Cathar Mania

I started reading Arthur Guirdham’s books [about reincarnation] in the 1970s and was so carried away by the first one that I decided to move to Bath. Although Guirdham never says he lived in Bath, it is easy to recognise the city through his descriptions.

When I moved to Bath I got a job as a receptionist in a doctor’s surgery in Pulteney Street. After a while I discovered that Dr Guirdham was a patient at the surgery and everyone knew him well. One day one of the GPs in the Practice rang down to the reception area and requested the notes for a Miss Smith as he had been given those for Mrs Smith by mistake. I found the notes, which were rather dilapidated, and when I picked them up a letter from Dr Guirdham fell out. I am afraid I read the letter as I thought the coincidence was too great to ignore. In the letter Dr Guirdham described that he had been on holiday in the Lake District with Miss Smith (pseudonym for Clare Mills) when she had had what seemed to be a heart attack. Dr Guirdham knew she was a patient at Pulteney Street, so he thought he would write to her doctor and mention the incident. Coincidently (or not) I was in the middle of reading The Lake and the Castle at the time (Guirdham’s latest book in which he actually describes the ‘heart attack’ incident.)

So then I had proof that Clare (Miss Smith) was a real person and the described incident was true. I asked the other receptionists about ‘Miss Smith’ and they told me she was a middle-aged lady with a pink and white complexion and fair hair (exactly as described by Guirdham in The Cathars and Reincarnation). So imagine my excitement when she came into the surgery one day. and yes, she did look exactly as described by Guirdham. who also mentions that she was a physiotherapist (which she was). I was so thrilled to have this secret knowledge about her. Of course I never should have read Guirdham’s letter in the first place, but it literally fell out of the notes. And I must confess I do not believe in coincidence.

As for the Bath Cathar mania, it was very real. Loads of people started to ‘remember’ past lives as Cathars. There were organised trips to the Languedoc and all the Cathar landmarks. The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail came out and the three authors, Baigent, Lee and Lincoln, gave very successful lectures in Bath to crowded audiences.

By now, 18 people, all living in or near Bath, claimed to have lived together as Cathars. It was a huge romantic idea enthusiastically taken up by the inhabitants of Bath, which already boasted a lot of eccentric inhabitants.

At the time I believed all the Cathar stories until I came across a little book by Lynda Harris, The Cathars and Arthur Guirdham (published by PsyPioneer), which manages to throw cold water on the whole story. Towards the end of the book, Harris says: “It should be added at this stage that several people whom I interviewed told me that Guirdham’s wife, and all the other members of his immediate family (with one exception) were sceptical about the stories of group reincarnation which came to dominate much of his later life. Mrs Guirdham it seems took a particularly dim view of the whole set of stories...”

Harris queries whether Clare Mills really existed and says that even if she did, all the stories could have been made up. I know for sure that she was a real person, but as for the stories, I now have doubts. One really fascinating observation that Harris makes is that Guirdham never actually met any of the ‘reincarnated Cathars’ who he had known in a previous life and were now supposedly living near him. I didn’t believe this at first, but when I read the book again I saw it was true.

I have no idea what the Cathar situation is at the moment. When I was in Glastonbury a few years ago, I saw a building with a notice inviting people to join the Cathars. Apparently (according to them) Catharism has always been flourishing underground – somewhere! This doesn’t seem very likely as Catharism can only be passed on by the laying on of hands by their parfaits (priests); and if all the parfaits are dead... then what?

Anna David (pseud)

Wellington, Somerset

Editorial note: see the author’s previous letter, FT408:75