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Prophecy, Sorcery, and Reincarnation
Iqaluit. She was convinced that the only way to really learn is expe-
rientially, when body, mind, and soul are pushed into new realms of
self-awareness and emotional intensity. She wanted to hear stories of
our adventures at the outpost camp, and she was somewhat unusual
in that respect. Most other residents thought it bizarre that my wife
and I would want to spend most of our time at a tiny hunting camp,
far from the familiar faces and conveniences of town life, confined
to cramp quarters, and constantly constrained by weather, wind, and
shifting sea-ice patterns.
Meeka’s autobiography is overflowing with mystic presence; ex-
traordinary experiences provided coherence and consistency to her
life story. Although she did not belong to a particular church, she was
raised Anglican by her parents in the town of Pangnirtung. Meeka
had recently separated from her partner, and she obtained custody
over her daughter, then nine years old. She was finishing a public ad-
ministration class at Nunavut Arctic College, and she would soon be
offered a job as executive assistant at the Baffin Regional Inuit Asso-
ciation. But she was also a mystic (my label, not hers), full of intrigu-
ing narratives and an unshakable faith in the presence of supernatu-
ral forces in the world.
Although I did not think she was a quack or a con, I did not know
how to respond to her descriptions of near-death experiences or en-
counters with deceased persons. She had had enough tragedy and
emotionally intense experiences in her life to make me think that she
was sincere in her beliefs and fully capable of distinguishing the real
from projections of her own ego. She had lost all vital signs for sev-
eral minutes during the birth of her daughter, and she describes hav-
ing an out-of-body experience in which she was able to pass through
walls. In fact, she felt that she had been without a body, merging seam-
lessly into the tunnel of light in front of her. When she saw her body
lying on the gurney the hospital room, it was dirty and constraining.
She sometimes wonders why she came back. I am glad she did, be-
cause she is a help to many in the community, including residents of
outpost camps. She is now a guide for ecotourism excursions to out-
post camps, and any net income she makes goes straight to the out-
post camps.
