Looking for something to read at bedtime the other evening I came across a book my ex left behind. Life On The Other Side by Sylvia Browne. I peruse through it until I'm tired and go to sleep. In the book she talks about taking clients into past life regression and how very often things that are bothering people in this life are holdovers from another life. When the client is brought back, the problem is usually resolved once they understand it came from a previous life.
Last night I read she has had many FTM and MTF clients who she has regressed. And she claims their gender identity conflict comes from a past life. "...ten times out of ten we discover together that they're still clinging to having been female or male in a majority of their past lives."
She then goes on to say, "It's just a subconscious spirit memory of a visage from a past life on The Other Side that's causing you to seem so inappropriate to yourself."
Most TGs I know have at one time or another touched on the subject of past lives and if something like that could come into play with who we are today. I suppose it's possible. I don't have enough facts to prove or disprove reincarnation or the afterlife. What I do know was if I thought something like regression might have resolved the conflict that burdened me all those years, I certainly would have looked into it. And if I thought I could have found someone who had decent credentials, I would have given it a shot. It would have been a lot cheaper than the what I paid for transitioning.
What are your thoughts?
Interesting question.
I tend to be nerdy, and to address questions such as yours in a nerdy way - though I am a Christian and therefore do not personally believe in reincarnation.
I would like to see follow-up studies of these transsexual regression session patients like... ten or twenty years later. Just to see if they were just in delusion that they were "cured" or if the regression thing was the right thing to do there.
As long as I don't get these informations, I remain sceptical. Not saying it was wrong or right, just sceptical.
By the way, if the regression therapy worked, it's not proof that reincarnation exists. If it did not work, it's no proof that reincarnation does not exist.
It's something I would have definitely given a chance had I known where to find someone who's had a lot of success at it.
But on a slightly different note: there doesn't necessarily need to be such a thing as reincarnation or an afterlife for "past life regression" to work. Scientists have found that "genetic memories" can be passed on through DNA in child birth.
I have done it.
It worked well for me - not as a cure for my GID because I don't actually believe ever really had that condition but as a way to understand some things about my life.
I have successfully recovered what I believe are 12 incarnations. They are evenly spread between male and female and they span about 4000 years. None of them was anything spectacular but all of them shone a light on the things which make up my persona.
When I started out I was open minded about whether the voices that emerged would be just aspects of my own subconscious archetypes or whether there would be some existential reality behind them. However curiously I have done some research and I did discover some interesting indicative real world evidence that one of the lives, a young welsh woman, may actually have existed at the time and place that I recalled.
I also have from her memories a stunningly vivid memory of giving birth which I have written out in detail and shown to someone who had recently undergone the experience of natural un assisted (ie no drugs) childbirth. She was of the opinion that my account was such that it could only have been written from direct experience as it checked out perfectly with what she had been through.
None of that is proof... but it is interesting, and as a result I can say with some confidence that I know what it feels like to be pregnant and give birth to a son.
As regards a cure for GID I think that would depend on whether it related to a past trauma or problem or whether it was just that your spirit had achieved a place of balance and wanted to try to preserve that by living two genders combined in one life. I guess that is what I had always believed before the sessions. And what I learned in them reinforced that in me - namely that for me being trans was never a disorder or something negative. It was a positive calling. In a very real spiritual sense it was something I "chose" to do before I was born.
You can only cure something which is being done negatively. If it is being actively sought in a positive spirit then it can not be a dis-order rather it is a desire. So it neither needs a cure, nor can it have one.
As a possible source, interesting.
As a cure? What I am is me. It took me a long time to love myself. Even the bits I don't really like. If I changed that, would I still be me>
More importantly, if I changed that, would others still be able to relate to me?
My wife, my firends in Susans', those who know me?
My hopes and dreams are what keep me going. And my wife. Susans' has started to put so much of it into some perspective.
Wher would I start without all that?
I don't believe in it. Past lives? Ummm, prove it. And don't tell me, there are aliens living among us?
I am Wiccan, and I do believe in reincarnation. Based on that are we trans because of a past life trauma? I personally doubt it.
The reason is that how can a past trauma cause transsexualism. And even if it did, would knowing it and dealing with it relieve GID now? Personally I think that is would help in the next life, but not this one. Knowing the trauma and passing through transition to the end, will then remove the trauma for the next life.
