The Haunted Studio (闹鬼的舞台)

My old high school mate, Zul was an ardent stage art performer ever since I know him. We have not met since our graduation some 30 years ago. Last time I saw him was during our high school reunion party last year. During the reunion, we started to chat about each other. According to Zul, he now rarely performs on stage but he manages a small stage art performing group and a studio instead.

Zul is not a superstitious person but he admitted that he suspects there may be a presence in his performance art studio in KL. After some lobbying and promises I made not to reveal his true identity and his studio, Zul managed to squeezed some of the more interesting strange incidents with his studio.

A few years ago, Zul received a new script and after a few discussions with his group members, they started to do rehearsals. It was a script of a tragic ending of a dancer who committed suicide at the peak of his career. Zul’s task was to express the story line in modern performing art. He was given two weeks to rehearse before final stage performance in conjunction of the launch of a new novel. Since the schedule was quite tight, Zul and his group had to step up the gas so that their performance would be flawless.

As we all know that stage performances are unlike movie shooting, movies can be edited but there is only one chance for those stage performer as the later must give live performance in front of live audiences. Hence there is no leeway to make an error. Also in order to maximize the effects of a performance so that all audiences could be enchanted, stage art performers make use of many stage props such as lighting and music. For example: when the stage light suddenly turned brighter and music became stronger, that signifies a more positive side of emotions etc.

In any professional stage performances, professional lighting and acoustic experts are employed to do their jobs. And for Zul’s said performance, at the end of the story; the hero would commit suicide. In order to enhance the effect of that tragic ending; the stage director would instruct the lighting expert to focus a beam of green light on to the actor on the stage; at the same time the music would also slowly be brought to a halt. Let us just call this green light and music as the ‘suicide signs’ for simplicity.

As Zul’s story goes, they took every opportunity to rehearse for that big day. One night, the group was rehearsing on Zul’s studio stage; the ‘suicide signs’ were suddenly turned on to everyone’s surprises. The fact was that the rehearsal was only for the performers to know their positions and for scrip recitations; the lighting and audio experts were never brought in to the scene yet! As the director of the performance, Zul acted calmly and said: “Someone must be playing in the control room. Go on practising.”

Of course there was not a single soul in the control room and the door was also locked as Zul has found out. He had to personally opened the control room door and switched off the lighting and audio equipment himself. At the same time, Zul also murmured in his heart: “Please don’t disturb, Datuk! Tomorrow I burn some kemayan (incense) for you…”

Strangely speaking, the group’s further rehearsal went on without further disturbance for that night.

Another strange case encountered by Zul was during one of the actual stage performances.

During the said performance, Zul was the coordinator. He had to make sure personally that all of his performers were gathered behind the stage. As a responsible person, Zul would visit the makeup room just to make sure that no one stayed behind. During the spot check, Zul found one of his dancers, Fatimah was still doing her makeup slowly in the room. Zul thought to give Fatimah a shout so that she could speed up whatever she was supposed to do.

To Zul’s surprise, Fatimah continued to take her sweet time to do her makeup ignoring his cautionary shout. I wasn’t like the Fatimah that he knows. Since Fatimah was facing the makeup mirror, Zul could only caught a glimpse of the lady’s face from the reflection.

As usual, the makeup for some stage performing artists can be exaggerated. According to Zul, the makeup methods can be subdivided to light makeup, street makeup and thick makeup. Whatever case that might be, Fatimah’s makeup on that night was neither of the three. Besides, her makeup was not suitable for that night’s performance at all! As recalled by Zul, Fatimah’s face was then covered by thick white powder with two big red circles on her cheeks. That reminded of him about the paper manikin that the Chinese use to offer to the dead.

To speak the least, Fatimah continued to face the mirror and slowly drew on her face with a pen stroke by stroke in a seemingly mechanical and frozen manner. It was too bizzare for Zul to think otherwise so he thought just to leave the lady alone and returned to the rear of the stage to check his other performers. It was at this point that Zul’s eyes veered at his familiar target, Fatimah. Apparently, Fatimah was already amongst the crowds awaiting to enter the stage.

What Zul couldn’t explain until today is that since the makeup room and the back stage was quite far away, added that there was only passage way between the two; could Fatimah move faster than him?

The Request Of A Hung Ghost (吊死鬼的要求)

Talang is a small housing estate situated in Kuala Kangsar county. Behind this small housing estate is a Chinese cemetery. There is a big earth deity’s shrine situated at the entrance of the cemetery where all of the visitors of the cemetery would first pray in this shrine before proceeding to the cemetery area. Many years ago, a giant banyan tree grew on the right side of this shrine. No one knew for sure if the banyan tree was there first or the shrine was setup first.

What I know for sure, is that a lady hung herself on this banyan tree when I was still studying in standard one. It was a commotion in this small region and rumours had it that the lady committed suicide after she was jilted by her boyfriend. Soon, this tragic case was forgotten in time. My school mates and I used to play under this banyan tree after Friday classes and the place felt quite decent.

Just 50 yards away from this banyan tree was a small Taoist shrine which is taken care by a ‘tangki’ (spirit medium). This shrine has an annual festive to celebrate the birthday of a Taoist deity and this is when the shrine would be packed by visitors from around this area. During this festival, the medium would fall into trance and the believers would gather to ask for the deity’s advices. I too started to visit the shrine when I was 9 mainly for the free foods offered to the shrine visitors.

Everything went well until during one of the annual celebrations, the medium was possessed by an unknown sprit which later identified itself as the hung ghost which dwelled in the banyan tree. This turned out to be a big case in local Taoist circle and a few mediums were summoned to perform exorcism ritual in the hope to expel this hung ghost. These mediums brought with them sharp weapons such as swords, spiky batons, spears etc. to harm the ghost. But after a few rounds of physical torturing, the hung ghost still had no intention to leave the possessed medium. The crowd decided to stop the exorcism ritual since the said medium already covered with his own blood and his physical conditions were not looking too good. Looked like the lady hung ghost was far from being harmed.

The poor medium was sent to the hospital for treatment but he remained to be possessed by this hung ghost for days even after being discharged from the hospital. He could only moan and groan in pain. Finally, the news was brought to the attention of a local headman, Lee. For the first time, the hung ghost spoke through the tongue of the medium and it demanded that a small shrine be built under the banyan tree.

After some negotiations, the headman agreed and the hung ghost left the medium’s body. People thought the case was settled then.

A year later, the promised shrine for the hung ghost was not built perhaps due to lack of money. No one brought up the case anymore.

About 50 yards away from my house was a Singh family who had a few cattle. My pa used to buy fresh cow milks from the Singh every other morning. The Singh’s cows were normally tame and always stayed in their bullpen. Somehow, one of the cows suddenly went berserk and rammed into the house of the headman, Lee. After the cow had created much damage, it gently strolled out and return to its barn as if nothing had happened.

