Have you ever experienced a feeling so eerie that you swear you were living a horror movie? I felt that hair raising moment in Bali. Imagine sitting alone with a person who has his third eye fully opened, and he, describing all the spirits and elementals he is seeing around you at 12 midnight? It was one of the most scared I've been paranormally speaking. I remember just turning on my side, staring at the ground with my hair raised to the tips, and me repeatedly screaming every cursed word I know in my head.
I remember something my brother once told me about his experience in Bali that lit up my imagination and rekindled my interest about going to Bali so much that I actually couldn't get it out of my head until it actually happened. Over a year ago he told me this, "The one who hosted me in Bali creeped me out. He took me to the water temple at 12 midnight and we were the only ones in the whole temple. We rode his motorcycle up the mountain, everything was pitch black save for what our front light could touch. The wind was pricking our skin like ice and the ride took over an hour up the mountain to get to the temple. When we got there he did some ritual, and as we were talking he suddenly said that an old ugly woman with very long hair that almost touched the ground was staring at me two feet from where I was sitting. She was unflinching, and I didn't have the nerve to look back and see if she was there. I can never forget the fear I felt that night."
This year, my experience of the paranormal is one for the books. It's one of those moments when you suddenly realize that things are no longer of the familiar and it freaks you out because you are way out of your home territory. Again, I experienced the paranormal outside of the Philippines. This time in the mystical island of Bali. And while everyone wanted to go to Bali for parties, beaches, instagramable spots, do yoga and be in the crowd of this paradise vibe, what attracted me to Bali is their Hindu culture...besides their cafes. The appeal comes in being the only island in the whole Indonesian archipelago dominated by Islam to be following in the teachings of Lord Vishnu. The whole madness began with our friend, a local of Bali who invited us to visit the place. He explained that because of their religion and deep setted faith, locals tend to have higher spiritual affinities that goes beyond physical. In the case of our host, he had the 6th sense and his third eye fully opened. He can easily describe the faces of spirits and elementals as they appear to him. And while those I know who have their 3rd eye open can only describe the ghosts they're seeing as having blank faces much like how I saw mine, he can see it them in full detail. He tells them as he sees them.
When we arrived, one of the first things our host asked me, "Sisstah, what you wanna see?" I looked at my itinerary, skipped all that I've written and read my list of local food that I wanted to try. I said, "I want to eat the local food, not see tourists, and just be a local." He grinned, "You sure?" "Yes!" I confirmed with conviction. True enough, I ended up seeing a Bali that I haven't seen in any of my friends' photos. We ate in places where locals eat, went to temples when locals go after all the tourists were gone, see sights where there were mostly local tourists, and really conversed how it's like to live in Bali. In that sense, I guess I experienced a Bali that's hard to explain to friends. While every person I know who went to Bali comes home with stories of amazing parties, beautiful Instagram moments, and beach tans, I came home with a supernatural tale.
Surrounded by Spirits in Denpasar
We arrived at the AirBnb I booked about 9pm. It was a nice place that had three villas, a common space and a pool in the middle of the space. This was our last night in Bali, and I chose that place hoping that it'd be closer to the airport...but it turned out quite far from one of the last places we needed to go to, and that was the Tirta Empul Temple...which is roughly two hours away by car from where we booked. So...we chilled for a bit as he said that in order to reach the temple by 2AM, we needed to leave the AirBnb at 12MN. And so while my brother decided to take a nap in the villa, my friend and I stayed out under the shaded area by pool. At first we were talking nonsense until I slowly asked my way into their supernatural beliefs, delving into their spiritual faith out of curiosity. I kinda knew what I was getting into, and I knew it was something I can handle. And I did, like a brave little coward I fed my imagination with a degree of bemusement in between our conversation.
From talking about hot guys and his experience shooting for Vogue, to eventually describing to me what he was seeing that time, telling me in detail as I felt my hairs standing up and all I could do is turn to the ground to avoid possible visual contact of what he was saying. He even offered me to open my third-eye just so I can see what he was talking about...to which I insisted him not to. It was the best decision of the trip as it turned out he only knows how to open the third-eye but not close them. Wonderful! Here's what he said as I remembered it:
"You know what, this place has got a good protection, the owner of the Airbnb made sure this place is well protected. I can see the four corners of this place emitting a strong white aura. You remember the place where we stayed in last night? They didn't have a good protection that's why a crazy old spirit lady tried to attack me on my way home after buying some cigarettes at 3am. The energy there is black, here it's white and it's strong. The the evil spirits outside cannot go in. Here it's full of white elementals." Then he pointed at two triangle palms on the opposite side of the pool, "You see those two trees right there? There are two monkey gods hanging by their tails on the leaves staring at us. They have a monkey face but from the torso down it resembles more to a human's." He then proceeded to point at the shrubs near the window of the villa where we were staying, "There's also an old woman standing on one corner close with long hair. That's her spot, she likes it there so don't disturb her there because she's very protective of her territory." I must've had a mini heart attack when the place he was pointing at was right where the open shower of our villa was. I asked, "What's she doing now?" He laughed, "She's watching your brother sleep. Don't worry, she won't move from that spot." He eyes then started to trail an invisible entity, "There are also a lot of kids here running around the pool. They're just playing, but they're very curious about us." He waved at the kids that I couldn't see, then his smile turned to shock after a while, "HEY! Why you so ugly!?" He looked at me and explained, "They changed their forms, now they look like ugly little beasts! Their eyes are now glowing red, their teeth have turned sharp and their face are all wrinkled like gremlins. I think that's because they saw us looking at them. Now they're right next to us, and they're curious about you." To which I reacted with no enthusiasm whatsoever. For a millisecond I stared at the spot he was pointing at just to avoid those what ifs, but thankfully I didn't see any imps so I quickly turned away from the direction and stared back at the ground again.
