THE INTERVENTION OF ART: CATHARSIS, CONNECTION, & TRANSCENDENCE

Below is a paper I wrote for a class called “Works of Art” at Columbia University in their Narrative Medicine program in the summer of 2023. It was taught by the incredible Rika Burnham.

“Regensburg” by Seiichi Furuya as seen and photographed on my phone at the Met, summer 2023.

The Intervention of Art: Catharsis, Connection, and Transcendence

I.               

The assignment as I interpreted it was to get pleasurably lost in the Met in search of some captivating work I may or may not be familiar with that I would write about. As an institution, The Metropolitan Museum of Art is in my mind- as it certainly is for many- a primary place of worship for art. It is a place that, even though I may not visit enough, I’m always comforted to know is nearby. Like a daydream of homework, I felt I could fulfill this direction.

As I roamed the halls and bounced off my old preferences, I tried to outsmart my intuition. There was a game afoot, deeply nested, to best my Self in a quest for discovery, novelty, education, and transcendence. I wasn’t looking for something to complete an assignment. I wasn’t seeking approval or trying to please a set of criteria. I was searching for something that felt like home.

The first few selections were predictable. I was drawn in by dramatic renderings of mythical scenes and projections of divinity splashing across the stylistic spectrum of history. I was dazzled but ultimately these first contenders fell away in a natural process of elimination. In the Japanese wing off a hallway from another hallway connected to a gallery and three 0ther hallways, I entered a liminal state. I saw a tower of lights glowing with synesthetic warmth out of a cold shadowy dark. “East Berlin” lit a string of Christmas lights in my chest and stopped me as I walked. I could feel the winter wind from the opposite sidewalk as I looked up at the building.

Eventually, like the photographer may have on that sidewalk opposite that building in that cold air, I felt it was necessary to keep walking. I only made it a few paces before I was faced with true liminality. Black and white, could be an illustration, orderly but asymmetrical, sharp in its detail and soft in its first impressions; I stepped out from the sidewalks of East Berlin and into “Regensburg”.

Who were these presumably important men immortalized in stone staring out at me? What temple did their combined visages rest in? Who were the faceless people looking at the busts on the wall? What did it matter? Was this not itself already a complete circle and commentary on us looking at art and history as art and history are looking back at us? (And with what appears to be great judgement.) What does it matter who these men were? The whiteness and maleness of their faces recedes into the monotone of much of what we’d expect. Let’s say for now that this one advanced our understanding of math and science, and that this one was a ruthless landowner who exploited the labor of his community and hid his misdeeds behind a veil of “philanthropy”.

I cannot see the faces of the people looking at the busts. Why not? There are actually no living human faces in the scene. I see the backs of four heads and the baby carriage. What is in the baby carriage?

Isolation emerges as I realize the “people” in the scene could turn around and be lizard monsters. They could be aliens. They could be ghosts or hallucinations. Are they truly there? I looked at the placard beside this photo. It said precious little. “Regensberg, 1988, Gelatin Silver Print”. It is a photo. There was some doubt. The mystery deepened. As I looked around it was not immediately apparent who the artist was and where I could find that information. That night at home, searching the internet with the limited data I had and considering it against the other contenders, I was at least able to identify the photograph’s creator as Seiichi Furuya.    

 

None of us can retrieve that innocence before all theory when art knew no need to justify itself, when one did not ask of a work of art what it said because one knew (or thought one knew) what it did.

-Susan Sontag, Against Interpretation and Other Essays

 

We were encouraged first to look without knowing. The class acknowledged the priceless moment that is often not available when we have no context or compass for what we’re supposed to be seeing in a work of art. With that permission, I took my time before knowing too much. In my slight initial research, I focused on identifying the location in the photo. I searched for museums and memorials in the Regensburg area and came up with The Walhalla memorial. From Wikipedia: “The Walhalla memorial is named for the Valhǫll of Norse Paganism. It was conceived in 1807 by Crown Prince Ludwig I of Bavaria in order to support the gathering momentum for the unification of the German States into the German Empire.” A neoclassical monument with glorious gravitas, its design was inspired by the Parthenon. A Japanese photographer took the photo in Germany in 1988, a year before the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Looking at the image with a classmate their questions began with the assumption that the scene was choreographed. It hadn’t occurred to me yet. If it was, there was presumably some message or intention behind the composition. There had to be a reason in the artist’s mind for all of it. He chose which faces to feature, why the light shines down in just the way it does, and the placement of the camera in the room. “Close reading” the photo in the spirit of Narrative Medicine, I noticed the mother’s head and her baby directly under the foot of the angel. Is she walking on her? Is she a guardian angel of Temperance as I originally thought, or is she stepping on the heads of those that cross her path?

The wall behind the stone heads reads to me as water. I know it’s not, but I see rippling water from a birds’ eye view as salt and foam emerge in the tides of my subconscious. The head of the man in the center is split by the bust above him. The woman behind him (furthest to the left) appears mesmerized and in conversation with the one face on the wall that is turning into the light as if looking directly at her.  What are they exchanging, those two? What magic are they on about? What is in the baby carriage??

Narrative Medicine utilizes “Close Reading” within a dynamic process of attention, representation, and affiliation. Through the lens of healthcare and devoted to the relationships between caregivers and care-receivers, attention is given and received in dialogue, representation is in the communication itself both verbal and nonverbal, and affiliation happens in the living connections shared through knowledge, training, intuition, and skill. These three values move together in a flowing process. It is not static. It’s happening.