The news of the destructive cow spread like wildfire. Feared for his own safety, Lee decided to fork out some money and built a small shrine as requested by the hung ghost. Everything went well for a few more years until during one stormy night, this old banyan tree was struck by lightning and toppled. The newly built shrine was destroyed under the tree weight. The rubbles then caught fire and burnt to the ground. That was the end of the tree, shrine and the hung ghost as no news or new requests were heard ever since.

People said that the hung ghost had asked for something that it does not deserve and that invited the wrath of gods. Or perhaps there is a more scientific explanation to this matter?

Beware Of Religious Conman (谨防宗教骗子)

First let me iterate that there is no single formula to success in entertainment industry. Of course the general criteria including but not limited to: the person must be tall, slim, handsome/pretty, having a fair complexion etc. But most of all, he/she should also have a very good luck too! Unfortunately speaking, now days with so many talent search shows around; so many young talents are discovered and continue to be discovered every year. With so many singers, musicians and actors flooding the market to grab just a few places in the market; many of those talented people would be deadly desperate to find their way out. And one of the many cheaper ways to make an artist popular is to seek help from supernatural or religion.

I post this passage on behalf of Racheal who had struggled as an actress for a great many years. This is her real experience meant to be a lesson for all others who seek fame and fortune in the dazzling world of entertainment.

When Racheal just came out as a new actress following a talent search, she thought only the sky is the limit; only if she worked hard and success and money shall be hers. But after many years of struggling, Racheal found herself in financial difficulty and hardly could make her ends meet. In her own words: “Even a bagger in the street earns much more than I!” It was during this time that Racheal’s buddy, Mary who was another actress recommended Racheal to a Taoist temple. According to Mary the Taoist in that particular temple worships fox spirits and the spirits are very powerful; they can help Racheal to gain popularity in the industry.

So, Racheal took Mary’s advice and started to visit the temple about once every fortnight. At first, Racheal just prayed to the fox spirits for good business and after a while; her acting career seemed to gain momentum. Racheal started to get more acting opportunities thought all her roles were relatively minor. As Racheal’s confident with the temple’s fox spirits grew, she visited the Temple more often and eventually she got acquainted with the Taoist in-charge, Chew.

After a few more visits, Chew told Racheal that if she wanted to excel in her acting career, she must get some ‘special’ empowerment from the fox spirits. Since Racheal’s career has seen some improvement after her visits to the temple, she agreed to Chew’s suggestion and started her ‘special’ empowerment process.

At first, the so-called ‘empowerment’ was only inscription of cryptic symbols on the hands, arms and face with cinnabar powder. Perhaps it was a coincidence, Racheal’s opportunities increased further more. Such sudden career development has strengthened Racheal’s confident with Chew. Then during a visit to Chew’s temple, Chew suggested Racheal to receive a ‘further’ empowerment so that the fox spirits can possess her body more permanently.

In order to do this empowerment, Racheal must first take off all her clothes so that Chew could write on Racheal’s body. Such suggestions had stunned Racheal as she came from a relatively conservative family and exposing herself in front of a stranger was the last thing in her mind. So Racheal excused herself and locked herself in toilet. She quickly called Mary and asked if Mary knew about this ‘special’ empowerment. Surprisingly Mary’s replied was: “It is okay. I have done that before.”

Still feeling insecure, Racheal called her boyfriend and asked him to standby just in case. So her boyfriend said: “I will go to the temple with a couple of friends. If you need help, just send me a message ‘HELP’ and we will come to your rescue…”

After Racheal got assurance from her boyfriend, she returned to Chew and agreed to receive his special ‘empowerment’.

On hearing Racheal’s decision, Chew asked Rachael to take a bath and then lay in a bed naked. With some hesitation, Racheal complied. Then it was Chew’s turn to take a bath. At this point, Racheal took out her phone and typed the word ‘HELP’ just in case. To Racheal’s horror, Chew emerged from the bathroom naked. Panicked, Racheal shouted at Chew: “What do think you want to do?”

Chew replied: “Just treat me as your boyfriend. It will be over pretty soon…”

It was at this moment that Racheal sent the ‘HELP’ message and in a jiffy, a few macho and hairy guy rushed into the room and pushed Chew to a corner. Racheal’s boyfriend asked Chew: “What do you think you are doing!?”

Chew repeated: “I was about to do the empowerment…”

Before Chew could finish the words, he was beaten up and eventually chased out from the area.

In this case, Racheal was a lucky one as she could seek help pretty fast. However, I know many people are not so lucky. So the best way is not to trust that anyone can make you rich or lucky. There is no magic in this world can make you a superstar! You can fight hard but eventually you have to think if your sacrifice to your struggle worth all your effort to do so. This posting is done on Racheal’s request for those unwary ones.

Rachael’s Story (女明星的故事)

If you think of going into entertainment industry, then you should listen to what Rachael had to say first. Rachael was a movie star far from making fame for more than 20 years. According to her, perhaps out of 100 persons, only 1 to 2 will make it to the top and the rest would be lost and forgotten in time. And Rachael was one of those majority that could hardly make her ends meet until she decided to do something else. Being once a small time star, Rachael tried all her efforts to make herself known but most of the time, she was only given supporting roles in movies making.

There was one role in a movie that made Rachael finally decided to quit her acting career. It was a movie about a drown ghost seeking revenge and finally Rachael was given a substantial role to act as the drown ghost. Although Rachael didn’t like to act in ghost movies, she had no choice as she was fed up with all her other small roles; perhaps acting ghost movie for once could bring up her name in the local silk screen.

There was only one thing that disturbed Rachael: she hates water! Naturally, in a movie about drown ghost; there are scenes about drowning or there would be no drown ghost. In order to make the movie more realistic, the film director have chosen an abandoned tin mine pool near KL that was notorious about drowning. So the time for shooting was set and the film crews went to the site accordingly.

Just as when Rachael was about to dip herself into the pool, suddenly a series of siren sounds of police car and ambulance was heard. The siren came from far and gradually moved towards the film crews; and finally halted at about 100m away from the location of the shooting. Some of the crews including Racheal went to the place where police car and ambulance stopped. There they first smelt the foul odour of decaying flesh and then the saw a dead male body flowing face down in the water.

Rachael and the gang were stopped by policemen standing guard so they decided to return the filming site to continue with their work. As recalled by Rachael, she was very reluctant to continue with the film shooting as she was afraid of becoming the next drown person in the pond. So she made a special request to the film director that she wanted two life guards standing by in the pool just in case she should have any problems; or Rachael would not continue with the film shooting.

