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The Heir of A Famous Bomoh
From the past investigations at Syonan Jinja, numerous sinister
encounters happened and a comprehensive set of footage was
collected for hard evidences of haunting. Nonetheless, SPI
investigators are only ordinary humans whose roles are of
observers using scientific equipment. They should never cross the
border in meddling with spirits or ghosts, as advised by Master
Kenna. He gave a analogous scenario. It was like battlefield reporters
who don't get involved in any confrontation
themselves but work in the frontline to just report the happenings
in the field.
In the previous Syonan Jinja investigation the baits were the
candles, the talismans and the ancient bamboo sake given by Kenna.
The baits seemed to yield some results but nobody had any control
over the invited 'guests'. The experiment was stopped half-way due
to safety reasons. This time, SPI invited a specialist called Azri
who is the son of both parents that are Malay Bomohs and he had
been trained formally in Indonesia by a famous Bomoh master.
(Bomoh is a Malay term meaning medicine man, similar to shaman or spiritual healer.) In
the context of occult, Bomohs have the power to summon, command
and communicate with spirits that they called Jinns by ritual
chants and magic. Naturally Bomohs are mediums who have certain
psychic power. They would be able to contact the spectral beings
from the other dimension. And, in case the specters ever get
mischievous, the Bomoh should be able to tame them, supposedly.
This time, instead of having a static centerpiece of bait for
staking-out spirits, a proactive approach was adopted. SPI is outfitted with a Bomoh expert who
deals with spirits almost everyday by his profession. Like Harry
Potter, Azri is young but exceptionally talented, having an
unusual family background and learnt a great deal of inherited
powerful mantras from a senior elder from Indonesia. He gladly wanted to assist
SPI in communicating with the spirits. Yes, they
were going to Syonan Jinja again; their objective of this trip was
to find out what kinds of spirits inhabited there and to probably
discover what do they want.
The title of this article is called Return of The Spirits. The
meaning is in two-fold. One is the gallant spirit of SPI that is
persistent and diligent in finding out the answers to the unknown;
now they are venturing into Syonan Jinja again despite the
hardship and preceding failures. The other interpretation of the
meaning, could be just the return of the spectral spirits who
respond to the bait of the experiments. Those are the spirits that
roam around the spooky jungle at night, and dominate the ruin site
of Syonan Jinja.
 
1. Two bottles of bomoh oil baits; 2 -
4. A magical sorcery stone
 
1 - 3. The magic stone will spin and
move by itself; that believed to have a jinn live inside
4. Ah Toh checked that it carries magnetic property using a compass
For the night, Azri prepared a
collection of barangs; each of them got a special purpose like a
component of a machine that functions together as a system. Just
before the investigators stepped into the route to the Syonan
Jinja, they did a spot check. The list of Azri's ritual items and
their functions as follow:
-
2 sealed bottles of preserved bear fat and meat of a classified
animal.
Uses: Served as bait to the spirits, sometimes as food
feeding them.
-
A magical sorcery stone.
Uses: It is believed that a Master
Jinn lived inside. It helps the Bomoh to channel his mind power
to the other realm.
-
A nail.
Uses: One use is serving as an element
of metal in the magic; the other use is a defense against
mischievous spirits.
-
A candle chanted with spells.
Uses: Emit the spiritual energy
required by the ritual.
-
2 specially made incense sticks.
Uses: Incense usually is an
important tool of a ritual; but these 2 incense sticks come with
special supernatural power, their smoke and scent are superbly
alluring to spirits.
 
The journey ahead is eerie and spooky
after midnight;
1 & 2. Photos are taken but our special ghost camera; 3 & 4. Photos
are taken by a normal camera. Both have captured para-entities
 
