Denise Billen-Mejia 0:07
Welcome to Two hypnotherapists talking with me, Denise Billen-Mejia in Delaware, USA.
Martin Furber 0:13
And me Martin Furber in Preston UK.
Denise Billen-Mejia 0:16
This weekly podcast is for anyone and everyone who would like to know more about fascinating subject of hypnosis, and the benefits that it offers.
Martin Furber 0:24
I'm a clinical hypnotherapist and psychotherapist,
Denise Billen-Mejia 0:27
I'm a retired medical doctor, turned consulting hypnotist.
Martin Furber 0:31
We are two hypnotherapists talking.
Denise Billen-Mejia 0:34
So, let's get on with the episode.
Martin Furber 0:36
Okay. Let's get on with the show. Denise introduce our guest.
Denise Billen-Mejia 0:41
To you again? I think that most of our guests will remember Ilah, who was in our first, I think or second series, but certainly very early on in the podcast. Because unlike us, as we said last week, she does practice past life regression. And so she very kindly came on to talk to us about that very fact. Thank you so much. And thank you so fast, you were so quick to answer me.
Ilah Brock 1:03
Sure.
Denise Billen-Mejia 1:03
You're always quick to answer me. Quick to find me a slot in the program. Thank you very much.
Ilah Brock 1:10
No problem. No problem. Happy to be here. Thank you so much for having me. And let's talk about past life regression.
Denise Billen-Mejia 1:17
Yeah. Do people come to you asking for that. Or do you bring, I think this might be a good idea?
Ilah Brock 1:24
Yeah. No, it's a good segue. I don't advertise it. And I don't mention it in any of my hard copy advertising. But people do ask me if I do it. And then I let them know I do. And that's kind of the rule of thumb that I've learned. When someone asks you, if you do it, and you do then do it. I don't have, I have not done a lot of them probably a dozen and a half maybe over the last six years or whatever. They've all been fun. They've all been interesting. Some are eye opening. And it boils down to when I had to take the curriculum class, I remember and this is kind of my segue into that part of it. Why even do it? The instructor, God love her, she's kind of like the expert at our alma mater, if you will. And she, I walked in with an attitude, I have a Christian background. And I had my, I remember sitting in the front row tilted with an attitude. And the only reason I'm here is because I have to be to graduate. That was my attitude going into it. And I was just kind of ticked that I was required to take a class that I didn't know how to believe what this was. But she did rest me at ease. She said right off the bat, it doesn't matter what you believe, this is not about you. This is about the client coming to you for an experience. And that's how she put it and that really did. Okay, so then she went through the class and all that and everything was fine. And then I just I never just thought it would be part of my thing. And then one of my early on clients called and said she wanted to have this done. And oh, I was in my internship. And I remember. So I'm talking to the director and his wife about this client because I hadn't had the classes, the actual certification. And so they graciously gifted those to me, so I could see this client, it was a pro bono thing. I guess they had gone. I don't know. Anyway, it turned out very well. And she was very helpful. She had an anger issue, or whatever. But and that's just kind of like, okay, well give it a try and see what happens, it's hypnosis.
Denise Billen-Mejia 1:27
Do most people, do most people come to you because there's an issue that they have? The person who contacted me had been at a spa, and it was one of the many things that was offered. And she thought, Well, that looks interesting. And so she did it and she also comes from a Christian background. And she was blown away because she met herself in another life. But it didn't answer any questions. She didn't know she had any questions. So it sort of felt about and she was also she feels that she was abruptly stopped. It was a spa, it was a definite and I know, I remember it's much longer. They say it's a much, much longer process than usual hypnosis sessions. How long are your sessions?
Ilah Brock 3:52
Usually, well I book a four hour block.
Denise Billen-Mejia 3:56
Right, that's what I thought.
