What do they do?
Ever met someone and felt an instant connection with them? Ever felt afraid of something you’ve got no reason to fear – like fire? Or water? Ever visited a city for the first time and felt convinced you’ve been there before? This could be evidence of your having walked this earth many times before this lifetime.
For Delhi-based Blossom Furtado, hypnotherapist, regression and spiritual therapist, one life is an amalgamation of many. Before she became a healer, Furtado worked in corporate jobs and set up an IATA-recognised travel agency, and then an event management company. She works with the premise that each person on this earth has lived many lifetimes and carries with him or her memories of those lives. Some lives are incomplete and tend to disturb and stop people from moving ahead in their current lives. “By accessing these memories (hypno-therapists help a client relax and talk him or her ‘back’ to the past) we are able to complete them and their life’s works,” says Furtado.
Illnesses, addictions, phobias... PLR, or past-life regression, therapists claim to have cures for all kinds of ailments. They also help people use past lifetimes as a resource and bring back talents and strengths to support them in the here and now.
Furtado, who has been married to a publisher for over 35 years and has two daughers, a grandson (whom she adores) and six dogs, uses hypnosis among other techniques in her work. Clients go into a state of deep relaxation (akin to sleep) till they reach the source of the issue (bothering them) or challenge. “We avoid using the word ‘problem’,” she says.
Many therapists like her function with what they call a ‘parataxic distortion’, which means not really responding to the issue/person/place or event as it is happening in the here and now but to the reaction they trigger off subconsciously. For example, says Furtado, “I may have spoken to a friend in 2005, had a terrible argument and I might have left the discussion feeling upset and miserable. Now, in 2010, I meet this same friend again and instantly respond to her based on how I felt during the argument.” The past is always factored in when assessing the status of relationships, or with any problem.
“We assist our clients to explore, discover, become aware, accept, take responsibility and then take action. We show them how to live mindfully by accessing answers from within. All our answers lie deep within us and yet we search for solutions outside, and continue to remain miserable,” says Furtado.
Hypnosis, quick visits to the past... all of it sounds rather mysterious. So, is there something unusual about a therapist’s workspace?
Gurpreet Singh, who has been in the corporate sector and took up PLR therapy four years ago, says “You don’t need much space. A room with a good ambience even at home that would make a client comfortable, will do. There should be a couch or a reclining chair for the client. Lighten the place with soft music and aroma from oils, like lavender.”
The therapy, Singh says, works miraculously well, and “that’s enough reason for me to be in it. After all, it’s the result that counts.”
