Monday, March 27, 2006

Demonic possessions

I just came across this topic and decided to do a quick post on it...
Having watched The Exorcist, the all-time classic of a true story of the possession of a 5 year old girl, Reagan, one would definitely have in mind the whole idea of what this is all about.

The Exorcist was definitely true to its time of making, a classic and horrifying movie which was depicted as so vividly real that you would definitely freak out if you are sleeping alone. I watched it when I was really young and you know what they say about children's memory; typically and scientifically proven, one would only be able to recall their childhood memories set from the age of 7 onwards. In other words, memories before the age of 7 may appear pretty vague when you try to recall. However, I remember this movie vividly; especially of the shaking of the bed, the blueish green bedroom, the puke of Reagan over the priest, and the famous scene of the 360 degrees turn of Reagan's head when she turned to face the approaching priest. Also another terrifying scene would be that of Reagan masturbating with the crucifix. *shivers*

I guess I made my point in saying that this movie certainly left a deep impression in my memory. In fact, this movie did so well that initiated so many ensuing sequels and also other movies of the similar genre but still nothing beats the classic of all time. Other memorable horror movies include Poltergeist and also The Omen.

I watched another true story of demonic possession, a new release last year; The Exorcism of Emily Rose. Also another true story of a normal teenage girl who was possessed by the 6 evil spirits; and the filmmakers also included the actual recording of the sounds by Satan in the film...I didn't know about that until after the movie...eerie huh?

Well, after watching all these movies, you'd definitely be more on your edge and devout to your religion. However, the controversion in the Emily Rose's account was she was already a devout Catholic and her whole family was also a religious lot but Emily is still a victim of uninvited possession. Yup, this movie really puts us to question faith but I believe that there is always a reason behind everything. God makes things happen for a reason.

Also, another interesting thing I found out through this movie was the evil hour which was at 3.00a.m. I know about the holy hour at 3.00p.m since Jesus Christ, the Son of God, was crucified on Good Friday at this hour. Thus, all Catholics and Christian alike observe this as the holy hour. To spite this, I heard from my friend that that is the main reason why the evil hour is set at 3.00p.m.
After watching this movie, 3.00a.m is never the same anymore.
Anyhow, faith is indeed a powerful thing. In fact, it is also one of the strengths in an exorcism. If you have actually seen a real-life exorcism or even in movies, I heard from some church members who was physically there to assist the priest, that the devil is always trying to distract your attention and tries to shake you off your religious grounds. Therefore, if you are not strong enough, the devil actually triumphs.

This is also one of the main reasons not all priests can be exorcists; only experienced and faithful priests and also specially trained in handling exorcisms. In fact, a failed exorcism could be fatal and typically, the Church would not want to mess with lives.
Furthermore, the devil often tries to instill fear and confusion thus making one weak and vulnerable and also susceptible to possession. In fact, according to people, the possessed are usually confused people or those who are unsure.

There are a few signs which I found in a website on the telltale signs to tell if a person is possessed:
1. Ability to speak and comprehend a multittude of languages which he/she is never able to or exposed to before.

2. Extraordinary physical strength as compared to before - if 4-5 men can't hold down a 5 feet girl, then you can be sure of that. In fact, Sister Agatha, that's the church member I talked to, she mentioned that there was this possessed lady who was held down by 8 strong men in the church and yet they are struggling hard to hold her. At the same time, she (or the devil) hissed at all of them - clear intention to instill the fear.

3. Sudden deep interest or knowledge in the occult stuffs

4. Resistance towards religious materials or speech - and start to talk about AntiChrist, etc.

In fact, Agatha also told me of this possession of another in my church where the priest was performing the exorcism by reading the sacred and holy verses from the bible; intending to cast out the devil in the name of the Lord(that's the common practice - as all are humble servants in front of the Almighty Creator). While the priest was reading the verses, the Devil was already reading the lines ahead...definitely scary. It's always a challenge in the battle between the good and the evil.

My church used to be famous because of a legendary French priest, the late Father Decrooq who died before I was born. He's famous due to his amazing exorcism skills; yes, he was an exorcist and a powerful priest. One of the well-loved person during his time; in fact, everyone flocked to his funeral then and he is still fondly remembered to this day.

Praise the Lord....Amen.

Sunday, March 26, 2006

Don't Open your Eyes

I just watched this recent release of a Chinese movie starring Alex Fong Chun Shun, Yuen Wah and Pinky Cheung of the horror genre.

