www.open-sesame.com

North America:
USA

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3.  I was an African-American male, after slavery but well before civil rights.  I had an affair with a young white girl who lived in the house where I worked.  I can clearly feel the RAGE and fear of that situation. I both wanted her to acknowledge my presence in front of others and dreaded that she would -- it would have been me that paid for our tryst, not so much her.  I think I let that experience ruin most of my life.  I was never normal sexually and used sex as a power thing.  I am pretty sure I did drugs, something with a needle, and I think I drank.  I may have boxed a little when I was younger, before I let my life get out of control.  However, late in that life, I lived in or visited extensively New York, and I was healed somewhat by seeing my people's culture there. I felt hope at the end, and pride in who I was.  I think I died before there was really any nationwide civil rights movement, but I lived long enough to see jazz, for sure. - Gryphynshadow
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    It began with me, a four year old, falling asleep, when suddenly, an extremely powerful, emotional memory/dream began vividly taking shape. I was in bed with an extremely handsome man. I don't remember his face, but I remember loving him with a feeling of scared, innocent passion. being four years old at the time didnt help as I had never been told anything about sex, but I remember looking at the scene from a big person's view. I had a skinny body, with small breasts. Dark short hair.
    I'm sure the man was calling me by the name of Tracey. I got a feeling that he was an important person in status, and that I wouldn't be good enough for him. But I felt terrified as his passion for Tracey was ferocious, and I didnt really want to lose it. I can remember thinking..Lose what???
    Years later we moved house again and a song came on the radio. " what about the kennedys" I only heard it for a second or two and I flashed back to the dream. Connected with that song , it made me feel so sad and lonely, like I loved a man I would never see again. My mum asked what was wrong. I said I didnt know who, b ut I missed them so much." I cried my eyes out. I still feel that these were fragments from a memory that meant alot to my spirit in a past life.

17TH CENTURY
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    i, I'm Virginia; I remember tons of things that have happened in my past life. First of all, my mother was killed in front of me. Then, the next thing I remember is that I worked in Salem in the 1600s. I remember my father literally beating me. Then, the last thing is that I am lying on my death bed, probably only 8 or 9-years-old.

19TH CENTURY
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    I have few memories from my past lives, but not very many. Usually, they come to me in the form of dreams, and for a few months I kept dreaming about this guy. He had red hair and his name was Bryney. In one dream, we were kids, about 6 or 7, and we went to the same school, on a hill. There was a covered bridge that went over a stream under the hill (or maybe it was a small river). I think it was sometime around the mid 1800's. He wore glasses and was very interested in science and books, and though he liked me, he was miffed when I couldn't understand what he was talking about (he had a wide vocabulary). I think eventually we got married, somewhere in our early teens. -The Mouse
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    I'm 15. I remember 1818. my name was Lara (15). I had 2 older sisters Jess (17) and Jenny (19). I had 2 little sisters that were twins, Sara and Becca (7). there was a murder behind the barn. Sara found the body stabbed to death. after that she became catatonic, she wouldn't eat or move. She eventually died. after she died, Becca was never the same. I remember a lot more but i don't have time to type it.

