Alex was a very ordinary child and was also one of the non-believers in spirits until he was 11. During one of his usual route to his school, with his mother walking beside him carrying his bag, an old woman jumped from the top of the building they were walking past and landed flat on the ground just few meters away from him. At the age of 11, the young Alex was extremely shocked with the scene he witnessed. After that incident, it affects and changes Alex a lot a lot…

Alex became very quiet and scare of darkness. He sleeps with room lights on. He needs company to the school toilet. He behaves strangely after that incident. Later his mother discovered, Alex has a strange ability, he can sometimes. See, feel or hear the spirits. Alex mother was told by a deity that his ‘frequency’ has crossed path with the unseen. It cannot be fixed. The only way to stay unharmed is to contribute deeds. With merits, he would be saved.

Many years later, a now working Alex went to consult a well known palm reading master. All other advises were normal, except this particular special reminder for Alex. The master says: “Young man, you’re not an ordinary people. You’ve a very special ability with the unseen. That’s no good for you. I can’t help you much on that but I’ve a golden word for you. I hope this golden word will help you to remember me when you’re in trouble one day.” The master continued:” Remember, there’ll be a life threatening moment (jie) at your age of 34, to safely go through the (jie) is to contribute more goodwill merits. But, your (jie) is one that also from your goodwill merit.”

Alex asked:” Master, you mean I do something good and the good thing would eventually turned bad in me?” The master reply:” Yes, but you can’t stop doing good, you need to just continue doing it even if it would turned out bad for some reasons. Don’t worry, the heaven will look after the good one.”

Because of his nature, very quiet and a bit of isolation behavior, Alex never stays long in a company. Eventually, he chooses to drive taxi as his career.

Alex don’t usually see the spirits. His feeling sense is stronger. But he still chooses not to stay up too late at night especially during the lunar 7th month. But tonight, because the sky was pouring heavily and there were many passengers out there waiting to go home. Alex hopes he can send them all home safely to be with their family earlier. He is always put people before self. So busy that he carelessly overlooked that it is the first day of lunar 7th month. He noticed it only after he saw people praying near the business back alley. By then, it was already a bit too late for him because he is 34 this year.

By the time Alex reaches his home carpark, it was already past midnight and the sky was still pouring heavily. Alex decided to wait for the rain to slow down a bit before he goes down from his cab. So he stopped his cab under a shelter not mean for parking to cut out the rain dropping noise on the cab roof. Now in a quieter cabin, Alex tuned to his favourite classic channel 90.5FM and lowered down his driver’s seat slowly to catch a quick nap while waiting for the rain to stop.

Suddenly, Alex woke up with a shock to find a young chinese lady seating behind the driver’s seat. The lady asked:” ?????????????” Alex quickly adjusting back up his driver’s seat and said :” ??????????????? ?? ???????.”

Along the journey, Alex tried to take a glimpse of the lady from his rear mirror. But no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t catch her face because the lady was seating right behind the driver’s seat and the headrest of the driver’s seat actually blocked out the passenger face. All Alex could see is the lady keeps using her left hand to brush forward her hair. It was like using the hair on top to patch or cover her forehead. Beside this, she got another request. She said she don’t understand English so she would like to have a Chinese radio station be played.

Halfway through the journey, the lady was like talking to someone through her mobile. Her conversation was like – Johnny, ??????????????? ???????????????????? She was saying the above with sobbing voices. Alex pass her a packet of tissue paper from the front. The lady then said:” ???????????????????” Alex jokingly said:” ?? ????????????????????????????!” After this sentence, Alex was woken up by a knocking sound on his car window. – knot knot knot, Alex ah, why are you sleeping in the carpark? Oh, it was Alex’s mother going for her morning exercise. “oh, I thought I just want to take a short nap, what? Its already 5am??!!” replied Alex.

Alex quickly jumped up from his seat and get prepare for his routine cleaning for his next driver. He thought to himself – woo, the dream was very real, maybe I was too tired. Suddenly, just before Alex was to turn himself out from his driver’s seat, he noticed something, he turned back and look at the radio, CHINESE RADIO STATION? Alex don’t listen to Chinese program because his Chinese Is very poor. He was stunt! His movement became slower, his hands were moving without his brain controlling. He clear the floor matt, the matt were all dry. That means no one came into the cab. He starts cleaning the car seat,
he found hairs on the seat right behind the driver’s. He took up the hairs by his fingers and examine the hairs, the color of the dyed hairs he is holding was exactly the same as the lady in his dream. DREAM?? Was it a dream at all?

After that first day of 7th month morning, his luck and health all started going down hill. He spent lesser hour on the road. He lost his diet even to his favorite food. And he starts losing alot of weight. Sometimes, he even talks to himself at home.

One day, while driving his taxi, he picked up a middle age Thai woman. The woman asked to stop the taxi just less than a few meters after the she got in from the rear door. She shouted:” Uncle, Stop! Stop!” Alex was puzzled but still stopped safely at the side of the road for her. The woman than got down from the rear and went back in to the taxi by the front. The woman than look at Alex with two big eyes and said:” Do you know your taxi is very dirty?” Alex was like “What?” Paused awhile and looked back at her and said:” Madam, I clean my taxi everyday you know!” The woman explained:” I don’t mean that dirty, I can sensed corpse smell and that I guess your taxi has a spirit.” Alex was stunt by her straight to the point remarks. He recalled the dream he had few morning ago. He thought to himself, this is not going to be a joke.

The woman passed a name card to Alex and tells him this before she got down. “Look, this is a name card of a Thai religion master, he is now in Singapore, he is very good with this type of spiritual issues, go and visit him immediately, he maybe able to help you. By looking at your face, I don’t think you can go through this 7th month if you just sit here and do nothing. Remember, tell him, Ah Nie is my name, I smell corpse in your taxi, he would know what to do.”

