The Search for Bridey Murphy (22 page)

Oh yes, Balings [Baylings?] Crossing. All right. Now that’s enough. Don’t strain your mind any more. Just relax. Take it easy, relax completely. About how old were you when you met Brian?

About… about… sixteen.

All right. Did Brian live in Cork or Belfast before you were married?

He lived with his grandmother.

Where?

In Belfast.

I see.

His mother was dead and… his father was a barrister too.

His father was a barrister too. You had some friends named Mary Catherine and Kevin. What was their last name? Mary Catherine and Kevin what?

Moore. Moore.

Do you happen to remember the name of the road on which you lived in Belfast?

… Road… road…

… All right, let’s not try to remember that, forget about that. Now, could your grandfather speak Gaelic?

Grandfather
wouldn’t speak Gaelic
.

Wouldn’t speak Gaelic?

… Said… Gaelic is just for the tongues of the peasants. They wouldn’t speak it.

I see. But did you know any Gaelic words, you yourself, Bridey Murphy, know any Gaelic words?

… Oh… just… oh, like
banshee?

Yes.

Yes… and… like… oh, banshee and… oh… oh… 
tup!

What?

Tup.

What’s that?

T-u-p. Tup!

What does that mean?

Tup… oh, you’re a tup!… You’re… you’re just a sort of a rounder, just a… it’s mostly not very good grammar. They don’t speak proper.

I see. All right. Now, you had a newspaper in Belfast, what was the name of it?

Belfast… Belfast
News
… Belfast
News-Letter
.

All right. Belfast
News-Letter
. By the way, did they teach you how to read at that day school you went to? Did they teach you how to read?

They read to us.

They read to you.

They read to us, and we had to take things home and… our mother was supposed to teach us… oh, a lot of it, but they read to us and we learned to read the…

You learned to read a little there, did you?

Yes, a little.

I see. In all this reading did you ever read about the Queen; any time that you read from that time that you went to the day school until the end of your life there, did you remember reading about the Queen?

I don’t remember about… reading about… Queen.

All right. Now, here is a question I want you to think about. While you were in that lifetime as Bridey Murphy, or Bridget Murphy, and you were married to Brian, did you have any particular talent? Could you dance? Could you play the piano? Could you play chess? Could you play any other games? Can you tell me about that?

I could dance.

You could dance?

I could dance.

Were you known as a good dancer?

Oh, I was just… my family thought I was a good dancer, and… it wasn’t… I just danced for the family.

You just danced for the family.

Uh-huh.

Was there any particular dance that you liked best?

I liked the Morning Jig.

Is that what you called it, the Morning Jig?

Yes.

Can you remember that clearly?

Yes.

I want you to go through that Morning Jig in your mind, just go through it in your mind, go through it in your mind and you will be surprised that after you awaken tonight you will be asked to do that and you can do it very easily. Go through it in your mind. You will not do anything now, just relax comfortably now and remember the Morning Jig. Remember all the little steps, remember the Morning Jig. You’ll find it’s easy; let it go through your mind, just let it fill your whole being, and later you will be able to do the Morning Jig very easily. Now, I’ll give you just a few moments when I won’t speak to you and you will be remembering with pleasure and comfort, watching yourself doing the Morning Jig. You will remember,
you will remember doing the Morning Jig. I will not talk to you for a few moments. You remember that. You will enjoy the pleasant thoughts and memories of the Morning Jig….

All right, all right. Rest and relax, rest and relax, and you will find it easy to talk to me and to answer these questions. Now, did you have any other talents? Did you play any kind of musical instrument?

Played the
lyre
. [She pronounced it leer.]

You played the lyre?

Uh-huh.

Did you play well?

Oh, just fair. I played the… for two years I studied. I played just fair. Duncan played better.

Duncan played better? Uh-huh. Do you think you could play a lyre now if you had one?

I think so.

You think so? All right. Could you play anything else? Could you play chess?

No.

Couldn’t play chess?

No.

Play any other games?

Played fancy.

Played fancy. What was that?

We played that with cards.

Played fancy with cards. What sort of a game?

Twas a game with a board… only two could play. Only two could play?

Duncan and I would play, and… we would go around the squares. The cards would tell you how many times you would move.

Oh, I see.

… Ooh, the first one to get back, we would always get a muffin and have something for surprise. It would be our own little special reward. He would give me something of his I wanted. If I would lose, he would take something of mine that he wanted… a book or some candy, or something I had that he wanted. We just made it that way for our winning.

I see. Now, you used to cook for Brian, didn’t you?

Oh yes.

Was there any particular dish, favorite dish, that he liked or that you liked to make him?

Boiled beef with onions was his favorite.

Boiled beef with onions?

Boiled beef and… I would cook it all day.

Was there any other particularly Irish dish that he liked?

That’s Irish! Boiled beef and onions is a
good
Irish dish.

Yes, yes I know. Was there anything else?

He liked potatoes
any
way, just any way you fixed potatoes. He would eat them. If you made a cake, he’d like it. I always fooled and joked because I told him I could make a cake and he would eat it with potatoes.

Do you remember the names of any companies in Belfast, any places where you traded, any stores, any companies, any businesses of any kind in Belfast? Do you remember any?

I remember… the rope… company. There was a big rope company.

A big rope company?

Yes, a rope… they made rope.

They made rope.

Yes, and there was a tobacco house… was a… oh…

What?

It started with a J… J… J—something tobacco house.

Anything else? Any other companies, businesses, stores, banks? The names of any of them. Just give the name of one store or bank, or anything you want. Give me the name of one.

