SPI
Hungry Ghost Eve Investigation 2006
Locating the Hell-gates
(Portals) of Hungry Ghosts
1. Offering
burnt to the earth god; 2. Lining up rows of candles for the
hungry ghosts; 3 & 4. Food offerings for hungry ghosts
Edited by Norl Ali
In
7th month every year, it is hard to miss the swirling fragments
of banknotes, addressed to hell, yet paradoxically drifting
skywards. Joss sticks sprout like wildflowers. The meandering
veil of incense paints an image of the languid "brethren"
ruminating over the staid confections by the roadside. In
modern Singapore, such cultic activities filled every corner
of our neighborhood. Is it just a matter of cultural belief,
or something more? What are these Hungry Ghosts? Are they
facts or fictions? One of the important investigation missions
in SPI during Hungry Ghost Month is pivoted on exploring what
Hungry Ghosts really are. In particular, the related concept
of "Hell Gate" or a portal through which the ghosts transport
from the other dimension to here. How is a portal? Does it
exist in reality or merely in myth? SPI checks it out.
Introduction
On
the eve of the hungry ghost month, July 25 of 2006, an experiment
has been performed by SPI that had not been attempted elsewhere
to investigate the element of a 'hell gate' as perceived by
believers worldwide. It has been said that this gate of hell
will be opened on the eve of hungry ghost month letting loose
a wave of spirits onto the living world to feast upon food
offerings and burning incenses provided by the relations of
the deceased. To verify upon this claim, SPI had enlisted
the service of members hailing from the psychic, gadget and
film footage areas of expertise in order to address the question
whether such a spiritual portal exists singularly or in multiples
especially to determine its location and direction. This is
what SPI had set out to do to search for answers from a fusion
of metaphysical and scientific means driven by its motto "Solve
the unsolved, exPlain the unexplained, and Investigate into
the unknown". Only then will SPI know for certain if this
'hell gate' is merely symbolic or true. The members involved
from the psychic team was Azri, who is in his late teens having
learnt the bomoh craft in Indonesia since young as well as
Cahaya, a precision mechanical engineer, who is blessed with
the ability to see and communicate with the paranormal. From
the gadget team is Wired, who a polytechnic student is majoring
in electrical and electronic engineering, and other seasoned
paranormal investigator proficient in the use of SPI gadgets.
The team responsible for filming the event for documentation
purpose is Kenny, the founder of SPI along with Rina.
Investigation
Azri was
preparing the ritual that attracts the spirits
1 &
2. Along side, a spiritual path was set up with candles. 3
Flour path was paved next to the spiritual path. The paths
lead to the ritual site
4. Everything seems ready, the ritual proceeded
The appointed time SPI arrived on the scene at Bukit Brown
Cemetery was 10:30pm where a designated place was chosen at
the centre of cemetery known also to be one of the highest
hill peaks believed to emit a strong spiritual energy. The
ritual was conducted on a quiet and lonely stretch of road
in which the focus of the experiment is to investigate from
both spiritual and scientific aspects on the alleged 'hell
gate' phenomenon. Hence, the psychic team will execute a special
ritual aided by an array of gadgets to capture any paranormal
evidence that will determine the direction and position of
any spiritual portal.
It is hoped that this experiment will shed some light on bridging
subjective paranormal experiences (such as seeing or feeling
the presence of the hell-gate portal by psychic) and objective
existences by recording some hard footages or readings.
To prepare the ritual, Azri created a small 'spiritual path'
on the road that was marked by three yellow candles of varying
sizes from large to small in succession. Then, a number of
spiritual artefacts were placed on a centrepiece including
some ancient coins which are believed to house spirits, slices
of lime, a seven-coloured string, a metal nail with cotton
threads attached, a Chinese coin and a special ring. These
artefacts act as a magnet to attract spirits wandering in
the vicinity and also to maintain order among them. Other
items like incense and camphor were used as food offerings
for the spirits.
The main piece of the ritual was a sacred parang or machete
that was believed to be used by an ancient warrior fought
in battles long ago and being an epitome of death possesses
strong spiritual power. Blood seeped from Azri's cut hand
was smeared onto the blade to activate its power as a form
of channelling during the chanting where his mind and words
were focused along the blade to its tip. This ritual was taught
to him by his Indonesian bomoh master used to summon any spirits
without fail, which Azri was attempting to do. Once the ritual
preparation was completed, the SPI team retreated to a safe
distance as a precautionary measure while waiting for one
hour hoping for the spirits to emerge on the intended spot.
It was mentioned by a Taoist priest that the calculated time
for hell-gate to open would be 11:30pm for this particular
season, which the SPI members were waiting for the clock to
strike at that time.
The following gadgets were used to record empirical measurements
for scientific analysis at the site with the hope of capturing
some solid evidences of the paranormal:
* Non-contact temperature laser gun
* Two infra-red recording cameras; they faced two different
directions trying to capture whatever entities that may come
near to the ritual ground centrepiece.