Even going through transition now could relive the past trauma.
But even if it could be shown, would I want it to stop transition? NO. Because I am finally feeling like a real person, not just wearing a costume.
I'm from a Neuroscience background and an Atheist non dualist perspective.
I would warn that even normal memories are highly highly subjective. Persons under hypnosis comply with the perceived expectations of the hypnotist and themselves. Beware peddlers of easy answers. The Human condition is beautiful, wonderful, terrifying and complex even without the introduction of extra entities.
I hope that doesn't sound too lecturing
With Love
Laura
P.s. I seem to remember (perhaps subjectively :) ) "Genetic Memory" usually refers to a form of imprinting to give preference to maternal or paternal genomes. In a woman all of the genetic material she is destined to pass on is fixed in her ovaries by the end of infancy. "Race memory" probably represents culturalisation / indoctrination ( no less potent for that however )
[quote author=Julie Marie
She then goes on to say, "It's just a subconscious spirit memory of a visage from a past life on The Other Side that's causing you to seem so inappropriate to yourself."
What are your thoughts?[/color][/font]
[/quote]
nonsense.
there aren't enough past's to cover everyone's present's
Quote from: lauraspeirs81 on September 23, 2010, 01:45:21 AM
P.s. I seem to remember (perhaps subjectively :) ) "Genetic Memory" usually refers to a form of imprinting to give preference to maternal or paternal genomes. In a woman all of the genetic material she is destined to pass on is fixed in her ovaries by the end of infancy. "Race memory" probably represents culturalisation / indoctrination ( no less potent for that however )
Thanks for clearing that up.
However it may also be worth mentioning CIA mind control projects such as Project Monarch, which gets it's name from the discovery that monarch butterflies can pass on memory to their offspring. The butterflies would migrate from all over the continent and meet in the same location where they reproduce. Some of the offspring would migrate back to where their parent came from even if the parent had already died. This theory was applied to the study of mind control where they found that keeping the subjects within the same bloodline would increase susceptibility to their techniques.
And I know that a lot of you will think that I'm entering tinfoil hat territory here, but for those who are less skeptical of such things I thought it might be interesting.
Ah but whether it is real or some part of the subconscious speaking isn't really the point. The point is does the process have any therapeutic value in some way or other.
I said in my post that I was open minded when I started. Now I lean towards belief but I am far from being certain.
I thought for a long while about this before I took the couple of sessions, the motive for which was to seek to understand myself better.
I concluded that whether or not there was existential reality involved was irrelevant, because either way the voices which would speak would come from the hidden corners of my mind and would thus even if imagined be shining a light on some small part of my subconscious mind.
Now as my goal was to understand myself better hearing those voices whether real or imagined was indeed a big help. Alison even came along with me and took notes to ensure that there was no manipulation or prompting by the therapist.
So I feel that those of you who focus solely on whether or not it is "true" have missed the point. Whether it is true only matters if you are doing it for some strange ego trip. If, on the otherhand, your goal is to understand the hidden impulses which go to make up yourself then this process can be a helpful one either way.
Thus I submit the relevant question is not is it true, but rather does it help.
Thus far no one has been able to prove or disprove the existence of God, the afterlife or reincarnation. Oh, and yes, even aliens, although there seems to be more evidence in that area than in the others. The absolute belief either way is the result of being told so, usually starting out when someone is very young. But, as Jenny pointed out, that is not the point of this thread.
Some of us have paid a heavy price for being ourselves. More precisely, for changing genders. That's how the outside world sees it anyway. Society believes conformity is normalcy. It also believes whoever you were is who you should always be with certain inevitable changes such as aging allowed. We pretty much buck that whole concept and the stubborn, the small minded, the conformists (or whatever it is that prevents one form opening their mind) want to punish us for that.
So it's perfectly understandable if any of us would wish to avoid that so long as we could still be happy. When I was in therapy I once said I wish someone had a magic wand to make things right. My therapist took out a clear lucite wand with sparkles in it and said, "I hear that a lot. So when I saw this, I bought it." Then she said she has pulled it out a lot when clients make comments such as mine. It's not uncommon to want a quick fix, even though we know the chances of it happening are slim.
