Can the blind actually 'see' ghosts?
I have no definite answer for you but to share my experience.
During one of our visits to an old folks home, almost everyone was out living lonely blind aunt called Madam Lau sitting quietly in the corner talking to herself facing a mirror.
The caretaker Mary said other than having the habit of talking to the mirror, Madam Lau was quite normal and well mannered.
So, I approached Madam Lau and gently greeted her after handling the food stuffs donated by general public.
As I was approaching Madam Lau from behind, she suddenly asked:
"Who are those kids in the mirror?"
I got a stun as I was having a few Kumanthong statues at that time. Was it possible for Madam Lau to see the kid spirits?
So, I spoke out loud:
"Hello Madam Lau, I am Liew from Gelupa Association..."
Madam Lau responded: "I can't see you, but there are a few kids in the mirror..."
"Were you talking to someone just now?" I asked curiously.
"Oh, I don't know the them but they do appear in this mirror when everyone was out. They kept me company until the crowd returned... Those folks said that I would be with them very soon so I giggled as I would be free very soon..."
A year later, I returned to the old folks home and I didn't see Madam Lau. So I asked Mary:
"Where is Madam Lau?"
"Oh, she passed away peacefully a month ago. Strangely speaking, I found Madam Lau laughed and laughed happily the night before she left. I also heard many people singing jollily but I didn't see anyone when I came into the room..."
This is the only case I heard about the blind seeing and communicating with ghosts, or they were just the reflections of Madam Lau's mind?
Shen-gong is a type of Taoist invulnerability exercise similar to the Indonesian Tenaga Dalam practices but it has a longer history. It is said that Shen-gong practices were first practiced by Hakka folks in China and then Shen-gong was spread across the globe after it was made popular by Hong Kong ghost movies.
There were many people practiced Shen-gong in Malaysia in the 70's and 80's but the popularity of such has seen a decline now days.
I can still recall that there was a Shen-gong sifu who was also a bread seller outside of my school. Let's just call him Uncle Lim as I have forgotten his real one.
Uncle Lim liked to show off his invulnerability in front of us kids perhaps to attract more people buying his breads, or just to show that his Shen-gong was genuine. He would suddenly pull up his shirt exposing his big tummy, and then Uncle Lim would take one of his saw-like long knife he used to cut bread to cut his own tummy in a zig-zag motion.
Generally speaking, Uncle Lim's performance was successful as I could see only a few red marks on his tummy and no blood until one day...
As usual, it was just after the morning school session. Uncle Lim played his usual trick again but this time perhaps his 'ang kong' (patron god) didn't arrive on time. This time the sharp long knife produced a few long deep cut across Uncle Lim's tummy.
The wounds were so deep that his intestines were seen exposed. A few teachers who happened to came out of the school hurriedly sent Uncle Lim to the district hospital.
I have not seen Uncle Lim since the last incident. A few weeks later, I saw a young man selling bread at the usual Uncle Lim's bread stall. When I asked about Uncle Lim, the young man just said that Uncle Lim has retired from his business.
I thought Uncle Lim perhaps was too shameful of that day's incident and no face to face the kids.
Looks like Shen-gong is not fool-proof. Since we cannot be sure when it can function and when it can fail, maybe it is best just learn it and keep it to oneself for good.
When I was in Standard 5 (about 11 years old or so), one of my classmates, Beng was the medium of the famous Monkey God. He would boast his abilities in the class to a group of his admirers including me during rest times.
To us, Beng was the reincarnation of gods to save us from the evil forces. Everyone wanted to get close of Beng at that time as according to Beng, he can make whoever he wants into 'god' with magical powers.
Even though I bagged Beng many times, he refused to bestow his magical power to me. I knew Beng was attached to a Taoist temple near our school as the medium of the Monkey God. This Monkey God would possess Beng's body every Thursday night to help the needy ones.
At that time, our school headmaster forbade the students to wander in the street after 7 p.m. So, I would quietly sneak out to watch the Monkey God in actions.
During one of those night visits to the temple, as I could recall...
As I watched attentively at the Monkey God in action, I felt my vision blurred and my head started to ache. After a while, my body trembled and that was what I could remember.
Later, when I regained consciousness; I saw a crowd was surrounding me. According to one of the senior medium, I was possessed by the Kid God (哪吒) just now. Apparently the Kid God has chosen me as His representative.