After some heated arguments, the film director finally found two tough young men to stand in the water around Racheal. That had certainly solved Racheal’s emotional problem but the shooting wasn’t proceeding too smoothly. First, the camera jammed and could not function, then the voice recorder could not record voice and the batteries suddenly went flat. Lastly, the giant umbrella that was used to shelter the director suddenly toppled and stroke the director’s head.

A series of problems led the director to stop the shooting momentarily and he quickly despatched his crews to buy some foods and incense as offerings to whatever spirits were there. Strangely speaking, after the simple prayers; all of the equipment function as normal.

At last, off Racheal went into the water and the required actions were filmed. After the last shooting, Racheal turned her back and thanked the two life guards for their service. As a gesture of curtesy, Racheal asked both gentlemen: “I supposed you are life guards working around here?”

Surprisingly, both of the gentlemen replied: “What life guards? We are morgue workers who just picked up the dead body nearby. Your director asked us standing by so that we would not need to travel twice!”

Racheal almost hearing the last words. And the movie was the last one she had taken part of. Interestingly speaking, the ghost movie never hit the silver screen because the movie production was facing with financial crisis. Having said that, poor Racheal was never paid!

Who Is On Your Back? (谁在你背上？)

Simon and Anderson are brothers from Australia. I met them during one of the dharma talks held in my guru’s Buddhist centre some time ago. Apparently the brothers are also pretty faithful Tibetan Buddhism practitioners. Of course, my interest was solely on their ghostly and nearly fatal swimming experience off Tanjung Bunga beach in Penang.

Both Simon and Anderson are frequent Penang visitors and they are fairly good swimmers too. During one of their visits to Penang, they put up with a hotel situated just beside Tanjung Bunga beach. It was just a few weeks passed the infamous South Asia Tsunami tragedy. The nights in February are pretty stuffy in Penang and after the Australian brothers’ dinner, both of them decided to have a walk along the stretch of hotel beach to get some sea breeze. Apparently, none of them fancied to stay inside air-conditioned hotel environment. Besides it was a full moon night, the seaside was pretty well lit by the moon light; nothing could possibly go wrong.

As Simon and Anderson was walking and chatting on the beach, their eyes were fixed on a light buoy located about 50 meters off the beach. So Simon suggested to Anderson that both of them have a race to the light buoy and then return; who ever made the round trip first won the race. Since this was not the first time both of the brothers had this kind of competition and that both of them are pretty good swimmers; safety factors were naturally being thrown behind their minds.

After Simon made the call, both of the brothers swam headed towards the buoy. At first, Anderson was taking the lead but suddenly he dived into the sea and disappeared from Simon’s view. Before Simon could make sense of what had happened, he saw Anderson’s hands raised out from the sea and he quickly swam towards his brother and grabbed Anderson’s hands. At the same time, Simon yelled out loudly for help and luckily there was a small fishing boat nearby to their rescue.

According to the old fisherman who pulled Simon and Anderson out of the sea, he actually noticed both of the brothers swimming in the sea. The fisherman added that he saw a black figure clinging onto Anderson’s back as if wanting to press Anderson into the sea and as he saw Anderson struggling to keep his head above the water, he immediately steered his boat to the rescue. Had it not because of Anderson’s good swimming skill, he could have been drowned. The old man said that that stretch of the beach was pretty haunted by drown ghosts and locals would not come out to swim after dark.

Later, Anderson was sent to hospital where he was hospitalised for 3 days and lived to tell his version of the story.

As recalled by Anderson, after he had taken the lead; he suddenly felt a load was put on his back and that simultaneously, he also heard someone whispered beside his ear: “Go into the sea… rest in the sea and relax…” After a while Anderson felt that he has lost control of all his muscles and started to sink into the sea. Somehow his reflexes helped him to resurface from the sea. Had it not because of Simon and the fishing boat; he was probably a thing of the past.

Apparently the black shadow wasn’t ready to let Anderson go easily and it continued to haunt him even after they had returned to Australia. It was not until he visited a local Buddhist centre and told by a Tibetan guru that a drown ghost in the form of half decayed body and a broken arm was still clinging onto his back. The drown ghost was later sent off with some food offering rituals and both Simon and Anderson then became ardent followers of this guru.

Did You See What I Saw? (又看见了？)

I can sometimes see ghosts and this gives me a problem as I would think twice of what I see if the one stands in front of me is a real person or a spirit. My brother in dharma is more powerful as he claimed to be able to see and distinguish a ghost from a man. Of course, I don’t doubt his ability.

Both of us studied under a Tibetan master or Rinpoche. Our guru used to perform Buddhist rituals and ‘phowa’ (transference of consciousness) services for anyone who requests for such services. Now such jobs are normally taken over by the master’s disciples as our master is not always stationed in the dharma centre; for he needs to take care of many dharma centres around the world too. Looks like Tibetan Buddhist centres are a big international business.

Anyway, this was one of such occasion that the master was out of town and there was an urgent request for a blessing ceremony to be carried out for a sick patient; and so happened that my bro, Tan and I were the persons on duty that week. So we made some preparations and off we went to the requestor’s house.

The blessing ceremony was to carry out after dinner to bless Lee and his recently recovered old mom.

After we have made arrangements, the ritual started off at 7pm sharp. We chanted and sprinkled holy water around the house and suddenly I saw a row of ‘men-in-white’ walked straight into the living room. Since I was performing the ritual, I could only veer the ‘men’ or ‘things’ with my eyes as it is not proper to turn my head in the middle of ritual performance. But I could feel them moving around quietly around the house and us and then exited the house in a fairly quiet manner too.

At the end of the blessing ritual, we threw flowers and tied five colour cords on Lee and his mom’s wrists. Then the ceremony was officially ended. The first thing I asked my bro was: “Did you see what I saw?”

My bro-in-dharma nodded solemnly and said: “Yes. I did. Those were ghosts meant to fetch the old lady’s soul to where she belonged to. Perhaps the old lady’s days are numbered and we should perform a phowa service for her soul to depart too…”

As both of us were lamenting the fate of the would be departing old lady, Lee came to us with a ‘red packet’ (money) and in an apological manner he said:

“Thank you for your service. We feel much better now… My apologies on behalf of my friends from disturbing. They just completed they dharma practice in a Theravada Buddhist Temple nearby and they just want to pay my mom a visit…”

On hearing Lee’s words, both of us stood dumfounded for a long time. None of us wanted to look into each other’s face for fairly long time too. After the incident, we just keep our big mouth shut about our ability to see ghosts. If you are interested in old lady’s fate? Well, she is now around 90 and going strong…

The Revenge Of Giant Python (蟒蛇精复仇记)

Reticulated python is one of the largest and longest python species found in Malaysian forests. It can reach to a length of 7m and a weight of a quarter ton. My grandma was a rubber tapper who stayed in a rubber tree plantation behind Kuala Kangsar railway station had many encounters with these giant pythons during the 40’s and 50’s.

