Penang's Late Ghost King Tek (槟城鬼王德)

How many ‘ghost kings’ are there in Penang if you ask? Although I am not very sure of the actual numbers because as one so-called ghost king died, another one emerged automatically. Most of these famous ‘ghost kings’ are dubbed by people outside Penang. Hong Kong entertainment medias had a role to play too to bring up the names of Penang ghost king.

While I cannot comment on the ‘current’ Penang Ghost King, I do have a story about former Penang Ghost King Tek.

Ah Tek was a famous character who was said to have fostered hundreds of ghosts and people would just call Ah Tek as ‘Uncle Tek’. Uncle Tek was said to be famous in 70’s and 80’s. Old Penang folks would remember this special character. Many famous Hong Kong stars had witnessed the power of Uncle Tek. It was said that in the mid of 70s, the notorious haunting of former location of an emporium at Nathan Road, Hong Kong was settled by Uncle Tek alone. Besides that, many movie stars were also once faithful customers of Uncle Tek.

However about 10 years ago, a Hong Kong TV station tried to search out Uncle Tek for a special edition. When they finally managed to find Uncle Tek at his temple, the originally stout 6ft physique of Uncle Tek became thin as a lath. According to Uncle Tek that he was a victim of Thai black magic and he would die soon. It was said that when this special edition was finally aired, Uncle Tek already passed away.

A famous story of Uncle Tek was that one night he was having dinner with some visiting Hong Kong stars. It was around midnight and the group was having supper at a hawker center at Gurney Drive.

One of the lady actress asked Uncle Tek half jokingly that if Uncle Tek can really ‘show’ them some real ghosts in front of their naked eyes. And Uncle Tek agreed without hesitation.

After the supper, the group travelled to an old Chinese cemetery nearby and Uncle Tek performed some incantations. It was reported that most of the members of the group actually saw many white orbs raised from surrounding graves as Uncle Tek was chanting.

In a state of panic, many group members scrambled into their van and to be found in horror that the van was already ‘filled’ with ‘people’!

I didn’t have a chance to meet Uncle Tek, but I supposed he was only expert in ghost magic otherwise he would not be harmed by Thai magic. Anyway, that was the story told to me by a Hong Kong friend and not a local. Funny but true that the locals don’t even recognized their own ‘ghost king’!

No Place For Kids (儿童不宜)

I don’t mean to discriminate against kids when I said that some Taoist temples are not suitable for kids especially kids of 5 years and below. According to experience that temples that worship gods/goddesses of more negative type such as: Lord of hells (阎王), land gods (城隍土地), wandering spirits (有应公), messengers of hell (黑白无常) etc. may bring bad influences to kids.

These gods/goddesses have hideous facial expressions that may scare young kids and cause them to have nightmare. Also these so-called ‘yin’ spirits like to feed on pure ‘yang’ energy of young kids. Since kids of below 5 years old are more sensitive to psychic attacks and they have no means to defend themselves; hence it is best not to let them get too close to these ‘yin’ spirits and the related temples just to save any unnecessary troubles.

Aunt Low joined a tour to China with her family members a few months ago. As it is her habit to pray at the nearest temple when she visits any foreign place, Aunt Low brought her 4 year old grandchild, Lisa to pray at a local temple worshipping land gods in the hope that the local lord spirit will protect them when they are in China.

On that night, Lisa suddenly fall ill and soon developed high fever and in the process, she intermittently yelled loudly: “Go away! Go away!”

No one knew what had happened to Lisa but they waste no time and brought little Lisa to a hospital for treatment. The concerned family decided to spend a night beside Lisa’s sickbed to accompany the little girl as they are in a foreign land.

Aunt Low dozed off at the edge of Lisa’s bed and she dreamed of two person one wearing white with a tall white hat and the other wearing black with a tall black hat. She immediately recognized the two were the messengers of hell whose work is to arrest living soul to hell. The messengers told Aunt Low that the local lord likes Lisa a lot and he wished to adopt Lisa as a god-daughter. And that Lisa was to ‘stay’ in the temple for all eternity.

On hearing those words, Aunt Low became frantic and she started yelling: “NO!”  As the word ‘NO’ came out of her mouth, she awoke by herself and found that it was a dream.

Although Aunt Low is no superstitious one, she thought the dream has something to do with her visit to the Taoist temple during the day. So first thing in the morning, she contacted a local friend and they visited a spirit medium.

According to the medium it was indeed that the local land spirit was fond of little Lisa and wanted Lisa to stay put. To make a long story short, after some negotiations the spirits finally agreed to release Lisa with a condition that Lisa must return to the temple every 3 years or so.

Believe it or not, after visiting the medium, Lisa recovered almost instantly. Now the question thrown back to me by Aunt Low: “Should Lisa return every 3 years?”

My answer was just a ‘NO’. We don’t know if the medium was true or it was only a coincidence or Lisa was too scared of the images. Anyway, after 3 years or so, Lisa would be around 7. By then her soul would be strong enough to defend against those spirit intrusions.

Anyway, it is still best just to keep the kids away from those temples just in case. At least, too much incense smoke is harmful to the kids too. 

Disturbed By 2nd Hand Kumanthong (当心二手金佛童)

Many people like to worship Kumanthong (Thai kid spirits) and most of the time these folks got their Kumanthongs from some occult forums either through purchase, exchange or free gifts. Not many people understand however, by doing so not only these folks cannot enjoy the helping hands of these Kumanthongs; they may be suffering from obstacles created by these ‘little kids’. The reason is very simple: Kumanthongs should only be acquired anew and not secondhand.

Anyone who wishes to ‘adopt’ one Kumanthong, he/she must approach a reputable monk or guru to express their intention. The monk/guru would then carry out a chanting to find suitable kid spirits who are willing to follow their new ‘parents’ and subsequently help these folks to achieve their desires. Then the monk/guru will perform conjuration to invoke the kid spirits into Kumanthong statues so that the requesters can bring the empowered Kumanthong back for worship. That is the correct procedure.

Having said so, now days people just kind of ‘exchange’ and sell these Kumanthong statues openly as if commodities. Well, if the Kumanthong statues are only empty statues; there would not be problems. But if the Kumanthong statues have dwellers and that these new owners cannot work together with the kid spirits; then health and accidents may be fallen upon these new unwary owners.

