The Origin of Weird: The Reincarnation of Omm Sety, The Dorothy Eady Story

0:16 oh, hey there oh, hey there that was our second introduction, because the first one I said oh hey, there, while he was taking a sip of his beer. This is the history buffoon's origin of weird. Yes, and I'm Kate. And I am Sir Bradley. Oh, you think so. I just got inspired from one recent story we did. No, I am just bradley um, or you could be like vesper and be like vesper. Are you cute? No, what are you vesper? She's so cute, she's so cute.

0:56 Oh my god I love. Because she obviously doesn't understand. It's like why are you calling me something else? I'm vesper, yeah, and I say Besper because she can't say V's yet. No. So cute, that is cute. Yeah, she's adorable. She is Okay. So this origin of weird, we're going to talk about reincarnation. Well shit, yes, I was reincarnated once. Tell me more. Just turns out I was really drunk. What, what? Oh, my cheeks are hurting. I came up with that on the spot.

1:38 It seemed to do what I intended it to do so okay, we are going to talk about dorothy edie dorothy edie e-a-d-y edie, okay, okay. In 1907, at three years old oh shit, dorothy edie tumbled down the staircase in her london home and was declared dead oh shit, yeah serious. I mean death is yes, I mean. A doctor who came pronounced her dead. Well, and they were at the pinnacle of medicine back then. So he must have known, he must have yeah. And, of course, her parents were grieving.

2:19 They were bracing for the worst until an hour later. She woke up. Dorothy woke up and began to play as if nothing had happened she's a kid the family was relieved, but also super confused freaked out. Yeah, what the fuck the little girl who got up wasn't, wasn't the quite the same little girl as who had fallen, okay, okay, she spoke with a strange new accent like a southern drawl more like eastern europe eastern europe. Yep, okay, um she. She did cling to her parents in tears and she said I want to go home because she wasn't at her home.

3:08 But she was but she wasn't she was at her home in london. She was not talking about her home in london that's what I was getting at, but you know yes way to beat a dead horse. You're very welcome, idiot after the accident, dorothy was plagued with dreams of vast stone buildings, columns, gardens overflown with trees and flowers, far from what you would see in london right, because it's pretty dreary in london she woke up in the night, sobbing, pleading to return to this mysterious place and being three years old, yeah, she probably couldn't communicate what this place?

3:52 yes, exactly exactly. Her parents had no idea what to do. They thought that maybe the fall had scrambled her imagination, but it did begin the lifelong obsession with ancient egypt okay, please tell me they didn't do an exorcism they did not. No god, they were very good parents. Good, I'm not saying that if you had an exorcism, they weren't good parents. Just well, they did not go into that no, I'm just joking, but yes, yes, so to try to cheer her up, dorothy's parents took her to the british museum and that sounds like a great place to go, because there's egyptian shit there exactly everything clicked into place for little dorothy the moment she entered the egyptian galleries.

4:36 Dorothy, who is for now lit up she rushed to the statues she rushed, rushed to the statues, hugging their stone links and kissing their feet uh, did the guard come? like little girl hands hands off the displays no touchy yeah, no do not touch I feel like I'm watching uh emperor's new groove now no touchy I love that movie when her her mother tried to pull her away, dorothy refused, shouting leave me here, these are my people I'm sorry, but she wasn't birthed by stone people. That's not what she meant.

5:16 I know, obviously I'm. I'm here for hilarity and comedy visitors were stunned. I mean just like imagine seeing a four-year-old clinging to like a mummy's case, like she'd found her lost, long-lost relatives she found her mummy her mummy oh, look at that, it's alliteration. Her parents pried her away a little embarrassed, but dorothy was adamant. But then she saw something. She saw a photo of Temple of Seti I at. Abados. Fucking Abados. It's a place I know Okay. I'm a Wares. Dorothy said this is my home.

