was fascinated by the way that the skull reacted to light. It appeared completely different depending on how it was lit, almost as if its face were changing, and as it was changing so too were the patterns and refractions of the light inside. I held it up to the sunlight. Although the sun was not particularly bright, the effects on the skull were none the less beautiful. The prismatic qualities of the crystal created a display of reflections that showed quite clearly all the different colours of the rainbow. It was stunningly beautiful.
I was interested to know how the skull looked in really bright sunshine. ‘Well, it gave me a shock,’ said Anna, as we settled back down with a pot of tea. She told us how she had been showing the skull to a group of schoolchildren. She had put it on its cushion and then turned her back to talk for a few minutes, only to hear the children shrieking, ‘It’s smoking, madam!’ Anna turned around to see that the cushion was beginning to catch fire.
Jimmy explained that the prismatic qualities of the crystal are such that if the sun’s rays are very strong and fall at a particular angle onto the back of the skull, they are focused and condensed and appear as a bright, sharp beam of light out of the skull’s eyes, nose and mouth. ‘If this happens for more than a few minutes then the skull can actually start a fire,’ he added.
‘This was one of the things that the Mayans used the skull for,’ said Anna.
We were interested to know exactly what the skull’s uses had been.
‘The Mayans used the skull for many things, but particularly for healing,’ said Anna. ‘If you are ever worried or not feeling well or anything like that, you just go to the skull and it gives you health, happiness and joy of life.’ She continued, ‘I have a tremendous amount of letters. I love to read those letters from people who are being healed by it.’
‘Remember Melissa,’ said Jimmy.
‘Oh, that little girl who had the bone marrow trouble,’ replied Anna. ‘She came to stay with us for a few weeks, and I gave her a photograph of the skull and she carries that photograph with her everywhere. Anyway, she came back to tell me that her bone marrow is fine and she can walk now. That’s the biggest joy of my life really. Another lady, only last month, she had an operation but she wasn’t doing very well. So she came and she saw the skull and sat with him for a very long time. She sent me a letter the other day to say that she is now healed.’
I was puzzled. If the skull really had the power to heal, why had Anna’s father even in his written account referred to it as ‘the Skull of Doom’ and claimed that the ancient Maya had used it ‘to will death’?
Anna explained, ‘The Maya told us that it was a healing skull. It was actually used for many, many things, but particularly for healing. But, you see, for the Maya, death itself was sometimes seen as a form of healing.’
‘The way I understand it,’ added Jimmy, ‘is that for the Maya death was the ultimate way to access the other dimensions they believed in and the skull was used to help this final transition to the other world.’
‘I can tell you exactly how the Maya used it during the willing death ceremony,’ said Anna. ‘This came about when an old medicine man or priest was getting too old to carry on their work and a young person was chosen to carry on the work of the elder. When the day came, the old one would lie down and the young one would kneel down beside them and they would both put their hands on the crystal skull. Then a high priest would perform a ceremony and during the ceremony all the knowledge and wisdom of the old one would pass on into the young one through the skull and the old one would pass away during the ceremony and go to sleep forever. And that was the willing death ceremony.’
Anna went on to explain that she had been looking after the skull for many years now and letting people come to her house and experience its power for themselves. She said the Mayan people knew what she was doing with the skull and that they were very happy about it. She said that before she died she wanted to ensure that the work she had been doing would be carried on. ‘This is what my father would have wished and it is the wish of the Maya people too.’ She added, ‘I think I have someone in mind already to take over the care of the skull when I’m gone.’ She said she was also planning a final visit to Lubaantun. We wondered whether Anna was planning to give the skull back to the Mayan people, but she said the skull would not be going with her.
In Annas opinion, the crystal skull was bequeathed to her and her father for a reason, a reason whose time would come. ‘The Mayans told me that the skull is important to mankind. It is a gift from the Mayan people to the rest of the world.’ She added, ‘The Mayans have a lot of knowledge. They gave us the skull for a definite reason and a purpose. I am not exactly sure what that reason is, but I know that this skull is part of something very, very important.’
We of course wanted to know more, but all Anna would say was, ‘You will just have to ask the Mayans.’
Every now and then in the history of mankind there comes a discovery so unique and so incredible that it cannot be explained according to our normal set of beliefs and everyday assumptions, a discovery so remarkable that it challenges our normal view of history, and therefore our whole view of the world today. Could it be that the crystal skull was just such a discovery?
After all, we had always assumed that we were more advanced and developed than our simple and primitive ancestors. Everything we had learned about human history seemed to have shown that civilization had logically evolved in a constantly improving fashion over the millennia, so that we now found ourselves, almost by definition, living at the very pinnacle of mankind’s evolutionary development.
The crystal skull appeared to challenge this view. For how could such ancient and ‘primitive’ people have made something so accomplished? Indeed, where exactly did the Maya, with their elaborate cities, their complex hieroglyphics, their mathematics and calendrics, and their knowledge of astronomy, fit in with our simple model of a constantly evolving and improving human history?
The skull was a mystery. Not only was it beautiful to look at, but it seemed that nearly everyone who had come into contact with it had some strange tale to tell of unusual experiences or inexplicable phenomena. Whatever its real powers, the skull certainly seemed to have us entranced.
Now we knew crystal skulls were not just the stuff of legend, there were other questions to consider. Were there any other skulls like Anna’s? What did her skull have to do with the ancient legend? Why did some people, including Anna’s own father, consider it evil, whilst for others, such as Anna, it was a force for good? And had the ancient Maya really made such a beautiful and sophisticated object themselves?
After our visit to Anna Mitchell-Hedges, these questions remained unanswered. But our desire to find the answers was now even more pressing. We began by trying to find out more about the ancient Mayan civilization. From the books we were now reading it seemed that archaeologists had managed to reconstruct quite a vivid picture of it from the detailed inscriptions, monuments and artwork the Maya had left behind. They had a pretty good idea of many of their ancient customs, rituals, knowledge and beliefs, and in some cases very specific information, such as the birth dates of kings and the names of their ancestors for up to seven generations.
So we now began talking to various Mayan experts and archaeologists, hoping that they might be able to tell us more about the crystal skull. Did the Mayans make it at the same time as
