Exorcism Of Poltergeist (驱魔记)

Poltergeist is known as ‘hantu amukan’ in Malaysia. It is believed that this type of spirit would not harm human beings; they normally play pranks to a house owner such as throwing rocks onto the roof or setting fire to one’s household items. We still can hear news of poltergeist activities now and then across Malaysia. Just a note that the Malaysian hantu amukan is not as sensational as the western poltergeist though…

In early 2000’s while I was performing retreat for Hayagriva and Shitro cycles in Ulu Selangor, an old man came to the dharma center asking for help. According to this old man, his family was tormented by one or many unknown entity. Even at daylight that his daughter could see black shadows running in his house and at times, stones were thrown into the house breaking their utensils. The old man believed that it was the working of poltergeist so he has hired many shamans to do the exorcisms at first but of no avail; then he asked some religious teachers to perform prayers and exorcism rituals; but that too were useless. After a few rounds of exorcism rituals, the old man has exhausted all his savings, so he came to the dharma center to seek help.

While I have some rituals in mind but I was not sure of what ritual to use at that time. So I consulted my Rinpoche and he recommended me to use the Hayagriva obstacle removing ritual since Hayagriva is known of its speedy respond. After obtaining the Rinpoche’s blessings, I made some ‘torma’ (ritual cake) and some human figurines with flour. When everything is ready, I followed the old man to his house.

After walking around the old man’s house, I went in and took out a red torma while reciting the mantra of Hayagriva. At the same time, I held the red torma with my left hand and then use a ritual knife to cut the torma slowly until the whole torma is cut. When the first round of torma cutting offering is done, I fold a paper boat and put the flour human figurines into the paper boat. Then I asked the old man to bring me to the nearest river so that I could put the paper boat with its load into the river.

The old man was kind enough to send me back on his old bike after my second round of ritual. A few days later, he returned with a bunch of durians as a gesture of appreciation. According to the old man, the disturbances in his house have subsided on that particular night.

According to my Rinpoche, other rituals that are also effective in tackling poltergeist activities are Vajrakilaya fire offering rituals for speed. But other obstacle removal can also be used though it would take some time for other rituals to take effect. However, if one does not like to seek confrontation, then the spirit deliverance methods such as the ‘Phowa’ would be the best. Then and again, these religious activities may not be convenient within some religious communities. So a person needs to be careful as not to raise hostility or he/she may be harmed instead of the spirit.

If you too are tormented by poltergeist activities, why not give tantric ritual a try? I am sure you will not be disappointed!