Do you believe in ghosts? If you are Thai I’m certain you will answer yes, I believe in ghosts. If you are a Westerner I guess you will most likely dismiss ghosts and belief in the spirit world as pure twaddle. As a Westerner living in Thailand, you will also know that Thai people truly believe ghosts are real.
The Thais’ belief in ghosts is so certain that they even provide a house for the spirits in which they will hopefully reside rather than in the owner’s residence. This practice is called Animism (spirit worship) and is the oldest form of worship known to man.
They take ghosts seriously in Thailand, and a ghost is not simply a ghost. Thai ghosts take many different forms, and there are good ghosts and bad ghosts. There are also spirits who for whatever reason, cannot rest in peace, either waiting or trapped in a sort of twilight zone between death and the next life.
I prefer not to believe. But I have to admit after spending years in Thailand, coming to terms with Thai culture and spirituality, and being married to a Thai who also believes in, and has had a ghostly encounter of her own has made me sometimes doubt my personal preference.
I also have some farang (western) friends who claim to have had legitimate supernatural encounters in Thailand. It’s too easy to dismiss another person’s stories of encounters with the spirit world. And too easy to dismiss them as a wacko, or eccentric.
Seeing is believing. And until we see a ghost with our own eyes we will never believe that ghosts exist. Funnily enough, my friends who experienced ghostly goings-on in Thailand suggest that you only see ghosts and other supernatural happenings if you are “susceptible to ghosts.”
Ghosts Caught on Camera
There are thousands upon thousands of supposedly genuine photos and videos that have captured the image of a ghost. Many are found to be elaborate fakes, others are the result of flawed development or faulty equipment.
Some of the images are genuine, yet the image does not appear ghostly at all. They are just everyday photos and footage of everyday people. The ghostly thing is, some of those people captured on film were never actually there, at least not in a form visible to the human eye.
My Own Thailand Ghost Experience
Besides the shared supernatural experiences of my wife and friends, I did have one experience, maybe it was supernatural, maybe it was not. In any case, the following experience inspired me to write this post, and ask the question—do you believe in ghosts?
On this particular day, I was driving by the Sacred Fig Tree on Soi Rompho in Jomtien (see photo below). I took this opportunity to take a few photos of the tree for my blog. I parked the car a few meters short of the tree, and my wife remained in the car while I walked around the tree and got my photos.
To my knowledge, while I was taking these photos, only a couple of motorcycles and a car passed by the tree. So when I arrived home and viewed the photos on my computer I was surprised to see what appears to be a young man and woman caught on one of the images (above).
The next image (below) is a crop of the image above. The young woman is paying her respects to the spirits, while the man behind her looks like he might be about to pull her away. There’s nothing unusual about a young Thai woman who stopped to wai the spirits of the Sacred Fig Tree. I took this photo in the early afternoon, so her wearing a short dress and knee-length boots is also not that unusual.
The only unusual thing about this photo is that I would swear the young couple was never there while I was taking the photos, and so would my wife, who was watching me the whole time. Agreed, I was engrossed while photographing the tree.
In my defense, I’m still easily distracted by Thai girls wearing short dresses and knee-length boots, it’s not often hot Thai girls in Pattaya escape my gaze. For my wife also not to see the couple, on a road void of any features other than a tree, is very …..spooky.
Another odd thing about this photo is, when you look closely, even though one of her legs is partially obscured by the Spirit House ladder, she appears to be only wearing one boot.
Like I said, I prefer not to believe in ghosts. Maybe if I don’t believe, I will not see. What about you?