How do you deal with the paranormal to have a pleasant jungle trek? Here are a few tips provided by the interviewees and the Internet.

If you suddenly smell jasmine, don’t turn around. Just move on quickly. Or say a silent prayer.

Quietly ask for permission before entering a jungle. Some 4WD convoys, for example, pray and burn joss sticks at the shrine to Datuk Kong, guardian spirit of the jungle, before entering.

If a particular rock formation looks like an abnormally comfortable resting place, don’t use it.

Don’t call your friends by their names, instead, agree on codenames beforehand and use those.

If you hear somebody calling out your name, don’t answer or follow the voice.

If a particular tree is surrounded by an unusual clearing, avoid it.

If you see strange things like a mansion, white-robed elderly person, someone playing the drums up a tree or a well-tended garden in the middle of the jungle, walk away from it. Stick to your path. People get lost easily because they are drawn to these things by the forest goblins or bunian.

Don’t pick up ‘souvenirs’, especially at ‘suspicious-looking’ places. They are the jungle’s.

An aside: A group of rangers were deep in the forests of Belum one day when they came across a field of beautiful flowers. They walked away but kept coming back to it, despite trying several paths out. It then occurred to the leader to ask if anyone had taken anything from the field. One of them admitted he had plucked a flower. He was told to leave it behind. After a prayer, they found their way out easily.

How do you look for people lost in the forest? Here’s how some folks searched for the four boys that got lost on Fraser’s Hill last year.

Mohd Radzuan Mohd Nordin, the imam there, trekked through the forest and when he ‘felt’ the boys’ presence, he would say the azan and ask the bunian to release them. Chamba Mohammad, one of the Orang Asli rescuers, read mantras and followed the direction of kemenyan (incense) smoke.

Say prayers – “There are spirits in the jungle,” says Yap Kok Sun. “Don’t try to defy or challenge them, and say ‘I don’t believe, I don’t care’. Since becoming a Christian, I always say a prayer before entering the jungle. It has helped me.”

According to jungle guide Yusof Aziz, the makhluk halus or forest goblins don’t like blood. So when a woman is menstruating, she should wash out her sanitary pad later. Burying it doesn’t work because an animal may dig it up.

Some people who see spirits, says Loh Foh Seng, may have bad luck in work and health. The traditional Chinese remedy is to go to a temple to jeen wunn (change your luck).

Loh’s general advice is: “Don’t kacau the spirits. Just tell them quietly, you go your way, I’ll go mine. Mutual respect is the way. After all, we are just visiting and it is their territory. It’s like you go to your friend’s house, of course you will greet the parents, ‘hello aunty, hello uncle’.”