Ilah Brock 4:00
Yeah. And the client, we spend a good hour or so and I even have some snacks because it's a long time, usually near the end of lunch or something like that whenever that time block is there. And I go through a very long question. Just questionnaire just to find out where they are. and why it is that they want to do this. Now they've already told me this in a consult call. I want to be, I want to kind of like be sure, or have this officially in writing or whatever. So I go through a bunch of questions my last client wanted to deal I'll use her as an example. It was wonderfully done. Now I do record it they're in hypnosis. She was in a note, oh gosh, an hour and a half. But here's the funny thing, where I don't I don't remember all the details, details, because I write them down and I record it. And I'm, you know, I'm not, my memory isn't all that great anymore about that's why I write things down. Right? So, but I remember her saying towards the end, we did it's like an hour and 20 minutes and or so. And I'm asking all these questions, and we're, I'm just guiding her along. And she said, No, I, I have to pee. Wherever she was, in her past life, she had to pee.
Denise Billen-Mejia 6:04
And I can't find the bathroom.
Ilah Brock 6:06
But it was like, Okay, I'm thinking, Does she really have to pee? Or does she, is she just going through some experience? And so it this went on for a few minutes. And on my end, she was struggling, like physically doing a little ab-reaction. So I brought her out of it. And I asked her how she's doing take in a deep breath, get herself settled. And she goes, I have to pee. It was like, that was what that was about. Okay, so. But it's, so I sent her the recording, and she listened to it. And she said that she didn't remember most of what was going on. She talked to me virtually the whole time. But, she was, that doesn't even sound like my voice. It was and it was her voice the whole time. I mean, I was...
Denise Billen-Mejia 6:59
Yeah, but mind you, you never know, if you record yourself, you always think it's somebody else, it doesn't soud quite like you hear you.
Ilah Brock 7:07
Right, and I listen to me all the time, so I'm used to my voice. But there's the voice that we lose that my voice and then there's, this doesn't sound anything like my voice. This is like, it changed. It's like her whole even her son said, it didn't sound like her. So it was but usually people in a past life, because I take them as deep as I possibly can. But they're also going to be talking to me. So I feel there's some element of not as deep as you would go like for smoking cessation or something. So I have them conversating with me, and we'd go through the process of taking them back in time. And I kind of do a little spaceship kind of thing, if you will, whatever they're comfortable with, if they're not afraid of heights, or if they're excited or whatever. They will speak or whatever, and then come back.
Denise Billen-Mejia 7:56
And you get a lot of that, why do you have to talk to me so long, we don't you just hypnotise me? Because I need to know things!
Ilah Brock 8:01
Yeah. And it's not, it's not do, where do you feel. One of the questions I asked, do you have a place in life? Or where you've lived? Or have you ever felt comfortable in someplace more than another? Country, City, State Street, a type of house, whatever, what has been your comfort zone in that and then I can work off of that. You know, some people might say, you know, I love history, Middle Eastern history, or I love South Asia history. I love the history in China, I love whatever they might love that have a fondness for that kind of, you know, hunger for something like that. And that leads me to Okay, so now I kind of know where I'm going now I can get this information beforehand. Before their actual past life, I'm doing a little research. So get some history about you know about that, that, you know, it's been a while since I've been in college, right? For world histories, but I get enough information that I can at least talk to them with questions that might relate to that. And what motivates them? What is it? You know, every one of them have come to me for a therapeutic reason. Some it's been anger. One guy came to me a couple years ago and he just didn't feel like he was from this world. It's just it just wasn't...
Denise Billen-Mejia 9:32
How long had he had that feeling?
Ilah Brock 9:34
He said his whole life. And he was about 40 maybe late 30s. So afterwards, he I said so how do you feel now? He goes about the same. So it's like he said it just confirmed what he felt already. A lot of people from India Indians, they love this. So I had a lot of clients repeat business. So they know everybody, and there's a pretty dense community here.
Denise Billen-Mejia 10:07
This is a Hindu population predominantly.
