Son Distraught After Mom Dies Suddenly During Voodoo Ritual: ‘Something Sinister Happened’
The article details the tragic and mysterious death of Dana Jackson, a 51-year-old American woman who died during a voodoo retreat in Haiti, which has left her son, Timothy Jackson, seeking answers. The story begins with Timothy’s concern for his mother, as he had not heard from her after July 13 due to the sacred nature of the ceremony. On July 22, he learned of her death from his grandmother, but the circumstances surrounding her passing remain unclear.
During the retreat, it was reported that Dana fainted and later expressed confusion about her location. Following her death, Timothy received conflicting information regarding her medical condition, including suggestions that she had not taken her medication, which he found suspicious. Despite his worries and the gap in communication during the ceremony, he tried to stay hopeful, but his anxiety grew when he did not receive any message from her on expected dates.
The article reflects on the spiritual implications of voodoo practices and the pain experienced by Timothy Jackson as he comes to terms with his mother’s passing and the uncertainty it entails. The author urges prayers for both Timothy and Dana, invoking a sense of empathy for their suffering amidst the backdrop of complex religious and cultural narratives surrounding voodoo.
Christians have always recognized the threat of dark forces in the spiritual realm.
Thus, a story about an unexplained death during a voodoo ritual in Haiti, which has left a devoted son grieving his mother, both catches our attention and excites our sympathy.
According to USA Today, Timothy Jackson of North Carolina reported that his mother, 51-year-old Dana Jackson, died last month on a group voodoo retreat during a ceremony in which, as Jackson described it, “something sinister happened.”
One of the group leaders on the Haiti trip told Jackson that near the end of the ceremony, his mother appeared to faint before regaining consciousness and then expressing confusion about her present location. She thought she was in Virginia, though she and her family had not lived in Virginia in more than a year.
Increasingly, however, the details of the story did not make sense.
For instance, Jackson learned that at a hospital his mother had suffered seizures, a heart attack and a stroke.
“That was the initial story,” Jackson explained. “They said that my mom didn’t bring her medicine. So there was a red flag, because what medicine are you guys talking about? It sounds like they were trying to perpetuate a story.”
Meanwhile, as of Monday, Jackson had not even learned the location of his mother’s body.
One can only imagine the son’s anguish. In fact, his anxiety had mounted in the days before he learned of his mother’s mysterious death.
Out of respect for the ritual, mother and son did not communicate after July 13. For a son who spoke to his mother every day, that part proved difficult.
“If you do any research about that part of the ceremony, even just on Google, it’ll tell you, that’s very sacred and things of that nature,” he told USA Today. “So she sent me one last message on the 13th, and she said, ‘We will talk on the 21st going to church tomorrow.’”
In her final message, Dana Jackson asked her son to “pray for her.”
A week of misery ensued for the younger Jackson.
“That whole entire week just kind of low key, (I was) having anxiety because I’m not able to hear from her, and I know that this is a very important part of the ceremony,” he said. “On the 21st, I didn’t hear anything from her. I did reach out to her at about 5 p.m. on WhatsApp. I didn’t get any response.”
Finally, on July 22, Jackson learned through his grandmother that his mother had died.
Unfortunately, the cause of his mother’s death remains a mystery.
#USA: The son of a 51-year-old American woman is demanding answers following her mysterious death after she travelled to #Haiti to participate in a Voodoo ritual. Dana Jackson left the US on July 1, her son Timothy Jackson, said. pic.twitter.com/FEsGruaGle
— CaribbeanNewsNetwork (@caribbeannewsuk) August 20, 2024
With respect to the ancient African religion known as “vodou,” USA Today cited a PBS article denouncing the more familiar “voodoo” as a “sensationalist and derogatory Western creation.”
Whether the voodoo of the Western Hemisphere does indeed represent a grotesque caricature of an ancient African religion, or whether the PBS article amounts to a woke demand for cultural parity, let those who know say so. I claim no expertise in the transmission of ancient African religions to the New World.
The PBS article did describe “vodou” as “essentially a monotheistic religion, which recognizes a single and supreme spiritual entity or God.”
That description called to mind a passage from legendary Christian author C.S. Lewis’s classic apologetic “Mere Christianity.”
“If you are a Christian you do not have to believe that all the other religions are simply wrong all through,” Lewis wrote. Instead, “you are free to think that all these religions, even the queerest ones, contain at least some hint of the truth.”
Of course, where the religions differ, Christians naturally choose Christianity. But, if so inclined, we might regard monotheism in ancient Africa as a possible manifestation of partial revelation.
Furthermore, we know that no one sees God except through Jesus Christ. (John 14:6)
And that calls to mind another passage from “Mere Christianity.”
“We do know that no man can be saved except through Christ; we do not know that only those who know Him can be saved through Him,” Lewis wrote.
In other words, we have an obligation to pray for those who do not know Christ. In that way, they might still experience His salvation.
Unfortunately, we cannot know what spiritual forces the voodoo practitioners in Haiti might have encountered or awakened.
We do know, however, that we must pray for Jackson and his mother. Pray that he may find peace on earth amid his terrible grief, and that she may find peace with our Savior in Heaven.
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