This is a true experience happened to Tom from USA. Tom was only curious about Kumanthong and through online chatting in some occult forum; he purchased two large Kumanthong about 8 inches tall said to be owned by a Singapore collector. As recalled by Tom, nothing went very smoothly with his restaurant business ever since the Kumanthong twins came.

Tom’s restaurant business dropped by half and after 3 months or so, he could see black shadows wandering in his restraints at night but upon investigations nothing was found.

As time goes by, Tom would receive midnight telephone calls from some kids with hollow laughing voices. At first, Tom thought that was the prank of kids in the neighborhood as his telephone number was published outside of his premises.

Gradually, the midnight calls turned into night hag rides. It was always the case of a prank telephone call that woke up Tom but as when Tom was about to answer the phone, he would feel that his body became paralyzed and cannot move. At the same time, the voice of eerie children laughter lingers in the air until dawn.

Finally Tom thought he had enough and finally got hold of my phone number and pulled me up from my slumber. I gave Tom two choices: send the Kumanthong statues to me or setup an altar of ‘5 legionnaire armies’ (五营兵). Tom did both and after a while, his nightmare was over.

If you follow my posting, then you would have an idea of which Kumanthong statues I refer to. So, be very careful when you wish to acquire a secondhand Kumanthong from a half-bake master.

Emptiness Vs Thai Magic (空性对降头)

Theory of emptiness or better known as ‘shunyata’ (空性) is the heart teaching of Tibetan Buddhism. The Great Perfection practices are exclusively about the nature of our ‘heart’ and ‘emptiness’. Used correctly, the concept of emptiness can neutralize any kind of magic practices in this world.

Below is a true story between my Thai magic senior and me which happened fairly recently:

My bro magician was having a tea session with me at my balcony. When I told him that I want to stop practising Thai magic for good, my bro spent quite a lengthy of time to persuade me to change my mind. But my mind was quite made up and our ‘tug-of-war’ dragged for about an hour or longer, and finally I stood up and took the Kurba Arjan statue on my altar and tug it upside down into a waste bin…

Of course, my bro jumped up furiously and said in trembling voice: “Oh~ you have done it! The Kurba Arjan will not forgive you now!!”

Anyway, I said in a calm voice to my bro: “Why not you try to invoke the fury of Kurba Arjan onto me so that I believe in his power?”

My bro, then sat crossed leg on the floor and start chanting some mantra to invoke the power of Kurba Arjan and the 108 lersis.

Guess what? In half an hour’s time, the sky suddenly become gloomy, wind started to blow strongly and lightning flashes were seen from my balcony. Things weren’t looking that good indeed.

Instead of performing counter magic rituals, I merely retrieve the Kurba Arjan statue from dust bin and said to it: “I don’t believe in magic. It is merely a mirage of our mind; empty and illusive as if rainbow in the sky!”

After saying the words, I again inserted the Kurba Arjan statue into dust bin again.

At this point, the once gloomy sky suddenly turned clear. The wind and lighting also halted. My bro continued to chant more rigorously to invoke the power of Kurba Arjan while I took a sip of hot tea.

Now, strangely speaking; no matter how my bro tried to chant, the sky remains calm and finally, my bro gave up chanting. It was my turn to ask him: “Do you want the Kurba Arjan statue or should I leave it in the dust bin?”

He just shook his head and smiled: “Perhaps the Kurba Arjan has finally found his final resting place!”

As I heard, my bro in magic too abandoned his magical practices soon after we last met.

Soul Catching With Rice Stalks (稻草迷人术)

Padi planting is one of the important economic activities in Thailand and the rest of Asian countries too. The by-product of rice planting is the remainder massive rice stalks which are normally burnt away. Having said so, do you know that rice stalks are potent magic ingredient in Asian magic too?

The rice stalk magic what I am about to disclose here is a popular one in Southern Thailand and Northern Peninsula for attracting a lady. Perhaps it can be used to attract a man, but I have not tried it out as yet.

The method is simple:

First one should get 3 pieces of rice stalks and then each of the rice stalks is filled with one piece of the person’s hair. Later the filled rice stalks are anointed with perfume.  After this is done, the rice stalks are wrapped with a piece of black cloth and stored away until midnight.

At midnight, the magician should clean an empty room and then change into white clothing. He/she should wear the perfume that he/she used to anoint on the rice stalks, light a piece of white candle and burn benzoin for the ritual.

After that he/she should hold the rice stalks in the formation of a star ‘米’ with his/her left hand and over the benzoin incense for fumigation process; while he/she holds the piece of burning white candles with his/her right hand. This white candle should be moved in a clockwise direction over the rice stalks slowly.

While performing the above mentioned motions, the person should sit on the floor and stared at the rice stalks with full concentration directing his/her energy into the rice stalks. The person can think or says the words out loud repeatedly something like: “Anyone who steps over these rice stalks would follow me home…”

The chanting should continue for an hour or so and the whole ritual should be continued for 55 days consecutively. After the rice stalks are fully empowered, the magician can place one of the rice stalks on the walkway and any ladies who stepped over this rice stalk would come to the magician as if very intimate friends.

There are other forms of rice stalk magic rituals too. Perhaps I shall share them in due course.

Some Classical Thai Tattoo Patterns (泰族纹身图谱)

There are many Thai tattoo yants available for those interested in obtaining certain magical powers both modern and classical ones. Below are just some older and lesser known patterns that I have collected posted here for sharing:

Zodiac Animals And Feng Shui (人命与风水)

Zodiac animals are used in Feng Shui (FS) analysis to close the gape of Flying Star FS. Traditionally, Flying Star School (飞星) only analyses a small space in a building or a larger space of an area. The external environment of the house except the formation of 'water dragons' (roads and rivers) are neglected.

It would take a long passage to describe how zodiac animals is brought in FS analysis. Perhaps a simple diagram would be sufficient.

Generally speaking a person belonged to 'rat' group should not choose a house directly facing north or he/she will be having problems during every 'year of rat'. Worse if the external environment is not so good such as having sharp building structures (high tension towers, telecommunication towers or even sharp or ruin buildings) in the 'combined directions' (三合方), then disasters would also occur during the year of the 'combined directions'.