The photo is part of a group exhibition at The Met called “Anxiety and Hope in Japanese Art”. Neither hope or anxiety come to mind immediately as emotions in “Regensburg”. I see an eerie calm with a solemn veneer and an undercurrent of class warfare. There’s some repressed catharsis beneath the stillness of the image, but it is offscreen. I saw for a moment the 20th century’s history of imperialism summarized in this singular shot. The feeling within it is a fertile void. There is no particular emotion but it’s not neutral. Nothing is either accepted or rejected here. Our love and hate are reviewed and evaluated in equal weight.

Close reading the internet I noticed the photographer is still alive, there was nothing in particular about the making of the photo, and there’s a website with his collected work and publications. For a few consecutive weeks, I visited the photo. In a case of too close reading, it took me multiple visits to zoom out and find the placard a few steps away offering visitors actual information about the set of seven photos by this photographer included in the exhibit. Reading it I was somewhat stunned at the amount of information offered on the small surface. It wasn’t about where he went to school or the movement he belonged to. In just a few sentences I knew more about his life than I thought possible. And for everything I discovered, I had three more questions. It read:


古屋誠一撮影

Furuya Seichi (b. 1950)

Memoires 1998 lIlI

Heisei period (1989-2019), 1998

Seven chromogenic and gelatin silver prints

Photographer Furuya Seichi moved to the Austrian city of Graz in the mid-1970s, where he met and fell in love with Christine Gössler, a student and aspiring actress. The two married in 1980, and Christine gave birth to a son in 1981. On October 7, 1985, Christine took her own life by jumping from a building in East Berlin after a protracted battle with schizophrenia. Her life and death have remained the focus of Furuya's work. The seven photographs of this set were taken in Austria, Germany, and Japan before and after Christine's tragic death.

 

II.             

It had not yet occurred to me that the photo could be about grief. The image could be filled with pain; the cost of greatness, the shadow side of history and genius, the abuse and suffering we forget or ignore…  The image is filled with the absence of life. It expresses the vacuum of grief. The rock faces in their cold hard expressions offer no solace I can see. And the people passing by… They may be the dead or the living left behind who have become ghosts in their own lives. Death steals faces from us. We no longer get to take for granted the living form and its unique squints and smirks. The faces begin to fade immediately and forever.  This photo was taken three years after Christine died.

The photo says: “There is a silence equal to the loudness with which this architecture speaks for what it represents. It’s quiet may not be a restful sleep, but a muffled plea. Shock, anger, sadness, bargaining, and acceptance are the five stages as psychology presents them. They are not a line. They are a circle. Every grief is as unique as the relationship it belongs to.”

The more I learned about the photographer, the more I learned about his marriage, his partner, their family, the tragedy, and their artistry. Where I’d at one time noticed him associated with words like “exile”, with empathy I was now seeing a man incredibly open about a subject that is terribly difficult to talk about, and even more difficult to survive and live with.

The website for his work has a contact page with a street address, phone number, and email. The sheer number of ways to get in touch feels like an invitation to connect.

I began to write:

To: Seiichi Furuya, or the kind individual that receives these emails 

From: Daniel Ryan, Columbia University, Narrative Medicine

In crafting the email, I wanted to first express my admiration for the work and provide context for my writing. The question that I felt could unlock the most information in the making of the image regarded its staging or spontaneity. If I ever heard back from anybody, and they knew that much, that would at least tell me something of the artist’s intention. The more I looked at the photo however, the more I was convinced that its’ spontaneity was impossible. I was sensing too much meaning and intention behind what was in my imagination.

After introducing myself and my purpose in writing him, I asked,

 “Was the image choreographed or spontaneously captured?”

I wrapped it up and proofread it a couple times. I hit send. I didn’t imagine I’d hear back. And then a few hours later…

“Dear Daniel J Ryan,

Thank you for your email.”

I’d spent more time in the Met with my class in the last 6 weeks than I had in twenty years of living in NYC. Bonding with everyone, it was transformative in unexpected ways sitting with my new friends and Vermeer, Bonnard, Kerry James Marshal, and the others. I never thought for one moment those artists would ever hear my pithy opinions or self-conscious commentaries. One doesn’t imagine these things will happen through a routine awareness of boundaries, access, and mortality. And then there are other principles governing the universe. Principles about effort, action, and what doesn’t happen if we never try.

“I took this photo in 1988, when I was on my way back from Frankfurt to Graz, attracted by the huge, pure white neoclassical building towering behind the Danube, and visited it without knowing what it was.

Those who know a bit about German history will recognize that many of the busts lined up there are of famous historical figures. I think I spontaneously took one or two photos, so-called snapshots, which were taken immediately, and none of the people present realized that I had taken them.

Even a few years after I took the pictures, they still held a certain fascination for me, so decades ago I did a little more research and found out the origin of the building and the bust.”

I was shocked and delighted! Not only had I received a response, but he generously included a link to the Walhalla Memorial alongside his revealing anecdote. “One or two snapshots”!? The photo now burst with colors in my mind shedding its black and white chrysalis and becoming a new being with stained glass wings.  “I think I spontaneously took one or two photos”. It wasn’t composed or choreographed. It was a lark.

I crafted a response politely expressing my gratitude and amazement. I wrote:

“So, it was a "snapshot" among one or two?? Unchoreographed? Amazing. …To my eyes, looking at the photo there's been a gravity and intentionality in the seriousness of the busts, the absence of faces among the people, and the black and white shadows and light. It didn't feel staged, but it did feel somehow chosen. … Now I see a meditation on chance.”

