I visited my past life for two years
I was someone else for two whole years
MHannah Walker, 30, from Pontefract, West Yorkshire
y eyes widened in surprise as I took in my surroundings. I was lying on a sofa in a 1970s-style sitting room with a swirly brown carpet and chunky television.
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,Q KLV ¿IWLHV ZLWK brown eyes and black hair, I knew he was my husband Peter…
…But my real husband was Gareth, and he was only in his thirties, like me.
That’s when it hit me. Somehow, I’d woken up in a completely GL HUHQW SODFH DQG WLPH
But strangely, I wasn’t at all freaked out. Instead, I just felt pure happiness and peace.
I knew that, in this life in the 1970s, I was in my early 40s, a housewife and mother to three grown-up children: John, 27, Patrick, 25, and Martha, 19.
It’s hard to describe but in the back of my mind there was a tiny voice, a small part of me, that was still Hannah. 30-year-old Hannah Walker, from Yorkshire in the 2020s, married to Gareth.
I was Joanne – and I was Hannah, too.
I’d jumped back to one of my past lives.
I still don’t really know how it happened. I was my garden in Pontefract with my dog Harvey when I collapsed from exhaustion.
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VX HU IURP DQ[LHW\ DQG my feelings, my senses, were on overload.
I collapsed in the garden from exhaustion
Black out
I remember a nurse in the ward trying to calm me down but I couldn’t stop shaking. The hospital lights, the noise, it was all too much for me and I blacked out.
When I woke up, I was on the sofa, with Peter, in my other life. I was no longer Hannah, I was Joanne – although my family called me JJ. What was also strange about the experience was how time stretched. I spent two whole years as Joanne and I went through two Christmases with P\ SDVW OLIH IDPLO\
I lived in a terrace house with Peter and I even remember decorating the tree with my children.
They may have been grownups, but they all came home for Christmas. I recall digging out a box of decorations to hang up and putting a Terry’s Chocolate Orange in three stockings.
I also attempted to cook Christmas dinner – there was a running joke in this past life about my terrible meals. I burnt the bird, RI FRXUVH
1RW ORQJ DIWHU WKDW ¿UVW Christmas as Joanne, I signed up for night school to learn to cook so I wouldn’t have another kitchen disaster. The cookery teacher told me with a smile, ‘Well, talk about VWDUWLQJ VPDOO ¶
Another thing I remember is that I regularly went grocery shopping. I couldn’t tell you where we lived, but it had an old-fashioned high street. I went into each shop with a list and the person behind the counter found the items for me. There was a greengrocer’s, a bakery, a butcher’s shop, and I used to chat to the shop owners.
Meanwhile, Peter worked as an antique dealer. He had a room in a warehouse full of boxes DQG FDVHV RI GL HUHQW, fascinating artefacts.
Mature student
I was a mature student studying to be an English teacher and I absolutely loved my course.
In my life now, my anxiety stops me from working, and I don’t have children.
I know that people will think that I was dreaming. But I wasn’t – the past life experience was real, more vivid than a dream.
My body was there and I felt the emotions – and I really did love
Peter and my children. My family gave me a huge sense of satisfaction and fulfilment.
Sadly, I can remember my death as -oanne. I was pregnant and complications set in, perhaps due to being an older mother, and I contracted sepsis.
Peter was holding my hand as I lay in the hospital bed, slipping away. I was in terrible pain and as I drifted off, I was still worrying about the baby.
When I woke up, I was in a different hospital bed and alone. It was the middle of the night. I was so confused – then I realised that I was back in the 21st century, in my body as Hannah Walker.
I was absolutely gutted and I couldn’t stop sobbing. I knew that I’d left that past life behind, and I would never see Peter or my children again.
Even so, I slowly recovered from my breakdown. After two weeks I was discharged and allowed home to join Gareth, who I’ve been happily married to since -une 2014.
But I never forgot the details of my flashback. I wrote everything down in my journal.
Since my experience in 'ecember 2019, I’ve tried to make sense of it. I’m aware it’s an odd thing to claim – I lived the life of someone else for two years.
Disassociated
Gareth and my parents have told me that when was conscious during this time, I did seem like someone else. I was swearing a lot, disassociated from my surroundings.
And when I was having this past life flash, two years passed for -oanne. But Hannah’s body, my body, was in hospital for only three months.
Before my experience I
Joanne’s love of life has stayed with me
had never had any kind of past life regression or psychic experience. My mother Pauline, who’s 65, was a strict Catholic so we didn’t discuss anything ‘occult’. My father Alan, who’s 64, was less strict and interested in ghost stories. But his view of the other world was it was just fiction.
I’ve since done a lot of research and the only explanation that I can come up with is that the injured part of my brain shut down and another part took over. This dormant part somehow connected me with a past life.
It’s like when you have a limp, your body compensates and you put more weight on the other leg. We only use 10
per cent of our brains, so who knows how our soul memories are stored?
I told Gareth about my experiences a few months later and he was supportive. He’s encouraged me to write in my journal to help me make sense of things.
In -une 2019, I went to a psychic night at a café. The medium Sean Ford said to me, ‘Peter’s here and he’s calling you --.’
That was more proof for me that the experience was real. I left the psychic night on a high, laughing and in tears.
I will always miss my past life family, but the experience has been lifechanging for me. I’m more confident knowing that in my past life I was a mother and student.
I’m now getting out more and travelling to places alone, which I couldn’t do before. I’m also volunteering. -oanne’s love of life has stayed with me and given me hope and strength to transform my life as Hannah.