Friday
A little boy next door, as little as 5 years old, gave me some small red flowers. Three flowers. They are red. Very small, -but beautiful. And he blinked his eyes towards me and smiled and shied. Such a sweet little thing. He kept talking on the tram to me, trying quite hard to get my attention with his sometimes illogical stories, a mix between fantasy car, or scooter, and a real vehicle. Until he and his mom got off at Victoria Market and I proceeded to Collins Street to get on the next 109 tram to Fitzroy.
Saturday
On the way to Moreland Station with my housemates. An old man, I mean, really old, white haired, on a scooter/wheelchair, passing in front of us, just near the gas station. He blinked his eyes towards me for seconds, like flirting. I was shocked. What the heck was that?
Sunday
One
An old man asked me two questions:
First : are you Greek?
Second: are you married?
Answer:
First : no, I’m not a Greek. I’m from Indonesia.
Second : Yes, back in my country (inspired by Helen’s answer to a man who asked her same question on the tram).
That was the end of the conversation. He left without saying anything. I lied to save myself from further unnecessary annoying conversation. Dear Lord, forgive me, I just returned from attending Sunday service and I lied at the first step on the tram.
Two
I bought a bunch of mix flowers for Irene, my friend at the nursing home. Just a few meters outside the flowers’ shop, a little old man, white haired, wearing a pet hat, smiled at me. “That flower’s for me, no?” he pleaded. I answered, “Sorry, no”, smiled back, saying a “Have a nice day” and walked through the Coburg market pedestrian alley, rather quickly, or I’d miss the couch to O’Hea Street. Missing a couch during weekend is a disaster. The smell of fresh bread of the bakeries along the street could have made me hungry without good reason. People are sitting and chatting in the street café near between the bakeries, cafes and public library. The chilling wind flew through my nose, and it got colder inside me. The skies were grey, such a gloomy day. The autumn leaves fell off and kissed the earth. A guy was sitting in the street café, waiting for his coffee I supposed. He smiled and commented on the flowers again, “They are beautiful don’t they?” I said yes, thank you and kept walking.
Three
Hop on the other bus, but a wrong one. 527 instead of 513, simply because of curiousity, but the route got more and more unknown. Got off at Coburg Terminus to avoid further lost. Ten minutes more, I thought, not bad. At least I spent 15 minutes at other bus than just standing alone at the Coburg Primary School bus stop, with the traces of vomits, left some drunk people last night. I must have walked and crossed the street three times before reaching the next bust stop. An old lady wearing red long coat, blonde curly hair, and an Indian man with a small trolley for junk mail. I walked passed them to see if there’ a vacant seat. None. I walked back. The old lady looked at my strange act of reading a house auction board nearby the bus stop. Undoubtedly, I showed a face that looked as interesting as possible (to the ads). Unfortunately, it was not so convincing, at least not in her opinion. “Do you wanna sit here?” she offered me a space. Both of them smiled at me. I smiled back at her, “No, I’m all right”, and continuing my reading: the auction board. The house is small, with two bed rooms, nice wooden floor. Looks cozy. All right, I’d better stop this lie. I walked closer to the stop, expecting them still offered me the seat. She asked “Which one do you wait for?”. “513, I missed the previous one” I answered. She said “Yes, I hate that too”. “Yeah”, I answered shortly, now understand why she asked which bus, cos 903 and 513 came by from a far. Thanks God. And the skies were grey still.
Four
“Thanks for bring me my flowers while I’m alive and can see them. Don’t bring me flower when I’m 6 feet under”. I knew the sentence exactly, per comma, per dot. Some conversations rolled as usual, she’s chatty most of the time. She thanked me for the money I’ve spent to buy those flowers. I have never mentioned the price to her; it’s not relevant I thought, I’m not a saint I must admit. Those flowers are not expensive at all. Spending 6 dollars every fortnight wouldn’t kill me. It’s only equal to two blueberry muffins at the Professor’s Walk café down the Giblin library.
I said sorry because they’re not so fresh, some leaves start to yellowish and I have to detach them from the bunch before putting them into the vase, that I also bought for her a couple of months ago. I threw the old ones to the bin. They stink, it’s been more than 2 weeks and she’s been keeping them that long. She said she just planned to separate the ones that are still a bit fresh so that she’ll still having the “fresh” flowers. That’s really touched, but it’s an irony. After raising two children and having more than 20 off springs, no one cares to pay a visit, not even to send flowers every fortnight. I told her, “This is what I can do while you’re alive Irene, because I’ll probably won’t be here when you die”. She smiled back at me.
I saw the artificial grass down there from Irene’s window, green, too green for this season. They put some chairs to sit there, but I bet nobody would do that in this kind of weather. I told Irene when the weather gets better, she should try going down there, or I can accompany her to walk down, -‘cause I know she’s an outdoor person. But I know that time would probably be not existed. By the time the weather gets better, I’ll probably somewhere else, not in Melbourne. It’s always sad to picturize a goodbye.
I see the sky outside Irene’s window pane, it is still grey. The traffic was very slow in the Cumberland Street. They look like matches boxes in a row, moving slowly. The new building in front of the nursing home is standing there, grey and maroon, formal and neat. With an ad board in front of it, ready to be sold. It took only 3 months to build a building as big as that down here. I looked at the sky again, not much changed. I hope it’s not gonna be raining, I’m stuffed with this stomachache, have no strength for running. Not with a pair of sneakers, moreover with a pair of 3 centimeters height boot. A call for lunch from the carer is coming. Irene must go to dine at the dining room. I said goodbye, get my coat and properly covered my body from crazy Melbourne cold wind outside. I left the nursing home building. It is strange; I just realized suddenly, why the grey paints? To indicate that life is withering inside the box? The designer could have thought of something better. I buttoned my coat tightly. The wind gets colder, don’t let an inch hole on your clothes. I walked faster to the bus stop. Yeah, fifteen minutes more to wait. What can I say? I can’t make it to walk to the next stop but wait here.
