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A Pilot Paranormal Experiment by
SPI
On Sunday 15 August 2004, SPI have achieved a pilot paranormal
experiment that could be the first of its kind in human history -
breaking open the hell gates of the 10 courts of Hell in Haw Par villa
by using a proper Taoist ritual. This is an epic investigation of
SPI by fusing multiple techniques such as Taoist magic,
scientific equipment, clinical testing and psychic observation.
Each technique is the contribution by one of our SPI research
departments as follow:
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Taoist Hell Opening ritual - Department of Cultural Beliefs
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Scientific ghost detection - SPI Elite Team
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Clinical testing - Department of Clinical Research
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Psychic observation - Department of Psychical Research
Traditionally, the Chinese fable
tells that Hungry Ghosts would be allowed to roam free out of the
hell for one month, starting at the first date of the 7th lunar
month. During the whole 7th month, believers would have to give
offering and to appease the vengeful souls otherwise ill lucks
would be invited. Throughout the centuries and in different
Chinese communities, rituals of certain significant scale would be
conducted to mass commemorate this occasion, or in fact, this
festival by the religions of Taoism and Buddhism.
During this month, ghost stories and paranormal encounters were
peaked as people would have seen or felt sinister entities more
often than other times of the year. Street side offerings were
common in the neighborhood. Food and joss papers were offered
along the streets for Hungry ghosts to feast on. How exactly
Hungry Ghosts literately "eat" the food has been a point of
debates and research. Assuming first such entities called Hungry
Ghosts exist and they are really hungry, the form of eating was
considered to be either spiritually or symbolically. Psychologists
suggest it is an act of mental self-consolation by doing their
part to pacify the fearful ghosts. Some religious people suppose
ghosts receive the food by "sniffing" off the essence of it; some
believe believe they eat them by absorbing away the spiritual
energy of the food, and most altruistic folks would agree that the
consumption of food offerings is more like an emblematical means
of appreciation by the ghosts towards the kindness of the donors,
than physically munched into their stomachs.
Nonetheless, preceded by the concepts of Hungry Ghosts will roam
around looking for food and they should be entertained by Ge-Tai
(literally "song stage" that means Chinese stage opera) as well as
food offering, rituals and burning joss papers, many urban legends
if not superstitions sprung up in the passage of time. The
following is a few of the most common ones:
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It is dangerous to go swimming or
stay outdoor at night, as mischievous Hungry Ghosts will harm
you.
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Do not ignore to pay tribute to your
ancestors for good fortune and garner blessings.
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Do not kick or step on the road side
offerings while the Hungry Ghosts are feeding on them. This will
bring you extreme bad lucks and even revenge from the Hungry
Ghosts if you do so.
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Do not pick up any offering items
such as coins, foods and joss papers and bring them home. The
Hungry Ghosts will follow you home and disturb your whole
family.
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In the events of Ge-Tai, spare the
front seats that are reserved for special "guests". Taking a
seat in prominent location like the front rows will offend the
Hungry Ghosts and thereby invite ill lucks, even possession.
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Keep an eye out for wind swept ashes
from burnt offerings: it is considered very bad luck to tread on
them.
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The food offering, after tasted by
the Hungry Ghosts will lose its favor and fragrant.
SPI opted to investigate into such
Hungry Ghost phenomena as a long term project, both scientifically
and logically. From the list of superstitions above, investigating
the items 1 to 6, requires the subject to first break a taboo, and
thereafter induces some mishap to happen on him. It has two major
problems. One is that it is fundamentally wrong and unethical to
intentionally flout a taboo that shows no respect perhaps to the
religions and their believers. The other is the effect followed by
defying the taboo could be quite subjective; bad luck,
ill-fortunes and mishaps etc all are subjective experiences and it
is difficult for us to measure both objectively and in a
controlled environment. A scientific experiment should involve as
less subjective elements as possible, and the results of the
experiment should be objectively evaluated and quantitatively
presented. Last but not least, the nature of investigating the
ill-effect of a violated taboo is simply risky to our participants
regardless of its impact.
Hence, SPI selected item 7 as the basis for performing a food
tasting test at the event of letting foods offered to Hungry
Ghosts and then tried out by our participants. Its objective is to
check if the phenomenon that the food offering will become
tasteless after eaten by Hungry Ghosts is true or not. This
experiment would be conducted with a proper Taoist ritual at the
right timing of the Hungry Ghost Festival, followed by a strictly
controlled sensory evaluation test. The result is quite surprising.
In this report, you will find the details of the experiments as
well as the proceeding of the event that includes a mini-ghost
tour at Haw Par Villa.
 