Ilah Brock 10:11
Yeah, Sikh kind of population. So they tell to friends, and then they call me. So word of mouth was getting out. So there was about a six month and I did four or five in a row. Well, when I say in six months, when I say in a row, they weren't day to day, I won't do more than one a week there. They take time.
Denise Billen-Mejia 10:29
Time intensive?
Ilah Brock 10:31
Very time intensive, and I want to make sure they have the best experience. And that's what I want. I want them to have the experience. I talked to them about hypnosis, we do an actual hypnotic hypnosis session, if you will. I do it the regular the way, I do my own conversion to hypnosis. And then I actually I have a chair in front of my desk. And so that's where I start hypnosis with everybody who comes in on their first visit. And then after I get, I know that they're in a state, I put them in state, I've given those beginning suggestions, I have them open their eyes, I have them look at me, I have them walk over to the recliner that I have about two, three feet away. So later, they can like, Wow, I did walk over there, didn't I? You know, I want them to feel like they have control. I also set up safety nets, while we're while they're doing a past life. On one of my safety nets is their ankle. I'll have them make sure their ankle is exposed so that they know when I touch them and grounds them back to here. You know, if I feel like they're struggling, or something's going on that they're not talking and they're, I can see that their facial expression, something's going on, then I can't get through, I'll wait a while. I mean, I want them to gain the experience. But if I feel like there's anything going on that might be troublesome, then I'm going to grab their ankle. And I've already set that up with them. And I've already told them, me, if you feel me grabbing your ankle, if you're going to come back to whatever reality you know, you're out of out of whatever you're in and do the here and now reality. And it usually drives them I've only ever had to use the ankle once.
Denise Billen-Mejia 12:17
Have any of the clients who have gone through that experience, have they felt that something has been resolved for them? Or is this mostly, I just wonder if I ever lived in China?
Ilah Brock 12:29
I know, no I don't get you know, it's funny, I don't get that I don't get I used to be this person or that person. Okay, I don't know, none of that. What I get is they're looking at themselves now, where they've been. And I also take them through because there's a birth and a death transition in every life. So it's like, how did you pass away and you have to decide how you want to experience it as subjectively like you're in it or objectively floating above it. But it's always some reason. I know, I think there was some traumas in my past life. I usually that's it the one of my first, that first client, she was angry for like 30 years, she was so angry.
Denise Billen-Mejia 13:12
As a child she'd been angry?
Ilah Brock 13:14
Oh, this she was in her 60s. So this started when she was in her 30s and it was her boyfriend's, son. And she had an altercation with him 30 years prior and she hadn't seen them. But this eating at her so much she felt that this anger was from a past life. So, like what took her through it now I did notice that she got stuck in this life when we were talking about her life between the ages of 12 and 10. She doesn't remember anything in that timeframe or after before or after. In but there was a 12, that age dip that was like telling.
Denise Billen-Mejia 13:56
As she entered teen years.
Ilah Brock 13:58
Yeah, yeah. But in hypnosis during the past life regression, she couldn't get any. She was in World War Two in Germany, and she's Jewish. I think she had a family that survived or didn't survive Auschwitz. But she couldn't get past the age 10, 12 in the whatever life she was in there. She didn't have a name. Nobody seems to have a name but they do have like different genders. Are you male or female? Are you young or old? Are the people around you? What do you see? And I'm having them describe the scenery around them, you know, is it country is it city? What is it farmland, whatever, you know, I'm having them describe to me now I don't say those words like is it farmland, so I don't want to lead them. Yeah. I want them to tell me what they see. You know, and the last gal said that, you know, one when I was taking her through different elements, it's just black. At one time it was in the country one time. I think both times it was a country just saw a house once a beautiful house. And half the time she was man and the other time she was a female. She said a couple of times she remembers being a boy, though there was times during the, she remembers specifically that she was a boy. So it was interesting. Um, some it's usually that's the kind of thing I don't get people going, I used to be Cleopatra. Oh, I saw I think I don't get that. I know that there's some past life regressions...
