In early 1989, a friend of mine invited me to attend a three-day workshop entitled Regression Therapy Intensive Training: Past Life Recall and Spirit Releasement by someone I had never heard of named Dr. Bill Baldwin. I was not inclined to go. There are thousands of seminars and workshops by experts in all kinds of stuff. However, my friend sent along four audio tapes, and I thought it only fair to listen to them. When I did, I was surprised, and impressed.
The first three tapes were made during seminars in which Dr. Baldwin explained and demonstrated his approach to Past Life Recall and Spirit Releasement.
First, he distinguished between Past Life Exploration and Past Life Therapy. The former is motivated by curiosity, and while he did not condemn it, he does not practice it. Past Life Therapy is focused on therapy; that is, relief of the client's problems by tracing them to their source and mending whatever caused them.
What he calls Spirit Releasement is in fact the rescue of lost souls attached to his client. I liked the way he worked--he used no magic or mystery or mystique or mumbo-jumbo, just straight-forward counseling that reflects a deep concern for the well-being of his client and the well-being of the lost souls. Instead of casting them out and driving them away, he guides them home to the Light.
The fourth tape was made during a session in which Dr. Baldwin encountered a demon that spoke through the voice of his client. Oh, yes: it was a demon. I have encountered them before, and they're not all that hard to recognize. What was different in this case was Dr. Baldwin's response.
Unlike the Roman Catholic ritual of exorcism that tries to send evil spirits to hell, Dr. Baldwin rescued the demon. Firmly but gently, step by step, he led it to see that it had been lied to, deceived, and led astray. Then he presented it with a choice: go back into darkness and be punished again by its demon-commanders, or escape into the Light where there is no punishment. And quite suddenly, the demon changed--from hostile to hopeful--and went to the Light. As I listened to it happen, I thought: "Yes! This is a higher ethic ... a better way."
The workshop was held at Saint Michael's Manor in southern Maryland, 4-6 May 1989. Three members of the First Century Christianity group attended even though the material was designed for professional therapists. In retrospect of what we saw done there, the name of the place was singularly appropriate.
Dr. Baldwin's lectures were excellent. I took many pages of notes, and it would be foolish of me to try to summarize them here. Anyone who is at all interested in this subject should contact:
Center For Healing Relationships
P.O. Box 4061, Enterprise, FL 32725
(407) 322-2086
She said she was floating in the air, looking down at her dead body--after having drowned in a flash-flood, apparently about a hundred years ago. Bill led her back through the event several times, and each time was less traumatic. He found that she was angry at her mother for having left her alone in the house. He had her go and find her mother. She saw her mother in a wagon with a couple of men, trying to get back to the house but prevented by the flood. She wept and said, "She did care. She was trying to come back. She did love me." Then she went to the Light.
Bill asked if she had any unfinished business, and she regressed to an earlier life where she was a rich man. As a young man, she accidently rode down a woman and child, killing the woman. She did nothing to help either of them and regretted it for the rest of that life. She died as a bitter old man whose last words were, "Yippee! I'm out of here!" She went to the Light again. Bill led her to make things right with the souls of the woman and the boy. She expressed relief.
After bringing her out of the regression, Bill had her imagine herself walking near a swimming pool. No fear. He had her get into the pool. Still no fear. He had her imagine herself splashing water in her face, and finally sinking down and swimming under the water. She enjoyed it. There was no trace of the phobia.
The answer came from a ghost named Joe who died in Vietnam when he fell into a punji pit and got caught by the neck in the vines that covered the pit. He had wandered around Vietnam for a long time and finally attached himself to David. Bill helped Joe to the Light; he was met by a group of his friends. Bill similarly rescued three other souls who died in Vietnam and attached themselves to David.
The first entity who showed up was a field hand named Tom who apparently died about 200 years ago but didn't notice he was dead because nobody had paid much attention to him before he died, either. When he was ready to go to the Light, Bill asked him to look around and see if there were any others like him, standing around or watching or waiting. He said there were lots of them. Bill asked him to call them and tell them about the Light so they might also rise up and go home.
Soon, everyone in the room felt there were lots of spirits around. Bill asked Tom how many were coming.
Dozens. Hundreds. More'n I can count! They're comin' outa the trees. They're comin' outa the ground. They're comin' outa the water!
Bill invited them all to come, and look up, and rise up to the Light, and pass the word to others. We all felt them coming toward us and rising up around us, and I thought this must be a miniature version of the resurrection at the end of the age. It went on for a long time--perhaps twenty minutes. There were a lot of them.
(This area was part of Point Lookout prison grave-yard where 3384 Confederate soldiers and sailors were buried. Much of the old grave-yard is now under water.)
While all this was going on, the channel's voice suddenly changed: Ho-oh-ly shit!
Bill laughed: "Good morning, neighbor!"
Where are they all going?
"They're going home."
Nah ... this is home.
"Not really. Is your family here? Look up. They're coming for you."
A short pause ... Elvira? ... and he was gone.
After this mass exodus of earth-bound souls, Bill asked Tom to look around the place for any that had not gone to the Light. There were a couple of discarnate women in the house--perhaps members of a family that used to live there--and they were helped to the Light.
Then Bill had Tom look for any dark spots in or around the place. There were two, one in the furnace room and one in a car, that turned out to be junior demons. Bill counseled them and converted them. When they were ready to go to the Light, he had them call for their demon commanders. Then he converted the commanders, and had them call in all those they commanded, and their commanders. This went on for quite a while, and apparently a fair-sized chunk was taken out of the dark organization before it was over.
Finally, things were quiet and peaceful. Bill thanked Tom for his help and asked him if there was anything he wanted to say before he went home to the Light. In a voice filled with awe, Tom said, This is the kingdom of God... This is the kingdom of God... and then he, too, was gone.
After the session, Fred was worried that he might have been harboring that entity and that it might return. I tried to help him stop fretting about it, but was not able to do so. I went out on the porch to pray, and was inspired as to how he might set his worry aside. I went and got him, brought him out on the porch, pointed at a small squadron of four ducks on the lawn, and said, "Fred, bless a duck! Observe, appreciate, bless."
Fred focused his attention on the ducks. All four ducks stopped eating, slowly raised their heads until their beaks were pointing almost straight up, and stood very still. After a little while Fred sighed, shifted his feet and turned to look at me. As he did so, all four ducks lowered their heads and went back to eating.
(This "Bless a Duck" exercise is a vernacular version of the "Act of Blessing" used by the First Century Christianity Group.)
After the workshop at Saint Michael's Manor, I went home and put Dr. Baldwin's techniques to work in conjunction with two-way prayer.
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In 1992 Dr. William J. Baldwin published Spirit Releasement Therapy: A Technique
Manual (Second Edition).
He also started, in early 1996, "Free Spirit: The Newsletter of Spirit
Releasement Therapy."
Dr. Baldwin died 24 April 2004. Here is his obituary.