At this point, Beng approached me and congratulated me as we are now 'god-brothers' destined to save the world.
As spiritual mediums, our jobs were to perform rituals in the temple and at times, we also need to go out to do house blessings and participate in holy celebrations.
Unfortunately speaking, during one of those night processions, we were caught red handed by our headmaster...
Right after the morning assembly, Beng and I were summoned into the headmaster's office.
As you can imagine, both of us kids just stood in front of the headmaster's desk with our heads stooped listening to his great lectures.
As I was pretended to listen, I noticed Beng's body started to swing and suddenly I heard a shout scream beside me. Oh my God! The Monkey God has possessed Beng.
The headmaster suddenly halted his lecture and with his dropped jaw, he stared at Beng.
Beng continued to scream and then jumped onto the headmaster's desk just like a monkey. As soon as he was on the desk, Beng picked up headmaster's stationary and threw at the headmaster.
This sudden attack made the headmaster scrambled out of his office to seek help. I was somehow pulled to safety by the headmaster.
After the Monkey God had made much damage in the headmaster's office, the disciplinary teacher came to rescue.
Interestingly, the Monkey God said he was hungry and asked the disciplinary teacher to give him some bananas. Instead of bananas, the teacher gave the Monkey God a slipper. Which made the Monkey God to be furious and started to charge towards the disciplinary teacher.
Now it was the teacher's turn to take cover...
The commotion was finally brought into control when Beng's father was summoned to the school to bring Beng back to rest for the day under the reason of 'disturbed mind'.
I was somehow spared from further interrogations from the headmaster and teacher. Perhaps they too were stunned by the powerful Monkey God...
Of course, the headmaster then added another rule to his 10 commandments:
"No students are to participate in temple activities without permissions."
Investiture of the Gods (封神榜), the Romance of Three Kingdoms (三国演义) and Journey to the West (西游记) are three Chinese classic epics that had given rise to many of so-called Taoist gods and goddesses that we today see in big and small temples.
The famous characters from 'Investiture of the Gods' are The Lord of East (黄飞虎)，Neza (哪吒)，The four demonic generals (魔家四將)，The god of wealth (趙公明)，The 10 heavenly masters (十天君)，The 3-eyed God (二郎神)，Thunder God (雷震子) etc.
On the other hand the famous characters from Journey to the West are: The Tang Monk (唐三藏)，the 8 precepts (猪八戒)，the Monkey God (孙悟空)，Monk Sha (沙悟净) etc.
And finally in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms we have the famous warrior Guangong (关公).
At first glance, all of the characters above are already gods that we can see in most Chinese temples and homes. But do you know the hidden agendas of those epics?
First the 'Investiture of the Gods' praises Taoism and belittles Buddhism. The 4 demonic generals actually refers to the 4 heavenly kings of Buddhism. On the other hand, in the Journey to the West, the pig-head and the Monk Sha refer to Taoist heavenly generals, while the Monkey God is also of Taoist origin.
So, by depicting three Taoist figures sought refuge under the Tang Monk; the author indicates that Buddhism is much superior than Taoism.
Of course, all of the above mentioned figures are of fable nature except the Tang Monk and Guangong. Interestingly speaking, Guangong worship only started in Qing Dynasty after advocated by the emperor of that time.
After rounds and rounds of title endowments by Chinese emperors, Guangong suddenly became the god of brotherhood. Perhaps the Qing emperors' message was to encourage their subjects sworn loyalty towards the Qing dynasties. Having so said, Qing dynasty toppled after about 300 years of ruling China.
If we scrutinize Taoist rituals now a days, most of the above mentioned gods would be invoked during all sorts of celebrations and rituals. My question is:
"What will join the party since all of those figures are fable or perhaps no more in existence in nature?"
In my view, ghosts are forms of energy that will fade over time and there is nothing to fear about.
A year after my pa passed away, I used to dream or even saw his figure clearly lingered inside the old house.
A few years later, I didn't see pa anymore but he continued to appear in my dreams still clearly. In those dreams, he liked to bring me to various locations just as when he was alive.
A decade later, I could only dreamed of his blurred figure but I could recognize his familiar voice...
Now that it is over 10 years, I hardly see him or hear from him anymore.