"You want to ask them something?" he kidded.
"I don't know what I should be asking them." I wasn't kidding.
He thought for a moment, "You want to know what your brother is dreaming right now?" he smirked.
To which I hesitantly replied, "Okay...?"
He started to speak in Balinese. There seemed to be a proper conversation happening in all the gibberish that I was hearing. He was giggling, nodding, and whispering at the ears of the invisible little devils. After he shooed them, he turned to me and said, "They told me your brother's dream."
"What did they say?"
He laughed, "You'll know later when he wakes up. I'll tell him what the spirits told me and he'll be the one to confirm it."
After a several minutes of talk, he stopped for a bit stared at the tree right next to us, "Do you notice that there's no wind but that branch is moving?"
I looked around and everything was still as a photograph. Not a single leaf in sight was rustling. I looked at the branch he pointed to and started feeling dizzy and it's as if the entire tree was swaying.
"Those little kids are up that tree now looking down at us," he explained. "You know, hordes of spirits are swarming around us because they're curious at what we're talking about, but they couldn't get in because of the barrier. They're trying to listen, all of the spirits in the area is looking at us."
Those words were the icing on the cake. After that I could just feel my body weaken with fear. That moment was probably the most scared I've been in terms of the paranormal. Although I felt safe because I was with my friend, it did not compensate for overwhelming presence of energy I felt that night. I felt drained just sitting there. I looked at my clock, it was exactly 12mn. I was glad it was midnight because it was the time I was waiting for us to leave for the water temple...
Paranormal Experience at Tirta Empul Temple
We left Ubud at midnight, travelling by car up the mountains to make sure that I arrive at the water temple at 2am. Hindus have this lunar chart that they believe is best followed if it's your first time to visit the water temple. It follows the day you were born and time of day depending on other factors. In my case I was born on a Wednesday of August, so they did some sort of chart research and concluded that to get the most blessing I should go to the temple on a Monday at 2AM. So we did, and it was quite an experience.
We were on the road for about ten minutes when our host asked my brother, "Did you have a good sleep?" "Yes," he replied. "Can you remember your dream?" our host asked again. "I think so..." my brother groggily said. "Were you dreaming about running, like trying to escape something dark?" He made an uneasy laugh, "How did you know?" He burst out laughing, "I asked the resident spirits of the house. They said you were running away from something." Our host then looked at me smirked, "Did that answer your question?" I also laughed, a combination of amusement and caution.
The drive up the mountain was scary fun in itself. Imagine seated right next to the driver whose third eye is wide open, suddenly he screams, "DON'T FOLLOW US! YOU'RE SO UGLY!" And then proceeds to tell me, "Look out your window, there's an ugly lady covered in blood floating beside you on the road." The scenario played out a couple of times throughout the two-hour trip. There were times when he'd flinch, react, look shocked on his own, and other times he'd describe what he sees. It came at random as he described them, some were old black shadows, some where white spirits, but often times they were bloody. We were running at 80kph up the mountain with nothing but the dark forest at both sides of the narrow zigzag road. The only thing we could see was about five meters of road ahead of us, and what little peripheral details our front light could reach. Our friend was in a hurry because he wanted to make sure we make it to the temple by 2AM. Thankfully we managed to make it there on time.
The temple is a completely different sight at night, when it's devoid of people and the safe feeling of daylight. There were a couple of dimly lit areas since what not many tourists know is that temples are open 24-hours as Hindus need to follow a specific time of day for worship. We entered the first area of the temple and we saw some devotees asleep on the floor, and he said since they follow a chaste system those people cannot enter certain areas of the temple as they are of the lower chaste. They're also waiting for their own schedule as they are only allowed to worship at 5AM onward as other time of day are only for those of the higher chaste. Quite an eye-opener for me. I can also remember the sadness I felt for those of the lowest chaste when I pointed at a square patch of dirt ground in their area of worship and my friend explained that it's for the lowest chaste. They are not allowed to pray on the stone floor, they can only worship on dirt, and hearing that crushed my heart. Anyway, we went to the inner part of the temple and was instructed how to pray at there. We changed in our sarong attire, made an offering before taking a dip in the freezing water, slowly making our way from one fountain to the next, left to right. It was a surreal experience, stripped down vulnerable doing the ritual, wishing for one wish to be granted per spring. I can remember at how cold I felt having to walk in the spring, and there were a couple of times I'd flinch as I felt something brush up against my legs. I saw a couple of huge flowerhorn-looking fishes peacefully swimming in one area of the spring. My friend said they are gods, guardians of the spring as they mysteriously appeared there years ago and just seem to survive. Before we dipped in the pool my friend explained that the aura he saw me emit is dominantly white and golden yellow with some sparing stands of purple hues, when the whole ritual was finished, I was emitting a powerful rainbow aura. After what I felt, it's no surprise I felt like I became a super human being. The weird part was right before we went in the temple grounds, our friend warned my brother and I might get a little dizzy because the offering that we brought to the gods were not enough. He said we needed a particular type of offering to appease the gods with our presence considering that we were foreign entities. We only managed to find the right incense sticks, but he said it wasn't enough to keep them from sort-of bothering us.