Denise Billen-Mejia 15:39
That it's part of the reason that most people tend, the people who don't practice it tend to look a little bit sideways at it, because it's often I was Cleopatra, I was Marie Antoinette that rare for people to reference something they actually don't know anything about in this world.
Ilah Brock 15:58
Right.
Martin Furber 15:59
Denise, sorry to interrupt. But don't you think that that is down to our sort of misconceptions about what past life regression is? Because in the same way that people may approach Denise and I and say, 'You're not going to make us look like a chicken', you know, because that's what people think about what we do.
Ilah Brock 16:16
I don't know if it's deceptive, because some of my colleagues, that's their experience, they have and they give to their clients. But I just, I follow a specific protocol of things that I've developed, watching and looking at everyone's different ways of doing, and I need to do something that resonates with me the most, and this is what I was playing.
Denise Billen-Mejia 16:36
And that's exactly why we do not practice it because it would feel like we were having...
Ilah Brock 16:44
Exactly, exactly, and I don't want that feel, I don't want to I don't want to guide anybody into anything. I mean, lead anybody into anything
Denise Billen-Mejia 16:52
Except into hypnosis.
Ilah Brock 16:53
I'll lead you in right! And take you out. But there's just any, I'm asking them like a list of questions, any particular issue or aspect in your current life that you're hoping to understand? And sometimes, I've had people not even do past life regressions? Sometimes I'm not, I'm not sure that's what they want. They're just maybe heard somebody. But then I'll tell them, Okay, we have to do a regular session first. And then we'll schedule a past life. Typically, I want two sessions. I want a regular session, just so they can experience what hypnosis is. And then some of the time they don't even go back to doing past life.
Denise Billen-Mejia 17:34
Just because they realize they could fix the problem here and now. Okay, right.
Ilah Brock 17:38
And they Yeah, it was whatever it was at the time. So it's almost it's very, it's a relief to me, when someone does something like that. They come in for a regular hypnotherapy session. And then they don't want past life. It's like, okay, and I may not do anymore. I mean, I'm not. I'm putting it out there.
Denise Billen-Mejia 17:58
Yeah, you're not milking it for everything you can get.
Ilah Brock 18:01
Oh, no, I mean, it's expensive. For sure. Yeah. But it's not my jam. You know, if they want 20 years of experience, I'm going to send them to somebody in LA, I have a friend, a colleague, who's in LA, and she's been doing these for 20 years. Yeah, they want that kind of experience they can go to her.
Denise Billen-Mejia 18:21
If they're not looking to resolve a particular thing?
Ilah Brock 18:25
Right. If they want something,
Denise Billen-Mejia 18:26
I want to know how many times I've had in the past.
Ilah Brock 18:28
Okay, right. I'm not gonna I have no idea. It's like, how many lives and I even tell my clients. If we're doing this, it may be you may need more than one session doing this. You might want two or three, I don't know. And I'll discount the second and third ones, but no one's ever come in for a second one, which is fine.
Denise Billen-Mejia 18:51
For the most part, it did answer whatever that question was that they had?
Ilah Brock 18:55
Or it created enough solace that they don't need it. Yeah, so that's fine with me. I'm just looking at just where's their strong connection to what it is that they're trying to accomplish? And I try to take that therapeutic approach with it. I don't go into when I'm asking questions. I don't go into well, do you feel like you were angry in this life? While they're in hypnosis? I'm not offering anything like that. I want them to tell me so all my questions are pretty open ended. What do you see? How do you feel? Are you hearing any noises? You know, that's what I want to explore
Denise Billen-Mejia 19:38
What kinds of things, what kinds of things to clients come back to you? Even if it's just you know, a follow up. How are you feeling after a couple of days? Do you always send an email to somebody and ask them they're doing?