Happy and cheerful mood. ET was playing
silly with the Sumo wrestling. Toh and KC showing a victory pose?
 
1.
Diana and Toh were studying the cheesecake; 2. Master Wei Yi; 3. Huili,
Abductboy and ET were setting up the ghost hunting gadgets
4. ET was jokingly showing to us his "Monte De Thirsty Ghost" fascia
Preparing for The Hungry Ghost Event
At around 4pm, the whole SPI Elite team reported to Haw Par Villa,
getting ready for the event that started at 7pm at night. All the
prods and equipment, including a 12-inch New York style delicious
Cheesecake to be used as a part of the food tasting experiment.
There was a small argument in why cheesecake was chosen as the
experiment sample. Some argued that the sample should be a bland
taste food, not a cheesecake because it was strong (sweet) in
taste. Now the objective of the food tasting experiment is to
verify this phenomena: If ghosts take away the flavor and fragrant
of the cheesecake, the offered cheesecake will taste more bland
than the unoffered one. We were detecting for loss of favor from
the sample under test. Therefore the sample should carry
originally a substantial strength of favor. And cheesecake is a
standard choice as it has a strong favor and fragrance. The cake
was baked at the same amount of ingredients and underwent the same
baking conditions. Half of it would be offered to Hungry Ghosts,
the other half was kept away from the area. We thank Diana who
contributed her home baked cheesecake for this event.
Every SPI elite member was excited with a delightful mood
preparing for the arrival of the historical event. They took base
at the Pavilion Garden that is a Chinese restaurant in Haw Par
Villa. Carefully they were doing the final check-up and inspection
on their ghost hunting gadgets. Serious when at work, and cheeky
at play after work is done. ET was jolly playing with a jar of
beer and the specially modified green spot light to be used to lit
up the entrance of the 10-Court-of-Hell mound. He was showing us
how a Hungry Ghost supposed to look like where there was no food
but only drinks were available.
Left with only a few hours, down there at the open space just in
front of the 10-Courts-of-Hell mound, the Taoist priests were busy
in setting up the altar. With extreme care, each ritual item was
arranged and positioned meticulously by the priests according to
some required religious specification. It was like the traditional
Tea Ceremony in Japan, in that every step of the process is
important. The sequence would have to be precisely followed. Some
special ritual items despite its antique values were believed to
have supernatural power. Most of them were imported from Hong
Kong, China and Taiwan that were not available in Singapore. One
particular ritual item, called µY²w´Î that is a metal staff with an
open ring attached on top. It has magical symbols inscribed on the
ring, that are used in blessing rituals and also to suppress evil.
Symbolically it gave the holder the authority to convey blessing
from chanting the mantras as well as a supremacy ("Ling") to
command the entities from the other realm.
The priests looked very professional when setting up the altar, as
though they had been doing it many times. They were from a Taoist
ritual group whose temple is in Tampines. They do routine praying
practices for blessings families and businesses. For example, when
a new factory opening, they were invited to give blessing. As we
heard from them, sometimes, they would go for rituals that
exorcise mischievous residential spirits and to heal those who got
possessed by demons!
 