1 - 3. The journey to Shinto Shrine is
full of obstacles and thick darkness
4. In such pitch darkness in the jungle, this is how only Azri and
Toh's torch light beams can be seen
Return to the Haunted Shrine
After all the gears were inspected in order, the journey bashing to
the shrine ruin started.
For a short way they followed the lane eastwards. Then leaving it
they turned right and took quietly to the woods again. They went
in single file along hedgerows and the borders of coppices, and
night fell dark about them. In their dark the air was cold but
humid, that made their skins sticky with heavy perspiration. None
of them talked. They were trying to be silent, they made no noise that
even their footsteps would be hardly heard. That was only for
preserving the quiet night ambience intact so that the later
summoning ritual experiment would yield the maximum effect.
After a while they plunged into a deeply cloven track between tall
trees that rustled their dry leaves in the night. It was very
dark. At first they were excited,
being able to bring a Bomoh magician to the shrine. Then they
slowly grew exhausted in the quiet night tiptoeing walk, and Kenny began to lag behind
while carrying heavy equipment. At last, as they began to
trek through a crocodile-infested shore of mangrove, Kenny, being
the oldest and soon be retired from bashing, stopped and yawned.
'I am so sleepy,' he said, 'that soon I shall fall down on the
path. Are we going to nap for a while at the shrine? It is nearly
3am.'
'I am looking forward to having a short nap after the experiment
done at the shrine while waiting for the sun rise.' said Ah Toh. 'But there
is no great hurry. We let Azri do the summoning first.' The
environment was getting increasingly hostile as the darkness
thickened. The terrain seemed to have changed compared to few
weeks ago; more trees were fallen and many weird insects were out
crawling. Never a pleasant feeling was being there. It was later
found to be a mistake by not recharging themselves with enough
body energy and going into the shrine for conducting magic
experiment.
 
We were not alone. Weird creatures
growing everywhere; 1 - 3. Killer ants; 4. Uncanny fungus
 
A greater danger lies ahead - the
croc, that is know as one of the cruelest predators that tear the prey
apart and swallow them
Along the journey, they felt that
millions of spirits were engulfing them. Some were aggressive,
while many were friendly. In the middle of the night their extra
sensory ability became more perceptive than day time. Azri told
them that was the nature spirit of the forest.
Each plant, animal, rock, and other entity has a spirit
(consciousness resonance matrix). These spirits can join together,
in a hive-mind, as a spirit of an area. Nature spirits include
real biological intelligences, are psychically
powerful, and are much less abstract and controllable than the
Elementals that many magical people who perform all of their
rituals indoors are familiar with. They can be extremely powerful
allies. It is possible to sense nature spirits, to determine if
they are receptive to a ritual planned, and to have them actively
participate in magical workings if they are.
Dragging their tired bodies for hours, they finally arrived the
shrine again. To their surprises, the ritual bamboo sake container
and the ritual cups were still there. Everywhere looked much about
the same except the overgrown vines that used to cover the stone
basin were ridded. They wondered who came and tidied up the place,
the ranger or some Japanese volunteers?
The investigators decided to take this spot as
their experiment base for two reasons. One is that for any ritual
or experiment it should not be done beyond this point. By the
design of a Japanese Shinto shrine, the purification stone basin
marks the boundary to the absolute holy place - the Kami's adobe.
Worshippers traditionally would have to clean their hands and
rinse their mouths before proceeding further. Therefore such
Shinto custom was respected by SPI. They did their ritual
experiment just at the purification area, right at the junction of
the dirty and the pure. The other reason, simply is because they
wanted to conduct the experiment at a relatively open area with an
exit stair of 68 steps just a meter away. Should anything go
wrong, a quick retreat is possible. Who knows what horror
creatures Azri will summon to them!
 
1. Amazingly the offerings were there
intact after so many days later
2 - 4. Toh and Azri are getting ready for the experiments - one as
an observer, the other one as an initiator
The Bomoh Magician at Work
Malay Bomohs have many magic, some are curative, some are
defensive and some even are black that means cursing. The one that
Azri performed on this occasion is calling nature spirits around
the area. There are other ways of working with local nature
spirits. This is one approach.
Within a minute, Azri set up a simple altar on the surface of the
stone basin like a professional. That was simply laying down the
ritual items as described previously in front of him in a row with
a candle lit up in the center and the pair of incense sticks
placed on both sides. The proceeding of the ritual was relatively
quiet compared to those Taoist Tangki performance who lent their
bodies to gods to possess them. After the ritual items were setup,
Azri was basically standing there still without much actions. But
it is believed that much spiritual activities were occurring
around him.
 
