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By Jaime T. Licauco
Above: Israeli hypnotizer Uri Geller doing a centuries-old trick in a trade show in Cannes, France in 2007. More than entertainment, hypnotism could bring many benefits to mankind and help solve difficult problems if used in the proper way.
The growing acceptance of the concept of reincarnation, despite our strong Catholic orientation, has given rise to a good number of individuals performing past life hypnotic regression, even though they may not be qualified to do so.
I've heard, for example, some psychics, fortune tellers, mediums, exorcists and even feng shui specialists practicing it.
Hypnosis is a safe and effective therapeutic procedure in the hands of a trained hypnotist, but it can be dangerous in the hands of an amateur. We've all heard stories of people performing hypnotic spells on others for criminal purposes. Many store cashiers and even bank tellers have been victimized by such criminals.
One dramatic case of an ordinary housewife who was hypnotized by an amateur hypnotist to go back to a previous life had disastrous consequences. The woman was regressed to a past life several hundred years before, when she was a beautiful and accomplished person.
She identified herself so much with that glorious past life, compared to her drab and uninteresting present life, that she had difficulty accepting her present status. She wanted to remain living in the past.
This is the story contained in the book, "The Search for Bridey Murphy," which was made into a movie in Hollywood.
Because it is very easy to place a person under hypnosis, I have always refused to perform past life hypnotic regression on TV.
That's why I was surprised to learn that Oprah Winfrey once showed an episode where a hypnotist placed a woman in a trance and brought her back to a past life, before the camera, from beginning to end.
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