Witch Hunt
A Past-Life Memory Frees a Woman from Pain
By TC
Around the age of eighteen, I suffered a series of small accidents that resulted in repeated whiplash. Over the years the pain grew progressively worse. One Friday, a long, painful weekend stretched before me. I couldn't see the chiropractor until Monday.
After reading an Eckankar Journal article on past lives, I wondered if my chronic neck pain had spiritual roots. Maybe the Holy Spirit would show me something from the past to help me with this problem.
I lay down to contemplate. Suddenly a full-color, wide-angle scene played out before my eyes.
I am standing on a high platform with my wrists tied behind me. There is a noose around my neck. Three girls stand to my left and one to my right, all with nooses around their necks. We are about eighteen years old and wear long, plain white muslin dresses with simple collars.
Two or three hundred people have come to watch our hanging. They talk and mill about. The men wear vests, shirts with puffy sleeves, and knee-length pants. Some have black or brown hats on their heads, but most hold them in their hands. The women wear long dresses in green, brown, or maroon.
Memories flooded in from this past life. This was Salem, Massachusetts. Our community had experienced a glut of baby girls all born around the same time. We grew up and blossomed into womanhood together.
Our group was on a different spiritual path from the rest of the community. Like a club with a secret language, we spoke of self-love and confidence, openly rebelling against the conservative rules of the town.
Unfortunately, some of the girls chose a darker path. They openly dabbled in black magic. Trying to make others do their will, they cast love spells and practiced seduction.
All of this was too much for the older factions of the town. The people feared we could still cast spells if we were merely imprisoned, so they decided to execute all of us.
One possible way to avoid execution, although not guaranteed, was to accuse another person of witchcraft. I was told someone had pointed the finger at me. But who was it?
As I stood in line waiting for the trapdoor to drop from beneath me, my awareness turned from the crowd to the girl standing to my right. She had always been competitive with me. Now, moments before our deaths, she was staring at me with an expression of fear mixed with guilt and sorrow.
I instantly recognized this Soul as someone I knew in this lifetime. I felt angry, betrayed, and helpless as the trapdoor dropped out from under me. There was a moment of excruciating pain, then darkness.
At the same moment the trapdoor fell in my contemplation, my neck suddenly clicked into place. I sat up in bed to find the pain was completely gone! Not only was I released from physical pain, but I now understood more about the karmic link with the Soul who had accused me of witchcraft. It was a deep healing on several levels.
This experience held many blessings, and I am grateful. I am constantly amazed by how thoroughly the ECK, Holy Spirit, can work to resolve karma if we are willing to work with It!
Excerpted from the 2008 Eckankar Journal, copyright © 2007 ECKANKAR. All rights reserved. Illustration by Catherine Purnell.
