It is a must for anyone doing Regression Therapy. The editor told me it took her seven years to compile, edit, write her own sections and rewrite those sections by the contributors so they were all in the same subject format and easily readable. Over 1100 pages of exceptionally clear writing on areas of regression therapy and example cases on each approach discussed.

In Volume I: Past Life Therapy, Winafred Blake Lucas, (contributing author and editor) has put together extremely thorough sections on: The History of Regression Therapy, Theory, Induction, and Processing. Contributors include some of the original contributors to the Journal of Past Life Therapy and internationally recognized proponents of and authors in the field of regression therapy (sometimes under other names or terms). Contributors to Volume I are Ronald Wong Jue, Ph.D., Hazel M. Denning, Ph.D., Roger J. Woolger, Ph.D., Edith Fiore, Ph.D., Chet B. Snow, Ph.D., Rob Bontenbal, M.A. and Tineke Noordegraaf, M.M. (The Netherlands), Irene Hickman, D.O., Edward Reynolds, Ph. D., Barbara Findeisen, M.F.C.C., Thorwarld Dethlefsen, Ph.D., (Germany), Ernet F. Pecci, M.D.

Volume II: Special Instances of Altered State Work includes contributions by the same therapists in volume I plus 16 additional contributors. The section include Regression to Prenatal and Birth Experiences, Regression to Childhood, Child Abuse, Varieties of Interlife Experience, Conversations with the Unborn, Contemporary Approaches to (Spirit) Releasement, Death, Dying and the Dead, and Progression to the Future.

Edith Fiore, Ph.D.     -The Unquiet Dead
Most broadly recognized writers in the field of hypnotherapy who relate to the existence of attached entities (earthbound spirits or demonic) defer to Edith Fiore as a pioneer in spirit releasement or at least reference her work’s case examples of certain types of encounters and symptoms of attachment. This book is considered a primer.

Dr. Fiore gives case histories in a verbatim manner that reveals her process of intervention and, as with other hypnotherapists whose work deals with more than just regression and inner child work, her case histories document a true willingness to explore “out of the box” to uncover the attachments and to bring forth release of them from the clients.

This book is relatively small and easy to read and become engrossed in.

Louise Ireland-Frey, M.D.      -Freeing the Captives
A personably written account and treatment manual of cases of attached entities, both demonic and earth bound (those who have died but not risen into the Light or the Heaven worlds) and their releasement. Ireland-Frey also describes remote releasement, doing releasement of entities through a “channel” of another while the client or patient is either physically absent or emotionally unavailable as may be in the case of a child or elderly person. Additionally she describes the freeing of earth bounds who are wanderers or haunt various physical settings. Ireland-Frey also adds more terms to the releasement glossary to address the functions of thought forms, emotional forms, nature spirits and other assorted intruders such as concordant elements, and spiritual viruses.

William Baldwin, D.D.S., Ph.D.     -Spirit Releasement Therapy
Though the title is misleading, this is an excellent book and comprehensive work as a manual for serious students and practitioners of hypnotherapy and psychotherapy in the broadest manner of applications (except medical/dental hypnotherapy). The author systematically builds the knowledge base from a brief but excellent summary of the primary psychotherapies, a background and comparative 6history of Multiple Personality Disorder and Spirit Possession Syndrome and builds a solid base for students in hypnotic inductions and non hypnotic inductions, Past Life Regression and Past Life Therapy. With these fundamental tools he then leads (in the second 200 pages) into Spirit Releasement Therapy (a term coined by Baldwin), which includes treatment of “well intentioned” earthbound entities and treatment of the “demonic”.

Many cases are described of symptoms whose causes were not ascertained until addressed as possible “spirit attachment”. Talk therapies and even normally highly effective hypnotherapy (including past life regression) could not bring about the clearing of particular symptoms. Baldwin clearly lists the signs of attachment (rather than calling it possession) and then clearly demonstrates his protocols for release of the attached earthbound spirit into the heaven worlds (Light).He does the same orderly process for identifying cases where there may be demonic attachment and the recommended protocol for clearing and releasing of such entities.