Ilah Brock 19:47
Well, I they usually contact me. They're still, it's almost like they're bewildered. It's like, did that really happen? Wow. And then they go listen to their recording. And it's like they're, I guess they have resolve. Resolve has occurred. It's happened. It's like, okay, they're, they're fine with it. They're almost like they're content with whatever happened. One gal, I put her in hypnosis we're doing the past life, and she was struggling, so I took her out. And we talked about it. She was okay, let's do it again right now. Come on, let's go. And she's like, okay, come down three. Let's give it a day. Okay. I don't know what was going before. And I don't want the new ab-reaction to come back. You know, or anything. I don't want any traumas or anything like that. And so I don't recall that she ever came back.
Denise Billen-Mejia 20:49
Have clients ever said, No, that was a terrible experience. I don't want to do that, again. Was always it results in something in?
Ilah Brock 20:57
Yeah. Never, never negative experience. And you know, and I do want to be careful of that, too. I want to also be careful with someone's age when they're coming in. Because it is so expensive. I never and this is kind of, on the legal ethical note, you know, I don't want to ever anyone to ever think that I'm taking advantage of a senior citizen. Even though I am one now. Isn't it weird being the same age as old people? So I do take care in it. Some people will call and ask me once they hear the price. Let me get back to save the money. Okay. And that's fine. If someone's very serious. So when the last gal, she saved up three months, and then called me. And I had been seeing her regularly just in regular hypnotherapy. And she really wanted to try the past life regression. So she saved up the money and then she did it. Okay,
Martin Furber 22:02
Yeah, I'm, I'm thinking Ilah, that some people are wanting to experience this in the same way that some people might approach Denise and myself, just because they want to experience hypnosis because, you know, let's face it, there's so much misunderstanding out there about hypnosis in general. Because it is a unique modality. Okay. Denise and I both come from that sort of therapeutic angle. But, you know, therapeutic hypnosis is very different from, say, CBT, isn't it? You know, it's an immersive experience. That's what I'm trying to say. And I think, you know, people, I can see why people want to try it as in, it's an experience the same as some people might want to try scuba diving. Right? It's one of those experiences where you know, you want to live your life to the full and try new experiences?
Ilah Brock 22:58
Exactly, yeah. No, I totally get it. I, every one that's come to me, has been for a therapeutic reason. One gal said traumas. And she thought maybe if she just got did this, she would be able to find out what her traumas are whatever. It didn't resolve her traumas,
Denise Billen-Mejia 23:21
Because they'd happened in this life.
Ilah Brock 23:23
They probably happened in this life. And I get a lot of people, they want to remember it's like, for what purpose? Once I know, and for what purpose would would that help you? If you remember the trauma that your mind is keeping you from remembering? Wouldn't that be to protect you? And it's almost like, oh, never thought about, like, let's do this. Let's see if we can take the feelings of that. And let's see if we can change that behaviour a little bit. So that it's not so frontal cortex. Put it in the past where it belongs, whatever that ideology is, and in it usually that's pretty much what it takes. My passion is hypnotherapy, it's not past life regression.
Denise Billen-Mejia 24:07
Be careful, you might have people listening to you who say, Oh, she doesn't want to see me. If that's what your client is looking for.
Ilah Brock 24:15
Yes, absolutely. But I'm not going to tell them how many lives they've had or who they used to be or anything like that. They would have to tell me that, but it's not something that I would tell them and there's a pretty long q&a that I go through, tons of questions that I want to know especially about their health, about their current life influences I want to know about their spiritual beliefs. I want to know stuff like you know, life patterns and interests, hobbies. Things that have been unexplained their Deja Vu's what is going into and then keeping away from age regression because I'm not trained in age regression. And, and I don't, what I was taught, it's it can be dangerous when you start to do age, and you start to mix in a bunch of fantasy. Yeah. You know, I pretty much will stay away from that. But I also want to know what their beliefs are about, you know, do they have spiritual beliefs. Usually people do have some kind of a spirit belief. That's why they want to do it.
Martin Furber 25:27
Oh, Ilah, you just lit a spark, in my mind was something you said about deja vu? Yeah, we do. Well, I know. I've had a deja vu feeling before now. How about you Denise? Absolutely. Yeah, Ilah? Yeah. Now putting the regression into a different context, and we start to talk about the deja vu.