Five
An impulse to buy cheap knitwear was failed by the sound of coming tram from the north. Fear of missing a tram on the cold weather beat the prospect of happiness from getting a cheap new clothes. I ran quickly and crossed Sydney Road without minding the red traffic light, there was no car anyway. Arrived at home safe and sound, however. Finding my room was wrecked as usual. Coat spreads on the bed. Training pack does too. Books and papers are everywhere. In addition, it is dark as hell. I haven’t brought down the navy blue summer blanket from the window; I used it protect my bed from the cold breeze that sneaks from the sill of the window glass. I don’t care. I need hot soup and hot drink more than the need to have a neat room right now. Small talks with Helen before peeling garlic and vegetables and boiled the chicken wings and thighs. My chicken soup (and mushroom, and carrots, and snow peas, and macaroni and celery and oh, sausages) is ready. With a small portion of rice that was cooked by Helen, I had my lunch at around 2.30. And get my room in, at the least organized as an ‘organized’ can be defined, or an order if you like. I’m taking down the blanket, freeing up the room from some claustrophobic atmospheres. Some lavender air spray fragrant to drive the garlic and fried fish smell away. Close the door, browsing the “ how to do analysis” on Google. Staring my laptop blankly and writing this piece of article. Jim Reeves gospel songs, Libera songs, flowing in the air from my windows media player... And the sky is still grey as it was this morning, the fig tree is withering outside…the branches are emptier, drying up. I heard a small child cries from the other house..and wondering when this real life movie will come to an end. Just need a crow to scream and that will complete this gloomy 'kind-of-horror-movie' day. I need to be in the tropics. But first of all, I have to finish these chapters. Then I rang tropics, really, I mean home. Mom was talking on the other end about the elder people fashion show at church, the unfair jury, the laughing crowd, and the fashion show itself. Such an amazing story! She was still so passion about anything. That’s mom. She loves life. I’ve been thinking about her these couple of days and I suddenly received her SMS. I bet, God has something to do with connection :). I prayed for that last night.
Epilog
I know what song will be perfect for these things: Regina Spektor's Laugh: God can be funny. Yes He is funny, indeed! I love you Lord, my God. Nothing can be more interesting than You! In all You do, You tell me and we laugh together… Life is beautiful, nothing can make me bored (of You)! You always have fresh ways to give me joy, through some funny small things, through some serious thoughts.
Instead of sending me a nice young guy who gives me a bunch of flower; it’s a small boy who adored me and gave me one.
Instead of sending a nice young guy who asked me “Are you married?”; it’s an old grey man who was eager to know whether I’m available or not and asked me “Are you married?”.
Instead of sending me a nice young guy who gives me a bunch of flower, I bought a bunch of flower for an old lady, and there’s that old man who asked whether I will give him the bunch.
Regina Spektor's "Laugh":
God can be funny
When told he’ll give you money if you just pray the right way
And when presented like a genie
Who does magic like Houdini
Or grants wishes like Jiminy Cricket and Santa Claus
God can be so hilarious
Ha ha, ha ha
Yes, you are hilarious God!
Just some rough ideas about life and the small daily crumbs..
Sunday, May 30, 2010
Good Ideology, Bad Practices
July 25, 2008
Story 1: I met the enthusiast Australians socialists (not socialistas :p). They’re so motivated to explain about Marx’s aim: revolution, to revolutionazed a country. They conducted discussion group about Marxism. They believe that revolution is a must to change a country.
Story 2: Minutes after that, I met a friend from a communist country (the one that actually practising Marxism). She told me how fed up she is with Marxism. The reason is because during her undergrad, everything, every topics, must be linked with Marxism, so Marxism in psychology, Marxism in science etc. etc.. She was told harshly not to quote from Western theorists’ work because..they’re not matched with Marxism, the value of her country (to this extent, I remember about all the Pancasila thing we were taught in the New Order regime..so resembled).
I can see the similarity: most of the ideologies, including religion, are good, at least they were created, set up, first because the founder challenged something not right in their time. But when someone forced it to another person, and when they have too much power, it becomes bad. Christianity is about love, -but not during the Crusades. Islam is about peace, but not during the massacre of Armenians. Marxism is about justice and equality, but not when you looked at the life of the communist party elites, and about the totalitarianism they practised. Pancasila is about justice, nationalism, humanism, democracy, but not when you look at the elites’ wealth, when they sold the land and water to foreign investors, and when the slaughter of million innocents after the dark September 30, 1965.
The key is in the human hands. Will they practice what they preach? Or it is just another way to challenge the current power, and when they have power, they turn exactly into what they challenged initially? Lord Acton famous phrase: "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men", is ancient, yet still relevant today.
Story 1: I met the enthusiast Australians socialists (not socialistas :p). They’re so motivated to explain about Marx’s aim: revolution, to revolutionazed a country. They conducted discussion group about Marxism. They believe that revolution is a must to change a country.
Story 2: Minutes after that, I met a friend from a communist country (the one that actually practising Marxism). She told me how fed up she is with Marxism. The reason is because during her undergrad, everything, every topics, must be linked with Marxism, so Marxism in psychology, Marxism in science etc. etc.. She was told harshly not to quote from Western theorists’ work because..they’re not matched with Marxism, the value of her country (to this extent, I remember about all the Pancasila thing we were taught in the New Order regime..so resembled).
I can see the similarity: most of the ideologies, including religion, are good, at least they were created, set up, first because the founder challenged something not right in their time. But when someone forced it to another person, and when they have too much power, it becomes bad. Christianity is about love, -but not during the Crusades. Islam is about peace, but not during the massacre of Armenians. Marxism is about justice and equality, but not when you looked at the life of the communist party elites, and about the totalitarianism they practised. Pancasila is about justice, nationalism, humanism, democracy, but not when you look at the elites’ wealth, when they sold the land and water to foreign investors, and when the slaughter of million innocents after the dark September 30, 1965.
