DANIEL RYAN, CHT, CRT

I currently maintain full time practice in New York City at the Center for Integrative Hypnosis and enjoy offering hypnosis, guided meditation and trance experiences to individuals and groups all over the world. For over 10 years I’ve observed the application of hypnosis and regression therapy internationally. In different cultures with different age groups, I've trained with the most highly regarded professionals in the field. Setting aside misconceptions of mind-control or loss of consciousness. Hypnosis is a tool for your use. You might call it meditation with an agenda. It is useful for anxiety relief, stress management, performance enhancement, habit cessation, behavior modification, pain management, treating PTSD and IBS, overcoming fears and phobias and more. 

Hypnotic states are common and naturally occurring. The core principle of hypnosis is "All hypnosis is self-hypnosis." This is most evident when we look at our phones, computers or television screens. Generally, at those times we are in light states of trance. Trance is embedded in how we communicate and learn, how we relax and give our attention. Each of us experiences it everyday and it can be used to create changes in behavior or thinking. It is both art and science. It’s different in the mind of every person because every person’s mind is different. As the poet, Rumi, says “The mind is a wonderful tool and a terrible master."

Music Attribution

transcript

SOUND FX: Quick tone To introduce the show

OPENING SEQUENCE

DANIEL

Now would be a good time for me to mention that the way I approach past life regression is really through the widest frame possible...

MUSIC:"OPENING" BY RAPHAEL

D.S. MOSS

That's Daniel Ryan, a hypnotherapist specializing in past life regression. In this scene I'm fidgeting in a black leather lounge chair trying to get comfortable with the idea that I'm about to get hypnotized and regress into my past lives.

D.S. MOSS_MONO

How much of it is it the brain being, or the consciousness being self-repairing, and using metaphor to actually self-heal? Instead of necessarily being a literal past lives?

DANIEL

I would say yes, of course, that's possible. Is it possible too that it's more than that?

D.S. MOSS

Why am I doing a past life regression, you ask? Well, turns out I have some bad karma from some previous lives involving murder and love triangles that like to take care of. And besides, I'm just a little bit curious.

DANIEL

Anything else you would like to talk about, any questions about the experience before we go ahead and dive in?

D.S. MOSS_MONO

No, I'm ready I guess, as ready as I'm going to be.

D.S. MOSS

In this episode we chat with a former monk and a regression hypnotherapist and discover how karma and reincarnation influence our present life. Please join me as we take a journey into the past in Episode 4 of The Adventures of Memento Mori: Past Life Regression.

OPENING BUMPER

MUSIC:  "Memento mori" by Mikey ballou

Female announcer

From The Jones Story Company, this is: THE ADVENTURES OF MEMENTO MORI, A Cynic's Guide for Learning to Live by Remembering to Die - the podcast that explores mortality. Here's your host D.S. Moss.

CHAPTER 1: SLURPING WITH SANDRA

MUSIC: "GOLD BEACH" by Josh spacek

D.S. MOSS

This whole story started in Chicago. I had a couple of hours to kill and as I was meandering down the street a neon psychic sign caught my eye. 

SANDRA

One of the palm readers?

D.S. MOSS_MONO

Yes.

SANDRA

Oh, my God, did you go in?

D.S. MOSS_MONO

Of course I did... 

D.S. MOSS

Over a ramen dinner, I recount the story to my friend Sandra.

SANDRA

Did you have a strong aura? Did she pick you off the street?

D.S. MOSS_MONO

...she did say my aura is normally blue, but it's very gray. My aura got very grayed out.

SANDRA

I don't think gray is on the aura scale.

D.S. MOSS_MONO

No, because my karma was so bad that my normally blue, my natural blue aura had turned gray.

SANDRA

Oh, that's fear-based sales.

D.S. MOSS_MONO

And she said because of my past lives that I'll never find true love in this life.

SANDRA

That bitch said that to you?

D.S. MOSS_MONO

...So, of course, what do I do? I'm like, "Well, what were my past lives?" She's like, "Well, that's-"

SANDRA

25 bucks.

D.S. MOSS_MONO

60.