Azri first carefully lit up a candle
that represents the source of energy
 
Then he lit up the joss sticks
corresponding to the carrier of his mind power to the spiritual realm
Soon after that and the bait was laid out on the stone basin, a
mysterious object appeared from behind
It looks like a ghostly arm stretching
to grab the bait offering from the basin top
The magician lives, or believes he lives, in a world inhabited by
spirits over which he has power. This power is initiated by ritual
and by spells: a word correctly spoken becomes more than itself,
expressing physically the being, or essence, of the thing it
describes. Azri mumbled many magic words and kept his eyes closed
and frown most of the time, trying to concentrate his mind power.
His facial expression changed intensively although there was not
much body movements.
At the end of the ritual, Azri were asked to explain what was
happening. He started by telling his experience that after satisfactory completion
of his magic training he became the expert in applying
indigenous methods to summon his own Jinns. He developed such a relation with his helping spirits through which he being a human
being is able, to communicate with them without thereby becoming
their instrument. He controls a certain number of spirits, who
according to him are spiritually existing since the very creation
of the world. He induces trance in order to diagnose diseases and
applies his spells to cure illnesses. With the help of spirit he
predicts future events and locates lost objects. Locating the
rumored lost treasure is one of the objectives of this expedition.
However, Azri said that summoning spirits requires a skill, which should normally be
defined as non-existent unless strictly trained by his personal
mentor plus rigorous practices. The one that Azri applied at
Shinto Shrine was an elemental-summoning skill instead of a
demon-summoning skill that requires much higher level of
advancement in training before it could be done safely.
When probed to ask him elaborating the skill or rather the
procedure in local spirit summoning, he could described up to what
is shown in the following layman list. Much of the details of the
steps remain secret, unfortunately.
 
Knowing that everything is ready, Azri
started his ritual
 
Prayer after prayer, Azri chanted in an
increasingly higher volume in some unknown language
Calling Nature Spirits at Syonan Jinja
According to Azri, in order to make the most out of working magical ritual in the
wild jungle, one
should find portals (or power spots, as known by others) where nature spirits are receptive to the
ritual planned and the spirits would legitimately be able to pass
through. Many such effective portals for working with the living
intelligences of nature are located in wild areas with diverse,
active ecologies, just like this shrine ruin in the centre of MacRitchie Reservoir. The area is thickly surrounded by dense
wood, abundant water, granites and all kinds of weird insects.
The following is an action list resulted from both observing the
ritual by the investigators and narrated by Azri in a due course.
-
Firstly relaxed, while standing upright, and focused on
his breathing.
Breathed deep breaths from the diaphragm. Eye sight rested on the
ritual candle flame but without focusing.
-
Felt the wind, and let it relax his
mind and awakened his spirit
within, as his deep breathing took him into non-ordinary
reality.
-
Pictured, in his mind's eye, a light inside
him. As he breathed,
he felt the light expanded, purified and energized his whole
body - as it expanded to
fill his aura.
-
Felt himself glowing, balanced, purified, and full of power.
-
Connected with his inner self (his higher self), and felt
his
intuitive self operating.
He felt himself as:
- The wind, full of life and intelligence, communicating with all
round.
- The Sunlight, warm, alive, channeling the power to communicate
with nature and energizing all around.
- Water, emotional, intuitive, refreshing, and connected with
nature.
- A resonating entity whose frequency tuned into that of the sorcery stone in
front of him.
- The Earth, and it was noted how his physical body was able to wander
while remaining part of Mother Earth.
By this time, Azri was half in
trance. His eyes were tightly shut, breathing smoothly in slow
rhythms. After about 15 minutes he moved on to the next stage.
-
Focused on his spiritual self, paid
attention to the light within and felt it as a compassionate
energy.
-
Expanded the light and compassion beyond the immediate aura of
his body
to the surrounding area - where he would go to find a portal
and contact nature spirits.
-
Telepathically (by thinking while
channeling the light energy) sent out signals to nature
spirits to emerge and be aware of his presence, followed by a
secret magic spell.
-
Paused for half a minute after the
magic chant, let the magic words infiltrate to every corner of
the area. Then said why he has come, and invited them to join in sharing,
mutual celebration, and the conversation that he intended. But one
taboo is, NEVER give any promise to any spirit no matter how
attempting the reward they offer.
-
Visualized the light and
compassionate energy he was channeling extending
out and merging with the light from distant places.
-
Felt the power of the Earth flowing up through
his body and
feet.
-
Continued to send out telepathic
signals like a beacon.
 
