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Cerunne: Dutch case with paranormal elements

Titus Rivas

Senior Registered
The case of Cerunne
In the Spring of 2001 a Dutch friend of mine, Ms. Anja Janssen told me that she knew a married couple in Molenhoek who had a daughter with memories of a previous life. I met all the family members, Christine Thijssen, Sirat Bouts and their four daughters in May of 2001. My team also spoke to them on the phone and asked them questions via normal mail.
The girl who claimed to remember a previous life was called Cerunne and she was 7 when I personally met her. Both her parents had had some belief in reincarnation before the case developed though they weren't interested in propagating it.
Christine had an announcing dream in the eighth month of her pregnancy with Cerunne. She saw a strange "Pictic" woman in her forties, barefoot and dressed in fur, who held deer antlers in her hand. It was as if this woman told her telepathically that she was going to give birth to a daughter and that she should call her "Deer". She also told her the child had had a difficult past life. This experience made the parents choose a Celtic name for their daughter, Cerunne, which is derived from the Celtic divinity Cerunnos or Kernunnos associated with deer and a world between death and rebirth.
During the first two years of her life, Cerunne was a silent child but very quick in her motor development. She also seemed a bit boyish, both physically and psychologically.
When Cerunne was about 2 or 3 years old, she spontaneously told her parents about a previous life as a sailor. She commented on the waves in a swimming pool saying that she used to see waves which were much higher, as tall as a house. She also told them that life at sea could be very strange. Sometimes there had been a storm all night and the next morning everything was completely silent. Often Cerunne would draw a saling-ship and she claimed that the passenger-ship she had sailed on had been called the Vurk. Aboard, she had many tasks, including watching the sail and pennants and being on watch, but also caring for the passengers. She also described where the adult passengers and the children were lying at night, and stated that they didn't have beds or hammocks, just a pillow and a blanket. They urinated somewhere on the floor, as there wasn't any sanitation around. There were dead cows aboard off which they cut pieces of meat. They also ate raw meat. Sometimes there were fights with knives among the sailors aboard, but she said she couldn't stand rudeness and agression herself. Also, there was an accident in which a friend of hers fell from a mast and broke his back. There was a large rudder. She also mentioned the word "moekille" (Dutch Spelling), a pointed walking stick which was also used as a weapon. Her own name was Peer (Dutch Spelling) and she was a lean man with a black beard.
The ship sailed to la Garoonya or Karoonya (English Spelling) to pick up poor families and take them to a harbour with palm trees, on an island. There were mountains in the background and only a few small shops. The poor families weren't slaves and they were fair-skinned. Sometimes the ship moored illegally. On the island she sometimes slept in filthy huts, but the inhabitants were very nice, relaxed and easy-going.

So far part 1 of this case.

Titus Rivas, Athanasia Foundation
 
Part 2

Cerunne, part 2

When she was 7, her memories seemed largely intact, but she felt too embarassed to talk about them with strangers such as myself. She had just told her parents that she had been at least 95 years old when she died and had remained fit for most of her life. She mentioned dry biscuits they had been eating aboard the ship. She commented: "We were healthy men".
A remarkable skill that might be related to her memories of a life as a sailor was an unlearned agility in climbing. Cerunne showed this skill from a very young age and never suffered from fear of hights. She couldn't swim however, though she was convinced she could. According to her parents she also showed a toughness uncommon in girls of her age.
Our team established that in the 19th and early 20th Century la Coruña (which phonetically is very close to la Karoonya) used to be an important harbour for immigration to the Spanish colonies, including Cuba, an island with palm trees. The (white) Galician immigrants were so poor that they were known as "Galician slaves" (escravos galegos). The word moekille can be related to the word makila, a originally Basque pointed walking stick which was also used as a weapon. The makila had become known in the Galician region of La Coruña through the pilgrimages to Santiago de Compostela.

The names Peer and Vurk may with some imagination be seen as distortions of the Spanish name Pedro or Catalan name Per and the words Barco or Barca (ship). Especially because of La Karoonya and moekille, Athanasia Foundation considers this case not only as a classical CORT but as a definitely paranormal case as well.
There also is a strange link between Christine's announcing dream about a Celtic woman and La Coruña. The city of La Coruña, or part of it, was originally founded by the Celtic people of the Brigantes and known as Brigantia. Many elements of Galician culture are derived from this Celtic heritage. Besides, the divinity which was worshipped at Brigantia, Briga, was a fertility goddess and therefore thematically related to Kernunnos. Could this be an example of some kind of karmic relationship?

Titus Rivas, Athanasia Foundation
(I'm grateful to Mrs. Anny Stevens-Dirven, my general assistant).makila.jpeg
 
Just a question: isn't it better to use initials instead of real names to respect the privacy of this family? Or do they agree you publish their case and names on the internet?
 
