Emily Chan
For thousands of years, the concept of reincarnation has existed. It’s a major part of Buddhism and Hindu traditions. But in recent years, the idea of old souls being reborn into new bodies has become popular among non-religious folks as well.
You may have heard stories of young children walking into a place or seeing a particular picture of a person they claim is familiar, even though it was their first time witnessing such a thing. Then, they might give eerily accurate details of what sounds like their past lives.
That’s what happened with Dorothy Eady, a famed 20th-century Egyptologist. She claimed to be the reincarnation of an ancient Egyptian priestess and eventually became known as Omm Sety, which is Arabic for “mother of Sety.”
Eady was born to Irish parents in London in 1904. By all accounts, she lived a relatively normal childhood until she fell down a flight of stairs at the age of three.
When she woke up after her accident, she was completely transformed. Her accent and speech patterns were noticeably different. She also kept asking her parents to return her to her home, although she could not describe where her home was.
One day, her parents took her to the British Museum. While visiting the Egyptian exhibit, she spotted a photo of the temple of Seti I, the pharaoh of the Nineteenth Dynasty of Egypt during the New Kingdom period and the father of Ramses the Great.
Eady insisted that the temple was her home. She could recognize the monuments and artifacts at the exhibit but was confused about why there were no trees or gardens in the picture of the temple.
She even kissed the feet of the statues. Eventually, she caught the attention of a renowned Egyptologist, E.A. Wallace Budge, who encouraged her to study hieroglyphics.
As she grew up, she experienced a lot of religious conflict. She was expelled from her all-girls Christian school after comparing Christianity to Egyptian paganism. The priest at her church even told her she was no longer welcome there.
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