<\/p>\n
I am often asked about landscapes. How some landscapes that we have never seen before\u00a0<\/span>feel<\/span>\u00a0familiar, reassuring, or threatening.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n They feature strongly when I conduct past life regressions.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Four\u00a0<\/span>years\u00a0<\/span>ago<\/span>\u00a0I visited the Callanish Stones on Lewis in the Outer Hebrides. It was a profoundly spiritual experience. Not only did the standing stones cast a spell, but crucially, the landscape around is wholly undeveloped and unpopulated.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n What I was seeing was what the people who built the stones saw. No-one knows exactly why they were built, when they were built (probably around 5000 years ago)<\/span>,<\/span>\u00a0or what they were for. That only added to the sense of place and mystery.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n One of our deepest needs is for a sense of identity and belonging.\u00a0<\/span>We can find that<\/span>\u00a0identity in landscape and place.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Landscape therefore is not simply what we see, but a way of seeing: we see it with our\u00a0<\/span>eye<\/span>,\u00a0<\/span>but<\/span>\u00a0interpret it with our mind and ascribe values to landscape for intangible \u2013 spiritual \u2013 reasons.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Landscape should not be looked on as simply a pretty picture: rather it is part of a process by which identities are formed.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The connections, therefore, between landscape<\/span>,<\/span>\u00a0identity<\/span>,<\/span>\u00a0memory, thought, and comprehension<\/span>,<\/span>\u00a0are fundamental to\u00a0<\/span>our\u00a0<\/span>understanding of landscape and\u00a0<\/span>a\u00a0<\/span>human sense of place.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n But memory of landscape is not always associated with pleasure. It can be associated sometimes with loss, with pain, with social fracture and\u00a0<\/span>a\u00a0<\/span>sense of belonging gone, although the memory remains.<\/span>\u00a0The Welsh have a word,\u00a0<\/span>hiraeth<\/span><\/i>,\u00a0<\/span><\/i>for\u00a0<\/span>which there is no direct English equivalent. It is used to describe a sense of\u00a0<\/span>homesickness\u00a0<\/span>and nostalgia for a place, experienced as\u00a0<\/span>an earnest longing or desire,\u00a0<\/span>tinged with<\/span>\u00a0a sense of regret<\/span>\u00a0of not being in that place<\/span>. The Cornish and Breton equivalents are\u00a0<\/span>\u2018<\/span>hireth<\/span>\u2019 and \u2018<\/span>hiraezh<\/span>\u2019.\u00a0<\/span>How such a wonderful word does not exist in modern English I do not know.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The past lives on in art and memory, it shifts and changes as the present throws its shadow backwards. The landscape also\u00a0<\/span>changes ,<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>but far more slowly; it is a living link between what we were<\/span>,<\/span>\u00a0and what we have become. This is one of the reasons why we feel\u00a0<\/span>such\u00a0 profound<\/span>\u00a0 anguish when a loved landscape is altered out of recognition; we lose not only a place, but ourselves, a continuity between the shifting phases of our life.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Landscapes are the repository of intangible values and human meanings that nurture our very existence.\u00a0<\/span>This is why<\/span>\u00a0landscape<\/span>,<\/span>\u00a0and memory<\/span>,<\/span>\u00a0are inseparable<\/span>,<\/span>\u00a0because landscape is the nerve centre of our personal and collective memories.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n W<\/span>e are familiar with<\/span>\u00a0relic\u00a0<\/span>and\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0fossil<\/span>\u00a0landscapes<\/span>.<\/span>\u00a0But<\/span>\u00a0cultural landscapes are living landscapes where changes over time result in a montage effect<\/span>\u00a0in front of our eyes,<\/span>\u00a0or\u00a0<\/span>a\u00a0<\/span>series of<\/span>\u00a0vertical\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0layers, each layer able to tell the human story and relationships between people<\/span>,<\/span>\u00a0and natural processes.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n I am very fond of the Heights of\u00a0<\/span>Abraham ,<\/span>\u00a0Matlock, Derbyshire, hills which have been mined for 2000 years and worked methodically since Roman times. When you visit there<\/span>,<\/span>\u00a0you also visit the history of England. Landscape and identity are inherent components of our culture.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n A few years\u00a0<\/span>ago<\/span>\u00a0I visited Welshpool castle with my young grandchildren, the youngest, Jacob, of whom was three. Three is an interesting age, a child is relatively articulate, but unable to read or be influenced by the media. They say what they see and experience. Children love castles, they are big, physical pla<\/span>ces<\/span>\u00a0to be enjoyed, and explored, combining open spaces with mysterious nooks and crannies. Jacob was loving it, until we began to enter a hall which looked no different from any\u00a0<\/span>other<\/span>\u00a0we had visited before. He scampered up me, holding me around my neck, pressed\u00a0<\/span>tight .<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI am not going in there,\u201d he declared.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201dWhy<\/span>\u00a0not?\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s scary.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n I gave him to my\u00a0<\/span>partner, and<\/span>\u00a0ventured inside. It featured displays of torture and punishment from the dungeons. He had no possible way of knowing this \u2013 yet he knew.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n This demonstrates that a sense of landscapes, and buildings, holding memories is with us from\u00a0<\/span>a very early<\/span>\u00a0age. It was described by Sir Edward Tylor as animism in 1871, who recognised it as one of anthropology\u2019s earliest concepts, a belief found in tribes and ancient civilisations around the world.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n So, d<\/span>o landscapes have memories?<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n They certainly hold the memories of what has gone before. The rocks in their strata, the soil in its layers, the polar ice in its water content.\u00a0<\/span>W<\/span>hen we remember past lives, past landscapes are an essential part of that. Often providing a connection between the past, and the present.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n For a past life regression to visit your landscapes and memories co<\/span>ntact:<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Janeosborne123@outlook.com<\/span><\/a>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n If you want inspiration for places which hold special\u00a0<\/span>memories ,<\/span>Unesco\u2019s<\/span>\u00a0world heritage sites\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0are a good resource:<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n http:\/\/whc.unesco.org\/en\/list\/?&&&type=natural<\/span><\/a>\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n