In my presentations on past life regression, I am usually asked whether I got any instance of regression to animal lives, if yes how the experiences are narrated.

On 7^th April 2002, SD came up with following experiences during hypnotic trance. It is a period about 300 years after commencement of Kaliyuga. There is a child of 6-8 years old. A snake crosses the child, he faints. This child becomes a famous person in history of India. He becomes known by many names and one of them is Vatsyayna. In a subsequent session on 18^th July 2002, he expanded further. He identified himself with the snake and reported that the snake lives on a tree. There is a hut nearby and that child becomes about 80 years old now. He has a dark black complexion and stays in the hut. The snake is trying to enter the hut but it is not able to access it because that person has done something on the boundary of the hut which is causing irritations on the skin of the snake. The snake is returning back to the tree.

It is a morning time now.. the old man is wearing a ‘wooden Khadau’ and carrying an earthen pot, I  am following him. I bite on his right leg and inject in maximum poison… his body is turning blue and he sat on the ground…(a surprise reaction and continued to narrate) there is poison in his body… I am having burning sensations… I am not able to move… getting faint…(SD’s neck jerked and turned to the right). Both died. Shadows are emerging from both the bodies.. Guruji came and asked, have you taken your revenge? Go to human race, then only you would be released… This person is released now. You had an opportunity to bite him when he was a child, you did not because his works were not complete. Now he has completed his works and hence you bite him now. It is the same being which had earlier bitten you in the Ashram.

The karmic links may manifest in similar manner. In Ashram life, this boy (Karmendra) was bringing drinking water in an earthen pot from the waterfall and the snake had bitten him. This time, the being of the boy took a life of a snake and bit the being of that snake (the old man) when this old person was carrying an earthen pot. A striking similarity! I am reminded of a mythological story. Sri Bheesma Pitamah on the bed of arrows mentioned to Sri Krishna as follows:

Pitamah asked Bhagwan, I have reviewed my 99 lives and I could not find any life which could explain my this bed of arrows. Why did I get it? Vasudev replied, Pitamah, just go back to one more life and see! Pitamah then regressed himself to the 100^th life and came to know that in that life, he was a king of a place and while passing through on a horse ride, a snake came on the way and he flung that snake by his arrow on to a bush and snake died. The being of the snake is Arjuna in the current life who in the similar way balanced the karma by giving  him a bed of arrows.

In addition to karmic lessons, this instance suggests that the practice of past life regression was known in the period of Mahabharata and the knowledge of crossover of species (animal to human being) was also present.

On 28^th April 2002 Mr. SA in hypnotic trance narrated that I am a tiger. It is a forest area of north east. I am wandering here and there. I am being followed by tribal people. I am attacked by an arrow, it hits and pierces my left hind… it is paining… I am running to escape… tribal people are following me… I get slipped into a large dig… the tribal people spread around the dig and throwing stones over me… my pain is increasing…after some time, some shadow comes out of me and jumps to the tree and watching the tribal people throwing stones and enjoying.

My two subjects identified the being of a past life animal with one of the family members in current life. First subject during past life regression identified the being of a dear of previous life as her sister-in-law’s son in current life. The second subject in past life regression identified the being of a snake of previous life as the husband in current life. The concepts of past life regression as such may be objectionable to many persons and addition of such concepts can further aggravate the issues. These experiences are included in this book because some subjects do report in this manner and I keep myself open for interpretation of these concepts on the basis of unconscious mechanisms like substitution, symbolism but at this point it is difficult for me to comment with certainty.

On 4^th June 2003, Dr. KS relived an ancient life in Nalanda. She relived that … I am an adult… I am silently sitting in a corner… a small deer comes near me… it is trying to play with me… its mother is also there… this deer is the son of my sister-in-law in the current life… I am feeling as if my sister-in-law’s son is standing near me…

“A 23 years old boy, in past life regression reported himself as a mountain in one of his former existence. When he enquired, how it died, he responded that through a volcano. A follow up of this subject showed marked improvement in his functioning in the current life which was confirmed independently from others”. (Shared by Mr. Gaurav). This instance, further adds to the food for thought! It may be quite easy to discard such instances as fantasy/imagination. But can we pause for a moment and just give a thought as if it was…!

On 8^th February 1966, there a was news in Hindustan newspaper which stated that a nine year old girl told her mother that in one of her previous life she was a male, served as a school teacher and died at the age of 25 due to abdominal pain. Then she took birth as a cow; who was killed by its owner because of reduced milk output and then she took birth in the present family.

In 2002 I approached revered Dr. Brian Weiss through email and queried his position on regression to animal lives. He responded that though he has never got any instance of a regression to animal lives in his practice by then but he is open to the possibilities.

In 2004, I came into contact with Dr. Thelma B. Freedman. She completed her doctoral dissertation in 1997 from Saybrook Institute, San Francisco on “Past life and interlife reports of phobic people: Patterns and outcome”. She has been in the editorial board of The Journal of Regression Therapy for several years. She is a founding member of The International Board of Regression Therapy (IBRT). She practiced hypnotherapy and past-life therapy in New York State for about 30 years. On 18^th June 2004 I raised a query and Dr. Thelma was kind enough to respond to it comprehensively. I am reproducing the query and the response.

My Query: My clients reported animal forms in their previous lives e.g. rat, snake, tiger etc. But may practitioners do not believe in such reports and discard them as ‘archetype’ or something else. But the reports of my clients about animal form are as real as human form. I want to understand the reports of animal existence in previous life.

Dr. Thelma’s Response: I would like to understand that too. Actually, I have never had a client report a past life as an animal, but I know that other therapists claim they have (not many, though). I do know that many people go to various workshops where they are guided into an altered state and asked to find their “special protective animal” and they may identify with this figure and later “live its life” in a regression session instead of a ‘real’ past life.

The concept of regression to animal lives has more than one issues (a) a psychoplasm which has ascended to the human form in evolutionary scale, would never return back to lower ladders in the scale. (b) a psychoplasm can keep on switching over from human form to animal form and vice versa across lives. A birth as human being is no guarantee that the being would not drift back to animal lives in subsequent births.

In discussions on the issue of animal lives in different forums, I also get enriched with the views and understanding of the audience. Contrasting beliefs and views exist on this issue. There are belief systems and doctrines which posit that once a higher evolutionary level is attained by the non-corporeal being, it does not revert back to the lower levels and continue its journey upward. In sharp contrast to it, there are views that posit a journey of the non-corporeal being from animal to human and vice versa.

I am inclined to the views (open to correction) that experiences are registered as sense impressions and images somewhere in the non-corporeal being and this being might have free will to choose its own form of existence for learning one or the other lessons across lives.