DEacute;JAgrave; View

My breaths march in and out for about 10 minutes8212;doughty Gurkha regimenters following in the wake of French Legion long-striders. The standard questions8212;about childhood introverted years, fears used to stutter as a kid and still do occasionally, etc8212;are over. I8217;m calling up my past life now.

According to Google, the wise, easily accessible sage of our times, past life or regression therapy is based on the discovery of the original causes of an individual8217;s problems. It theorises that issues in our present life may be carry overs from earlier ones.

Understanding our past, said Jain, in an earlier talk I had with her, is key to untangling the present. The doctor herself got cured of 8216;8216;drowning nightmares8217;8217; after she underwent the therapy.

8216;8216;I discovered that I committed suicide by drowning myself in a little village up somewhere in the mountains,8217;8217; said Jain, who added that one can only connect with a past life if an unresolved issue from back then is proving to be a nuisance now.

Lowering a sceptical eyebrow8212;what is religion but after-life therapy8212;I handed myself over to Jain, who was now putting me in a state of mild hypnosis.

My face was tingling and the sensation soon started to spread. 8216;8216;Connect with your breath, open your mind, think of a golden light passing though your body, especially your throat,8217;8217; I could hear Jain saying. The breathing had made both mind and body totally inert.

8216;8216;Visualise a peaceful place, a garden,8217;8217; said Jain. 8216;8216;It has roses, tulips, chrysanthemums, inhale the fragrance, feel them.8217;8217; I associated the word garden with the once beautiful Iranian city of Shiraz; my garden is a quiet, cool place, with criss-crossing water channels. The colours in my trance-like state were vivid, though the fragrance was more elusive.

I am wearing a brown jacket and sport a stubble. I am also alone. 8216;8216;Think of an animal you like, your 8216;power animal8217;, walk around with it,8217;8217; suggests the doctor.

A noble-looking golden labrador now walks by my side, as I tend to my garden. Jain asks me to look for a well in the middle of my garden, and tells me to go down the 10 steps built on its sides.

I do as asked and the dog follows me. All of a sudden, I notice that I8217;m dressed like a prince either Mughal or Persian, with a silky green robe and pearl necklaces. Is that really me, I ask myself, trying to acclimatise to the weedy high.

8216;8216;At the bottom of the well, you8217;ll find a dark room,8217;8217; advises Jain. The room is dank and smells of abandonment. 8216;8216;Look around, there are babies there, laughing, crying, gurgling.8217;8217; Jain asks me to go and lift one of them. I visualise babies, go over to a corner and pick a particularly bonny one, which looks just like my cousin did as an infant, but soon morphs into the J038;J toddler.

Jain asks me to find a wooden door in the room and walk out. I twist an ornate knob and step straight into the place I described at the beginning of this piece.

8216;8216;Who is it that you see? What is he doing? Look at him,8217;8217; says Jain. The prince, who does seem to resemble me, though I8217;m not sure, is thinking about a very pressing matter. A couple of minutes pass, but my man hasn8217;t moved an inch.

I want him to get a move on. Go conquer new lands, stride across the Oxus or sail on the Tigris, drink wine, fill his harem, commission grand mosques and buildings. But the doofus stays pensive, and I8217;m powerless to visualise any further.

Jain senses my discomfort, and asks me to think of people around the prince, if any. A couple of stray, blurry figures sharpen into focus. There8217;s a very Afghan-looking woman, to my left there is Genghis Khan, and there is another person I can8217;t make out. Could be Mahesh Bhatt, he8217;s everywhere these days.

Jain then slowly leads me out of circa 1500 AD or roundabouts.

I thank her for the smashing virtual entertainment, the best this side of Philip K Dick memory implants. I also tell her about my passion8212;history, especially West and Central Asian. Was the experience a projection of my interests?

8216;8216;Not really, but patients generally start through association. There are many layers to peel off before we can get to our actual past.8217;8217; She tells me patients learn to intuit, to open up, only after about five to six sessions. If I had a particular problem, say, a speech impediment, says Jain, she would work on it with me over a longer period of time. 8216;8216;But you have to believe in it.8217;8217;

The dog symbolised my loyal nature and my expectation of it from others, the baby was her way of helping me connect with my childhood. And the prince, what about him? 8216;8216;There could be a link, he could soon evolve, take concrete shape, or he may disappear in the next session.8217;8217;

As I head back to work, I visualise my noble prince evolve into a warrior-poet, fount of a glorious dynasty, ruler of heaven and earth. Then again, he could also, sitting around all that grass, get pollen allergy, wheeze and die.