5:59 She pointed to this picture and said this is my home, this is where I used to live, and then she frowned when are the trees? Where are the gardens? The temple in the picture was in a ruin, was a ruin. Well, because it happened a long time ago. Yes. So her spirit was floating around that long Holy balls. It was stripped of its greenery and dorothy was inconsolable interesting. Her parents were baffled. How could their daughter, who have never left london, recognize an ancient temple thousands of miles away?

6:40 not only did she never leave London, she was fucking four. So did she start reading hieroglyphics? She actually does. I mean, that was kind of a foregone conclusion. So Dorothy's obsession with Egypt grew. She devoured books, encyclopedias. She ate books. Stop it. Okay. She insisted that hieroglyphs were familiar, like she'd once known how to read them. Do you? remember when encyclopedias were a big thing yes, I absolutely do, I remember having this nice huge set yes, as a kid, like my parents got them because we are pre-internet people and that's how you got.

7:24 A lot of information was through encyclopedias. I remember borrowing I think it was the letter U or V, I don't remember which from my sister-in-law, lisa. Really, yeah, that's funny, and I was a bad kid and I actually wrote in it that is a fucking. You need to repent. Well, I did tell. Well, I don't know if I told them or my parents told them but they said hey, Kate, fuck this up, yeah. I was a bad kid during that part, but I don't know how I remember that, Cause you know. I don't remember shit. Okay, at 10 or 11 years old. So six to seven years later. She met Egyptologist Sir EA Wallace Budge.

8:05 That's a lot of names Budge EA Wallace Budge. I bet he did Budge. He humored her curiosity and taught her some basics. Impressed with how early she caught on Outside the museum, dorothy's fixation was starting to be a little bit of a problem like literally just outside of it, or sorry when she's not studying I'm kidding. Calm down, jesus christ in sunday school. She declared that the ancient egyptians um sorry, the ancient egyptians heathen religion wasn't so bad and refused to sing hymns cursing them did hymns curse, though, apparently apparently because she was promptly expelled I apparently got the wrong hymnal yeah, I don't remember.

9:03 I don't remember cursing about the ancient Egyptians, Egyptians, no me either Interesting. She also declared that Christian rituals reminded her of the quote-unquote old religion. Well, I mean a lot of Christian rituals, slash holidays and such were they usurped, basically old pagan things, if you will, and I mean Egyptians are one of the oldest things in this world, honestly. So, okay, I can see that. As she grew older, dorothy began to speak of even stranger experiences. At 15, she said she was visited in her dreams by a tall figure, pharaoh Seti I himself.

9:52 Oh. So he came back from the afterlife and said hey, what's up, daughter? She claimed that he came to her night after night, sometimes as a comforting presence like a father figure, but sometimes as a lover Okay, not sure, weird, not sure. A comforting presence like a father figure, but sometimes as a lover okay, not sure, weird, not sure. Her parents and doctors worried that she might be mentally ill, so several times in her adolescence she was sent to sanatoriums for observations, so psychiatric facilities I got it well just in case somebody out there doesn't know what a sanatorium is. I think you said it for your own knowledge. I have it written down. I already knew.

10:32 Let's not get ahead of ourselves. But Dorothy insisted that these were memories from a past life. She said that she had once been a girl named Ben Trachit. Ben Trachit, ben Trachit, ben Trachit. So did they look for this in history? You know, I actually did not come across that, but there are later things that kind of help prove that she is who she says she is. Is she so? Ben Trachit was a priestess at Abydos who fell in love with Seti. I Okay. I could see why it would be a father slash lover figure then. Yes, so when she became pregnant, she faced disgrace and punishment and rather than expose Seti I or face execution, she took her own life With the baby inside what?

11:30 and dorothy believe that this was. Dorothy believed that this was true, that she was ben trashit, reborn okay. In her 20s, dorothy worked in london where she met an egypt named Eamon Abdel Meguid. Was he the reincarnation of Seti? I no they married and in 1931, she moved with him to Cairo. As soon as she stepped off the ship, she kissed the ground and said I have come home. Did she have a lot of sand in her mouth? Bradley ground and said I have come home. Did she have a lot of sand in her mouth, bradley? don't make this story even weirder than it already is.

