The Keeper Of The Skull: A Visit With Anna Mitchell-Hedges

This interview with Anna Mitchell-Hedges and Cynthia Cobles occurred in two parts. The first, during April of 1983, was with myself, Auriloitha, and Dr. Dan Baer present. The second, in November of 1983, was with myself and my wife Maureen present.
Anna, nicknamed “Sammy” by her father, British explorer F.A. “Mike” Mitchell-Hedges, and Cynthia, Mr. Mitchell-Kedges secretary at the time of his death, extended to us a wonderful sense of warmth and hospitality. They opened up their home to us, and we sincerely thank them for their kindness and cooperation, for which they asked nothing in return.
MDM

April 1983

Dan: They’re opening up a new Mayan cave in Guatemala, and it’s not very far from Lubaantun. I’m hoping they may find some leads there. If there was one skull, I suspect there might be others of some form.
Anna: Well, there’s one in the British Museum, but its solid, the jaw does not open.
D: What do you think its purpose was, the way they cut it?
A: So it would talk. The Mayans were very intelligent people. And there’s a smaller one in Paris, in the Louvre.
D: Now you say you think it was previous to the Mayans?
A: Previous to the Mayans, yes. With the research they did in California they say it’s over 12,000 years old. And we heard Carol (a psychic) say it was over 16,000 years old, and was used pre-Mayan.
Cynthia: She said it was in Atlantis, …
A: …and she says that we were part of the council.
C: She was in a trance when she said this.
Mark: So it’s come back to you.
A: That’s right.
H: Anna, did you people name Lubaantun, or is that what you later heard it was called?
A: No, my father named it, and in Maya language it is “the place of the fallen stones.”
M: Did you ever hear of any undiscovered races down there, there are supposed to be some very short people, and the sisimotos (Bigfoot-type creatures)?
A: In some of the Bay Islands of Honduras, near Bonacca, no white man could go there. Only my father was allowed in, and I had some materials, clothes and the like, and it took me about three or four days for them to allow me to come on shore, and I had to show his photograph before they’d let me.
M: And this was the pygmies?
A: Yes.
D: Your father had some feelings about Atlantis didn’t he?
A: Oh yes, he felt that the skull was of Atlantis.
D: How old was he when he died?
A: 75.
D: Well tell us about this film, you say its about his life; was it more focussed on the early part of his life?
A: The early part of his life, and then the Crystal Skull came along.
D: You said some rather spectacular things came along?
A: It’s been very successful, apparently, in Vienna. They’re trying to sell it to America, but it has to be translated to English. They’re coming down here again to do another film. A professor in Vienna who does nothing but ‘crystals said he’s never seen anything like the Skull, that it’s not European, and that’s what they wanted to know, if it was European. I told them it wasn’t.
D: Can you tell what kind of person this was modelled on, what race of people?
A: As far as we know it was supposed to be a high priest. Father thought the building was for the high priest, and Maya came from all over to see the high priest, there, and that’s why the Skull was there.
M: In the psychic research you’ve accumulated over the years concerning this, how do they say it was brought to its present form?
A: We were told it was rubbed by sand, and was a huge piece of crystal. And the jaw was the same piece, and the research in California said the same thing.
M: The jaw was actually found later wasn’t it?
A: Three months later, yes.
D: Who found the jaw?
A: My father and I, we were all moving stones together, for we had realized that something was missing.
M: Could you explain what it was like when you found?
A: We stopped working, we got it, and we held it in our hands, and the Maya looked at it, and there were tears running down their faces, of joy, and some started dancing on the stones. My father gave it to the Maya priests there, because he said this was a religious piece and it belonged to them. In 1927, when we finished our expedition, they represented it to my father.
D: That’s quite a compliment.
A: Otherwise, if he had it at the time we had all the pottery and everything we would have turned it over to the museum. But this way it was given back to us to protect us.
D: Was there any problem getting it out of the country?
A: Oh well, it was very easy in those days.
D: Because, Mark, you mentioned that your friend Peter Harding was just down in Belize…
M: Yes, he wrote about that visit to Altun Ha in one of our past issues. He told me that the people down there would like the Skull back, have you heard that?
A: Somebody told me, but that’s all I’ve heard.
M: He had talked to people about the Skull.
C: Now Altun Ha, isn’t that where they found the jade skull?
