Introduction
In 2005, Sarah took part in the UK ITV series ‘Have I Been Here Before?’ hosted by Phillip Schofield. In this series celebrities have a past life regression session with Hypnotherapist Andrea Foulkes. Their past life experiences are then investigated by Jules Hudson, a historian and archaeologist, to see if these accounts can be verified.
Elizabeth Sarah Greene is an English Television presenter and Actress. She first came to public attention when she co-presented the BBC children’s series Blue Peter from 1980 until 1983. Later she hosted the BBC Saturday morning series Saturday Superstore and Going Live!
Past Life regression
Talking before the regression she said, “I don’t know if I have ever felt so apprehensive about an experience in my life. But at the same time I am really excited”. She went on to say, “There can only be so many Boudicas, Joan of Arcs, Cleopatras, the virgin Marys – I understand that. But I suppose my biggest fear is that I’ll have turned out to be, not Jack the Ripper exactly but, a tax inspector from Bournemouth in 1920”.
When she was regressed she experienced the life a dark skinned young woman in the 1719 called Amati. She was then in America, perhaps New Orleans (located on Mississippi River in the south eastern region of Louisiana). having been taken from her island homeland, along with several dozen others, by force by men with guns. She had been rescued by the Bergamot family – a doctor and his wife who had renamed her Silvia and were teaching her French.
Later she sees herself getting married to Richard. He is also dark skinned. He is a doctor and very popular with patients. Finally, she sees herself on her death bed having been ill for two or three years with a lump in her stomach. Richard has been trying to help, but she is ready to move on. She reflects on the contrast between bad experiences at the beginning of her life and good people and experiences in the second half of her life.
Speaking immediately afterward Sarah said, “It was unlike I had imagined it to be. I could taste where I was, I could smell where I was, I could feel it. The shape of my face felt different. I just felt myself to be this different person with a different body.”
Investigation
Jules Hudson travelled to America to investigate the account and it quickly became clear that Silvia had been captured and taken to America as a slave. However, having come from an island she may not have come from Africa. The Caribbean region was initially populated by American Indians from the Arawak and Caribs tribes. These groups were destroyed by enslavement and disease brought by European colonisers.
He also established that the city of New Orleans was founded in spring 1718 by the French Mississippi Company. The first slave ships arrived there in 1719. She seems to have been purchased by a French doctor and his family. Silvia’s husband, Richard, would almost certainly have been a slave too at some point but had managed to become a doctor.
Reflection
When talking about the past life regression she said, “This is the real difficulty I have with this. That I don’t know if it’s me or her. Or if it’s more like a Russian Doll where it you on the outside with lots and lots of different little entities, souls, past lives, inherited memories, call it what you like, going on in the inside. I don’t know. Now I want to find out more”.
When asked if she had been here before, she said, “I don’t know. I don’t know, I can’t say yes or no. It is very compelling having seen this. And I am swayed more in the direction of thinking there is a possibility that, yes, part of me has been here before”.