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.

Aw man... Did I get off post again?

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? 

[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? 

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?