Bali

[Lighten]

I have been living in Bali for the past 2 years. I would like to share a few stories, I think this is the right place to post.

Firstly, the Balinese are a form of Hindu mixed with their own ancient religion which is arguable as to the origins. Anyways, my father and I have a house in the country side that we use as a weekend house. We have a view of the volcano, which is about 5 miles away, and in between us and the volcano is only rice fields and some small dense forest. We have seen these orange lights several times out over the rice fields at night. They move very rapidly (for humans) and combine and kind of dance around each other. Anways, the Balinese say they are black magicians. Anyone ever heard of anything like this?

We were having a small party at our house (5 people) and everyone was drunkish. We have a strange looking mask on the wall and a girl put it on. She immediately dropped to the ground and got into a feadal (sorry for spelling) position. She was there for another 30 second and then took off the mask. My dad took a picture (because he's like that). Then another friend put it on, probably not realizing that her falling had anything to do with the mask. Immediately after putting it on he did like a strange dance with his arms in the air and then ripped that mask off and put it down and told everyone not to touch it. This was like a year ago. We have been looking for it lately to inspect its powers but couldn't find it. We then asked our Balinese staff where it was. He said that he hide it because he didn't want people to put it on anymore. He then explained to us that it was a sacral mask and it was used for rare ceremonies. pretty cool right?

I am an astral projection guy myself and not really into the magic stuff. My current level of knowledge and beliefs cannot explain these 2 stories. It's not really important, but would be nice to know the theory behind these happenings.

Sorry for the length,
Lighten

[Stookie]

I don't have much to add, but I find it very interesting. My Mom works with refugees from all over the world and has heard many strange stories like this from lots of different cultures. There are some pretty good ones about the zombies in Haiti.

[Lighten]

Oh what! Zombies? Like zombies in zombie movies? that's nuts.

[CFTraveler]

Actually, zombies in Haiti are extensively documented and not paranormal at all.  What they used to do was extract the venom of a specific kind of blowfish, and use it on the intended victim, which made it appear they were dead.  Then after the funeral they would disinter them and 'revive' them (that is, administer some antivenin) which would render them mobile again, but brain damaged, and they would then work them to death (real death this time).  Then the bodies would be found after they were either worked to death or sent to do some other simple errand, and the 'legend' of the zombie was born.
There have been many documentaries about this, and nowadays with modern technology it's not as easy to get away with, but still doable, especially if the victim is poor.

[Stookie]

Yeah, I've seen a lot about it too - there was the movie "The Serpent and the Rainbow" about a researcher that goes there to study it for a pharmaceutical company. Supposedly one of the main "uses" of a zombie is by store owners to guard their store.

Here's another goofy one from Africa about a guy who stole a car and then turned into a goat, and the police captured the goat: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,482506,00.html

[Lighten]

Haha, that made me laugh

[Stillwater]

Yeah, that is a great anecdote!