Getting back to the subject... I've read a number of books about the afterlife, mostly from the point of view from people who had near death experiences. There's too many accounts that cannot be convincingly explained away through science. You can provide evidence to disprove that but only if you ignore contrary evidence. And if there is an afterlife, why can't there be the chance to have more than one mortal life? And why would each mortal life have to be in the same gender?
Some of the books I've read talk about us coming here as a choice. We choose to come here to learn things we cannot learn on the other side. One author said most do not choose to come here because this is such a hard life and those who do are all heroes. I think of that every time I see someone society has rejected. There's a lot of positive perspectives one can gain from believing in the after life, choosing to come here and reincarnation. So what's the benefit in rejecting those concepts?
In her book, Sylvia Browne does not say any of her TG clients were "cured". She didn't go into much detail about them. It was maybe a paragraph. But she did infer there was an understanding her clients had gained from the regression. What they did with that, she didn't say.
Right now I would never even entertain the thought of regressive therapy in helping to understand my gender identity conflict. If by some chance I emerged feeling I didn't need to transition after all, I would end up very depressed. I lost too much. But I might suggest it to anyone who has yet to begin their transition as a possibility to explore.
Quote from: Julie Marie on September 23, 2010, 08:53:20 AM
In her book, Sylvia Browne does not say any of her TG clients were "cured". She didn't go into much detail about them. It was maybe a paragraph. But she did infer there was an understanding her clients had gained from the regression. What they did with that, she didn't say.
Right now I would never even entertain the thought of regressive therapy in helping to understand my gender identity conflict. If by some chance I emerged feeling I didn't need to transition after all, I would end up very depressed. I lost too much. But I might suggest it to anyone who has yet to begin their transition as a possibility to explore.
From my experience I think you might want to give that some thought Julie.
I certainly didn't come away feeling that I did not need to transition. In fact quite the reverse. It helped me to understand why this had been a right and necessary decision for me, something which had genuinely always puzzled me up until that moment.
Quote from: blackMamba on September 22, 2010, 09:24:19 PM
I don't believe in it. Past lives? Ummm, prove it. And don't tell me, there are aliens living among us?
i don't believe in past lives but I certainly believe there are aliens among us.
I believe in reincarnation.
Heck, I even believe one can carry things between lives to an extent.
But I do not believe one's gender is one of these things.
Nor do I put any faith in Past Life Regression as the methods it involve are highly dubious and geared to create "any, even if wrong" results. Meaning it more likely causes you to "recall" what you want to, rather than what was.
Not that you can eve "truly" remember what was anyway.
Quote from: lilacwoman on September 23, 2010, 01:58:11 PM
i don't believe in past lives but I certainly believe there are aliens among us.
well duh, I mean just look at the Fox News Channel :D
Quote from: lauraspeirs81 on September 23, 2010, 01:45:21 AM
The Human condition is beautiful, wonderful, terrifying and complex even without the introduction of extra entities.
You put that wonderfully, thank you : )
I dunno bout past lives or any of that stuff, but I can tell you that my having known I had had many past lives as female... would only reaffirm my commitment that that is what I am...I still wouldn't wanna be male, lol, I don't really see how one links to the other there.
Furthermore... I don't want to be cured. You might as well kill me, cause whoever I'd be post-cure isn't the me that exists now.
Quote from: blackMamba on September 23, 2010, 11:08:09 PM
well duh, I mean just look at the Fox News Channel :D
We don't get Fox in UK thank goodness. I prefer to use my own eyes. :)
I can't say if past lives are a fact or fantasy. There's no conclusive evidence either way and until there is, being open minded is the wiser option.
Bet let's face it, no one would be talking a cure unless a problem was perceived. Society sees this as a problem, just as they see a lot of other things are problems and a huge percentage of these so-called problems are based on ignorance, irrational fear and human (social) conditioning. Yeah, society creates these so-called problems.
But it would be interesting to KNOW if the whole afterlife thing is real. And if it's real, I'll come back here and let you know, if they have an Internet connection on the other side.
I know my husband has read a lot of Silva Brown.
