Past Life Regression Questions to Ask
These are the prompts a guide reads aloud during a past life regression, set out for the person lying back with their eyes closed as much as for the hypnotist or friend doing the asking. They follow a session from the first look down at your feet through the people in the scene, the events of that life and its end, what carried over, and the conversation once your eyes are open. The last group is a separate job: what to put to a hypnotist before you book.
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The questions
Each question, and why to ask it
Arrival
Look down at your feet. What do you see?
Why ask it
The traditional first prompt, because it is small, concrete and impossible to get wrong. Bare feet, boots or sandals hint at a climate and a station in life, and they give the eyes somewhere to start before the prompts travel upward.
What are you wearing, and what does the cloth feel like?
Why ask it
Texture is easier to report than color this early: rough, heavy, thin, patched. A uniform, an apron or next to nothing tells you about the person's work and means before you have asked about either.
Are you indoors or outdoors?
Why ask it
An either-or is easy to answer in the first minute, when the images are still faint. Follow with "what is under you?" or "what is over your head?" and then wait longer than feels comfortable.
What do your hands look like?
Why ask it
Hands show age and work, and usually whether they belong to a man or a woman, with nothing suggested by the person guiding. Have them turn the hands over and say what marks or rings are there.
Are you male or female, and about how old do you feel?
Why ask it
The answer is sometimes far from what the person expected of themselves, so take it without comment. A flat, interested tone from the guide keeps them describing and stops them editing.
Is it day or night, and what does the air feel like?
Why ask it
Light and temperature pull the other senses in. If the reply is "I can't see anything", switch to what they can hear or smell and leave sight alone for a few minutes.
What are you feeling as you stand there?
Why ask it
Hold it until the scene has two or three details in it, and take a one-word answer. A feeling that is out of step with the picture, such as dread in a sunny yard, is the thread to pull next with "what is that about?"
What do people call you?
Why ask it
Names arrive slowly or not at all, and pressing for one produces a guess. "That's fine, it may come later" is the right response to a blank, and a sound or a first letter is worth noting for the recording.
Where do you live, and what is the place like inside?
Why ask it
Go for the building before the country: the walls, the floor, where the fire or the light is. Place names can be looked for afterward, and asking for one on the spot invites schoolbook history into the scene.
Do you have a sense of the year, or of what period this is?
Why ask it
Plenty of people cannot give a date, and the person in that life may never have known one. Accept "long ago" or "there are horses and no engines" as complete, and skip the question while the scene is still thin.
What do you do on an ordinary day here?
Why ask it
Work, chores and meals fill in a life faster than its big moments do. This one also calms a person who is anxious about performing, since there is nothing dramatic to produce.
People
Is anyone with you, or are you alone?
Why ask it
Put it early and with no hint about who it might be. If they are alone, ask whether that is usual for them in this life, which says more than a list of names would.
Who do you live with, and who do you eat with?
Why ask it
Household questions bring a family in sideways. People who go blank at "tell me about your family" can usually say who is sitting across the table.
Look into this person's eyes. Do they feel familiar from the life you have now?
Why ask it
This is what many people came for, and it is the easiest prompt on the page to lead. Ask only whether there is a feeling of recognition, let them supply the name, and say at the debrief that an impression is no reason to treat a living person differently.
Who do you love most in this life?
Why ask it
Give the answer room before asking what becomes of that person. If it brings tears, slow down and invite them to say whatever they want to say to that person, aloud or silently.
Who has power over you here, and how do they use it?
Why ask it
It may be a parent, a master, a husband, a commander or a priest, and how the power is used matters more than the title. Someone who came in with a pattern around authority or not being heard may later name this as the scene they keep going back to.
Is there someone you are afraid of, or someone you have wronged?
Why ask it
It is two questions on purpose, so the person can take whichever one is true. Do not dig for the details of any harm: "what do you wish had gone differently?" reaches the meaning without replaying the event.
Who depends on you?
Why ask it
Children, animals, a crew, an old parent. Responsibility explains a good many choices later in the story, so bring this answer back when you reach the turning points.
Events
Move forward to the next important event in this life. What is happening?
Why ask it
The workhorse instruction of any regression. Count down from three first so the scene has time to change, then ask only "what is happening?" and let them tell you whether it is a wedding, a journey or a fight.
Go back to a day when you are a child in this life. Where are you?
Why ask it
For the person who arrived as an adult in the middle of something, with no beginning to the story. Home, the adults in charge and what the child is not allowed to do usually come first, and they explain a good deal of what you hear later.
What is the happiest moment you can find in this life?
Why ask it
Place it ahead of the hard scenes. It gives the person somewhere steady to be taken back to if a later moment is too much, and for some it turns out to be the part they wanted all along.
Go to the last day of this life. Where are you, and who is there?
Why ask it
Offer the choice of watching from above or from the doorway before you ask it. The scene is optional. Leave it out for anyone recently bereaved, anyone who said beforehand that they did not want it, and any session run by a friend at home.
How does this life end, and what do you feel as it does?
