Her Emails:

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Dear Rick

I am interested in information about Vassula and the messages she claims to receive from God. I already know the TLIG (True Life in God) site, but I would like to access critical studies and articles about the messages and the ´seer´. Are there any ex-followers of Vassula who have written about the movement?

I read myself the messages for approximately a year (I lived in Geneva, Switzerland, at the time Vassula lived in Lausanne, and got to know personally Mr. and Mrs. Gay, who contributed  important sums of money (though I never knew the amount) in helping her spread the messages). I became addicted to the messages and almost broke up with my family.

Luckily, I was able - with the help of God and of all the prayers of my mother and brother - to challenge the messages, and finally free myself from them. I would be very interested in exchanging thoughts and experiences with people who went through the same ¨hell¨.

Thank you for your help and congratulations on the Sword of Truth Site!

Maria

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Dear Maria,

Thank God you have seen the truth. For a starter, go to my web site under Apparitions - True or False and read what I wrote on Vassula, after that I would be happy to email back and forth. I will be gone this weekend.

Rick

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Dear Rick,

Thank you for your mail! I've read your information on Vassula in Apparitions - True or False. I didn't know most of the events you described. The most interesting part for me was reading about the changes made in the messages in order to "correct" them. I had already heard rumors about them, but it is the first time I see examples of them.

I would like to briefly tell you how I got to know Vassula. Until 1997, I lived in Geneva Switzerland, about 50km from the Lausanne area where Vassula lived at that time. I'm catholic, and my spiritual director was a friend of Mrs. Isabelle Gay, who is a very close supporter of Vassula. Mr. Gay is an important and wealthy businessman of Geneva. Mrs. Gay believes blindly in Vassula and finances some of her activities.

In an occasion, my spiritual director introduced me to Mrs. Gay and she invited me for lunch at her house. There, she spoke to me about Vassula, gave me the first volume of messages, and invited me to the conference Vassula was giving at the World Council of Churches (the one you mention in the text).

The messages seemed a little strange to me, but since I never had read any revelations, I kept an open mind about it. After Vassula's talk at the WCC, I felt a lot of enthusiasm, and bought some more books. When reading the messages, for the first time, I felt that God truly loved me (the messages of Volume 1 repeat and repeat again "I love you").

I quickly became addicted to the messages. What I mean by addicted, is that I felt the need to read them every single day. I started to believe God's will was for me to read and spread the messages. By that time, Isabelle Gay had given me aprox. 20 books to give to my friends. I started spreading the messages. I have to tell you that before, I had never done anything like this. The messages repeat that the only thing God asks us is to spread the messages, and that the messages will solve all the problems in the world. At that time I was active in an association that worked against pornography. I started seeing my work there as futile and started skipping meetings in order to have more time to read and spread the messages of TLIG (True Life in God). I also stopped reading the Gospel, since I ended up thinking that the messages were superior to the Gospel, because it was JESUS speaking.

As I quickly found out, most of the people who read the messages felt the same way I did. Isabelle once told me that she read the messages every day, and when she had some spare time, she used it to read again the first volumes.

At this point, my behavior had changed and my parents were noticing it. I was unable to accept the slightest criticism about Vassula and had frequent and terrible fights with my mother. I had also become very sensitive to everything and cried often. I felt terribly guilty when I didn't feel like reading the messages. I didn't watch television anymore, and didn't read novels as I did before. When I had the opportunity to go on vacations, I always tried to go to a monastery for a retreat. I only went out with friends when I thought that I could have the opportunity to spread the messages.

To make a long story short, after aprox. 8 months of reading the messages, my mother challenged me to stay a whole day without reading the messages. I replied I could stay a whole month. And I did it. I felt terribly guilty by doing so. I seemed to hear an inner voice that told me that by doing that I was disobeying God. But I reasoned that I was doing it not because I thought the messages were false, but because I loved my mother and this was a way of convincing her that the messages were good.

Anyway, I felt guilty all along, but I started reading St. Teresa of Avila and St John of the Cross, and I suddenly discovered a new world of faith in God. I also felt relieved not to have to read the messages the whole day (although I didn't like to admit it). Finally, well into the third week of "abstinence" from the messages, God gave me the strength and clarity of mind to look at what had happened to me in the past year. For the first time y TRULY doubted of the authenticity of the messages.

At the end of the month, I started to read the messages again, but I had changed. I started to be more critical. And then, a series of events happened and I stopped reading the messages. Approximately a year later, the Notification was published.

As a consequence of my belief in the messages during that year, I experienced guilt and anguish for almost two years, because although I didn't rationally believe anymore that the messages were authentic, I had brainwashed myself to believe otherwise. I also felt deceived by the priests that had not warned me against this, by the Church for waiting so long to do something, and this lack of trust for my church is a permanent feeling still today. I am also unable and unwilling to believe in ANY apparition whatsoever. During the 5-6 years that followed my "TLIG experience" I was unable to read anything that referred to Vassula or the messages. Just hearing the word "Vassula" made me re-experience the horrible feelings of guilt and anguish.

As I wrote in my first email, I would be very interested in exchanging views with people that have gone through a similar experience. I feel as if I went through a traumatic experience, and I am convinced that talking about it will surely help me detect and deal with any remaining effects of the trauma.

I thank you for your interest in my story and would be very happy to know your comments about it. If you are currently investigating Vassula, I would be also very happy to help you in any way I can.

God bless you,

Maria

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Dear Maria,

I would like to put up your letter and your email address and let people write to you directly.  I will not do this if you do not want but you can save many souls.

Rick

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Dear Rick,

Thank you so much for your answer to my mail. Please feel free to put
up my story or any part of it you wish. If you do include my email (and
I would very much like you to), I prefer to switch to my private mail,
which is maria31@terra.com (I wrote to you previously using my father's
email direction). I will keep you informed of any messages I might
receive.

Thanks again for your care and help.

God bless you,

Maria