There was… a… Caden House. It was a… place for… uh… women’s apparel, things that the ladies would… blouses and camisoles and… and…

What was the name of it?

The Caden’s House.

How did you spell it?

… C, it’s a C-a-d-e-n-n-s.

Did you ever go downtown in Belfast?

Oh yes… I did.

You remember what it looks like, don’t you?

Oh yes….

All right. Do you remember Queen’s University?

Yes, I remember.

Why do you remember Queen’s University?

Brian taught at that school.

Did you ever go out there with him?

Oh no.

You never did?

No.

Uh-huh. All right. Can you remember some more Irish words? Last time you told us, for instance, brate. You told us about a brate. Can you remember any typically Irish words, like brate, something that means something in particular to the Irish? Tell us some more Irish words.

Oh… oh… oh… brate. … I told you about the… ghosts.

What are they called?

They’re… that’s the banshee. That’s Gaelic… that’s how people would say that there was… when somebody would die, that would be the wail of the banshees. That’s…

All right. What is a lough or a loch?

It’s a… water…. It’s… oh… a spot of water….

Is it called loch or lough?

My mother says “lough.”

Your mother says “lough”?

Yes, it’s “lough.”

What does Brian say?

Oh… just… he calls it “Loch [Lock] Carlingford.”

“Lock Carlingford”?

Yes. Mother says “Lough”… I always said “Lough.”

You always said “Lough.”

He says “Loch Carlingford.”

I see. All right. That’s very good. Had you ever been to Dublin?

No.

Never been to Dublin?

No.

What were the Meadows in Cork?

There’s… where I lived.

All right. Did you ever hear of Cuchulain?

Yes. I heard of Cuchulain.

What about him? What did he do?

He was… just a sort of hero… we read about him. He was a hero of Ireland. He did everything. He was the bravest… my mother read he was the bravest, and…

Your mother read about Cuchulain?

Yes, he was the bravest, strongest warrior.

All right, who was Conchibar? Did you ever hear of him?

Conchibar… Conchibar…

Never heard of him?

No.

All right. Now, let’s forget about all that and go up to the time of your death. Now, the thing that we want to know there is about what year that was. Now, you told us that you attended your own funeral. You watched them bury you. Is that right?

Yes.

All right. If you remembered that, you must remember what year it was. Perhaps they had it marked on the grave or on the tombstone, or wherever they marked it. You probably saw it. Now, what year was that?

It was… eighteen… uh… six… one-eight-six… four.

One-eight-six-four?

Was on the tombstone… one-eight… I think… I see one-eight-six-four [1864].

Are you looking at the tombstone now?

Yes.

What does it say? Read the whole thing, besides the numbers. What does the whole thing say?

… Ah… Bridget… Kathleen… uh… M… Mac- Carthy….

Maybe those first numbers tell you when you were born. Are those first numbers saying when you were born?

One… seven… nine… eight.

That’s good, Now, how about the other set of numbers?

One… there’s a line… a line and then… one-eight-six and four.

All right. Let’s forget about it. Rest and relax. Clear your mind entirely. Clear it completely. Now we’re going to come up through time and space. We’re going to come back up through time and space, come back to the time when you were Bridey Murphy, come back to that time. Come back to the time when you were in the astral world, when you were in the spirit world. You remember that. Then you were born again in Iowa. Now we’re at the present time and place. I want you to relax and feel fine. I want you to take a deep breath, and that deep breath will be very relaxing; it will be just like getting an hour’s sleep. You’ll feel so fine and relaxed. Now rest and relax, Be completely comfortable, very comfortable. After you awaken, you will remember very clearly the Morning Jig that you used to do in your Irish lifetime. You will remember it. You will be
surprised that you remember it in detail. After you awaken, when you are asked, you will be able to do the Morning Jig. It will be very easy. Now I want you to just rest and relax for a few minutes, because during these few minutes you will get extreme relaxation. These few minutes will be wonderful relaxation, even more relaxation than during a normal sleep. I will stop talking and in just a few minutes you will get very deep relaxation, so that after you awaken you will feel especially fine. You will feel better than before we started the session. Now you will have a few minutes of splendid relaxation, very comfortable, deep relaxation, so that after you awaken you will feel refreshed and new. I will talk to you again in a few minutes….

After Ruth awakened, I asked her whether she felt comfortable and relaxed. She assured us that she felt fine. But she still appeared to be a little drowsy, as though she had just been aroused from a deep sleep. Since I wanted her to be fully awake when I gave the post-hypnotic suggestion—the one about dancing the jig—I chatted casually for several minutes while the transition from lethargy to normality gradually took place.

Finally I suggested to Ruth that she stand up in the middle of the room and dance the jig for us. Her puzzled frown indicated that she might not have understood me. So I repeated the suggestion. But once again her dazed expression, like a bewildered child, made me feel that I had drawn a blank on this one.

I decided, though, to make one more effort before giving up. “Please, Ruth, stand up here.” I said, indicating a place on the rug, “and perhaps some urge or sensation will suddenly strike you. Maybe you’ll be able to do the jig for us.”

She shrugged her shoulders, still apparently wondering what it was all about. Nevertheless, she got off the couch and moved toward the center of the room. For a few moments she stood there facing us, making a helpless, forlorn gesture with her hands. Then suddenly her whole expression changed; her body became vibrantly alive; her feet were flying in a cute little dance. There was a nimble jump, and then the dance seemingly ended with a routine which involved pressing her hand to her mouth.

I was intrigued with the ending. “What’s this business with your hand on your mouth.” I inquired.