Theos-Talk Archives (March 2005 Message tt00730)

I thought this might be interesting from a theosophical point of 
view.
Regards
Cass
Jan 13

PATONG, Thailand (AFP) - A second surge of tsunami terror is hitting 
southern Thailand, but this time it is a wave of foreign ghosts 
terrifying locals in what health experts described as an outpouring 
of delayed mass trauma.

Tales of ghost sightings in the six worst hit southern provinces 
have become endemic, with many locals saying they are too terrified 
to venture near the beach or into the ocean.

Spooked volunteer body searchers on the resort areas of Phi Phi 
island and Khao Lak are reported to have looked for tourists heard 
laughing and singing on the beach only to find darkness and empty 
sand.

Taxi drivers in Patong swear they have picked up a foreign man and 
his Thai girlfriend going to the airport with all their baggage, 
only to then look in the rear-view mirror and find an empty seat.

Guards at a beachfront plaza in Patong told AFP one of their men had 
quit after hearing a foreign woman cry "help me" all night long, and 
similar stories abound of a foreign ghost walking along the 
shoreline at night calling for her child.

The majority of Thais are deeply superstitious, believing ghosts 
reside in most large trees and keeping a spirit house in every home 
where daily offerings of food and drink are given to calm nearby 
paranormal entities.

Mental health experts warn tsunami survivors have picked up on this 
cultural factor as a way of expressing mass trauma after living 
through the deadly waves and witnessing horrific scenes in their 
aftermath.

"This is a type of mass hallucination that is a cue to the trauma 
being suffered by people who are missing so many dead people, and 
seeing so many dead people, and only talking about dead people," 
Thai psychologist and media commentator Wallop Piyamanotham told AFP.

He said people who claimed to have seen ghosts first-hand were 
people that mental health specialists would be paying particular 
attention to.

Wallop is currently organising a team of Thai and international 
health workers to join other specialists in affected provinces who 
are assisting people suffering psychological trauma as a result of 
the crisis.

Amateurs and professionals alike have been pivotal in the recovery 
of thousands of corpses from beaches and coastal towns ravaged by 
tsunamis on December 26, and in the subsequent processing of 
handling bloated and rapidly decomposing bodies at huge makeshift 
morgues.

Their round-the-clock work could be taking a devastating toll, with 
at least seven workers having already been hospitalised suffering 
extreme trauma.

Volunteers helping at Thai temples, transformed into scenes of 
grisly death as forensic experts struggle with the task of 
identification, are especially vulnerable, psychologists and doctors 
said.

Wallop said widespread trauma began to set in about four days after 
the waves hit.

"This is when people start seeing these farangs (foreigners) walking 
on the sand or in the ocean," he said, adding the sightings started 
about the same time as people "began calling for help, crying, some 
scared".

Many people said they could not escape the smell of death or the 
sights they had seen while assisting in the crisis, he said.

Wallop said the reason almost all ghost sightings appear to involve 
foreign tourists stems from a belief that spirits can only be put to 
rest by relatives at the scene, such as was done to many Thai 
victims.

"Thai people believe that when people die, a relative has to cremate 
them or bless them. If this is not done or the body is not found, 
people believe the person will appear over and over again to show 
where they are," he said.

Wallop said in time people who need counselling would be reached and 
assisted and the sightings would settle down, but many locals 
claimed they would not be swayed by such talk.

"After visiting Wat Baan Muang (a temple where hundreds of bodies 
are still stored) I'm very scared. I can't sleep at night and when 
the wind comes I'm sure it is the spirits coming," said Patong bar 
manager Napaporn Phroyrungthong.

"I believe in ghosts and I always will. (The tsunami) happened so 
quickly, the foreigners didn't know what happened and they all think 
they are still on the beach. They all think they are still on 
holiday," she said.


---


See also:


Fear of Ghosts Torments Tsunami Survivors in Thailand and Other 
Countries (Jan 17, 2005)
http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGBYQIAZ24E.html
PHUKET, Thailand (AP) - Since the tsunami, taxi driver Wiwat 
Sakuldee is afraid of the dark and won't go near the beach. Like a 
lot of Thais on this resort island, he believes many of the 
disaster's victims have become restless spirits who haunt the 
streets after sunset. Traditional beliefs and spooky gossip are 
fueling ghost stories along the Asian coastlines where thousands 
were swept away. In Indonesia, a student saw a shadowy human shape 
enter a house, only to find the door locked and no one around. 
Villagers in Sri Lanka hear cries for help from the ocean. Ghost 
sightings are the talk of the town in the beach resorts of southern 
Thailand, where some 5,300 people are listed as dead - a third of 
them foreigners - and 3,144 others are missing. In Phuket, Wiwat 
said he dreads working at night now, and he keeps away from the 
beaches. Wiwat shudders in retelling a story making the rounds about 
a Phuket driver who recently picked up Western tourists in his tuk-
tuk, one of Thailand's trademark three-wheeled, open-air taxis. "Ten 
of them got in when the ride started, but there were only two left 
when it ended at Kata Beach," Wiwat said. "The driver was so scared 
he ran away. If any Westerners ask me for a ride to the beaches, or 
even one of the streets that run near it, I won't go." Thais don't 
necessarily consider ghosts malevolent, but more an unpleasant 
reminder of death and the possibility that unsettled spirits could 
lead to bad luck. In keeping with local Buddhist and Chinese 
traditions, monks are holding rituals to lay the wandering spirits 
of tsunami victims to rest. The ceremonies vary from simple prayers 
and incense burning to elaborate Chinese rituals during which 
replicas of money, clothing and other items are burned to provide 
spirits the things they might need in the next world. In Banda Aceh, 
the devastated capital of Indonesia's hard-hit Aceh province, 
residents living on the banks of the Kruengdhoi River say they heard 
cries of "Help!" from beneath the water every evening for two weeks 
after the Dec. 26 disaster. Soldiers have recovered dozens of bodies 
from the debris-clogged waterway. Adek, 22, a recently graduated 
university student, said he was going to pray at a mosque on the 
river's banks when he saw two spirits. One appeared to be the owner 
of a home who went in but faded into a shadow. Adek said he followed 
but found the door locked and no one in sight. CLIP


More related ghost sightings stories
http://search.yahoo.com/search?fr=ush-
news&p=Ghost+sightings+Sri+Lanka