Relax - Spooks in hotel room? Nothing to fear

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UNEXPLAINABLE noises emanating from the strangest places. Electrical appliances going on and off for no apparent reason.

So you have reason to believe that your hotel room is haunted. It's too late to find another place and there's no other room available for the night. What's next?

Paranormal expert Mr Augustine Towonsing, the founder of Malaysian Ghost Research, shares his opinions on how hotels are haunted and dishes out advice on what to do.

Why do former guests or employees haunt hotels?

There are many reasons why ghosts haunt a place, and it need not be a hotel, as ghosts are everywhere. A ghost basically haunts a place due to some unfinished business.

Findings by Malaysian Ghost Research show that the main reasons ghosts anchor to a place are because they committed suicide there; are victims of violent or sudden death; are confused spirits; or are addicted to something in their previous life.

If a ghost haunts a place, it is simply due to a “silent death”, in that the spirit returns to figure out what had happened to him or her. The place then becomes haunted until the spirit reaches a personal realisation of his demise.

Augustine Towonsing

Why don’t these departed guests return to their own homes?

Departed guests have the free will to remain in a place or to leave. However, this only applies to those who have reached a state where they realise they are already dead. Spirits who are still in a confused state, in that they do not know whether they are dead or alive, would remain in a particular place until they attain realisation or accept the fact that they are dead. Only then can they choose to leave for the spirit world.

Are there signs or warnings for guests to know that a hotel is haunted?

Generally, there are no signs indicating a hotel is haunted. But there are signs where particular areas or rooms are haunted.

From my own experience and my family’s, the most basic sign a room has an unseen occupant would be the presence of some kind of smell; you feel uneasy or feel that you are being watched, you hear someone’s movements or see someone when nobody is inside the room. Sometimes, an extreme drop in temperature may occur.

What should we do when we realise our room is haunted, or when faced with a ghost in the night?

If you feel the room is haunted, you should ask to change rooms. If none is available, then you have to do something about it because once you realise that a room is haunted, you are already intruding someone’s “private home”.

Read also:
Spooky hotel encounters

Therefore, you need to apply a few basic rules. First, be open-minded that ghosts are “people”, too, in spirit form. Secondly, immediately greet the “home owner” and introduce yourself, state your purpose and explain how long you intend to stay.

Always show respect when communicating with ghosts. You can also ask the ghost(s) concerned to mark a particular spot in the room, so that you will know the exact place that they consider their “private and confidential” spot.

When you leave the place, always thank the “home owner”. You do not need to do this if there are no signs or warnings that the room is occupied by an unseen being. Never show disrespect, unless you are willing to go through an unpleasant welcome from the “home owner”.

Can a hotel evict its resident ghosts, whether through exorcism, threats or a lure?

No. Exorcism does not guarantee that the resident ghost will leave. Dr Dave Oester, founder of International Ghost Hunters Society, says that exorcism does not guarantee the removal of pesky ghosts, as most of the time, such actions would only anger them. The only way to remove pesky ghosts is to find the source of its haunting.

However, threats or lures may bring about positive outcomes, depending on how they are carried out. Malaysian Ghost Research realises that the only solution in dealing with ghosts is nothing other than promoting the Universal Love Concept. That is by showing respect and reverence not only towards the living but also towards the spirits of the dead that have chosen to remain within our domain for whatever reason.

Augustine Towonsing (above) conducting an investigation. He says there is no need to be alarmed if you bump into a ghost as they are merely ‘people’ in spirit form.

Some sightings were of ghosts holding knives or looking very sinister. Will such ghosts harm a guest?

No. It is almost impossible for a ghost to harm the living. There is no scientific evidence that documents that ghosts can do that, except in Hollywood horror movies, where filmmakers suggest that ghosts in the form of demons have the ability to harm us.

However, our research suggests that the ghost/spirit/soul exists in the form of an electromagnetic field. But because the soul used to exist in a physical body, therefore they still prefer to have a “body”. Thus, even though the soul creates a “body” of energy that is similar to their earthly body, they are unable to harm the living.

Furthermore, seeing ghosts holding knives or looking sinister is only symbolic of their momentary psychological state. If we do encounter such a scene, it is actually an early sign or warning that we are unwelcome.

It becomes dangerous when a person who has no ability to control his own mind and fears, starts to think negatively about ghosts. Such a state can lead to a person becoming injured, not through any fault of the ghost. (Further reading about the psychology of the dead and how to deal with ghostly pranks can be accessed through the Malaysian Ghost Research’s article at www.malaysian-ghost-research.org/articles/the-psychology-of-the-dead-our-existence-fear-and-dealing-with-ghost-pranks.html).

From my own experience, ghosts have the ability to manifest themselves. But it is easier for them to send out signs and warnings to the living whenever we “intrude” into their territory. They do this by sending out negative energy which causes us to feel uneasy or threatened.

Can you share one or two experiences you’ve had with haunted hotels?

I’ve had two experiences and both times, the early signs were present – the room had an unpleasant smell lingering in the air.