20TH CENTURY
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    For a while I have been having dreams that seem incredibly life-like.  I can smell, hear, see, and feel things much more vividly, but only in one recurring dream. The dream starts off with me, a child of about 8 or 9, lying in a bed at night.  It is quite hot out, and my mattress has only one threadbare sheet on it.  I roll around but keep sticking to my sheet.  I can smell the heat and the city.  My bed is positioned underneath a window, and I kneel on my mattress and look out the window.  I see the scummy streets of a city and can hear people talking on the sidewalk.  I can also see the bright lights and tall buildings.  It seems to me like it is a suburb of New York City, but I could be wrong.  There is a feeling (I'm not quite sure what it is, however) of need or emptiness, almost sadness.  I just sit there, gazing out my window into the night, when suddenly I wake up, and I am always in a hot sweat. The strangest thing about this dream, though, is that I can see my hands, and they aren't caucasian, like I am.  They are the hands of an African-American.  I am almost certain that this is something from a past life, but I'm not sure why my subconscious decides to remind me of this particular incident. - Kelly
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    One day I heard my girlfriend talking in her sleep.  I began asking her questions and she would reply with a lazy kind of speech.  She was in a trance.  Out of a joke I asked her to go back to a time before she was born, when we knew each other.
    She began talking about a living room with green carpet.  She said it was the year 1900 even.  She was 17.  There was a guy there too named Joe.  He was 29 and apparently that was supposed to be me.  She kept saying, "don't touch me, we're not married"  She said Joe was a barber.  Then she said her name was Gweneth, and she was named after her grandmother.
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   The second life I remember was in the early 20th century.  I have often seen a girl's face as I drift off to sleep-her name is Della.  I don't know how I know that; I just do.  She is my mother in my present life, but was my best friend or possibly my sister before.  She's very pretty, and whenever I dream about her I can sense my mother's sweet, loving aura around her. I first began remembering this life when I dressed as a flapper for Halloween a few years ago.  I picked the costume on the spur of the moment, but once I wore it, I felt as though I became another person. It's hard to explain, but I felt like I was "going home" when I put on that costume!  I didn't want to return to the costume store I had rented it from when Halloween was over-it made me very sad. I had been dreaming of Della's face for several years before that, but never could piece together in my mind just where she fit into the scheme of things until then.  We were roommates and very close.  We weren't "nice girls", in fact I think we were both strippers or dancers of some sort.  I have the distinct feeling that we were involved in many shady dealings, and were probably alone except for having each other. I also sense that we died together-murdered; although I don't know why or by whom.  We were both very young.
   I often get vague images of this life when I am "zoning out" or when I'm just about to drift off to sleep.  I know what I looked like, and I know that I was very different from the way I am in my present life.  I think that being murdered has affected both my mother and me in our present lives-my mother is terribly afraid of being alone at home, particularly at night.  She worries to the extreme about somebody breaking in and coming in through a window.  This corresponds with a dream/vision I've had of an open window that I can see the moon out of. It is accompanied by a feeling of anxiousness and sorrow.  Until I began realizing the events of that lifetime, I had always smirked at my mother's fears, and always thought them silly.  Now I understand where they came from.
   Another memory I believe to be from that life is a dream I had.  At the time, I was living in a house built in 1924.  At the beginning of the dream, I was myself-in my present life, walking towards my house. As I looked at it, it suddenly became another house-a two-story, victorian-looking house, and I became somebody else-a young girl, but very different from me.  I "recognized" this house, and I was overjoyed to be there once again.  It was a strong, nostalgic feeling.  I walked around the side of the house down a stone pathway to an old iron gate. (This gate stuck out in my mind, and I was able to draw a picture of it later!)  It was summer, very warm and sunny; and I could smell flowers, kind of like honeysuckle.  I heard insect sounds and felt the warmth of the sun.  As I entered the gate, I looked into a backyard-type area. There was a vegetable garden and in it was an old woman.  She was wearing a big bonnet-like hat and a big, loose, dress that resembled a housedress.  She was a large woman-big boned and overweight.  She had gray hair pulled into a bun at the nape of her neck.  Her face was not attractive-she had a big nose, almost hooked downward, and her eyes slanted down at the corners.  But when she turned to see me coming in the gate, and our eyes met, she was the most beautiful sight in the world to me.  I was immediately flooded with feelings of love and attachment.  She smiled her weary old smile that was immediately familiar to me and waved, saying "Come on in, honey!"  I can't put into words the way she made me feel, just by smiling at me-warm, loved, comforted, cherished.  It was like no other dream or experience I have ever had.  I had the feeling of having missed her so much, and loving her with all my heart.  I felt like I was finally home after a long journey.  I think she was my grandmother, but as hard as I try to remember more about her, or get an idea of whether she is in my present life; I cannot.
   I went into the house through a back door.  I remember a room with a long dining table and lace curtains at the long, low windows.  A breeze blew through them, making the curtains flutter.  I felt sooverwhelmingly "home"...  I could see a kitchen with honey-colored wood cabinets.  The sun was streaming through a window.  As I entered the kitchen, I suddenly awoke from my dream, and my first thought was "Oh no!  It wasn't real-it was just a dream".  It made me sad, and I wanted to go back.  I don't have this dream often, but it is always the same, and I love having it, because it makes me feel so good.  I think I was the same girl from my 1920's memories, but younger. :-) Sincerely, Jana
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1920's
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    I have had many visions of past and future lives and I'm horrified to find out whether my last past life is true or hopefully not. So here goes, my name was Ralph in 1925. I murdered my 3 wives and a local police officer, I believe he may have been a sheriff. It was a small farming community in Nebraska during wheat harvest season. I was having an affair with the Sheriff's wife and he found out. He came out to confront me in my fields while I was using a threshing machine. He pulled his gun on me and with one sledge hammer fist I stuck him and picked up his body and throw him into the thresher. All that came out was his head, hand and gun. I then placed his remains in his squad car and pushed his car into a pond or lake of some kind. His brother came out to confront me and we fought. He killed me and put my body in a p/u truck and pushed it into the same lake. Awful I know but, 8 years ago I was working in a Spiritual bookstore and meet this interesting lady who told me she was my first wife from my past life and what really shook me up was when she called me Ralph and said she forgave me. I burst out in tears and we held each other for awhile. Now my Question to you is how can I find out if it really happened, and better yet do I really want to know that I was that monster back in the 20's??? I can describe the house where I buried my three wives what I looked like but, I can't remember the name of the town. Sincerely, Karen E. Pearce