The key is in the human hands. Will they practice what they preach? Or it is just another way to challenge the current power, and when they have power, they turn exactly into what they challenged initially? Lord Acton famous phrase: "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men", is ancient, yet still relevant today.
“Isn’t God Amazing?”
“Isn’t God Amazing?”
This is a sentence that was mentioned by a Jewish lady whom I work in her house every Wednesday. This work is one of my blue collar casual jobs I have during my holiday time. I could say this is my first encounter with a Jewish in person, aside of my colleague student here in the university. I have never met any Jewish in my life in Indonesia, where even the word Jewish or Yahudi have negative connotation, the same meaning with ‘kafir’ or infidel, and the mock ‘dasar Yahudi’ will have the same negative tone as ‘dasar Cina’ during Orde Baru era, a form of racism that was promoted by the authoritarian state and religion public figures, and was followed blatantly by the followers. I remember my late father once mentioned that there was a synagogue in Surabaya when he was there, near the current Delta Plaza. I supposed it was around end 1960’s . I forget the exact street name, but the old building is there, change function I supposed. I don’t really knowledgeable about when was the last time they lived in Indonesia, -Surabaya especially, but I guess it was about the same period when the Chinese were forced to return to the mainland during the early New Order regime. I’m not sure though.
Back to the title of this article, this Jewish lady mentioned the sentence when we talked about how every human being is designed differently: the way they speak, their gestures, the way they walk, smile, get angry, they cry and so on. It started when I said it took me 50 minutes or almost an hour to travel to her house from my place. I recall about 60 tram stops I have to pass through to reach her house, in which most of the time I spent for sleeping, listening to the radio, reading a novel or just simply watching people: the passengers. I was thinking about taking train, which is a shorter route there, but I said to her that it’s too much hassles, getting up and down the train, walk in and out of railway stations, plus taking tram again. At 8.00 AM in the morning, I think it’s just too much. I would prefer one get up and down, and a long sitting on the tram, watching people. Apparently she said that she also loves to watch people around, how each person could behave differently, even different faces, by design. She believes that it is God who designs each person differently, which makes us human so interesting: none of the individual can exactly resemble anyone else even since the first time human being was created. I agree with her.
I remembered that I once read about The Human Genome Project several years ago. All of a sudden that project came into my mind. I personally think it is brilliant that human being eventually found a way to map living organisms, which including human being themselves. Some people (the conservatives or the atheists or the pantheists?) said that it is one way to get closer to God’s mind. An effort to get to know what was/is in His mind when He created/s a human. A black, a yellow, or a white skin? A blonde, a black, a brunette or a brown haired? A curly, a straight, or a wave haired? A tall or a short person? A male or a female? A melancholic or a sanguinis personality? Which percentage of this and that component in order to make a man/woman becomes the way he/she is now? Which blend is ‘ideal’? There are a way too many variables that can be thought of. It exceeds my brain’s capacity. Maybe a super computer with super chips and nano-particles processors whatsoever, someday will find it out (oh yeah, with some obsessed scientists as the programmer and designer who try to “playing God”). Maybe not. Who knows. Maybe I still can witness when the project does success. Maybe I cannot witness it, because it will happen hundreds of years from now. I don’t know. It’s just almost 2009 years (within 2 days literally) more or less after Christ, who knows what will happen next year..or the next year..or the next year… (is it a hearsay or a fact that human’s brain capacity has just being used under 20% of the total capacity?). I will Google it :).
This is a sentence that was mentioned by a Jewish lady whom I work in her house every Wednesday. This work is one of my blue collar casual jobs I have during my holiday time. I could say this is my first encounter with a Jewish in person, aside of my colleague student here in the university. I have never met any Jewish in my life in Indonesia, where even the word Jewish or Yahudi have negative connotation, the same meaning with ‘kafir’ or infidel, and the mock ‘dasar Yahudi’ will have the same negative tone as ‘dasar Cina’ during Orde Baru era, a form of racism that was promoted by the authoritarian state and religion public figures, and was followed blatantly by the followers. I remember my late father once mentioned that there was a synagogue in Surabaya when he was there, near the current Delta Plaza. I supposed it was around end 1960’s . I forget the exact street name, but the old building is there, change function I supposed. I don’t really knowledgeable about when was the last time they lived in Indonesia, -Surabaya especially, but I guess it was about the same period when the Chinese were forced to return to the mainland during the early New Order regime. I’m not sure though.
Back to the title of this article, this Jewish lady mentioned the sentence when we talked about how every human being is designed differently: the way they speak, their gestures, the way they walk, smile, get angry, they cry and so on. It started when I said it took me 50 minutes or almost an hour to travel to her house from my place. I recall about 60 tram stops I have to pass through to reach her house, in which most of the time I spent for sleeping, listening to the radio, reading a novel or just simply watching people: the passengers. I was thinking about taking train, which is a shorter route there, but I said to her that it’s too much hassles, getting up and down the train, walk in and out of railway stations, plus taking tram again. At 8.00 AM in the morning, I think it’s just too much. I would prefer one get up and down, and a long sitting on the tram, watching people. Apparently she said that she also loves to watch people around, how each person could behave differently, even different faces, by design. She believes that it is God who designs each person differently, which makes us human so interesting: none of the individual can exactly resemble anyone else even since the first time human being was created. I agree with her.