What is the word for the confluence of forces here? In English or any other language? How was I now having this Sistine Chapel-like moment of connection emerging from within the nexus of this work of art, its’ creator, myself, and some other unfolding play I can’t clearly identify but feel happening around us?

Then he said:

“Dear Daniel,

I have now searched for the negative film to find out if I really took two snapshots in a row (with a slight pause) at that time. And I have scanned the film to complete the picture to prove the fact.

I am sending you this photo for your reference.”

Copyright Seiichi Furuya

III.           

There are only two paths open to those who must witness suffering: (1) pretend it is something else—predictable, resectable, eventually curable, spiritually enhancing, the thing that happens to others—or (2) see it fully and endure the sequelae of having seen.

-Rita Charon, “To See the Suffering” Academic Medicine, Vol. 92, No. 12

 

In the first email sent to me by the photographer, Seiichi Furuya, he began,

“Your inquiry has once again brought home to me how wonderful the medium of photography is. I am convinced that somewhere in the world my photograph will leave an impression on someone that transcends time and space, just as I felt when I took it.”

Transcends. I’m so glad he used that word. I couldn’t agree more. By its definition, our models for interacting with the world and each other expand beyond their previously known order. I thought I knew what the museum was. It turns out there are not just works of art inside those frames. Our people are on the other side, even if we can’t see their faces.


All words and images from my correspondence with the artist are used with his permission.  

THIS FALL WITH MORBID ANATOMY

After the successful launch of “Death Positivity in Past Life Regression” with Morbid Anatomy this spring, I’ll have the honor of collaborating with founder, Joanna Ebenstein, this Fall during her class, “Manifesting From the Beyond: Creativity as Collaboration and Mystery.” It’s been a terrific time working and collaborating with the team at Morbid Anatomy. Their programming director and head librarian, Laetitia Barbier, recently put out her book, Tarot and Divination Cards: A Visual Archive. It’s an incredible historical record and a new modern core text on the subjects of tarot and divination. Joanna’s class runs for eight weeks beginning November 1 and the workshop will be led by her and a selection of guest presenters.

Please hit the button above to register with Morbid Anatomy and see below for the description of the class in full. I’ll be leading a workshop on Past Life Regression, creativity, meaning-making, and narrative medicine on December 13.

I hope you’re enjoying your summer.

Hilma af Klint, The Swan, No. 1, Group IX, 1915

Paul McCartney heard the melody for Yesterday in a dream. Hilma af Klint painted visionary works dictated by spirit guides. Thomas Edison and Salvador Dali woke themselves from hypnagogic states to secure their ideas, and filmmaker David Lynch uses meditation to move beyond the rational, everyday mind and discover unexpected ideas and images.

This November, join Morbid Anatomy founder and Creative Director Joanna Ebenstein as we explore—in concept and practice—ego-free co-creation in collaboration with that elusive “beyond self” all creatives seek.

Over the course of eight weeks, we will meet guest speakers and practitioners from a variety of traditions—including Jungian active imagination, spiritualist mediumship, dream work, shamanism, past life regression, yoga, meditation, and prayer. Each will speak about—and lead us through—their own techniques for making contact.

Students are invited to bring an idea or image they wish to work with to class, or be open to one that emerges over the course of our exploration. In the final session, students will have an opportunity to share a creative work they produced utilizing some or all of these systems and speak about their experience.

In doing this work, we will take inspiration from our ancestors, who viewed creativity not a willful act of ego, but as a mysterious phenomenon with links to the divine. They sought the support of The Muses when embarking on a new project, and the in-spiration they longed for meant “influence of a god.”

Although many of us no longer believe in outer divinities, creators often report that their most vital, innovative and true work feels not like a product of their own individual consciousness, but rather like a collaboration with something outside of themselves, something other. This mysterious other has been called, at various times and by various cultures, daimons, the souls of the dead, the gods, the unconscious, the holy spirit, “flow state,” and alien intelligence.

For centuries, relationships with them were cultivated via practices such as ritual, sacrifice, chanting, dreamwork, prayer, bodywork, meditation, hallucinogenic plants, and other altered states of consciousness. Psychologically, this approach allowed for a distancing of ego from creative product, decreasing the likelihood of personal inflation, and engendering a sense of humility, gratitude and appreciation of the mystery.

SCHEDULE

Week One (November 1) Creativity as Channeling and Prayer

Introduction by Joanna Ebenstein, followed by Diana Walsh Pasulka, professor of Religious Studies and author of American Cosmic, who will speak on creativity understood as channeling in a variety of traditions. She will discuss the idea of prayer as one of these traditions, and lead us in one.

Week Two: (November 8) Dreams and Dream Work
Dream worker and interfaith minister Tristy Taylor will speak on dreams as a way of communication with the deepest, unknown parts of the psyche, and teach us immediately accessible techniques for working with them.

Week Three (November 15) Carl Jung and Active Imagination
Jungian Analyst Patricia Llosa will speak on Jung and creativity, will introduce us to the concept of Jung’s active imagination—a practice used to bridge the gap between the conscious and unconscious mind. She will also lead us in an active imagination of our own.

Week Four (November 22) Spiritualist Mediumship and Creativity
Medium Tiffany J. Hopkins will speak on spiritualist mediumship, a technique traditionally focused on receiving messages from the dead, and how it might be used to tap into a source of inspiration beyond our own minds, whether you choose to call that the dead, our unconscious or higher selves, or any other form which cannot be known through our physical senses. She will also lead us in a mediumistic meditation.