People would think that my pa has moved on to other life but I have another view.
On one side, it might just be that the theory of reincarnation is true. On the other, I believe that the disappearance of my pa's vision has to do with the diminishing of energy over time.
If my guess is true, then it is probably useless to communicate with the deceased after he/she has passed away for more than 10 years.
Since ghosts are just forms of energy, there is no need to react to their presence all together too. We don't have to perform exorcism rituals or wearing protective amulets to ward off ghosts if we are not afraid.
This is said in the teaching of Dorje Dorlo by Dudjom Rinpoche in brief:
"There is no internal or external demons and we should meditate on the red HUM at our heart to be fearless and victorious."
I used to keep many ghosts in my altar and they often created noises such as making things fall, knocking on the door and even turned on TV and my computer.
After practising Dorje Dorlo view, all of the happenings were gone.
I didn't perform any rituals or wear any amulets to protect myself. So I think perhaps ghosts are only manifestations of my own mind. Once I have held the correct view, ghosts disappeared. Maybe that too caused the communication of my pa's soul and me broken.
If you are afraid of ghosts, why not try to use Dudjom Rinpoche's method and you will be amazed.
Since I did not respond to those queries in private emails, I just take this space to respond to all just once as an open letter.
At the beginning, I did intend to share the knowledge. But after a few rather heartless and inconsistent tries, I decided to discontinue the practice. After all, no one appreciates free stuffs anyway. Further, my time is not free for all and I have my life to live with another lady.
I would advise you to dismiss your intention at this point. If you are persistent, then look for a master nearby and pay him some fees. As I have said: nothing is free.
If you have embarked on route as an apprentice, then please do follow the whole system throughout the course. And if you do hold your practice for 10 to 20 years, if and only if your master has an unbroken lineage; you will get something that I can promise you.
Please do not learn a system half way, and convert to another system half way. If you do so, I don't know what you will be in... Although I know you will get something for sure.
I am sure most of you have cast many spells and yet to see results and that you are still trying on new rituals. Please stop such trial and error on magic rituals: good if they don't take effect at all, ill if some of them happen after 20 years time when you are having a peaceful life.
I see each person as an energy storage that is constantly storing energy and the frequency of the energy release differs from one person to another. That is perhaps why some magic takes a long time to take effect.
Keeping your practice pure is important because different practices will have different requirements: Thai magic is more on the Yin energy while Taoist magic works on both Yin and Yang energy depending on which school you follows. The Vietnamese magic is a cross between Taoism and Buddhism, The Javanese and Middle Eastern magic are differences too...
So, please choose your system and a teacher and practise diligently for an extended prod of time. Otherwise, just follow with your standard religion; which would be a safer path.
I would laugh out if anyone wanted me to pledge loyalty to him/her because the one who can betray him/her is her own ego and not someone else.
In front of a conman, a person's state of mind is almost naked.
There are very simple conman rules of thumbs or lets just call it the 'Tsun Tzu' (孙子兵法) method. The rules are simple:
If a person is of high ranking such as doctors, teachers, government officials, praise him/her to make him more arrogant. Defame him to make him angry and make mistakes.
If a person is greedy, then say something that would increase his/her greediness.
If a person is timid, encourage him/her and he/she will make mistake.
If a person is quiet, encourage him/her to talk and he/she shall mistake.
If a person is talkative, refrain him/her from talking.
If a person looks worry, then entice him/her to talk...
In Malaysia, there are many cases where old ladies being corned by so-called hypnotic techniques of all of their lifetime savings because the conman said that they can transform white papers to money, or cure their illnesses.
However illogical this might sound, those old ladies were found consciously withdrew a large sum of money from the bank. Upon inquiry, they would just say that the money was for purchasing houses.
Investigations had found those victims only told partially truth as the conman didn't really master any hypnotic techniques. What the conman has successfully done was they had broken into the victim's ego and 'talked' directly to their ego state which resulting the victims to hand over their hard earn money freely.
Likewise, if I ask a person to hand over his/her money; it would be over his/her dead body. But if I know that the person is looking for quick money, then I can make him/her promises that he/she will get a big sum of return-on-investment; this person will certainly handover his/her money even though I pretend to refuse.
Just a word of caution, be careful of exposing your ego to others. That would be most difficult thing to do I can assure you!
