PILGRIMAGE TO MONT ST MICHEL

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PILGRIMAGE TO MONT ST MICHEL: Photographing Spirits

In February, 2000 while on a weekend pilgrimage to Mont St. Michel in the Normandy region of France, I had an experience that caused a fundamental shift in my consciousness. At the time I was living in Germany, working for the U.S. Army as a Drug and Alcohol Counselor. A friend had been talking to me about Mont St. Michel for some time and asked me to accompany her on a weekend pilgrimage.  

We arrived late Friday evening. The streets were all but empty. I felt my body relax as I attuned to the energies of the site. I intuited the sacredness and healing energy of this site. I felt that this was a site where a healer would come to be healed. A sense of peace and serenity surrounded me. 

Mont St. Michel is an abbey that was built after a monk received a vision from the Archangel Michael telling him to build an abbey on this small hill. Once a month the ocean, at high tide, surrounds the small isle. It has been a site of pilgrimage for hundreds of years. It was not an easy pilgrimage, quicksand at low tide and treacherous waves at high tide made it a very difficult trip. Many pilgrims lost their lives as they sought the healing or spiritual gifts they were in need of. Mont St. Michel also has a multifarious history. It was the site of a prison. Many prisoners, including political prisoners, were kept in caves carved into the stone beneath the mound. 

The next day we explored the island and eventually visited the Abbey. My companion and I had differing agendas so we parted and planned to meet later. I spent some time alone in two of the chapels and in the crypts. Just before leaving the Abbey I entered the Scriptorium, a very large rectangular room with a vaulted ceiling. At the end of the room was a large dome shaped window of white cut glass. In front of the window was a backlit model of Mont St. Michel enclosed in glass. I wanted to take a picture, however there were two people viewing the model and I did not want their reflections in the glass. I noticed that there were no visitors in the room behind me. As soon as I could no longer see reflections, including my own, I took the picture with my digital camera and left. My companion was expecting me to meet her and I was late.

I was shocked when I viewed the picture on my computer. There were reflections of a group of people in the glass, within the background of the photo. Some appeared to be looking at me and some did not. The figures are in period dress dating to the 18th or 19th Century. In one case there is a very thin face of a woman transposed on the face of another woman. On the far left there is a large man, who seems to be wearing an ermine coat. (See photo on Home Page of this web-site.)

I returned to Mont St. Michel three weeks later. I had to prove to myself that the figures in the photos could not have been caused by reflections. The Scriptorium was as empty of decoration as I had remembered it. I climbed to a platform to the left of the model and saw that the top was covered with a heavy layer of dust and handprints from visitors. There was nothing that I could see that would have caused the reflections. I had already ruled out double exposure, it was a digital camera, but just in case I stopped by the museum and asked an attendant if he knew of anything that could have caused the reflections. He said that he did not and added, “They’re not tourists.”

I am convinced that the photograph I took contained the images of spirits that, for whatever reason, were inhabiting this building.  It was from this experience that I recognized that I had the potential to take pictures of nature that could reveal energies that were not visible to the naked eye. I was made aware that there are energies present that I do not understand and about which I would like to learn more. 

I am usually quite skeptical about things I do not understand. In this case, I am not skeptical at all. I know. As to why I was able to take this photo, I remain in the dark. I just know I did.