After the initial round of verbal
prayers, Azri recited some mystical hand gestures around the candle,
the source of energy
 
Borrowed sufficient amount of energy
from the candle, Azri then entered the second stage of chanting
The above channeling process took
about an hour. More than a dozen portals were identified after searching
enormously from near and far of the jungle by Astral projection. Azri was ready to
proceed to communicate with them while staying in tune with the
invisible energy light. Suddenly he opened his eyes. He tried to
grab the flame of the candles for a few times repeatedly. At the
end he cupped his hands around the flame, and remained in the
straight standing position with his arms open. When later asked,
he said that was for gaining extra aura energy for the subsequent
important steps in the ritual that involved reciting out the
utmost secret magic chant.
Resuming to his semi-trance state, now Azri went deeper:
-
Continued modulating the
light and compassion with his thoughts - inviting receptive spirits to
join with him and to make themselves known.
-
Affirmed that he was a nature magician,
by recalling the moments of the initiation ritual by his elders, who
became gifted to communicates with spirits. Let this part of his
inner self
emerged to full consciousness. Let it awakened all his subtle telepathic senses.
-
Continued sending telepathic signals to nature,
and telepathically calling for a response.
-
Some lights were seen coming from certain areas that are receptive.
Azri followed his intuition in
interpreting it.
-
Towards the portals where the lights
were, tested the connection by communicating (mentally)
instructions in magic spell for signals for yes/no responses (such as light
getting brighter for less and darker for no) and then mentally asked
questions and observe the responses.
-
When he had found those areas that
seemed to be responsive and receptive, he opened his arms and
beamed over his energy towards there. He fully extended his aura
to the area and sensed the energy.
By now, Azri had narrowed down to a
few portals where they were closest to the shrine and the energies
there are most receptive. His breathe turned heavier while his
arms remained open in position with his palms facing 45 degrees
upwards. In a moment he looked hesitated. Then, it was seen a
flash of determination from his facial expression, followed by a
deep breath; he was ready to enter the portals, by astral travel
and telepathy of
course.
-
His body slightly turned as if trying
to estimate which portals he would choose to enter first from
the short-listed. Continued locating the right portals.
- By intuition and feedback from
the spirits, he finally selected one portal. That was the one
with the
strongest responsive energy most concentrated around some singularity (a
huge tree that stood out from around 10 meters away).
- Azri deepened the
communication. He breathed deep breaths from the diaphragm, and
between each other breath, he chanted out the secret spell.
- Felt his spine was the trunk of a tree; and, from
its base, roots extended deep into the Earth. Deep into the rich
moist Earth.
- With every breath, felt the roots extending deeper, absorbing nourishment from the Earth
and from its waters.
- Felt the moist, warm energy rising, bursting up from the Earth and rising up
his spine,
like sap rises in a tree.
- Felt the energy raised to his crown chakra (at the top of
his
head).
- Felt that he had branches, that swept up and
then bent down towards the Earth, like the limbs of a willow.
- Felt that the branches extending and interweaving with
the
surroundings. By now, Azri was no longer a person, he was blended
in as a part of the mother Earth. He was the Earth.
- The moist energy of the Earth flowing through
his
branches. As it flew, he felt himself being purified, centered, and
connected to the Earth as a master of the jungle.
- He felt his branches absorbed energy from the air. Also, felt
them receiving light (fire) from the sky. Being compassionate at
the same time, he could command all the spirits around this area
to open up a conversation with him.
- The energy circulating with
him, his branches intertwined with the branches of energy
surrounding him.
- Felt the energy dancing among
him and the portal by the power of the magic spell.
- The spirits from the portal
were just at his fingertips, sending him lights and signals as
responses.
There seemed to be some communication
between Azri and the invisible entities. When asked later, neither
Azri can tell nor he could explain clearly. He said the dialogue
was not of the common one that we human usually perceive as:
questions and answers. There were no words, no sounds, no
sequence, no grammar, no language, but just feelings - or
enlightening as it were a more appropriate word. It was like a
touch on a magic stone someone suddenly realized something. But
that touch was not of physically touch. It was an intangible touch
in our mind.
¡@
 
That was the end of the chanting. His
breath that was once excited slowly returning to normal
 