But myself I have had deep suspicions of past lives that have haunted me and that is where a lot of my GID stems from. Even though I have never undergone a regression myself it is a strong sense so I'm not up to dismissing it. I would love to undergo a regression not to get rid of my GID cause I'm happy with whom I am. But to see if there is any validation to these feelings.
This just reminds me of the old posts aboiut if there was a cure for GID would you do it kinda thing... Just my 2 cents
I don't know if past lives exist, but using them in therapy can't be good practice.
Quote from: Julie Marie on February 08, 2011, 06:16:49 AM
But it would be interesting to KNOW if the whole afterlife thing is real.
There is no way to know for certain if there is an afterlife or reincarnation in a scientific sense because both of these things are not physically provable. You must determine for yourself whether you believe in them or not. I do (so from this point on it's my beliefs not hard science), and I can say that my connection to my past outside of this life and to my ancestral heritage is sometimes the only thing that keeps me going. I think that a problem with these "regressions" as a "cure" is an incorrect definition of what a person is.
Quote from: Julie Marie on September 22, 2010, 05:42:54 PM
She then goes on to say, "It's just a subconscious spirit memory of a visage from a past life on The Other Side that's causing you to seem so inappropriate to yourself."
Inappropriate to myself? I know who I am better than anyone else can and I'm in no way inappropriate to myself. This is an inappropriate body certainly, but then people aren't bodies with souls they're souls that live in a body. This is the incorrect definition that I refered to, and frankly I find it strange and almost hypocritical that some people who say they believe in the soul and even past lives would still accept such a superficial, secular, and incorrect definition of something so basic to a person's existence.
I think it makes more sense that a person does indeed know their own gender correctly, regardless of the body they're in, and that any incompatibility is a result of an error, mutation, inconsistency, or whatever you want to call it of the natural process that puts souls into bodies. Nothing is perfect after all, not even natural things, so sometimes little deviations will happen. Obviously they aren't so little to those who are affected by them though.
Quote from: perlita85 on February 08, 2011, 09:20:20 PM
They regressed this dude several life-times, and then asked him where he was; they ask him where he was, he said: "Egypt," then they ask him what year it was? and he responded: "1450 BC" An Egyptian leaving at that time would have referred to the 15th year to the reign of Thutmose the IV or something like that.
That was also my first thought when I read "1450 BC". The ancient Egyptians didn't use the same calendar! If he used a historically correct term it might be more convincing, but as it is it sounds made up to me. Pretty strange that it's a culturally popular ancient population and a nice round number like 1450 too. I don't take this to mean that past lives don't exist, but I'm sure there a plenty of people out there trying to manufacture false evidence.
My woman soul wanted a challenge just to prove how super bad she was, so she said:
"Give me a male prison of a body in a patriarchal society that will hand me everything I want should I choose to always suppress myself. I know I will initially struggle, only to finally strip away my privilege and become strong and beautiful despite the challenge. I will aid those unfortunate enough to have had this done to them unwillingly, and I will be a beacon of hope to every one of my sisters."
Prove it didn't happen. :)
I have my insecurities and feeble moments, but this is the makeup of my soul. Regress me, I'm sure you'll just make me "worse."
If you walk away feeling better, that's good. If that feeling of wellness lasts for a while, that's better. If whatever issue you had has forever been resolved in your mind, that's wonderful. As long as the results are not harmful to anyone, why should how that is accomplished bring about criticism and disdain?
Our world exists in a space six inches wide, the space between our ears. No one else resides there and therefore no one else has any right or authority telling what is real, what is fantasy, what is good or what is bad unless we ask or do something to harm another. The belief that we have some sort of right, or even obligation, to give unsolicited advice or pressure others to conform to our belief systems is harmful to those targeted and should not be condoned.
That's integral to my belief system.
Quote from: MarinaM on February 09, 2011, 02:02:15 AM
My woman soul wanted a challenge just to prove how super bad she was, so she said:
"Give me a male prison of a body in a patriarchal society that will hand me everything I want should I choose to always suppress myself. I know I will initially struggle, only to finally strip away my privilege and become strong and beautiful despite the challenge. I will aid those unfortunate enough to have had this done to them unwillingly, and I will be a beacon of hope to every one of my sisters."
I have my insecurities and feeble moments, but this is the makeup of my soul. Regress me, I'm sure you'll just make me "worse."