12:10 It's already. She gave birth to a son in 1933 and named him seti that I could never have guessed that. That is so shocking. I am thrown aback. I just don't know what to do with myself. It did raise a few eyebrows, but Dorothy was kind of resolute. In accordance with Egyptian tradition, she became known as Om Seti, meaning mother of Seti. Okay, so where she is now, in Cairo and the surrounding areas, she is known as Olmstead. So if you Google Olmstead you come up with Dorothy Edie. And this is in the thirties.

12:51 You said is that right? She was in her yes 1933. Okay, yes, yes, yes, yes, good job. So the marriage didn't last, but Dorothy has zero intention of leaving Egypt. No, because she was home. She stayed and worked in the Department of Antiquities. She became the first female employee there, assisting famous archaeologists at Giza. She was a skilled draftswoman and translator, earning respect from colleagues who admired her eccentricities. But she was also a genuinely good person. But outside work she still lived as if it was ancient times.

13:36 She prayed to Osiris and Isis, made offerings to the Sphinx and even spent nights inside the great pyramid of Giza. Did she have a dog named Anubis? No, but she should Duh. I had a cat named Anubis once. Yeah. Did you ever see? You obviously love cats you ever see a cat with like the more pointy nose? He, uh, that's what he had. Oh nice. Yeah, it was one of the barn cats in my past life. I want to say my friend Allison had a dog named Anubis. Yeah. Yeah. So we named him Anubis. I also had a cat named Sphinx. Yeah.

14:16 It's funny because he wasn't named after the Sphinx. He was named after Gone 60 Seconds. Yes, yes, because my cat Memphis and my cat Sway obviously from that. But and the Sphinx also got his name from that. I haven't seen that movie in a long time. It's a great movie. I really enjoy it. One of Nicolas Cage's few best movies. Few best movies. Have you ever seen? Matchstick Men? No, all right, I'm going to make you watch that one day. Okay, I actually just started re-watching it like a week or so ago. I just was laying in bed, I was home by myself, sarah and the kids were still at daycare work, and I'm like I just want to kind of relax a little bit and I started watching it.

14:57 It's a really good movie and he kind of is the bad guy in the movie to a degree. Okay, they technically both are bad guys, but I'm gonna make you watch that movie I think you will like. Perfect, anyways, um continue okay. So in the early 20th century it was not unusual for wealthy tourists or archaeologists or mythics to pay a guard, a small bribe, to be able to spend the night in the great pyramid isn't that wild back in those days that you could get away with that? because you could not do that today no so by the mid-1990s, when almsety was in cairo, rules were stricter.

15:40 Yeah, but as a department of antiquity antiquities insider she could get special access right so she would spend nights alone in the king's chamber meditating or communing with the gods, or whatever whatever her religion, yeah and today it is forbidden. The pyramids are closed at night and security is pretty tight they're very regulated yes, when you can visit and do things and such and such. So, yeah, yes, so I would love to go there someday me too I was. As a young I never went as far to say that I was reincarnated, but I loved like egyptian shit when I was yeah little, and I still do.

16:22 I just maybe not as much as I did back then. I mean the Mummy, with Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz. That is historical documents. That is. That is fact. It is entirely fact and it is one of the best documentaries. And who played Imhotep. Arnold Vosloo, atta girl, he's amazing bald. I love him bald. Have you seen him, not bald? Yeah, he looks so weird, so different, so different he's very attractive as Imhotep, and Brendan Fraser is very amazing and Rachel Weisz is very innocent looking. Speaking of Brendan Fraser and we're getting off on a way weird tangent. I have to show you a trailer. He's got a new movie coming out.

17:03 It seems pretty interesting it? I have to show you a trailer. He's got a new movie coming out. It seems pretty interesting. It's kind of like a drama-ish. Whatever I have yet to watch. The Whale. I have yet to watch that as well, but he's got a new movie coming out. It seems really interesting. Remind me please if you can actually remember something to play that trailer for you, okay. Brendan Fraser and Colin Firth and Matt Damon. They are my three go-to actors. I think they're just amazing. They're all phenomenal. They're in their own right. They are phenomenal Okay let's go back. We're really getting off topic. 1950s. You know what's funny you said 1990 before my bad 1950s. All right. Dorothy finally got what she always wanted she got to go to Abydos.