1950's
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   The last life I remember before my present one is that of a teenage girl in the 1950's.  I've had thoughts about this life for as long as I can remember, starting around age 4 or 5.  All my life, I have loved 50's music and 50's cars.  When I was around 4, I had a little child's piano, and I remember listening to a record album my mom had of Jerry Lee Lewis.  I always tried to play along with him on my little piano, and I was very theatrical and serious about it!  I also danced to old 50's music as a child, and When I was about 6, I cried because I wanted a pair of shoes like the black and white oxfords worn in the 50's.  I don't know how I knew about them, but years later, when I saw pictures
of them, I wondered how I had gotten that idea in my head and why I wanted them so bad!   Around that same time, I liked to pretend I was a teenager, and I couldn't wait to really be one.  A man down the street from us had an old 1950's red and white Chevrolet.  I told my mom that I was going to have a car just like that.   At age 11 or 12, my best friend and I became obsessed with the movie "Grease".  We must have watched that movie 15 or 20 times!  I loved everything about it-it all seemed so familiar to me.
   I didn't think much about the 50's for years; until the night I met a guy whom I later became engaged to.  We met by chance, although a mutual friend had been trying for months to get us together.  He had a cd of 50's music playing when I got into his truck to ride around.  "Great Balls Of Fire" by Jerry Lee Lewis was playing, and when our eyes met, I had the oddest feeling of recognition.  We listened to the whole cd, but especially that song probably 10 or 12 times that night.  By the end of the evening, I knew we would end up falling in love.  We did, and we were together for 3 and a half years.  It was my first real relationship, and I took it very hard when it ended.  Around that time, I had a recurring dream about being a girl wearing a yellow skirt and white shirt.  I had a matching yellow scarf around my neck.  I was with the guy I had just broken up with, but he was somebody else also.  I was 16 years old.  I've had fuzzy visions of this lifetime on and off ever since then.  We died together, I think in a car wreck where I was thrown from the car.  I'd be willing to bet money that we had listened to"Great Balls Of Fire" the night we died.  That first night in my present life that we were together was like "starting where we left off".  I have no ill feelings toward this man, and although I am happily married and he is too, he will always hold part of my soul.   I'm certain we'll meet again another time, another place, as different people. :-) Sincerely, Jana
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1960's
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    I reached this life through good ole meditation.  I'm not sure where it was in America, but I know it was in the early 60's... I'm like, fourteen in this regression.  I am in a girl's bedroom, that happens to be pink and frilly.  I'm wearing a white shirt and pink pants... I think they're like capri pants.  I had blonde hair, sorta curly, and it was tied back.  I was sitting on the floor, and my friends were all sitting around the room listening to me as I talked about something. I had the feeling I was some sort of clique leader or people looked up to me cause I defied the rules. Anywho, a girl in a skirt comes in the room, and hurriedly shuts the door. she turns to me with her back against the door, and tosses me a pack of cigarettes.  I couldn't read the name.  she, or one of the other girls stuffs a shirt in the crack under the bedroom door while i'm getting a cigarette. I pass the pack to another girl, and that's where it stops.  It picks up again when I'm older, maybe 18 or 19, and I'm getting into heavy drugs now. I think that's how I died.  I remember hippies and stoners... and I remember being at a party, wearing fringe.  I died young, and I was reborn shortly after (1981).  In this life, ironically, I'm a goody-two-shoes!  - Raven
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    My name's Freesoul.  I believe that in my past life I was a woman named Jennie.  My husband was named Mikel (the same as in this life).  They were hippies, and went to Woodstock.  I found that out through many dreams.  Mikel was drafted into the Vietnam war, although he was against war and murder, but it was either that or be put in jail for ten years.  The tragic end to their lives (our lives) was when Mikel decided to go outside and mow the lawn.  He grabbed a jacket.  It happened to have been one from the war.  He didn't even notice what jacket he was wearing.  A man saw the jacket and went up to Mikel and shot him in his left shoulder (Mikel in this life's left shoulder has always hurt).  Jennie was so lost without him that she took a lot of drugs and jumped off a tall building, thinking she could fly.  She didn't know, but at the time she was pregnant with twins: a boy and a girl.  Mikel (in this life) is a psychic. He knows I'll be pregnant with a boy and a girl twins.
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1970's
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    I am 26 years old, and female.  I don't know exactly when these memories are from, but I think in the early seventies.  I have memories of a place I've never been in this life.  I remember a big factory type place, like a laundry or sewing factory.  Something to do with cloth. Everything I worked with was white, like stuff for a hotel or restaurant or something.  And everything around me was white.  Like the whole place was very sterile or something.  I know I worked at this place.  It was all women.  We all had our own individual work stations.  I had long brown hair that I wore in 2 braids.  I have other memories that I think are from the same life.  I remember walking down a sidewalk, and I look down and see my skirt and my boots.  Tall brown boots and a long skirt that was brown.  Think Shelley Duvall in The Shining.  That sort of thing.  And I think it was in a big city.  I remember looking out from a big executive type building, the walls were all glass panes.  Anyway, I was looking out of the glass, and it was pouring rain outside.  I think maybe it was an airport?  I don't know.  I had to have died fairly young, because I see myself as no older than 30, and I was born in this lifetime in 1976.  So it was early 70's maybe. Thanks for the chance to tell it. - Pandora
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Kentucky
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    I'm told that as a very small child, still young enough to stand in the seat next to my grandfather, I "recognized" a small town about fifty miles from where I was born.  We had no connection to that area and it was the first time I had ever been taken to the region.  I called it by name, asking my grandparents if that was the town we were approaching.  I never had any inclination to return to that area, even though I'd been told the story.  I've always had a feeling that some sort of tragedy happened there ... and there has always been an "impression" of a large brick church with five or six stone steps running the width of the building in the front.  There's a heavy, very ornately carved over sized wooden door on the building.  In the street in front of the building was a waiting wagon with glass sides and a pair of horses hitched to it (eventually I saw a picture of a fancy horse drawn hearse and identified that as the same type of vehicle). That's all I remember.  The place is Winchester, Kentucky and I finally drove through there again about thirty years later.  I've never had the desire to find the church, if in fact it still exists today.  Actually, I've never been able to make myself go into the downtown area, even though I realize that is  where the church was or is and I am a little curious.