I remembered that I once read about The Human Genome Project several years ago. All of a sudden that project came into my mind. I personally think it is brilliant that human being eventually found a way to map living organisms, which including human being themselves. Some people (the conservatives or the atheists or the pantheists?) said that it is one way to get closer to God’s mind. An effort to get to know what was/is in His mind when He created/s a human. A black, a yellow, or a white skin? A blonde, a black, a brunette or a brown haired? A curly, a straight, or a wave haired? A tall or a short person? A male or a female? A melancholic or a sanguinis personality? Which percentage of this and that component in order to make a man/woman becomes the way he/she is now? Which blend is ‘ideal’? There are a way too many variables that can be thought of. It exceeds my brain’s capacity. Maybe a super computer with super chips and nano-particles processors whatsoever, someday will find it out (oh yeah, with some obsessed scientists as the programmer and designer who try to “playing God”). Maybe not. Who knows. Maybe I still can witness when the project does success. Maybe I cannot witness it, because it will happen hundreds of years from now. I don’t know. It’s just almost 2009 years (within 2 days literally) more or less after Christ, who knows what will happen next year..or the next year..or the next year… (is it a hearsay or a fact that human’s brain capacity has just being used under 20% of the total capacity?). I will Google it :).
After all
After all…
February 8, 2009
After all, be prepare not to expect too much
After all, learn to forget the past good times if it hurts the present time
After all, learn how to be happy as always, in good or bad times
After all, just close the door to the passage of good memories if it hurts
After all, what is a wounded heart will do to the bright days anyway?
After all, a total eclipse can blind healthy eyes when we keep staring at it
After all, don’t look at a total eclipse directly
After all, the moments do not exist anymore
After all, they ceased from reality a long long time ago in my mind
After all, all you have is the day(s) to come
After all, time machine has yet to be invented
After all, time moves in a linear way still: forward, not backward
Therefore, keep going
For the past can’t be replayed, and the future can’t be seen yet
Because we live in present time, the best time ever
When the sun is shining, and the roses are bloomed and the grass are green
So there’s always be a reason to feel blessed!
February 8, 2009
After all, be prepare not to expect too much
After all, learn to forget the past good times if it hurts the present time
After all, learn how to be happy as always, in good or bad times
After all, just close the door to the passage of good memories if it hurts
After all, what is a wounded heart will do to the bright days anyway?
After all, a total eclipse can blind healthy eyes when we keep staring at it
After all, don’t look at a total eclipse directly
After all, the moments do not exist anymore
After all, they ceased from reality a long long time ago in my mind
After all, all you have is the day(s) to come
After all, time machine has yet to be invented
After all, time moves in a linear way still: forward, not backward
Therefore, keep going
For the past can’t be replayed, and the future can’t be seen yet
Because we live in present time, the best time ever
When the sun is shining, and the roses are bloomed and the grass are green
So there’s always be a reason to feel blessed!
(My) Interview with A Psychic
February 3, 2009
I have never been talking with an indigo person, a person that admittedly mentions that he/she has the ability to do the ‘supernatural’ things like talking to ghosts and spirit of the deaths. In the past, I sometimes just met them who are partly able to feel the ‘aura’ of the spirits or ghosts, and can detect whether a house is haunted and by what kind of creature. There are plenty of stories about the description of this and that ghost by these people, which usually is transmitted happily and curiously (well, of course with lots of additional ‘seasoning’ and ‘spices’) as perfect type of stories to kill boredom among many Indonesians. In my opinion, the topic about spirits and ghosts is tantamount to the topic about weather in current Westerners’ conversation: neutral, do no harm to anyone, one can add as many stories as possible due to countless number of them that one ever heard from a friend, from a friend’s friend, from family member, family member’s family, and so on. Indonesia, as we all know, is a country in which most of the population officially hold Monotheism, Hinduism or Buddhism, - as the state sponsored religions, but the majority indeed holds strong animism and dynamism belief, de facto. One can tell that by identifying so many ghost stories that are nationally believed in this modern 21st century, and so many superstitions that are alive as they were centuries ago.
This is the excerpt from Wikipedia about indigo children:
“In the New Age movement, Indigo children are children who are believed to represent a higher state of human evolution. The term itself is a reference to the belief that such children have an indigo-colored aura.[1] Beliefs concerning the exact nature of Indigo children vary, with some believing that they have paranormal abilities such as the ability to read minds, and others that they are distinguished from non-Indigo children merely by more conventional traits such as increased empathy and creativity”.
This definition does not sound fit with my understanding about indigo child/person. From my perception, and I believe many other friends’ too, it is simply about a person, whether a child or a grown-up, who possess the ability to see other reality, such as ghosts and spirits, those from other dimensional reality, which is mostly cannot be seen by the ‘normal’ people. This ability ranges from weak, mild and strong ability. Some people are able to feel when the ghost or spirit is passing the room (they feel as if a chilling wind is passing the room), some people are able to smell the fragrance (or stink) of the ghost or spirit, which is usually associated with different smells in different regions, for example in Java it is kenanga (Cananga odorata)or sedap malam (Polianthes tuberose), while in Timor and surroundings, it is pandan (Pandanus odorus, P. latifolius). Some other people are able to see the ‘black shadow’ which moves quickly in the room but they cannot really describe whether it is a man, woman, or a child. The other can describe although in vague description about how the ghost looks like, or whether it is a man or woman or a child and what they wear. Some, can see the eyes of the spirits (‘sharp like a knife’ or ‘burning like the flame’ or ‘like cat’s or dog’s eyes at night’), but cannot describe how the ghosts are look like physically. Some have stronger ability, and can describe that what he/she just see is actually ‘an old man’, ‘an old woman’ or ‘a small boy’. I have met many people with this variety of supernatural ability, or at least have heard the stories about that quite often. However, meeting someone who said that he/she meets spirits and ghosts like normal people, and talk to them like to normal people, is a rare occasion. I was like ‘Whew, really? You’ve gotta be kidding me!’ She seriously said she has that ability. Then I said ‘Would you mind I ask you a lot of questions, just to address my curiosity?’I was really curios because this is the first time I would have a chance to sort of cross check what others have been said before about these super natural issues, or what the horror movies that I’ve watched have suggested. She said OK, so I will write some of my short ‘interview’ with her down here. Do not laugh, or hundred percent believe, this is just the information that I received, of course, whether it is objective or not, true or false, will depend on one’s belief and also further research.