Let us take the above diagram for example:

If a person of 'rat' staying in a house facing north, then he/she can expect to have problems in years of rat, monkey and dragon. People of other zodiac animals would also have problems during year of monkey and dragon too; but of lesser severity.

Other than that, a person of 'rat' should also avoid a house that is directly opposite to his/her zodiac; that is the 'horse' or the house owner may have human relation issues. However, a 'rat' is best to stay in a house facing 'cow' (030 degrees) or 'cock' (270).

Armed with simple knowledge of zodiac animals and feng shui, any person can quickly access if a place is suitable for he/she. You will find that in actual field audits, it is not so easy to get personal particulars of the house owners. Thus a quick and easy method at time is really handy.

The Arguments Of Sheeps (生肖论羊)

It is lucky that someone provided me with date of birth of two contemporary VIPs both of them happened to be ‘sheep’. Perhaps let us now skim through these two VIPs to see their hidden sides:

Example 1:

Steve Jobs

DOB: Feb 24, 1955

The eight characters (八字):

丙戊乙

辰寅未

The owner of this DOB is a lucky person but he is lonely and quiet in nature; and that he is a quite talented one. It is a pity that this gentleman has very low life force to enable him to go further in life.

He had a rough start before 20 years old but starting 22 he started to make fame. However in the pinnacle of his career beyond 42, he would face with life threatening issues.

Example 2:

Bill Gates

DOB: Oct 28, 1955

The eight characters (八字):

丁甲甲

巳戌午

The owner of this DOB is luckier than the former one in that not only he is capable and that he has the fortune and leadership to be successful in his career. He belongs to ‘fire’ element which brings him fortune during winter autumn time.

This gentleman can live through 70 years.

Comparison:

Both of the gentlemen are some sort of loner and they treated fortune lightly. Bill Gates has a stronger character compared to Steve Jobs and his life force is much stronger in a way too. Another of looking at the DOB is that Steve Jobs earned his fortune when his 'luck' came; but Bill Gates is 'born' lucky!

Overall the ‘sheep’ would have a slower start compared to others and they like to hide their feelings. But their luck would turn better when others’ luck are going down as they aged.

Again, I couldn’t have a very good analysis as the time of both DOB are lacking. But generally both DOBs do somehow represent their owners in a way.

Last but not least, astrological analysis is only a general analysis that may omit some of the outliers or special cases.

The Secrets Of Zodiac Animals (生肖的秘密)

When someone asks you about your zodiac animal and you answered that you are a ‘tiger’ then you would have told the person your secret traits already. Contrary to normal believe, Chinese Zodiac animals are no superstitions and they are not created for fun as there are many secrets hidden in these symbolic icons.

Let me elaborate:

·         Tiger, monkey, snake and pig represent the movement of life force.

·         Rat, horse, rabbit and cock represent the peak of life force.

·         Dragon, dog, cow and sheep represent the stagnant of life force.

There are two particular zodiac animals that we need to pay attention to. They are:

·         Cow and sheep

The ‘cow’ represents the energy change from ‘yin’ to ‘yang’ and people fall under ‘cow’ would spend much energy in work. While the ‘sheep’ represents energy change from ‘yang’ to ‘yin’; so a ‘sheep’ would find difficulties to raise energy to complete a given task.

Let’s go back to ‘tiger’ for example:

If a ‘tiger’ is born in spring, then he/she would have ample to eat and he/she would have many companions. On the other hand, if the ‘tiger’ is born in summer; then he/she still has many too enjoy but needs to work hard. However, if a tiger is born in autumn/fall and winter; the ‘tiger’ would be sick and has many enemies.

So from here we can ‘predict’ ones living conditions in this life by knowing his/her zodiac animals. Referring to ‘tiger’ for further investigation: a ‘tiger’ can only earn a living by travelling about and his/her career should be something related to wood. If the ‘tiger’ is lazy to ‘move’ and takes up a job that doesn’t requires travelling; then this tiger would become a ‘sick tiger’ or even a ‘cat’. In this case, the person would find stagnation in his/her career development or even in poor health.

I have a friend who is a ‘tiger’ and he must travel every autumn to the east or this gentleman would either becomes very ill or lose a lot of money. Likewise I have a friend who is a ‘sheep’ and no matter what he does would see no end as he would abandon his task in hand half way. Further, this ‘sheep’ friend of mind is also very lazy to travel and prefers just to watch over his small sundry shop in his small hometown.

Thus, before you sneer those 12 zodiac animals as superstitions, please sit down and think about your own traits and you would agree too what I have said are correct. Let me add a little in saying that the zodiac animals are also somehow used in Feng Shui analysis. So a little secret does go a long way.

Paranormal Actress Possessed (演员上身记)

If you wonder if most of the paranormal programs are fakes, then it would be pretty safe for all paranormal program crews as they only need to create some ‘special effects’ to satisfy those curious spectators and then call it a day.  Then you are damn wrong! The reason is that not all program crews possess a strong heart and not everyone has a strong aura to ward off wandering spirits in the filming environments. Bearing in mind that to have a truly scary and persuasive effect, most of those reality shows are filmed in so-called haunted locations namely in the cemeteries and haunted buildings; and in wee hours at night.

Had I not know Grace then I would not have this story to tell…

Grace was only 17 when she took part in a local low cost paranormal reality program. Her task was to visit a famously fierce haunted grave of a pregnant lady located in the center of Kwang Tong Cemetry in Sungai Besi. She was to pierce a piece of green bamboo into the woman’s grave and then pour a bottle of black hound blood through the bamboo. The idea was to force the lady ghost to appear and produce some lucky numbers for the show.

So everything was in order and Grace was doing what she was told to. Her dad was waiting at the entrance of the cemetery chatting with me. It was perhaps in the middle of the shooting, Grace’s sharp yelling voice was heard came from the middle of the cemetery. Everyone rushed to get Grace for the fear of her safety.

After some rush, we found Grace lying face down in a bush near the cemetery of the pregnant lady. Apparently Grace has tripped and fell after she heard some strange noise emitted from the grave. Since Grace’s left foot was swelling with a bad bruise, the filming crew decided to call it a day to let Grace rest and recuperate for a few days.