Ohio
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     The life before that my last name was Winner and I was a farmer in Ohio. I was married and had a family. I had a son named Mel who helped me on the farm. To avoid swearing I instituted the exclamation "Jumping Jehosephat!" which i used frequently. Whenever I won something I always said "I'm a winner!" I thought it was very funny at the time. But now it just seems way too ironic.

Oregon
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  Another time, when I was much younger, about five or so, my family went to Oregon for a visit.  I had lived all my life in Southern California. We got lost somewhere in Salem and as we drove through a trailer park to turn around, I had the strangest feeling that I had been there before.  The feeling lasted the whole time we were in the park, but as soon as we left, the feeling went away.  But I never forgot that incident.  I asked about hat one and found out I was a little girl who lived there just before I was born into this life, so I had died young.  I live in Portland ,Oregon near Salem today. Thank you, Pamela Reed Edwards

Midwest
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    hello!  I am a 22-year-old woman and I would like to share with you something that I experienced when I was very young.  My mother tells me that when I was very little, 4 or 5 years old, I used to tell her about a farm house in which the staircase was the first thing you see when you walk in the front door and you can walk straight back to the kitchen and right out the back door, that the chickens were always picking at the gravel on the driveway, and that my favorite room was the one off to the left.  I can even now still remember that I always wore a dress with a ruffled petticoat and loved to run in the field.  I can even remember what the banister felt like under my fingers as I ran down the stairs.  Now, I was born, raised, and still live in the south suburbs of Chicago, and I have never even seen a farm house let alone been inside one.  However, my maternal great-grandmother was raised on a farm not too far from where I live (and actually my family still owns the property) and she described her house the same way.  As I age, I can remember less and less of that house, no doubt the result of my soul filling with new memories from this new life.  I feel that I am no doubt someone reincarnated that lived in that house.  But what time and what relation, I don't know.  --Annmarie
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    I have one very clear brief glimpse into the past... I was a women in the mid 1870's or 1880's. What I remember is looking down at a long skirt (everyday type stuff not dressy or fancy) I was on a wooden sidewalk and coming to steps down to the street. I lifted my skirt and saw black ankle high boots and thinking how am I going to get across the street with out ruining my shoes. (the road was probably 2" deep in mud and yuck). I know I was a teacher I had two kids around 12 and 14 a boy and girl... they were mine but we said I was the maiden aunt who got them after my sister died. I think it was in Ohio. I wasn't an important person but I was a respected person and I was happy. The skirt shoe and mud thing I remember seeing the rest of it I just knew after seeing the side walk and the shoes. Rather wish I could remember more on that one.....

East -  West -  South - Civil War
See also: Multiple Lives for more American memories