Encountering the unsettled dead in Genocide Museum

[Neville]

Last year before the lockdown, I managed to travel to Phnom Penh with my partner for a short holiday. We chose PP because I love Southeast Asia and I wanted to explore the region. Another reason I insisted on going to Cambodia was that I felt a strange sense of attraction towards it. So, we went there, booked an Airbnb in the busy city of PP, and decided to visit different cultural sites there.

Like many spiritual experiences, it always started with a dream. On this occasion, it started on our first night in PP, before we even visited any touristic spots. Our Airbnb was maybe a 10-15 minutes drive away from S21, the infamous Genocide Museum. I have neither visited the museum nor have I seen many pictures or documentaries about it. I have heard tales about it in schools but I could not form a strong impression of the place. On that night, I dreamt of the museum. I remember vividly being in the museum itself and navigating through the corridors of the museum. There were people looking at me, a lot of them looked as if they were trying to reach out to me. It did not feel like a horrible dream where I was being attacked or something, but it felt like someone / some people were trying to talk to me.

So the next day, we decided to visit the museum. The moment we stepped into the museum, I felt a strange sense of discomfort and a choking sensation. Perhaps it was stuffy or there were a lot of people, but I found it difficult to feel at peace with myself there. I wandered on my own, exploring different wings of the museum. The first wing had four levels. I climbed up the stairs and vividly recalled that at the 3rd level, I felt like someone was telling me to stop going up. Also, it felt a bit spooky that at 2 pm in the afternoon, there were only one or two tourists at the 3rd storey.

So, I went to the other wing where they locked families up into cubicles. There, I remembered standing in between the low walls and that exact same dream sequence emerged. While I did not see anyone physically there, I could feel rows and rows of famished prisoners looking at me. If I had to describe how they looked like, I would say that they possessed a look of curiosity and surprise. I felt utterly uncomfortable at that very moment because I felt helpless and physically uncomfortable. I left the building and reunited with my partner at the entrance of the museum. In order to collect my nerves, I chanted Buddhist mantras in my head and prayed for the poor souls.

Following that, we left the place, undisturbed. But this very strange experience left me wondering: why did I feel all these? Were they trying to communicate something to me? In my past life, was I one of them?

I would greatly appreciate some insights into this. Thank you! 🙂

Discussion

[atumz]

I have felt similar situations mostly on churches. I cannot enter a church without crying and feeling very overwhelmed, and i also dream about churches a lot.
I think in your case, you were feeling the spirits trapped in the museum. I have heard that in very distressful and horrible deaths spirits usually can’t move on from the pain, and stay in the place they died. They were probably calling for help, and trying to get your attention.
You did very good with the praying. There are a lot of enlightened spirits and angels working on rescuing lost souls trapped, and your prayer was definitely heard.

[kathy8675309]

The feeling I am getting with that is, for one you were drawn to there, so it could have easily been your home at one time? and for you to have the feelings that you were feeling between the dream, and the feelings you had when you entered the Museum it is very possible that you could have been reliving the memories of a past life, when you said you had a choking feeling it reminds me of the way they used to drag people, around in those chains and metal brace that went around their neck? My husband had a similar thing happen to him, when he was stationed at Fort Sill Oklahoma, he was never there before in life, but right when he got there, he could tell where everything was on post, and off post, even before he was fully settled in there, he fit in with the Native Community almost instantly, and ended up marrying a Native women (his first wife) that said they were in a past life together, in Oklahoma .