M: Yes, that’s where they found the large jade skull. Of course, all of these countries would now like their artefacts back.
A: Oh yes, but at that time it was very easy to get them out. It got a bit tough in 1934, we were doing an expedition in the Bay Islands. We got them out just the same, amongst fishing tackle.
M: Your father was quite a big game fisherman and still holds many records, doesn’t he?
A: Yes, about 18 records, and he wrote a few books on this also.
M: Now the Bay Island named Bonacca, that was where your father discovered the long mound and monoliths?
A: Yes. The people were not very friendly there.
D: Are they Mayan?
A: There’s a mixture of Spanish, and they’re not very pleasant. Jane Houlson wrote something in Blue Blaze how the people eat with their fingers. Well, we always eat with our fingers if it’s chicken or the like, and we don’t think anything of it. But I was somewhat shocked when I went there later and some of the islanders said to me “Are you the lady from the Amigo? Well, we don’t eat with our fingers! We have forks and knives!” And I said, “No, I don’t write.”
M: When is your book going to be written?
A: It’s being worked on now.
M: Your father was an excellent writer, he presents a very exciting style of reading.
A: Yes, and he wasn’t very well when he wrote these.
D: Tell us about the events that led up to the finding of the Skull if you could.
A: Well, I was with a man cutting the trees down, and the sun was very hot that day, and something kept shining between stones, stones that were so high as this ceiling. I kept looking at that, and I asked one of the Maya “What’s down there?” I kept going back to it all the time. And when my father came back I showed him, and he got very curious, and then he got the men to move the stones.
M: There have been healings reportedly connected with the Skull.
A: Yes, we’ve had people from all over come just to be healed.
M: What type of healings have you had with the Skull?
A: We’ve had cancer, lupus, …
D: Did they actually touch the Skull?
A: Oh yes, they just put their hands on top. If you believe it, and trust the skull, then it gives you the power, but you have to believe that. If you don’t it won’t do any good at all.
M: It’s very interesting how this visit unfolded with us, because I wrote the article on the Skull to complement Bill Cox’s article in the Winter 1983 Univercolian, and then Dan came up to my house one evening to video tape a little discussion with me about the Skull for his class. And we found we couldn’t get it accomplished that night.
D: It seemed like there was something holding us back.
M: First, Dan kept mispronouncing my name during his intro, and it took us six or seven takes before he got it right. When we finally got that right, and Dan started asking me some questions, I opened my mouth to speak and nothing came out. When at last things got going, we conversed for about 30 minutes on the Skull, and felt we had a really good program. But when we played it back, we found that just as we started to speak about the Skull, a buzzing noise began and obliterated the audio for our entire conversation. We found we couldn’t duplicate this buzzing sound in subsequent tests, but by that one we’d said the hell with it for that night.
But somehow, all of these events, why we’re here today, happened very quickly.
It does very mysterious things. One doesn’t know why. If it doesn’t want people to know anything about it, it just cuts right out.
D: How do you feel having the Skull has changed or affected your life?
A: Well I’ve been protected. I was adopted. My father was an Englishman and I’m French, and how he would adopt a French girl I don’t know.
Some people see all sorts of images the Skull. Fish, birds,…
D: How many teeth are there in the skull?
A: The same as ours. These were taken from a photograph that was in the newspaper. Do you see the Madonna?
D: Really! Oh, that’s very clear.
A: And see the fish in this picture!
D: Oh, yes.
D: Well, Garvin in his book (The Crystal Skull) had one that seemed to show the Sphinx in it.
A: Yes, everyday you see something different.
D: Now supposedly there are no tool marks on the Skull?
A: No. The California testing concluded that no tool was ever used, and even a, today, with all the tools they have, they couldn’t make this.
D: How about that!
A: The reason I let them do the research is because the people didn’t believe that it had been done by sand, etc., and all hand done, and it took 150 years to rub down. And they had to have been related to the high priest, five generations. That’s what the Maya told them.
D: Did the Maya that were with you at that time sense that it was part of their heritage?
A: Yes.
D: What is in store for the future of the skull?
A: Well I’m trying now to start a foundation to put the Skull in, because I don’t want to give it to a museum, because they don’t allow anybody to touch it.
M: Right, they’d just lock it up.
D: they would put it in a closet somewhere. They would control it then.
