I found a collection of Dick Sutphen’s recorded work on YouTube , including a “Viewing Past-LIves Workshop” and was intrigued by a title - “The Ascension Technique.” Sutphen’s description of this method tracks exactly to the opening of the Awareness Techniques:
I call the technique used in the album ‘The Ascension Technique’ because it requires you to imagine or fantasize that you are ascending to the top of a house or the building you are in, and then to a height of 500 feet in the air before receiving special instructions to descend into a past life. Now I understand that a variation of the technique was developed in the mid-1960s and used by a few practitioners who became very excited about the dependability of the method. I first became aware of it in the mid-1970s and began to use it experimentally, especially as an alternative astral projection technique. Over the years, it has been one of many variations of past life regression I’ve used in seminars. And again, I’ve always liked it because it always seemed to work for everybody. Now neither I nor several friends who conduct regressions know exactly why the technique is so effective, and I guess it doesn’t really matter. What you are interested in are results…
He refers to a “variation” of the technique from the 1960s before praising it for its “dependability” and how “it seemed to work for everybody.” But once again, no mention of the Awareness Techniques or the work of William and Diane Swygard. From Awareness Techniques Book 1 (and the Original Instructions on my website) - the client is instructed to go stand in front of the building where he lives and describe the door, door knob, windows, etc.
After he sees and describes to you these objects, tell him to, "Go quickly and stand on the roof of the building and look down into the road (or yard) in front.Tell me as soon as you are there.' Ask him to see and describe such objects as cars, road, trees, etc. When this is completed, tell him to go about 500 feet up into the air and look down. (One in a hundred may object at this point but remind him quickly that he is still safe in the room.) Then repeat the request. " Tell me as soon as you are there.'
Apparently the Original Instructions were making the rounds of the community of people pursuing past lives, since Sutphen also mentions “several friends who conduct regressions” but no one credited the authors William and Diane Swygard even as they built businesses selling recorded versions of this induction. I am a fan of Dick Sutphen’s work and have written about his innovations so I’m not trying to discredit him. I’m just one of the many people who:
liked it because it always seemed to work for everybody.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=09FhTiYm2r0&list=OLAK5uy_lZlo7JuxfilIGjYUuQa5k2zhPb_vGxdR0