Age regression takes one back through the present lifetime to discover answers to problems. Though it may appear that most problems have their roots in past lives, the fact is that the majority of problems are caused by events that happened in the early years of the present lifetime.

The minds of children from birth to early teens, particularly during the preschool years, are very susceptible to programming. During those years the brain operates on the same dominant frequencies that are achieved during conventional hypnosis. Therefore, a child’s mind is extremely open and vulnerable to suggestion. It will accept as fact, without using any logic or reason, any information
presented, particularly that which is repeated several times. Recent research even indicates that a baby’s mind is affected by music, voices and other outside sounds and conditions during the last few months of pregnancy.

Many of the problems involving poor self-image and lack of a sense of self-worth can be traced to happenings during those sensitive ages. Things as varied as health problems, some learning problems, eating disorders, failure patterns, phobias and behavior problems can be the result of thoughtless words and actions directed toward young children. Likewise, success, positive attitudes and self-confidence can be the result of positive attitudes expressed to young children.

If a child is repeatedly told that he is dumb or stupid or can't learn, or can't do anything right, then he may have the mind of a genius but function well below average. On the other side, if a child is constantly reinforced with statements that he can accomplish anything he sets out to do, that he can learn anything he wants to, then there is every chance that he will be self-confidently
successful.

Often, it is easy to see the evidence of negative childhood programming in adults. You'll never amount to anything. You'll never be a man. No one will ever want you. No one can ever love someone like you. You’re fat and ugly. You’re skinny and ugly. You’re clumsy. You see the results of such statements in the men who are so concerned with proving their manhood, and in the women whose sense of self-worth revolves around an appearance which never meets their standards, people who never feel that anything they do is worthwhile, and who can’t accept that they are liked or loved.

Sometimes unusual or bizarre behavior patterns are set up in those early years. One woman told of the strange behavior pattern that haunted her life daily for 40 years. As far back as she could remember, she would do anything to keep from urinating. She would wait until she couldn’t wait any longer, then she would either go to the bathroom, or, if she had waited too long, wet her pants. As a child when traveling, when the family would stop at a service station, she could be in agony to go to the restroom, but would deny it and refuse to go. She didn’t know why she refused, and she didn’t want to refuse. She often wet her pants and was humiliated by it. She wet the bed until she was a teenager, and this was a constant source of embarrassment. Her older brother teased her about this all of her life, and that didn’t help her frustration. She didn’t want to be the way she was, but she couldn’t seem to do much about it. Her parents either ignored it, or acted as if it was some kind of willful stubbornness. Her brother continued to ridicule her. She was too embarrassed to
talk to anyone about it. She finally became fairly adept at hiding her problem, but it was always there, waiting to pop up at the most inopportune moment.

Finally, as a young adult she decided that something had to change. She forced herself to go to the restroom at the first feeling of need. It was a tremendously difficult battle. She had strong feelings that were a mixture of fear, guilt (as if she was doing something wrong), and relief. She also felt a great deal of defensiveness and hostility toward her mother and her brother. She could
understand the feelings she had toward her brother, but it was difficult for her to understand or admit the feelings she had toward her mother.

Many years passed. The problem still lurked in the background, but seldom caused any real difficulty. The woman became involved in past life regression experiences, and eventually in age regression. She was looking for other information when she found herself at 18 months of age being seated on a potty, told that it was time to `wee-wee,’ and then slapped painfully on the leg. She didn’t fully understand what she remembered until she asked her mother about it. "Oh, that
was how I potty trained you. It was no trouble at all. I would put you on the potty about every two hours and slap you on the leg to make you cry. When you cried you’d relax and `wee-wee.’ I always did that whenever we were getting ready to go somewhere when you were older, too, so that you would go to the bathroom before we left the house."

This is almost a classic case of aversion therapy, and negative programming. It was extremely effective, since the punishment associated with going to the bathroom was regularly reinforced several times a day over a period of several weeks, then periodically reinforced over several years whenever the mother wanted her to go to the bathroom before they left home. Only programming which was so strongly entrenched could be that effective for so many years in disrupting a natural
body function. The confusing message of "Do what I tell you to do and you will get punished" couldn't help but generate tremendous mental conflict.

Logically, the woman knew that her mother had not meant to harm her, and had not understood what she was doing, but years of misery, humiliation and anger flooded to the surface. It was difficult for her to handle it in a positive way. In another age regression she was given instructions that she no longer needed to react to that unfortunate programming, and that she would release and
get rid of all emotional reactions in a positive and constructive manner. She is now freed from that early programming, and the anger.