The Life of Omm Sety: Her Mysterious Identity and Reincarnation
by Ellie Zed, October 2021
It’s hard to imagine two places more different than post-Victorian London and ancient Egypt. However, an accident brought these two disparate periods together in a most unexpected way. A young English girl named Dorothy Louise Eady tripped and fell headlong down a flight of stairs, striking her head somewhere along the way. After a brief period of unconsciousness — some have even argued that she was briefly dead — Dorothy awakened
The Life of Dorothy Eady
Dorothy was born on January 16, 1904, in Blackheath, a London suburb in England. She was the only daughter of Reuben and Caroline Eady. In 1907, Dorothy fell down a flight of stairs knocking her unconscious and unresponsive. Dorothy was declared dead by a doctor. She was only three years old. In a remarkable turn of events, when the doctor returned an hour later to prepare her body for removal, there sat Dorothy Eady alive and well.
But the Dorothy Eady who clambered back into consciousness was not the same Dorothy Eady who had tumbled down the stairs. She began affecting a different manner of speech: her word usage and patterns had changed, and some reports indicate that she began to suffer from Foreign Accent Syndrome. She started arguing with her Sunday school teachers, pointing out theological inconsistencies in Christianity and comparing it to the religion of the ancient Egyptians. This behavior culminated in her expulsion from a girls’ school after refusing to sing a hymn that asked God to smite the “swart Egyptians.” Later in her life, Dorothy was expelled from a Catholic church after remarking to the priest that it reminded her of the old religion of the Pharaohs — a comparison with which the Catholic church evidently took some ire.
Egypt Awakens
Perhaps noting the young lady’s interest in ancient Egyptian culture and lifestyle, her parents brought her to an exhibit on Egypt at the British Museum. During the visit, Dorothy became very excited. Something in the Egyptian artifacts awakened a whole new person inside of Dorothy. In fact, upon seeing a photo of the temple of Seti I, Dorothy pointed at the photo and exclaimed, “There is my home!” She then began interrogating her parents about the state of the palace: where were the gardens and trees she had loved when she lived at the temple?
Dorothy’s behavior only grew stranger from there. She began flitting from room to room, giggling with joy, and kissing the feet of the Egyptian statues. Her parents were understandably baffled, but Dorothy simply explained that she was now back amongst her people. This obsession with Egyptian culture only continued to grow and blossom as Dorothy grew into adulthood, and Dorothy continued to frequent the Egyptian exhibits. At age 10, her obsession eventually attracted the attention of the famed Egyptologist E. A. Wallis Budge, who helped guide her in a more academic study of Egypt’s culture, even helping her learn hieroglyphics.
Reincarnation and Belief in the Afterlife
At the tender age of 15, Dorothy began to describe her memories of a sexual relationship with Seti I. Not only did Dorothy recall the passionate encounters of her past life, but she also reported nighttime visitations from the mummy of Seti I, who would tear off her nightclothes. These claims did not sit well with her parents or the broader society of the time, and Dorothy soon found herself committed to a series of sanatoriums to break her of her obsessions. Dorothy remained steadfast in her beliefs, and eventually, she dropped out of school and declined to be admitted to any more sanatoriums.
Determined to grow her ever-curious mind, Dorothy eventually enrolled in classes at Plymouth Art School, where she played the role of Isis in a play. Playing the Goddess helped Dorothy recover more memories of her past life, which were revealed to her in dreams by the falcon-headed God of the sky known as Hor-Ra. In her previous incarnation, Dorothy was an Egyptian girl of humble origins named Bentreshyt. Her mother died when she was three, and Bentreshyt was abandoned at the temple of Kom el-Sultan, where she was raised as a priestess of Isis. Eventually, she was sworn as a consecrated virgin, which gave her access to exclusive temple duties. These duties led her to cross paths with Seti I, and the two fell in love, eventually consummating their love sexually. This was a rather unfortunate decision for Bentreshyt, as she soon became pregnant. Her High Priest was appalled, stating that such an offense against Isis would likely lead to death. Despondent and not wanting to generate scandal for her lover, Bentreshyt committed suicide, thus ending her incarnation on this plane until she reemerged in Dorothy.
Omm Sety’s Rebirth
At the age of 27, Dorothy met an Egyptian man named Imam Abdel Meguid. In 1931, Dorothy and Imam married and moved to Cairo, where they began a family together. Dorothy delivered a baby boy who they named Sety after Dorothy’s previous lover; Dorothy took the name Omm Sety, “Mother of Sety.”
This talk of her past life unsettled Imam’s family, and eventually, their marriage crumbled. Omm, Sety remained in Egypt while Imam moved to Iraq. Despite some odd behaviors — Omm Sety was known to wander the Great Pyramid of Giza and place offerings at the Sphinx — she became beloved by many Egyptians, and she eventually found work with the Department of Antiquities. Omm Sety’s extensive knowledge of ancient Egyptian culture, whispered to her from beyond by Hor-Ra, earned her respect among her colleagues. Her work was so admired and respected that it is still relevant today, nearly 100 years hence.
Eventually, her work earned her a slot at an excavation in Abydos, at the Temple of Seti I — the same temple she had met Seti in her incarnation as Bentreshyt! Using memories from her previous life, Omm Sety guided the researchers in finding the ruins of her beloved gardens. Despite her success, one particularly recalcitrant archaeologist decided to test Omm Sety’s knowledge. Guiding her to a darkened hallway, he described a series of murals and asked her to find them in the temple. Omm Sety unerringly led the man to the location of each mural, a remarkable feat since the locations of the murals was not public knowledge and had not been revealed to Omm Sety.
Omm Sety’s Next Journey
All incarnations eventually come to a close, and sadly, Omm Sety’s second known incarnation came to an end in 1981. She spent her final years working alongside the archaeologists and researchers who came to Abydos to study Egyptian culture, using her keen grasp of hieroglyphics and her uncanny knowledge of ancient Egyptian culture and customs to help grow the study of Egyptology. The story of Omm Sety, an English girl who fell down the stairs and opened a channel into her past life, is one of intrigue and mystery. Many have doubted her story or accused her of being some sort of charlatan. That said, Omm Sety’s story is one of reincarnation across the shifting sands of time, a story of ancient Bentreshyt and her tragic end. Perhaps Bentreshyt’s return as Dorothy Eady was a way to atone for her ancient sin against Isis by illuminating this advanced and wondrous culture for our modern world. Regardless, Omm Sety’s life was remarkable, accomplished, and purposeful. May she rest in peace — until her next incarnation.
