Here are brief answers to some of the questions that are most frequently asked.  Many of these concepts are covered in much more detail in the four books that I have written
               --- Brian L. Weiss

The Weiss Institute is primarily involved in providing therapy on an outpatient basis.  It also presents one or two workshops a year and one or two professional training courses.  One of the goals is to facilitate experiences on a 1:1 basis or in large groups or workshops.

I am not accepting any new patients at this time

I often recommend that someone from out of town sees a therapist closer to home because it is not possible to know beforehand whether therapy will take only a few sessions or whether it will necessitate sessions over a longer period of time.  Hypnosis and regression therapy can often achieve remarkable success in a brief period, but certain conditions require extended support and reinforcement.

Without seeing someone as a patient in a therapeutic setting, it would not be ethical for me to comment on individual problems, symptoms, therapeutic issues, medications, etc.  You might want to schedule an appointment with a psychotherapist to discuss your concerns.

I do not see patients outside of my office in Miami.  However, in my workshops, I lead the group through meditations and regressions.  Often the energy of the group working together allows extremely powerful experiences to be evoked.

My schedule is listed on the website, and it is always updated as soon as new appearances are planned.  You might want to check it periodically as it is the source of the most up-to-date information.  The charges and all the logistics are arranged by the sponsors, and you should contact them for more information.

I suggest that people choose a qualified, licensed mental health professional since most people can learn how to hypnotize but it takes a trained therapist to know how to use it in a helpful way.

There are many talented people who are not credentialed therapists who can regress others.  The problem arises if highly emotional material is produced and the hypnotist cannot help the patient get resolution and closure in a therapeutic manner. 

If you are interested in referrals to psychotherapists in your area who have incorporated techniques of regression therapy into their practices, we suggest contacting your local or national association of psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, or counselors to see if they can refer you to therapists who use hypnosis.  Perhaps one of these therapists has knowledge of regression therapy.

It is not always necessary to see a therapist in order to discover one's past lives.  Meditation on your own or by using audiotapes or CDs can help you to have your own experiences.  Two of my books,  Through Time Into Healing,  and  Messages from the Masters,  contain scripts for relaxation and regression.  You can read one of the scripts into a tape recorder and later play it back or you can have someone read it to you.

My book,  Meditation: Achieving Inner Peace and Tranquility in Your Life,  has a meditation CD included, and  Mirrors of Time: Using Regression for Physical, Emotional, and Spiritual Healing  has a CD included with a regression exercise on it.   These books can be found in most major bookstores or can be purchased at online sites such as    amazon.com   and   bn.com   or directly through the publisher, Hay House, Inc., www.hayhouse.com

Also, I have recorded a series of three CDs in which I help you discover and learn techniques of meditation, healing, deep relaxation, and regression.   Each CD has two tracks with a meditation exercise on one and a regression exercise on the other track.  The meditation and regression exercises involve different techniques, and the CDs can be used in any order.   More information about the CDs and how to order them can be found on my website.

Of course, working with a therapist, you can be directed more specifically to a time and place.

I suggest that you learn and practice meditation regularly.  This has helped me a great deal, and now I meditate daily.  After a while, the answers to your questions will come to you, but you must be persistent and patient and not get discouraged.  This is a practice for a lifetime.

My advice when using a script or tape/CD is to relax and let what happens happen and in a nonjudgmental way.  Just experience and let your superconscious wisdom come.  Afterwards you can analyze the experience.

Some people have regression experiences the first time they use the CDs.  Others need much more practice.  It took me three months of daily meditation before I had my first regression experience.  Try not to get frustrated.

I suggest that you keep practicing with the CDs and remember that the other senses count.  The experience doesn't have to be visual.  Some people relate knowing, feeling, a kinesthetic experience, etc.

My suggestion regarding your falling asleep when using the CDs is to try using them at a different time.  People have been more successful using the CDs at a time when they are more awake (e.g., morning.  Also, you might want to keep making yourself progressively less comfortable during your practice (changing positions -- using a chair instead of a bed, etc.) until you can practice without going to sleep.

Many people are able to be hypnotized easily and deeply the first time they try hypnosis.  Some need more experience and practice.  Unfortunately there is a percentage of the population (up to 15%) that can't be hypnotized at all.  Sometimes non-hypnotic techniques help those people to retrieve memories.

Even people with a moderate response to hypnosis can benefit greatly.

Just like in traditional psychotherapy, when traumas are remembered, symptoms are alleviated.  The remembering of "just short moments of previous lives" is often enough to give the person insight into his or her present life and to open that person's mind to the possibility of soul survival, reincarnation, etc.  It can produce a change regarding serious therapeutic issues, but in those cases it is more common to explore the memory in more depth in order to effect change.