During my visits to my grandma’s place, she used to tell me many stories about her strange and eerie encounters with spirits and wild animals. Amongst those wild animals, snakes namely king cobra and giant python are two most feared ones. The former one is deadly poisonous while the latter one killed by strangling its victims. My grandma said as a rubber tapper, she had to wake up very early in the morning; somewhere like 4am and then cycled for about 20 minutes into the rubber plantation which was situated near maiden jungle at that time. The rubber plantation where she worked at was not very organised like those of today’s. For one thing, the grass was always taller than man for sure.

For many times, when she cycled passed an old well where she used to bail for some water; granny could hear something smashing against the well. For many times too, granny ignored the noise until when her curiosity made her veered off her usual route and approached the well. There granny saw under her headlight, a giant python was smashing its bulging body against the wall of the well. Apparently the giant python had devoured some wild boar and perhaps the boar was too big for the python and it was trying to smash its stomach load to a more manageable size.

 I will leave the king cobra alone for now and to tell you a story about the said “revenge of giant python spirit”. This story happened in the 60’s:

As I have said that the rubber plantation was situated beside a maiden jungle during until the early 60’s. The maiden jungle was a vast piece of dense tropical forest and it is beyond doubt that the forest was home for many exotic animals. It was said that during that time, a British company that owns the rubber plantation wished to expand its territory into the maiden jungle.

The beginning of this story was that a rubber tapper who was on his way to work in the dark suddenly rammed his bicycle into a giant log. At first he thought some logger had accidently left the log. Since the ‘log’ blocked his way and that the said ‘log’ was so long that he could not see both ends of it. So having no choice as this rubber tapper did not wish to return empty handed, he took out his machete and started to chop the ‘log’ into halves. On the first chop, this rubber tapper felt the texture of the log was a little too cold and relatively flexible. Then on the second chop, the ‘log’ moved and instinctively, he knew that the ‘log’ was instead a giant python! So, having no second thought, he ran as fast as he could back to his village to tell the story. No one seemed to believe his story.

However, another plantation worker had a second encounter with the giant python and the news of the giant python spread like wildfires. Eventually this news reached the plantation supervisor who was a British. This gentleman decided to get rid of the python as it was apparently a threat to his fellow workers. After some thoughts, the British decided to clear the forest by open burning since this is the most effective way to get rid of anything; and the cheapest too.

The British supervisor’s plan was at first objected by fellow local workers as they believed that the python was in fact the emanation of mountain spirits or at least, a pet of some mountain spirit. The British was not too superstitious and he ignored the plead of those seemingly superstitious local folks; so he ordered the plan to burn the jungle to be executed.

Strangely speaking, a night before the jungle burning, a worker known as Ah Fatt had a strange dream. In the dream, a giant python appeared in his dream and asked the plan to be delayed for 3 days because the said jungle was the meditative place for this giant python. It had been in the place for over 500 years and that the python was only short of 2 days to achieve enlightenment. Only after its enlightenment that the python could leave its existing place. So the giant python asked Ah Fatt’s help to convey its message to his superior.

As expected, the British refused to buy Ah Fatt’s story and decided to press on with his original plan.

Strangely speaking, no plantation workers willing to light the fire next day. Perhaps everyone has bought in with Ah Fatt’s story. After some yelling and grumbling, the British supervisor decided to lit the fire himself. The wind was blowing strongly that day so the piece of jungle was quick to be engulfed by flame in a very short while. Some plantation workers claimed to have seen the giant python twisted and turned in agony in the fire and at times, it raised its body as if wanted to fly into the sky; but eventually engulfed by fierce jungle fire and succumbed at the end.

The most bizarre thing was that as the jungle was burning, suddenly an explosion occurred within the flame and a piece of burning wood suddenly flew towards the British supervisor’s car and hit the car on the spot. Almost immediately the car caught fire and exploded with the supervisor in it. Perhaps it was just a coincident or perhaps it was the revenge of the giant python; no one really knows until today.

One day after the burning, the plantation worker went into the burnt scene and collected the remains of the python and buried them beside a temple. The case was thought to have settled with one fatal ‘accident’.

A decade later, the temple was demolished to make way for the construction of industrial park. And a few years later, Kuala Kangsar town was hit by major floods that engulfed almost all of the small town for many years until Temenggor Dam in Grik was built in late 70’s. Many people thought the flood was the revenge of the giant python spirit; or maybe it was only a coincidence.

What Troubled You? (什么困扰了您？)

I would personally think that the core of Buddhist teaching is about understanding the nature of our human mind; which is same as our modern day psychology. No more and no less. Of course, you may have other thoughts but please hold yours first.

Many people only interested in chanting mantras and in the hope of chanting mantra that they could be reborn into Pure Land. Unfortunately speaking, not many people are successful in entering the so-called ‘Pure Land’ for if they did enter; they will surely return to spread the good news to all of us. The fact is: not even the Buddha himself even managed to appear to his disciples to proof the existence of his holy pure land.

So, what does Buddhism about? Actually, if a Buddhist does not understand the nature of human ‘mind’ and the way to tackle his/her own mind; then there is not much to say about Buddhism especially the Tibetan Buddhism specifically.

Simply speaking, our mind creates the ‘intermediate states’ and there are actually 6 types of intermediate states in our human lives. More specifically, we all gone through 3 intermediate states when we are alive; and another 3 intermediate states when we have kicked-the-bucket.

When we are alive, our mind constantly churns up various thoughts every moment until we fall into sleep. This thought creating process is known as ‘intermediate states of living’. When we sleep, we have dreams; this is called the ‘intermediate states of dreaming’. For those who meditate, then they would have the ‘intermediate states of meditation’.

When we are about to die, then we experience the ‘intermediate states of near death’. Then when we have finally died, we entered the ‘intermediate states of actual death’; or we become ‘ghosts’ for a period of time. Finally, when it is time for us to move on; we again experience the ‘intermediate states of birth’.

All of the above 6 intermediate states are actually caused by our unsettled mind.

Our mind reacts to the stimulations of the outside world: When people praised us, we are happy; otherwise we are sad. Starting from the time of beginning of our happiness to the end of our happiness; we have created an ‘intermediate sate of happiness’. Likewise, when we fall in love; we would constantly ask ourselves:

“Does he/she love me?”

“Does he/she love me not?”

I am sure for those who had fallen in love before, they should know that they must have repeated the above two questions in their minds for countless of times every day during their period of falling in love until finally a ‘happy ending’ or ‘sad ending’. Likewise happens after we have slept and during our meditations. All in all, our mind has seen countless of thoughts being created and destroyed every day. Hence, we have passed numerous ‘intermediate states’ in just one day.