Week Five (November 29) Yoga and Meditation
Yoga instructor Stefanie Mihoulides will speak on yoga as a way to open up to that which is beyond ego, and it original intent as a means of bringing together mind-body and spirit. She will also guide us in a yoga session followed by a creativity-focused meditation.

Week Six (December 6) Shamanic Journeying and “Non-Ordinary Reality"
Christina Pratt—Shaman, shamanic teacher, and author of the Encyclopedia of Shamanism—will introduce us to the concept of the shamanic journey, an ancient technique of entering into an altered state of reality, called “non-ordinary reality.” She will also lead us in a shamanic journey.

Week Seven (December 13) Past Life Regression
Hypnotist and Regression Therapist Daniel Ryan will introduce us to the concepts of past life regression and hypnosis and lead us in a practice of regression in class.

Week Eight (December 20) Final Presentations (Note: Class will run one hour longer to accommodate all students)
Each student will have an opportunity to share a response—artistic or otherwise—to the material.

PRESENTER BIOS (In alphabetical order)

Joanna Ebenstein is a Brooklyn-based artist, writer, curator, photographer and graphic designer. She is the creator of the Morbid Anatomy blog, library and event series, and was co-founder (with Tracy Hurley Martin) of the recently shuttered Morbid Anatomy Museum in Brooklyn. Her books include Anatomica: The Exquisite and Unsettling Art of Human Anatomy, Death: A Graveside Companion and The Anatomical Venus. You can watch her Tedx talk—Death Like You've Never Seen It Before—here.

Tiffany J. Hopkins (she/her) began studying mediumship after moving into her great-great grandmother's cottage in Lily Dale, the world's largest community of Spiritualists. She combines a university-trained intellect with a universe-connected heart to bring flashes of understanding to the mostly incomprehensible world of mediumship. She is a practicing medium, educator, freelance futurist, and founder of Normalize Talking to the Dead.

Patricia Llosa, MFA, LP, is a Peruvian-American Jungian analyst in private practice in New York City. She earned her undergraduate degree in archaeology and art history from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and did graduate work at The School of Visual Arts. For more than 20 years she worked as an administrator and educator at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. A graduate of Marion Woodman’s BodySoul Rhythms® Leadership Training Program and has taught her workshops in Ireland, Japan, Mexico, Peru and Spain. A member of the National Association for the Advancement of Psychoanalysis she serves on their Gradiva Awards Committee. She is also on the board of ARAS, the Archive for Research in Archetypal Symbolism.

Stefanie Mihoulides has been practicing and studying yoga for over 25 years, and hopes to continue doing so for as many more years as she can. She chose the name Casual Yogini to present her work in an accessible, easy to understand way, and strives to share what she knows and loves of the practice in a plain, simple straightforward way. She teaches because she wants to share the improved quality of life that comes from practicing yoga. Her goal is to guide people into the realization that they can help themselves to feel better, regardless of where they are starting from.

Diana Walsh Pasulka is a Professor of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina, Wilmington. Her research examines miraculous events within Catholic history to new religious movements. Recent books include American Cosmic: Religion, UFOs, and Technology (Oxford University Press 2019) and The Resurrected: Spiritual Initiations in the 21st Century (forthcoming). She is widely published, and is a featured speaker at conferences, on podcasts, radio, and television. She is lead investigator on an ongoing study of Catholic manuscripts about saints, levitation, and bilocation, in partnership with the Vatican Secret Archive and the Vatican Space Observatory. Her book American Cosmic has garnered critical acclaim with the field of religious studies.

Christina Pratt is a practicing shaman, who trained with Ecuadorian, Tibetan, Tamang, and African shamans. She is also the author of the two volume Encyclopedia of Shamanism; runs The Last Mask Center for Shamanic Healing; and is host and producer of a free podcast called Why Shamanism Now.

Daniel Ryan has maintained full-time private practice in New York City offering Hypnosis and Regression Therapy to individuals, businesses, and groups since 2012. He is currently attending Columbia University studying Narrative Medicine and pursuing a Master of Science. He has received board certifications in Hypnotherapy, Regression Therapy, and Neuro Linguistic Psychology. He studied and trained in techniques of meditation at the School of Practical Philosophy in New York City from 2007 to 2014 while exploring Vedic philosophy, neuroscience, and east/west mysticism. He co-founded the Center for Integrative Healing in Chatham, NJ in 2012. From 2014 to 2020 he worked alongside Melissa Tiers as Director at The Center for Integrative Hypnosis in Manhattan. His father, Jeffrey Ryan (1940-2011) was a hypnotherapist specializing in past life regression and Daniel’s first teacher. With decades of experience using guided therapies, meditative practices, and narrative journeys in hypnosis - today Daniel champions education and ethical practice alongside thought leadership and exploration into new territory.

Tristy Taylor is a Portland, Oregon-based dream worker, teacher, ordained interfaith minister and animal communicator. Raised by world-renowned dream worker Jeremy Taylor--co-founder of the International Association for the Study of Dreams--and dream artist Kathryn Taylor, she has been working with her dreams from the very beginning. She has been leading dream groups since she was 15-years old, and over the last three decades, she has grown her own dream work offerings to include art making and ritual as guided by the dream world, as well as opening the rich secrets of nightmare imagery. She has a Masters of Art & Consciousness from John F. Kennedy University, and she is currently adjunct faculty at the Chaplaincy Institute for Interfaith Ministry, where she teaches Dreamwork, Ritual Crafting, and Being with Death and Dying.

