I am going to go into hypnosis for twenty minutes. I will gaze at the flame of the candle until my eyes become sleepy and heavy and when my eyes close I will count myself down from 20 to zero. As I count down, I will visualize my descent down a long and beautiful spiral staircase and when I reach the bottom of the staircase I will see three doors. I will choose the door which I wish to pass through and I shall wait patiently for my subconscious mind to unveil the memory of a past lifetime. As I watch and wait I will presently become aware of images floating into my awareness. I may wonder if these images are from my imagination but I will simply trust my unconscious mind and allow it to show me what it will.

When the twenty minutes are up (or whatever time you have chosen) I will leave the hypnotic state by thanking my inner mind for allowing me to glimpse these secrets. I will retreat through the door and up the stairs and then I will open my eyes.

Now if, at any time whatsoever during this hypnotic experience, an urgent situation arises which needs my attention, I will quickly shut the door of my mind and open my eyes to deal with the situation in a calm, effective manner.

Read through these three sentences several times to give you an idea of how to state your intention. Then re-write it to suit your individual situation. Choose your room and a place to carry out your self hypnosis with care. Try to use the same place every time you hypnotize yourself, this will build up an association in your mind.

Light the candle; if you wish to use incense or room fragrances to create an atmosphere then Ylang Ylang is a spiritual fragrance. Body Shop do some wonderful quality room fragrances and I personally like Frankincense, although that it is a little more expensive than some of the others.

Music can also add to the mood and there are plenty of relaxing and inspiring New Age melodies. The haunting sound of pan pipes are ideal for self hypnosis background music, just leave it playing quietly in the background, and again, try and build up an association by sticking to your favourite tune.

When you're ready, make yourself comfortable and state your intention before you begin focusing on the flame of the candle. After a while your vision may become hazy and your eyes begin to blink more and more. Soon it will be too much effort to keep them open, and eye closure is your signal to sink deeper into relaxation by counting yourself down.

When you go through the door, don't TRY too hard to see things. Just patiently watch your inner screen for whatever images come to you. Sometimes there's nothing relevant there to see at all but at other times you'll be astounded by the results. Even if nothing appears to you when you first do this exercise, you will benefit from experiencing the meditative state and your mind will become conditioned for self-hypnosis and past life regression.

Often images will drift into your awareness which may not make sense to you at first. These images will however, be linked to earlier experiences in life, and it may be that sometimes you come against a mental block where you can't go any further back. When this happens its usually because there are things in this life which need to be dealt with first. You may need to seek the help of an experienced professional hypnotherapist. Otherwise, just persevere.

When you're ready to count up, do so slowly and don't come out of hypnosis too quickly. Just enjoy the calmness and relaxation from within for a while, before re-orienting yourself back into your surroundings.