Original Air Date:
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Past Life Regressions - Before the Show:
Before the show officially began, Oprah and Dr. Oz were backstage while Dr. Brian Weiss worked to hypnotize the entire audience. Dr. Weiss believes that we have all been here before and those experiences effect us in our current life.
Dr. Oz admitted before the show that he was "Mr. Skeptic" but that he was also hypnotized prior to the show and it deserves to be heard and examined.
Hypnosis helps to uncover past lives by a way of focusing concentration while the body relaxes. While hypnotized, access to the subconscious opens up and the daily mind is quieted allowing for deep memories to emerge.
Past Life Regressions - Audience Reaction:
One audience member (a white female) described being in a swamp and looking down to find that she had men's legs. During the hypnosis, while she was a man, she was murdered with a knife and felt the blood streaming down.
The second audience member (an African-American female) described being a white nun and said while it was freaky, it was good.
The third audience member (a white female) shared that she was Native American in her regression and had children - she was murdered, while her children survived. (The audience member stated she did not have children in this life.)
Past Life Regressions - Dr. Weiss Reactions to Audience Experience:
Dr. Weiss commented on the third woman who responded from the audience, that he has encountered women who choose not to have children in their current life because they were taken from them before and they don't want it to happen again. This life would then be for the purpose of working on other things.
In response to all of the audience members, Dr. Weiss explained that the past life is not about color/race/gender etc. because souls don't have those characteristics - it's about the experiences.
Past Life Regressions - Dr. Oz and Dr. Weiss:
Dr. Oz added that using hypnosis and having the experience can allow people to use their mind to control their body in a healthy way.
Dr. Oz had Dr. Weiss demonstrate and eye test that hypnotists use on Oprah. The eye test involves rolling eyes upward, fluttering lids and slowly closing the eyes - the amount of white that shows can be an insight to how well a person would do with hypnosis.
Oprah admitted to being nervous to be hypnotized because she knows she's been here so many times before. Dr. Weiss shared that Oprah would have a good experience because of her eye test results.
Past Life Regressions - Dr. Weiss History and Catherine:
Dr. Weiss, psychiatrist and author of Many Lives, Many Masters attended Yale, Columbia and did his internship at the NYU hospital - but he also admits that he was a large skeptic of past lives as the head of psychiatry at Mt. Sinai until he met Catherine - a patient for whom conventional treatment didn't work. Dr. Weiss decided to use hypnosis on Catherine to see if she could get in touch with traumatic childhood. During the process, Catherine regressed back to past lives. This process that occurred 26 years ago was taped and Dr. Weiss shared some of the recordings with viewers.
Past Life Regressions - Dr. Weiss and Catherine:
After the session with Catherine, neither believed what had happened - Dr. Weiss thought it was imagination or fantasy and wanted to verify if it was possible. Catherine, a Catholic woman from New England didn't even believe in past lives, let alone that she had lived them. In a future session, Catherine revealed information that was beyond anything she could know about Dr. Weiss. Catherine discussed Dr. Weiss' father and son, who had both passed. Catherine knew medical details, names and had messages for the doctor. Dr. Weiss shared that this is when he switched his thinking and started recording the sessions.
Past Life Regressions - Leon:
Leon - a guest from the quit smoking episode with Dr. Oz - a funeral director, was invited to the show to have an experience with Dr. Weiss. It was explained that Leon has had a lifelong rocky relationship with his sister and also has nightly dreams of flying. It took 20 minutes to get Leon into a deep state of focused concentration when he began to go back. Leon first went to when he was a child and his mother was gone and came back with a baby - he was 6 - and his older sister was teasing him, which hurt his feelings. It was after this that Dr. Weiss tried to take Leon back further.
Past Life Regressions - Leon:
When Dr. Weiss took Leon back, Leon described: floating...on a plane...old plane...having troubles...can't stay level...smoke...other planes...don't want to die...me and him...I don't know who to shoot...plane gets hit...my fault.
When Leon was talking on the show, he said watching the clip he could still feel it - that the experience was so real, it was like he was actually there.
While Leon was going back, he also received a message - tell people they're ok...the dead people. The meaning was for Leon to tell the people at his funeral parlor that their family and friends are alright.
Past Life Regressions - Leon:
Leon explained on the show that his relationship with his sister bothers him and he wished that it could be better. He also shared that he can't stand to feel pressure on his chest - that it feels like he's suffocating.
Back with Dr. Weiss, Leon described: feeling...head is swelling, crushed...whole body...on my chest...heavy...garbage compactor, car crusher...someone hit me on the head...couldn't do anything...watched...someone being raped...didn't see, person too far away...in an alley...could have helped her...feels badly...if I was going to die...wasn't very brave...it was my sister...I didn't stop it.
Leon saw that the stranger in his past life, was his sister in his current life. The experience changed Leon's relationship with his sister and he shared that he feels at peace now. Leon has since tried to disprove the experience in his mind, but says that there is no other explanation for it. Leon's sister Lynn was given the chance to see the footage and shared that it was mind blowing and hard to believe that she was watching it. Lynn shared that she didn't feel the effects as if it happened to her, just the emotion for him going through it.
Past Life Regressions - Dr. Oz
Dr. Oz had an experience with Dr. Weiss and began by entering a deep state of awareness, though he expressed being uncomfortable with the openness. Dr. Oz remembered a dream from before he started kindergarten where his father was walking him around older men wearing robes with scrolls, as if they were planning his life.
Dealing with death often, Dr. Oz mentioned that his patients tell him stories of energy with no faces, looking for light. From his experience with Dr. Weiss, Dr. Oz sees that his patients have tried to tell and teach him something from beyond.
Past Life Regressions - Where is God in all of this?
Dr. Weiss described people as ice cubes, if you use heat energy and melt them they become part of the water - which is all the same. If you take that one step further and use added heat energy, the water turns to steam - God, Dr. Weiss described, is beyond the steam. People are like the ice, souls are all connected, we are all part of God.
