Ever had that weird feeling of déjà vu where you’re certain you’ve walked down a specific cobblestone street before, even though you’ve never left Ohio? Or maybe you have a paralyzing fear of water but no memory of ever nearly drowning.
It’s heavy stuff. Honestly, most people just brush it off as a glitch in the brain. But for a high-level psychiatrist named Dr. Brian Weiss, these "glitches" became the foundation of a career that basically flipped the medical world on its head in the late 1980s.
We’re talking about past life regression therapy Brian Weiss style—a method that sounds like something out of a sci-fi flick but has managed to stick around in the wellness world for decades. Whether you think it’s a profound spiritual truth or just a clever way the subconscious mind handles stress, the story behind how this became "a thing" is wild.
The Night Everything Changed for Dr. Weiss
Before he was the "reincarnation guy," Brian Weiss was a serious, suit-and-tie medical professional. He graduated from Columbia and Yale Medical School. He was the Chairman of Psychiatry at Mount Sinai Medical Center in Miami.
He didn't believe in magic. He believed in biology and clinical data.
Then came Catherine.
In 1980, Weiss was treating a 27-year-old patient he calls Catherine in his books. She was struggling with debilitating phobias—choking, the dark, drowning. Standard therapy wasn't working. After 18 months of trying the usual stuff, Weiss decided to try hypnosis to find some buried childhood trauma.
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Instead of going back to her childhood in the 1950s, Catherine went back to 1863 B.C.
She started describing herself as a girl named Aronda in a flooded village, watching her baby get swept away by a wave before she herself drowned. The weirdest part? Her symptoms in 1980 started to vanish after she "remembered" this.
What the Masters Supposedly Said
It didn’t stop at Aronda. Under hypnosis, Catherine described over 80 past lives. She was a Spanish prostitute, a Greek pottery maker, and a soldier.
But things got really "out there" when Catherine entered the "space between lives." Weiss claims she began channeling messages from highly evolved spirits he called "The Masters."
Initially, Weiss was terrified. He thought he was losing his mind or that Catherine was schizophrenic. But then, she told him things she couldn't possibly know—like details about his son who had died from a rare heart defect and his father whose Hebrew name was Avrom.
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This was the tipping point. Weiss realized that even if he couldn't prove reincarnation in a lab, the healing occurring in Catherine was undeniable.
How the Therapy Actually Works
So, how do you actually do this? It’s not about swinging a pocket watch.
The core of past life regression therapy Brian Weiss advocates is deep, progressive relaxation. You basically get lulled into a state where your "left brain"—the logical, skeptical part—takes a nap.
- The Descent: You visualize walking down a staircase or through a door, going deeper into your subconscious.
- The Observation: You don't usually see a whole movie. Most people report flashes—the smell of smoke, the feeling of heavy leather sandals, or a specific emotion.
- The Bridge: The therapist helps you connect that "memory" to a current problem. If you were a prisoner in a dark cell in a past life, maybe that's why you can't stand elevators now.
- The Release: The idea is that once the memory is conscious, the trauma loses its power over your physical body.
It’s basically "re-filing" old data that got stuck in the wrong folder.
Is It Real or Just a Vivid Imagination?
Look, let’s be real for a second. The scientific community isn't exactly lining up to give Weiss a Nobel Prize.
Critics like the American Psychiatric Association have pointed out that there’s zero empirical evidence for reincarnation. They argue that under hypnosis, the brain is highly suggestible. You might just be creating a "myth" to explain your current pain. It’s called cryptomnesia—where you remember a movie or a book you forgot you read and your brain serves it up as a "past life."
But Weiss's response to the "is it real?" question is usually: Does it matter?
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If a patient walks in with a chronic backache that doctors can't fix, and after "remembering" a spear wound from the Middle Ages the pain goes away... is the "truth" of the memory more important than the relief?
Actionable Insights for the Curious
If you’re sitting there thinking this might be the missing piece to your own puzzle, don't just jump into the first "regression" video you find on YouTube.
First, Check Your Grounding
Past life work isn't a replacement for traditional medicine. If you have severe clinical depression or PTSD, moving into deep hypnotic states can be intense. Talk to a licensed therapist first.
Read the Source Material
Start with Many Lives, Many Masters. It’s a short read and gives you the raw case study. It helps to understand the "Catherine" story before you try to find your own.
Practice Daily Stillness
Weiss often says that the "ego" is too loud. You won't hear the whispers of the past if you're constantly scrolling. Start with five minutes of silence a day. Just five.
Find a Certified Practitioner
If you want to go deep, look for someone specifically trained in Weiss’s methods. The Weiss Institute still holds workshops (there's one coming up at the Omega Institute in June 2026, for example). Don't settle for someone who just "feels" like they can do it.
The "So What?" Factor
The goal of past life regression therapy Brian Weiss style isn't to find out you were Cleopatra. Odds are, you were a peasant or a farmer. The goal is to figure out what lesson you’re still trying to learn.
Maybe that "irrational" fear is actually a very rational response to something your soul hasn't processed yet. Whether that's literal history or just a very powerful metaphor from your subconscious, the path to healing usually starts with being willing to look.
Next Steps for You: To get started with this yourself, you can look for Brian Weiss’s "Mirrors of Time" meditation. It’s a guided audio track specifically designed to ease beginners into the regression state without needing a one-on-one therapist immediately. This allows you to test your own suggestibility and see what, if anything, your subconscious is ready to show you.