You rule, Marina ! :-)
I like that
Quote from: JessicaR on February 09, 2011, 11:35:30 PM
You rule, Marina ! :-)
I like that
:) My therapist and I are working on what it means to be feminine. That was partially born from my understanding.
Quote from: MarinaM on February 09, 2011, 02:02:15 AM
My woman soul wanted a challenge just to prove how super bad she was
LOL. That's funny. For me, it's almost the opposite. I was never super bad. Actually, I remember being quite the doofus when I was young.
Having to deal with my dysphoria is what made me superbad. I've matured in ways I don't think I ever would had I been born cis. Even though my life has been extremely challenging, I am getting used to it. I can't imagine things being any other way. Life would probably be boring to me if I wasn't facing some sort of difficulty.
I was told in my past life I was a courtesan (high class prostitute) and I made many men suffer as they were really in love with me and wanted to marry me but I used them all as objects, as a repercussion I have reincarnated trapped in an appropriate body to pay my sin in this current life. I did a post on that before. Check it out if you want.
https://www.susans.org/forums/index.php/topic,90764.0.html (https://www.susans.org/forums/index.php/topic,90764.0.html)
I believe in reincarnation, but I've never thought of transsexualism as being something that needs to be "cured"; it's just another one of the things about me that makes me different from other people. In a way, it could even be better than simply being born as a cis-guy (or cis-girl, if you're MtF), as the entire experience of being trans really lets you see things from all sides of the gender spectrum. By being socialized as the opposite gender of your own perception of yourself, and then later experiencing the social norms, etc., of living as the gender you identify as, you can understand a lot more of how cisgender people feel about their own gender roles. What I'm trying to say is, with all of this, is it even possible for a trans-person to be a close-minded bigot? xD
So, as difficult as it is to be trans in this mostly-unaccepting world, I think it's actually a gift. Even if there is a "cure", I don't want it. I am the way I am, and I'm totally fine with it. We, as a community, don't need cures, we just need complete self-acceptance.
I don't really like the idea of "cures" I'm with GaGa. We were born this way BABY! "There's nothing wrong with lovin' who you are. Cuz she made you perfectly" :-*
Hypnosis works by suggestion, and inducing these suggestions to the subject can trigger false memories or fantasies that may appear as recovered memories.
I had a regression experience myself, and I have come to realise it's all make-believe.
Having said that, hypnosis has been effectively used to treat or reduce symptoms of various habbits and conditions
so if the regression has benefits for you such as overcoming phobias or certain behaviours, then it is useful.
The world is an amazing place. People are born with all kinds of abnormalities. Personally I don't want to be cured "mind-wise" I would not be the same person. Surgically would work but I would lose a lot. I'm married with children and can't bare the thought of losing my children or hurting my wife. I am a Christian and I know that God has created many differences in all of us (e.g., intersexed, autistic, siamese-twins, and so-on...). Reincarnation?? who knows, but I don't believe there is a cure unless I'm crazy.
Have someone some new experience ?
I want to try it, it could give some answers
I think it's pseudoscience.
I don't believe in reincarnation. I do believe that the human mind has sufficient sophistication to wire itself in many remarkably rich ways through varying combinations of genetic and environmental factors. And this complex wiring could easily account for GID. Of course I can't discount the fact that Past Life Regression is a form of therapy and might have some value even it is is based on a rather controversial theory just because the patient is being introspective and coming to terms with what they believe, think, and feel.
Quote from: Jamiess on March 12, 2011, 01:10:28 PM
People are born with all kinds of abnormalities.
"Abnormality" is a term we use for "uncommon". But in nature, "unique" is normal. And therefore "identical" is abnormal and "very similar" isn't far behind. Human society pressures people to conform and in doing so encourages likeness. Identical is probably preferred by many. So in reality, society is encouraging an abnormal condition.
Quote from: Miniar on September 23, 2010, 02:27:22 PM
I believe in reincarnation.
Heck, I even believe one can carry things between lives to an extent.
But I do not believe one's gender is one of these things.
Nor do I put any faith in Past Life Regression as the methods it involve are highly dubious and geared to create "any, even if wrong" results. Meaning it more likely causes you to "recall" what you want to, rather than what was.
