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Does anyone remember the Salem Witch Trials?

windows2thesoul

windows2thesoul

Probationary
Greetings everyone!

I have been browsing through and was wondering if anyone remembers the Salem Witch Trials? I've had a fascination with Salem ever since my family and I first visited the area back in the early 90's. When we went through the Salem Witch Museum I remember being drawn to Gile Corey's exhibit. He was a man who was pressed to death in 1692.

(If you would like to read more about him click here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giles_Corey)

Anyway, I'm not sure if Giles Gorey is a ghost or has passed on but I feel like I could have been him or at least a person who witnessed his death. His last words, "More weight" sends chills up my spine every time I hear it. Also the area, especially the graveyard feels familiar to me.
 
It's a subject that interests me greatly. I have no recollections of a life during that time at the moment, but I have always been attracted to New England. The thought of what happened there due to popular hysteria makes me very nervous when the general populatuion these days get carried away with personalities and other things. "Groupthink" I believe they call it. It scares the beejabbers out of me!
 
Although I have no memories or illusions of having been alive during that period, I have a great interest in that period and location, along with a deep unabiding disdain for the kind of violent and twisted hysteria that comes from people holding strong belief in any kind of dogma.


I must, at the same time, confess that I have a namesake ancestor, who was a noted witch hunter during the 1590's. Whether this is meaningful or only coincident is unknown to me, and I can only say that my deepest nature is to fight against such behavior.
 
Hi Salem. I wasn't in Salem for the witch craze during the 1690's, but I was burned as an accused witch in Europe a hundred years before that. Scary times. It's something that I still have a hard time letting go of. Obviously, I can't tell you whether or not you were Giles Corey, but I know the feeling of that jolt of energy you feel when you come across something that just hit close to home. There is an inner knowing that it is something that is significant to your story. It wouldn't have awaked you and come into your awareness if it didn't hold some kind of meaning.
 
hiya Salem!


The salem witch trials have always been really interesting for me. I've read a number of books about this time period but I don't recall a past life there.


I do have some memories of being put to death for being a witch in europe (possibly france) in an earlier era.
 
Hi Salem,


I've always been fascinated by Salem and the trials, as well. I don't have any memories of being there - but I do share a past life with one of our forum members who was put to a "floating test" in Kilkenny, Ireland. It was absolutely horrific to witness.


Aili
 
Despite what my username may bring you to believe I am more than simply Angelica C. Schuyler, but that is the only past life I could confirm.

I too remember Salem. And in frightening detail. I remember my trial, my conviction... my hanging. I remember it all. Just not who I am.
 
Mind if I ask a question? Does anyone know the religion of those in Salem being burned as witches, and that of those who did the burning of humans? I think the fear tactics of burning people as witches had a lot to do with the conquering of a particular place by a particular people who rewrote history to steal the historic truth and write themselves in as heroes. It was a way to damage the reputations of good people so that the evil ones could take over under false pretenses. A woman like me would have been drowned as "a free thinking woman" long ago, simply for pointing out the truth ! Have a nice day!
 
That's one angle, the rewriting of history by the conquerors is an age-old theme.

Another age-old theme is looking for a scapegoat, and/or making human or animal sacrifices to appease the gods. These things echo through human history, right up to the present day, though the people carrying out these actions may describe their reasoning in different terms. Perhaps primitive instincts often drive people, even when those same people like to think of themselves as highly-civilised, cultured and scientific.
 
That's very true. You know we do have a great deal of information on the Salem trials. I'd be curious to know to what extent was the crime of 'witchcraft' practiced in early colonial society? The Salem trials appear to have been publicized greatly. No doubt it's the one most know about. But there must have been others but not on Salem's publicity. And finally, did the aftermath of the Salem trials root the practice of witchcraft completely out of colonial America?
 
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