Who did I used to be?

When I was younger I sometimes felt that I was walking around with a shell, that I wasn’t always the person I am now.

Past-life regression is important for those who are looking for answers in their current lifetime, Long Island therapist Richard Scheinberg explained to me.

I had met with him twice before I entered his home office for a past-life regression therapy session and had read his book “Seeking Soul Mates, Spirit Guides and Past Lives.”

I hoped he would be able to help me answer my questions and maybe help me find if I had a soulmate in this life.

We began the session by doing some relaxation techniques through breathing exercises-- then we would talk about a childhood memory and regress from there.

I had some doubts while I was lying on the couch with my shoes removed and covered in my white jacket as a blanket.

My eyes were still fluttering beneath my eyelids and I was afraid I would not be able to relax enough to get the full experience, but I knew I was in a trance the moment I began to speak about a fond childhood memory.

The best way to describe the journey is like talking while you’re in a dream, yet being lucid enough to remember everything.

As I described being a child, I was able to recall things I hadn’t been able to remember before being hypnotized, like the robe my mother always wore when I was little and even the way it felt to be held as a baby.

Finally I was ready to start talking about my past lives. The first thing that popped into my head was a man covered in armor, and that’s where the adventure really began to take off.

I wasn’t sure of everything I said, but I seemed to have an answer for most of the questions Scheinberg asked.

“Where are you?”

“London,” I promptly responded.

“What year is it?”

“643 A.D.”

Eventually I got the feeling that I was not the man in the armor, but that I was a little baby boy named Tommy.

It was a strange feeling because I’m actually a 25-year-old woman.

Past-life regression wasn’t like being in a movie. I wasn’t certain about everything I said, but I decided to make the most of my experience and just say whatever came to my head.

Scheinberg asked me many details about what was happening and to describe the room I was in.

Ultimately I was able to respond that in that lifetime I was 2 years old, had a mother named Irene and a sister named Kathleen who was around 14 years old.

At the time we were eating potato soup, and while my mother and sister sat at the head of the table, I sat next to my dad.

Soon his face became clear to me. It was a man I had never seen before, but whose smile warmed my heart.

After I didn’t have anything else to add, he took to me the next important event in that lifetime by counting down from five.

“You’re there,” Scheinberg told me. “What’s going on?”

In my drowsy state I was a little confused at first and said I was “grown up” when I was really only 8 years old. I quickly corrected myself.

This is the part of the experience that had me believing I really was remembering a past life and not just making things up off the top of my head.

I relayed to him that I was with a girl named Alison, we both liked each other, and we were skipping outside of a school. Scheinberg asked me where I was again since I was describing lush, green scenery different from how London is typically perceived.

I was perplexed when Berkshire came to the forefront of my mind, but I said it anyway.

“Oh,” he responded, “Is that outside of London?”

“Yes,” I confidently told him, even though I didn’t know where this information was coming from. I began to trust my instincts more and eventually relayed that I grew up to marry Alison and have a child named Abigail. Since my father died right before the child was born, my mother was too depressed to acknowledge the child.

The last important event during that lifetime was on my deathbed. I described my wife being old and crying at my feet and me waiting to meet my newest great-grandchild before ascending into heaven.

I even remembered dying and being happy to leave my body and that life behind.

“What did you learn from this lifetime?” he asked as I was envisioning myself float to the heavens above.

“Sometimes really bad things happen in life; people die,” I began to describe in my groggy state, “but if you only focus on the negative things you miss all the beauty that life has to offer.”

At one point, Scheinberg was trying to get me to describe what it was like to be in heaven, but I couldn’t.

“I want to go back,” I said. “I want to live again.”

All of a sudden I had a feeling that I was a male again, except this time I was a Revolutionary soldier in Virginia during 1776. I was happy to be a part of the war and fight for “our land.”

This life was a lot shorter, and I was soon ready to return to my current life.

After the session we quickly discussed how my experiences from my past life affecting my current one and I quickly went home to Google Berkshire.

It’s right outside of London and was established around the 800s.

Some of my friends thought the past-life regression session was a waste of my time while others are amazed that I did such a thing.

All I know is that thanks to Richard Scheinberg I have found peace with my current life, and I also look forward to hearing other people’s tales regarding their own past-life regression experiences.

Maybe I’ll get the chance to do another session with him and this time be able to discover one of my soulmates!