1. An enlargement of the area in the
green circle; 2 & 3. Azri was trying to catch the smoke; we didn't
know what does it mean.
4. Solemnly he pronounced "They are here."
So What Happened?
They sighed on how limited human language is in expressing things
that are beyond the normal means. For instance the language
English that we commonly use today is developed from Anglo-Saxon,
the language brought to Britain by Germanic tribes (the Angles,
Saxons and Jutes) in the fifth century AD. These invaders gave
England its name, "Angle-land", 'the land of the Angles'. It was a
very vague description by the names like 'Angles' or 'Fairies'
that nobody knows exactly what they saw.
Nevertheless Azri tried his best to depict what happened.
Basically during the ritual he emitted aura energy with the aid of
magic spell to invite communication once a portal was opened. He
explained to the spirits the purpose of their coming and their
intention to learn more about this area.
Now that was the part that he ran out of words in explaining
though he tried hard. "They are shy." Not a very acceptable
answer, the investigators thought. Azri commented that the spirits
were sophisticated but superficially they appeared shy. Later they
found out otherwise; the spirits could be simply reluctant to
share, unwilling to open up themselves to protect their
vulnerability. The portal was small but there were many of them.
The energy was strong and therefore it was located by Azri. Some
spirits responded greeting signals. More and more of them
slavishly followed by acknowledging the same kind of light, like
an orchestra that played energy instead of music.
Out of a sudden, a different kind of energy emerged, and it
"scorned" (note that there was no better language available) the
other energies. Gradually most of the lights from the opened
portals dimmed down except that different energy who dominated
still the atmosphere. But only for a period of time before it
disappeared too. While being attuned to the energies, Azri could
feel the uncomfortable scorning and scorching effects.
He woke up from the trance with a sigh of relief, but the ritual
was broken, feeling much sore rather psychically than physically.
Then he was stunned for a while not knowing what was going on. He
just stood there as if enchanted. The wind puffed out. The leaves
hung silently again on stiff branches. Azri remained speechless,
standing like a statue, despite showered with many questions by
the investigators.
Usually Azri would have to thank the spirits for participation,
and may leave libations and other offerings for the spirits after
the ritual. Unexpectedly it was ended quite abruptly with little
clue of what happened. He concluded three things: 1. Many spirits
were here from many portals, some were particularly strong. 2.
They were shy except one kind that behaved very oddly - they were
not innocently shy but not flashy neither. They were just subtle,
stealthy, furtive and very dangerous. He couldn't tell they were
evil or not, but he felt surely their were fierce. 3. A Pontianak
was roaming from their consecrating vicinity about 100 meters
away. Azri felt that she wanted to participate, but did not dare
to approach near the shrine for some unknown reason.
¡@
 
Calmly and gravely Azri observed, as
though the para-beings are already here
 
We were holding our breath, slowly
changing the angle of photographing. And we found this hellish face!
 
Quietly we waited for more apparitions
to appear.
But Azri said that they would reveal in a shape for us to see ONLY if
they feel pleased to.
There are in fact already dozens come by from the other dimension. We
just couldn't see them by our naked eyes.
 
1. The red arrow is pointing at the
position of a video camera that is continuously recording the whole
scene
We would later analyze each frame of the footage, won't let go of any
trace of the para-existence
2 - 4. Another hellish apparition is captured on camera
There are more pictures of Malay Magic by Azri at the research
reference called: "A Study of The Evolution of Malay Magic".
(details)
What the Hell Was That?
The original planned experiment was to seek the spirits of the
dead to answer questions about things they knew or experienced
while alive about the shrine and the lost treasure. At the same
time, SPI at the surrounding areas trying to record evidential
traces of those entities who were summoned to participate. A full
array of gadgets were deployed and the summoning ritual (Azri
doesn't want to call it as a Séance but magic) was video taped.
The results of which are now being analyzed.
Just from observation, however, it was found that the spirits were
not automatically friendly and willing to open up a conversation
as told by Azri.
But quietly Azri turned around, facing the pond of water in the
stone basin and looking seriously. Streaks of smoke forming weird
faces were surfacing from the water. He tried to grasp them
whenever they floated up. The catching action was strange in their
eyes. But it seemed like the spookiness held them from asking and
talking about it. Ah Toh's face showed a somewhat despising look
as he thought that was merely smoke generated from the incense.
Anyway, it was known that spectacular physical manifestations can happen when working with
nature spirits in the wild. Along the stairs, Kenny saw a number
of fireflies danced and marked some pale greenish circles, and he
noticed that the wind responded to Azri's invocations just now.
Gusts of wind blew when Azri started the ritual, and calmed down
when the ritual was over.
However, Azri told them it was far from ended yet. A tingle of
fear was seen on his face - that was quite unusual for a Bomoh who
handled spirits like his pets. Only much later he confessed. It
was not a good omen that a magic ritual was interrupted, for
whatever the reason. He was supposed to proceed with deep
communication with the spirits and restore the portal at the end.
But the spirit abruptly broke his chant, terminating all the
lights in his inner plane. Worse is, some portals were open (or
initiated to open by Azri's spell) and some powerful unknown
spirits emerged and then hid. Azri now had no attunement at all with
them. Nobody knows what the hell was that.
¡@
 