Why ask it
Ask once, calmly, and accept a single word. At any sign of pain or panic, move them to the moment just after and say so aloud: "it is over now, you are safe, tell me what you see." If that does not settle them within a breath or two, count them back to the room.
What is your last thought as you leave?
Why ask it
Some practitioners put great weight on this, on the theory that a closing conclusion such as "I should have spoken" is what gets carried forward. Whatever you make of the theory, it tends to be the line from the recording that people repeat.
Looking back over the whole of that life, what do you make of it?
Why ask it
This is the review, and it wants a long silence after it. The first reply is a summary. Wait a full minute and ask "anything else?", because the plainer answer tends to come second.
What was the hardest choice you had to make?
Why ask it
The past tense from here on is deliberate: the life is over and the person is looking back at it. Ask what the other option was and what they feared would follow from it, since the reasoning is the part people recognize in themselves afterward.
What did you want most, and did you get it?
Why ask it
An unmet want is most of what regression practitioners mean by unfinished business. Keep the wording this plain and copy the reply out exactly for the conversation afterward.
Is there a moment you would give anything to change?
Why ask it
Regret arrives with feeling attached, so drop your pace. "What did you believe about yourself after that?" is the follow-up, since the belief is what people end up working on, more than the event.
Did you make a promise or a vow in that life?
Why ask it
Vows of poverty, silence, loyalty or never loving again are a stock idea in regression work, so ask it openly and name none of them yourself. If one appears, ask who it was made to and whether it still seems fair to keep.
Carryover
What was that life trying to teach you?
Why ask it
Hold it to one lesson. A list of five is the planning mind taking over, and whatever was said first is what they will still remember in a month.
Why do you think this was the life that came up today?
Why ask it
Set the answer beside whatever the person named at the start: the fear, the relationship, the question about work. "I don't know" is an honest reply, and worth putting again once they are sitting up, when it may have changed.
What did you bring from that life into this one?
Why ask it
Invite both columns, the skills and strengths as well as the fears. People go hunting for the wound and forget to ask what they were good at.
Does anything in your body now connect to what happened then?
Why ask it
Offer no examples, and let them be the one to mention the sore shoulder, the tight throat or the birthmark. Whatever link is offered is a story about the symptom and not a diagnosis, so anything physical still goes to a doctor.
Is there a fear or habit you have now that began there?
Why ask it
Strongest when the fear was named before the session (water, heights, being left behind) and you ask about that one alone. No link is a perfectly good result, and going looking for a second life to explain it is how sessions drift.
What was left unfinished?
Why ask it
"What would finishing it look like in the life you have now?" turns the answer into something that can be done: a letter, an apology, a thing to stop apologizing for.
What are you ready to leave behind in that life?
Why ask it
The release step. Some guides add an image, such as setting down a pack or handing something back, but the thing being let go has to be named by the person and never supplied.
Is there someone from that life you need to forgive, or ask forgiveness from?
Why ask it
Allow time for an exchange in the scene if they want one. Forgiving a figure in a regression is not an instruction to make peace with a living person who resembles them, and that is worth saying plainly once they are back.
If the person you were could say one thing to you today, what would it be?
Why ask it
A natural last prompt inside the regression, because the reply tends to be a kind one. Have them say it twice so it is clear on the recording.
Afterward
Now that you are back in the room, what stayed with you most strongly?
Why ask it
Ask it as soon as their eyes are open and before anyone interprets anything. Write the reply in their words, since the detail of a session fades quickly over the next hour.
Which parts felt vivid, and which felt like guessing?
Why ask it
Sorting the two out loud is honest and takes the pressure off. Vivid does not mean true and guessed does not mean worthless. The only fair test of any of it is whether the story is useful to them.
Could any of it have come from a book, a film, a family story or somewhere you have been?
Why ask it
Keep accusation out of your voice. Spotting a source does not spoil the session, because it still shows what the mind reached for when asked about loss or courage.
What, if anything, will you do differently this week because of it?
Why ask it
One small thing is the right size. Decisions about a marriage, a job or money can wait until the glow of the session has worn off, and then be made on ordinary grounds.
How do you feel right now, and what do you need before you leave?
Why ask it
The useful answers are small ones: water, a few minutes sitting upright, someone else to drive. A person who is still shaky or low the next day should tell the practitioner, and one who stays distressed is better served by a doctor or counselor than by another regression.
Booking
What training do you have in hypnosis, and in past life regression in particular?
Why ask it
They are two separate things, and a weekend course in one does not cover the other. Who may use the title hypnotherapist differs from place to place, so ask who issued the certificate and whether anyone regulates the work where they practice.
What do you think a regression can show me, and what can it not?
Why ask it
Nothing that surfaces can be checked from inside the session, and a careful practitioner says so before you ask. Treat a promise of a famous former self, a cure, or proof of anything as your cue to book elsewhere.
How do you take someone into the regression, and how long does that part last?
Why ask it
You are listening for a method they can describe in ordinary words: slow relaxation, a countdown, a staircase, a corridor of doors. Then ask how much of the booked time is left for the regression once the induction is done.
How do you word your prompts so that you are not handing me the answers?
