The Journal of Regression Therap

Sometimes, in the course of regression therapy, we discover that the client has an excarnate soul or even an entity attached to him (occasionally even more). It is important for a therapist to recognize such cases and have methods to deal with them. Here I will describe approaches that I have found helpful.

In medieval literature about exorcism a discrimination is made between possession (Latin: possessio) and “circumsession” (Latin: circumsessio). In the case of possession, a soul – or rather an entity – wants to take over the body of the person and gain complete control over it. In the case of “circumsession” it influences the person who does not loose his sense of self. Cases of true possession are rare but “circumsession” seems to occur more often than many of us think.

In this context, I refer to a “soul” as a being with a conscious self that has left a physical body through the process of dying. With the word “entity,” I refer to a being that has not incarnated.

In most cases, I have found that such a soul is not malevolent, but seeks refuge. It is often a bit confused and feels lost. Either it does not see a light to go to, or it does not dare to go to the light world. Many souls, who do not dare to go to the light, had a very materialistic attitude during their last incarnation and expected death to be their definite end. To their astonishment, they then find themselves existing without a physical body. They do not understand how that can be possible, but now that they are in that state, they want to keep it. They may feel a kind of attraction to a light (to the light world) but think that if they go there, they will die. They think that would be the definite end of their existence. That is why they want to stay here on the earth plane. This is easier to do if they find a body to which they cling. Furthermore, they need life energy and see no alternative to taking it from the body they cling to – again not really malevolently but that is the only way they see.

Some souls want to continue some kind of addiction they had – alcohol, drugs, gaming, “kinky” sex (or the brothel atmosphere) – and seek a person with a similar addiction, or they try to lead him into it. Rarely a soul tries to take revenge after death. It happens that the possessive mother, who always knew everything better than her son, stays with him after she dies. She attempts to “guide” and “help” him, since she knows everything so much better… Such a case is, however, quite a bit malevolent! In rare cases, a soul wants to lead a beloved person to suicide so that they can be together again as souls.

There are cases of persons who believe in the lie about “hell and eternal condemnation” when they were incarnate. This is certainly a lie since it contradicts the love of God. There is much evidence that the early, Gnostic Christians had a different concept of the afterworld. Souls still having such a belief often fear to go to the light because they think that they could then be sent to hell…

The Gnostic Christians, who prevailed before the Church formed with the Council of Nicaea in 325, taught the doctrine of the fall of angels. We were all created in the beginning and dwelled in what we call the light world. Some of us decided to have a different kind of experience than what could be had there and, therefore, left the light world using our free will. God created a hierarchy of beings on different levels below the light world. The second lowest level is the one of human beings. Origen wrote: “who descended to this level became a soul that, for punishment, was put in a body like in a prison.” Below this is another level. That lowest level is the one of adversaries and demons. This Gnostic concept is what the Church later reformulated as an “eternal hell”. According to the writings of Origen and other Gnostics, a human soul could, under circumstances, descend even further to that level, but would only to stay there for the time needed for its conversion and not forever.

Some beings even fell right down to that lowest level from the beginning, in the Gnostic view. They became negative entities who dwell there and try to influence or even control human beings on the next level above them.

In the regression technique I use, a “guide” or “counselor” plays an important role. I regard this “guide” mainly as a manifestation of the unconscious self of the client. When he* meets his guide, he actually has a symbolical encounter with his own unconscious self and can talk with it. Sometimes I take the client directly to meeting his higher self. One important criterion for meeting the right guide is that the latter is loving, understanding and helpful in a friendly and positive way. He often radiates light.

When we go to meet that guide for the first time in regression, it rarely happens that the first one we meet does not make a very positive impression. He may be strict, unloving, condemning and even induce fear or other negative feelings in the client. This means that we have not found the right guide. We leave him and go on to find the right one, and then ask what figure it was that we met on the way.

If there is another soul with the client, it often tries to play the role of the guide, hoping that it can mislead us. This is because it does not want to be discovered. Usually that “guide” does not feel right. This is one of various possible ways how we may discover another soul or even an entity that clings to the client.

It seems that a soul or entity cannot “get a hold” on the client, unless there is damage to the latter’s aura. It may have a weak and thin part, or it may even have a hole. It is, therefore, important to have the guide or the higher self heal the aura afterwards and make it complete again.

In what ways is damage to the aura done? This can occur under the influence of heavy drugs (like crack or heroin, it is much less likely to occur when smoking “grass”), when someone is heavily drunk or when a person has an intense anger or fear. One kind of drug influence is narcosis! It actually happens, luckily enough rarely, that a person can “catch” a soul during an operation!

The more “conventional” method in regression is to encourage the soul to go to the light, convincing it that there is no danger in doing so, but quite the contrary!

Many years ago, a woman who came to me had the soul of a dead friend with her. The soul wanted to be with her. In the attempt to encourage the soul to go to the light, which it did not like to do, the client all of a sudden said: “But I can go to the light with her!” I asked her to do that. She then said they were together in the light and her friend was very astonished: “I didn’t know that it is so nice here!” I let the client ask her if she wanted to stay there, and she wanted to. So we left the soul in the light and the client returned to her guide.