Astral journey: she called this experience ‘ngintip’ –or sneaking, which means her spirit can go beyond her body to other places which are impossible to travel physically at short period of time (well, this is still a burning question I forgot to ask about how time is in that other reality: faster? shorter? just about the same?). I did jokingly said, ‘So does it mean you can save some money and go back to your hometown (Jogjakarta) easily?’ To my surprise, she said, “Yes, I go to Jogjakarta quite often to meet my friends and family’. GUBRAKK..I did not expect such a straightforward answer. I hope not so many people are able to do this frequently, because then the airline industry will suffer a lot. Nobody will need Qantas, or Garuda, or SQ. Just whoos…and a-8/9 hours flight between Melbourne and Jogjakarta can be accomplished within seconds.
For comparison, this is what Wikipedia suggests about out-of body experience:
An out-of-body experience (OBE or sometimes OOBE), is an experience that typically involves a sensation of floating outside of one’s body and, in some cases, perceiving one’s physical body from a place outside one’s body (autoscopy). The term out of body experience was introduced by Robert Monroe in 1971[1] as a bias-free alternative to belief-centric labels such as “astral projection” or “spirit walking”. Though the term usefully distances researchers from scientifically problematic concepts such as the soul, scientists still know little about the phenomenon.[2] One in ten people has an out-of-body experience at some time in their lives[3]. OBEs are often part of the near-death experience, and reportedly may also lead to astral projection. Those who have experienced OBEs sometimes claim to have observed details which were unknown to them beforehand.[4]
Some neurologists have suspected that the event is triggered by a mismatch between visual and tactile signals. They used a virtual reality setup to recreate an OBE. The subject looked through goggles and saw his own body as it would appear to an outside observer standing behind him. The experimenter then touched the subject at the same time as a rod appeared to touch the virtual image. The experiment created an illusion of being behind and outside one’s body.[7]
From her experience, she said that it is really difficult to return to her body after the journey, because it feels so heavy and even a bit hurt, feels like all her muscles have just been exercised too much, and feel so weak like ill people. She also said that during the travel, she feels cold when passing the ocean. OMG, must be so thrilling to fly through Pacific Ocean with your sole body and see it far below with your own eyes –and not from an aircraft window!
Telepathy: she usually talks to her friend in Jogja, but she said that her telepathy ability can only be used with people with similar ability. It means, she cannot be connected with common people with no such ability. Although sometimes she can see what happened to the missing or lost items for example, she said she’s not going to announce it clearly that she has the ability. She’s afraid of giving an impression that she’s a ‘dukun’ or magician. No she is not, she insists.
Talking with spirit of the death: she said that the 3 days, 7 days, 40 days, 100 days commemoration does mean something, but I forgot which one is for which meaning. For example, if I’m not mistaken, 3 days means the death is still around the house, and then go further and further. Though, this sound inconsistent with what she told me earlier that she usually talked with her belated father because if he has travelled further, then how come it’s easy for them to meet? Anyhow, she told me the story about her moving to a new office, which building is haunted by an old Italian couple who introduced themselves with Italian language. The old man was having cigarettes and the lady was weaving. She said that we share same space but different dimension because they are still in the building as if it is their house perhaps a century or so ago. She also told me the story about some victims of a car accident in the city centre, where the three teenagers were still stuck inside the car and were asking for her help to get them out of there. Sadly, she said sorry because she can’t help them. ‘Why?’ I asked. She said because it’s a huge job and she was afraid she can’t accomplish it, even she might have made things worse. And she told me that it might seem easy, but the effort will be as difficult as in the movie ‘Ghost Whisperer’, where this psychic must look for the dead child’s parents and explained to them to have a peace in order to make the child realized that she has to proceed to other reality, heaven. I was amazed. It is so movie like. I confirmed again whether it is like ‘The Others’ or “Sixth Sense’, and she approved. Whew..
Their physical appearance: exactly just like human being. They wear clothes like normal people. Strangely however, she mentioned about ‘pocong’ and ‘muka rata’ whose appearances are the worst of all. I actually asked about this strange things several times, but she really really seriously answered that the ‘pocong’ who has an unfinished business (the cloth tie is not properly untied), and gosh, it loves to chase people (including her) to help unwrap its clothes! The other that she said is that the ‘pocong’ is that they are so stinks like rotten meat (pretty sure they are indeed!). About ‘muka rata’ (or flat face), she said she hates this kind of ghost because they look like raw meat, like lizard’s skin, flat and round (oh, did I explain that ‘muka rata’ means that they have the head but without nose, ear, eyes or hair, but all face consists of the rounded cheek?). This kind of ghost usually surprised her to death. She always scared to see one of this kind.
Their behavior: they do their activity as if it is a ‘normal’ world. They do sitting and chat each other. They behave and talk like the way they talk when they were alive. I asked if they really don’t have feet like in the movies, and do they fly and not touching the ground when they walk? Her answer is quite unclear. She said yes they walk faster because they don’t need to carry the physical body. Just like her when she was doing her astral journey.
