Lourdes, France is a place of mystery and pilgrimage. In 1858, a Roman Catholic peasant girl, Benadette, saw a lady appear at the Massabielle Grotto in the Pyrenees mountains. This lady was of indescribable beauty. Benadette experienced her presence 18 times and eventually assumed it to be the Virgin Mary.
On May 15, 2025 Anne and I drove into the town of Lourdes to experience the grotto. We were confronted with tourist buses, pedestrians spilling onto the streets and traffic jams.
When we arrived at our hotel, Anne declared that we should hold up in our room and not go to the grotto until the next morning at dawn. She was exhausted by the masses of humanity and felt we could wait until the crowds subsided.
I questioned the timing, so I got out my trusty pendulum of over 40 years. The answer I received was that the crowds would be less tonight than in the morning. Anne couldn’t believe it because the front desk clerk had just told us that we had landed in the middle of the international military pilgrimage, and it would be busy. But Anne trusted my pendulum and agreed to go.
We grabbed our raincoats and took off walking to the other side of town. After thirty minutes, we approached the huge Sanctuaire Notre-Dame de Lourdes and the little grotto beneath it. My pendulum was right! There was only a handful of people in line to touch the rock walls of the grotto. Other pilgrims sat quietly gazing at the grotto from the amphitheater of chairs that faced it. Where was everyone?
We walked into the shallow cave past the healing spring, flowers and candles. We noticed the rock wall was worn smooth from people touching it over the last 167 years. Our walk-through was quick and uneventful. We saw no great vision and felt no high energy.
Anne said, “We need to approach this differently to get an intuitive hit of this place. Let’s go through it again and this time stop and meditate at the rock. Since there’s no one here, we can stay as long as we like to talk to the energies that created these apparitions.”
We quickly circled around the ropes to enter the grotto line again. A few people ahead of us were touching the rock and praying intently. Anne touched the rock at the exiting edge of this shallow cave and started receiving intuitive messages. I pulled out my phone to record the information she was getting. She whispered this to me:
“I first need to clear out my head. I’ve been judging this place for its religious overtones, and I need to get neutral. I want to see what Benadette experienced.”
Anne went into a meditative state, forgave herself for her judging, and relaxed into receiving information from higher wisdom. This is what she intuitively heard:
“Different realms offer different experiences. Things are different in different realms. Things are real that you don’t realize. Things are more real than you believe. Just because you don’t see something doesn’t mean it’s not there.”
“The apparition is no more real than you are. It’s no less real either. It’s a matter of you choosing to see it and make meaning of it that is appropriate for you. Others will make meaning that is appropriate for them.”
Anne then felt the energy of love and support come forward and engulf her. She sensed that this is what Benadette experienced long ago. This energy brought comfort to those in need at that time. The need for comfort is still present today, and this energy is still showing up in response to that need.
Anne saw this loving energy encircling those who requested to receive it. It appeared as sparkles of light that held love in the gaps between the light. This gentle energy embraced and bolstered them while they brought in this healing light. It was not there to save them but to support them.
This made sense, and we felt complete. Leaving that meditative space, we turned the corner around the church that was later built over the grotto. A policeman barked at us to step aside. Thousands of military personnel from all over the world were marching towards us. The people we had expected to see in the grotto were either in the oncoming parade or watching it.
As we stood to the side by the healing waters, we reviewed our experience at the grotto. On our first walk through, we didn’t feel anything. We were still in our everyday minds from a long day of traveling. On our second walk through, we quieted our minds and centered ourselves through entering a meditative state. We created a shift for ourselves. That is when we felt the supportive energy that was present in that natural grotto space.
In conclusion, healing and transformation did occur at Lourdes. It can occur anywhere if you are willing to shift and go within.
It is how you approach a place or situation that creates your experience. When you desire love and goodness, believe it is possible, see yourself receiving it, and give thanks, it appears to support you. This is a lesson to remember.
For information on Lourdes, France : https://www.lourdes-france.com/en/