I do encounter cases in which there is a partial or total failure in attaining hypnotic trance, accessing past lives and getting desired outcomes from past life regression. I have also seen some clients reacting to the disappointment at any level of past life regression work. Some subjects even try to justify and explain away a successful regression experience as an act of imagination and negate the whole field of enquiry.

Carol Bowman in her book Children’s Past Lives reported that

Some people’s conscious minds are simply too strong to relinquish control and they fight the process. These are the minority who cannot be hypnotized. If nothing works after trying different techniques, it’s best not to push. The client’s resistance is there for a reason- protection – and it should be respected. This process can’t be forced (p.88).

I formulated following disclaimer for the clients who approach me for past life regression.

There can be total or partial failure in getting into hypnotic trance, past life regression and outcome of past life regression with me. Your mind may reject my methods and procedures of past life regression. You should remain prepared for all these experiences, else I advise you not to seek my services. I also recommend not seeking my services for magical success or if you tend to react severely to failures.

I worked on possible solutions for mitigating failures and converting a failure into a success one. I invited inputs from fellow therapists also. This exercise led to the enumeration of several points as outlined below.

1. A rapport should be established with the client prior to commencing hypnotic induction.
2. The hypnotic induction and regression should not be done in a hurry. Sufficient time should be allowed to the client to speak and a therapist should remain in listening mode.
3. A client should be properly educated as what to expect and what not to expect from a regression session. Do not re-assure the subject that he/she shall definitely have a successful regression experience. Extensive clarification should be done for myths and extra-ordinary expectations from hypnosis and past life regression. It should be done for all cases irrespective of their educational and professional status. A simple question that ‘How your body and mind would respond to hypnosis and regression?’ can yield clues to misconceptions.
4. It should be communicated to the client that getting or not getting into hypnosis depends upon the suggestibility of the subject; not on the power of the therapist.
5. A suggestibility mapping should be done prior to the hypnotherapeutic work and the results be discussed with the client. If a subject is less suggestible, the process of regression may be deferred to next sessions. A less suggestible subject can be assigned a home work of listening to relaxation audios or even self-regression tapes for about one week.
6. The dominant sense modality of the subject should be identified during suggestibility testing and the suggestions and explorations should be done through the questions related to the dominant sense modality of the client.
7. The process should not be done when a client is under the influence of alcohol, substance of abuse, tranquilizers.
8. Prior exposure to hypnosis and past life regression should be explored in detail. What methods were adopted by the other therapist, what was the response of the client, what the client expected and so on.
9. If a subject is not comfortable in the presence of the therapist, then the process of hypnotic induction and regression may either be postponed or a referral can be made to other therapist.
10. When a technique does not work, keep on smoothly switching over to other techniques and develop innovative techniques on the fly. Analytical methods of regression can be adopted.
11. It may be possible that an attached entity is preventing a successful regression experience of a client. If this is the case, the personification model can be used prior to regression proper.
12. A persistent and continued motivation on the part of the client is a must for converting failure into a success.

In many cases a failure in regression can be converted into success with intuitive and persistent efforts. Still there would be a minority who may not get into hypnosis or regression and fail to get benefit from accessing their previous lives. In such cases, an option of remote healing can also be explored.