A: Well, the British Museum’s skull is dying, it’s not allowed to be touched, and it doesn’t get the air. When I did the film for the Yorkshire Television, they took the two skulls together, and I wanted to touch the British one and they said, “Don’t you dare.” and I said. “Well look at al the crew touching my Skull, I don’t mind,” and they said “Oh no, you mustn’t touch.” And I said “Your killing it, because you don’t touch it. The Skull needs touching.”
M: They wouldn’t understand that.
D: No, that’s museum people in general, they’re so overprotective.
A: And they know me, and they know my father gave them tons of stuff.
D: That’s outrageous. That’s an insult.
M: You know, I’ve had a very sore lower back lately, and especially after the nine hour ride here. But as soon as I touched the Skull, I could feel a warmth going right to that very spot. ‘
Aur: It seems to know where to go.
A: I’ve had people here who refused to touch it.
D: Really! Are they afraid of it?
A: Oh yes.
M: Do you have a name for the Skull?
A: I call it “Skull.”
M: Am I right in that you were interviewed by William Shatner for a movie entitled “Mystery of the Gods?”
A: Yes.
M: I saw that once when I was down in Florida, I believe in 1977, and I never even heard of it again. Do you know what happened to it?
C: Von Daniken claimed they changed it, and he rescinded the rights to it.
M: It was a very good movie, one of the best I’ve seen on that type of thing. That’s the first time I heard of the Skull.
Aur: You mean Captain Kirk?
A: Yes. I didn’t know he was coming. He was quite taken back when I didn’t know who he was. But an hour later we were talking French and everything was alright.
Aur: I would imagine that the Skull’s vibration affects you even if your not aware of it.
A: I know when I have a headache I put my head on the Skull and it’s gone in five minutes.
D: How many people were present when the Skull was found?
A: There was Lady Richmond Brown, myself, father, Tuk the painter. Dr. Gann.

November 1983

M: I guess the first thing I’d like to ask you, apparently I got, one of the dates wrong in the article I did on the Crystal Skull. Could you clear that up please?
A: We found the Crystal Skull in 1924, the first of January, on my seventeenth birthday, and father saw the excitement and the joy of the Maya people there, so he said, “I couldn’t take this away from them,” so he gave it to the Maya people there. And they set stones down, and put the Skull on them, and built a little thatch roof on top, palm leaves, and built a pier all around it, and Maya came from all over, people we never saw before. And in 1927, when we finished our expedition, the priests gave the skull back to my father, because he was a good man and brought good things for them. And that’s the way the Skull has been in our possession. Otherwise, if we took it in i1924, we would have had to give it to a museum, but this way it was a gift from the Maya to us, and it’s been our protector ever since.
M: We were talking earlier about flow some people had written that he had brought it down there and planted it…
A: That’s right, but I can’t imagine anybody spending 20,000 pounds for an expedition to bury a skull for his daughter to find it. In those days that was a lot of money.
M: Probably over 450,000 back then.
A: Yes.
M: You were tailing us about a crystal statue that you had seen in a cave down there…
A: Yes, in the islands, in the cliffs…
M: In the Bay Islands?
A: That’s one little thing, I cannot disclose where it is. It’s a promise I made to my father that I would never disclose it because, we didn’t know at the time the statue was cursed, but several people have died, bitten by tarantula spiders. It’s a breeding ground for tarantula spiders, and my father, when he learned of the curse, he blocked the cave up. And only God can spread the earth away, so one day it may come out.
M: You said the floor was like a moving mass…
A: Like a beautiful black carpet, it just moved and it would fascinate you to look at it, it would move up and down, up and down, the moving of the breathing of the spiders, and you couldn’t take your eyes away, like a beautiful velvet carpet.
M: So you saw the statue?
A: Yes, we had lights, there was a hole on top of the hill, and we lowered lights down, and we could see it beautifully. It was about four feet high, beautifully done, like the Crystal Skull, very smooth like satin.
M: Was it of a man or woman?
A: That we couldn’t distinguish from the top what it was. Prom the entrance we couldn’t see it too well, unless we put in lights, and that was difficult to do, we had to put it on long bars to push it in so no spiders would come around us. When my father did hear about the curse, he said, “We’ll close it up. If God wants to give it to the world, one day it will.”
M: Did you discover it?