NEW POST ON MEDIUM: MEDITATION, HYPNOSIS, & PAST LIFE REGRESSION

The following revised and summarized excerpt is from my book “Meditation, Hypnosis, and Past Life Regression”. The book uses a simple metaphor I created, developed, and refined over many experiential workshops and classes which I also led. During the workshop, attendees would experience the three practices — meditation, hypnosis, and past life regression — within a two-hour class and have the opportunity to evaluate the similarities and differences for themselves. This is a brief synopsis exploring the central thesis of the book.

Meditation is a glass of water. Hypnosis is a swimming pool. And Past Life Regression is an ocean.

Meditation, like a glass of water, is immediate, refreshing, and relatively small in scale. It is finite. I might meditate for two or twenty minutes. I might drink a glass of water in a few seconds or take my time with it. The glass holds the water like the cranium containing the brain. If I let the glass sit unbothered, the water becomes still. The glass is full, and its contents become calm in the absence of disturbance. It’s clear, though the water and glass will alter my view.

Hypnosis as a swimming pool is a larger container. The substance is the same, but the boundaries have expanded. We can stay close to the surface when using wakeful states of trance and conversational hypnosis. Or we can dive into the deep end as we do in a deep trance. In hypnotherapy, we can explore the past from new and undiscovered perspectives, and we can pace the future planting seeds of possibility to meet down the road just as we explore the depth and boundaries of the pool.

Past Life Regression is an ocean. Now the water is a little different and the container is seemingly infinite in size. We lose sight of the horizon. Sometimes it is beautiful and generous, others it is tumultuous and dark. We may have a smooth journey that brings us home or be capsized by a sudden wave. What emerges can be strange, familiar, alien, frustrating, soothing, elegant, or absurd. Most often we explore it because we don’t know what we’ll find.

We are mostly made of water. And like water, each of these experiences is natural to us. They generally include attention with the breath, a calm present-moment awareness, progressive relaxation, and guided imagery provided by an individual using little more than their voice. There is no pill or external substance required, although increasingly there is experimentation with everything from ambient music to aromatherapy to psychedelics as aids in the process. Generally, a calm, quiet, and comfortable setting are all that’s necessary, and sometimes not even that is required. Like sex, music, a wonderful conversation, or a delicious meal, they are experiential and will change our states.

Their differences begin with the intention. The intent to meditate compared to exploring what might be past life memories could feel worlds apart. And yet, most successful past life regressions I’ve witnessed and certainly those I’ve conducted have all had moments of meditation.

As expressed in many of the ancient and essential texts on meditation, it was not originally intended as the mental health and wellness tool we see it popularly sold as today. Historically, we were invited to meditate as a free means of stepping out of the wheel of good and bad. Acknowledging that even centuries ago people like us were caught in cycles of judgment, unhelpful self-talk, negative states, and repetitive thinking. Meditation was an opportunity to compassionately break that cycle and do something different by doing nothing at all. A moment of intentional quiet. Closed eyes, deep breaths, and conscious rest are ways to interrupt the noise in our heads.

There is a core principle of hypnosis that “All hypnosis is self-hypnosis”. While there are certainly external stimuli all around us vying for our attention (Consider the advertising throughout NYC), our internal frames, unconscious biases, preferences, and personal narratives will be decisive in where our attention goes and how long it stays there. This principle is well-known to hypnotherapists, but I would suggest it’s imperative in this technological age that this be understood by individuals. Screens, computers, and phones are trance-inducing substances. A little education on trance psychology can equate to inoculation, and the disregard for this can come at a great cost.

The intention is the first and greatest differential in these otherwise similar-seeming practices. With the direction of a skilled and qualified guide, they could be life-changing. Unless something goes very wrong, the worst that can happen is you’ll be the same person afterward as you were before. As a simple tool primarily for people new to the subjects — for young people in particular in need of a decoder — I suggest the use of the metaphor as a reminder that while each is different in scale, they are as natural as the water we consist of.

Meditation is a glass of water. Hypnosis is a swimming pool. And Past Life Regression is an ocean.

*This document specifically references Hypnotherapy and Clinical Hypnosis used as a therapeutic tool and source of relief which often closely resemble a guided meditation with targeted goals and additional techniques. This does not include stage hypnosis, hypnosis for entertainment, and the displays therein.

Disclaimer: The definitions of these experiences belong to no one person. Particularly in the case of hypnosis, there is a marked absence of clear definitions. What takes place during, as well as the results, can be so varied and disparate that I might suggest we don’t yet have enough shared vocabulary (at least not in English). These are my interpretations and understanding based on decades of personal and professional experience and study.

Early cover design by Nicolette Lara

DEATH POSITIVITY IN PAST LIFE REGRESSION: A LIVE, ONLINE CLASS THIS SPRING

Olga, Francis Picabia, 1930

Past Life Regression offers the participant a compassionate structure and process through which spiritual questions can be asked and answered. Born in the 1970s and popularized by characters like Dr. Brian Weiss, Dolores Cannon, and Daniel’s late father, Jeffrey Ryan, this unique and dynamically cathartic process threads hypnosis with mysticism and meditation in an experience which studies death, reincarnation, the afterlife, and non-ordinary states.

