One of the most fascinating cases of alleged reincarnation is that of Dorothy Eady, who claimed to be the reborn soul of an ancient Egyptian priestess. Dorothy was born in London in 1904, but her life changed dramatically when she fell down a flight of stairs at the age of three and was pronounced dead. She miraculously revived, but seemed to have lost her memory and personality. She became obsessed with ancient Egypt and insisted that she had lived there before. She also started to have vivid dreams and visions of her past life, in which she was a priestess named Bentreshyt at the temple of Seti I in Abydos.
Dorothy’s parents tried to cure her of her strange behavior, but nothing worked. She learned to read hieroglyphs by herself and recognized places and objects from ancient Egypt as if she had seen them before. She also developed a strong attraction to Seti I, whom she called her “beloved father”. She felt that he was the only one who understood her and that she had a special mission to fulfill for him.
When Dorothy was 15, she visited the British Museum and saw a photograph of the temple of Seti I. She immediately recognized it as her home and ran towards it, kissing the feet of the statue of Seti I. She then met an Egyptologist named E.A. Wallis Budge, who was impressed by her knowledge and encouraged her to pursue her interest in Egyptology. Dorothy decided to move to Egypt as soon as she could, and in 1931 she married an Egyptian man named Abdel Meguid Eady, who worked for the Antiquities Department.
Dorothy adopted the name Omm Sety, meaning “mother of Sety”, and settled in Cairo. She worked as a secretary and draughtswoman for various Egyptologists, including Selim Hassan and Ahmed Fakhry. She also continued to have visions and dreams of her past life, which she recorded in a manuscript called “The Awakening”. She claimed that Seti I often visited her in spirit form and revealed secrets about ancient Egypt to her. She also said that she had a son with him in her previous incarnation, who was buried in a hidden tomb near the temple.
In 1956, Omm Sety moved to Abydos, where she lived for the rest of her life. She became the guardian of the temple of Seti I and devoted herself to its preservation and restoration. She also helped archaeologists with their work and amazed them with her accuracy and intuition. She was able to locate several lost or hidden features of the temple, such as a garden, a tunnel, and a shrine. She also identified some of the mummies in the nearby tombs as her former acquaintances from ancient times.
Omm Sety died in 1981 at the age of 77. She was buried in Abydos, near the temple that she loved so much. Her story remains one of the most intriguing and controversial examples of reincarnation ever documented. Whether she was truly the reincarnation of Bentreshyt or not, she certainly lived a remarkable life that bridged two worlds and two eras.