What happened when someone’s dying: the angel of death will come and take that person, but before that, a bunch of people usually the closest connection, whether it’s a brother, sister, parents or other family members will come first, which according to her, explains why some people sometime claim that they have seen their predecessors coming and waving to them. I asked her, ‘How about the musical that was heard by the dying person soon before they die? Because my grandmother was said to have listened to some choir and people singing Gospel songs before she died, and the other friend’s father was said to have listened to Java ‘tembang’ before he passed away’. She said it is part of the ‘entertainment’ to welcome them into the new reality. However, it depends much on their ‘taste’ and ‘habit’ when they were alive: did they like gospel or Javanese songs or jazz probably. I suppose Elvis might have been welcomed with rock and roll right after he took the drugs? And Kurt Cobain with trash rock and Pavarotti with opera music? Who knows..who knows…
The connection with heaven and hell: she said she believes that, as Bible says (oh yes, she’s a Christian I met in the church by the way), there is a place like ‘terminal’ where the deaths have been waiting for the second coming of the Messiah (this is applicable for Islam and Christian faith, but in Islam, the Last Judge is called Imam Mahdi). I’m pretty sure the name is Hades. Well, I have just googled it and it could be Hades or Sheol, which was popularized by Dante’s Divine Comedy. Below is what Wiki says about it:
Sheol (pronounced “Sheh-ole”)[1], in Hebrew שאול (Sh’ol), is the “abode of the dead”, the “underworld“, or “pit”.[2]Sheol is the common destination of both the righteous and the unrighteous dead, as recounted in Ecclesiastes and Job.
Sheol is sometimes compared to Hades, the gloomy, twilight afterlife of Greek mythology. The word “hades” was in fact substituted for “sheol” when the Hebrew scriptures were translated into Greek (see Septuagint). The New Testament (written in Greek) also uses “hades” to refer to the abode of the dead.
Some believe that it is just a transit place, all are in the same condition: awaiting for the second coming of Christ. However, some believe that people have started harvesting the consequences of their lives in the profane world. The latter refers to the story of what happen with the rich and the beggar when they’re dead, where there is a ‘unbridgeable gap’ between the paradise and the hades, as Abraham mentioned it to the rich who asked the poor to give him taste a bit of water because it is too hot in the place where he is.
Most horrible venue is hospital: because it is very busy, traffic sometimes, when she said she sometimes bumped into the family members of the deaths who are coming for a ‘welcoming ceremony’ of the dying person. Some music are played (depends on what kind of music is the dying’s favorite). She said that she met different kind of people (spirits I mean) in there. Those who are not yet realized that they have moved to different reality and busy asking here and there (and yeah, sure asking her ‘journeyed soul’ too! Scary huh!).
Well, this post may look a bit fictious, but even I myself could almost not believe of what I wrote so far. Did not make it up, so unbelievable! Will be interesting to confront with the religions’ belief and philosophy on this aspect. Must be intriguing to see..
I have never been talking with an indigo person, a person that admittedly mentions that he/she has the ability to do the ‘supernatural’ things like talking to ghosts and spirit of the deaths. In the past, I sometimes just met them who are partly able to feel the ‘aura’ of the spirits or ghosts, and can detect whether a house is haunted and by what kind of creature. There are plenty of stories about the description of this and that ghost by these people, which usually is transmitted happily and curiously (well, of course with lots of additional ‘seasoning’ and ‘spices’) as perfect type of stories to kill boredom among many Indonesians. In my opinion, the topic about spirits and ghosts is tantamount to the topic about weather in current Westerners’ conversation: neutral, do no harm to anyone, one can add as many stories as possible due to countless number of them that one ever heard from a friend, from a friend’s friend, from family member, family member’s family, and so on. Indonesia, as we all know, is a country in which most of the population officially hold Monotheism, Hinduism or Buddhism, - as the state sponsored religions, but the majority indeed holds strong animism and dynamism belief, de facto. One can tell that by identifying so many ghost stories that are nationally believed in this modern 21st century, and so many superstitions that are alive as they were centuries ago.
This is the excerpt from Wikipedia about indigo children:
“In the New Age movement, Indigo children are children who are believed to represent a higher state of human evolution. The term itself is a reference to the belief that such children have an indigo-colored aura.[1] Beliefs concerning the exact nature of Indigo children vary, with some believing that they have paranormal abilities such as the ability to read minds, and others that they are distinguished from non-Indigo children merely by more conventional traits such as increased empathy and creativity”.
This definition does not sound fit with my understanding about indigo child/person. From my perception, and I believe many other friends’ too, it is simply about a person, whether a child or a grown-up, who possess the ability to see other reality, such as ghosts and spirits, those from other dimensional reality, which is mostly cannot be seen by the ‘normal’ people. This ability ranges from weak, mild and strong ability. Some people are able to feel when the ghost or spirit is passing the room (they feel as if a chilling wind is passing the room), some people are able to smell the fragrance (or stink) of the ghost or spirit, which is usually associated with different smells in different regions, for example in Java it is kenanga (Cananga odorata)or sedap malam (Polianthes tuberose), while in Timor and surroundings, it is pandan (Pandanus odorus, P. latifolius). Some other people are able to see the ‘black shadow’ which moves quickly in the room but they cannot really describe whether it is a man, woman, or a child. The other can describe although in vague description about how the ghost looks like, or whether it is a man or woman or a child and what they wear. Some, can see the eyes of the spirits (‘sharp like a knife’ or ‘burning like the flame’ or ‘like cat’s or dog’s eyes at night’), but cannot describe how the ghosts are look like physically. Some have stronger ability, and can describe that what he/she just see is actually ‘an old man’, ‘an old woman’ or ‘a small boy’. I have met many people with this variety of supernatural ability, or at least have heard the stories about that quite often. However, meeting someone who said that he/she meets spirits and ghosts like normal people, and talk to them like to normal people, is a rare occasion. I was like ‘Whew, really? You’ve gotta be kidding me!’ She seriously said she has that ability. Then I said ‘Would you mind I ask you a lot of questions, just to address my curiosity?’I was really curios because this is the first time I would have a chance to sort of cross check what others have been said before about these super natural issues, or what the horror movies that I’ve watched have suggested. She said OK, so I will write some of my short ‘interview’ with her down here. Do not laugh, or hundred percent believe, this is just the information that I received, of course, whether it is objective or not, true or false, will depend on one’s belief and also further research.