It is not always necessary to discover our past lives in order to live better lives in the present.  Not all of our problems have their source in the past.  Many people have enough understanding about themselves without delving in the past so that they can live this life in a healthy fulfilling, way.

In my book,  Through Time Into Healing  I explain the process of hypnotism in more detail.  In answer to the question as to how Catherine, as "Aronda" in a previous lifetime, could give a date of 1863 B.C., I refer you to pages 25-27.  In hypnosis, the person is the observer as well as the person being observed.  "Your conscious mind is always aware of what you are experiencing while you are hypnotized.  Despite the deep subconscious contact, your mind can comment, criticize, and censor. . .  Some people in hypnosis watch the past as if they are observing a movie. . .  In hypnosis, your mind is always aware and observing.  This is why people who may be deeply hypnotized and actively involved in a childhood or past life sequence of memories are able to answer the therapist's questions, speak their current life language, know the geographical places they are seeing, and even know the year, which usually flashes before their inner eyes or just appears in their minds.  The hypnotized mind, always retaining an awareness and knowledge of the present, puts the childhood or past life memories into context.  If the year 1900 flashes, and you find yourself building a pyramid in ancient Egypt, you know that the year is B.C., even if you don't see those actual letters."

Recently I have been progressing people into the future, especially into future lifetimes. I have been doing this with individuals and with groups and my findings are published in my new book  Same Soul, Many Bodies.

I think everybody reincarnates because we have many lessons to learn, lessons about love, compassion, charity, nonviolence, inner peace, patience, etc.  It would be hard to learn them all in only one life.  Also, some people come back voluntarily to help others.

I think that sometimes you have to come back.  If your learning is not finished, you find yourself being born into another lifetime.  There may be some choices involved, however, but apparently there are limits to the choices.  Highly evolved souls do not have to come back but often choose to reincarnate to help as teachers.

Reincarnation is not always and not usually immediate.  The in-between state may last a long time.  Also, our soul is far greater than our physical body.  It is not limited by our constructs of space and time.

Souls can reincarnate and often do, but their spirit also remains "available" in the spiritual world.  Our soul is far greater than our physical body; it's not limited by our constructs of space and time.

In rare circumstances a soul can split and have more than one experience at the same time in order to increase its learning opportunities.

I have posed this question to many patients and the answer is always the same:  This is not the only place where there are souls.  There are many dimensions, many different levels of consciousness where there are souls.  Why should we feel that we're the only place ?  There is no limit to energy.  This is one school of many schools.

Also, a few patients have told me that souls can split and have simultaneous experiences.

Thinking of time as linear is really a construct of our three-dimensional world.  It's easier for most people to think of time as a longitudinal flow from past to present to future, but at some level time probably does not exist.  All lives might be occurring simultaneously.  You might find the Seth material in Jane Roberts's books interesting as she goes into this in detail.

I think that animals have souls.  At least this comes up in my work from time to time.  I'm not sure that their souls are as individuated as ours, and there may be more emphasis on their group soul.  Frequently we become aware of a pet or loved animal when we cross to the other side.  I'm not sure about animal reincarnation, but I'm open to the possibility.  I'm also not sure about whether people reincarnate as animals or plants.  Perhaps they do but we don't retain the memory from those states.

I do think we have a twin soulmate but soulmates are not always in body at the same time.  This does not mean other relationships are not very important for learning.

Having a soul mate connection does not mean that one is obligated to spend a lifetime together.  One has many soul mates in one's lifetime.  Often when the lessons to be learned in the relationship are completed, the relationship has a natural ending and the two souls move on.  Also, there are many types of love and many types of soul relationships.  Romantic love is only one of these types.

We have forgotten our true natures and it is our task to reawaken and remember.  When you do understand the importance of this school we call earth and when you are truly spiritual, you do not cut classes early.

We have tasks to do and much to learn.  The healthier the body, the easier it is and the more time and energy there are to do what we came here to do.  Your actions regarding your body can shorten your life and can thus limit your spiritual growth. A lso, it's one of our lessons to respect our bodies.

I think that destiny and choice both exist and keep interacting with each other.  As you make a choice it changes the future.  Maybe the possibilities and probabilities change to an extent as you do that.  We learn because of free choice, but we also have destiny.

I think that there are at least two lines of evolution.  The evolution of the soul is different from the evolution of the physical body.  At which exact time souls entered bodies for the first time I'm not exactly sure.  But it is important to remember that these evolutionary lines are separate and distinct.