In Beyond Terror and Denial: The Positive Psychology of Death Acceptance, Paul T.P. Wong and Adrian Tomer write “…at a personal level, death attitudes matter: Death defines how we live.” “Death Positivity" within the context of this course will be defined in the simplest terms and may be considered broadly as a positive orientation towards the study, exploration, and experience of the inevitable. Reaching for and grasping a freer spectrum of attitudes, anything outside of the generally avoidant tropes of an ageist, youth-obsessed marketplace that exists in dialogue with an abhorrently expensive and prohibitive healthcare system will be a good start. Past Life Regression truly is an alternative that always has Death front and center, hiding in plain sight in its narrativized cycles of completion, reincarnation, and rebirth.

During this experiential course, we’ll explore the theory and practice of Past Life Regression (PLR) in relationship to death positivity, reincarnation, and the cycles of life that emerge in its narratives.

5-week live, online course

  • Date: Tuesdays, May 24, 31, June 7, 14, 21.

  • Time: 6-8pm EST/New York City time

  • Admission: $130 (Patreon members $5/mo and above) / $150 (regular admission)

  • Taught via Zoom by Daniel Ryan

  • All live classes will also be recorded and archived for students.

Students will have the opportunity to experience PLR during multiple classes examining and potentially experiencing their past lifetimes, relationships transcending their present incarnation, death scenes, rebirthing, the spaces between lives, non-human existences, and much more. There will be guest speakers to further illuminate and deepen our understanding of the material.

Benefits and takeaways from this course will include your own journeys through the subconscious, insight into the uses and applications of PLR and hypnosis, new and dynamic frameworks for better understanding ourselves and the mind, fascinating material and reading pertaining to PLR, life, death, and the afterlife to enjoy and discuss, and the opportunity for a revitalized sense of purpose having been enriched by the tools and resources of regression.

PLR itself is roughly 50 years old but contains multitudes in its shared histories and connections to the larger subjects of hypnosis, meditation, modern spiritual systems of teaching and healing, and the spectrum of philosophies of the afterlife.

Class Schedule

  • 5/24: Introduction to the Art of Past Life Regression

  • 5/31: Death Scenes in Regression Therapy: The Surrendered Self

  • 6/7: Communication Beyond the Veil: Grief, Transcendence, and Hypnosis

  • 6/14: The Afterlife, The Inter Life, and the Near-Death: Narratives and Formulations of the Hereafter

  • 6/21: Reincarnation and Meaning Making: Death as the Mirror, the Mentor, and The Beginning

Recommended but not mandatory reading:

  • Many Lives, Many Masters by Brian Weiss

  • Beyond Terror and Denial: The Positive Psychology of Death Acceptance by Paul T.P. Wong and Adrian Tomer

  • Regression Therapy: A Handbook for Professionals (2-Volume Set) by Winafred Lucas

  • Lifecycles: Reincarnation and the Web of Life By Christopher Bache

  • Between Death and Life: Conversations With a Spirit by Dolores Cannon

  • The Art of Regression Therapy: A Clinical Guide by C. Roy Hunter and Bruce Elmer

Daniel Ryan has maintained a full-time private practice in New York City offering Hypnosis and Regression Therapy to individuals, businesses, and groups since 2012. He is currently attending Columbia University studying Narrative Medicine and pursuing a Master of Science. He has received board certifications in Hypnotherapy, Regression Therapy, and Neuro-Linguistic Psychology.

Daniel received his undergraduate degree, a Bachelor of Fine Arts, from Emerson College where his work focused on writing, literature, and sociology. He studied and trained in techniques of meditation at the School of Practical Philosophy in New York City from 2007 to 2014 while exploring Vedic philosophy, neuroscience, and east/west mysticism. He co-founded the Center for Integrative Healing in Chatham, NJ in 2012. From 2014 to 2020 he worked alongside Melissa Tiers as Director at The Center for Integrative Hypnosis in Manhattan.

As a second-generation practitioner, Daniel has a unique story. Hypnosis and Past Life Regression are the family business. Jeffrey Ryan (1940-2011) was a hypnotherapist specializing in past life regression and Daniel’s first teacher. Mr. Ryan served as the President of the Association for Past Life Research and Therapies in the 1990s. With decades of experience using guided therapies, meditative practices, and narrative journeys in hypnosis - today Daniel champions education and ethical practice alongside thought leadership and exploration into new territory.

Image: Olga, Francis Picabia, 1930

Dr. Andrew Huberman has one of my favorite podcasts on mental health, science, biology, and the brain. Currently a researcher and professor at Standford, he describes his motivation in the creation of his podcast as follows. “My plan in creating this podcast is to discuss Neuroscience: how our brain and its connections with the organs of our body controls our perceptions, our behaviors, and our health. I will also discuss tools for measuring and changing how our nervous system works.” While he’s not a hypnotist, he’s always been a wonderful advocate for the practice and a voice I greatly appreciate. So I’m thrilled that his most recent podcast features Dr. David Spiegel, an extremely accomplished and knowledgable doctor and hypnotist. Dr. Spiegel is also at Stanford where he is the Associate Chair of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences, Director of the Center on Stress and Health, and Director of the Center for Integrative Medicine at the university’s School of Medicine. For a terrific demonstration of what therapeutic hypnosis can be, check out the above video of Dr. Spiegel guiding Dr. Huberman through a brief practice. See below for the full episode where they explore trauma informed care, psychedelics, sleep, the neurology of trance and much more.

GENERATIONAL REPATTERNING: FAMILY CONSTELLATION & REGRESSION THERAPY - A VIRTUAL WORKSHOP

Hilma af Klint, 1906

We are the stories we tell ourselves and often find our early childhood stories architecting our present and our future. Whether these stories appear in our relationships with our parents, partners, children, colleagues, and friends, it is possible to make peace with our pasts so it does not dictate our future.