Ilah Brock 25:52
Yeah. Oh, no. And that's what some of the experts out there. They think that's, you know, just our past life kind of revisiting for a second. I don't there's not a scientific explanation for deja vu.
Martin Furber 26:11
No, I know.
Ilah Brock 26:12
Familiar moment that you've done this before? Where did that come from? And they never, it's never been defined. Why or who or what, in the past life regression world. That's what they're thinking it may be.
Martin Furber 26:29
Yeah, I frequently say there are lots of things we don't understand. For example, how we know sometimes when somebody is staring at us from behind, we can feel it can't we? We can sense it. I like to ask Denise because with her medical background, why is yawning contagious?
Ilah Brock 26:48
Yawning is contagious.
Martin Furber 26:54
There's a lot of things we don't understand, which was why, you know, I'm happy to sit here and just listen to all this and absorb it, and with a completely open mind. And as I've got to say, Well, as soon as you mentioned that word, deja vu that it just made me think of it very differently. What would you like to say to anybody who's thinking about having a past life regression? Okay, what would you say to anybody?
Ilah Brock 27:17
Okay, so if you weren't thinking about how past life regression, just be be aware of what, what it is you want to know, make sure the person that you're talking to is qualified, that they've done it, you know, if you're their first great, but make sure that they, that person has the confidence to do this. Realize it's going to be a three to four hour session. It may be less, but I book out a four hour block, and they pay for the four hour block.
Denise Billen-Mejia 27:45
And you also need that sort of recovery time.
Ilah Brock 27:50
Yeah. Yeah, we do definitely afterwards. So we talk for an hour and a half, we're in hypnosis for an hour and a half, we spend about an hour we have some snacks, I give them some juice or tea, just have time to chat, you know, kind of thing and try to get them out there at the time I say I'm going to and I do a lot of grounding afterwards, just to make sure that they can, you know, move forward and et cetera. And then that last part, one they leave, I still have time, I have client notes, so I want to get that over to them as soon as possible.
Denise Billen-Mejia 28:23
And do you work online as well as in person?
Ilah Brock 28:26
I have done one past life online, and it worked fine. The person just has to know that they can't be disturbed for those doing this. They can't have anybody knocking at the door ringing the doorbell you know or anything like that. They have animals find a way to keep them quiet.
Martin Furber 28:43
No people. No pings. No pets.
Denise Billen-Mejia 28:48
Exactly. I love it. Also to know that if their house suddenly caught fire, somebody could come and wake them up and let them go, it's not. Oh, yeah. There's another Guardian watching you the whole time.
Ilah Brock 29:02
Exactly. I'm not Yeah, I'm not too Yeah, I absolutely understand that. So if you are in a state of hypnosis in deep trance, or whatever, your mind already, that amygdala part is there to protect you. You're going to snap out of it. I mean, even the alarms in my building are deafening, loud. So you know, it would definitely start with somebody.
Martin Furber 29:26
Ilah, we've filled the show up there. It's been lovely to have you back on. Thank you so much for coming back on and explaining a bit more to us about past life regression.
Ilah Brock 29:35
Yeah, my I'm happy to do it. And if you have any further questions, or anybody does, by all means, give me a call, happy to talk.
Martin Furber 29:42
And we're gonna put your contact details in the show notes as well Ilah.
Ilah Brock 29:45
That'd be great. Thank you. Bye bye, have a fabulous week.
Denise Billen-Mejia 29:58
We hope you've enjoyed this name. Please remember, this podcast is designed to give you an insight into therapeutic hypnosis and is for educational purposes only. So remember, consult with your own healthcare professional if you think something you've heard may apply to you or a loved one.
Martin Furber 30:14
If you found this episode useful, you could apply for free continuing professional development or CME credit. Using the link provided in the show notes. Feel free to contact either of us through the links in the show notes. Join us again next week.
