Today’s episode of Oprah opened to renowned psychiatrist and author Dr. Brian Weiss hypnotizing the studio audience and regressing them to past lives. Was this a valid experience or some sort of parlor trick?

Oprah was joined by her cohort cardiologist Dr. Mehmet Oz, who while admittedly skeptical due to his scientific background, offered balanced and open-minded commentary and was himself regressed during the program.

The show’s guest Dr. Weiss is the author of perhaps the best known book on the phenomena of past life regression, “Many Lives-Many Masters.” A psychiatrist and department head at a prestigious hospital, Weiss’ had patient named Catherine that exploded his worldview and led him to his life’s true work.

Catherine had been afflicted with numerous crippling fears and a year of conventional psychiatric treatment yielded no appreciable results. Dr. Weiss decided to use hypnotic regression as an alternative and lo and behold Catherine was soon reliving past lives, although neither she as a Catholic or he being Jewish, had any previous inclination to believe in reincarnation. What was important was that Catherine symptoms began to improve.

At first puzzled, Dr. Weiss was curious as to what was at work here. The clincher for him was when Catherine gave him information about his deceased father and infant son that would have been nearly impossible to gain otherwise.

After the audience’s regression experience, several member shared what they encountered. One African woman stated she had been a white nun, to which Dr. Weiss attributed to the soul’s needs to experience different genders and races in order to develop. Another woman reported recalling a previous incarnation as Native American woman who was murdered and thus separated from her children. In this lifetime this woman is childless and has some fears regarding motherhood, something that according to Dr. Weiss is common amongst people who have been separated from their children in past lives and do not wish to undergo that pain again.

Later in the program a previous guest funeral director Robert Leon was regressed to past lives in an effort to understand both his nightly dreams about flying, his rocky relationship with his sister and his intense dislike of having anything pressing on his chest.

The flying dreams apparently stemmed from his becoming frozen with fear as a fighter pilot and as a result was shot down and killed. In a similar vein, the difficulties with his sister seemed to arise from his also being frozen with fear while she was being sexually assaulted in a past life and that we was killed by someone who did not want him to be a witness. He apparently was crushed to death by his assailant in spite of his not intervening. Like Catherine, Robert reported feeling better after the work.

Dr. Weiss did a good job of separating the essence of hypnotism from the mythology; that it is a state where the mind becomes focused while the body relaxes and in doing so we can get past the conscious clutter that keeps us from knowing our inner selves.

So does it matter whether past life regression is real or not? As Dr. Oz noted, the Western mind is addicted to data and tends to see such practices as the “wishful desires of desperate people.”  However, he added that something does not have to be understood to be valuable and there have been many individuals who have been enriched by their hypnotic experiences, those that work with past lives as well as the current one.

A couple years back a prospective client called me regarding my hypnosis counseling services. When we got around to discussing fees, he balked at my rate of $100 per visit and stated "Yeah, but the guy with ad in the paper today only charges $49.95!"

I inquired if he was referring to the large group hypnosis seminar for quitting smoking and weight loss that was making the rounds in our area to which he replied in the affirmative. With that I explained that if he attracts 100 attendees his actual rate is about $2,497.50 per hour for that two hour program. And it is really comparing apples to oranges since in that environment the presenter cannot provide any individualized attention to a specific group member if needed.

This is not to say that there is no value to group hypnosis programs. In fact, I myself have run a number of them related to smoking cessation, weight loss and stress reduction through my county college's Adult Education programs and have truly enjoyed facilitating them. However, there is some consumer confusion as to what are the differences between group hypnosis and private sessions. What are some of the benefits and drawbacks you should be aware of?

First and foremost, always remember that hypnosis unlocks potential already resides in your subconscious mind, a hypnotist has no special magical powers-just a skill set that helps people improve their lives. What can a properly run group program offer you? In the past I have been lucky enough to sit in on some professional development seminars given by Robert Otto, the leading expert on running hypnosis programs and I learned quite a bit.

A good group program can offer you really useful information about the dynamics between the conscious and subconscious mind, tools to maintain a positive outlook, a hypnotic induction that introduces you to therapeutic trance and suggestion along with a self-hypnosis technique to reinforce what you have learned afterwards. There is also the camaraderie of being around others with a similar predicament that some find motivating. Certainly a program that has these elements can be a good investment of time and money.

Amongst  the drawbacks is that it can be difficult for some people to relax and focus when they are sitting amongst a crowd of strangers. Also, when there are a large number of participants, the hypnotic approach cannot be customized to any one individual's needs-instead it is "one size fits all." And some people would really benefit from ongoing reinforcement, which a traveling group program cannot offer. Personalization and ongoing support are part and parcel of the private session experience.

Although there are those individuals who offer group hypnosis programs in an ethical way, sadly to say there is a small minority who do not. The warning flag is when the program is actually a vehicle for promoting other products and services.  There was one outfit that was soundly slammed by consumer protection authorities here in New Jersey for running a hypnosis seminar that basically was nothing more than an excuse to employ high pressure sales tactics on attendees in order to promote their expensive line of vitamins and supplements.

However, there is nothing wrong with the seminar producers offering things like audio self-hypnosis programs or workbooks for reinforcing the suggestions at home. But if it is a hypnosis seminar, the product line should be related to hypnosis!

Although private sessions do cost more, with certain issues that added investment is worth it. This is especially true with healthy weight loss since that is an issue that requires time and persistence for it to be solved. And although you might ask if you can afford private sessions, it might also  be helpful to consider the costs of remaining the same.