Family Constellation Therapy and Regression Therapy are types of therapies based on the notion that we carry generational trauma and the patterning of our ancestors that walked before us, and those patterns continue to affect our here and now. When we observe our feelings and behaviors in a “field of knowing,” we can put an end to familial patterns that cause suffering. By working through our family constellation we identify the cause of our problems and resolve them.

The Kollectiv is excited to announce a 2 part journey led by renowned hypnotherapist, Dan & Family Constellation Therapist, Nick.  A journey of deep observation and repatterning so we take agency over the narrative we call life.

GENERATIONAL REPATTERNING:

I. Wednesday, January 12th | 7:00pm EST
Regression Therapy

II. Wednesday, January 19th | 7:00pm EST
Family Constellation Therapy

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER.

THE KYBALION - PREMIERING JANUARY 11, 2022

In 1908, an occult manuscript would mystify those interested in metaphysics and the unseen world. The Kybalion, penned by a mysterious author known as Three Initiates, presented seven principles of ancient Hermetic philosophy. These principles can be used in everyday life to empower and heighten our understanding of the universe and our relationship to it. Now, in 2021, The Kybalion is presented for the first time as a feature-length film. Directed by Emmy-nominee Ronni Thomas (AMC’s The Broken and the Bad) and hosted by occult historian Mitch Horowitz (“solid gold”—David Lynch), the film explores in detail each of the seven principles. Each principle is then paired with an expert working within the occult space. Psychics, mediums, alchemists, and parapsychologists give their own perspective on each principle and how it relates to their work and search—and what it reveals for all of us. Dramatic live-action sequences and animation symbolize the book’s principles. The film also features Mitch’s Egyptian travelogue and his own insights into the book, its stranger-than-fiction backstory, its teachings, and why so many have sought out this text for over a century while seeking answers to the great mysteries of life. The Kybalion claims that the universe is mental. The film explains how that is possible—and, why, in fact, it is necessary.

Featuring Raymond Moody, Paula Roberts, Brian Cotnoir, Laetitia Barbier, and myself.

MEDITATION, HYPNOSIS, & PAST LIFE REGRESSION at THREE JEWELS

Mon, 11/15/21 7:30-9:00 PM EST at Three Jewels 

5 E 3rd st New York, NY 10003

Register here

Three Jewels is a special kind of place. A true community center, it says right on their website: “We are not just a yoga studio, we are a space where people gather and train and support one another on the quest to achieve Enlightenment. And yes, we really believe in that stuff.” I can tell you this is true. In 2020 and 2021, there was a culling of the kind of spaces where my friends and peers and I used to gather, meet, meditate, learn, teach, guide, work, and play. Most of these places existed on shoe-string budgets to begin with. Once quarantine hit there was little left to do but close doors and move on. My old office, The Center for Integrative Hypnosis, was one of these spaces (the center lives online now). In a city like New York - which is to say a city like no other - these true community spaces are as precious as the parking. Their value is immeasurable and the care they provide is essential. For many that can’t afford prohibitively expensive insurance, their classes are therapy. Their services are their healthcare. They might not say this, but I am.

For this reason and many others, I am truly honored to be welcomed in. I am offering my class ‘Meditation, Hypnosis, & Past Life Regression’ there on the evening of Monday, November 15th. The event is in-person and virtual. And this workshop is a fundraiser for Three Jewels. All proceeds will go towards their end-of-year fundraising campaign.

About Meditation, Hypnosis, & Past Life Regression:

This workshop is a dynamic exploration of inner work. Through conversation and comparative practice, we will gain awareness and direct experience of the benefits of meditation, hypnosis, and past life regression. We’ll begin with a brief introduction to the material and our guide, second-generation hypnotherapist and regression therapist, Daniel Ryan. Understanding that each practice is its own unique area of study and research, at the heart of the workshop is a simple metaphor intended as a kind of decoder or compass. Meditation is a glass of water. Hypnosis is a swimming pool. And past life regression is an ocean. Each, like us, is essentially water. The size, scale, and purpose of the container changes, but the water is still water.

To elaborate further on the metaphor we’ll be working with - Meditation like a glass of water is simple, refreshing and accessible. Hypnosis is like a swimming pool; we submerge, go under, stay shallow, or go into the deep end. And Past life regression is an ocean; seemingly infinite, beyond imagination, and filled with mysteries to discover. Though mechanically meditation, hypnosis, and past life regression often appear the same and include may of the same ingredients (guided imagery, progressive relaxation, breath work), each of the three are also vastly different. What creates the first and most important difference behind each practice is the intention. During this experiential workshop, you will learn about the differences and similarities, best practices of each method, their respective gifts and advantages, a brief history of each, and some simple introductory principles. The evening will feature guided practice, stories, case studies, Q&A, and discussion as a group.

DEATH & REBIRTH CYCLES: ASTROLOGY & PAST LIFE REGRESSION

Group IX/UW, The Dove, Nos. 12

Group IX/UW, The Dove, Nos. 12

Course Description:

As we go through life, we often have experiences that repeat themselves, places that seem so familiar, yet we’ve never actually been to before, and sometimes we meet someone for the first time and there’s an inexplicable recognition. This can be due to cognitive “programming” linked to one of our past lives.

If we are mindful and pay objective attention to our lives in the here and now, we can see the power of past conditioning and how it shapes our experience in the present moment. Understanding the limits and burdens of cognitive conditioning, the way our past is creating our present we can take this knowledge and realize inner freedom and the unconditioned in this very lifetime.

