Singapore's Spook Seekers

Started by Devious Viper, August 15, 2006, 06:10:12 AM

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Hooked on spooks (from The Star online)

Thederelict old British commando barracks in Netheravon Road in Changi is not a place you would choose to visit for a leisurely evening stroll. Once the living quarters of the army's elite force, the eerie, run-down compound has been taken over by Mother Nature. The main two-storey building, the paint on its walls flaking, is surrounded by trees and overgrown weeds. Inside the stuffy and dark rooms, broken remnants of old ceiling fans litter the floors. 

All is still and deathly quiet. A creak from a loose door hinge, or the shuffling noise of a stray animal, could scare the living daylights out of the bravest of souls.

Except maybe, a growing breed of paranormal interest groups which have made an unearthly passion of visiting Singapore's scariest spots in the wee hours in search of otherworldly surprises.  Like the crime scene investigators CSI, paranormal investigators have a keen interest in the unexplained and want to solve paranormal-related mysteries. For the uninitiated, the term paranormal refers to any phenomenon which cannot be explained with science. And as far as the deserted barracks go, Singapore's growing ranks of paranormal investigators reckon The Truth Is Out There, to borrow a phrase from hit 1990s TV show, The X-Files.

One such "ghost-buster" is Mr Wisely Xu, 22, an NS-man and a member of the Singapore Paranormal Investigators (SPI), one of several such groups that have sprung up here. He has a spooky story behind the place: A commando platoon wanted to be represented by a mascot that would strike fear in the hearts of the enemy. After some thought, the soldiers painted the face of a devil on one of the walls in the building. When a commander got wind of it, he ordered the wall to be repainted. But no matter how many coats of paint were slapped on, the face always reappeared.

Also on the SPI's list of haunts are Old Changi Hospital, Pasir Ris swamp, Bukit Brown cemetery and Pulau Ubin. The thrill of dabbling in the unknown, and getting to the bottom of hauntings, possessions and other supernatural phenomena is proving irresistible to some Singaporeans. Take SPI, a pioneer. It has grown by leaps and bounds, says secretary Lee Qing Yu. It registered itself as a society in June last year and people can join as different categories of members. It costs $20 per year to be an active member. Within a year, it has recruited 70 members.

Contrary to what some people believe, people who join such societies are not cultists. Most hold proper day jobs. They include civil servants, businessmen and professionals. Men, who are perhaps less squeamish, outnumber women. Often, these groups are divided between those who have been "visited" and want to prove the existence of supernatural beings and those who want to disprove them.

While SPI was founded in 2001 as a hobby group, about three other paranormal interest groups have emerged since. Its rival group, Asia Paranormal Investigators (API), was registered in June last year by Mr Charles Goh, 38, who works as a safety officer. He was one of the founding members of SPI before he decided to strike out on his own because of a "difference in direction" between him and his former compatriots. He now has about 20 committee members and about 700 ordinary members. Membership is free.

On a smaller scale, there is Singapore Urban Explorer, the result of a merger between long-time paranormal group Freakylinks and Singapore Urban Explorer, a group dedicated to discovering lesser-known sites in the city such as a Marsiling storm drain tunnel deep inside the Marsiling woods. Its founders, civil servant Aaron Chan, 25, and web designer Andy Hajime, 28, say the group's mission on their explorations, which may or may not have paranormal elements, is to "take nothing but pictures, leave nothing but footprints".

The latest to join the fray is the Organisation for Supernatural Research and Investigation. Registered as a business two months ago, it has 15 members and will have a recruitment drive next month. To be a member, one must be at least 25 years old, be sponsored by an existing member and profess a religion.

Why the sudden surge in interest in paranormal research?

For starters, the public's curiosity in things that go bump in the night has been piqued, thanks to the media drumming up one frightfest after another. SPI's Ms Lee, for instance, got hooked after catching a documentary programme on TV called The World's Most Haunted Places five years ago. The research and development technologist at a food and beverage company began researching the topic on the Net and joined SPI two years ago.

SPI's vice-president, Toh Seong Fai, 33, who is a business trainer, says the "recent influx of paranormal-themed entertainment" has sparked interest among those who want to transplant the scares of reel life to real life. On TV, there have been at least five spine-chilling programmes over the past month: Channel 5's Incredible Tales, Suria's Dimensi 4, AXN's Hex, Supernatural and PSI Factor.

Singaporeans, or Asians in general, have always had "an appetite for the horror/supernatural genre", says Channel 5's senior programming director of network programming and promotions Chong Gim Hwee, adding that based on strong ratings, the genre "is here to stay". The universality of such stories also means viewers of all races can tune in, says channel vice-president for Suria Programming, Fahmi Rais.

Another reason for the growing interest in the study of the paranormal is that multi-racial Singapore is predisposed to all kinds of creepies, says Supernatural's assistant director for collection and artefacts Rasid Yusoff, 35, a freelance designer. "If Malays had 10 ghosts, Chinese had 10 ghosts and Indians had 10, that's 30 ghosts."

Intellectuals like Mr Thomas Baker, a PhD student at the National University of Singapore's sociology department, explains: "With a lot of things unanswered, it is often easier to find answers in things like spirits and conspiracy theories."

Given the scientific world we live in, it is not unexpected that "there is this increased interest in rationalising the irrational", adds fellow sociologist Paulin Straughan, the vice-dean of the faculty of Arts and Social Science.

Investigative pyschologist Mel Gill adds that young people nowadays often suffer from what he calls an "existentialist dilemma", questioning if reality is what it seems. "They know there must be more than meets the eye so they look into the spiritual world."

Thrills and spills 

Theories aside, the action is what many paranormal groups live for. If there's something strange in your neighbourhood, SPI, API and Supernatural are happy to investigate. It is during these excursions that thrills await. Equipment mysteriously break down, people see white figures and shadows, and blurry images are caught on film.

Each group, however, has a different modus operandi when it comes to ghost-hunting operations.

SPI, which aims to dispel urban legends, is the most tech-savvy group. Gadget man Eugene Toh, 27, an insurance agent, has helped to mount video cameras and CCTVs to four-wheel drive trucks so the group can capture video footage in jungle terrain. Once, when the group was investigating a haunted house in Redhill, they felt a presence and all their gadgets – which had been fully charged – went dead.

On the other hand, Supernatural and Urban Explorers do things the old-fashioned way, using artefacts and group members who claim to be able to sense otherworldly presence.

Mr Goh from API says his group is more interested in "eliminating all possible reasons before coining to a conclusion" for reported hauntings, rather than trying to sight a ghost. What many investigators learn is that stories of the dead are usually created fears of the living. "Fear without understanding often leads to misunderstanding," says Mr Goh, who has never seen a ghost.

Still, the unsolved mysteries keep everyone going.

Associate Professor Kwok Kian Wo, a sociologist at Nanyang Technology University, says: "At the end of the day, it would be nice to have a little mystery left out there. A world in which everything can be rationally explained won't be fun."


first appeared in The Straits Times Singapore / Asia News Network


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