Irritable Bowel Syndrome, or IBS, is a very common condition. At least one in ten people suffer from this disorder at some point of time in their lives. One of the primary causes for IBS is believed to be a faulty signalling between the brain and gut. The classic symptoms of this disorder include bloating of stomach, incontinence and/or constipation.
IBS is usually diagnosed by a presentation of typical symptoms rather than medical tests, as there is no single test that establishes the presence of the disease. A 34-year-old man visited my clinic with the following symptoms:
Medical Symptoms and Diagnosis
- Abdomen pain and cramps.
- Changes in bowel habits and movement.
- Normal biopsy (done to rule out inflammatory bowel disease) and scan reports.
Findings through Regression Therapy
When regressed, the client sees himself as a 25-year-old Greek prince who promises his mother that he will win his maiden war and return victorious. He embarks with a lot of energy and enthusiasm, but he receives wrong information about the enemy’s army and he doesn’t plan properly. When he sees the opponent’s army on the battlefield he is shaken, because he realizes that the strength of his army is weaker than his enemy’s. But he still fights, because the thought of being unable to fulfil his promise brings him unimaginable embarrassment. Ultimately the enemies surround him, cut open his abdomen, take out his gut, and wear it as a trophy around their neck. (Later on, a search on Google revealed to me the fact that wearing your slain opponent’s gut as a trophy was indeed a custom in the olden days of war!) His dying thought in that lifetime was, “It is a big dishonour for a prince to die losing a battle.”
Metaphor of the Memory in Current Life:
What did his past life have to do with his bowel disorder in his current life?
At the age of 16, in the present life, the boy is bubbling with energy. Instead of one subject, he takes up two subjects (Math and Biology) to prove that he is good. He promises his teacher that he will score 100% marks in both the subjects, but he fails to accomplish it although he works very hard. This leaves him with a miserable feeling that he has failed. He is unable to keep up the promise he gave to his teacher – just as in the past life he fails to keep up the promise he gave to his mother of winning the war.
The fear, embarrassment, and the agony of his abdomen being torn out becomes the triggering memory, and the association of the gut with this memory manifests through IBS in his present life. Interestingly the disorder triggered only when he was under stress of performance, where he had to prove himself, and his current work did demand a lot out of him.
Condition Post Regression
A follow-up after three months after the session showed that he had healed well, and he was completely normal with no symptoms of IBS.