Often dreams contain fragments of past life memories.  Also, frequently the material elicited through past life regressions contains metaphors and symbols and can trigger dream experiences.  My second book, Through Time Into Healing, is a more clinical book than the others and goes into more detail regarding the process.

In my five-day professional training course I start with the basics of hypnosis and progress to theories and techniques of past life regression.  It's an experiential course, and everyone gets a chance to practice techniques and be supervised.  The 5-day professional trainings are geared to therapists who want to learn the techniques of regression therapy.  However, because the course is primarily an experiential one with many large group, small group, and one-on-one exercises, it is open to anyone who wants this intensive experience of growth and self-exploration.  In the past, at least 30% of the attendees were not therapists.  A certificate of completion is awarded at the end of the course.

The workshops marked "Professional Training" are 5-day intensive courses directed mainly at teaching those in the healing professions how to use this technique.  However, there is no requisite background for attending the course.  Since the five days consist of mainly experiential work with large and small group exercises as well as one-to-one practice, some people without any background in therapy and without any interest in using this technique as an occupation come to the trainings to take part in the intense experience.

Please let us know by e-mail that you are interested in professional training courses, and we will try to notify you by e-mail.   As soon as a training is planned, we will post the information on the schedule on the website.

Other than coming to one of my professional training courses, the best way is to read Through Time Into Healing as this is a more clinical book than the others.  My meditation/regression CDs help you to have your own experiences and many of my students use them as models in their own practices.

The following books contain information about Christianity and reincarnation:

• Reincarnation: The Missing Link in Christianity by Elizabeth Clare Prophet - published by Summit University Press, March 1997
• Reincarnation : A New Horizon in Science, Religion, and Society by Sylvia Cranston, Carey Williams - Published by Theosophical Univ. Press, December 1993
• Reincarnation in Christianity by Geddes MacGregor - published by Theosophical Publishing House, April 1989

Although information from a psychic is interesting and sometimes informative, it usually doesn't remove symptoms.  The person often has to experience the memory herself and thus get resolution.  The psychic might be picking up on a past life, but the root of the problem might go even further back.  That is why going to a reputable psychotherapist who has incorporated past life therapy into his or her practice is a good choice for significant problems.

My books in Spanish are distributed online by :

DOWNTOWN BOOK CENTER
attn: Raquel Roque
247 SE 1 St.
Miami, FL 33131
Tel: 305-377-9941/ 1-800-599-8712 (only in U.S.)
Fax: 305-371-5926
e-mail: raxdown@aol.com
http://yp.bellsouth.com/sites/downtownbooks/

  What is The Weiss Institute ?

  Is it possible to schedule an appointment with Dr. Weiss ?

  I have questions about a specific problem. Will Dr. Weiss give me some advice?

  Do you see patients when you are lecturing outside of Miami ?

  Where is your next workshop ?

  What should I look for in a therapist ?

  Is it necessary to see a therapist in order to discover one's past lives ?

  How can I go "within" ?

  How do you keep your left brain from interfering
with the meditation or regression experience ?

  I have used your CDs several times, but I haven't had any past life memories ?

  I have used your CDs, but I am unable to visualize anything ?

  I fall asleep every time I use the CDs. What should I do ?

  Can everyone be hypnotized ?

  Do you need to achieve a deep level of hypnosis to experience past life regression ?

  I can recall just short moments of previous lives.
Will that help me ?

  Are all problems helped by past life therapy ?

  ... How could she know that it was B.C. when that was not yet a concept ?

  Is it possible to go into future lives ?

  Why do we reincarnate ?

  Do all souls reincarnate ?

  Do souls reincarnate immediately ?

  Can there still be communication with a loved one if that soul has reincarnated ?

  Can souls "split" ?

  Where do the souls come from if there are more people on earth now than ever before ?

  What do you think about parallel lives ?

  Do animals have souls ?

  Do we have twin soulmates ?

  What if my soul mate is no longer in my life ?

  How do you view suicide ?

  What is the role of physical health ?

  What is the relationship between destiny and free will ?

  Is there a difference in the evolution of the soul and that of the body ?

  What is the relationship between dreams and past life memories ?

  Do you train people in the techniques of past life therapy ?

  Do you have to be a therapist to take part in the professional training ?

  How do I find out about the next professional training course ?

  Is attending a professional training course the only was to learn the techniques ?

  Where can I find information about Christianity and reincarnation ?

  Can visiting a psychic help me with my symptoms ?

  How can I obtain your books in Spanish ?