What happened next was told by Grace’s dad:

“Grace developed high fever the next morning and her left foot was swollen like a bun of bread. It was very strange that when her mom opened up the room curtains, Grace shouted in agony and she had to close back the curtains.

We were worried that Grace’s wound might be infected, so we decided to bring her to a private clinic nearby for treatment. However, no matter how much persuasions we did; Grace refused to go out of the house to face the sun. We had to bring the doctor to the house instead…

At first we thought Grace was in trauma over her shooting experience, so we decided to let her rest for a few days. But after a few days passed, Grace’s condition did not improve. She begun to lock herself in the room and at time talking to herself in her room; someone seemed to be in the room with her. We could faintly hear the crying sound of a baby at night even!

Finally we decided to break into Grace’s room to investigate. There we found Grace was curling in a corner with her eyes rolled back trembling. My wife suggested that Grace’s condition was somehow more spiritual than physical.

So we called up a Thai arjan, but the arjan said his Kumanthong cannot fight the spirit that possessed Grace. After that we called up a Mao Shan Taoist recommended by you and the master suggested that we return to the grave of the pregnant lady with some offerings to appease the angry and disturbed spirit.

We followed the master’s instruction and within 3 days, Grace recovered as normal.”

Well, in case you wonder; the said grave was a notoriously fierce one as in the 60’s, three young men went to the grave to ask for lucky numbers using a piece of green bamboo and black hound blood. Later, the young men knew they had offended the lady ghost and they went to Thailand to seek help. Sadly speaking, all of them died in a car accident on their way back. Looks like Thai monks have no power over angry spirits. That was why I recommended the use of Mao Shan magic over Thai magic. That has proven my choice to be correct. However, I do not understand why the pregnant ghost failed to rest in peace after all these years?

Anyway, be warned that it is no benefit to fool around with magic and spirits.

Fake Paranormal Reality Shows (假的灵异节目)

Most of paranormal reality shows are fakes in nature especially those produced in Asian countries. The more dramatic a paranormal show is, the more likely it will attract audiences and hence sponsorships and donations from related businesses. Needless to say, these paranormal shows had made some masters millionaires in Hong Kong and Taiwan. I supposed I don’t need to give you names as if you are an ardent followers of these paranormal shows, then you would have an idea of who these masters are.

I was told by Paul who was once involved in organizing and coordination of film shooting arrangements for some famous foreign and domestic paranormal TV programs that people like to watch strange and spooky matters such as ghosts and black magic matters. And that when young and beautiful program hosts screamed in panic and nearly hysterical tones, the viewing rate of the program would increase sky rocketed. Incidentally that too, also makes those program hostesses famous in the entertainment circle. So, it is not a surprised to see scantily clad young ladies venturing into a so-called haunted house or being possessed by evil spirits; and that these ladies would scream their lungs out in most of these shows.

Of course, many of the scenes would include some elements of masters performing exorcism rituals to pacify those almost crazy ladies; best is some elements of sex and nudity also being included such as a crazy lady suddenly tears her cloth off etc. That will certainly attract much needed attention to boost view rates.

Scenes such as drawers suddenly being pulled out, doors being slammed suddenly, maggots being vomited out from the mouth of a black magic victim etc are purposely arranged for enhancing visual and dramatic effects. In some occasions temporary actors and actresses were employed and masters were paid to carry out fake rituals to enhance the credibility of those programs. In fact, if you ever tried the rituals in the reality shows, you will not get those results as depicted in the shows.

Not so long ago, a local actor who had taken part in a paranormal program confessed that he and his team has faked the scenes in that particular show where a piece of blanket suddenly being pulled away as if someone wanted to lay in the bed. In addition, the scene of blood oozing out from a pillow was also chicken blood they bought in morning markets etc.

The Taiwanese paranormal shows have their fair shares of dramatic effects such as chairs suddenly being flung across the room during ghost hunting programs, fire suddenly burst out from incense burners, young hostesses suddenly being possessed by spirits just to name a few.

It is a fact that anyone who frequently performs ghost hunting activities would only feel temperature drops, hearing voices or footsteps and in rare cases that people can see black shadows. There are many arguments about shadows as those might just be optical illusions that could be interpreted differently from person to person.

Though I cannot comment of paranormal reality shows in the West, I have some doubt about those modern gadgets used in ghost hunting especially one particular electronic device that could make spirits ‘talk’. I supposed whatever spirits that can use this gadget must be pretty ‘modern’.

Luckily we don’t see much of these paranormal programs now days after some pressures from general public as these programs only encourage superstitions. This is actually in line with Feng Shui prediction where occult matters had lost significant and interests in the 8^th period. We would need to wait for another 180 years for new interests to resurface.

The Spirits That Keep Returning (重返的鬼魂)

It is not easy to treat said spirit possession patients for there are just too many possibilities about the patients. First of all, it might just be the patient has mental depression issues. If the patient is mentally depressed, of course whatever exorcism rituals will not have any effects. Then it might just be a person just want attentions as during the so-called ‘possession’ period, many Samaritans would be visiting the possessed person and bring along companionships and money.

I have observed many cases where people believed to be possessed by evil spirits after being cured by masters continued to be repossessed again in relatively short time. At one time I followed a group of reporters and social workers to perform field coverage on a lady who believed her own self was possessed by a lady ghost in red.

On first look, this lady known as Liz behaved pretty normal to all of us. She told us that she was troubled by the red female spirit for many years and many masters have helped her. But after the exorcism of the ghost, Liz would feel lonely and missed her ghost. So Liz would call back her ‘companion’ ghost and the history repeated itself.

This time Liz was introduced to a Thai master and the media group etc caught hold of the news and joined in to witness the exorcism ritual. I was also involved because my friend was the trip organizer and he wanted a second opinion.

Prior to the exorcism, Liz had a short interview with some of the reporters and as I saw it; Liz was pretty sane as she was able to answer all questions thrown to her. And also Liz didn’t show any signs of spirit possessions because she still could light some incense and prayed to the Buddha statue in the master’s house.

When everything was ready, Liz sat in front of the master and the master started to chant some mantras. After a while Liz’s body started to shake and she behaved violently. My pal tried to grab hold of Liz but he unfortunately being scratched by Liz’s sharp long nails. So the commotion went on for an hour or so until finally the master took out an effigy of a woman and enticed the ‘ghost’ into it.