Comprising the elements of a typical Chinese horror movie; such as the charms, the deities, the medium, fierce and revengeful ghosts, kind spirits, eerie places, et etc, this movie is your day to day modern Hong Kong movie. Also, throw in a little element of romance and bham, you have a full blown Hong Kong horror movie :)

Well, this movie is not all that bad compared to the last Chinese horror movie I watched; Heirloom...maybe I can talk about it in my next entry. Anyway, as I was saying, this movie was pretty entertaining and the pace of the movie was just nice; with the alternate rhythmic climaxes which kept you hooked to the screen. Sure, they do have some lame jokes once in a while, but they are bearable and kept the audience entertained:) Somehow, lame jokes are still deemed funny when you are in the cinema...probably due to the environment as well and the crowd<*wink*>

To cut a long story short, the story revolves around Alex, who after his colleague's death on which he was blamed for negligence on duty, vowed to avenge his death by hunting down the culprit and bring him to justice. Along with another colleague, they made a pact that the revenge will be their main goal for the justice of their dead colleague.

At the same time, Alex's 7th aunt, played by Law Lan, was at her deathbed and his sister constantly paged for him to see her for the last time. As the story goes, Alex coincidentally bumped into the murderer while fixing the antenna for his colleague on the rooftop of the apartment and the bad guy just happened to be there fixing the antenna for his buddy; ermmm...messing the antennas to be exact which annoyed Alex. So, he actually reprimanded him when he realized that this was the guy responsible for his colleague's death which led to a fight that ensued.

During the struggle, Alex shot the guy who fell from the building but not without first warning him that he will be back from the netherworld for revenge. Alex was spooked and at the same time, his dying aunt urged for his visit. He rushed to the hospital immediately and found out the secret his aunt was trying to tell him; he has the gift of the third eye - he can actually see the dead and also spirits. According to his aunt, this gift is actually passed from generation to generation; for the 7th descendant in the family. As the 7th predecessor passed on to the netherworld, the next successor in line will automatically inherit this ability. Alex soon found out about his gift and freaked out...hilarious=)

There were also his transfer to the 7th police station....yup, everything's 7..also, Alex's is also called Seven in the movie;) Actually in Christianity or the Western belief, 7 is actually a significant and sacred number:) Guess it also applies to the Chinese community as most of the numbers are related; such as 7 days of spirit return, 7x7 - 49 days, etc etc.

Back to the storyline, Alex encountered a devout believer in Yuen Wah in the police station who gave him the survival guide on dealing with the world beyond and also at the same time, he has to face a superior who is a skeptic and frowns upon all forms of deity worship which she dismissed as mere superstition. Then Alex meets a pretty lady who works with him in the file archiving room.

After the 7 days, as believed by the Chinese, the spirit came back; a ferocious one which goes around causing trouble to everyone; including an attempt to rape Alex's superior. The dead guy's wife, Pinky, was contacted by his spirit to help avenge. Eventually Pinky committed suicide to join forces with her vengeful spirit of a husband. The scene where she returned as a ghost was pretty funny; with her trying to scare them and they were pretending so hard not to see her...hahaha:)

Anyhow, they went up to the rooftop for the battle and Yuen Wah ordered them to divert the lightning to strike the spirits as well as diminish them forever. Alex was devastated when he learns that his girlfriend was also a ghost; used to be a police officer in the police station but got involved in a car accident in which she died. So the movie ended on that note whereby the good triumphed over the evil.

The few elements which were common and also known in the religious aspect in relation to the superstition practised in the Chinese community...actually more towards the Taoism belief are :
1. Charms can put off the spirits

2. Spirits returning after 7 days of their death - reason being they were confused(as mentioned by Yuen Wah in the movie as well). When a person dies, they will have to go through a tunnel to get to the other side and this takes about 3 days in the living world. On the 4th day, they will stop by a stream to wash their hands and that's when they realized their fingernails have turned black which indicates their death. Then they will sadly return to see their loved ones for the last time; taking another three days. However, this, in the netherworld is equivalent to 1 day. Do not ask me about the calendar or clock system and how they differ as I don't know:p

3. Ghosts fear the deities(duh!) - Yuen Wah dressed himself as Kwan Gong and that kept the ferocious spirit at bay.

4. The contact with the other side through medium - using the rice; that's why they called it "Querying rice" (man mai in Cantonese).

5. Red chopsticks - using a pair of red chopsticks to tweak the index fingers of a person who is possessed can force the spirit to leave the body.