These are the scenes of the experiment,
from near to far. A video camera is set at the corner for stealthy
recording
 
SPI crew moved away from the
observation zone to the higher ground of the shrine
 
We were doing carpet search on the high
ground where the Shinto buildings once stood
 
1 & 2. This corner stone wedge should
be a key structural part of the shrines; 3. Stone slab; 4. We
continued the search
The Worse Had Come
In spite of the shattered ritual, SPI moved on to carpet search
the whole vicinity, seeking paranormal phenomena around the area
if any. Before they moved up to the top of the shrine ruin area, a
video recorder was set constantly recording the stone basin for it
was very sinister with the phantom smoke just now.
They covered almost every inch of area under inspection; a lot of
ruins and stone artifacts were found. But most of them were buried
in layers of dried leaves and soil. Before long, they returned to
the purification stone basin. Gingerly they scouted the
surrounding again even though they were caught under the video
camera for any abnormal occurrence. No abnormal activity.
Time was about 4am. They decided to just spend the next few hours
in the shrine till dawn. Conveniently they just sat down at near
the purification stone basin, thinking over the whole happening.
Initially they wanted to
ask the spirits if they know about the treasure. But with a deeper
thought, will they ever tell? Imagine if you were a very loyal
soldier handpicked by the Emperor because of your highly trustable integrity to handle
the job of
installing a very important sacred object at Syonan Jinja. After
you died, and suppose your memories and your loyal personality
remain, will you leak out the where-about of the treasure? You may
even want to kill or chase out anyone who wants to hunt the
treasure.
Once the soldiers were loyal warriors who were entrusted to guard
the treasure, even after death their honorable spirits will probably forever
remain as the treasure guardians. Therefore, asking the local
spirits at the shrine was a bit like an assassin asking a loyal bodyguard the
whereabouts of his sultan. Kenny was reasoning and revaluating
their investigation plan.
¡@
 
One hour elapsed. Recording is
finished. We opted to take some group photos for memory
From this time onwards, Ah Toh started to behave eccentrically
 
Hooray, well done buddies!
Intermittent Possession?
After realizing this crucial mistaken made at the beginning in
asking the whereabouts of the treasure, Kenny changed his
question to the spirits. 'Can you tell us if the legend of the treasure is true?'
He wondered if Azri can communicate with them again. Azri closed
his eyes and tried using his extra-sensory perception, without the
aid of any magic or ritual for he was too exhausted. There was no reply but only silence.
Azri was sitting there on the stair continued to try.
At this very moment, something very horrible happened. Ah Toh, who
is one of SPI finest elite members, suddenly changed to another
face. He was originally standing beside Azri, swiftly turned
around, stepped forward and pulled up his 'Binky' - a very
superior army saber, threatened to kill Kenny. His face resembled
the look of the most ruthless murderer, groaning aloud in the
jungle, like nothing but a monstrous Weretiger. Every strain of
muscle twisted and tweaked on his face. He was holding his Binky
over his head, roaring with his mouth wide open and attempting to
stab Kenny.
This gruesome scene lasted for no more than a few seconds however
before he returned back to normal. Toh turned back and acted as
though nothing had happened. Azri had not even noticed Ah Toh's
sudden transformation, thought he was only playing. Probably Azri
was too exhausted after his ritual that drained most of his life
energy. Kenny, when he saw such horrific happening under his eyes,
remembered Master Kena's advice like a repeating echo sounding in
his mind: "At night in such haunted shrine in the wild jungle,
spirits will be most active before dawn. They are mischievous,
vengeful and powerful. Chances are they might not kill you
directly but will possess your teammate to harm you or harm
himself."
A cold chill was descending on Kenny's spine. Beads of sweats were
rolling down on his face too. Kenny remembered a while ago, Ah Toh
started behaving abnormally, that he thought he may just be
drowsy. (See the above photos.) His sudden sleepiness was somewhat
uncanny. Toh looked exceptionally pale tonight and his eyes
flipped upwards as if being in a drunken stupor several times.
Something was very wrong.
Again, Ah Toh suddenly took up his knife and trying to stab Azri
from behind. It was too sudden that none of Kenny and Azri could
have reacted. A second later, Toh became normal, as though not
remember what happened to him just seconds ago. Kenny confirmed
that the flashes of horrible possession were real. Whether Toh was
possessed intermittently by spirits or by his own fatigue, it was
too dangerous to stay on here. He strongly commanded to end the
investigation at the shrine right now, and bashed out of the
jungle at the fullest speed.
Thinking back, about the portals opened by Azri during his ritual,
and the helplessness of closing them, Kenny's worry intensified. Out-of-control spirit can be an
extremely dangerous thing. The phobia of Toh's vivid possession
still haunted him with fear. Since then, SPI aborted all the
subsequent night investigations going to the shrine probably until
Master Kenna returned to Singapore
¡@
 