1. Manpower! 2. Guess why they needed
to wear a single glove?
3 & 4. The table cloth is embossed with Taoist motifs of magical
scriptures
 
Meticulously the Taoist experts are
setting up the altar with the highest caution
 
1-3. The altar was facing directly the
mouth of the hell gate; 4. KC and Ah Toh were lining up the passage
from the hell gate with candles
A Special Ghost Tour
When time hit 7pm, night fell at rapid speed engulfing the whole
theme park in thickness of darkness. Most of the SPI club members
already assembled at Pavilion Garden waiting for the event
started. As a part of the event itinerary SPI club members would
be given a special ghost tour around the theme park in the midst
of the dark ambience. Led by Abductboy, they were guided to roam
around the theme park that was filled with stone statues
reenacting famous Chinese myths and fables. Usually the park is
closed in the evening, and the public was not allowed to enter at
night. The atmosphere was quiet and spooky, fitting the right mood
to explore the sinister and ominous darkness of the night.
Before the tour started, Abductboy
brief the participants about the purpose of the night, and the
spooky elements of the ghost tour. One is the place, where they
were surrounded by thousands of stone statues soaked in darkness;
Second is the time. Tonight it was the eve of Hungry Ghosts. For
humans they were busy in preparing offerings to appease those
spirits. Then what about for the other realm? wouldn't there be
any special activities going on prior to the arrival of this
frightening festival?
Fear factors were piling up. In order to give everybody a clear
picture about Hungry Ghost festival, Abductboy was telling the
story of its origin. Here we have a short excerpt of the fable:
Legend has it that a Buddhis monk, Mu Lian, once ventured into the
fiery depths of Hell in a desperate attempt to save his wicked
mother's suffering soul. His efforts were futile however, so this
only hope was to pray. It is said that the Buddha took pity on Mu
Lian and instructed him to say prayers and offer up sacrifices for
the deliverance of his mother's soul. As a result of Mu Lian's
sincerity and devotion, she was eventually released from Hell.
Variations of the legend exist and the passage of time may have
distorted what really was, but Mu Lian's practice of offering
supplications for the deceased evolved into the Hungry Ghost
Festival as we know it. Every year, during the 7th Lunar month, it
is believed that the souls in Hell take a sabbatical here on earth
after being imprisoned for 12 months. In order to appease these
oppressed, forgotten and unhappy spirits, Taoists and Buddhists
burn offerings such as paper money and joss sticks, and leave food
outside their houses - doing this indoors in tantamount to
inviting trouble in.
Everyone was quiet while imagining
the pain and suffering of those oppressed souls from hell. And
they knew that they were going to meet at least one or two in a
few hours time. Their fear intensified as they looked around
vaguely seeing the elaborated facial expressions of the stone
statues in the dark. Abductboy broke the silence by yelling,
"Let's go."
 
1. Abductboy gave the cue to begin the
SPI ghost tour - the scariest of all;
2. Suddenly a terrifying shriek burst the silence from behind the
crowd. They all wondered what was "it". Goosebumps were popping up
4. The group entered one of the infamous caves in Singapore, with a
thumping heart
A cave is a damp and dark place that no sunlight ever shine into since
it was built half a century ago. Very strong in "yin" energy.
 
Abductboy was introducing a very eerie
panting on a small cliff on a rock and telling the chilling story
behind it;
But little he knew that, some weird glows were sticking on his back
 
Stop by stop they visited the whole Haw
Par theme park in the ambience of darkness and animated peculiar
streaks of lights
The group wobbled slowly through
various "interesting" spots of the park. Abductboy was leading and
showing them some selected exceptional stone statues. Scary
stories were told that were associated to each of the stone
exhibit. By right we cannot say any haunting about this theme
park. The ghost stories were too sensitive to the published on the
website because Haw Par Villa is a tourist attraction now owned by
Singapore Tourism Board.
Therefore we let the SPI members to "experience" the atmosphere by
themselves. In particular, many photos with weird apparitions were
captured. That was the most number of apparitional photos ever
captured in one night. They were not fabricated or special-effect
enhanced photos but just natural light phenomena whether that is
up to you to believe they are para- or normal. At the end of the
tour, most participants commented that they had very strong sense
of being watched by some lively eyes from the stone statues in the
dark. Some said that they felt chilling tingles on their skins as
they approached some cold spots. They felt "presences" by sensing
sudden surge of coldness around them. It was true enough that
during that night the weather was quite cooling. Occasional
exhilarating breezes of wind blew around the participants and the
temperature fluctuated with a maximum drop of 5 degrees Celsius.
 