6. Dying in red attire - it is believed that people who wore red when they die(typically associated with suicide cases) will return as vengeful spirits to haunt the dead and to claim the lives of those offended them.

7. Vow before death - it is also believed that those who do not die willingly will return from the dead.

8. Lightning strike spirits - my grandma also used to tell me that lightning is controlled by a Lightning and Thunder deity who acts to chase away all the wandering and troublesome spirits still roaming among the living. Those who are caught will be struck and this may lead to their soul being banished forever.

9. Exorcism by religion - to cast a spirit away using the deitites, it's believed that the most effective way is through the channel of religion the spirit followed while alive - they fear their God. (probably a myth - how about those demonic possession? Do you think the spirits would care for a discussion on their religion when you are about to cast them out?)

Perhaps I can further discuss on these superstitions in the future:)

Tuesday, March 14, 2006

Star Light Star bright...

The first star I see tonight

I wish I may I wish I might

Have the wish I wish tonight

Monday, March 13, 2006

Charms, garlics, cross

A story told by an old friend way back when I was still in primary school; pretty young then.
This friend of mine actually went on a vacation to one of the famous highlands; guess most of you can pretty much guess which highlands I am referring to; yeap, the one which belongs to Uncle Lim...Genting Highlands.

So, my friend went with her family and they booked an apartment to stay overnight. I will not name the apartment here for, obvious reasons.

Anyway, as her dad was checking in at the concierge, she and her mum and brother decided to go upstairs to check out the apartment with the keys.

They took the elevator and to their surprise, the elevator stopped at the 5th floor(I think) which they did not push the button as I think their unit was located on a higher level.
Anyway, as soon as the doors of the elevator opened, they were taken by shock when they saw the whole floor was empty and on the main doors of each unit, there were charms (fu - in Chinese which are the yellow long strips of paper with Chinese characters on it in red) and also crosses(crucifixes) and strings of garlics hanging around.

In fact, according to my friend, the charms are pasted on the doors in a criss cross manner; using two strips of the charm to cross each other; giving the impression that it is prohibiting entrance (or exit, perhaps?).

With that eerie picture in front of their very eyes and spine tingling sensation, instinctively, it didn't take them long to hit on the close button and get back to their father.
I can't remember whether they checked out immediately or continued to stay in the apartment.

Anyway, who could blame them if they did check out? Would you stay in an apartment after seeing there is a particular level with indications of hauntings...and in my interpretation, probably very disturbing hauntings if the management had to close the entire floor to the public and risk losing the business for so many units. Furthermore, there were also religious objects to "control" the unseen forces from leaving the particular level.

I heard of this story personally through my old friend and you may think children would be making this up but then again, aren't kids supposed to be naive in nature and typically most of the time, their words are true from the heart and mind?

At the same time, I heard that this apartment is indeed haunted and there have been reported continuous hauntings. Also, some of them also mentioned that there is such a place where the whole level is closed to the public; in fact the management even took it off the directory and acted as if the level never existed. However, whether it is in this same apartment mentioned in the story, I am not sure myself;)

This one not yet sleep...

This is another story which I heard from a varsity mate. I used to study in a university in the Historical City of Malaysia. As with other universities, it is located in a more remote area; away from the hustle bustle of the cities.
I was fortunate enough to get to stay in one of new off-campus apartment and with a bunch of cool and fun housemates...EP B-01-08 gals, you rock!!:)

Anyhow, before this apartment (which was directly opposite the university's main entrance) was built, there used to be another apartment located at a distance further from the university and further from this new apartment.

This story occurred in that apartment; it seemed there were quite a number of reported hauntings in the particular residential block. I, however, had only heard of this story. To me, it was spooky the first time I heard it and here goes the story as related to me:

There was a girl who had to stay alone on one night as her roommate has gone home for the weekend. They shared a bunker bed where this girl sleeps at the lower bunk.
The whole house was also pretty empty that particular night as most of the girls were out dating or gone back to their hometown.

The girl soon went to bed herself and settled down to sleep.
She awoke in the middle of the night to find a pair of legs swinging back and forth from the top bunk right in her view. Puzzled, she wondered whether her roommate had indeed gone back to her hometown. At the same time, she was bewildered as the legs were actually of a young girl's; definitely not their age.