What is always dramatic in this work is the almost night and day type of experience of the clients before releasement and afterwards, whether the attached entity was demonic or just an earthbound - a person who died and for various reasons did not rise into the Light (the normal passage to the heaven worlds).

Many psychological symptoms brought into the therapy by the client are often totally cleared immediately after the releasement process. Of course this does not eliminate the need for other deep healing work such as past life work, inner child work and other appropriate therapies.

This is definitely a technique manual. Scripts for different settings and processes are interwoven throughout the 400 page second edition. Spirit Releasement Therapy is an epic work and a gift to all of who seek to become more effective in facilitating healing through hypnotherapy. The author passed on in 2004. His work in this area will be seen by future healers as a landmark, a milestone in the field of spiritual and emotional/mental healing. Thank you, Bill.

Shakuntala Modi, M.D.      -Remarkable Healings
This 618 page volume gives very extensive and detailed descriptions of spirit attachment and demonic possession and attachment. While this should not be considered a “how to manual”, there are brief descriptions of this psychiatrist’s application of various hypnotherapy tools such as past life regression and the removal of earthbound and demonic spirits. The greatest value of this book is found in the extensive case histories and detail of symptoms and the effect of clearing of the entities. There is a certain religious tone (Christian) that colors the reading of the cases. Additionally, Modi tends to promote assumptions around certain conditions that may not necessarily be true with all clients or patients and can be misleading in the application of these assumptions in treatment.

Modi’s work is, nevertheless, very impressive. She states that roughly 77% of her patients report having demons in side of them. This is similar data to that of Baldwin and Fiore. Mental health professionals may balk at the mere concept of attachment, let alone at the claims of these psychotherapists that the majority of their clients had such conditions. Upon venturing into such material readers may scoff at the large numbers of attachment cases, let alone their very purported existence.

Though such attachments may be considered only metaphors of inner dynamics by skeptics, the case histories presented by Modi (and Baldwin and Fiore), nevertheless, demonstrate how easily one can reveal the presence of entity attachment, how their presence explains particular symptoms, and how clear the pathways for dramatic healings are through appropriate and well guided hypnotherapy.

The Journal of Regression Therapy (Beginning with Volume 1, Number 1, Spring 1986)
Available through the International Association for Research and Regression Therapies at http://iarrt.org
An outstanding collection of articles, research, case studies, innovations in Regression Therapy and debate among the leading professionals in the field. I strongly recommend these journals. Readers can go to the web site and review the titles of articles and summaries and order reprints of selected articles. Allow for about 6 weeks for delivery.

Ronald DeVasto, D.C.H and John Kelly, Ph.D.
Fragmented Souls: An Inside Look at Spirit Attachment and Spirit Fragmentation Therapy
Available through eSpirit Publishing 687 Cedar Forest Circle Orlando, FL 32828 407-207-8019

“Fragmented souls” is a term similar to “soul fragmentation” used by William Baldwin, Ph.D. in his manual “Spirit Releasement Therapy”. This book approaches the same subject from a different angle and demonstrates a new protocol or process for regressions therapist called spirit profiling (charting) that is innovative in that it adds past life energies and residues to the categories of investigation in the scanning or charting process of the client in trance. This is sort of a differential diagnosis to determine whether what is seen by the client is an attachment of an “earthbound spirit” or a demonic entity, or a fragmentation of energy from some one or something else.

The techniques are demonstrated with case transcripts with assessment of cases and procedures.

The authors tend to find “what they are looking for” and write as if there were nothing else in clients psyche’s except the categories in this book . . . I found disagreement with some of the authors’ categorical statements around this type of work. Never the less, some of the tools are innovative and easily adaptable into a repertoire of releasement tools.

A very worthy effort and significant contribution to this area of Regression Therapy.

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