Eccentric lights were flying around
throughout the journey of the ghost tour. SPI members were never
ALONE.
 
1. The backdrop in the sky was looking
absolutely sinister while the ambience was almost pitch dark after 7pm
2. An orb was following ET who was filming the night on video; 3. More
weird lights were trailing by
4. The man with a solemn face standing on top is Mr Lawrence who was
our host that represents Haw Par
 
1-3. Spectral lights were a common
sight on that fateful Hungry Ghost eve.
Was the other realm also busy in preparing for the out rush of Hungry
Ghosts from hell?
4. "Dear, I felt something was following me" said a timid SPI girl
member
A Scary Dumping Ground of Stone Statues Corpses
As a bonus in addition to the ghost tour, SPI club members were
treated to a surprise location - the infamous ghostly dumping
ground for stone statues corpses. The dumping ground is actually a
three-storey high hill slope at the backyard of Haw Par Villa near
the end road of Science Park II. It is a forbidden area that keeps
out of the public. Haw Par villa has gone through several stages
of renovation, many old exhibits of stone statues have got
replaced, removed and disposed here on the deserted dumping
ground. Covered by wild vegetation, the dumping ground looks like
nothing but a graveyard of worn-out stone statues that lost their
values of existence from their exhibits. Many brave SPI members
have been to cemeteries at night; but it would be their very
unique thrilling experiences in visiting a cemetery of abandoned
stone statues.
 
1.
The back door of the theme park - notice the strange light at the
door?
3-4. SPI members hurriedly wobbled down to the stone statues graveyard
with excitement - they look just like apparitions in the photos
Exited and enthusiastic, the
participants trekked through a private lane with the permission of
Haw Par Villa management and tour guidance of Abductboy. They
swiftly descended by a long curvedly stair to the ground level at
where the foot of the dumping hill. The started to feel the
wilderness of the area once they reached there.
 
Everyone was thrilled by the spooky
stone statues and the stories related to them
 
They look just like dead corpses, lying
around the dumping ground
 
1 & 2. SPI Elite bashed into the
forest to investigate the source of strange light and sound
3 & 4. They found it was behind the arch that used to a mythological
heaven gate; they wonder now it became a portal?
The ghostly entity was seen to have emerged from the portal gate to hide behind that weird-shaped
scupture
What stood in front of them were
dozens of human-size stone statues, mostly in smudged grey color
as their pants had washed off. Broken, chipped, shattered and even
fragmented, these statues were just conveniently dumped around the
areas. There were some older ones scattered along the slope and at
the far corners. They were just like corpses lying around the
whole place. Many of the participants walked near then for a close
look. But nobody touched them. They are freaky. The statues looked
at you like they were alive.
Mr Lawrence, the manager of Haw Par Villa, had kindly spent his
precious time with us telling the history of this dumping grounds
and some bizarre stories pertaining to those deserted statues. All
the participants listened in great attention. After the story
telling, Mr Lawrence invited them to ask questions and he
generously furnished us interesting answers.
When the group was captivated in a friendly Q&A session, something
suddenly happened behind them. Two pale-blue flash lights,
followed by a dropping sound, abruptly passed across the wild
forest in the dumping hill. It wasn't a total distraction to all
the participants. But some members and SPI elites noticed that.
The atmosphere suddenly became uncanny and unpleasant. Swamps of
mosquitoes from out of nowhere flocked to every one of them. The
urge of leaving this statues graveyard rapidly arose.
At an exigency, Abductboy quickly signaled everyone to retreat out
of the statues graveyard and return to the Pavilion restaurant. He
looked somewhat panicked in sweat that was in contrast of his
usual steadiness. His eyes however were first scanning at the wild
forest and then affixed at a distant cluster of old statues. Some
SPI Elites volunteered to go near and check it out, while the rest
of the group were marching back to the Pavilion restaurant. When
later he was asked, 'Why the sudden pull out? What happened?' His
reply was simple, 'Just dinner time. It was about 9pm and the food
would be cold."
 
