As if objective reality isn’t scary enough...

Mon, 16 Aug 2010 06:00

By Stanley Koh

COMMENT It was a dark and stormy night. On a lonely road, a tired taxi driver was heading for home when a woman in a white dress and red overcoat hailed him.

The soft-spoken woman gave directions and the taxi driver took no further notice of his passenger, although he did wonder about her long hair, which she allowed to flow down her forehead across her face.

After covering some distance, the taxi entered a Chinese new village and the woman signalled the driver to stop at her given destination. She paid him the fare, opened the door and got off the taxi.

The cabbie went home and slept soundly. It was not until the next morning that he discovered the red overcoat in the back seat of his taxi. He decided to return it, but then he also discovered that the woman had paid him the night before in Hell Bank currency notes.

He went back to the new village. With one hand holding the red coat, he knocked on a door although he was not sure whether he had called on the right house.

An old lady finally opened the door and the cabbie explained the reason for his visit. Her face changed when she saw the coat. “Yes, it belonged to my daughter,” she said, her voice shaking. “But she is dead. She passed away last year.”

This spooky episode happened on the eve of the Festival of the Hungry Ghost some time in the 1960s in Petaling Jaya, which was then largely a new village settlement.

If you are looking for ghost stories to scare — or perhaps entertain — the superstitious or those prone to mental hypochondria, there are plenty to choose from, and they date back to the earliest centuries of human existence.

Do ghosts exist?

Why are there so many haunting stories that span across cultures, religious beliefs and civilisations? Why are they kept alive through time? Can a rational mind explain the phenomenon? Do they adequately prove to the sceptic that there is indeed a spirit world that exists side by side with the physical dimension?

In the last few decades, there has been a keen interest among scientists as well as professional and amateur ghost hunters to learn more about the phenomenon. Many of them are ironically disbelievers. They have hunted far and wide for ghost stories and have documented hundreds of thousands of them.

It is hard to debunk every ghost story you hear, and even if a sceptic is able to do so with one story, the next one might prove him wrong.

In a tradition that cuts across Taoism and Buddhism, the Chinese observe Zhongyuan — or the Hungry Ghost Festival — in this seventh lunar month. Specifically on the 15th day of the month, the gates of hell are opened, allowing spirits to wander in the living physical environment.

The Chinese believe that this is a time to show compassion and filial piety, particularly to their ancestors among the neglected wandering spirits.

They perform prayers and offer food, joss sticks and Hell Bank notes to appease these spirits, hoping that they will continue on their path of evolution and not harm the living.

Yet not all ghosts are willing to let bygones be bygones. Those who had to leave this life through violent means, such as murder or suicide, are angry spirits yearning for natural justice to take its course. Normally, they refuse to stop haunting the living.

There are claimed records of ghosts tempting the living, especially those who have done evil, to commit suicide.

The Internet has opened a window to thousands upon thousands of ghost stories and scary tales, from mundane sightings to infamous hauntings, creating a sub-sector for the tourism industry, offering such attractions as The 10 Most Haunted Places in the World.

Even among those who say they have had no direct encounter with ghosts, many know of ghost stories they have heard from members of their family, and some believe that they are true.

The common haunts of ghosts in most parts of the world are places such as road junctions, old school buildings, hospitals, holiday resorts, police stations, historical sites, war zones and prisons.

Murdered victims are believed to hang around at their haunts until justice is done.

Haunted Washington DC

It is said that even the brutal tyrant Josef Stalin was afraid of ghosts, insisting on having bodyguards around him during the night because he was paranoid about being attacked by the angry spirits of his victims.

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Remember, ghosts or haunting spirits do not exist at the whim and fancy of your belief or disbelief. The wise thing to do is to accept the possibility of their existence and to be careful.

Mafia boss Al Capone, according to some biographers, claimed to be haunted by one of his victims for more than 20 years.

From the angry spirit of Hamlet’s father to the cute Caspar, there have been many ghosts in literature and popular entertainment as well.

Even American presidents are not immune. There is a persistent rumour that Franklin Roosevelt died of suicide; some claim he was driven to it by ghosts.

Indeed, it is said that Washington DC is one of the most haunted places in the world. Over the decades, members of the White House staff have reported seeing Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson and Andrew Jackson still walking the corridors of power.

Lincoln’s ghost is apparently fond of walking up and down the second floor hallway of the White House, rapping at doors and standing by windows with his hands clasped behind him. Some explain that this is because he was unable to finish his second term as president and is trying to protect his beloved country from beyond his grave.

As for murder cases, there have been many gruesome reports of ghosts seeking vengeance.

“The Art of Getting Even” by Min Tzu depicts ghosts of murdered victims refusing to rest until justice is served.

In Chicago in 1977, police found the dead body of Philippine-born Teresita Basa, a hospital respiratory therapist, on the floor of her apartment stabbed to death and partially burned. Police solved the case after Basa’s spirit named her boyfriend as the killer.

The case of the Greenbrier Phantom is similar. It is about the murder of Zona Heaster in 1896 in the West Virginia town of Greenbrier. After her death, Zona appeared before her mother, Mary Jane, four nights in a row to tell of her husband’s cruelty. Mary Jane’s persistent telling of this story prompted authorities to exhume Zona’s body. They found that her neck had been broken. Her husband was eventually found guilty and sent to prison for life.

Remember, ghosts or haunting spirits do not exist at the whim and fancy of your belief or disbelief. The wise thing to do is to accept the possibility of their existence and to be careful.

Perhaps many are not aware that Malaysians have their own homegrown ghost busters, called Malaysia Seekers, and that they have a counterpart across the causeway, the Singapore Paranormal Investigators.