SANDRA

Whoo!...Go on.

D.S. MOSS_MONO

The first life that came to her was around 14th-century Spain.

MUSIC: "Betrayal, Lies and Disaster" by Josh Spacek

MUSIC: "In cold blood" by josh spacek

MUSIC: "You Bastard" by Josh Spacek

D.S. MOSS_MONO

I was the son of a very wealthy landowner. I had fallen in love with his rival's daughter. I think I was 17 at the time. Madly in love with his arch-nemesis.

SANDRA

The Montagues. Yes, go on.

D.S. MOSS_MONO

The Montagues, and I fell in love with a Capulet. Of course, but kept it secret for a while, got caught. Dad then warns me that you've got to end it. I disobeyed Father. He finds out again and has her killed in front of me. I am so enraged that-

SANDRA

You kill your father.

D.S. MOSS_MONO

I sneak into my father's bed at night and I kill my father. I tried to flee, and a guard then kills me. So I witness the death of my love, kill my father, then I get killed trying to flee. 

D.S. MOSS_MONO

The second life that she recalled was in the Victorian Era ... South Carolina. I think I was a little bit older, but around the same age. I was a guy who, again, fell in love, young love, with a slave.

Sandra

You're a white guy?

D.S. MOSS_MONO

White guy.... This time, again, it's forbidden. Forbidden love. Mom knows about it. No, no, Mom knows about it, but to protect the situation, Mom then sells my love into another family. Then I found out about this, and so I went to go find her. It took me a couple years to find her. I did, and then somehow I find her in a barn and she's literally making hay in the hay with somebody else. I get so enjealoused and enraged, I kill them both and then kill myself.

SANDRA

We can't even talk about this. Or...

No, you didn't. 

D.S. MOSS_MONO

Third life, it's the Roaring 20s in New York. I'm a girl this time, and I am "the Paris Hilton of the 20s.

Sandra

Oh, okay.

D.S. MOSS_MONO

There's an arranged marriage, and now I'm like 21. There was an arranged marriage. Of course, I didn't love him. Every time it rained, I would have an affair. This went on for years and years and years and years, and we had a child. We had a son.

Sandra

Ah, so you do marry that guy.

D.S. MOSS_MONO

Yes, we get married. Just a hollow marriage. I didn't love him. He gets broken-hearted. He shoots him- He commits suicide. He shoots himself...Then somehow I'm so embarrassed because I'm going to get exposed, and somehow I'm in such shame that I think the only option out is to kill myself as well. I either ... I don't remember if he shot himself and I hanged myself or vice versa, but somehow that's ... But the kid's point is that the kid witnessed it.

Sandra

Witnessed what?

D.S. MOSS_MONO

Me killing myself, then his dead father, as well. He was raised by the family. Came back to our estate somewhere where we- This happened in Montauk or this happened somewhere in the Hamptons. He went back on his 21st birthday to the place where both of his parents killed himself, and then he killed himself as well. So this is my karma. This is why, in this life, I'm fucked. Because of those three lives.

SANDRA

I don't think this is a good example of karma....

I don't know. What is that book? Shit. I feel like, remember I was telling that there's that book about past lives...

Something. I think I told you about that. It's about this doctor who wrote a very small book about this particular woman...

Lives of Masters? Lives or something about ...

D.S. MOSS

She's referring to Many Lives Many Masters. 

MUSIC:"Mountains" Cory GRAY

CHAPTER 2: MANY LIVES MANY MASTERS

D.S. MOSS

Published in 1988, at the beginning of the self-help book revolution, Many Lives Many Masters brought past-life regression hypnotherapy into the mainstream. 

The book chronicles the hypnotherapy sessions of psychiatrist Dr. Brian Weiss with a patient, who during deep hypnosis recalled - in vivid detail - her past lives.

DR. WEISS

Years of disciplined study had trained my mind to think as a scientist and physician, molding me along the narrow paths of conservatism in my profession. I distrusted anything that would not be proved by traditional scientific methods

...Then I met Catherine.

