JULY 2009
by Hans TenDam
This time I will limit myself to reproducing my opening statement to the Annual Convention in Kleve at July 6, 2009:
What do we do and why are we doing it?
And are we good at what we are doing?
Most of us call ourselves regression therapists.
Anyway, we are here as an association of regression therapists.
Regression 
therapy is helping people to find out why they have problems and help them to solve those.
We are special in that we are very open-minded and take inner experiences serious that most people would doubt – or are afraid of. Or brand as crazy.
We don’t do that because we like to be that way – though we do. We do that because it is so often marvelously effective and efficient. We heal people more deeply than most people believe is possible.
That is a good reason for doing what we do.
But we do more, we help people to clear their minds, to discover psychic and spiritual aspects about themselves and their relationships, about what they are doing here and why they are here.
Fear of death diminishes or disappears. People experience themselves as spiritual beings. They reconnect with their core. Biases disappear. Bigotry disappears. Discrimination disappears, between men and women, between religions, between cultures, between races.
Henry Ford said: “I adopted the theory of reincarnation when I was 26. Religion offered nothing to the point. Even work could not give me complete satisfaction. Work is futile if we cannot utilize the experience we collect in one life in the next. When I discovered reincarnation . . . time was no longer limited. I was no longer a slave to the hands of the clock. . . I would like to communicate to others the calmness that the long view of life gives to us.”
The long view – the wide view – the deep view. We are healers. We heal while we discover, we discover while we heal.
We are the unlikely heroes of a gradual, worldwide mental revolution. The alienated finds home, the anxious finds rest, the weak finds strength, the confused finds clarity. We change lives.
We are not the only people who call themselves healers. But we are the only ones who do that by having people heal themselves. We don’t heal: we guide healing.
We should be proud of what we do. But not too proud. We do not create healing, we enable it to happen. And there is always so much more to do, so much more unhealed in the world.
That is how it should be, I think. Disease may be the gateway to a deeper health. Conflict may be the gateway to a deeper peace. Also inner conflicts to a deeper inner peace. Suffering is the gateway to serenity. As Carlysle said: “Genius is the capacity to stand pain.” Pain is our business.
And here we are, meeting each other. Curious about what each other has found, about our struggles and frustrations and discoveries and about doubts and blocks we found along the way.
We are not preachers, we are listeners. We sense, we suggest, we reflect, we support. We are there.
We are here. Welcome here at the fourth Annual Convention of the EARTh. Welcome to the fellowtherapists from Germany and the Netherlands, from Switzerland and from Austria, from Spain and from Portugal, from Greece and from Turkey, from the UK, from Brazil.
You are here for the others. The others are here for you. May you have glimpses of the sublime in the coming days. And may you remain level-headed. May your heads be in the clouds and your feet firm on the ground. Of Earth. It is the planet we inhabit right now.
It feeds us. May we feed it back. May we feed each other. Learn, teach, wonder, question.
And enjoy!
Hans TenDam
