On Friday I did a past life regression. I was curious if I would meet Laura again in a previous life. Beforehand my mind was full of Hollywood scenarios – what if we were Navajo Indians roaming the South West (as I die from a poisoned arrow, Laura comforts me in her arms); or concubines (and illicit lovers) in the house of a powerful Chinese man; or were we Trans-Siberian dog sledders (well, we both loved dogs, sledding and arctic weight winter coats)?  But before I got to see if my guesses were close, I had to journey backwards through my current life. En route I visited my tiny baby self in the womb. Suddenly I started wriggling all over the place and pulling faces, to the amusement of hypnotherapist Sophia Kramer. I felt very tightly compressed, as if I was trapped in an airless plastic bag. When I later shared this experience with my mum, she said ‘Oh you were always such a lively little thing. You were probably just impatient to be born.’

Next I visited my most recent past life. Sometimes you arrive in a life at the point of death. I saw myself lying in a field, watching people going back and forth in the distance. It was a sunny day and I thought everything was fine. Then I noticed a big part of my left shoulder was missing and a chunk of my neck too.   I guessed I was a man from the bulge in my trousers. And judging by the steel helmets and uniforms of the soldiers walking towards me, I was somewhere in Europe during World War 2. Sadly there was no Florence Nightingale at my side.  No Laura.

Further back, in a different life, there she was. Laura was a boy and I was a girl.  We played together by the riverside, we laughed, were ridiculously happy and had a baby together. But the baby was murdered. One tragedy followed another and the story ended with my death in harrowing circumstances. Oddly I didn’t feel scared or weirded out. I didn’t even pass judgement on the train of awful events. As I walked home after the session two tears rolled down my cheeks, but I didn’t feel sad. I felt calm and much lighter as if a great weight had been lifted off my shoulders. The next day sorting through some pictures, I found Laura’s favorite photo of herself and mine of myself (that is before we met).  Here they are above. Isn’t it an odd coincidence that we both chose a picture of ourselves cuddling a little child.