Astral journey: she called this experience ‘ngintip’ –or sneaking, which means her spirit can go beyond her body to other places which are impossible to travel physically at short period of time (well, this is still a burning question I forgot to ask about how time is in that other reality: faster? shorter? just about the same?). I did jokingly said, ‘So does it mean you can save some money and go back to your hometown (Jogjakarta) easily?’ To my surprise, she said, “Yes, I go to Jogjakarta quite often to meet my friends and family’. GUBRAKK..I did not expect such a straightforward answer. I hope not so many people are able to do this frequently, because then the airline industry will suffer a lot. Nobody will need Qantas, or Garuda, or SQ. Just whoos…and a-8/9 hours flight between Melbourne and Jogjakarta can be accomplished within seconds.
For comparison, this is what Wikipedia suggests about out-of body experience:
An out-of-body experience (OBE or sometimes OOBE), is an experience that typically involves a sensation of floating outside of one’s body and, in some cases, perceiving one’s physical body from a place outside one’s body (autoscopy). The term out of body experience was introduced by Robert Monroe in 1971[1] as a bias-free alternative to belief-centric labels such as “astral projection” or “spirit walking”. Though the term usefully distances researchers from scientifically problematic concepts such as the soul, scientists still know little about the phenomenon.[2] One in ten people has an out-of-body experience at some time in their lives[3]. OBEs are often part of the near-death experience, and reportedly may also lead to astral projection. Those who have experienced OBEs sometimes claim to have observed details which were unknown to them beforehand.[4]
Some neurologists have suspected that the event is triggered by a mismatch between visual and tactile signals. They used a virtual reality setup to recreate an OBE. The subject looked through goggles and saw his own body as it would appear to an outside observer standing behind him. The experimenter then touched the subject at the same time as a rod appeared to touch the virtual image. The experiment created an illusion of being behind and outside one’s body.[7]
From her experience, she said that it is really difficult to return to her body after the journey, because it feels so heavy and even a bit hurt, feels like all her muscles have just been exercised too much, and feel so weak like ill people. She also said that during the travel, she feels cold when passing the ocean. OMG, must be so thrilling to fly through Pacific Ocean with your sole body and see it far below with your own eyes –and not from an aircraft window!
Telepathy: she usually talks to her friend in Jogja, but she said that her telepathy ability can only be used with people with similar ability. It means, she cannot be connected with common people with no such ability. Although sometimes she can see what happened to the missing or lost items for example, she said she’s not going to announce it clearly that she has the ability. She’s afraid of giving an impression that she’s a ‘dukun’ or magician. No she is not, she insists.
Talking with spirit of the death: she said that the 3 days, 7 days, 40 days, 100 days commemoration does mean something, but I forgot which one is for which meaning. For example, if I’m not mistaken, 3 days means the death is still around the house, and then go further and further. Though, this sound inconsistent with what she told me earlier that she usually talked with her belated father because if he has travelled further, then how come it’s easy for them to meet? Anyhow, she told me the story about her moving to a new office, which building is haunted by an old Italian couple who introduced themselves with Italian language. The old man was having cigarettes and the lady was weaving. She said that we share same space but different dimension because they are still in the building as if it is their house perhaps a century or so ago. She also told me the story about some victims of a car accident in the city centre, where the three teenagers were still stuck inside the car and were asking for her help to get them out of there. Sadly, she said sorry because she can’t help them. ‘Why?’ I asked. She said because it’s a huge job and she was afraid she can’t accomplish it, even she might have made things worse. And she told me that it might seem easy, but the effort will be as difficult as in the movie ‘Ghost Whisperer’, where this psychic must look for the dead child’s parents and explained to them to have a peace in order to make the child realized that she has to proceed to other reality, heaven. I was amazed. It is so movie like. I confirmed again whether it is like ‘The Others’ or “Sixth Sense’, and she approved. Whew..
Their physical appearance: exactly just like human being. They wear clothes like normal people. Strangely however, she mentioned about ‘pocong’ and ‘muka rata’ whose appearances are the worst of all. I actually asked about this strange things several times, but she really really seriously answered that the ‘pocong’ who has an unfinished business (the cloth tie is not properly untied), and gosh, it loves to chase people (including her) to help unwrap its clothes! The other that she said is that the ‘pocong’ is that they are so stinks like rotten meat (pretty sure they are indeed!). About ‘muka rata’ (or flat face), she said she hates this kind of ghost because they look like raw meat, like lizard’s skin, flat and round (oh, did I explain that ‘muka rata’ means that they have the head but without nose, ear, eyes or hair, but all face consists of the rounded cheek?). This kind of ghost usually surprised her to death. She always scared to see one of this kind.
Their behavior: they do their activity as if it is a ‘normal’ world. They do sitting and chat each other. They behave and talk like the way they talk when they were alive. I asked if they really don’t have feet like in the movies, and do they fly and not touching the ground when they walk? Her answer is quite unclear. She said yes they walk faster because they don’t need to carry the physical body. Just like her when she was doing her astral journey.
