Past Life Regression 7: Where The Bodies Lie

September 24th, 2022

Regression Session Number 7

Having a spare weekend to myself, I quickly booked another appointment as my busy season approached, followed by the holiday season and the end of the year. Naturally, I knew once my job picked up that I would have no time off again until spring. Might as well seize the chance when the house is empty and quiet.

Despite it having been only two weeks since my last regression, there was more I wished to learn and I had written down questions that I wanted to answer. As the book progressed, I would find questions that I had not thought of or my research would fail me in some way. I needed Ida or Henry to answer a question for me. With their deaths, it is not as easy as a text message to get the information I sought after. I wrote down my list of questions.

In my second regression, I saw a moment of intense arguing between Ida’s father and what looked like a Catholic priest. The moment was there and then gone. Ida was perhaps three years of age considering her physical body. All records of her family having a religion came up empty. Religion in the northern/Scandinavian countries is a much more private thing than here in the United States. It isn’t talked about and many people forgo all conversations having to do with religion.

Secondly, I wanted to know about Titanic’s break-up. From the wreck, we easily know where it broke on the outside. It snapped between the third and fourth smokestack. However, we cannot see clearly where it snapped off within the decks. In one of the earlier regressions, I could see a bit of the break-up after Ida had passed which gave me an estimate for her time of death. I was not able to witness the break-up as close as I wished I had from a history lover’s point of view. On one hand, I have Ida’s story to write and experience which takes up so much of the heart and mind. Also, I love history and Titanic is a history lover’s paradise. I have access to answers that historians would kill for.

Lastly, I wanted to know where Ida and Henry’s bodies came to rest. RMS Titanic Inc is the company that owns and controls the wreck site. A few years back they decided to break the international treaty that was created with the blessing of the (then still living) survivors. You can take from the debris field but you cannot touch the wreck. No items can be removed from the wreck, no bodies disturbed, etc. It was a compromise between those who craved knowledge and wanted to possess a piece of the ship while remaining respectful of the dead. The salvagers decided to break the treaty by planning to cut into the ship and take the Marconigraph. The very machine which sent out the SOS. A judge granted the request. Thankfully, enough pushback by NOAA stopped them by producing photographs, taken by RMS Titanic Inc themselves, clearly showing human remains inside the Marconi Room aboard the ship. This marks the room as a gravesite.

Seeing as how the salvagers have little regard for the people or their personal effects as little more than a cash crop, you can understand why I am adamant about finding Henry and Ida’s remains. Finding the remains and being able to provide proof would be cutting off the hand of a thief. It would prevent them from touching the remains, from taking their items such as Ida’s locket, and would limit their ability to explore the areas in which they reside.

One would be horrified if one knew someone wanted to dig up a cemetery containing family graves, steal from the bodies to sell at an auction, and then build a mini-mall on top of them. This is no different. I can sit on top of my grandparents’ graves to protect them from a bulldozer. This is the only way to protect those beneath the waves.

We began the regression by attempting something different. We needed to talk to Ida directly. I attempted this a year ago with no success. Jennifer came up with a different idea. To go somewhere she felt safe where Ida would be allowed to open up and show me, if not tell me what I needed to know. Chances were when it came to the darker moments aboard Titanic, Henry could guide me instead.

After leaving the body and going to the world between worlds, I ended up back on Finström. This was Ida’s home island, where she felt the safest and was happy. I was allowed a few moments to look things over before Ida slowly materialized beside me. Looking into the reflection of the body of water beside her home, I couldn’t tell which of us was more startled. Only looking at both faces, side by side is it visible to me how alike we look. Of course, I can always see our differences as well.

Ida said nothing as I formed the question in my thoughts. She simply stared back at our reflections as an array of images assaulted me. I could see a stone church with a dark roof. I could see the heated argument between her father and a religious leader that ended with the family storming off and not returning. Piecing things together and afterward researching family records, I had my answer. Ida’s family belonged to St. Michael’s church before they were asked to leave. The church which I had believed to be Catholic is Evangelical Lutheran. I was unaware that protestant religions can also use Bishops, Dioses and tend to name things after saints.