Liz slowly calm down and presto! She was her normal self again.

Oddly, right after the exorcism ritual, the master asked Liz if she was willing to ‘take care’ of the lady ghost as the ghost would bring boon to Liz. It was indeed a surprise to all of us as we all thought Liz would not touch the ghost even with a ten barge pole after what the ‘ghost’ has done to her.

So the story goes, the master taught Liz some mantras and the method of worshipping the lady ghost: a bowl of rice, tea, flower, lip sticks etc. As Liz was chanting mantra while holding the haunted effigy, she again showed sign of possession where her body shook vigorously. And as expected, the master performed another ritual to pacify the lady ghost. Again, Liz returned to her normal self.

Now the question thrown to me is:

“Is it true that the sprits keep returning to a person even after exorcism?”

My answer is always:

“If and only if a person wanted it to return.”

Personally I still think Liz only wanted to attract attentions and she was not and still is not possessed by any spirits. I would call this as ‘Liz’s mind demon’ (心魔). In another words, it is only Liz’s mind game.

Surrounded By Kids (五鬼拖尸局)

Generally speaking, the arts of Feng Shui (FS) cannot be studied through books alone because there are many hidden untold knowledge that must be shared by a master to a disciple from mouth to ear only. The FS setting of ‘surrounded by kids’ is a situation where a tomb of an adult deceased is surrounded by three or more tombs of the kids died from untimely causes.

According to personal experience, if a tomb is surrounded by a few tombs of kids, then the descendants of the tomb will face with health and financial problems. This situation was faced by one of my friends, Mr. Phoon.

Ever since Mr. Phoon’s late dad being rested in the grave, he has never spent his Chinese New Year with his family before as he would either be ended up in hospital just days before everyone else celebrating the festival; or an urgent matter that requires him to travel abroad to settle his business matters.

Also during the 7^th lunar month, Mr. Phoon would feel severe head ache and not himself. At first Phoon thought it was his health, but an incident changed his mind and he asked me to go over to Hong Kong for a Feng Shui audit.

That was indeed a very strange encounter. It was the ‘ghost month’ again and one day Mr. Phoon was not feeling very well. Since his business wasn’t doing too good, he decided to close for the day. As Phoon was walking in the street, an old lady walked passed him and she murmured some words: “… Look into your father’s grave… it is a mess…”

At this moment, Phoon as being hit by lighting and suddenly realized that he should look into his old man’s grave. Since Phoon was somehow people of some fame, he ‘invited’ me as I am not a local to visit him first for some catching up and of course, to carry out an audit of his dad’s grave.

So there I was, standing in front of the grave with my compass. After walking around the grave, I couldn’t find the exact root cause to Mr. Phoon’s predicaments. To be honest, the FS was not amazing but it also shouldn't cause Phoon to have a bad health and business either.

As I was thinking of a reason to wriggle my way out, suddenly I saw an old lady standing behind Phoon and pointing her finger at a tomb behind. Out of curiosity, I went to investigate the grave. It was a grave of a 17 year old lad. Then as I was detouring to go to where Phoon stood, there I found another grave of a 10 year old kid. That had aroused my curiosity and I decided to walk around the graveyard and I found a total of 10 graves with young kids lying beneath. Interestingly speaking, 5 out of 10 young tombs surrounding old Mr. Phoon’s grave.

After the audit, we returned to Mr. Phoon’s place. I told Mr. Phoon to move his old man’s grave as soon as possible and as when we were talking, my sight suddenly transfixed at a photo on the wall. It was the photo of an old lady I seen behind Mr. Phoon at the graveyard! Just out of curiosity I asked Phoon who was the old lady in the picture. Phoon replied: “Oh! That was my great grandmother!”

The Bad Luck Lady (不幸的女人)

If you think that you are unlucky because your boss scold you this morning or your Phra Ngan cannot help you to get what you want; think again after reading the below true story of Amy from Guangdong, China.

Amy came to KL to work in a massage parlor and I got to know her through a friend who is a fan of getting to know these foreign ladies. I can’t be sure what Amy said is true, but if her story is authentic; then I supposed we all are much lucky than Amy and we must thank God for that.

According to Amy, she has psychic eyes since small and that she can ‘see’ those spirits physically. Her psychic eyes did not bring Amy any good fortunes to her but bad luck as she would get injured easily especially during the 4^th and 7^th lunar month. During these special months, Amy’s body would swell without a reason and she would be attacked by severe migraine.

It is during these months that Amy would see many strange scenes out of this world. In one occasion when Amy and her mom walked passed a mountain, she saw many people on the mountain as if there was an evening market. When she told her mom, her mom’s face turned pale because the ‘mountain’ was in fact a cemetery!

There is one time that Amy was nearly drowned when she fell into a river. As recalled by Amy, there were about 20 people walking at the same time across a bridge but she was the only one loose her balance and fell. Luckily, a farmer nearby managed to jumped into the river and pulled Amy out of the water. It is until today that Amy cannot find an explanation why she would fall without a good reason.

Of course, beside the near death experience, Amy are prone to injuries as she would accidentally fall or tripped at her workplace until so much so that her colleagues nicknamed Amy as ‘glass princess’.

Seems like Amy’s bad luck also affecting her relatives as well. Two of her very close senior uncles were engaged in a dispute over their house they were renovating. Consequently a small quarrel turned in to a fight and the senior uncle slashed the next uncle and other 4 family members to death.

Since the tragic fight, Amy’s family members also passed away one after another in a few years time; and now her husband also fallen ill and jobless. This is the reason Amy ended in the massage parlor in KL and face to face with me.

Now the question is: “What had happened?”

I would attribute to Amy’s problem to her bad house and ‘yin’ Feng Shui.

It transpired that it is a custom in Amy’s village to exhume the body of a deceased only after one year it is buried to check if the corpse is fully decomposed. After that, the remains are clean and put into an urn for further burial.

This is of course a very bad practice as the dead has not rested in peace long enough and the tomb was disturbed only after a year after burial. Not only the spirits cannot rest well; the Feng Shui of the tomb is destroyed too. Subsequently, the descendants of the dead would suffer from unfortunate events and extreme bad luck.

