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.