D.S. MOSS

Dr. Weiss, of course, isn't French. That's my friend Manu. No, Dr. Weiss grew up in New Jersey, went to Columbia University and received his MD from Yale. The book frames the spiritual and metaphysical findings with a scientific skepticism making it a little easier to digest. It's like a rational crust with a gooey spiritual center. 

DR. WEISS

Nothing in my background had prepared me for this. I was absolutely amazed when these events unfolded. I do not have a scientific explanation for what happened. There is far too much about the human mind that is beyond our comprehension.

D.S. MOSS

Catherine was 27 when she first met with Dr. Weiss. She suffered from extreme anxiety, phobias, recurring nightmares, felt a lack of purpose in life and was emotionally paralyzed.

...Eighteen months of traditional therapy went by without any measurable improvement, so Dr. Weiss decided to try deep regression hypnotherapy on Catherine.  

And while hypnotized, this happened...

sound FX: Mystic Cloud vapor sound

CATHERINE

I see white steps leading up to a building, a big white building with pillars, open in front. There are no doorways. I'm wearing a long dress...

DR. WEISS

I was confused. I wasn't sure what was happening. I asked her what the year was, what her name was...

CATHERINE

Arona, I am eighteen. We live in a valley. There is no water. The year is 1863 BC.

D.S. MOSS

Now, I find it a little odd that Arona would use the Gregorian calendar. If you were in 1863 BC you would be calling it 1863 BC, but, anyway...Arona was one of Catherine's 86 lives.

But it gets even more interesting...

...Dr. Weiss discovered that if he regressed Catherine to her death in a past life he could then communicate with...The Masters, advanced spirit guides dwelling in the in-between life, or bardo as they refer to it in Buddhism.  

...Catherine was now a transcendental conduit into another dimension of evolved souls relaying messages specifically to the doctor.  

CATHERINE

Our task is to learn, to become God-like through knowledge. Then we come back to teach and help others... 

...We have dominant vices and must rid ourselves of them in the physical state or we will carry them over into the next life... 

...We all have specific lessons to learn and we must learn one at a time in order for us to become whole.

D.S. MOSS

These, among many other messages from the Masters, poured in.

Although the messages were about achieving grace, charity, hope, faith, and love - there was one in particular that bothered me.  

CATHERINE

There are karmic debts that must be paid. If we have not paid out these debts, then we must take them into another life in order that they may be worked through.

D.S. MOSS

Karmic debt. Even the Chicago gypsy said that I had to pay back karma from previous lives in order to be happy in this life. I don't like debt. And I certainly don't like cosmic debt where I don't even know what I did or what I owe. 

And another thing - - what is karma?

CALL TO ACTION 1

MUSIC: Emergency exit by Dr. frankenstein 

FEMALE ANNOUNCER

Ever wonder what Elvis's last words were or the most outrageous methods of living forever? Discover titillating titbits about mortality by visiting "The Adventures of Memento Mori" YouTube channel and be the slightly odd yet endlessly fascinating conversationalist at your next party.

And be sure to stay up to date with the quest for enlightenment on Instagram and Twitter by following @remembertodie.

All of this, and more, can be found on our site remembertodie.com. And now, back to show...

MUSIC:"Down the Street" By The Losers

CHAPTER 3: KARMA

D.S. MOSS

Before the break we were talking about how karma from past lives can affect your present life. But the concept of what karma actually is can be a little slippery. So I went out on the street to hear what people thought it meant. 

Jackie

Karma is something very negative that comes back at you after you've done something wrong to a person or just in general.

Michael

Oh what is karma? Just to let you know, just last week, I walked around this very park and did interviews about what you would do if you found someone's wallet on the ground. Many people talked about karma, they said that they would actually return the wallet even with the cash and everything, because of this whole dynamic of karma. They believe that if they did good things, and sent that wallet back, that someone that would impact their life in the future, and good things would happen to them. If they did bad things that bad things would happen to them, which is the basic idea behind karma.

SANDRA

You know what? I think karma is so mysterious and confusing. I think it's also an extremely difficult topic to even understand.

D.S. MOSS

Back to my friend Sandra.