If we understand how our mind works, then we would understand that it is the changing of our minds according to outside stimulations come and go; none of those things are permanent in nature. If we choose to grasp on what had happened in the past, then we would feel troubled and constantly in bad mood. If then we opted to move on, we would be happier and since our mind is free; we would be able to grasp more opportunities in future. And in order to unlock the grasping of our minds on worldly matters; Buddhist scholars had come out with the ‘theory of emptiness’.

Basically, there are three main schools to explain this theory of emptiness but I would just leave them for now. The core of theory of emptiness is that the nature of all happenings are without own characteristics. It is our mind that thinks what it feels is real and permanent. It is only by understanding that both our mind and outside happenings are impermanent and nothing happens specifically meant for a person; we can let our mind rest in peace. It is only possible to see our own pure light when we have ceased to create more thoughts.

Of course, our mind is forever active and it is virtually impossible to stop its thought creating activities. The indigenous Buddhist masters had devised many mind training activities and concepts such as the ‘trikaya’ (three bodies), sadhanas (rituals) and meditation trainings to enhance our understanding and relaxation of our own mind.

I have steered away from most Buddhist terminologies but rest assure that, the higher Buddhist teachings can go hand-in-hand with the modern day psychology treatments. Perhaps I would leave someone to bridge the gaps of these two philosophies.  

Spirits To Avoid (不可招惹的鬼魂)

Sorcerers need many ghosts to work for them to replenish those ghosts lost during magical operations. So on a periodical basis normally twice a month, they would need to ‘recruit’ these spirits in the field. The favourite place is normally in an old battlefield, near road junctions, in places where many fatalities occurred or in the wilderness. Usually all types of ghosts can be recruited except the drowned ghost and ghosts related to fire incidents. Of course, it is practically impossible to isolate which one died in fire or which one was drowned. As a rule of thumb, if the intention of a sorcerer is not to call up a group of ghosts ‘specific’ to fire or water incidents; then it should be okay. Generally speaking, all established sorcerers must have some ‘overseer’ spirits to supervise and remove undesirable spirits in the group.

There is a very important lesson learnt from my fellow senior Taiwanese sorcerer whom I would like to identify as Ah Boon. Boon has been doing noodle production business since he took over his dad’s business many years ago. He settled in Penang after married a local lady and he travelled between Penang and Taiwan to look after his businesses. From outside people know him as a successful businessman but within the sorcerer circle, he is a master magician specialised in ghost magics.

Since I knew Boon pretty well, so we did have some sharing about ghost magic previously. I knew Boon has a 5 legionnaire army altar (五营坛) set up in a special room in his factory. This altar is so secretive that even his wife was not allowed to enter. Boon made two offerings to his 5 legionnaire army with raw meat and animal internal organs twice a month. Perhaps Boon’s spiritual army did work for him and his business grew rapidly across two places.

Perhaps some of us would still recall the Tsunami in Southeast Asia which has taken thousands of lives during the end of 2004. It so happened that Boon’s business wasn’t doing so good during that particular year and he has got some cash flow problems. At that time, Boon was trying every method to improve his business and out of the blues; he suddenly has an urge to recruit some vengeful ghosts from the field. It is an unwritten rule of thumb that the best spirit to work with is the one who died in a horrific incident. So if there is a massive casualty, then the place is where a sorcerer should go to get the spirits.

After some thoughts, Boon decided to go to Tanjung Bunga beach to perform the ghost conjuration ritual. He invited me but I was performing my Yamantaka retreat so Boon invited another fellow sorcerer instead. One month lapsed and I didn’t hear any news from Boon until one day I was having a bowl of curry noodle in Relau that I met with the sorcerer, Beng who accompanied Boon to perform the spirit conjuration ritual.

When Beng saw me, he immediately pulled a stool and sat beside me. Before I could open my mouth, Beng started the conversation:

Beng: “Did you know what had happened to Boon?”

I was busy munching my mouthful of noodles, so I shook my head. So Beng continued to say: “Boon is now having bad luck and he suffers from renal edima (肾水肿) and some skin diseases (皮肤病). His body is swelling until he couldn’t walk. Looks like the ritual has done more harm to Boon.” Then Beng looked at me for some comments.

After I emptied my mouthful of noodles, I raised my head and look into Beng’s eyes: “Leeks pay Boon a visit.”

So, Beng agreed and off we go to Boon’s place. His wife, Mary came to greet us. At this point, I smelt very strong odour of salted fish and I asked:

“Aunty, are you making salted fish too in your factory?”

Mary: “No lah. If you meant the smell, it has been in the factory a month ago. I will get Beng for you.”

After a few minutes, Boon came out to greet us. Both of us were surprised at his appearance as Boon looked just like a swollen bread soaked in water for a little too long.

Me: “Aiya Boon! If you want to be thrifty, you shouldn’t eat only bread and drink plain tap water! Look like you, you look just like what you ate!”

Boon: “Don’t joke at me please. Since you are here, can you see what has happened to me and my place?”

Me: “Joke aside. You looked just like some who has drowned for days!”

Boon: “Perhaps it is the doing of all those drown ghosts in my altar. I am too weak to do the ritual; can you help?”

Me: “Simple. Ask your overseer spirits to send them away then, plant some fast growing plants and keep your factory brightly lit for one month.”

Beng and I quickly left Boon’s place as the salted fish odour was so strong that almost suffocated us.

Two weeks later, Boon gave me a call and it seems like most of his symptoms were gone and his doc apologized for his misdiagnosis. But we all know that it wasn’t the doc’s fault. Had Boon not sent off all the drown ghosts he summoned, he could die of real physical illnesses.

This is a real lesson learnt that some ghosts are best to be kept at a distance; and that one should not perform ghost magic alone. For no matter how good we are; we would need someone to look over our shoulders! This is the real reason why I am not doing ghost magic anymore; there are just too difficult to find real experts around these days.

Consciousness Affects Intermediate State (意识决定中有期)

Intermediate state in this context refers to ghosts. As a matter of fact, there is no ‘ghost’ in Buddhism but only ‘intermediate being’. Of course, it is not my intention to discuss Buddhist doctrine in depth here. My interest is to bring up a light discussion on how the state of consciousness affects the duration of intermediate state of a living being in all practical aspects.

If you have noticed, Buddhist teaching of higher order such as the Great Perfection put much emphasis on keeping our awareness sharp at all times. A Great Perfection practitioner must keep his/her awareness sharp without causing too much tension on his/her mind. This is synonym to making string out of cotton: if one pulls the cotton with too much force, then the cotton string would snap. So it is especially important to keep an attentive mind during one’s dying process or the person may miss his/her one and the only chance to achieve enlightenment this life.

No master will tell you this fact: the state of mind affects one’s intermediate state!