Unfortunately, there is nothing I can do unless I followed Amy to her hometown for a Feng Shui audit. However, by the look of it; it may be just too late to save her day.

The Stories Of Old Jades (古玉的故事)

The Chinese are crazy about jades more than any other ethnics else in this world. In old days, they even brought their beloved jade into their graves in the hope to preserve them forever. However, not many burial jades can remain rest in peace as their masters. For many times these precious stones will be dug out either by grave raiders who hoped to earn a fortune; or the graves may be dug out by the descendants of the deceased for some reasons.

If a piece of jade is buried together with a corpse, then people believe that the souls of the deceased will be attached onto the jade. It is said that jades have a special property that they can absorb the energy and blood of the corpses; hence another special trade mark of knowing if a piece of jade is buried is to look carefully at the color of the jade. A new piece of jade would be greenish in color but after a piece of jade has absorbed the essence of a corpse, there would be some sort of reddish light being reflected back from the surface.

Of course if a burial jade is kept by the descendent of a deceased, then no harm shall be come to him/her because they are of the same bloodline. However, if an heirloom jade is stolen and kept by a stranger; then bad things would happen to the possessor. Having said so, these types of heirloom jades are very difficult to come by for common folks like you and me because many of these old jades are only being circulated in high end antique markets.

My friend Matthew has a very old heirloom jade given to him when his grandfather’s grave was dug. He kept this jade in his house but one day a burglar broke into his house and stole his jade amongst other things.

Although Matthew has lodged a police report, the only item that he wanted to get back was the old jade. So while waiting for the police’s news, he consulted an old medium and the below conversations were from Matthew’s mouth:

Matthew: “Ah mah, can you help to find my stolen jade?”

Medium: “Let me check with your earth deity (地主公) first.”

(After the medium sang some cryptic song and kept shook her head…)

Medium: “Are you the earth deity of Matthew’s house?

(The medium nodded and continued to speak…)

Medium: “How can you be so negligent as to let strangers into the house? Can you help to find the heirloom jade?”

(The medium continued to shake her head and then said…)

Medium: “The house earth deity said he will ask the earth deity of the next door…)

(And so on and so forth, the medium asked the earth deity of the house, estate, town… The process continued for about half an hour and finally…)

Medium: “Boss, you can go to the pawn shop situated at the Main Street downtown to claim back your jade… But go there fast!”

After hearing the words, Matthew obliged although he wasn’t too convince what the medium told him. Well, there is no harm trying.

True enough, Matthew retrieved his old heirloom jade as instructed by the medium. And a week later, the police identified the culprit from the pawnshop’s CCTV and the thief was subsequently being arrested.

That was a bizarre story about old jade that has come back to its owner. I have another story about a friend who purchased a burial jade and being tormented until she threw the jade away. Perhaps I will just keep the story for later…

The Vanished Flats (消失了的单位)

In Penang and the rest of big cities such as KL, there are many flats or apartments ‘vanished’ from some high rise housing estate corridors. Well, as with some of the western superstitions that one cannot find the 13^th floor in a building in the West; it is possible that one cannot find a flat with number 4 in a building in Malaysia. Instead we would find a unit with 3A. That is of course, the matter of deliberate arrangements. The number ‘4’ in Hokkian is pronounced as ‘see’ meaning ‘die’; so it is very likely that one can never find a flat with number ‘4’ in places where the Hokkian ethnic is the majority such as in Penang.

There is another scenario that a flat of numbers other than that of ‘13’ or ‘4’ vanished from the corridors of a commercial or a residential building for some very interesting reasons.

If you are a frequent hotel lodger in KL, then you would notice that some rooms are permanently marked as ‘booked’. And if you are a little adventurous and walk along the corridors of these hotels; you will find that some room numbers are missing. For example you will never find room 1410 between 1409 and 1411. Instead you will find a solid wall between the rooms.

And if you are of the type ‘die-die must know’, then you can revisit the place at night alone. You may hear disembodied voice of babies crying or voices of woman screaming emitting from the wall. If you are in luck, you may also notice someone walking in front of you suddenly takes a sharp turn into the wall! So please don’t be surprised. And if you are of the generous type, then give the room attendants some tips and they will reveal the secrets behind the walls to you.

There is a high-rise residential building situated amongst other high density buildings in Penang downtown near the jetty that has no physical flat number 14 on its top floor. Well, to be exact; you cannot find the flat number 14 because it is sealed by the building management and there is a story behind this flat number 14:

Old Penang people would remember that a tragic murder cum suicide case occurred in that flat number 14 about two decades ago. That was a case of a man jilted by his girlfriend and later he visited his ex in the hope for reconciliation. Somehow the meeting ended up with a furious quarrel and then a fight.

In that fight, the man stabbed his ex repeatedly until death with a kitchen knife and in the process, he also killed the ex’s sister who was around in the house. It was said after the man killed the girls; he held the knife and walked out of flat number 14. This person finally fell to his death by jumping over the corridor fencing. It was later said that his blood tainted foot prints filled the corridor.

After the tragic incident, flat number 14 was refurbished and rented to a few families but none of the families could stay in the flat for more than 3 months safe and sound. Some ended with bankruptcy, divorce or even death. People who stayed in the flat claimed to have heard the crying sound of two young ladies lingering in the unit at midnight. Neighbors who happened to walk by the flat at night would hear the crying sounds too. Consequently no one dares to stay in that flat and it was vacated for a very long time and people were scared to approach the flat number 14.

When new building management took over, they decided to seal off the flat for good. So when you walk at the top floor of that building, you would notice the corridor would feel a little sparse. Of course, if you are lucky; you can also hear the eerie sobbing noise of the restless spirits until these days.

Aura Bonding (灵光的结合)

Mr. Ong has kindly shared his view on aura bonding between couples and family members with reference to a very touching classic poem. I highly recommend the ‘me and you poem’ to anyone who is considering a divorce and then think twice:

In beginning of Yuan (元) dynasty, Zhao Mengfu (赵孟頫) wanted to take a second wife. His wife, Madam Guan Daosheng (管道昇) wrote the below all famous ‘me and you poem’ (我侬词) to his husband who was about to adopt a second wife. His husband was deeply touched by the lyrics and fell in love with her even deeper, without a second marriage till the end of their lives.

