The Third Eye
by Nicole Howard
illustration by RAchelle
Kara’s threatening to perform a past-life regression on me. She’s drunk, but she’d be saying the same thing even if she were sober. She’s trying to keep me from leaving New Hampshire. Her face is all screwed up into a tightly-fixed expression that has turned her eyes into two green beads. She’s going to light four candles and hypnotize me, I can be anyone I want, even Cleopatra. Actually, I’d probably try to be Marilyn. But I already know I’ll be leaving for Quincy to go to Regina’s Tea Room, because I procrastinated about writing this column and figure I should have a REAL psychic perform this weird lobotomy on my soul-brain. Jason is just laughing at Kara slumped in a chair and me wobbling around between chair and ashtray, worrying about something I don’t even get paid for. I told him it was for personal gratification, but on the three hour ride home I’m not so sure, and I am almost late to meet Violet. My eyes couldn’t focus after one and a half hours (even with glasses) and by the time I stumble in there I am so over-tired that I think I’m already hypnotized anyway and would probably agree to almost anything.
Turns our that Violet’s late herself, so I sit down at a table and wait over a really bad (but free) Dixie-size cup of coffee. I am trying not to laugh too hard, but I have just been handed a “menu” of psychic services. They actually list them exactly like food items and I’m finding this way too funny. But it gets worse because the hostess has gone over to the next table and is actually writing down their “order” on a little pad of paper from her apron pocket. I’m just hoping they don’t get our orders confused. Then suddenly, in a whish on clear air, Violet’s here, shaking my hand. I expect her to be fat and purple, but she’s normal-looking with reddish-brown dyed (the eyebrows told me) hair. We go into a small room where a tape recorder has been set up at my request. If I end up sounding like Sybil I want a tape of it for my answering machine message.
I try not to be sarcastic and focus on looking innocent, while Violet describes the procedure. I am so skeptical that I am almost sure I will be immune. Although a past-life regression involves hypnosis, it is nothing like the typical “X-rated Hypnotist” type. This is not a parlour trick where you will be made to bark like a dog or embarrass yourself in some other way. The whole time you’re being hypnotized you remain consciously aware. In fact, your subconscious may even fight your conscious and you might be surprised by some of the things you say. You also pick a “safe” spot to go to in your mind for whenever you feel uncomfortable, or don’t feel like talking anymore. This is any place special to you, such as a brook, stream, beach, mountain, or in my case, a cloud. It is a built-in mechanism to calm you down at any point, should you become hysterical. During a past life regression your seven chakras (base, spleen, solar plexus, heart, throat, brow, and crown centers) are opened up. Intuition and infinite space are characteristics of the purple crown center, which once opened brings you to the gateway, so that you can see into your past lives. The psychic-hypnotist then propels you through the Alpha levels (from A-B), starting out shallow and then plunging you deeper into your subconscious. The whole process takes one half hour and costs $35.00 at Regina’s Tea House in Quincy, one of the lowest rates I could find. It’s an extra $2.00 for a tape recording, which I actually forgot to pay for on my way out, so I guess I stole it? Oops… I guess I’ll be paying for it in my next life.
The whole time Violet was hypnotizing me, all I could think about was how it was definitely not working. She very slowly brought me from levels one to ten. At each number I was told to relax certain parts of my body while rhythmically breathing in and out. My safety net (the cloud) was always there. This whole process took about ten minutes. By the time I had reached number 10, my chakras were opened, and gold and silver cords were floating around me. I was standing at the gateway. Now at the Alpha level, Violet brought me through the gateway in steps A-E; this took about 5 minutes. During these steps, Violet repeatedly assured me that I was protected and could look at the past free of regrets, with my spirit guides close by. By level E, I was told to look through my eyes and see myself in another lifetime.
I was amazed to hear words coming out of my mouth. I saw lots of dream-like pictures that never stayed still. By the time I said what I had seen, it was already gone. I also seemed to skip through time a lot, the only concrete time I mentioned was May 27, 1811. I claimed that I was Millie, a woman in a long pink hoop gown, apparently living a life similar to someone in “Gone With the Wind.” The eerie thing was that my voice actually changed at this point, like I was possessed. We moved on from that and I became greatly disturbed by a woman in a red dressing gown with black hair, who I was convinced had killed somebody. She was somehow connected to a man standing next to a horse in riding clothes, who had a little 3- or 4-year-old boy with him. The little boy was waving at me (but I couldn’t tell who I was) and I became slightly hysterical at this point, claiming that it was my 13-year-old brother of today. All this in about ten minutes worth of time. By the end I was a little shaken by my vivid imagination, but still not convinced of the past lives theory.
In fact, I didn’t believe a word of what I had said while under hypnosis. I had the same feeling that I get when I am trying to fall asleep and know that I am still in control of a dream. I am telling it (the dream) what will happen. The feeling during a past-life regression was no different. I felt that all the books I’d read and the movies I ‘d seen, all combined into characters that I’d created. Violet told me that this is a common feeling. Her theory behind it is that if you’re see something at that level, then that’s significant in and of itself. I understood what she was saying, but I still see this as being the same as a dream level. More interesting are other applications of hypnosis.
Past-life regression has also been used to go the other way, into a type of future transgression. Studies have been done where hypnosis is used to send people into the 2000’s. Many people claim to have seen the same things. There is communal living in a barren, highly technological society. There is instantaneous communication with machines and further use of extra-sensory perception. Are people simply fantasizing about where the current trend is heading, or are they actually seeing through future lives?
Violet, for one, is very excited about the year 2000 and all that it portends. We are entering The Age of Aquarius, where people “try to taste it all.” And indeed, she believes a type of “psychic revolution” is starting to arise and that current trends are leading to a “psychic coming.” She believes everyone under the age of 25 has been born with special capabilities for psychic powers. We are going to see great changes over the next few years; in fact we are in the midst of them right now.
And from a layman’s perspective, we are seeing more and more introduction of psychic and unknown phenomenon into our lives. Just look at a smattering of recent movies, The Craft, Phenomenon, Independence Day, Matilda. All of them involve the inexplicable in one way or another. Not to mention that almost everyone you talk to these days will tell you that they’ve had at least one psychic or supernatural experience.
Violet says that this is one of the most exciting eras to live through, and no matter how bored I am, or how aggravated with society and our computer-lives I become, I have to agree that it will be interesting to live (or not live) through the year 2000 and wait for all of these signs and prophesies to show themselves. We have advanced astoundingly technologically, but as a whole we’ve grown away from our spiritual roots and Mother Earth. Maybe a younger generation will lead us back towards this, but all I can picture are mutant hippies talking techno-speak!