It is through my own experience to see countless of subjects in the field to come out with this conclusion. If a person keeps his/her alertness during his/her dying process; then the duration of his/her intermediate state would be fairly short. As the teaching goes, a Mahamudra master can stay in the state of pure light for 7 days before moving to the other side.

An ordinary people would normally stay in the intermediate state somewhere between 7 weeks to a few years. My late aunt and pa stayed for about 10 years while my late grandma stayed until today.

If a person died in unconscious state, then his/her intermediate state would be very long. For the dead soul would need first to regain its consciousness to make sense of what had happened to it; and then to put 1 + 1 together. This may take a few decades to hundreds of years. Those poor souls that fall into this category included the one who died of drug overdose and those ones who died in freak accidents or those who committed suicides.

The souls that have the longest intermediate state are those who have mental disorders including the mentally depressed. It is very difficult to cure a person with mental disorders; it is twice as difficult for their lost souls to regain their state of mind. Without a stable mind and consciousness, on one can save them.

I would have guessed the reason for those unconscious souls to have exceedingly long intermediate state is due to their own confused minds trying to make sense of what had happened to them. In my past capacity as a magician who plough the housing estates looking for dead souls to work with, I have many opportunities to examine the mental states of those lost souls.

One of the lady soul that I did come across in Penang who fell to her death after taking drugs many years ago is still in a confused state today. It would repeatedly fall down from the balcony where she fell from every month. Likewise, if one is a psychic, then he/she can see many lost souls wandering along state highways trying to figure out what had happened to them. In case you are not aware, dead souls resulted from untimely deaths would lost their memories. This is the same as when a person has a brain concussion, he/she would lose part or all of his/her memories either momentarily or permanently.

The Human Centric Deliverance Rituals (做给人看的超度)

If you have psychic eyes, then you would agree with me that most of those religious deliverance ritual out there are made for real living human to see. While the grieved relatives of the deceased may be contented and satisfied with paid religious deliverance services for their love ones; the dead souls remain lost and bewildered in the eyes of a psychic. For most of the time, the newly died souls could only stared helplessly at their funeral services where pastors, monks or Taoists performed prayer to send the dead souls to the heaven.

The irony here is that after a night or a few nights of huh-hah until the deceased are buried or cremated, the dead souls still stood helplessly in the funeral service hall for days. What the dead souls really need is just someone to point them the door to the other side. Of course, for that someone to point the recently dead to the proper doors, that someone must be able to physically ‘see’ the dead. Sorry to say, 99% of those holy folks cannot see the dead souls; and the remaining 1% does not perform deliverance services.

When my grandma passed away at the aged of 86, I saw her soul dancing happily around her coffin while some Taoists continued to perform the ‘hell breaking’ ceremony. Perhaps I was the only one who saw grandma’s soul jumping around. I couldn’t blame her for she was in wheel chair for a decade or so and she loved travelling when she was alive but her legs couldn’t help her to fulfil her wish.

Of course, the Taoist’s hell breaking ceremony didn’t help at all for my grandma’s soul still lingered amongst her family members and at times passing some lucky numbers; which were quite accurate so to speak. My aunt could have a small fortune now and then. Perhaps when granny’s soul has enjoyed enough, I just point her to the light free-of-charge.

On other occasion, I saw a master performed ‘phowa’ services (consciousness transfer) for a deceased disciple. And while the master shouted a few times to send off the dead soul; it remained beside the master without going anywhere. After the end of the ritual, this proud master claimed that the soul of his beloved disciple has gone to Amitabah’s pure land. Of course, I didn’t want to be a wet blanket to remind this proud master that his dead disciple still follows him to date. After all, who am I to talk to a well-trained master?

In another occasion, I attended the funeral service of a deceased Christian friend. I saw the pastor saying prayers to ask the dead soul to rest-in-peace as “ashes to ashes, dust to dust” stuffs; the dead soul stood beside its coffin staring at its face of dead. It looked like the dead soul wasn’t really to rest-in-peace and only to be revived during the Judgment Day to me. Again, I am no busy body. So, I just let the dead soul to think about what it wanted to do next.

Personally, I am not interested to know if a dead soul is delivered for as a magician, I need some potential souls to serve me. But on the humanitarian side, as long as the dependents of the deceased think that the paid deliverance service has the right value for money; my mouth is sealed.

The Legend Of Peach Blossom Cave (桃花洞的传说)

In the mysterious far east, two pure lands are believed to have existed on the surface of this earth. One of them is a more well-known Shambala which is also said to be the pure land of Kalachakra. The other is a lesser mentioned ‘peach blossom cave’. Some scholars believed the actual ‘peach blossom cave’ is located in mainland China and they substantiated their findings with some assumptions. However, the truth is still remained to be solved as to date.

When I was practising ‘five thunder palm’ (五雷掌) with my Miao (苗) Taoist master, he told me about the legend of the Peach Blossom Cave according to old Miao legend. It was said that the so-called ‘Peach Blossom Cave’ was Miao ancestors’ pure land where the crops grow in abundance and everyone was living happily for thousands of years. Unfortunately, this piece of pure land was discovered by the Qin Shi-huang’s (秦始皇) army and the Qin army ransacked this Peach Blossom Cave. This sudden attack caused Miao tribe to dispersed all over China and Indo-China.  As time goes by, this secret pure land of Miao tribe is gradually forgotten and its location is only being told in legends.

Perhaps of this influence, I was ‘fortunate’ enough to enter into Peach Blossom Cave through vivid dreams and again met with my old Miao master there for many occasions to receive his advices and teachings.

There is only one record written by a Chinese scholar in Eastern Jin Dynasty, who is known as Tao Yuan-ming (陶渊明) on the ‘Record of Peach Blossom Stream’ (桃花源记):

During the year 376AD, around the Eastern Jin (东晋), a fisherman in Wuling (武陵) rolled his boat upstream for quite some time and suddenly he saw many peach blossom trees growing on both river banks. The peach trees stretched over a distance of a few hundred steps. All of the trees were purely peach trees and no other tree species were found in between. The grass was fresh and green. There were many fallen flowers on the banks. This fisherman felt very strange, so he proceeded to the edge of the peach blossom forest.

The edge of peach blossom forest was the originated place of a stream. A mountain then came into view. There was a small cave on the mountain and twinkling of lights could dimly be observed. So the fisherman alighted his boat and walked towards the cave. The cave passage seemed to be very narrow at first which could only allow one person to pass through. After walking for a distance of a few more steps, the front view suddenly became widened and bright.

There was a vast piece of land, the houses were built in organized rows, the land was fertile wit beautiful lakes and swamps. Mulberry trees and bamboos were grown in abundance. Mud paths between rice fields criss-crossed. The singing of birds and howling of dogs could be heard forming the symphony of a village life. Farmers were working in the field. People in that places worn costumes that are foreign and distinct from the outside world of that time. All of the people, young and old were very happy and at ease.