1. Strange lights flashed pass followed
by a scream; wouldn't they be torch lights? or something else?
2. Abductboy seemed to have felt something not right; 3. God knows
what lies inside those spooky abandoned statues;
4. It is the honor of SPI to have the manager of Haw Par Villa
co-guiding this tour
 
Which ones are humans who walked the
stairs?
Ironwolf and
Icestormer are taking their time to stroll out of the haunted Haw
Par backyard
Big Feasts for SPI Members and "Good Brothers"
A number of large round tables were already setup in Pavilion
restaurant, and the participants grouped themselves automatically
to be seated. They switched to a happy and relaxing mood that was
very different from the one at the statues graveyard. With joy and
laughter, they watched dishes of hot food delivered to their
tables. Yummy and delicious, quickly their teeth were sunk into
the food in no time. For a moment, perhaps the participants would
empathize how torturous it was to the Hungry Ghosts who cannot
eat.
In about one hour time, they all enjoyed a refined 8-course dinner
feast that includes a soup, assorted entrees, steamed fish,
grilled prawns, roasted chickens, braised fresh vegetable, noodles
and almond jelly beancurd as dessert. Feeling full and the hunger
was satisfied, they were now hopping and even expecting some food
would be denoted to the hungry ones, one way or the other. That
was exactly when the next item of agenda was on the tonight's
program. Beside them, two tables of food were left empty that can
be consumed by 10 people each table. They realize the food was not
for their appetite yet, but for our "Good Brothers" - an chic term
invented by Shin Minh Newspaper who later published this
experiment on the next day.
 
1. Lets sink our teeth into the
delicious food before the ghosts do;
2 & 3. Two tables of identical spare food were reserved for the
experiment; 4. Some slower eaters that take their time to enjoy eating
Zoom in to see
Tobi and Xueling
(Happy sweet memories to cherish)
Abductboy, being the leader of this organized event, summoned
everyone's attention. Their cravings were just satisfied by the
sumptuous food and felt a bit
sleepy. Abductboy had to speak a little louder, explaining what
was going to happen. Basically, the participants would be invited
next after the dinner to witness a Hell-Opening Ritual. Two tables
of untouched food would be used for a general food tasting experiment, as well as a
cheesecake that would be used for a more strictly controlled
sensory evaluation experiment. The two tables of reserved food and the cheesecake
would be divided in halves. One half would be offered to the
Hungry Ghosts along with the ritual. The other half would be kept
away from the area, possibly guarded by a gang of men who are
believed to have strong 'yang' energy therefore ghosts usually
don't come near.
 
1. Attention, please, everyone...
2. We will feed the ghosts with this ... 3. and you are going to taste
the same food after the ghosts ate...
4. Darling, this is frightening.
The participants, especially those
who claimed to have 3rd eyes or ESP that can sense ghosts, were
invited to "observe" over the food as well as the hell after the
gate is open. Imaging bizarre scenes of flocks of Hungry Ghosts
rushing out from the flames of hell and grabbing to eat the food
hungrily, sent creep to everyone there. With no future delay as
the calculated hour for the arrival of Hungry Ghost Festival was
drawing near, Abductboy announced to the crowd to get started. Fit
men were asked to carry the food offering including the table and
the dishes of untouched food to the altar downstairs.
Down there, in the open space beside the 10-Count-of-Hell, the
Taoists priests and the altar were all ready, the ritual was about
to begin.
To be continued with more exciting happenings ...
 
1.
Let me escort this dish down! Hmm, smells good, feels like eating
more; 2. Go go to the hell opening ritual we go;
3. Wow, didn't know the sky was already dark like hell after dinner;
4. The pioneering ritual cum paranormal experiment was ready to kick
start soon...
¡@
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