SANDRA

I think somewhere it's written that the human mind can't even possibly understand what karma is. I think in basic pop culture, we think it's like, "What goes around, comes around." Somehow, that's supposed to come around, go around, and come around in this lifetime. I don't necessarily think that's the case.

D.S. MOSS

To get some clarity on the matter I invited a former monk turned entrepreneur over for a drink to discuss. 

CHRIS

Most people think of karma as a kind of a characteristic...

...If you're morally virtuous, you'll be rewarded. If you're morally bad or evil, you'll be punished...

D.S. MOSS

Karma, defined, simply means action. Chris says it's less about morality and more about acting and creating vibrations that are in harmony with the natural laws of the cosmos. 

CHRIS

It's more like if you slap a pond of water,

SOUND: slapping water & Rough vibrations

...it will create waves, and those waves will ripple out, and then those waves will bounce off the edge of the pond or whatever else is in the pond, and that will ripple back on you, and you'll get these kind of after-effects of the slapping of the pond.

SOUND: easy water & harmonious vibration

If you push your hand through the water without slapping it, without creating that impact, if you're able to gracefully interact with that pond, you won't have those kinds of after-effects...I think it's more about learning how to act gracefully, learning how to act in oneness with what's around you. 

D.S. MOSS

And there's your clarity.  

Since I had Chris there and a couple more bottles of wine, I asked him to explain the concept of reincarnation from a Hindu point of view.

CHAPTER 4: REINCARNATION

chris

As far as I'm concerned, the best representation of reincarnation in film is Groundhog Day...(It's groundhog day!!! Radio announcement.)

MUSIC: "Pennsylvania Polka" From the movie clip 

D.S. MOSS

Now you're talking in metaphors I can understand. 

CHRIS

In just about every spiritual tradition, one of the big, probably biggest impediment to your spiritual growth is your ego. 

Groundhog day is a great representation- (replace with scene: Rita I'm repeating the same day over and over. The premise is that Bill Murray keeps waking up on the same day. He doesn't know how to get out of this though.)

He initially tried to use his powers for self-gratification. It's an interesting morality tale about the ego...He tries to trick Andie MacDowell into falling in love with him by using his powers for evil, basically doing research on her, killing himself, and then coming back, and then using the research that he used to try and get her into bed, to try and get laid, which is purely, kind of an egoistic pursuit. (scene: I would never fall in love with someone like you)

Over time, when that fails, initially he becomes kind of depressed about it, and then, by the end of the film, he's realized that the only satisfaction that he can derive is by actually developing himself, becoming more altruistic. (scene: Don't worry I had a tire and jack with me)

...Initially, we use our ego, we try to force satisfaction into our lives, and we try to clasp it. Then, as we become wiser, as we evolve, we realize that the only true satisfaction in life is by reducing our ego, becoming humble, and driving satisfaction from less selfish pursuits, and from the idea of sacrifice, and surrender to things that are greater than ourselves.

By the end of the film, she falls in love with him because he has learned the art of self-sacrifice. He's given up his ego, and that breaks the spell of his having to come back and repeat the same day over and over again...(scene: I'm happy here being with you now) That, very neatly, corresponds with the idea of reincarnation in many traditions, which is until you surrender your ego, until you surrender yourself to the Divine, you will have to keep incarnating. Once you attain enlightenment, then you are liberated  from the task of having to come to the world of ignorance...

MUSIC: Do we need a music transition here?

D.S. MOSS

Ok. So here is the part that I get nervous. I've read Many Lives Many Masters and have been educated on Karma and Reincarnation from a former monk. Now, it's the part of the show where I get hypnotized and regress... 

DANIEL

I'm Daniel Ryan. I'm a hypnotherapist specializing in past life regression. 

D.S. MOSS

What you're about to hear is the actual recording of my past life regression. Right after this.

CALL TO ACTION 2

MUSIC: "O Cerebro do Morto" by Dr. Frankenstein 

FEMALE ANNOUNCER

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CHAPTER 5: THE REGRESSION

MUSIC: Hypnotic Induction (Voice)-1.mp3 

D.S. MOSS

When I first decided to do this I was honestly worried that I'd go under and say some crazy shit like I was Julius Caesar or Jesus. But there's actually no going under.  