A: Well it was me, because for some unknown reason I always wandered away from the group, searching, to see if I could find something to show my father; to be proud of me.
M: You said earlier that he met with Augustus LePlongeon and Paul Schlieman in New York.
A: Yes, he knew him in New York in 1912.
M: Was Paul Schlieman Heinrich Schlieman’s son?
Cynthia: We can’t quite make out whether he was his son or grandson.
A: I only know from hearing father telling his friends that when the war was coming, father had dinner with him the night before, and the following morning his yacht was gone from New York, and nobody knew where he disappeared to.
M: Did your father ever mention anything about Augustus LePlongeon?
A: Yes, but I don’t remember much about him. Unfortunately I was always busy giving tea or dinner, so I couldn’t listen too much to his conversation.
M: You mentioned during my last visit that he had met Colonel Percy Fawcett at one time in New York.
A: Oh, he met him in New York at the different clubs, and particularly at the Plaza Hotel. That was sort of a rendezvous place for Englishmen and people interested in exploration.
M: He must have followed some of Fawcett’s explorations with keen interest.
A: Yes, but Fawcett, when he came to New York, he was a very sick man, he had malaria fever very badly, and my father, I did hear him say that he believed he died of malaria.
M: Because they never really did find out.
A: No, they never did find out. They say he was killed by tribes, but father didn’t believe that. He was like my father, he was loved by the native people very much. They sort of gave that warm feeling to the natives. My father could go anywhere with his smile, and I followed behind, because I knew I was going to get in there
M: Did he ever meet Colonel James Churchward?
A: Yea, but I don’t recall anything about their meeting.
M: The Skull has often been called the “Skull of Doom”, but you say that is a false label?
A: It doesn’t mean “doom” like an English-man would say it, it’s Doon, it’s the name of their god. I think my father took a little pleasure in scaring people when he said “Doom”. He was quite a teaser.
M: Well he certainly had quite an interesting life.
A: He had a wonderful life, but he was a wonderful man. Everyone who met him, or had a conversation with him, or knew him or a while they all loved him. I was always with my mouth open listening to what he was saying, because I had never met anyone like him.
D: Could you recant a little about the occasion that the Skull was sweating?
A: That was in Reading, in England. I went upstairs to clean the silver, and I looked at the Crystal Skull, and I saw it was wet, and I thought, somebody got in the room to pour water on it, and when I got near it, it was sort of dripping, and I knew then that nobody got in there because I always kept that room locked. And I wiped it and it still wept. But I had a terrible feeling that day that something terrible was going to happen. And I came down to have lunch and I told Cynthia what I saw, and didn’t think any more, and I went back, but I still had a chilly feeling. I came down for tea about five o’clock, and I put the news on, and then I heard about President Kennedy’s assassination. I knew then that the Skull was telling me that. But not being psychic, I couldn’t define exactly what it was. That’s the first time I’ve ever had any feeling with the Skull.
D: You said there was a butler that didn’t like to be in the presence of the Skull?
A: Oh, that was when we were in Fordingbridge, We entertained a lot of the American officers, General Eisenhower, Omar Bradley and General Alexander who were good friends of my father. We had to have help, so friends loaned us their butler and their maid, and we gave a big party. Every time the butler came back from the kitchen to the dining room, which was a very long hall, he felt terrible. He came about three times to help us, and when we asked him again, his employer said “He doesn’t want to come to your house anymore, there is something very evil in the house.” He couldn’t think what would cause him to feel this way. Of course the Skull was in the box in the hall, closed up, and we couldn’t make out why he wouldn’t come back. So we moved house, and my father was in the hospital, and it was a Saturday afternoon, and I was alone, and I went and got the Skull from the storeroom, which I was going to put in the lounge, and halfway through the hall the phone started ringing. I had no furniture in the hall, so I put the Skull on the stairway. And I answered the phone and a voice said to me “Have you just touched the Crystal Skull, Sammy? And for a second I couldn’t answer and they said “Did you hear me, did you just touch the Crystal Skull? I said, “Yes t I just put it on the stairway to answer, your call.” Then he said, “My butler is laying flat on the floor, and told me that you were touching the Crystal Skull.” I couldn’t believe it, and after that, in the afternoon, I just couldn’t do anything. I just took it in the lounge, put it on the floor, and I sat there. I couldn’t understand why a man twenty miles away could say I was moving the Crystal Skull. The butler left his employer then, he wouldn’t stay with them because they were friends of ours.