As the fisherman walked by, people in the Peach Blossom Cave were very surprised to see him. They asked the fisherman where he was from. After the fisherman told those enquirers, he was invited to their houses and prepared sumptuous meals to treat him. One of the elders told the fisherman that their ancestors came to this place to escape the war during Qin Dynasty. All of them decided to stay put and hide themselves from the civilization. Slowly, all of the villagers were cut off from the outside world.

After staying for a few days in the Peach Blossom Cave, the fisherman decided to return home. The villagers asked the fisherman to keep a secret of their hiding place and he agreed. On his way back, the fisherman made some marks so that he could return to the Peach Blossom Cave again. When he was eventually back to the town, the fisherman visited the town mayor and told the mayor his experience in the cave.

On hearing the fisherman’s story, the mayor dispatched a team of his followers to the Peach Blossom Cave but the place could not be found.

As the story goes, there were many attempts over the years to search for this Peach Blossom Cave. Some people said the location of this Peach Blossom Cave is in Shanxi (山西) but I doubt it is a physical place on this earth. Anyway, maybe you will have the opportunity to visit this cave sometime in future too.

Sacred Caves In Taoism (道教洞天)

In Taoism, the term ‘heavenly cave’ (洞天) refers to the holy mountain where Taoist deities and immortals live. There are 10 major sacred mountains and 36 minor mountains that form the main structure of Taoist heaven. These sacred mountain (hence the caves) also included the five major mountains in mainland China. These sacred mountains are physical locations where Taoists of past dynasties built temples for their spiritual practices. The actual meaning of ‘heavenly cave’ if we are to scrutinize, refers to caves in the mountain that can reach the heaven. This is depicted by a work ‘Traces Of Tao’ (道迹经) composed during the Eastern Jin Dynasty (东晋): “五岳及名山皆有洞室” meaning “All five mountains and famous mountains have caves.”

In another matter, there is something like ‘deities of 8 caves’ (八洞神仙) that may refer to Taoist deities reside in the 8 caves. Again, the cave in this context refers to sacred mountains or heaven if you like. And the 8 caves can be subdivided into ‘upper cave’, ‘middle cave’ and ‘lower cave’ where only one fairy resides in each of these three caves. Some scholar suggested that these 3 fairies refer to 3 stages of live of a woman: the young, mother and elder fairy.

However, in another epic work, ‘Journey To The West’ (西游记) mentioned the fairy of the 8 caves as: the deities of upper cave as the ‘three purity’ (三清), the four emperors (四帝) and other heavenly immortals. The deities of the middle cave are the ‘jade emperor’ (玉帝), the 9 fortresses (九垒) and the deities of oceans and mountains. While the last of the list are deities of lower 8 caves: the lord of underworld (幽冥教主) and earth deities (地仙).

As if the above is still not enough, the folk literature further added another two groups of ‘8 immortals’ (八仙) in addition to the original ‘8 immortals’ existed since the Yuan Dynasty. The original ‘8 immortals’ refer to Lv Dongbin (吕洞宾), Li Tieguai (李铁拐) etc. a total of 8 immortals. However, in Qing Dynasty, the middle 8 immortals (中八仙) and lower 8 immortals (下八仙) were added to increase the number of deities in the pantheon of Taoist deities.

In modern times, these sacred caves have become Tourist spots mainly and I doubt that anyone can meet any forms of immortals there. Of course, the size of ‘8 immortals’ has shrunk to only the original 8 immortals. It is okay if you still feel confused about the ‘cave’ and ‘mountain’ issue, please rest assure you not alone as many Chinese too is obvious about the distinctions.

Magician’s View On Intermediate State (法师眼中的中有)

When we are born, we are normally well being taken care of. This is not the case when we are going for our final journey.

Religions have a lot of advices but all those are just irrelevant in my eyes. For each of us is a unique entity with own dynamic personalities.

I am not in a position to discuss on if a soul would go for a reincarnation or it would go to heaven or hell; but I can roughly discuss on where one’s soul would be during this period between death and the next. Forgive me as no psychic eyes can see through the mystery realm of reincarnation.

As far as my experience goes, a dead soul will never leave the intermediate state if it thinks it has something to do. For example, if this dead soul likes to play computer games; then it will engage in rounds of computer games days and nights until it finally feels tired and wants to move on. Once this dead soul has this idea, its surrounding would turn dark and in most cases; it would be led through a door and enter into the next realm.

My late aunt died about 2 decades ago just one year short of her retirement. She had a very bad marriage life and her only wish was to travel around the world. It was sad that my aunt couldn’t fulfil her dream while she was alive. So for many times and many years after my aunt has passed away, I had some vivid dreams of my aunt travelled to many places and she seemed to be very happy on each occasion. I could still remember that my aunt waved at me at a train station in US during one of my dreams. The last dream I had about my aunt was that I accompanied my aunt to a big hall with many doors. There was a notice on one of the doors. While I stopped and read the notice, my aunt proceeded to open the door and entered. I could see white light came out from the hall; but I was somehow barred from going into the door. This was when I woke up from my dream. I have not had any dreams about my aunt since then. Maybe my aunt is reincarnated. I could only guess.

My father died about a decade ago. When he was alive, my dad likes to travel and exercise. So for a period of 10 years or so, I used to see my dad playing badminton or jogging in the Lake Garden in my dreams. My dad also always brought me around to various places during some of the dreams. Interestingly speaking, although I know where I was; the surrounding was always dark as the journeys were almost always at night. The last time I dreamed of my dad was that I sent him across a bridge, and he walked to the other end but I somehow halted before stepping on the bridge. Perhaps that too indicated that my dad has passed over to the other side or being reincarnated.

Yet many years later, one of my buddies whom I would like to call him as Beng. Beng was an alcoholic and a womanizer. Beng used to visit pubs for drinks and prostitutes on most Friday nights. As far as I know, Beng would only return to his home at 3am after intoxicated with alcohol. Unfortunately, after one of the happy hours; he met with a freak accident and died on the spot. One week after Beng’s death, I was walking past one of Beng’s favourite bars and saw a familiar silhouette in front of me. Due to curiosity, I followed the stranger into the pub and after searching for a while, my eyes fixed at one corner. There I saw Beng was sitting in the corner drinking while hugging two pretty ladies. I knew it was Beng’s ghost.

After the encounter, I had a few more encounters with Beng’s ghost at night in pubs downtown. Six months later, I saw Beng’s spirit again outside of a pub. This time his head stooped and he looked sad. So, I approached Beng and asked him:

Me: “Oh Beng! Why are you here? Shouldn’t you somewhere else?”

