INSIDE THE GURU'S GATE - Anpere

through the possessed victim’s body. During the divination session the ghost reveals
itself and usually exploits the victim’s body and senses in the most grotesque way:
heaping abuses, screaming, and swinging the head and arms.
Mata ji requested the father to bring Aman to the clinic for séances on five
Wednesdays in a row. Before every visit Aman was told to not take bath or comb her
hair and to keep her hair untied. During the first sessions Mata ji tried to force the
ghost to speak by pulling Aman’s hair and hitting her, but without success. The
“shadow” was stubbornly silent. Not before the third visit did it begin to communicate,
and during the two following visits Mata ji was able to chart the spirit’s identity,
the cause of the affliction, and set the terms for its release of Aman’s body. The healer
put up a strategy and began negotiations with the ghost. This can be a tricky task
since ghosts are believed to be extremly mendacious.
Since Aman’s father was the only person present at the practice, he recollected
the dialogue that took place between Mata ji and the spirit:
Mata ji asked:
- Who are you?
She said:
- I am Selma
Then Mata ji asked:
- From where have you come?
She said:
- From Madhanpura.
Then she asked:
- Why did you catch her?
She said:
- Because she threw a tasted leaf-plate on me, so I caught her.
She asked:
- How will you leave her?
Then she said:
- If they will do offerings for me. Give me salvation. Then I will leave
her.
Then Mata ji asked:
- How will we be confirmed that you have left her?
She said:
- I will leave a blue mark on the body.
Mata ji asked:
- Where?
She said:
- On the feet. When I leave she should not turn her face or watch me.
The dialogue is a reconstruction from a fragmentary memory, but may still give an
idea of how Mata ji was communicating with spirits. She found out that the opri chaya
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Published on www.anpere.net in May 2008