When I first saw this thread, I debated in my mind whether or not I should reply to it, because even though the strongest and most healing experience I've had to do with past lives stems from this, I'm not exactly anonymous and neither is the person it happened to.
Recently, though, I saw that an American Senator, Scott Brown, wrote about being molested in an autobiography. Everyone that interviewed him about his book made that incident pretty much the central point of the interview, but he handled the attention admirably. I thought it was a very brave and noble thing for him to do, because it's a sad fact that sexual assault is a crime that often seems to diminish the victim in its revelation. Then, just yesterday, Oprah had a show on where the entire audience was filled with men who had been raped or molested. I was surprised to hear that 1 in 6 men have experienced this kind of abuse as a child.
It doesn't take much reflection to realize how much horrible destructive power sexual assault wreaks on people's psyches and how much of this power is fueled by silence. While researching a possible PL, I came upon a portrait of someone this PL would have known as a youth. I recoiled and my blood went cold immediately when I saw it, as if I had just avoided touching a deadly snake. I couldn't bear to look at it. Still, I checked the book out from the library and forced myself to look at the portrait when I got home, curious as to why it should cause such a strong physical repulsion in me.
It was then that I realized that the person I had been researching was raped and molested by the person in the portrait when he was about 11 or 12. Not only did I realize it, I actually experienced the physical sensations of this happening to me. In the end I (Jody) wound up sobbing uncontrollably at the foot of my bed -- but it wasn't so much *Jody* who was sobbing, it was this past life person sobbing *through me*.
This ended up being a cathartic experience and looking at the portrait doesn't bother me anymore. But the effect this crime had on the victim's life is evident -- he was never able to have a normal relationship with women, and I think he was unnaturally fixated on young people which made him particularly vulnerable to scandal. Towards the end of his life he was accused of raping a young girl (I don't believe this in a million years, I think his enemies set him up with teen-aged prostitute to destroy his career). The case was thrown out of court but it totally ruined his reputation. Sadly, this was about the only thing that mattered to him, and he died a lonely wretch a few years later.
At the time of the molestation, there was nobody this poor guy could have talked to, and literally nothing he could do except run away from the situation, which he did. So I'm talking about it today in hopes that in the future, shameful silence won't continue to fester and destroy people's lives.
I'm glad something good came out of it though with your support group!
