Martin Patton

Martin Patton is president of the International Medical and Dental Hypnotherapy Association and a Certified Past Life Trainer. In the following viewpoint, Patton discusses how his work as a hypnotherapist revealed to him that humans experience multiple physical lifetimes. Clients who came to him for treatment of anxiety and phobias would often regress to a past lifetime under hypnosis, he maintains. Eventually Patton learned the method of past-life therapy, which incorporates guided hypnosis to help clients recall events in former lives and how they may be influencing the individual’s present life. Patton notes that reincarnation, a central tenet of several eastern religions, has been embraced by such notable westerners as Benjamin Franklin.

As you read, consider the following questions:

1. How does past-life therapy bring about spiritual healing, in Patton’s opinion?
2. What did...