MAY 2014
by Athanasios Komianos
This is the theme of our next Annual Convention, which will be held in the beautiful country of Ireland. This had been a wish of mine, and thankfully it was reviewed, developed, and accepted by the entire EARTh Board, as I will be stepping down from the presidency at the 2015 convention.
Near the end of almost every first session I always encounter the same question: Have you ever had a metaphysical experience? And my clients, almost panicking, cry out: “No, I have never had such an experience.” Then I calmly ask: Have you ever had a déjà vu experience? Most say: “Yes, I have.” Then I ask them: Has it ever happened that someone suddenly came to your mind, and almost immediately the phone rang, and it was that person calling you after a long time? Again, most of the time the answer is yes. Then I ask them: Have you ever had an inexplicable premonition that something was going to happen, without knowing what it was? Again, the answer is yes. So I ask them: Why did you tell me that you have never had a metaphysical experience? You can imagine the expression on their faces.
As regression therapists, we are (whether we like it or not) in direct conflict with mainstream traditional psychotherapy. Unlike them, we acknowledge spiritual dimensions and the independence of the soul from its biological counterpart. This alone is enough for them to want nothing to do with us. On the other hand, as can be seen from our membership, many traditional psychotherapists come to us for training and guidance. In Greece I see this happening to me constantly. Therefore, this is a great opportunity to address the subject clearly and see what we can contribute to mapping out these unexplored territories.
My suggestion now is that, in our EARTh Conventions, themes that could easily be organized by traditional therapists should rarely be organized by us. The reason is that we have little to add to the insights already provided by mainstream practitioners. I would even go so far as to say that if these are the themes, then it would be better for us to attend traditional conferences instead.
There are several reasons why this theme was chosen:
The first has already been mentioned above.
Second, because most of us use altered states of consciousness, we encounter—whether we like it or not—paranormal phenomena such as:
- Possessions and entity attachments
- Extraterrestrial beings or abduction experiences
- Remote or spontaneous healing
- Out-of-body experiences
- Synesthesia
- Mystical experiences
- Psychic experiences such as déjà vu, telepathy, clairvoyance, clairaudience, intuition, precognition, psychokinesis, etc.
- Experiences related to time paradoxes
- Psychic attacks
Third, what we most need to master is how to deal with and handle such events. Last year our Turkish colleague Diba suggested, as the theme of our next convention, the experience of attachment and possession and how to deal with it. Under our theme, this topic could easily fit.
Previously we rejected themes relating to Extraterrestrial Beings, but now, under this broader theme, we can talk about ETs, abduction experiences, and other topics proposed by the presenters.
For the general panel, we can choose this theme: When Things Go Wrong: Learning from Our Mistakes in Therapy. In fact, this idea was proposed by Juanita in Estonia as a film project. It is a very interesting topic because we mostly become better therapists thanks to our mistakes.
Now, the choice of the word extraordinary instead of supernatural, paranormal, metaphysical, or occult was made after a long discussion within the board. But during this process, the word extraordinary emerged. There are two reasons for this choice: first, because all the phenomena we encounter fall under this category; and second, because as a theme it does not frighten traditional therapists—even though recalling past lives may seem extraordinary to them.
From now on, in my letters, I will try to summarize these phenomena by attempting to create a chart of paranormal experiences.