"你侬我侬，忒煞情多；情多处，热如火；把一块泥，捻一个你，塑一个我，将咱两个一齐打碎，用水调和；再捻一个你，再塑一个我。我泥中有你，你泥中有我；我与你生同一个衾，死同一椁。"

(You and me, I and you; ended wrongly due to our overheated fiery passion. Let’s take a piece of mud and make a figure of you and then mine. Then let’s break both of the figures together into pieces; and then unite both with water. After that, let’s make another figure of mine. In this way, my mud also comprises of yours; and your mud has mine too. You and I both live inside a quilt, then we too shall die in the same coffin.)

This poem was sung as ‘You & Me, I and You’ (你侬我侬) by countless pop singers in the beginning of 1980s, including the well known Robin.

My mother advised to keep kids’ clothes together to reduce conflicts among themselves. I was just curious and did not quite believe till I came to know about the below scientific discoveries during my attendance to a mind power course. 

Kirlian[1] photography shows energy fields ( aura ) of a physically closed couple or lovers overlapped, followed by mutual adjustments of shape, intensity, color and vibration to suit each other as “oneness” Also, such aura bond could easily be found among husband and wife, lovers, son and mother ( close blood ), or people with similar frequency etc. Where one thought could be telepathically sensed by another. We normally feel empty when one of our family members left or departed, it takes long time for our aura (personal magnetic field) to readjust to get harmony with the people or circumstances around us.  

From the above poem, especially ‘my mud has yours; your mud has mine’ (我泥中有你，你泥中有我), Zhao (赵孟頫) understood that our auras had to be readjust in order to perfectly suit one another.  In other words, it is a connection as “oneness” on spiritual level. Storage of aura stained clothes together had the similar effects. This practical theory is long existed, before proofed by latest Kirlian Photography.

Note:

[1] Kirlian photography is a collection of photographic techniques used to capture the phenomenon of electrical coronal discharges. 

The Scent Of Spirit (鬼魂的气味)

Some people can ‘see’ ghosts and we shall call them ‘psychics’. Many people cannot actually ‘see’ ghosts but they think that they actually see one; we call them ‘psychos’. However, we don’t need to become ‘psychics’ or ‘psychos’ to notice the presence of a ghost around us, or if a ghost has possessed a person. Generally, we can detect the presence of a ghost by their distinctive smells. No kidding.

When a person is approaching death, though not all; he/she shall emit a kind of pungent smell similar to that of dead rats. This is especially true for those terminal cancer patients. I once knew a couple involved in entertainment industry. The husband was dying from cancer and I visited him, he did carry the scent of dead rat.

Years after his death, I visited the family and the signature scent still lingered in the house. So I asked the wife if she has felt any presence around. She replied, at times she can see her late husband sitting at the edge of her bed.

Thus it is safe to assume that the ghosts would carry along the scent during their death. Likewise, if a person died of sea disasters; then his spirit would carry the scent of sea water. The smell we would notice when the ghost of a drowned spirit would be something salty and damp. If the drowned body was found decayed, then the smell of foul rotten meat can also be picked up.

In another case, if a person died in fire incident, then the smell that his/her ghost carries would be that of burnt meat as if barbecued meat. However, it this person is not burnt but suffocated by smoke, then the smell of smoke would be noticed by our human nose.

The ghost of a person who likes to smoke and drink, then his/her ghost would also carry the smell of tobacco and alcohol. If a person likes to wear perfume, then his/her ghost would also carry the smell of that particular perfume.

While we are on the topic of perfume, it is quite often for those hikers who like to venture into Malaysian tropical forests to smell the smell of ‘sundal malam’ or tuberose or any type of fragrances in that matter. Locals believe when a person notice this sort of fragrance, he/she should keep quiet otherwise the person shall be enchanted by this mountainous spirit. On the other hand, one may also notice extreme bad smell; that too may be an indication of an unfriendly spirit in the jungle. Of course, not all good and bad smells in the jungle are produced by spirits. Corpse flower will certainly emit a sort of smell like corpse.

There is a very simple exercise one can do to train one’s smelling sense, provided that the person is not a smoker, alcoholic or a perfume wearer. The person only needs to lie in the bed early in the morning when he/she wakes up but not yet opens his/her eyes. At this point, he/she shall notice some kind of scents linger around him/her. If he/she notices a very distinctive scent, then a vision shall come into his/her mind. Remember this scent and open the eyes. If the person feels happy, then good energy is around. If the person feels sad, then negative energy is present. And if there is no particular feeling, then there is nothing present.

Please Don’t Lose Your Head (勿得意忘形)

If I start by saying that there is a ‘soul’ hiding in everyone probably you will not dispute what I have just said. But if also say that “please don’t lose your head” you probably don’t understand what I meant. Well, there is a Chinese idiom that can be literarily translated as “forgetting one’s shape due to excitement” or 得意忘形. Just to clarify what I have said, let me tell you one true story about a friend of mine, Jason from Sabah.

There is nothing wrong with Jason but perhaps I think that he is a little rush in doing things; everything for him is just ‘go-go’ if you know what I meant. Jason likes to travel and enjoys outdoor activities but he has a habit of rushing into whatever he does. For example he can spend half a day to climb up the Maxwell Hill in Taiping and then in the evening, he is lying on Langkawi beach enjoying the sunset! Mind you, 90% of the time spent is travel time.

I am not a fan of rush travel and prefers to spent a few days surveying a place. But since Jason is my old schoolmate, then I would just be Jason’s driver when he visits the peninsula.

This is yet one time perhaps Jason has learnt his lesson:

During last June, Jason dropped by my place in Penang and he suggested that we visit Langkawi Island for a day or two as he wanted to snooker in Langkawi waters with a few snookering fans. Since this was Jason’s preplanned trip, I didn’t want to disappoint him so off we went to Langkawi.

As soon as we arrived at Langkawi, Jason met with his friends and we chartered a boat to Pulau Payar, which is a well known snookering spot. Everyone went into the sea for snookering except me. I stayed in the boat and dozed off since I am no fans of water for being a sailor for some time.