17:46 Oh, okay, okay, she moved in. Where? Where is this in? Okay, the look I just got was not answerable, so continue on. Just don't worry about it. Just continue on, please. Abydos. Yeah. Is in Egypt. No shit, right Jesus. Is in. Egypt? No shit, right, jesus Christ. It's probably near the Nile. It's near the Nile Weird and it's directly south from Cairo. I would assume a couple hundred miles, never assume. Okay, so she moved into a small house near the Temple of Seti I and lives simply. The chief inspector of antiquities of Abydos, aware of her claims to a past life, devised a test oh weird, One night inside of a pitch black temple.

18:46 He led Aum Seti to a series of wall paintings. So did her son stay with her? Do you know? I don't have any information on him I was curious because, yeah, I don't have any information on him. Her marriage fizzled, but stilly. Yeah. So I'm assuming. I do not have any information on him. Yeah. Fair enough. Anyway, sorry, devised a plan. So, in the darkness of this pitch black temple, he asked her to identify each one, each painting, solely from memory. Okay. From 3,000 years ago, right when she claimed to be like a temple priestess.

19:30 Right piece by piece, she described a scene. Sorry, he described a scene and waited as on set. He navigated through the shadowy wall, stopping exactly in front of the artwork in question. Every single time. Okay. Can I be devil's advocate? Absolutely. She could have studied. Yes. Yes, because they had pictures back then. Yes. So I'm just saying yes, she could have memorized because she was so obsessed and convinced she was this reincarnated priest, priest, priestess, priestess.

20:14 Yeah. Who got banged by SETI Ben Trashit, yeah, anyways. Yes, she could have been so obsessed with this that she could have studied photographs, because I'm sure there was photographs taken of this. Yes, even back then. That she could memorize. That's just like me. I am a drummer. I could play you hundreds of songs. Yes. Just saying but you've never played them professionally as, yeah, I mean, I have, I opened for 311 once. Okay, say it, but you've never played them professionally as. Yeah, I mean I have I opened for 311 once, okay, so she named. I don't know what that meant. She just did a hand gesture and I don't know what that meant she named them all without a single mistake of course, because she studies hard despite the fact that the layout of these decorations had never been published or diagrammed, publicly.

21:11 Okay, well, that changes what I just said a little bit then. A little bit. I figured they probably were photographed. But if not and they weren't, even if they were and they weren't put out there publicly, then okay. It's still possible if they weren't publicly but privately. But she did work in antiquities and stuff, so she could have had access to these things that wasn't public. Yes. So I mean it's still a possibility, but that kind of diminishes it a little bit. So I get that. So there was no earthly way, in this guy's opinion, that Dorothy Eady could know this 13th century BC temple as intimately as a priestess would who once would walk these halls. Right. Unless her story was true, sure, after this demonstration, even the skeptic on the team accorded Om Seti as like a new level of respect.

22:01 That's a really good Pantera song. A new level. I fucking love. Pantera since childhood. Yeah, dorothy had insisted the temple once had a garden. Remember the picture that she saw. Where's the trees? yep, she pointed to a spot in the sand and told archaeologists dig here and what were they going to find? tree roots. They dug only a few feet down before hitting foundation that turned out to be the temple's sacred garden. They uncovered the stone lined basin, or well used for irrigation or like ritual purification.

22:44 Sure, the remains of tree pits and stumps evidence that the area had indeed been planted with trees. It wasn't buried deep like a tomb right but it was still covered with like centuries of desert sand. Well, I mean debris things, things blow around up there and that's why why Om Sedi's pointing out the exact spot was so startling. Sure, I get that. Without her, the area might not have been prioritized for excavation. Very possible. Yeah, yeah, I can see that. She also identified the location of a hidden tunnel beneath the temple. Yeah Om Sedi also spoke of a secret underground passage at Abydos running beneath the temple.