On one occasion in a hill resort, my family stayed in two connecting rooms. One room smelled unpleasant, similar to the body odour of someone who is very ill. When the rest of my family was outside and I was alone in the room, I felt that someone was watching me.

When I was about to sit on the edge of an unoccupied bed, I landed on the floor as though something unseen had prevented me from sitting on the bed.

Another time in Langkawi, my wife complained that one of our two rooms had a strange smell. But I did not bother to check it out; we were on holiday! Late at night when my kids were asleep and I was working on my laptop, I heard my door being opened by someone in the adjoining room. Yet nobody came in. Soon, I sensed someone watching me.

The next morning, my sister told me that she saw a man who looked like me in the dim lighting in their room. The “man” laid down on the unoccupied twin bed next to where she and my daughter were sleeping.

Which hotels in Malaysia are known for being haunted?

For the sake of not tarnishing the good name of our hotels, I think it’s best not to highlight them because, after all, they cannot do anything about their paranormal patrons.

It is enough for the general public to be aware of the existence of paranormal patrons in hotels, rather than continue having distorted misconceptions about them.

My job is to shed some light on their existence, so that the living will understand them a little better, and know how to respond appropriately.

Is there a difference between ghosts in the West and the East?

No. Research has shown the same evidence regarding ghosts, including ghost orbs, ecto balls, apparitions, ectoplasm, human shadow, vortexes, ghost orbs in motion, as well as ghost voices in the form of electronic voice phenomenon (EVPs) that explains the existence of ghosts in the form of energy in a unique electromagnetic field. Ghosts exists in the form of a pure energy that retains its intelligence.

However, there are still differences in terms of the terminology when referring to ghosts, based on people’s cultural background and beliefs.

Do toyol and Hantu Raya still exist today?

Yes. But toyol cannot be considered ghosts because they have a physical form, while ghosts exist in multi-energy configurations based on the first law of thermodynamics that states: “Energy can neither be created nor destroyed. It can only change form.” Thus science has already provided solid evidence that ghosts exist.

[Eds. note: According to Malaysia folklore, a toyol is a spirit evoked from a dead foetus by a Malay bomoh. Toyols are used to create mischief, like theft or vandalism. A Hantu Raya is a spirit with supreme powers that humans can make a pact with, in exchange for favours.]

If a guest can’t change rooms, but demonstrates respect and reverence to the spirit in his room, will this encourage the spirit to “possess” his physical body, especially when he is exhausted?

If a guest shows respect and reverence towards the spirit of the dead, he or she is demonstrating unconditional love. In return, the spirit of the dead will also display the same respect and reverence towards us. In this regard, there is no reason why a spirit should possess someone physically, even if the person were to be exhausted.

However, a spirit can possess a person if he were to allow his body to be a host in a ceremony, such as being a medium or channel. This process is safely in the person’s control.

The most dangerous condition is when we are so heavily laden with uncontrolled emotional burden that we become psychologically ill. This condition will then become attractive for low level spirits from the astral planes to feed on the emotions.

In my experience in communicating with people who have experienced being possessed, I found that most of them were laden with uncontrolled emotional burden. So the only way to help people who are possessed is not through exorcism, rather, by finding the source that causes a person to be possessed by spirits in the first place.

Since ghosts are “people” in spirit form, if they had died in a horrific way (gunshot wound, suicide or stabbed), will they appear to us in their injured form, or what they were like before they died?

They might appear to us in a horrific, injured form, but it doesn’t mean that those spirits have any bad intentions towards the living.

Paranormal research has found that places that hosted tragic events such as a murder, a battlefield, a tragic accident or when someone’s life ended very suddenly, would cause confusion to the victim because he or she did not have enough time for any realisation of impending death.

So to see a ghost in a horrific way is just the confusion that the ghost is going through in the process of attaining personal realisation; it’s when the ghost returns to the place or even “replays” the scene of tragic events just to figure out what actually happened to them prior to their death.

Unfortunately, these events would continue endlessly for such ghosts, anchoring them to the place where they lost their lives. It will continue until these spirits realise that they are dead, or when someone comes to help them. In this regard, help from the living, especially astral projectors who are able to retrieve lost souls, is needed to help spirits cross over to the spirit world.

Based on some of my over 600 EVP recordings, some of the spirits stuck in the world of the living actually need help. They are trying to communicate. Yet, there are also spirits that choose to stay in places where they were happy or comfortable in their daily routines.

So if you experience meeting spirits, do not panic. Instead, stop a while, tell the spirit who you are, respect their presence and tell them to continue their journey to the spirit world as they have died.

I have discovered that our personality consists of the logic or the mind, the physical body, and the inner soul or spirit that become our personality (Mind + Body + Soul = Personality). Even though the three components are important in our daily life, when we are in the transitional process through physical death, only the Soul or the Personality will exist as a force known as the Life Force in a unique geomagnetic field.

Spooks in hotel room? Nothing to fear

By Chin Mui Yoon, The Star/ANN | Tue, Jan 11 2011

Augustine Towonsing, founder of Malaysian Ghost Research, explains why we should not be afraid of ghostly visitors.

Keywords

ghost

paranormal

hotel