Not that you can eve "truly" remember what was anyway.
I do not believe it
The best book I have read on reincarnation and having to do with genders and explainations of reincarnation is Journey of Souls. I can't remember who the author was but I do know its on Amazon. No, its not a cure for GID other than assuring a person that they are completly normal and nothing is wrong with them. Since our Souls have male and female aspects we get comfortable incarnating physically in one or the other usually we stick with one specific gender. Eventually we have to incarnate the opposite physical gender that we aren't used to in order to learn. This could be why we have such dysphoria, a desire to be the the opposite of our birth gender, why we suffer so much depression and feelings that something isn't right because basically it isn't.
I'm not sick, so I don't need a CURE! I don't have GID, it's not even in the DSM anymore. But anyway GID or GD is just a short hand kind of social construct for something that society doesn't like all that well. If society accepted trans, I think there would still be trans people but there wouldn't be as much distress. (Look at the stats for accepting vs not accepting parents sometime.) So why would I need past lives (sounds a bit like a lot of new agie type ideas-- impossible to prove or disprove)?
--Jay
My mom tried it out on me in the late 1970's when it became popular. My mom was also into astrology. She raised an astronomer? She wondered that at one time would exorcism would rid us of all evils? She didn't get far with a session which left me more introverted. I do not believe that past life regression sessions would do anything that would cure the other ills such as illicit drug use, alcoholism, gambling, etc. much less GID.
A lot of the revelations that people bring out in these sessions are known to them, mostly sub conscientiously, such as old languages and writings. The vast majority of these sessions may send the person down the wrong path if they make decisions from these sessions. Be careful of this type of therapy!
Joelene
I did consider this. It just added more confusion to me. What if I'm stuck in this endless cycle of past lives because I keep refusing to transition? What if I'm stuck here because I keep transitioning and shouldn't be? What if someone is playing a joke on me and I've always been female, but this time they decided to make me male so they could relish in my agony? What if my imagination is running away from me and I just got this idea from a movie or book?
Quote from: aleon515 on June 19, 2013, 01:12:35 AM
I'm not sick, so I don't need a CURE! I don't have GID, it's not even in the DSM anymore. But anyway GID or GD is just a short hand kind of social construct for something that society doesn't like all that well. If society accepted trans, I think there would still be trans people but there wouldn't be as much distress. (Look at the stats for accepting vs not accepting parents sometime.) So why would I need past lives (sounds a bit like a lot of new agie type ideas-- impossible to prove or disprove)?
--Jay
You're right Jay. But on the other hand reincarnation has been prevailant spirtual dynamic in older religions. There is information if someone looks into it that it was even believed in early Christianity but was quashed in the 6th century A.D.. You're right in that it can't be proven or disproven, but anything having to do with Spirtuality is more about Faith instead of hard facts. When it comes to the "afterlife", some find comfort in heaven, others find comfort in non existence and others find comfort in reincarnation. It's more like a coping mechanism for the biggest unknown that we face in life. BTW I do happen to believe in the reincarnation aspect but am open to other possiblities.
Quote from: Jess42 on June 19, 2013, 06:44:58 AM
You're right Jay. But on the other hand reincarnation has been prevailant spirtual dynamic in older religions. There is information if someone looks into it that it was even believed in early Christianity but was quashed in the 6th century A.D.. You're right in that it can't be proven or disproven, but anything having to do with Spirtuality is more about Faith instead of hard facts. When it comes to the "afterlife", some find comfort in heaven, others find comfort in non existence and others find comfort in reincarnation. It's more like a coping mechanism for the biggest unknown that we face in life. BTW I do happen to believe in the reincarnation aspect but am open to other possiblities.
Yeah you are right about that too. But the person who talks about past lives seems to be combining spirituality with ideas about medicine and so on--not that she would be the first or last to do this. Doubt she knows that much about it. Now maybe transgender is some abnormal thing, but I don't buy into that all. You could take the same views to say that transgender might be a natural thing-- maybe everybody has a female and male side and they actually have to go thru being trans at some point in their existence.
Ok I just did.