* EMF meter; it was put near the centrepiece where the entities
supposed to come and feed on the food.
* Flour powder; a simple but most effective item to capture
footprints of entities, which was poured right next to the
candle lit path that was supposed to guide the spirits to
the centrepiece and food offerings.
1. SPI
gadget team set up two night vision cameras to monitor for
any strange activities at the vicinity of the ritual site
2. Kenny in action capturing the scene; 3. When the gadget
team is ready, we left the ritual site alone for staking the
spirits to come
4. From far we observe, you can see how spooky it is. At times
the fire flames from the ritual site curl up in eerie positions
1. We
observe the experiment site from afar;
2. This is one of the alleged paranormal photos captured,
said to be the appearance of the portal by the psychics.
3. The smoke over the investigator's head, formed a shape
of an apparition; 4. Abornaml temperature picked up from the
ritual coin
Results
Upon commencement of the ritual while SPI waited some distances
away, several paranormal instances had occurred as listed
below:
Paranormal #1. The temperature gun recorded a very
unusual temperature fluctuation of a ritual coin. The temperature
dropped from 25.5C to 13.3C, and then bounced back to 26C.
The drop and rise happened only in a matter of few seconds.
This is almost impossible for such acute temperature changes,
let alone in such a short time. The copper coin was believed
to contain a spirit that may have absorbed and released surrounding
energies too. Azri explained such sudden fall and rise in
temperature was attributed to the coin spirit sensing the
presence of other nearby spirits nearby that excited it.
Paranormal #2. When the chanting was completed, the
time hit 11:30pm whereby the hell gate was supposed to open
and so we moved 60 meters away and observed from a far. Strange
howling was heard, not once but twice. The first howling was
short-lived and was heard when Azri started preparing the
ritual. The howling escalated, when we left the food centrepiece
alone. It sounded like a sad mourning, which was definitely
not the sound of a bird or bat, coming from no tree. They
came from behind the tombs just behind the ritual's location.
They sounded as if the ambience was crying. We used the long-distance
sound enhancer to pin-point the source of sounds and confirmed
that.
Paranormal #3. A mysterious foot-print was found on
the flour powder. It was like a human bare foot but more than
that. The shape looked like a human foot for there were toes,
an arch and the ball shape in the heel. The distinct feature
however was the centre foot-print, which showed some scale
like patterns. Human foot palm is smooth and almost flat.
The footprint details can be viewed in the following photo.
1. The
flour foot path was inspected at the end of the ritual; 2.
Strangely a complete shape of footprint was found on the flour
3. Can see carefully? The footprint was outlined in green
color for easy observation
4. In this photo, you can roughly see a ghostly face in the
midst of the smoke above the burning offering
Are ghosts really hungry? or just random smoke coincidentally
form into a face?
1. Azri,
we thought initially he captured a jinn in the bottle.
Later he told us that is just a bottle of water he used to
"cleanse" the ritual blade - and yes, it has some
strong jinns inside
2. Azri and Cahaya, the psychics who are into spiritual research
and practices
4. Hungry Ghosts apparitions? Sometimes human's greed and
ego propelled many evil moves of betrayals. These are truly
the hungry ghosts
Although the video footage on the event has not been analysed
yet, SPI knew for certain that moving shadows were expected
at the site based on past paranormal investigations. Later,
Cahaya was asked on his opinion about the event looking through
his 3rd eye, which he stated:
"In the beginning when we first stepped into the cemetery,
I sensed there are many spirits there already. They are the
natural spirits. Nothing hostile, nothing chaotic. But there
are many of them. So they are already here even before the
Chinese said the hell gates open. During Azri was doing the
ritual, I noticed something unusual. They multiplied. They
came in huge numbers and they were more active than before.
A lot of movements, from tree to tree and tomb to tomb. They
are everywhere, and seemed to have come from all the different
directions."
"The sudden surge of activities started to happen from the
moment Azri started chanting (which Azri mentioned, when asked
by Kenny, that the chant was a set of secret phrases meant
to summon and had being verbally passed down through the generations
till it reached him via his master in Indonesia). As the chant
was said out, the activities of the spirits peaked."
"(Kenny later asked, what kinds of spirits are they?). The
spirits are just energies that take invisible form. Our normal
eyes cannot see them. But can only feel them in our mind.
Sometimes it works better when I close my eyes even. I sense
images of them in energy form in my mind where the energies
take shape, sometimes of a human, sometimes of just a creature,
with some indefinite shape. But you know that they are alive
creatures. They were excited because there were FOOD for them!"
