Summarize this article in one sentence.
Make sure the temperature is not too warm or too chilly. Draw the curtains, turn off the TV or radio, turn off your phone, and if you have a noise generator, turn it on just loud enough to mask any outside sounds. Try one of these settings:  White noise. It sounds like a TV tuned to no channel. Brown noise. This brings to mind the sound of ocean waves in the distance. Sit or recline in a quiet, darkened room. Away from friends and loved ones. Choose a time when you are alert and your body and mind are calm. If you are hungry, distracted, or if you have a song stuck in your head, you'll have a hard time focusing. Kick back on your bed, or wherever you’ve chosen to conduct your self-hypnosis, and simply relax for a few minutes to prepare for your journey. Close your eyes, and get comfortable. Lie on your back, with your hands at your sides, and bathe yourself with a protective light:  Imagine a white, enveloping light all around you. See it in your mind’s eye, shining on your feet, your legs, your knees, your thighs, your torso and arms, your neck, your face, your head. This white light is protecting you from all negative influences. It represents love and warmth and enlightenment in a dazzling mistiness all around you, cocooning you in its brilliance, protecting you from anything bad. See it in your mind. Feel its warmth, and invite it to wash over you. Repeat to yourself, either in words or intent, "I am breathing in powerful protective energy. This energy is building an aura of protection around me. This aura protects me at all times in every way."  Say this to yourself five times for five inhales. After this, just concentrate on visualizing and feeling the energy, making it brighter and more powerful. Take the next color that comes to mind, and repeat until you feel ready to take the next step. Imagine yourself in a long hallway, with a large door at the end. See this hallway in as much detail as you can, whatever comes to mind.  Your hallway may be all gold and filigree, or Gothic like a cathedral, entirely constructed from gemstones, or a forest floor with a bower of branches arching over you—the choice is yours. Whatever hallway you construct in your mind, use it each time you seek a past life. Imagine this hallway with the expectation that when you get to the end, when you reach the big door and turn the knob, you will discover a past life. Take each step down that hallway with purpose. See your feet touch the ground, visualizing every aspect of your journey as you approach the large door—the smell of the room, the sounds of your environment, the color of the light, even the "smell" of your surroundings. When you finally reach the end—when you feel you are ready and not a moment before—take hold of the doorknob. See yourself doing it, feeling the texture of the knob, and the sound of the mechanism as you turn it. When the bolt is disengaged, take a breath, and give the door a gentle push. Accept the very first thing you see on the other side of that door as something from your previous planes of existence.  It might be something as abstract as the color yellow, or as clear and vivid as a much-loved child nestled in your arms. Take whatever you see as the foundation. Build upon it. Feel it. Hold the imagery in your mind and open up to it, accepting anything that arises in your mind. You might find that "yellow" becomes a carpet. As you walk deeper into your vision, you might discover that yellow is sunshine spilling onto a carpet. Perhaps you'll suddenly realize that carpet is in a London house...and so on. You may doubt yourself at this point, but be reassured, you are remembering a past life. If you see nothing, try thinking about something you've always enjoyed, a favorite hobby, skill, or travel destination. You may ask yourself, "Why do I like this? Can this be past-life related?"  If you still get nothing, try the shoe method: look down at your feet, and go with the first pair of shoes you see yourself wearing, and work from there. You might see sandals, and then realize you’re wearing a tunic. You might see little pointy shoes, and realize you’re wearing a big silk gown. If you find yourself in a beautiful house, with a beautiful wife, and you wonder how you got there, you've slipped into a Talking Heads song. Smile and continue exploring. Once you’ve remembered something—even if it's just a pair of shoes—and if you’re pretty certain there’s a grain of truth to it, you can start your next meditation from there. Always begin each session with something you’ve already seen. Always work from the known to the unknown. It will seem like you are inventing these images. Sometimes you are, and you must accept that as part of the process of trying to remember a past life.  These visions almost always have a shred of truth at their core. You will only know for certain when you’ve done a significant number of past-life meditations, and you begin to see patterns and details repeated over and over again. In the meantime, you must choose to believe that what you see is genuine; if you don’t, you will never get anywhere. Your analytical mind will simply shoot down every image as a product of your overeager imagination. Unless you’ve had to remove yourself from an unpleasant memory, usually what will happen is that you will simply run out of steam. You will find the images have stopped coming, or your analytical mind has been inadvertently triggered by something you’ve seen...and then you’re done. You have no choice but to open your eyes. If this doesn’t happen, and you're ready to return to the current life, simply imagine that doorway where you began. Open the door, and walk down the length of that gemstone hallway—or whatever you visualized—and tell yourself that when you reach the start point, you will be refreshed, and that you will remember your past life in perfect detail and clarity.

Summary:
Prepare the room. Relax your mind, and seek a place of calm. Relax your body. Prepare yourself. Begin your journey. Walk down your hallway. Welcome a past life. Be patient. Accept what you see. Return to the present.