23:26 Almsteady also spoke of a secret underground passage at Abydos running beneath the temple. At the time there was no published record of such a tunnel. It was either unknown or long forgotten. Sure, she pointed out the location to officials of the antiquities department and later surveys confirmed that there was a tunnel extending under the North side of the temple and it appears to have been started but never completely finished. Oh, okay. But it is existence, matched her claim Sure so even hardened skeptics admitted this is an uncanny track record.

24:06 Yeah, this is different kind of thing. An archaeologist once joked quote if Olmsted said there's something there, I'd trust her over our equipment. End quote. Well equipment back in the what. This is still the 30s, or are we in the 40s yet? Oh, this is probably still in the 30s. Okay, I mean, yeah, their equipment for the time was probably minimal. Well, for the time was probably stellar, but what we think of as equipment is probably minimal. So by day she was a respected researcher. She was sorry. She would publish works on Abydos and its monuments, and by night she prayed in the ruins. She sang ancient hymns and even befriended a cobra that lived in the temple, leaving it bowls of milk.

24:54 Do cobras like balls of milk, bowls, bowls of milk, bowls of milk? Okay, I'm sorry, you said balls before Bowls of milk. Do they like balls of milk or bowls of milk? balls of milk. Do they like balls of milk or bowls of milk? Villagers came to her for healing spells, believing she had a connection to the old gods. Tourists and egyptologists alike sought her out, drawn by her mix of scholarship and myth mysticism okay om said he lived out the rest of her life in Abydos. I would imagine. So I mean she had a connection to it. so she prepared her own tomb with a false door for her spirit. Oh dear, and that was what the pharaohs used to do.

25:36 Yeah, but she's not a pharaoh, so I don't get why she did that. When she died in 1981, she was buried in a simple unmarked grave on the edge of town, facing west towards the land of the dead. So wait, she had her own tomb, but she was buried in an unmarked place. So what happened to the tomb? good question. I did not put two and two together I mean, you understand my question. Yeah, now I'm confused, because why would they bury her? Why would she create a tomb for herself if then she's buried in an unmarked grave? facing now. I have to research this. Do you have to, though?

26:17 well, don't bring up such questions such great questions, you forgot a word. Such great questions, you forgot a word. Hold please, what I said was right. I didn't discredit what you said, but just I'm just saying why, why would? She create this tomb for her to be buried with this, whatever door for her spirit and then just get buried in an unmarked grave facing west towards the valley, valley of the king. So she had designed a small underground tomb with a false door, but when she died, egypt egyptian authorities stepped in and burial in a backyard tomb was not legally permitted at the time oh so it was in.

27:05 A backyard tomb was not legally permitted at the time. Oh so it was in her backyard. Apparently oh shit, Okay. So she was interred in a Coptic Christian cemetery on the edge of Abydos. Okay, what's a Coptic Christian? I don't know. Sorry, I don't mean to ask questions, I just want to learn. It's a simple grave. I just want to learn. No headstone, I don't mean to ask questions. I just want to learn. It's a simple grave. I just want to learn. No headstone, just a mound of earth and a pile of stone. The grave faces west, which is the ancient Egyptian direction of the dead. Right. So she said, quote yes, and this is the end. This is when she died's.

27:50 Stop it. Quote death holds no terror for me. I'll just do my best to get through the judgment, end quote. That is om seti the reincarnated so priestess of abados and all the weird questions that Bradley has. Welp. Thank God, I suppose. Alright, buffoons. That's it for today's episode. Buckle up, because we've got another historical adventure waiting for you. Next time Feeling hungry for more buffoonery, or maybe you have a burning question or a wild historical theory for us to explore hit us up on social media. We're history buffoons podcast on youtube x, instagram and facebook.

28:32 You can also email us at history buffoons podcast at gmailcom. We are bradley and kate. Music by cory acres follow us wherever you get your podcasts and turn those notifications on to stay in the loop. Until next time, stay curious and don't forget to rate and review us. Remember, the buffoonery never stops.