Just as we are the sum of our parts, we are the sum of our past. Yet, it is a conscious choice to observe and awaken to our past, so it doesn’t dictate our present or our future.

The Kollectiv is excited to announce a 3 part course led by the renowned hypnotherapist, Daniel Ryan & gifted Astrologer, Leslie Galbraith. A journey of awakening to our past lives through Past Life Regression & Astrology, enabling us to apply conscious awareness to our past, so it doesn’t dictate our future.

AGENDA

DEATH & REBIRTH CYCLES:

Part I. Wednesday, October 20th | 7:00pm EST
Understanding Past Lives & Reincarnations Through Your Birth Chart
Leslie and Dan will begin together by introducing themselves, their collaboration, and the material we’ll be exploring through each workshop. Each class will begin with a few moments of housekeeping. Once complete, Leslie will lead first the class and discussion on how past lifetimes and other incarnations are represented through the chart. By focusing into key pieces that she will choose and illuminate for us, attendees will have the opportunity to interpret and decipher the meanings and clues hiding in plain sight in the chart. Questions and prompts will be offered on how to extract the best information from the chart and what to carry into the subsequent sessions.

Part II. Wednesday, November 3rd | 7:00pm EST
Incarnations Through Past Life Regression
Leslie and Dan will begin with housekeeping and thoughts from the previous session. Continuing the conversation from the first class and carrying with us the information on past lives gleaned from our charts, we’ll begin working with regression. Dan will lead an experiential workshop on Past Life Regression. He will guide an introductory practice for the group to participate in followed by a few moments of sharing and observations. And a second longer and more in-depth past life regression closing with a few more moments of observations and conclusions.

Part III. Wednesday, November 17th | 7:00pm EST
Integration & Regeneration
Leslie and Dan will begin with housekeeping and reflections on the practices from the previous session. Material will be introduced and explored regarding various processes of integration, how healing comes through regression, and how it is sustained. Dan will lead a third and final experience of past life regression after which we’ll have the opportunity to share our last observations, discoveries, and questions on the material and stories We’ll conclude with a few gentle suggestions on best practices to maintain the benefits and learnings, last reflections, and gratitude.

Interview with Patrick McGiniss on FOMO Sapiens

Patrick-episode-38-story.jpg

Listen on Spotify or on Apple Podcasts. From the FOMO Sapiens website:

What comes to mind when you think of hypnosis? Some poor fool in a spotlight quacking like a duck who will have no memory of it later in the night? Or guided meditation with a specific outcome in mind? Brooklyn-based hypnosis and regression therapist Daniel Ryan explains the stark contrast between meaningful hypnotherapy and flashy stage show hypnotism and how, as the son of a clinical psychologist trained in hypnotism by the US military in the 1950s, he spent a lifetime learning to spot the differences. 

Daniel discusses how hypnotherapy is used not as a magic wand to erase bad habits and memories but as a therapeutic tool to change thinking and behavior. Often misunderstood and misconstrued, hypnotherapy can be used to break bad habits or to overcome personal challenges; Daniel explains how hypnotism leverages pre-existing trance tendencies, not to relinquish a subject’s control, but to help them regain it.

Set out to share his knowledge and help those who want to help themselves, Daniel’s practice helps people address a variety of issues ranging from overcoming general or social anxiety and signs of depression, managing stress at work and the pressures of family, to personal trauma and grief management.

NEW OFFICE HOURS in Manhattan and Brooklyn

New office hours on MONDAYS in Manhattan and THURSDAYS in Brooklyn this Summer and I am thrilled to be back in action as the city opens up. Email me or message me here through the website to schedule starting now for in-person sessions. MONDAYS after noon on Broadway downtown in the heart of the city and THURSDAYS in Brooklyn amongst the brownstones of Fort Greene near Atlantic Center and Barclay’s Center. Details below. I look forward to seeing you soon.

Writing the Score for Oscar-Nominated Short Film "FEELING THROUGH"

Writer-director Doug Roland's Oscar-shortlisted short drama -- executive produced by Marlee Matlin and in partnership with Helen Keller Services -- is a deceptively simple narrative that takes place over one evening between two characters. But this chance encounter -- captured with visual storytelling that's both natural, unforced, and deftly crafted -- uncovers unexpected empathy, along with a profound revelation about how we can offer fellowship, help, and care to one another. With its themes of connection and empathy, the writing is economical and precise, laying down the story and character beats with easy pacing that keeps moving forward while allowing moments to breathe.

I was first contacted by Doug Roland to make music for “Feeling Through” in 2018. The project was pretty inspiring from the start. They were finishing shooting on the first film to star a DeafBlind actor, Robert Tarango. Everything I saw and heard had heart to it. It wasn’t a cynical project and the results were proving that. The footage and performances were gorgeous. It’s an honor to have been part of this unique film that is now receiving the attention it deserves.

After only a couple weeks “Feeling Through” has well over one million views on YouTube. The New York Times ran an article in March of last year on the film that you can find here: A Deaf-Blind Dishwasher Achieves His Childhood Dream: Movie Actor. It looks like there is a feature-length version in the works. And if you’re wondering what the music sounds like - I released an album in 2019 compiling my ambient and instrumental music called Hypnotist Makes Music for Films. The record has been arranged and ordered for use during meditation, hypnosis, and psychonautic journeys of all kinds. Perfect also for working, sleeping, and thousand-yard stares out the window during daydreams.