--Jay
A little background on the whole past life regression deal. This is just from my memory but I think in the 50's a woman was having extreme headaches. She had tried all kinds of doctors and they couldn't find any physical reason for it. She was reffered to a psychologist/hypnotherapist. At the time regression therapy was around and and this was one of the angles he used. After quite a few sessions and frustrations he point blank asked the lady what the exact cause of the headaches were. She told him that she had been shot in the head and killed. He then started questioning her about it and in her previous incarnation that had been caught stealing and was shot in the head. After that with some follow up sessions, she didn't have the crippling headaches any more. Anyway jsut a little background of how past life regression got started. Psychosematic malady? Most certainly. Caused by something that happened in a past life? Possibly. Does it really matter as long as the lady didn't suffer form the psychosematic pain afterward? Yes, she was indeed cured.
When it comes to GID I don't think it would help. The reason being is if I am dysphoric about my gender and I experience through hypnosis an incarnation in which I was comfortable with my body matching my Psyche then I would be convinced that I could be the proper physical gender in the next life. This may lead to a worstening of the dysphoria and effect the present incarnation in profound ways.
I do not advocate past life regressions. The key point being is whether or not reincarnation is a real possiblity, to the person that experinces them they are extrememly real. Also PLR will allow a person to see who they were in a past life and we know how people are. What if a person in a past life murdered someone but was and extremely caring and sensitive person in the present incarnation? Could they live with the guilt? Would they change this life because of wht they experinced in another? These are all valid concerns in my opinion.
With that said. If a person has a malady and experiencing physical pain that is suspected to be psychosematic with no physical causes, past life regression is a good tool in order to help the person. In my opinion it should only be used by experienced clinical Psychologist. It doesn't matter if it's real or not as long as it helps the person. When it comes to dysphoria of any kind, it is psychological. GID can be worked through and steps taken to physically fix it through HRT, SRS or just finding a "comfort zone".
In the Thibetan Book of the Dead it speaks of us having to drink from The River of Forgetfulness before we are born. Why? It may be because if we remember what we have done in past lives it will have a profound effect in the decisions we make in our current lives. We would be guilt ridden for past misdeeds. Comitting the "S" word just in order to get "do overs" and many other things that hamper us from living from the heart, knowing the difference between right and wrong and many other things. Of course I can't confirm what the Thbetan Book of the Dead actually says but just what I have read about it. I think we're jsut not supposed to know without the element of doubt involved. This is reincarnation or any other belief systems. It supposed to be about Faith or some other variation of such.
Anyway just a little background about how past life regression was found out, how it can help some supposedly incurable afflictions, why I don't think it would be good for GID and a somewhat ancient religious reason as to why we can't rememeber previous incarnations.
And again @ Jay, me too and I sure don't want to go through it again. ;)
Although the idea is very interesting, I doubt its the cause or cure for Trans folks. It seems more and more science is proving with legit studies that there is a difference between the brains of Trans people and non trans people. The studies range from slight differences in size to others that indicate a Trans persons brain more closely resembles a brain of the opposite sex/gender in certain areas. I would think this indicates its a difference in our brains verses what we experienced in a past life.
To be honest, I don't care what science or religion have to say! I feel the way I do and don't want to go back. Ever! If aliens landed tomorrow and said they could "cure me", I would politely tell them to go flip themselves and the spaceship they flew in on!
I don't mind society labeling me as Trans or GID. It is obvious that being born male, yet deeply & honestly feeling female inside indicates something isn't right. But regardless, that's how I feel and that's who I am. 8)
Aw man... Did I get off post again? :P
I tried that a long time ago and every one of the 6 or 8 "past lives" that we tapped into were female.
Quote from: Emily Aster on June 19, 2013, 04:58:56 AMWhat if I'm stuck here because I keep transitioning and shouldn't be?
That thought crossed MY mind as well. What if I was SUPPOSED to make a go of it as a man and I failed by transitioning - does that mean I have to do it again? :o
[I believe in reincarnation. Some of the things I learned in regression were things I had no way of knowing 'in this life'.]
Quote from: Northern Jane on June 29, 2013, 09:08:50 AM
That thought crossed MY mind as well. What if I was SUPPOSED to make a go of it as a man and I failed by transitioning - does that mean I have to do it again? :o
But what if it's the other way around and that you didn't transition last time and this time you have to try again?