Interested to know more, I asked her if she had ever to been to see such a person. She had, she said, about 7 years ago, and the woman was able to help her get rid of a spirit who had been haunting her.
Sounded pretty heady, and from my take on the whole thing, you sort of get what you ask for. In other words, if you go out looking for this stuff, you might just find it. If you keep to yourself and don't get involved, you probably won't attract any attention to yourself and you might not ever have a problem.
I guess the thing about it that made me think it was something I wanted to do was the acceptance of such beliefs in Thai culture. It's not the crazy whack-job down the street that took too many drugs in the 60's and claims to be clairvoyant. It's a woman who claims to have the ability to communicate with spirits, and leads a spiritual and respectable life. She has probably never touched a drug in her life.
Anyway, I won't bore you with speculations. I'll just relate the experience of visiting this woman.
Last week, I followed my co-worker, a 24 year-old woman, about 5 or 6 kilometers on my motorbike to the next village over. I wasn't surprised to hear my name being shouted by my students as I cruised through the main street. My school, being the largest in the area, has students in all the surrounding villages, and every time I go out exploring on my motorbike, I hear someone shout "Teacher Dougie!" Then, I usually hear about it the next time I see that student in class, and they ask what I was doing in their neck of the woods.
When we arrived at her house, I was impressed with how inviting it was. The living room was open to the outside, which is common around here, and was a wooden-floored room with almost nothing in it. No couches, furniture, nothing. You could probably fit at least a 100 people in this room. The only thing there, in the back to one side, was what I'll call the "shrine wall."
This area was garnished with vibrant colors, flowers, images, and what I assume to be decorative offerings that her visitors had given her. She had us sit on the floor in front of her, and one at a time, we offered our "problem" to her for her insight. Since you don't waste her time just for a friendly chat, and you need to have something troubling you, I offered my current mental predicament of whether or not I should ordain as a monk again, and if so, when is the right timing.
In Thailand, all men are expected to become a monk at least once in their life as a sort of symbol of coming-of-age, which usually happens shortly after they turn 20. Most men ordain for a short time, a period of a couple weeks or maybe 3 months. Then they disrobe and live out their lives as householders.
Some men return to the robes, and the number of times in which you can go back and forth is unlimited, at least as far as the monastery is concerned. As far as the community is concerned, on the other hand, a man should not be a monk more than two times, so as to not appear as one who is escaping his problems, ungrounded in his life. Since I have already ordained once, and I want to ordain again, I need to consider things carefully, and timing is everything.
Before she started her "ceremony," I bowed 3 times at her feet (she was sitting above me on a raised platform). Then, she had me light 3 candles in which she was holding, and as I did, the wax from the candles dripped into a large silvery bowl that was filled with water. She then asked me some brief questions as to the nature of my visit and my Thai co-worker helped to translate.
I won't tell you that she blew my mind with some amazing psychic reading, which is sort of what I was hoping for. She made a few assumptions about my life and was batting about 500 on her accuracy. Her main advice to me was to slow down when riding my motorbike. She said I've been driving too fast and that it was dangerous.
At some point, her son came out of his room and greeted me in a familiar way. I didn't recognize him at first, as he was out of his uniform, but she confirmed that "my son is your student." I probably have 700-800 students, so recognizing them when I see them outside of school can be difficult. "Wow," I thought, "pretty heady mom you got there..."
After she asked me about personal things, she asked if I wanted to bathe with some holy water. I didn't really know what to expect, but I said yes in order to find out. She had my co-worker lead me into a back corner which had a wooden platform and was blocked by a sheet in the front. She instructed me to strip down and cover myself with one of the sarongs (a sheet-like skirt) that was hanging from the wall.
When I came out, she had me sit down on a stool with my legs out-stretched in front of me. I was now sitting on a porch, but was right next to the fortune-teller who hadn't moved and was still sitting on her platform inside the living room. Again, the boundaries between inside and outside in these places is a grey area.
She had me hold my hands together in a gesture of respect, and then she put the bowl, the one which contained the wax droppings from the beginning of the ceremony, up to my mouth and had me drink from it. I did just that, and started chugging waxy water before she took the bowl away and said that was enough.
Then, she apparently took a mouthful of the water, and proceeded to spit it with full force into the side of my head. And then she did it again, two more times. I can't say that I was able to hide the smile that was on my face, but I was able to keep it under control for the most part. It was mostly from the brute force of the blow to the head and the sound that her mouth made that got me going. But also, I had to wonder, what the hell is this about??
She then took what was left of the bowl and said some things in Thai as she poured it over my head and my body. In about 10 more seconds, my co-worker, who had been standing by, said okay, you're done, you can get dressed now.
Back in the living room, fully dressed, I was told to sit at her feet again. This time, she used some sort of white paint to draw a symbol on my forehead and tied a good-luck bracelet around my wrist. She gave me two more to put on my motorbike to keep me safe. She also gave me a plastic pendant that had two dead bugs in it, which I thought was pretty strange, and told me to tie it onto the necklace with monk-pendants that I was already wearing. And finally, she gave me a gift which was like a fake flower, a candle, and a little trinket wrapped in plastic and told me to put it over my head at night for good luck, and I was on my way.
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| Me with the symbol she painted on my forehead... |
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| Dead-bug pendant she gave me. |
Her whole operation is based on donations with a minimum donation of 29 baht per visit, which is less than $1. Before the ceremony had begun, I put 100 baht on a platter that was full of money from that day's visitors. By the time we had gotten there in the early evening, there was no one else there, but she mentioned that she had a steady stream of visitors all day.
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| Here she is in front of her shine wall. |
So did she answer my question? Well, I dunno, sort of, but I think she was so surprised to have a
farang (foreigner) visitor, that she spent more time "chatting" with me than answering my question. She did say that if I wanted to be a monk again, I should wait until next year, and mentioned something about this year being unlucky for me to ordain.
All in all, I am glad I went to see this woman, and would be open to furthering my investigation into the unknown aspects of Thai culture.
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| Sunset on the drive home... |
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