Regression psychotherapies (Rebirthing, Reparenting, Past life regression, Alien abduction, Recovered memory therapy, Satanic ritual abuse, Hypnotherapy, Holotropic Breathwork)

The cause of suffering is in philosophical counseling (true spiritual counseling) due to a separation of the observer and the observed (see my article Philosophical Counseling as an alternative to psychotherapy). The investigation is directed towards the observer (the form of consciousness: the one who evaluates, who says yes and no, who accepts and denies, who compares with earlier and hopes/fears something else), and not the observed (the contents of consciousness: feelings, thoughts, experiences, sense impressions, memories, wishes, hopes, fears, lusts) as in psychotherapy. The main question is therefore in its essence philosophical: Who am I?

Regression psychotherapies are based on the notion that if you discover the cause of your troubles you will be cured. These psychotherapies are (like other New Age psychotherapies) partially attached to science (they often use a lot of pseudoscientifical technical jargon without any meaning at all – most extremely this is seen in Neuro-linguistic Programming (NLP)), partially to spirituality (the therapists often call themselves spiritual counselors). In this confusion they are oblivious to the observer, and are lost in the observed. Therefore they are ignorant about the one who creates the causes. The causes become built into the psychotherapy itself, and are therefore ideological worldviews, or just pure prejudice. It is causes such as inadequate parents, sexual abuse, satanic rituals, cannibalistic orgies, past lifes, alien abduction, possession by entities, etc.  Take your pick. Often they use a one-size-fits-all explanation of every emotional disorder.

These therapists are, in the best Sophist way, planting such causes in their patients minds. They give their patients books to read or videos to watch. They plant them during hypnosis, group sessions, etc., and then these planted causes are “recovered” and offered as validation of their therapeutic techniques and theories. Patient after patient is paraded forth by the therapists as evidence of their good work, yet none of the patients seem better for the therapy and many seem hopelessly ill. The reason is, that it is not that to feel better, which is the cure, but that to have “discovered” the cause (see my article Hypnosis, hypnotherapy and the art of self-deception and the thought distortions Communal reinforcement, Confabulation and Priming effect in my article A dictionary of thought distortions).

Rather than helping clients to become stronger and more independent, most regression psychotherapies, and in particular the rebirthing-reparenting sort, induce in the client an abdiction of responsibility and a state of sickly dependence on the therapists.

Contrary to what they claim, then regression psychotherapies create a philosophical hindrance for the opening into the spiritual source, namely an existence-philosophical, where you in your opinion formation and identity formation strive towards being something else than what you are, where you imitate others, are a slave of others ideas and ideals, and where your actions are characterized by irresoluteness and doubt (also seen in Neuro-linguistic Programming (NLP) and Large Group Awareness Training (LGAT)).

Past life regression is considered “pure quackery” by the American Psychiatric Association.

My articles A critique of Stanislav Grof and Holotropic Breathwork and James Arthur Ray and the sweat lodge tragedy are showing the dangers involved when using Regression psychotherapies in a spiritual context.

Further reading:

The devastating New Age turn within psychotherapy

Cathartic psychotherapies (Primal therapy, Gestalt therapy, Experiential psychotherapy, Holotropic breathwork)