Beng: “It’s you Liew… I am bored. Although I enjoyed drinks and ladies; no one talks to me. I just repeat drinking and womanizing days and nights and all these are getting mechanical and torturing. I want out! Can you help?”

Me: “I can send you off but I won’t know where will you go next.”

Beng: “Okay. Anything is better than this.”

So, I did a short deliverance ritual and Beng’s spirit was sent off. I have not seen Beng since the ritual.

Based on my previous experiences, perhaps I could conclude that as long as a dead soul can hold its euphoric state for all eternity; then it already staying in its ‘Pure Land’. Incidentally, the concept of Pure Land is simply based on maintaining a state of mind for as long as possible. But this is easy said than done as our mind in dynamic. Hence, I don’t think anyone will stay in any sort of Pure Land for a very long time.

A Magician’s Pure Land (合道归真)

I always think that the aim for magic is for the benefits of this life and the religions are for the next. Then and again, I could be wrong.

A magician of an unbroken lineage too has his/her final resting place similar to the Buddhist Pure Land or the western heaven. The only difference is that a magician’s pure land is more down-to-the-earth compared to the euphoric religious beautiful after life. As a whole, an Asian magician of credible lineage will return to his/her masters after the end of his/her life. I have consistently visited the kurba archan (Thai grand master’s) temple and see a lot of white shirt archans (masters) sitting under a giant gold Buddha statue. A step lower are all spirits once kept by previous masters. So I guess if continue with my Thai magic, I will end up at kurba archan’s place very soon.

On the other hand, I was also a practitioner of Taoist magic and was given a small hut by the lineage masters which is surrounded by plants and herbs in the Peach Blossom Cave (桃花洞). The sky is always pink in that cave and the grass is always green. The scene looks very much like what is depicted of the Buddha’s Pure Land without the presence of Buddha and bodhisattvas of course.

Maybe I am just dreaming, but both scenes are quite real that made me quite at ease as I know where would I be after the end of my life. To me, this is more assuring than the promises of heaven or pure land; at least my dreams were real enough and such dreams kept repeating now and then.

So I guess since so many people asked me on the purpose of doing magic, other than the standard answer of using magic for mundane purposes; the other point I would like to add is also for the magicians’ final resting too. Unfortunately, death and after life is seldom spoken about in many magic schools. I am sure the subject of after life is also part of curriculum in traditional wiccan schools.

The point I want to raise is that, a magician should receive some kind of visions about his/her after life matters from his/her masters. Without those assurances, this magician is not recognised as a member of the lineage; this life or the next. Of course, for many other magicians out there; they should step on their gases so that they shall not be alone during their journey to the next.

Message From The Joker (小丑的信息)

If I am not mistaken, there are 52 plus 2 cards in a deck of poker. The plus two cards are the ‘joker’ cards which are not normally used and discarded… well, in normal gambling circumstances.

Do you know that this ‘joker’ is evil and it may attract spirits especially during the witching hour (12 midnight to 3 a.m.)?

There are many unwritten games to call upon this joker during midnight, this is just one of the many. But before I go on, please be warned that this is a psychologically dangerous game for there were people became mentally ill after playing this game. So don’t try it if you have a weak heart for I shall not be held responsible on whatever results that may have.

To play this game, you will need a deck of poker with the joker. Shuffle through the cards and then select a card and put it further in front of you as shown in the picture above while saying: “Joker, joker, where are you?”. Then, take another card and put it on the front left side and say the slogan again. Repeat the process until the ‘joker’ appeared in one of the location or until all 5 points are placed with a card each.

If the joker card did not appear on any of the locations, then there is no spirit around you. You may repeat the game if you so wish desires but as a rule, it is best not to exceed 5 tries every time or very bad things may happen if not immediately. I have a friend who fainted while playing this game in a haunted house. He claimed to have seen a white shadow flew across his head after gotten the joker card.

For the brave hearted ones, if the ‘joker’ card falls on the ‘far’ point, that means a spirit is still far away from you and you are relatively safe. However, if the joker falls on the ‘together’ point; then a spirit is already possessing you. So it is best to reverse the game by sending the spirit off. Having said so, if the ‘joker’ cannot be seen after the first try; that means the spirit is very reluctant to leave. In this case, you may repeat the game for a further 4 times. After that, it is my advice to seek professional help if the spirit still refuses to help.

On the same matter, cards with numbers 1 to 10 can be coded individually as how you like.

The ‘J’ means ‘you will get a message soon.”

The ‘Q’ means a female spirit that is around but it does not want to participate in your game.

The ‘K’ means a male spirit that doesn’t like to join your game.

Further, the colour ‘red’ means a benevolent one and ‘black’ refers to a malevolent spirit.

Contemplating The Source Of Magical Power (追寻魔力的根源)

To me, the source of all magical power comes from ‘respect’. People who do not respect others cannot enjoy the power of magic; at least I have not seen anyone who are arrogant and exorbitant enjoyed a peaceful life in any form of magic traditions.  

In Asian magic and other fields such as martial arts and artisans, especially the Thai traditions; the ‘waikru’ (teacher’s) ritual is of the most important.

The teacher’s ritual teaches us to be thankful and appreciate of our teacher’s generosity to part their knowledge to us. Of course if our teacher is still alive, then he/she will part his/her most secret knowledge to us now and then. However, if our teacher is no more with us and we remain our respect to him/her as it is; then have no doubt that the teacher’s blessing shall continue to pour to us in one way or another.

If we follow a proper magic lineage of any sort, East or West; our teacher would not only teach us just casting magic ritual alone. We will have to study herbal knowledges as well. In Thai traditions, there are ways and time on when a particular sort of herb should be collected and preserved. Modern folks would just scorn at those herbal knowledges as obsolete and irrelevant; but I would look at the wisdom of old as a type of ‘respect’ to our mother nature. For the more respect we have to the herbal ‘gift’ of our mother nature, the more ‘feedbacks’ our mother nature will return to us.

In another respect, haven’t you already noticed that an arrogant person however rich he/she may be will not have a tranquil and safe life? It is precisely that the act of disrespect to the mother nature that has blocked the messages from mother nature reached us. In this sense, I personally do not believe in the punishment of God… But it is rather we are punished by our own arrogance and ignorance.

I had to put my case this way because so many people said practising magic is superstitious in this modern days where the only real thing is the smart phones and the Pokemon Go game; and the dazzling world of entertainments. The fact is: if you have practise magic for over 10 years and reap no benefits at all, and that you are from an unbroken lineage; then there must be something very wrong to your practice.

If you still don’t believe my words, and that you are suffering now in this life; then chances are that you have not treated your old parents well. Go back and treat your old parents well and you shall enjoy a period of tranquil life. If none of your parents is around, then pray for his/her forgiveness continuously as long as you live; then your life shall be relatively peaceful too (if you perform this continuously).