How to help you remember and my first memory
You may feel drawn to some people or places that are outside your current experience and wonder why. In my case, I became very fond of Hungarian folk music and gipsy music – example here: (Hungarian Folk Music – Hungarian Folk). I am a Scandinavian female, and this was decades ago, so this was just something I found on my shortwave radio. When I was in a certain frame of mind, I found I could sing along, even when the tempo and key changed rapidly. I was in my teens, so didn’t thing there was anything unusual about it! I was also fascinated by long goods trains, they were dark brown, I remember – I was transfixed by them.
First memory: It was a few years later that I spontaneously remembered that I had been part of a small group of gipsy entertainers in the Hungarian-Romanian border area. We used to sing and play at weddings etc. It was winter and we were hiding in the woods. Hunger drove us to try to get food, there were only three of us, all fairly young, and my brother decided to go to a village nearby. He was gone for a long time – and after walking some distance in the same direction, I saw the goods train in the village and realised I would never see him again (WW2, I presume). My husband did not dare go there. The last I remember is sitting in the snow, exhausted, leaning against a tree. We probably froze to death. They say it is not a bad way to die.
It’s unusual in that the period between death and rebirth was quite short, but then I probably didn’t have a lot to “process”.
Mongolia
Another memory is from somewhere in Mongolia. I have an idea that this happened a very long time ago. Again, I was drawn to the music and singing – I even took lessons in overtone singing. (Bing Videos). Years later I remembered my past as a young Mongolian girl, about 12, dressed in my finest, running down a hill with my sister who was a couple of years older We were singing songs of welcome. We lived in a ger (yurt) with my parents. It was a special occasion, because our brother was returning with some friends. There was a stream at the bottom of the hill. That was all I remembered. Later I made the mistake of “going back” because I wanted to see what happened. Not a good idea. Be satisfied with the “snippets” you see. There was an ambush down by the stream and my brother and his friends got killed by some enemies. My sister and I got kidnapped. We were taken away to live with strangers. I adapted quite well and even found the people to be kind. My sister suffered badly, perhaps because she knew more about what awaited her. She became very ill and died. I don’t remember anything after that, and I have decided never to “go back”. The curious thing is that in the altered state of mind, I could sing very high notes like the girl I was back then.
Rome
I happened to be in Rome some years ago. For some time, I had had a feeling that I had lived in the Jewish Quarter in the Middle Ages (Quartiere Ebraico), but that it was not a happy experience. No idea of the cause, private or political. One day I was in the vicinity, and I decided to go there to see if something would trigger memories. I didn’t even get there. It was like a wall was put in front of me, an insurmountable barrier. I simply could not go, so I had to turn back. Still a mystery!
Synchronicity – or something else?
Synchronicity will feature strongly in the future. It has been a feature of my life for a long time.
A few decades ago, I attended a business conference in London, it was over a weekend. We had many interesting speakers, one of them was well known for having started a chain of restaurants. It was in the summer and I wore a bright green cotton suit. As it happened, he wore shirt in exactly the same colour! Coincidence? The next day I wore a pink suit, thinking he couldn’t possibly wear that shade of pink. I was wrong! He wore a shirt in the exactly the same colour. He then announced that he had always dreamt of singing to an audience, and then proceeded to sing for us. Good voice!
Fast forward to an evening at St. Ethelburga’s Church in Bishopsgate, London. The church was half destroyed when a massive IRA bomb exploded near the church, so this was after the reconstruction.
Surviving glass window, St. Ethelburga’s Church
The church ran a Centre for Reconciliation and Peace and they would sometimes have concerts there. I attended one such event with a friend and was sitting near the front. The singer/musician was an Iraqi, and he sang several popular Iraqi songs. I noticed he was a vey good Oud player. Then he said he was going to sing a really old song from Baghdad – it was indeed beautiful. The funny thing was, I could sing along in my mind. I knew the tune and I knew the words. This puzzled me for a while because it was in Arabic, but a while later I “remembered”: I had been a well-to-do businessman in old Baghdad and loved to have friends join me for an evening of food and song. Who was my favourite singer? The very businessman I had met at the conference – obviously in another life. Unfortunately, I never got the chance to tell him. It seems our paths cross again and again.
Dublin, Ireland
I once visited Dublin with my sister. We were staying at Trinity College. It was a few decades ago, before GPS and mobile phones. We decided to go for a late evening walk, about 10pm, away from Temple Bar, along the River Liffey, past the bridge. As far as I can remember, it was very quiet – no people, no cars, no residential buildings. Then sudddenly a huge German lorry came towards us. It stopped as soon as the driver saw us. He addressed us in German – fortunately we both spoke German. He had been driving for ages and was hopelessly lost. We happened to have a map! Together we were able to point him in the right direction. What are the chances? German speakers with a map in a desolate part of the city. Synchronicity? Did he pray? Were we unwitting angels?
A somewhat similar thing happened in Atlanta, USA. The hotel where I was staying was off the beaten track and was being converted to a conference centre, hence they served no food. Talking to the Mexican janitor, I found out that the best place to go for breakfast, was through the car park and down a path to a place favoured by lorry drivers! On my way there the next morning, I saw a young man trying to start his car. It was a bittely cold early spring morning. Apparently he was moving from New York to somewhere down south. He asked if I had jump leads. Well, having flown there, the answer was negative. Just as I rounded the corner and went through another car park, I saw a lorry driver starting his lorry using jump leads! I quickly informed the young man. Synchronicity? Something else? The Univese reponds to your intentions, not your rules.
(©) RS
