Theos-Talk Archives (December 2002 Message tt00259)

Larry, I hope you read this one. Everyone, I'm beginning to 
entertain a crackpot theory. Just last month I had a genealogical 
breakthrough with the ancestry of my mother's father's mother, who 
had been a "brick wall." Found out her paternal grandfather was born 
in Sharon, VT in the late 18th century. (After he married he moved 
to Durham, NY which is near the Catskills.) This struck me as 
significant because the first time I was ever blown away by the 
feeling of the sacredness of a place was when I was 14 and visiting 
the Joseph Smith birthplace in Sharon, VT. Since this took place 
during a five-month infatuation with Mormonism, I always attributed 
the feeling of sacredness to my mindset about Joseph Smith.

But then I found out that on her mother's side this great-grandma was 
descended from a large number of 17th-century inhabitants of 
Middletown, CT. I visited a Theosophical friend there in the mid-90s 
and immediately started raving to him about how much I loved the area 
and how strangely at home I felt there. There really aren't many 
American places where I've had this inexplicable sense of sacredness 
or being at home. So now I am wondering, is it possible that the 
unknown presence of ancestral vibes in a place can 
somehow "magnetize" it for us? Anyone else had such an experience?

Paul