Que Horror!

Something drew me into the basement store along Bourke Street. I went in and made a beeline for the DVD section further down the back. In less than five minutes, I have taken my pick of two DVDs, paid for them, and was out of there. To be added to our growing collection are The Shining and Poltergeist, both mind and bone chilling horror films which I have heard many good reviews of. The next thing to do now is gather up some friends for a night of horror and popcorns, how apt since Halloween is coming up. See, I love watching these kinds of movies, but I can never watch them by myself... I need several other people to share the panic and fright with me, as if the fear can be equally distributed amongst us.

Last weekend, I invited some friends over for dinner. Somehow in the course of the conversation, we drifted to the topic of the supernatural, magic, and the unknown. Now, I have quite a diverse group of friends here... Aussies, Malaysians, Indonesians, HKies... and each one has interesting tales to tell about the beliefs of people in his home country. I find a lot of similarities between the Malaysian and Indonesian "ghosts" and witchcraft to the ones we grew up knowing of (or hearing of) in the Philippines. My friend B believes in charms that are purposedly put on people to either make them do the charmer's bidding or to harm the one charmed; apparently this practice is done by a lot of Thais as well. I relate this to the Philippine version of "kulam," something I probably will never completely fathom but something I think of as vile and evil. How these charms are done, B did not elaborate, perhaps he is unsure as well, but I reckon it could be in many ways and only those who are in touch with witchcraft would know. He also narrated stories of a relative who has a third eye and could see things around him all the time. According to B, if one wants to go the forest or somewhere closer to nature for a specific purpose, then he should go there to do that activity only and nothing else. Say, if one says he would go fishing, then he should stick to that and not go hunting instead... else he might evoke anger from the unseen residents of the area. And before one proceeds, he has to ask a quick permission. One of his stories is about someone who peed by a tree, and in so doing he disturbed the being which lives in the tree... this man's skin turned rough and scaly like, and was apparently possessed by the spirit of the tree. It was only through offerings that his family was able to bring him back to his normal state. Isn't this quite similar to the Filipinos' stories of "nuno sa punso" and the like? Malaysians also believe that each house has a spirit that lives in it and which protects the house and its residents; therefore they take that a house that has been empty for too long is not good because that spirit will tend to invite other spirits into the place. A general notion of a haunted house?

Needless to say, that night after my friends all went home... I couldn't sleep... what with all those thoughts swimming in my mind.

Being the scaredy-cat that I am, you would have assumed that I avoid topics such as these or anything that will lure my mind to eerie thoughts. But no... because I've always had this fascination... alright, more of curiosity, on the unknown, the supernatural, ghosts, wandering spirits, beings of another world. As a child, my imagination would run amuck with thoughts of spirits that may be living in trees outside my bedroom window, or vampires that may be disguised as cats or big birds. I also never liked having big mirrors in my bedroom for fear of seeing "something" in it in the middle of the night. I would fall asleep scared, but wake up safe and still whole. Does that make me an unbalanced child? I scare myself, and yet I seek for more. One time when I was about 10 years old, I stayed at my cousin's place for the night. I had the weirdest, creepiest dream... I was running and running, almost out of breath, and they were closing in behind me, I had to run faster, quicker, but my feet couldn't take me any more further. They, the little people with very saggy faces and bodies that resembled melting candles were after me. Their grins were beastly, I felt that I was a prey. And finally one of them was about to grab me by the leg, its fingers slightly brushed my ankle, and I screamed. I woke up with a start, and when I narrated it to my aunt and grandma (they live in the same house), they were very disturbed and I heard my aunt mumble something about appeasing "them" with some offering of food, etc. After that dream, I found out that they believe that little people, or "dwendes" in Filipino, reside in their house. Someone must have seen them, or felt them, I don't know. Although I can not be certain if that has anything at all to do with the dream that I had, up to this day I could still vividly picture out that dream, and it doesn't fail to give me the chills. My dreams are from my subconscious, how can this be penetrated? I know of someone who had a dream of another person the night before the latter died. Mere coincidence?

Throughout the years, I became less affected, less scared, but not totally unaffected at all. I still believe that we are not the only ones in the universe, for thinking and believing so would be arrogance on our part. Curious as I am, I would no longer venture into trying dangerous stuff like playing Ouija, spirit of the glass/coin, etc... for who knows what kind of passer-by spirit one will accidentally invite.

Any thoughts?