Bermuda Past-3

Here’s the third part of the Bermuda time travel story.

++

I thought it somewhat surprising that, even though John and Barbara began exchanging letters in late 1964, John didn’t immediately tell Barbara that he went back to the  village and it was gone. I know if it was me, I wouldn’t be able to withhold that information. So, of course, I asked him why he decided to keep that astonishing fact secret. Here’s what he said.

“I only wrote to her between December ‘64 and April ‘65. During that period I still didn’t know anything about the village or it’s destruction by the hurricane. I didn’t want her to think I was some kind of a nut by telling her the place was gone or it had been an illusion until I had some explanation.

“During the last two months when we were writing back and forth, I was in Oceanography School in Groton, Connecticut. I wrote her some love poems during that time. One of the final weeks of the class involved a week-long training cruise aboard a cutter bound for Bermuda. When we arrived, we were given liberty and I was able to meet with the old sea Captain and learned all about the village and his ancestors who lived there. Two days later we were back at the campus in Connecticut and I couldn’t wait to tell Barbara what I’d learned.

“Unfortunately when I returned there was a ‘Dear John’ letter waiting for me, asking me not to write to her any more as she wanted to work on her relationship with her fiancé. I think that was the first time I ever went out and got rip roaring drunk. Talk about bad timing…..”

Years later, he began searching for Barbara. The Internet of course is a great tool for finding lost acquaintances from the past. While hunting for any traces of Barbara, he found her engagement announcement in a Wisconsin newspaper. It was dated April 14, 1965. “If they’d only waited another couple of weeks before going ahead with the engagement, I’d have been back from Bermuda with all the info from Captain Sam about the village and our ‘alter egos’ from the 1700s . Who knows what might have happened under those circumstances. It might have made a difference in both of our current lives.”

As the years went by, John continued to be haunted by this incident. “In 2008, I happened to see a TV program about Bermuda which led me to begin searching for the lovely nurse I’d met in 1964.” His search took several months because he didn’t know Barbara’s last name, or even the correct spelling of her maiden name, or where she lived. He followed a trail from her high school yearbook to a nursing pamphlet to a nursing registry and finally found her. He was nervous when he called her, not knowing if she would remember him or that night so long ago in Bermuda. He left a message and anxiously awaited a return call. Finally, hours later, she called. When she confirmed her memories of the village, John was relieved to know that he wasn’t delusional. She remembered the village. He finally told her what happened when he went back and the history of the village.

Of course, I was also interested in talking to Barbara. What did she remember? Did she believe that she’d lived in that village in a past life? Fortunately, she kindly agreed to talk to me. I e-mailed her and she replied the next day.

The gist of it is that Barbara definitely recalls the village and sitting on the graveyard wall. There are details in John’s story that she doesn’t remember, including the clock. While she felt attracted to the village, she didn’t think in terms of it being a past-life residence. I’ll let her explain it.

“Fifty-two years ago, I was 19-years old and had no awareness of ‘past lives.’ When I met John, he was respectful, comforting and safe to be with so it felt okay to go off alone with him and away from the group. It actually felt like I had known him before.

“When we arrived at the village, I remember that it felt familiar and inviting, but I have no recollection or sense of having lived there. It may have been different 52 years ago, but now I have no recollection. What I remember about the village was the church and very vividly a stone wall that we sat on as we talked and rested and walked. It was indeed a memorable 24 hours.”

“I never have returned to Bermuda so I was unaware that this village did not exist in this time period. However, when John contacted me 8 years ago and shared his findings, I could relate fully to this since I have been interested in past, present, and future lives through most of my life, which was contrary to my family upbringing as a Christian. Recently I have been studying the Buddhist perspective on past lives. It confirms my beliefs. The fact that there are many others who have also had experiences of past lives is also very affirming. Direct experience has a lot to say about reality/realities.”

When I later asked her if she thought it was odd that John didn’t immediately write to her that the village had disappeared, she had this to say: “John was afraid he would be seen as crazy or weird. At such a young age, our image seems to be so important to us. Over a period of fifty years of people laughing or ridiculing or thinking us weird because of our beliefs or ideas or even our direct experiences,  no long matters. We align ourselves with our ‘selves’ or sense of knowing what is important to our journey.”

Upon reflection, Barbara says that some of the events of her life now seem more understandable considering what John learned about the woman she might’ve been in the 1700s.

“I have had many dreams throughout my life about being married in a small church. I never was married in a small church in this lifetime. I also have been inexplicably fearful and sometime in panic when swimming in deep water. I have always been a good swimmer in this life and would swim laps daily in three feet of water. If I would go to the deep end of a pool or lake, I would start feeling very anxious.

“Yet I have always been drawn to the ocean and the waves and have found the rolling waves particularly calming. However, I would never get onto a cruise ship, even if it offered the world to me. I like having the earth under my feet. Yet I will be the first to go to the ocean and sit for hours listening to the ocean waves. So when John said I drowned during a hurricane in Bermuda, it resonated with my attraction as well as my panic.”

John and Barbara were both involved in relationships when they met and both relationships led to short-lived marriages. Both are now married again. They have stayed in touch over the past eight years, but have never met face-to-face since Thanksgiving Day, 1964. John has made several trips to Bermuda. Barbara has never gone back. They both wonder what would happen if they ventured again together to the village site.

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save