Ah Toh was losing his soberness out of
a sudden; he became violent and aggressive from time to time
We wondered what went wrong with him
 
1 - 3. An orb was observed attaching to
his body
4. We thought that was getting serious as he was carrying his powerful "Binky"
that is supposed to protect us from crocodile
 
The orb, in turn, switched to haunt
around Azri but he seemed to be unaffected probably due to his magic
practice
Ah Toh was possessed again. Kenny shouted out a Christian prayer
aloud.
Exiting the Shrine
For Kenny was a Christian, he recited a Father's Prayer aloud
while they were marching out of the shrine. He prayed to the
highest God for protection upon his team and commanded the spirits
to back off by the holy name of Jesus. He noticed, however, the
place got quiet immediately while the forest in general had loud
insect and frog noises. The vibes from the jungle were
miraculously turning from chaos to peace after the prayer.
Ah Toh appeared fine. He would only smile adorably when Kenny
jokingly asked if he had remembered what happened just now. They
were marching out of the shrine in joy, wondering when they would
return to the shrine again. The story of the lost treasure seemed
to be already forgotten. Perhaps it should never be discovered any
more though it was greatly tempting to find out what that is by
curiosity.
A little side-track here: Ah Toh had returned to the shrine
subsequently a few times, but during day time. In his recent
visit, he found that
the bamboo sake container was gone. A warming here: whoever picked
it up please return it to Master Kenna (kenna@spi.com.sg).
The bamboo sake tube is of sacred
and is a ritualistic object. It may bring you unexpected mishaps
when it does not belong to you and you stole it. However, Ah Toh
supposed that may be monkeys who took it away.
Everyone was very tired, they were dragging their feet exiting the
shrine.
¡@
 
Silence has returned to silence. We
took our cameras up and shoot at the trees in case there was residue
of spirits remained
 
A bright orb that seems to have
reflection glare. Is orb an reflective entity that reflects light, we
pondered on?
They walked like zombies without thinking much anymore. It was
left with less than three hours before dawn for them to reach the
observation tower. There must be plenty of paranormal phenomena in
this spooky jungle just over their heads. As Azri said, many
portals were opened within the coverage of three kilometers radius
from the shrine. The investigators couldn't care more. Only
occasionally they snapped aimless pictures along the way out for
lucky shots. They
hurried to the observation tower by dawn for another important
mission - observe where the first sun ray would hit near the
shrine area.
¡@
 
1. Exiting the shrine; 2. Watch your
steps, pals; 3. Watch your head too; 4. Gee, are we walking into a
bigger spider web now?
 