DANIEL

I want the people I work with to remember our sessions because most people are afraid that they're going to come in here, and go into such a deep state that Lord knows what's going to happen...What use would this experience be to you today if you didn't remember it? 

D.S. MOSS

The technique Daniel uses is progressive relaxation, guided imagery and suggestion to access the mind. The best way to describe it as guided meditation with an agenda.

MUSIC: Ambient mediation

So there I am, back on the black leather lounge chair and as we begin I was asked my intention, my agenda; What answer was I seeking? Although I actually do have triangle love affair issues - reconciling my supposed bad karma wasn't it. My answer was purpose. What is my purpose in life?

Daniel

All right, so go ahead and close your eyes, and we'll both begin by taking a deep cleansing breath. Taking another, and taking one more and this time exhaling twice as long, letting all the air out of the lungs. Just continuing by letting the breathing be easy and natural. Letting your attention rest with your senses...

DANIEL

Using imagination now, I would like you to imagine for yourself a beautiful, safe, and sacred place. Wherever that would be for you today, knowing there is no right or wrong, there is no good or bad. Those are just ideas, and we can have them back later. This is a place that you create in your mind, so make it as beautiful as it possibly can be. Make it the place that you would like to visit right now....

SOUND: river 

As you explore that space, I would like you to notice that somewhere nearby, there hangs a light and lovely mist...

MUSIC: "Dream Sequence Part 1" by Red dawn

...In a few moments I'll count down from 3 to 1 and ask you to pass through that mist into the first past lifetime memory we'll seek today...

DANIEL

Feeling the feet on the ground, seeing that faint light shining on the other side of the mist. Letting your gaze rest there, 3, 2 and 1...

SOUND: Mystic Cloud vapor sound (same sound as Catherine earlier)

...Stepping through the mist, staying with the senses, and continuing until it's behind you. What's happening now?

D.S. MOSS_MONO

The sense of wind, gusts of wind. It's dark, blue, blue dark.

DANIEL

What surface do you feel beneath the feet?

D.S. MOSS_MONO

My feet feel wet. Swamp.

DANIEL

Taking this time to orient yourself in the senses here. Feeling the body, what do you notice?

D.S. MOSS_MONO

My hands. My hands are big, heavy.

DANIEL

Are there any emotions present?

D.S. MOSS_MONO

Sadness. Anger. A combination but nothing extreme.

DANIEL

What do you see around you?

D.S. MOSS_MONO

A roof made of hay. Something mud. I can see here from inside the house, but I'm looking at it from the outside but I know what's inside the house.

DANIEL

Does it feel like your house?

D.S. MOSS_MONO

Yes.

DANIEL

...What else is around it? Tuning the listening to hear not only the wind, but what other sounds are present there.

D.S. MOSS_MONO

Dogs.

DANIEL

Can you smell anything in the air? 

D.S. MOSS_MONO

Something is burning. Sulfur. Smells like sulfur.

DANIEL

Feeling your body, do you have a sense of male or female?

D.S. MOSS_MONO

Male. Big. Not normal. Big but like cumbersome big. ...

...I want to go to the house.

DANIEL

Do you have a sense of the relationship between the sadness in that house? 

D.S. MOSS_MONO

I can't get closer to it. The lights are on. That smell, it's not what's burning.I want to go there but I can't get closer to it. 

DANIEL

Inside your mind I would like you to pose this question to your higher mind asking, "Why can't this man get inside the house?"

D.S. MOSS_MONO

It's forbidden. 

DANIEL

Does it feel like there's more to explore in this scene or should we move on?

D.S. MOSS_MONO

Let's move on.

DANIEL

Bringing your awareness back to that light, and lovely mist once more, just letting me know when you can see it there...

MUSIC: "Dream Sequence Part 4" by Red dawn

...I would like you to step through this mist whenever you're ready, and find yourself in the last past lifetime memory it will explore today, and just let me know what you find when you arrive there. 

