I Came To Think I Suffered A Psychic Disorder: Close Encounters
My initiation
process had several phases. The spirits always appeared to me in a corporal form,
but I could only see the upper part of their bodies. They never showed the legs.
Besides, they began appearing wearing constumes from other times. First they were
Africans, later on appeared Americans, Europeans and Hindis. Through those communications
I learned the identity of the spirits. Many of them revealed their names, origin
and other things to me.
For instance, my heading spirit says his name is Rafael Gutiérrez. He was Puerto
Rican and lived in the beginning of the 19th century. He was an intellectual and
a poet. The name of one of my working spirits at cordon is Vincente and he is from
Africa. Another one is named Francisca. They appear spontaneously or when I call
them.
I remember I was deeply impressed by my first communicative experience with the spirit
of a relative. She committed suicide because of love problems. That was the first
spirit from someone I knew that appeared to me. I recognized clearly her voice, although,
when she died, I was still a child. She asked me: "What would you think if a
spirit that loves you dearly would pass through you?" I felt as if I had received
an electric shock. I was scared and fainted. I don't know how long I was unconscious.
It was night time, but still early. I was in front of the mirror combing my hair
before going to the street. I was around fifteen years old and I knew nothing about
spirits.
Excerpts from a text that appeared in Del Caribe Journal No. 26/1997. Subscriptions
to the journal (in spanish) are available through Eleggua Project