A strong, familiar feeling

When it's not logical . . . might it be from a past life? 🤔

🎶 “He was born in the summer of his 27th year
Comin' home to a place he'd never been before”

“Rocky Mountain High” - John Denver

My mother was born to Icelandic parents in Selkirk, Manitoba (Canada). Both her parents were 100% Icelandic and part of the large Icelandic immigrant community of nearby Gimli. (A little trivia: the Gimli area has the largest population of Icelanders outside of Iceland.)

In her twenties, my mother moved to Vancouver, and then to San Francisco, where she met my father. She’d never stepped foot outside of North America when my family moved to Spain, then India, then Japan, then Venezuela. With lots of other international travel in-between.

Here’s what’s interesting (for the purpose of this post): my mother felt a very strong and unexplainable sense of familiarity with Japan. She took to Japanese and picked it up very quickly, much faster than my father did, and he’d taken intensive Japanese classes for over a year. My mother was convinced that she’d been Japanese in a past life. Her sense of familiarity was that strong.

I heard a similar kind of story from Karl Rucker, a bass player I met through my brother and his musician friends in Los Angeles.

Karl was born and raised in Chicago. He was a child prodigy, playing Beethoven symphonies on the piano at age four and quickly adding other musical instruments to his repertoire. He moved to Los Angeles in his twenties and played and toured with many famous bands, including Ike & Tina Turner and The Doors. Ultimately, Karl became band leader, bass player, and producer for Nina Hagen, the German punk rocker.

Karl Rucker playing bass for Nina Hagen (still shot from a clip on Youtube)

Karl told me about the first time he went to Germany to perform. I will paraphrase here, but this is what he shared with me: “I can’t explain it, but as soon as I stepped out of the plane, I felt like I’d returned home. It was home. It was very familiar, like I was returning to a place I belonged. I quickly picked up German. It felt second-hand. And here I am a black man from Chicago. What’s really strange is that I knew my way around, as if from some memory recall.”

Have you had the experience of going somewhere new, somewhere totally different, that strangely, and strongly, felt like “home”? Familiar in ways you can’t explain? Where you had an unusual and immediate sense of belonging?

Other friends have shared similar experiences. One friend is a Francophile. Loves everything French and France, almost to a point of obsession. She was born and raised in California, but travels to France as often as she can. She now speaks the language and is an accomplished cook of haute French cuisine. She doesn’t know why she connects to that country so intensely and wonders if she might’ve been French in a past life.

Another friend has a strong connection to England, and finds herself particularly allured by books, documentaries, or movies that are set in England during the 1940s. She grew up on the east coast and traveled to London for the first time in her twenties. She also had that feeling of uncanny familiarity, like she’d come home.

I haven’t had this kind of experience around a country or culture (yet?), but I’ve had strong sensations, or pulls, in other ways; particularly to the Natural world.

When I was little, I climbed trees and nestled in their branches for as long as I could. I even skipped school once in second grade, so I could climb a tree and sit in it all morning. I loved big trees and felt comforted by them. (This was in Spain. We walked maybe ten blocks to school, so it was easy for me to dart in another direction. I got caught, of course. And reprimanded.) As an adult, I backpack and hike a lot. I can’t get enough of remote mountain time. Beyond the calm and respite of being away from humans and civilization, there’s something more there, something deep. I wonder if in some past life, I must’ve lived among large trees. Perhaps even was one.

I’ve also had the strong sensation of having had a tail. I felt this as a little kid and thought it was a natural thing for all humans, based on evolution, and that everyone felt it. We all have tail bones after all, right? Then, many years later, as an adult, I mentioned this to a friend assuming that he, too, had that experience. He shook his head. He’d never had that sensation. Not at all. Huh? I was truly surprised. What? So I explained further, elaborating on how I sensed what it felt like to wag your tail, expecting him to realize oh, yes, that’s what you mean. Nope. He had no idea what I was talking about. Hmmm . . . okay . . . so is this unique? Might it be connected to a past life? Perhaps I was an animal with a tail AND living in the trees.

Other manifestations of that strong, familiar feeling

People experience this kind of strong and immediate sense of familiarity, or pull, in other ways. (Again, I refer to experiences when there’s seemingly no logical explanation as to why.)

It could be a particularly strong pull and inclination toward a specific profession, activity, or hobby. Or an unusual and strong sense of familiarity with another person immediately upon meeting them for the first time. Like you knew each other before. And not just that; you knew each other well.

What about you? Have you felt this kind of strange and strong, eerily familiar feeling? Around a place, a person, or something else? Do tell! Share your experiences.