Free Sara's Soul by Deanna Kahler Page A

mental illness?”
    “They can be. Or they can be a sign of a healthy mind. It all depends on the circumstances. Why did you ask?”
    Sara hesitated. By now she knew she could confide in Chip. He would never judge or ridicule her like others had done in the past. “I’ve been having these fantasies lately. They happen when I’m dreaming,” she confessed. “It all started right after I met you.”
    “Well, why didn’t you tell me? We could make your fantasies come true,” he said with a wink.
    “No,” Sara said. “It’s not like that. They aren’t about us . Only they sort of are.”
    “Now I’m confused,” he said, wrinkling his forehead. “What do you mean?”
    “Well, they’re about this other couple. From medieval times. Margaret and Merek.”
    “Oooh. They have names,” he said. “This sounds interesting.”
    “As a shrink? Or my boyfriend?”
    “Both,” he admitted. “Please tell me more.”
    “Well, the fantasies are more like my visions. Only I’m not awake when I have them—and no one has died. I see what Margaret sees. I feel what she feels. And when I first looked at Merek, I thought I saw you. It felt kind of like us.”
    “That is interesting,” he said.
    “Well, what do you think? What does it all mean? Any theories on why I’ve been having these visions?”
    “I’m not sure,” he said. “But it does remind me of something. I read a fascinating study when I was working on my Master’s.”
    “On mental illness?”
    “No,” he said. “On a therapy technique called past-life regression.”
    “You mean as in reincarnation?”
    “Yes.”
    “I don’t believe in that, Chip,” she said. “I’m still trying to figure out if life after death is real.”
    “I know. I figured you wouldn’t. I’m not convinced it exists either, but it is an interesting theory. Since you’re a psychic, you already know that some things cannot be explained. It doesn’t mean we should dismiss them, though. Surprisingly, past-life regression therapy is actually very effective, no matter what you believe.”
    “How does the therapy work?” Sara asked.
    “Well, from what I read, the therapist helps to get the client into a hypnotic state and then guides him or her to remember events from childhood. Then they travel back in time even further, to birth, a previous death, and then previous lives.”
    “Sounds bizarre,” Sara said frowning.
    “Yes, it is quite unusual,” Chip agreed. “Some researchers believe that the past lives are actually concocted by the brain to help clients heal. But others insist they are real memories. The stuff the clients come up with is just as puzzling. Some remember the Civil War and can recite the names of those they served in combat with. Others recall living in huts, having other families. Sometimes they fluently speak a foreign language under hypnosis that they’ve never even learned. The weirdest part is when a client gives facts about a time period they know nothing about, and the details are later confirmed as historically accurate.”
    “Wow,” Sara said. “That is really weird. But it doesn’t mean that past lives or reincarnation are responsible. Maybe it’s something else, something genetic. Maybe our ancestors’ memories are passed on to us somehow. It could be in our DNA.”
    Sara watched as a flock of blackbirds swooped across the sky. They flew effortlessly in perfect sync, as if they had innate knowledge and understanding of what to do and where to go.
    “Genetic memories are certainly possible, maybe even likely,” he agreed. “If we can inherit things like personality traits from our biological relatives then why not memories?”
    “So what do you think of my fantasies? What about Merek and Margaret?”
    “To be honest, I think they were real people,” he said. “From another time. You’re probably just having visions of them like you have visions of others.”
    Sara nodded. Merek and Margaret seemed too real to be a figment of