Without further delay, Alex went straight down to the Thai master’s office located in Golden landmark just after he dropped the woman. The Thai master, a very old man received a very panicked young Alex unexpectedly in his office. After hearing from Alex, The old master said this slowly :” I can sense that she possessed very strong resentment, can you tell me what is your relationship with her?” Alex replied shockingly:” No, I don’t know her, we’re not related.” The old master said this slowly and patiently:” Yes, you’ve seen her. Can you recall where and in what circumstances you met her?” Alex paused awhile and than said:” Could it be the accident I met many years ago?” He continue:” Many years ago, it was on the first day of 7th month, the floor was wet after the rain, I saw a motorbike skidded just right in front of my taxi. To avoid hitting the bike, my cab also resulted in hitting against the side wall of the expressway. The rider was a man in his mid 30’s and a lady pillion. I didn’t really catch the look of the lady pillion because her face was covered with blood all over. Because she was wearing a short skirt at the time of accident and was laying on the road unconscious, I actually rushed down from my cab to cover her leg with my jacket.
The next thing I know from the medic later was, she is dead. I read from papers later that she was from China and the rider is a married man.”

The old man sigh and than continue:” You’re now at the lowest point of your luck, so she is one level above you. She must have felt betrayed by the rider and lonely. We must not agitate her further, you must now look for a master that can help you to perform a ritual for her, hopefully she can be repent and let you go.
For the time being, you keep this amulet with you, I hope this amulet would protect you.”

Master? Alex recalled the palm reading master he visited many years ago. He remember him saying that if he is in trouble, go back to look for him. So Alex went back to the palm reading master. The palm reader master than gave Alex a name card of a Chinese temple. He said:” Go to this temple, they maybe able to
save you.”

When Alex called us the next day, it was not on a Friday. So Alex was told to wait for our session which is only every Friday. So on Friday afternoon, Alex called again, this time, he asked for a Q number for that night. But that night, Alex did not managed to turn out for the session. We thought it was just another
ordinary absentee, little did we know, he could be never make it to our temple if not of the ordinary Q number.

Alex crashed his taxi on the way to our temple and was admitted to the hospital. He was critically injured, in a state of coma and is placed in ICU. His mother got his personal belonging back from the staff in the hospital the next day. She found 2 religious name cards, one is the Thai master, the other one is our temple. She also noticed a Q number written on a piece of paper attached to our name card. Alex’s mother called our temple to inform us of Alex mishap and at the same time to check what was Alex trying to consult. In view of his already intended to visit our temple and is now suddenly in a state of coma, His mother was asked to visit our temple for an immediate session on that very evening. All the temple helpers were mobilized that day to attend the session that night.

That evening, dua ya pek came. After checking with Alex’s mother of the whole event, Ah Pek puts his fingers to work on the abacus. He than have this to say:” Alex’s soul is in possession by a lady spirit, she is very very resentful.” Alex’s sobbing mother puts her kneels on the ground and begs Ah Pek to save her child. We were told that due to Alex’s nature that he could sense the unseen, he believes the underworld and the wondering spirits within us, so Alex spent most of his earning in offering these spirits in the temple or places that he could feel strong negative wave (ying qi). His mother kept stressing that Alex should not be taken away this way as he is always very helpful and is a very humble and kind hearted man. She even walked on her kneels out to our temple to ask mercy from the heaven. The power of a mother’s love.

Instead of going after the lady spirit with a hard approach, Ah Pek decided to take her by what she actually wanted, She wants her ex-lover, so we were instructed to get her ex-lover details. From where? From the police because Alex were involved in an accident together with her and Johnny, so there should be a
record of him in the police report.

We got contact with the accident investigator officer (IO). Surprisingly, after we identified our intention, we didn’t need much explanation to obtain the details of that accident because the IO himself and some colleagues in the department were also experienced with some unexplained encounters during the course of
investigation of the case. (that’s another story) And before we leave, the IO even reminded us to update him with the outcome.

Anyway, we were told by the IO that Johnny was survived in the accident but his affair with the China girl was exposed after the accident. His wife asked for divorce, he lost custody of his children, failing business and together with many other financial matters all came one after another. In the end, Johnny is now
living in a mental hospital.

As far as a Taoism formation is concerned, Its never easy to beat us because we have hundred of deities and thousand of unseen armies ready for this type of war against the evil anytime. She was just alone. It would just the matter of time to win the battle.

Alex was recovering slowly after a few months. He came to our temple during our big day which was held in a tentage in a big field. He came to thanks Ah Pek for saving him and also to tell Ah Pek that he could still dreams of the lady spirit once awhile. Although he was repeatedly given assurance by Ah Pek that he would not be harmed, but Alex was still finding it very disturbing. So, Ah Pek suggested to him to get an ‘army’ into his body. Once if the ‘army’ is permanently inside his body, the spirit would not dare to come near him again. Without hesitation, Alex agreed. We then used an ‘army’ skewer to poke through his left arm. This is to symbolize that the ‘army’ has taken charged of the body. Any unauthorized intruder will be prosecutor. (for this part, I think only those that have Taoist’s temple related experience would know what I mean).

Well, coincidently, our event that night was performing ritual for the ancestors and feast for the wondering spirits within the estate. So, when the skewer was removed from his arm, you know what, Alex grab my arm with his 2 hands and said this:” God, I see many spirits standing outside the tentage waiting to come in for the feast.” I’m serious, this is what I heard from him. His ‘yin qi’ is even stronger and he can see spirits very clearly after that night. He can see all the spirits near him but not the lady spirit anymore.

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[Posted at: First Day Of 7th Month]