Look at their zombie look. They finally
made it to the observation tower just before dawn
The First Morning Sun Beam
Just out of the dense wood they came on the beaten track again.
Leaving the forest they went into the deep resin-scented darkness of
the trees, and took some deep breath of the air that smelled quite
oxygenized. Sooner than they thought, that they reached the
observation tower half an hour before dawn. They quickly climbed
to the top. Ah Toh sat down and scratched his head, and yawned
like a cavern.
It was a long night and this was the moment that they were waiting
for. This was another investigation experiment that SPI conducted
for the shrine: to observe where does the first morning sun ray
touches on the shrine. It was speculated that the shrine was not
anyhow built but according to some geomancy significance with
special orientation and position. For example, many other mystical buildings
such as the Stonehenge, Sphinx, Mayan Pyramids, The Greek Lion
Gate and Apollo Temple, etc were positioned with reference to the
morning sun ray and/or other celestial sky bodies. This is going to be
a long-run investigation of course; furthermore SPI is keen to
observe by binoculars if the location of the shrine align with any
prominent star constellation. The reason why the Shinto shrine was
built on the knoll of MacRitchie reservoir is obviously because of
the Feng Shui surrounding; in Chinese it was called the 'Ling Qi'
the supernatural energy at the shrine that is unparallel to
anywhere else in Singapore.
The investigators were holding on to the fence while being at the
highest point of the whole reservoir area and engulfed by cold
darkness. None of them fell into sleep despite their necks were
stiff and bodies were exhausted. Minute by minute, they waited with
the clock ticking. To keep themselves awake, they faced outwards
overlooking the the broken highlands
crowned with drifting cloud. A chill wind blew from the East on
their faces that helped keeping them awake. Night was gathering
over the shapeless lands before them.
Almost sharp at 7am, the morning started to come, pale and clammy.
They excited placed their bodies off to the edge of the fence,
holding whatever camera or binoculars that they can get fetch, and
looked forth into the sky. They saw the eastern sky grow pale. The
clouds were still thick, but they were breaking, and pale strips
of blue appeared between them.
So the night passed. Together they watched the dawn grow slowly in
the sky, now bare and cloudless, until at last the sunrise came.
It was pale and clear. The wind was in the East and all the mists
had rolled away; wide lands lay bleak about them in the bitter
light. Away westward the sun was rising red out of the mists that
lay thick on the world. Touched with gold and red the trees near
the reservoir seemed to be sailing rootless in a shadowy lake.
They all watched in amazement. Not forgetting their mission, they
had been staring on where did the first sun beam hit from the East.
Ahead and eastward they glimpsed the first sun beam ... and it
seemed to first land on a lake, just in front of the Shinto
Shrine!
¡@
 
1 & 2. The sky is brightening up
graduation starting with streaks of blue and purple
3. Perhaps that is the cursed sky reddened with bloody peculiar color
in 1940s?
The first sun ray was piercing the
thick cloud and shone on the jungle
 
We noticed, however, the first sun ray
was not exactly shinning on the shrine area
But it was hit on a nearby basin area that glittered with the
reflection on the water
Wouldn't the lost treasure was hidden under the lake? Who knows.
The Morning Had Finally Come
The lake is of a small size like a pond, possibly badly infested
with crocodiles. And also it was speculated to have underground
tunnels connected to the bottom of it. But was the lost treasure
really buried there? Nobody can verify and it was far too
dangerous for anyone to get close to verify. This made them
doubted that if the crocodiles were originally habited there by
nature, or they were purposely bred around the area by the
Japanese for one sole
purpose - guard against the sacred treasure. Another urban legend,
interesting and similar enough, is a legend in Fort Canning that says a
giant snake Jinn was guarding some treasure there. Only those who
found the giant snake and slaughter it, then the treasure will be
revealed.
But as a warning to the public: don't try. Although some SPI elite
members are experienced certified scuba divers, it is still too
dangerous to try surveying the lake-bed. There were cases of
crocodiles sightings and people get hurt by them at MacRitchie
reservoir. Drowning was not unusual in the reservoir inlets too.
Indiana Jones only exists in movies.
¡@
 
In less then 10 minutes time, the whole
sky was brightened up. Smell of fresh morning filled the air
1. The sunrise time was exactly 7:05am,
consistent to the weather forecast
2 & 3. Some casualty here, Kenny's skin got badly infested and
inflamed by some unknown germs in the jungle
The sun had fully risen. Their packs all trussed up
again, it was after seven o'clock, and the day was beginning to turn
fine and hot. They went down the tower, and across the beaten
track that led them through the backyard of the Singapore Country
Club, it was another two hours long journey walk before seeing
other human beings; and by that time their equipments, water, food and other gear already seemed a heavy
burden.
¡@
 
Water storage bunks that belong to
Public Utilities. It is highly security guarded like a military
installation
 
1. The first poster shows no feeding to
monkeys and no dogs allowed; 2. If no dogs are allowed, how could be a
missing dog be here?
3. A school of macho hulks jogged in the early morning; 4. A huge
strange plant was spotted
 
The leaves are so huge that its width
can fully cover a person and its height is taller than any one of us
On the way out of MacRitchie
Reservoir, SPI encountered some abandoned walking trails, deserted
graveyards and strange tropical plants. There are many other ruins and
forgotten history awaiting us to uncover. Our quest to the unknown
never stop. That is why SPI exits.
¡@
 
Ruins are artifacts are discovered in
the nearby near too
 
God knows what secrets are hiding in
the jungle behind this abandoned trail
¡@
|
Answering
Mysteries
Come