"(Then Kenny asked again, are they the hungry ghosts in Chinese
context?) Cahaya frowned. He said, "I know them only as jinns
(demons) or spirits, some creatures from the other world,
their intention is to feed on food. It is just like you dump
a large piece of meat in an Africa jungle, then surrounded
by many hungry tigers. You don't know what breeds the tigers
are. You only know they can move, they want to eat, they have
lives and they are hungry and excited. Throughout the year
some people can see them. Not necessary only during hungry
ghost month you can see so."
Kenny turned to ask Azri, what ritual did you do? What is
the purpose of the ritual? Azri said that:
"The ritual is a fool-proof ritual he learnt from Indonesia,
being able to summon any kind of spirit. This time, he was
only calling them for a feast. That is the purpose. And they
came very responsively. They came in a huge crowd that is
much larger in amount than usual. Azri added, when I was chanting
I felt their presence and their demands. I tried extra hard
at the end of the chant to throw all my focused-mind to them
until I became very exhausted. Why? There are just too many!
Just like for example, when you stand in front of a very large
crowd and wanted to talk to them, you need to raise your voice
to peak in order to get them heard."
Indeed, large beads of sweat were seen on his forehead to
confirm that he was totally drained out after the ritual,
which was thought to be a simple prayer much to the surprise
of Kenny.
Conclusion
In conclusion, what exactly is Hell Gate in the 7th month?
How many of them were there? When consulting the two psychics,
Azri and Cahaya, individually and separately, they both concluded
that there are many "doors" sprouted around. Having no understanding
of the Chinese 7th month culture, they described the portal
as doors, which emerged everywhere in large numbers from all
directions, either on the air or ground.
This description is analogous to a feast set in a centre of
town calling for every human denizen to come join the food
festivity and people come pouring forth with eagerness from
every opening door of the town houses. On this aspect, the
cemetery is like a paranormal town accommodating every tomb
house, which spirits opened their doors from their supernatural
domain or residence to join in the feast provided by SPI.
It may be a matter of coincidence that the psychics were not
keeping the time but Azri's chanting ended exactly at 11:30pm,
the time Taoist calculated Hell Gate to open. Furthermore,
they verified that a very high surge of supernatural activities
occurred just after the chanting ended at 11:30pm! According
to them, the spirits certainly looked hungry. Indeed, portals,
hell gates or doors may be just terms in the human language
but it was told that there were certainly many of them appearing
from different directions, which suddenly become opened for
entities to come forth in huge numbers at 11:30pm sharp. Does
this particular time only happens on the 7th month for spirits
to be unleashed or it is something that occurs on a nightly
basis on any other month? SPI investigation continues…
During 7th month, the hell gates open and the hungry souls
roam out. The legend is passed down from generation after
generation. This story exists in both Taoist and Buddhist,
though in different versions. This experiment takes a step
reinforcing the existence of spirits in the eve of hungry
ghost month. They are believed to be "hungry" thus got attracted
to food offering. They showed their presence by signs scattered
across SPI footages. Whether you believe it or not, you should
show respect.
As time was closing to 11:30pm, in a bushed cemetery hill
water vapours became heavier. It might be normal that such
atmospheric change attributes to the sensation of more "chaos",
"quantity multiplied", etc. Also, if orbs and light balls
in digital photos and infra-red photos respectively are debunked
to be reflection of water droplets in air, the greater chance
by which SPI captured such photos makes sense.
Then for the night vision photos that allegedly captured the
portals, the hazy lights look like lens flare which is a very
common thing in photography. (c.f. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lens_flare).
Depending on the lens coating, lens flare usually scatter
across the lens in circular shapes resembling some eerie ghostly
lights. Aren't the lights in the photo which is believed to
be a ghost portal just a result of lens fare?
Regarding the footprint found on the flour path, it could
be imprinted by a tangki (Taoist medium) who paraded around
cemetery. It is popular that temple fellows would come into
cemeteries in bulks by lorries. It wouldn't be surprised if
a tangki so happen to come across SPI's investigation station,
he curiously came near and left his footprint. Those tangkis
were known to be shoeless. Yes, they walked with their bare
feet.
1. Taoist
Tangki (mediums who let hell deity possess their bodies) frequent
in Chinese Cemeteries during Hungry Ghost month
2. By tradition, their feet must be bare - so wouldn't the
footprint on the flour path was left behind by a Tangki?
3 & 4. Observe the "orb" on the left side of
the photos. It was the result of lens flare hit on the camera
lens by the light of the camera
The orb was stationary across the two photos, indicating that
lens flare emitted by candle lights is a common feature of
night vision photography
Are ghosts really hungry? or just random smoke coincidentally
form into a face?
1. This
is another typical night vision photo that shows the effect
of lens flare - night vision camera mode is more senstive
to light than normal
2-4. Big piles of paper offerings were burnt - are ghosts
really hungry? a correct way to receive heavenly blessing
or just waste of paper?
You can see eerie smoke effects under night vision camera,
with a mix of orbs and lens flare
What
view is yours in this case? Welcome to share you opinion here.
On-going Case
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