'I was a high priestess in ancient Egypt'

It was 4am and Alexandra Wenman was in a B&B high up in the mountains of Cusco, Peru, 11,000ft above sea level. Since arriving the day before, she had been suffering from altitude sickness, feeling dizzy and nauseous.

-  HANNAH BRITT

"I woke up in the early hours feeling terrible and I searched in my bag for my rainbow obsidian. I carry crystals everywhere," says Alexandra, 47, from Tottenham, North London.

"I'd brought this one because it's a grounding stone, it pulls you back to Earth. I knew that being high up the altitude would affect me, and my fear of heights would surface too."

Holding the crystal, Alexandra hoped its healing properties would reduce her nausea. However, within seconds of touching the stone, Alexandra experienced a terrifying past-life flashback.

FLASHBACK

"I saw myself in the Inca city of Machu Picchu and I was being punished for stealing grain. My hands were brutally hacked off by guards, then I was put into a net and lowered over a cliff," says Alexandra.

"The vision was like a memory but stronger, I was reliving the moment. I could smell the earth and feel the intense pain. As I hung over the cliff, I saw myself trying to grab the rockface with my bleeding stumps. Then I fell to my death."

The vision ended, but Alexandra instinctively understood that her long-standing fear of heights had come from this past life.

"The following day, I visited Machu Picchu and explored the ruins. It didn't take me long to find the spot on a path, near the cliff edge, where I'd fallen to my death centuries before. I quietly said words of forgiveness for my killers and for myself. My sickness went and my fear of heights eased. And since this experience in 2016 my phobia hasn't returned."

Although this past-life holiday experience came from nowhere, it wasn't Alexandra's first encounter with the spirit world. As a four-year-old, she saw faces and angelic lights, and within a few years she could sense people's emotions.

CREATIVITY