M: You said earlier that mere and more psychic impressions and information that’s come through from people who have seen the Skull, have been pushing the date of its origin back further and further?
A: To much earlier than we were told. Lately we had a phone call from a psychic group that said that the Crystal Skull was 74,000 years old, and other psychics say it’s 16,000, and in California, when they did the research, they said it was over 12,000. And its sort of a computer, for healing mostly. We’ve had a lot of psychics bring people down with cancer, and we’ve been told that they have been healed. So that is good if we know that it’s helping people.
M: Could you tall us a little about the research on the Skull?
A: The research determined that today no one could make it. And even with all the tools they have, they couldn’t do it. Its definitely all hand done. And I knew that because the Maya people told us that, that no tool has ever been used. It was done with a certain herb and sand, and it took five generations to do it, and this family had to be related to the high priest, all very religious. This is what the Maya people told us, and I believe them, because they are very innocent and very natural people. I lived seven years with them and I adored it.
M: Your father used to carry the Skull around with him didn’t he?
A: Oh yes, wherever he went.
M: He didn’t really talk much about the Crystal Skull in his books though.
A: No, that was left for me to talk about, because I spotted the Crystal Skull before anybody did. I had a very bad habit of wandering off, which worried my father because of spiders and scorpions and all sorts of things. But I kept walking along on top of the building, which was quite dangerous to do. But I kept seeing something shiny when the sun was getting on ‘ it, and it got me very anxious to get to the spot. But father wouldn’t let us touch any of the stone until the men knew exactly how to move them, so as not to damage any pottery or anything.
M: He was a firm believer in Atlantis wasn’t he.
A; Oh yes, Well he and Dr. Joyce and Dr. Gann, they believed that Atlantis started around the Bay Islands. Till the day he died he believed that.
M: And a lot of the artifacts that he discovered there…
A: They’re in the British Museum and the American Indian Museum in New York.
M: And many of these have been said to be unique in their style to the whole region.
A: Yes.
M: You feel that the Skull should be touched.
A: Oh yes. This has been told to me by a lot of psychic people, that the Skull,’ to keep it-alive, and clear, it has to be touched, it has to have the human feeling on it. This is why, I think, the one in the British Museum has gone so dull. Because it’s under glass, gets no air, and it’s never touched. Even I was not allowed to touch it, and I let them touch mine. And I did think, when I leave this world, that I would leave it to a museum, but I’ve been told by several psychic people not to do that, because it would never be t ached. So my idea now, if I can do it, is to start a foundation, where people can go and see it, touch it, and particularly for illness and things like that, because it is a healing Skull.
M: Can you think off hand of any psychic impressions that-came through about some of the different things that were related to the Skull in the past?
A: What we were told by the Maya priest and Maya doctor there, medicine man that it was used to will death, or to heal. But to will death was like if an old medicine man, was getting to old to perform his work, a young boy was chosen, and boys were laid in front of the altar and the high priest would perform a ceremony, an the knowledge of the old man would go in this young boy, and he would get up as a very knowledgeable man, not a boy anymore but the old man would pass away peacefully.
M: lately some of the psychic information that has come through has even mentioned
Lemuria, hasn’t it?
A: Yes, it has.
M: Some people have reported that there a scent or lights sometimes connected with the Skull. Have you ever experienced this?
A: No, and I see the Skull everyday. No there’s a lovely feeling with the Skull, and I know when I loaned it for research for six years, I never felt right myself. That’s why while I’m alive it’s going to stay right here.
M: Yet some people react differently to being in the presence of the Skull, don’t they?
A: Oh, I’ve only had very few who’ve done that.
M: Hasn’t it put some people to sleep?
A: Oh yes, but it’s a nice sleep, it’s a peacefulness in their mind.
M: I hear its also purported to bring on fertility.
A: It does. Several ladies who have been here have been pregnant since. One lady, for years and years she and her husband tried to have children. Since she saw the Skull she’s had two babies. I think it’s whatever you believe in. If you concentrate on the Skull and believe what you want, the Skull will give it to you. It has more power than any man alive.
M: Thank you Sammy.

Posted: 02|21|08 at 4:25 pm. Category: The Skull: Reflections.
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