When I asked why they were asked to leave, I received another flurry of images. Johan, the eldest child of Johan Sr., and Beata was born out of wedlock. His parents married weeks after his birth. Coupled with the fact that Beata used flowers and herbs as a contraceptive when the poor family could not afford more children. There is also a mystery about Johan Sr.‘s first family. I know the infant died but I could taste disgust from the religious leader’s opinion. Was the first wife alive and divorced? Or did she die too and this man simply disliked Johan Sr.’s short mourning period? This led to arguments that boiled over and ended in their membership being dissolved when Ida was around 3 years old.

I processed this information as I could feel Henry’s approach. Ida had no intention of leaving her home for Titanic, only to witness its end along with her own. As he approached, she gave me a sly look, and I knew its meaning immediately. She lamented the lack of time with Henry and the lack of opportunity to have…visited a linen closet together with him. He greets her warmly, oblivious to her inner thoughts.

Henry greeted me slowly as a stranger but I was not offended by it. He had no attachment to me and with Ida and myself being here together, I was not sharing her attachment towards him. It was solely belonging to her. We left her behind with a friendly wave and reappeared on Titanic.

We appeared on the F deck instead of the E deck as I typically do. We wandered the corridors as awkward friends. He did not take my hand or arm and I did not offer it. I could see his cabin on F deck. I did not go inside but he made it clear to me where it was in terms of the port vs starboard engineer quarters. From the deck plans, I knew it was one of two possibilities and he showed me which one. We took a quick trip to the engine room which I had wanted to see.

The two engines were impressive in their quick motion. The room smelled of grease and oil and was uncomfortably warm. It was not the heat I expected from the boiler rooms but it was warmer than I thought it should have been. Sweat was dripping down Henry’s face. And the room went silent. I saw the pumps being powered to try and push out the water. I could see the line along the walls where the break was occurring. It made sense to me how the engines are now exposed below the surface.

I looked back at Henry and we moved to the E deck. The break-up happened in slow motion as we walked the corridor that spanned nearly the full length of the entire ship.  The wood plank floors buckled up in an upside-down V shape. The wall of steel cracked and peeled apart almost like pulling at chewing gum. Despite costing $7.5 million, the ship was constructed so cheaply. It angered me but also invoked pity for the ship itself.

The last thing I asked was to find out the location of Ida and Henry’s bodies. I need to know where they lie. In the ship or the debris field? Are they in danger from the salvagers? Or are they safe?

I watched the ship split into two pieces and land on the bottom of the ocean. I watched Henry’s body fly down the corridor on F deck and be flung down the stairs that led to the mail room and squash court. He landed at the bottom of the stairs. His body is tucked away, guarded by the ship itself.

Ida was pulled towards the stern as the bow went under and glided to the bottom. She was in the bow when she drowned like Henry. Her body went up to the ceiling during the descent. It was caught on the metal pipes that came down, baring her inside the bow. As the bow slammed into the mud of the ocean floor. Her remains returned to the ground and were thrust towards the opening of the split. Ida lies on her stomach near the opening of the decks. Her cloak of bed covers has fallen away but her loafer shoes remain with their silver buckles. As the decks collapse, her body will be crushed under them, whatever bones remain. The locket tucked in the fold of her shawl has been flung away from her. Though I know its location as well, I will not document it here. It is hidden from those who would seek to steal it, that is all that matters.

Henry and Ida reside in the ship that they marveled at. Silent protectors of the wreck against those who seek to destroy or take. Though I am distressed over the inevitable destruction of Ida’s remains, I can take comfort in the fact that she cannot leave the wreck, nor would she want to. In the end, as the Titanic is reclaimed by the sea, she will also be claimed by the ship. They will fade into the abyss together. There is something poetic about that.