D.S. MOSS_MONO

(between 00:18:00 - 20:00)Walking through the crowd. The crowd is looking at me.

DANIEL

Go on. 

D.S. MOSS_MONO

They're getting out of my way. Out of duty or something, they're just responding.

DANIEL

What kind of clothing are the people in the crowd wearing?

D.S. MOSS_MONO

Robes of some sort but not white, but they're clean...

DANIEL

How do you feel?

D.S. MOSS_MONO

Majestic.

DANIEL

Beautiful, would you say that it feels purposeful this walk?

D.S. MOSS_MONO

Yeah.

DANIEL

Take a deep breath, just notice how that feels in the body for a moment, in the chest, through your arms, the legs. The body language, as this walk occurs, do you have a sense or male or female?

D.S. MOSS_MONO

Not physically but there's like nurturing...feeling maternal, nurturing of some sort. It's more maternal than paternal.

DANIEL

Stay with that feeling of maternal nurturing, examining it further as this feeling offered to the people around you. Is it offered to yourself, is it both? What do you notice about it?

D.S. MOSS_MONO

It's to others. I feel with myself but it's not to myself. There's a building, there's a building. It's a church but it feels like a campus, the building, the building, it's ceremony. I'm just walking through it. It's mine. I know it well. I've been there awhile.

DANIEL

Staying with the senses, continue to let the scene unfold naturally. Observe the people around you, look into their eyes, their faces. Letting the details emerge and reveal themselves to you.

D.S. MOSS_MONO

I sense that they're not well, but they're standing and they're here for a reason. They're sick.

DANIEL

Are they there to be healed?

D.S. MOSS_MONO

Yes. I think so...

DANIEL

Just letting that awareness be there too. What are you drawn to in the same ... What calls your attention?

D.S. MOSS_MONO

There's a view from like a balcony or a roof. It's day and I'm just looking at a canopy of trees just the. This building is on top of the mountain, maybe, something high. I can see above the trees. It's a window. There's a lot of windows. There's a lot of light.

DANIEL

Are there any other emotions present at this time?

D.S. MOSS_MONO

Just kindness.

DANIEL

Beautiful, take a deep breath, get yourself all over that feeling of kindness posing this question to your higher mind, for it's guidance, "What is the lesson here?"

D.S. MOSS_MONO

Give.

DANIEL

Is there more to explore here at this time or shall we move on?

D.S. MOSS_MONO

Let's move on. 

DANIEL

Just taking a deep breath now...

SOUND: Mystic Cloud vapor sound (same sound as Catherine earlier)

MUSIC: "OPENING" BY RAPHAEL

DANIEL

...1, letting in another deep breath rise up.2, 3, 4, 5, opening the eyes whenever you're ready.

MUSIC: DO WE NEED SOMETHING HERE???

CHAPTER 6: CONCLUSION

D.S. MOSS

So when I did open my eyes what felt like twenty minutes, was in reality over an hour and a half...

Do I believe these were my past lives? No. Could they have been? Meh. But those are the rules of the game: I'll never actually know - at least while in the physical state. Regardless, it actually doesn't in my mind diminish or cheapen the experience of what just happened.

I'll spare you the agony of listening to my interpretation of the scenes in the regression, but I will say this: in terms of purpose - my little brain sent me a pretty clear message...

Less egoistic, more altruistic. 

MUSIC: "Pennsylvania polka" by frank Yankovic

D.S. MOSS

Or at least move somewhere sunny

D.S. MOSS

Thanks for joining me on another episode of The Adventures of Memento Mori. A special thanks to Daniel Ryan from The Center for Integrative Hypnosis. Sandra, Chris and Many thanks for being smart and awesome. Please visit our website remembertodie.com and follow us on social media @remembertodie. I'm D.S. Moss. Back in two weeks for the next episode with more Adventures of Memento Mori. 

CLOSING BUMPER

MUSIC: End with our theme music

FEMALE ANNOUNCER

The episode was produced by Josh Heilbronner and D.S. Moss with production help Bianca Jaikaran. Theme music composed by Mikey Ballou. This has been a production of The Jones Story Company. Until the next time... remember to die.