Tales Of Terror

Recent incidents of killings in the name of superstition show the dark side of India's progressive society. And all is being done in the name of bringing peace, harmony and prosperity to those involved. When all efforts fail to keep hope alive and living on a steady keel, then a large number of people in India still turn to black magic and superstitious practices for quick-fix solutions. The so-called curators, known as ‘Tantrik', or ‘Baba' (occult and black magic practitioners), claim to be able to resolve issues of marital discord, or health and financial problems. Not only do the poor or uneducated fall victim to their claims, but the educated and the elite of society do as well. Early this week, in one of the cities of West Bengal, a beheaded body of a local Ayurveda doctor was found near a temple. His head was found near a crematorium with some flowers, incense sticks and blood. “This made the foul play of black magic very clear,” local police said. Similarly, a few months ago in the Southern city of Hyderabad police detained 14 alleged black magic practitioners accused of cheating people. They had a distinguished clientele including politicians, sports personalities, students and housewives. Another incident, reported in a remote village of the western state of Maharashtra last year, was about the arrest of a childless couple for allegedly killing five young boys, as a self-proclaimed devout sage told them ‘it would help the woman to conceive.' These gruesome cases, the authorities say, suggest that fraudulent and exploitative practices are being performed extensively across India. So many people get caught in the middle of false beliefs, blind faith and superstitious practices. Indians are already availing themselves of astrology, palm-reading, numerology, tea leaf prophecies, and such, and black magic only makes things worse. The ability to reason ceases when problems surround us, and the ‘practitioners' take advantage of that opportunity. Though education plays a pivotal role in eradicating such practices, the widespread use of black magic also needs to be dealt with from a legal standpoint. There is a thin line between faith and superstition that needs to be defined in law, as these practices and rituals performed in the name of God may be an expression of faith to some.

Among the rural peasantry of South Asia, there is a tendency to attribute the misfortunes of life to the attacks of demons and ghosts. Serious attempts to incarnate the gospel message in this context must, therefore, seek to understand this cosmos of malignant spirits and its relevance to the everyday life of the villager. Within Indian folklore, the term ‘bhoot’ represents a large amorphous category of spirit beings with common distinctive characteristics. Spirits in rural India are the ones that bring the colour and nuances to the country’s ‘ghost-o-pedia’. They nest in trees, they call out to strangers in the silken voice of a seductress, they raid fish markets in search of fresh catch, they throw themselves in the hair of women who attract them and they snatch food out of the hands of children. The fish-loving ‘mechho bhoot’ of Bengal has made quite a name for itself. It resides in trees near water bodies in villages and calls out to fisherfolk on their way to the market and back. The formidable ‘nishi daak’ (a voice that calls at night) has no gender. It adopts the voice of a beloved and lures the victim out of the house. We’ve all heard tons of ghost stories, but what does science have to say about ghosts? Unfortunately, there really isn’t any concrete scientific proof of ghosts existing. Nearly every ghost sighting can be explained by science or some sort of logic. One of the most interesting discoveries explains why some people think they feel the presence of ghosts. It’s due to infrasounds. These are extremely low sounds that we humans are unable to hear, but fans, wind turbines and traffic can produce them. Although we can’t hear these low sounds, we can feel them. These low frequencies can trigger distinct psychological effects, including things like discomfort, a sense of panic, and an overall sense of something being out of place. Places where people have reported many ghost sightings also happened to have things that produced infrasound. Once people removed infrasound-causing objects, like fans, the ghost sightings suddenly stopped. Another reason some people think ghosts exist has to do with electromagnetic fields. Researchers have found that electromagnetic fields may be able to influence an individual’s perceptions as well as their surroundings. In other words, it can make them hallucinate and see crazy things  like ghosts! Speaking of seeing things, there are also reports of people thinking they saw visions of ghosts while they slept. This unfortunate case is known as sleep paralysis. This is when your mind wakes up before your body, causing you to have a paralyzed effect while you’re in bed. This also creates a waking dream effect, in which some people have reported seeing paranormal figures attempting to hurt them. We might also believe ghosts are real, simply because we want to. If ghosts did exist, it would mean that the afterlife is real, which is a belief that comforts a lot of people today. So if ghosts were real, we’d probably never have to say goodbye to our loved ones. We could communicate with them, feel their presence, maybe even spend some quality time with them.

Life. Death. And the beyond. It’s more than what you can comprehend. You're looking at the world through a keyhole. You spent your whole life trying to widen that keyhole. To see more, to know more; and now, on hearing that it can be widened in ways you can't imagine. you reject the possibility. The language of the mystic is as old as civilization. But if that offends your modern sensibilities you can call them energies that shape reality. The harnessed energy, drawn from other dimensions of the universe, casts spells, conjures weapons and makes magic, the magic of life, death and beyond. For death is what gives life meaning. To know your days are numbered and your time is short. The realms of magic and illusion are stemmed in centuries of mystery and darkness. The sorcerers of ancient times were believed to possess supernatural powers that allowed them to command and control the forces of nature. The pages of history are filled with accounts of wizards, witches, warlocks and magicians who became renowned for their otherworldly abilities. Many such mysteries, unexplainable phenomenons and spooky events never fail to catch our attention. Some of these events lead to new discoveries while others turn into spine-chilling ghost stories. I’m Neel Shah, your guide through these vast absurd realities. Follow me as we discover uncanny stories of black magic, ghosts, spirits, superstitions & unexplainable deaths.  Join me and explore these tales of terror.