I thought I heard the familiar voice of Jason shouting and yelling with excitement and sounds of water splashing now and then as people someone climbing onto the boat and jumped off into the sea. And there was another familiar voice of Jason shouting “Wee…” and another splashing sound but then I heard another voice of Jason shouted in horror: “OMG! I saw my head floating in the sea!!” and there was a long silence; and someone shouting “don’t let him sink!”

I quickly rushed to the side of the boat and saw other snookers quickly propping Jason’s body. We immediately pulled Jason into the boat and luckily a good doctor was around and he quickly checked on Jason and found everything looked okay physically except Jason look dumb and unresponsive when people called his name.

After a while of resuscitate Jason, the good doc turned to me and said: “I can’t find anything wrong with him, perhaps his condition is what you would call ‘lost soul’ (失魂). Do you know what to do?”

I thought for a while and remembered that we did bring a big watermelon for desert after snookering activities. So, I suggested everyone to throw the watermelon into the sea and at the same time, calls Jason’s name.

Having not many options around, we did throw the watermelon into the water and yelling Jason’s name loudly while some one shaking Jason’s shoulders intermittently. Guess what? Half an hour later, to everyone’s relief; Jason was himself again.

As recalled by Jason later, he said that as soon he was taking a summersault into the water, he suddenly felt his head flew off from his shoulders and fall into the sea in front of him. He knew what happened to his body but he could only look on until a force pulled his head out of the sea…

And was it a waste to throw a big juicy watermelon away? Don’t worry, we managed to salvage it from the sea and everyone had a piece of it at the end of the day.

Ghostly Encounters In Lift (电梯遇鬼记)

Taking lifts can have awful experiences especially in the dead of the night: not only one can be robbed, molested in places where security is a concerned; a person may also be able to come face to face with spirits too. Of course, we have heard many ghostly encounters in hospital lifts; but the below story told by a friend of mine who stayed in Paya Terubong. Let’s just call this gentleman Tony.

Tony is a technician who works in a factory in Bayan Lepas. As his job requires him to work on shifts, there are many times that Tony would reach or leave his home which is located on the 25^th floor of a high rise building in a high density housing estate after midnight.

As recalled by Tony, he hated to take lift in odd hours because he can never know who or what is in the lift with him. There were some reported cases where tenants of the building were robbed in the dead of the nights now and then. And one may also have another kind of encounter with entities from other side too. Between the two, Tony has no hesitation to choose the later because only a human can harm another human beings; not the ghosts.

We all know that modern lift compartments are either fitted with mirrors or stainless steel plates that will show very clear reflection of whoever stands in the lift. Perhaps the idea is to let the passengers tidy up their clothing or hairs before stepping out form the lift. However, there is another catch: if you take a lift with another passenger at night; please don’t look at the reflections on the wall surface. Why?

The reason is simple: what would you do when you can’t see the reflection of the person beside you!?

Tony has a very strange encounter sometime ago in a lift of the building where he lives:

One night, Tony returned from his evening duty and he waited for the lift at the ground floor. There was another old grandma, Aunt Ann whom Tony has not met for a fairly long time since she was hospitalized. Although Tony would feel strange the old woman appearing beside him in the dead of the night, he didn’t ask as he was too tired to strike a conversation with anyone.

So the lift arrived and both of them walked into the lift. Tony pressed on the button shows 25^th floor and the good old Aunt Ann was trying to press the 30^th floor button but no matter how many times she tried, the button light didn’t lit. Tony thought that Aunt Ann was too weak to hit the button, so he voluntarily pressed the 30^th floor button for Aunt Ann. And the old lady gave Tony a queer smile but said nothing.

As the lift door closed and the lift moved upwards, Tony suddenly felt that the temperature in the lift was freezing and he inadvertently looked into the reflective lift door, and he couldn’t see Aunt Ann’s reflection even thought he thought Aunt Ann was physically standing beside him!

Perhaps Tony was just too tired that the term ‘ghost’ didn’t strike him. Soon the lift has reached Tony’s floor and he stepped out and bid Aunt Ann goodnight.

The next morning, Tony was having breakfast with his wife and they talked about Aunt Ann. To his surprised, his wife told Tony that Aunt Ann has passed away about one week ago; last night was Aunt’s soul returning night!

Encountering Dying Souls (惊遇弥留魂)

I supposed no one would deny the existence of souls in our human bodies. Others also believe that all living things possess souls hence it is a sin to kill living beings especially animals. Coincidentally, my friends have two very interesting stories to share:

Story 1:

Mr. Chan’s father was in comma and dying. The hospital advised Mr. Chan to bring his father home for final arrangements. So his dad was lying in the sick bed in Mr. Chan’s home for days still in comma.

One night, Mr. Chan received an urgent call from his factory asking him to return to the factory to attend to sudden machine malfunctions. He thought that his old pa’s condition would not change suddenly. So Mr. Chan went back to his factory around midnight leaving his wife and children to accompany the dying old man.

After struggling for some time, the root cause of the machine failure was finally identified and the tool was up and running again. By the time Mr. Chan walked out from the factory towards him home, it was already half pass 3 a.m.

As Mr. Chan was walking alone along the empty road, a silhouette was seen walking towards him. As Mr. Chan recalled, the silhouette somehow looked very familiar even from afar. That has intrigued Mr. Chan a lot as he kept wondering who the stranger was; perhaps someone he knew?

Soon the figure came face to face with Mr. Chan and to his surprised; it was his father! Mr. Chan said his father said only one sentence: “Go home! It is not safe to walk at night…”

Before Mr. Chan could say anything, the figure vanished in front of him.

When Mr. Chan finally reached home, he heard the crying sound of his wife; and apparently his father had just given up the last breadth. Mr. Chan was sure the ‘figure’ he saw was his late father’s soul that has come to him to say goodbye.

Story 2:

Garry’s father was comma in the hospital sick bed for some time now. One day, he and his family members went to the hospital to visit the old man. At that time, a nurse was checking at Gary’s unconscious pa.

Suddenly, the nurse wept in old man’s voice and she hugged Gary and his children saying how he has missed Gary and rest of the family members. That has apparently created some commotions and the nurse was dragged away by her fellow staffs.

When the commotion was over, Gary’s pa was pronounced dead.

What I can conclude from the stories is that even before a person dies, his/her souls already wander off his/her body. So, please don’t be surprised if you see your own self walks passed you in the street!