Privacy matters

Good question, curious girl! :)

As researchers, we should always respect the wishes of the subjects we study. In most of my own Dutch research, the persons in question ask me to use a pseudonym, initials or exclusively the personal name (without the surname). In this case I've been explicitly given the right to use the original full names in serious publications of the case, such as this one.

The problem for many Dutch parents is the taboo that still rests on reincarnation. However, these parents live an alternative life style and have chosen not to bother about this taboo.


Best wishes,

Titus
 
Very interesting, could you tell me whom it is you refer when you say my team and then later you say as researchers? Do you do a lot of research into reincarnation and is this in the main based in Holland.
I have an interest in the Dutch aspect as my parents were from the Netherlands and immigrated to New Zealand from Indonesia around 1950 .
You say there is a tabo in Holland concerning reincarnation something I was not aware of and find surprising as the Dutch are so liberal in other matters.
 
Taboo

Hi Yoki (by the way is your name based on a Dutch original -Joke?),

My team in this case consisted of Anny Stevens-Dirven, my general assistent, Pieter van Wezel, our historian and advisor on historical matters, and myself.

We're trying to do as much research as possible. And yes, we're the main research foundation which investigates these cases in the Netherlands.

You say there is a tabo in Holland concerning reincarnation something I was not aware of and find surprising as the Dutch are so liberal in other matters.
Well, there is even some logic to it. The Dutch presumably have this 'national virtue' of being very 'nuchter', i.e. down to earth and rational. This would even be related to a liberal attitude towards religion and tolerance. However, there is also a negative side to this, in that outside alternative circles, in general it isn't very easy to openly admit that you're interested in parapsychology. People will generally tolerate you as before, but they might be inclined to take you less seriously. So unless you can be sure that others won't react negatively to your 'irrational' interests, for many people it's better not to be very open about them.

Groetjes,

Titus
 
The Dutch are indeed very down-to-earth, but I wouldn't say there is such a thing as a taboo on para-psychological things.
Most of the people here believe there's more between heaven and earth, even if they're not (very) religious at all.

We also have our believers here, also in reincarnation, but this down-to-earth mentality asks for evidence. So even if someone has a past life flash back, he will ask his friends: does such a thing as reincarnation really exist, or is it just a lack of sleep?

There are also enough people (in new-age kind of circles) who take reincarnation and other para-psychological things seriously. But most of all: ratio rules in Holland :)

It's completely rational to have a spiritual world view!

Curious Girl.
 
Taboo or something quite close to it

Hi Curious Girl,

Well maybe the word taboo is a bit too strong for some. What I wanted to say is that the paranormal is not a topic you'd would like to talk about with an average stranger over here. Although it depends on your circles and perhaps also on how assertive and outgoing you are. In Holland, it may feel less awkward to discuss one's erotical or political orientation or even religion than to start a conversation about the paranormal (as in real personal experiences).

It really is my experience that even a lot of parents within alternative circles are cautious about revealing their names, because they fear it might have negative repercussions. If not for themselves, for their children. Or as a girl with memories of her previous life put it: "They might all think I'm a fruitcake" ;)

Nice quotation by the way :)

Titus
 
I read what you both had to say and I would conclude that Dutch society is not much different from other western cultures in its attitude towards the paranormal.
My father was raised in a family of practising Dutch reformists; in fact it was a fundamentalist branch called the black caps. When he was old enough he went his own way finding Reincarnation and Theosophy
By the time we were living in small town New Zealand late nineteen fifties, vegetarianism and nudism were added. You can imagine when it became known that the Dutch immigrants in their midst held strange beliefs and ran around in the nude ,that the reaction was not good.
When I was old enough to go my own way I took the beliefs with me but kept them to myself.
Things have changed a little since then there are definitely more and more people interested in the alternative and there are more and more books available.
But to this day I will not talk about my interest in the paranormal unless the other person is receptive.
You are right about the name Titus it was a bit difficult within a English speaking community so we changed it.
 
Saraswati

amma said:
What is your connection with the Indian Goddess (Saraswathi)?.

A symbolic one. In my research I want to serve truth and wisdom, and I understand that she's the Indian Goddess which represents these qualities more than any other.

By the way, the Greek Goddess Pallas Athena and the Roman Goddess Minerva, as well as the God Apollo are also favorite symbols for me, for the same reason. Similarly, I also like king Solomon as an icon of the thirst for wisdom and knowledge.

Concerning Saraswati, I once experienced the following strange coincidence. Years ago I had never heard of her, while I already used the symbol of Athena as a personal emblem. During the Dutch national holiday known as Queen's day they organise fancy fairs all over the country. At one of these fairs I bought a poster of an Indian divinity, just out of curiosity. It was only later on that I learnt that it was an image of Sarasvati. By the way, this is the only poster I ever bought of any Indian god or goddess.

Since then, I've used Sarasvati as a symbol for the capacity of making the right kind of distinctions in a Dutch article about animal rights.

That about sums it up I think.

Best wishes,

Titus
 
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