After we prayed at the spring, we were asked to move to a different area, one of the holiest places in Bali that only those of the highest chaste can enter. He had us seated in lotus position and instructed us to meditate while he had to do some transfiguration ritual. He placed our offering in front of us as he lit lily-scented incense sticks, pushed wet grains of rice on our forehead and said we just sit there thinking of nothing but emptying ourselves. We needed to clear our minds, void of any thoughts and just be in that moment of silence. I closed my eyes, and at first it was okay...a short moment wherein my imagination ran in circles, until slowly I drifted my mind into a calm. That moment when I cleared my thoughts I felt my head floating and my body almost levitating from the lightheartedness that I felt. I couldn't feel my physical body, I felt just the strongest flow of energy I had ever experienced. You know that feeling of being high, like an out of the body experience. I couldn't move, my body felt as if it was suspended in another dimension, and I was both relaxed and freaking out at the same time. I knew it was not a 'normal' state to be in, but I had to push on because curiosity got the better of me. I peaked at what my brother was doing and he seemed calm. I turned to our friend and saw him pacing back and forth in some ritualistic fashion. After in what seemed like a really long time I opened my eyes and decided that it was time to end the meditation, and so we did.
We spoke to our friend and he toured us around the place where we meditated, explaining certain areas. He took us to where the spring water was originating. It was like this pond where water bubbles were forming, bubbling up from beneath a soft muddy bottom. In that spring lotus pods grow abundant. We took time to stare at the dancing bubbles of soft sand breaking the surface of the water. Our friend explained, "You know the gods are saying hi. When a new set of bubbles start to form out of nowhere, it means that they want to show themselves to you. The more bubbles, the more they enjoy your presence." It was a nice amusing sight to stare at, but in the middle of the silence, from out of the edge of the jungle we heard an unearthly sound of laughter. It sounded like an anguished laugh, like a sort of pained-scornful laughter of a woman that kinda also sounded like a monkey but is also human. Like a possible ape specie, except that it wasn't fully animal-sounding. It was really an unexplainable sound that made me and my brother stare at each other, to which our friend simply said, "That's a black witch getting angry because your spirits have been cleansed in the spring." The sound felt like it was just beyond the walls of the temple, at the tree-lined horizon. "Don't worry, they can't enter the temple area because this is holy ground," he explained.
"They?" I asked.
"Yes, there are a lot of witches and spirits in the mountain." Then he went on to tell another tale that sent shivers up my spine. "You know there are three monks living in the cave at the back of the temple. Two men and one woman. The lady is a hundred and eighty years old, and she is so powerful that she can levitate. She would sometimes just float out of the cave with her long black hair drifting behind her, and she would come here to the temple to pray." Pointing his finger, he traced a trail in the air supposedly where the old monk would be seen floating to reach one of the pedestals in front of us. "I saw her once, just levitating above the trees."
It to a couple more conversations before I felt my eyes heavy from being awake for almost 24-hours. So we decided to head back to our place. As we were driving home our host said, "You know there was a snake going around the spring while you were in the water. Did you feel it?" That was the AHA! moment of what I was feeling slithering around my legs while I was praying, but kept denying to myself as the best way to handle that situation is ignorance...event if I thought I did see a snake on the huge tree...I had to put on a brave face and push on. "Why didn't you tell us!?" my brother freaked. "Because I know you'll be scared and the ritual will be disrupted," he explained. "I felt it! That's why I kept on flinching in the water because something was tickling my legs!" I also freaked out, but not as bad since I'm not afraid of snakes. "Then you are blessed! That was another god of the spring and it'll only appear to certain people, and when he kisses or touches you, you will have his blessing." Our friend smiled, his tone a little more calm that his usual self. A few minutes away from the temple he suddenly screamed, hit the break, shook his head and jolted up from the steering wheel, "I'm back! Sorry about that, I had my uncle's spirit borrow my body for the ritual at the temple." "What?" I chirped. "If you notice I was not myself earlier, that was because that was my great grand-uncle speaking with you. While you were meditating I did a ritual that sent my spirit to the spirit world while my uncle's spirit entered my physical body. Did you notice I was gone for a bit in the temple? When I came out from that corner near the altar that was no longer me, I went to visit the realm of my deceased relatives while my uncle used my empty vessel to tour you around the temple." And with that, I knew I had a little too much unearthly information to bear that I actually looked forward to going home...far away from Bali for a bit.
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