“About 10 to 15 per cent people don’t see anything—they just experience thoughts and feelings. Another 15 per cent get very clear images. But 60 per cent of the people, experience a combination of thoughts, feelings and images,” Dr Sharma shares, just as we are about to begin. “When you start the session, go with the first thought or image you see. Don’t doubt it.” 

After, what I think is a few minutes, where he leads me into a hypnotic state, which, he says, helps open the door to the subconscious, I see vivid images, sharing details that amusingly have strange parallels with my present lifetime. Even the characteristics and traits of the person I imagine myself to be, is strangely similar [to myself]. I go with the flow. Like he insists, I don’t question it.  

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Dr Sharma takes me only through one “past lifetime”—in some sessions he jumps  to other lifetimes, if he feels the patient needs it—and in that period, I see myself evolve from childhood till death. When the session ends, it has been three hours already. Yes, as long as a Karan Johar melodramatic movie. But, to be honest, it felt like just about 60 minutes had passed. And that was the strangest part of the entire experience. “It’s a time warp, wherein you lose the concept of time, because you are so engrossed in your story,” he tells me. “It’s important for me to get into the details. It’s like playing detective,” he says, alluding to his work, “Even a paediatrician is no less a detective, because children don’t complain about what they are suffering from. You need to be sharp and attentive.”

He spends the next hour again, revisiting the story I shared with him, explaining how “cause and effect” work, and how a lot of my current problems, stem from certain incidents that happened in that past life. He explains how understanding relationships in my past life, will help me address the current ones better. I am still a sceptic, though. Looking back, it is hard to tell whether what I experienced is the work of my mind, or whether I had really tapped into my subconscious. What I can, however, say is that, until this session, I hadn’t really even conjured up the idea of such a person. “It’s your story. Own it,” Dr Sharma tells me.