An investigation into the phenomena and practices of spiritual ...

a special „Blacthology‟ (c.f. Toulis 1997). In addition to this, adults who haveexperienced abuse as children may live with its memory suppressed and without a deepsubconscious healing and a conscious effort to engage in forgiveness of the perpetrators.Respondent 11 (COGIC) indicated that suffering took the form of a void in her life, whichcould almost be called an open wound. Her mother had died when she was born. Sheexperienced a deep sense of rejection before she was made conscious that her mother diedat her birth.Her story: ‗My father died before I was born and my mother died the day I was born. I didnot know that the woman who raised me was not my mother till I was in my thirties.During a healing session I went for prayer for healing. During the prayer I was told toforgive my mother. This was puzzling to me as I was not holding anything against mother.I appreciate all that my adopted mother had done for me and accepted the explanation thatwas given to me about my biological mother. Another person offered to represent mymother and apologized for not being there for me. She said ‘I am sorry for not being thereto feed you, provide shelter and clothing for you, for not being there to take you to schooland for all the other things a mother would do for her child‘ During the session I wasextremely tearful but after the experience I felt that a weight had been lifted from me. I feltthat the missing link of my life was replaced.The interpretation, that had been arrived at, was that the child continued to be connected tothe mother spiritually and emotionally and suffered the loss of her mother although she didnot realize this on a conscious level. It addresses speculations about whether the personwho raised the child had a different method of child rearing to that which would have been217