After that, I nearly always do it that way. When we are with the guide and have found that there is a clinging soul, I first have the guide show that soul to the client. Talking with it, we will find out why it came to the client and if they knew each other when the soul was incarnate. Then I say: “Ask your guide to show you the light that leads to the light world when you go through it.” The client will see it. “Now take that soul with you and enter the light world together…” “How does the soul feel there?” Nearly always, the light and the beauty of that world overwhelm it. It did not expect that it would be so nice. “Does the soul now want to stay there?” Nearly always. “Do you see angels or light beings around?” If not, I ask the client to call them. “Ask them to take care of that soul and return to your guide.”

This procedure excludes the possibility that the soul cheats us. In the more “conventional” procedure it could happen that it said that it would go to the light, but it only hid and came back after the session.

Sometimes the soul is a bit resistant. There are various ways to deal with this, which I, for the reason of space, will not go further into here. I will mention one case. I had the idea to ask the soul (through the client): “Do you remember that you were in a body before?” – “Yes.” – “Do you then remember that your were born?” – A little hesitantly (it seems to often need a little time to remember this): “Yes.” – “Do you then remember that, before you were born, you were in your mother’s belly?” – Still more hesitantly “Ye-es.” – “How did you get in there?” The soul was quite occupied awhile with remembering, and then said: “But I came from the light!” – “So then you know the light! You have already been there!” The resistance to going there was gone…I mention this because this later led me to deal with entities in a somewhat similar manner.

The first time I had a client with an entity I had the idea to call an angel who explained to the entity what it would be like to go to the light world. And it did.

Later I came across a book that was very helpful to me: Spiritual Releasement Therapy by William J. Baldwin. I started to proceed according to his principles, which worked out very well. The way I do it – based on Baldwin’s principles – is as follows.

We ask the guide or higher self to show the entity. We then ask the guide or higher self to call an angel from the light world to come and join us. We ask the entity to look deeply inside and see a light in itself. It often does not believe that it has a light hidden inside and, to its astonishment, will find one. This is, of course, because it also once was in the light world. “Does it burn?” No it does not. It seems that the beings in the darkness on that lowest level (see above) fear light and have even been told by the powers of darkness that the light would be dangerous and could burn them. We ask the entity to touch carefully the light of the angel. Does it burn? Of course, it does not. It might merely first be a bit too bright for the entity to look at. Now we ask the entity how it feels about going to the light world. Some are still hesitant and resisting. We ask the angel to explain to it what this would all involve. We explain that it is safe and the powers of darkness cannot reach it there. It is free to leave the light again if it wants to, but it seems that hardly anyone wants to do that.

Dealing with resistance in such a case it came to mind to ask: “Do you remember that you were in the light world yourself long ago, but you went out from there?” Some slowly remember by themselves; but many do not: “I have never been in the light world!” – “Oh yes, you have, but you only forgot it!” We then ask the angel to remind the entity of this and of how it is in the light world. The entity will remember! The entity often changes remarkably in the process, becomes brighter and friendlier, and it will then want to go back to the light. It has happened that it asked for forgiveness. Today, I nearly always ask that question.

What do these entities want? One thing is life energy that it absorbs from the client (in this case, however, more malevolently than a confused soul). When we have strong negative feelings – such as anger or fear – we set corresponding energies free and such beings can feed on them. That is one reason why they often try to stir up and amplify such feelings in us. We let the angel explain that it can have unlimited free energy from the light. The entity often also enjoys its power over the person. “And what about love?” – “I don’t believe in love!” Discussing further, it will admit that it would actually like to experience love, but never has. We explain that power is directly contrary to love. No one loves the one who has power! The more power you have, the lonelier you are. So, it cannot have love as long as it wants power! It cannot have both and must make a choice. With the help of the angel, and with the awakened memory of the light world, the being will most probably choose to try love rather than power, and that love it can experience in the light world.

We then ask the angel to bring the being to the light world and come back without it, because we may still need his help. There may be still another entity or soul, the client’s aura may need healing, and sometimes other things, too.

Why do some of us get an attached soul? Could there be a karmic reason in many cases? Maybe because we ourselves, as souls, attached to people after dying in a past life?

Jan Erik Sigdell was born in Sweden, where he studied electronics and had a doctoral degree in medical engineering. He has experimented with hypnotic regressions and learned the non-hypnotic technique of Bryan Jameison, was a freelance consultant for the dialysis industry and, at the same time, practiced as a regression therapist. Since 1986, his only activities are regression therapy, teaching in workshops, lecturing, and writing. Since early 1997, he lives in the home country of his Slovene wife. He wrote a textbook in German on regression therapy (Rückführung in frühere Leben – Emotionale Befreiung durch Reinkarnationstherapie, Scherz, Bern 1998) and, after much research throughout the years, the book Reincarnation, Christianity and the Dogma of the Church (published in German by Ibera, Vienna, 2001; a translation to English has already been prepared).

* It is popular today to try to find expressions that somehow refer to both male and female. In our traditionally much too patriarchal culture, some react a bit negatively to the fact that our language has no neutral word. Some authors write “he/she,” “WoMan” and similar constructions, which becomes a bit clumsy. Understand that I, for lack of a good alternative, always mean both genders when I write “he.”