Why ask it
"What do you notice?" leaves the story with you, while "are you a soldier?" writes it for you. Ask for two or three prompts exactly as they would say them, and listen for how much detail is already inside the question.
Will I know where I am the whole time, and how do I stop if I want to?
Why ask it
Let them say in their own words how aware you can expect to be, then have them spell out what stopping looks like: a word you agree on, a raised hand, or opening your eyes. A hypnotist who is vague about ending a session early is one to keep looking past.
What do you do if I reach something frightening or upsetting?
Why ask it
Specifics are what you want: watching the scene from a distance, skipping ahead, coming back to the room. If you are being treated for trauma or a mental health condition, tell them now, and check with the clinician who knows you before you book.
What happens if nothing comes, or if I feel I am making it all up?
Why ask it
Both are common worries, and the reply shows how much pressure you will be under. "We work with whatever image arrives and sort out the meaning later" is a good sign. Being told in advance that a blank would be your resistance is not.
Do you record the session, and who keeps the recording?
Why ask it
A recording lets you hear your own words again instead of your memory of them, which is rarely the same thing. Ask whether you may run your own phone as a backup and what happens to their copy.
What does a session cost, how long does it run, and how many do you expect me to need?
Why ask it
Prices and lengths differ a great deal from one practitioner to the next, so get both in writing, along with whether the talk before and after sits inside the booked time. Be slow to buy a package of several sessions before the first one has happened.
Running a regression with these prompts
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
Before the day
Choose one intention
A session built around one named thing, such as a fear of deep water or a pull toward a certain country, gives the guide something to steer by. Write it in a sentence and hand it over at the start. "Whatever comes" is a fair intention too, as long as it is chosen and not a shrug.
Bring your own questions on paper
Some practitioners ask clients to bring a short written list of what they want to know, and put those questions for them near the end of the regression. Ask yours whether they do. If so, keep it to five or so and leave each one open: "what is behind my fear of deep water?" and not "did I drown?"
Put the Booking group to the hypnotist by phone or email
Those nine sit at the foot of the page because they belong to a different day: the call you make before paying a deposit, when the answers can still change your mind. Write the replies down as you hear them, and compare two or three practitioners if you can.
Agree what is off the table
Say in advance whether you want the end-of-life scene, and name anything you do not want approached at all. The person guiding should write that down and keep to it even if the session seems to be heading there by itself.
Plan the hour after
Leave the rest of the afternoon loose. People often come out tired, hungry and quieter than usual, and a session followed straight away by a meeting or a long drive loses most of its detail before any of it is written down.
Pacing the session
Fewer prompts than you think
Nobody uses every line here in one sitting. A workable run is four or five Arrival prompts until the scene holds, two or three from People, four or five Events and three or four from Carryover. The rest are there for the session that goes somewhere you did not plan.
Slow, short and in the present tense
Read each prompt once, at about half your talking speed, and then stop. A silence of twenty or thirty seconds is normal in this kind of session. Staying in the present tense ("what is happening?") keeps the person inside the scene. The past tense belongs after that life has ended, from the looking-back prompt onward, when a narrator is what you want.
Follow what was said
The best next prompt is usually made from the last answer: "you said the door is locked; who locked it?" Come back to the page when the thread runs out, and use the person's own words for things even when a better word occurs to you.
When the scene goes blank
Go back down to the body: the feet, the hands, the ground. If that does not bring it back, ask them to move to a different day in the same life. Two blanks in a row is a reasonable place to finish, and nobody has failed.
If a friend is guiding you at home
Keep it to the light half of the page
Arrival, People and the gentler Events prompts (the happiest moment, the ordinary day, what they wanted most) make a full evening. Leave the last day and the ending of the life to someone trained to handle what can come up there.
Settle on a stop word, and honor it
Pick a word before you begin, and agree that the guide ends the session the moment it is said, with no "just one more". Finish by counting up slowly from one to five and asking the person to open their eyes, stretch and say today's date.
Who should sit this out
A relaxation exercise with a friend is still not the right evening for someone in fresh grief, in a mental health crisis, or under treatment for trauma. If you are unsure whether that describes you, ask the professional who looks after your care before trying it.
What spoils a regression
Prompts that carry the answer
"Is that your mother from this life?" and "were you killed in the war?" invite a yes, and the session then belongs to the guide. The prompts on this page are worded so they can be answered without a detail being offered first; keep your follow-ups to the same rule.
Chasing facts that can be looked up
Surnames, exact years, the name of the king. Pushing for them moves the person from describing to trying to recall history lessons. If dates matter to you, look afterward for whatever came unprompted on the recording.
Treating the story as a verdict
A regression gives you a narrative, and what it is a narrative of is a question people answer differently depending on what they believe. It is a poor basis for leaving a partner, confronting a relative or stopping a treatment. Use it the way you would use a striking dream: as a prompt for thought.
Booking the next one too soon
A practitioner who finds a new life that needs clearing at every visit, each at full price, is selling a series. Give the first session a few weeks, reread your notes, and go back only if there is a specific thing you still want to ask.