She then heard giggles and immediately forced her eyes shut tightly as it suddenly dawned upon her that this may be an other worldly visit.
Then she heard a line(in Mandarin) which made her froze in fear:
" Ma ma, wei se me na ge nu hai zhi kan tao wo you zhuang kan pu tao wo?"
(Mama, why does the girl see me and yet pretends she didn't see me?)

WELL........when we first heard of this story, we were spooked out, hey, we are girls lar and furthermore, still new in that area.
Thankfully for me and my roommate, we are in the twin-sharing room and thus we both have our own single beds. (There are a total of 4 rooms in our apartment; 3 of them twin-sharing with single bed for each; while the master bedroom is triple sharing - with a bunker bed and a single bed)

For one of my housemates who's pretty close to me, she was in the master bedroom and coincidentally sleeps in the lower bunk.
The worse of it was that her roommates who were both from Ipoh also went home for the weekend. Man, talk about coincidences!!
Haha, as expected, she was truly spooked and we offered her to crash in our rooms for the night which she obligingly accepted.
Our room was pretty small as well, but at least, there were no legs dangling from the top bunk of the bed since we do not have any bunker beds!!!:p

Malaysian Highway Story

Hmmm...my first story.. I was thinking of posting the oldest story which I have heard; but somehow, this story came to mind and I decide to review this story.

I first heard of this story from my ex-housemate during my first year in university; and it seems that there were different versions of the story. This story was pretty popular too; as it has even crossed the borders to our neighbouring country; Singapore. I guess most of you have probably heard of this story as well.

This incident took place on a famous stretch of highway in Malaysia; where along the highway, there is a steep corner at the cliff. I will not mention which highway this is; as I am not too sure myself and it was pretty much based on my own guess based on the descriptions I have read on the highway itself.

Here goes:

A couple were travelling on the highway at night; approximately 9pm when their car broke down on this stretch. Unable to start the car, the husband decided to get down from the car to check out the situation. He locked the car doors and told his wife to stay in the car.

He went to the back of the car and started getting out the tools. The wife could hear him bustling about. At the same time, she started hearing noises and loud thuds on the roof of the car. It hit the roof so hard that the car was starting to shake.

Then as she took a glimpse at the passing cars, she noticed a similar pattern; whereby the cars seem to slow down as they were approaching her car but then sped off immediately.
Then, a police patrol car passed their car as well and pulled to halt a few metres in front of her car.
A policeman in uniform got down and motioned for her to get down and walk towards them.
Then the policeman also told her not to look back and to head towards them directly.
She obeyed and slowly walked towards the police car without turning back.
As she reached the police car, she turned to face her car and to her shock, she saw a creature; woman-like biting her teeth into her husband who was all covered in blood and his head was severed through the repeated bashing on the roof of the car.
The policemen then bundled her into the car and sped off in safety.
It seemed that the woman is mentally unstable today.

Well, what do you make of this story? It was reputed that this stretch of highway was an exploration into the reserved forests and also the construction of the highway it seems has provoked the spirits which reside there. Furthermore, there was also the burial ground of the natives which were not to be ignored as well.
At the same time, another theory speculated that this area was actually infested with pontianaks as well; restless female spirits who died during childbirth.

I am not sure about the accountability of this story; but then again, as mentioned, I am not held in the liability of the degree of the truth of the stories shared since I am just blogging; a personal perspective to be shared and also to seek other opinions and not to question the liability of any of the sources:)

This story could probably be true; and my sympathies go to the woman in this story if that were so. To watch your loved one die in front of you would be the worst thing that could happen; not to mention the gory details and the gruesome sight.

Anyhow, my advice is, be careful when you are driving on the road; may not be along any specific stretch of the highway nor due to the fear of supernatural.
Think of your loved ones as well and drive carefully and safely all the time. Fear for your own lives rather than about the supernatural; as logically, if you were to be afraid and avoid the other worldly beings, you may end up in an accident and in the world beyond....

Welcome to the twilight zone!

Star light star bright....

Just had this idea to start another blog in which I will be sharing all the stories which I have heard; on the supernatural or mysteries unsolved.
I will also be covering on the places with reputed mystery or hauntings, so basically, this blog will be specializing on my views and thoughts on the world beyond and also the mysteries around us; such as UFO.


This is not an authoring as in the True Singapore Ghost Stories; but just a liberal humble sharing and exchanging of thoughts and ideas on the other world.


Hehe....just post comments to let me know what you think as well on the stories which I will be sharing....absurd? scary? did it happen? etc etc.

So, ready? Let's step into the twilight zone.....and share the dark tales from the crypt.....hahahaha:)