What happened when someone’s dying: the angel of death will come and take that person, but before that, a bunch of people usually the closest connection, whether it’s a brother, sister, parents or other family members will come first, which according to her, explains why some people sometime claim that they have seen their predecessors coming and waving to them. I asked her, ‘How about the musical that was heard by the dying person soon before they die? Because my grandmother was said to have listened to some choir and people singing Gospel songs before she died, and the other friend’s father was said to have listened to Java ‘tembang’ before he passed away’. She said it is part of the ‘entertainment’ to welcome them into the new reality. However, it depends much on their ‘taste’ and ‘habit’ when they were alive: did they like gospel or Javanese songs or jazz probably. I suppose Elvis might have been welcomed with rock and roll right after he took the drugs? And Kurt Cobain with trash rock and Pavarotti with opera music? Who knows..who knows…
The connection with heaven and hell: she said she believes that, as Bible says (oh yes, she’s a Christian I met in the church by the way), there is a place like ‘terminal’ where the deaths have been waiting for the second coming of the Messiah (this is applicable for Islam and Christian faith, but in Islam, the Last Judge is called Imam Mahdi). I’m pretty sure the name is Hades. Well, I have just googled it and it could be Hades or Sheol, which was popularized by Dante’s Divine Comedy. Below is what Wiki says about it:
Sheol (pronounced “Sheh-ole”)[1], in Hebrew שאול (Sh’ol), is the “abode of the dead”, the “underworld“, or “pit”.[2]Sheol is the common destination of both the righteous and the unrighteous dead, as recounted in Ecclesiastes and Job.
Sheol is sometimes compared to Hades, the gloomy, twilight afterlife of Greek mythology. The word “hades” was in fact substituted for “sheol” when the Hebrew scriptures were translated into Greek (see Septuagint). The New Testament (written in Greek) also uses “hades” to refer to the abode of the dead.
Some believe that it is just a transit place, all are in the same condition: awaiting for the second coming of Christ. However, some believe that people have started harvesting the consequences of their lives in the profane world. The latter refers to the story of what happen with the rich and the beggar when they’re dead, where there is a ‘unbridgeable gap’ between the paradise and the hades, as Abraham mentioned it to the rich who asked the poor to give him taste a bit of water because it is too hot in the place where he is.
Most horrible venue is hospital: because it is very busy, traffic sometimes, when she said she sometimes bumped into the family members of the deaths who are coming for a ‘welcoming ceremony’ of the dying person. Some music are played (depends on what kind of music is the dying’s favorite). She said that she met different kind of people (spirits I mean) in there. Those who are not yet realized that they have moved to different reality and busy asking here and there (and yeah, sure asking her ‘journeyed soul’ too! Scary huh!).
Well, this post may look a bit fictious, but even I myself could almost not believe of what I wrote so far. Did not make it up, so unbelievable! Will be interesting to confront with the religions’ belief and philosophy on this aspect. Must be intriguing to see..
Crucifixion
I just got back home from a day trip when I saw that Channel 7 is playing Mel Gibson’s Passion of the Christ. I saw the pirated DVD version back in Indonesia over two or three (or even four?) years ago. It was a kind of contradictive, because watching pirated version is considered as morally wrong. However it is not my intention to discuss about ethics of watching pirated DVD here.
This movie is so vulgar that it created a big controversy after its launching. Some said that it is too violently described the tortures, blood and wounded of Jesus the man. It is a blood shed movie that tries to portray a truly bloodshed event, so I wondered where is the problem. Some others suspected that it may create an anti-Semitic sentiment toward Jewish who were portrayed as the killer (not clear though, since Jesus Himself is a Jewish). I was wondering why there were no worries about the possibility of an uprising of anti-Roman and anti-religiousity as well, since they were mainly the cause of His death. Or, an anti-commodification sentiment, since Jesus was traded, commodified by Judas Iscariot, His disciple, the treasurer of the group, who traded Jesus’ life to the religious leaders at the cost of 30 silver coins.
Jesus’s crucifixion is a story of critique to any kind of established, corrupted systems. And it was played in both level of life, public and private. In public level, the political setting of Roman empire’s colony in Palestine (with its representative and smaller puppet kings) tangled with religious setting of Jewish as a strict, established religion whose people were expecting for a freedom from prolonged colonization. The power game was played obviously. Pilate who knew that Jesus is innocent, but was under pressure by Caiaphas who played his first card. He knows Pilate’s deep fear: threat from Caesar to dismantle his political power over the area. Caiaphas’ second card, the mass. He used the mass to pressurize Pilate to release Barabbas, a zealot, and exchange him with Jesus as a detainee.
In private level, Pilate, who was warned by his wife about Jesus’ innocence, was afraid that something bad will happen to his family if he persecutes Jesus. Judas as an inner ring of the disciples thought that 30 silver coins is something, and perhaps (some interpretation said this) that by putting Jesus in the corner, He will show that He is truly a Messiah, who will free Israel as a nation from Roman colonial power, physically. And there a public expectation, that this street Rabbi will turn into a military general, who will lead a rebel against Roman colonial (Jesus might have started to disappoint them when He came into Jerusalem riding a slow, young, donkey, and not a big, powerful and well trained cavalery horse). See how many realms are portrayed in this big epic: economic, politics, social (incl. religion), and ethics. They overlapped in this story, that portrayed how complicated human-made system that comprises civilization have been developed and at one point tangled in a complicated way to prepare the way the Son of a man should die. It is a big show of a humiliation. Total public embarassment. These small powers on earth were playing their own cards over the real Power Holder of the universe, without realizing it. As if they knew, world’s and humankind history might have been different, very different that I don’t have suffice imagination to imagine it. It is beyond my capacity to interpret it, I must admit.
Quiet Saturday 2009
This movie is so vulgar that it created a big controversy after its launching. Some said that it is too violently described the tortures, blood and wounded of Jesus the man. It is a blood shed movie that tries to portray a truly bloodshed event, so I wondered where is the problem. Some others suspected that it may create an anti-Semitic sentiment toward Jewish who were portrayed as the killer (not clear though, since Jesus Himself is a Jewish). I was wondering why there were no worries about the possibility of an uprising of anti-Roman and anti-religiousity as well, since they were mainly the cause of His death. Or, an anti-commodification sentiment, since Jesus was traded, commodified by Judas Iscariot, His disciple, the treasurer of the group, who traded Jesus’ life to the religious leaders at the cost of 30 silver coins.
Jesus’s crucifixion is a story of critique to any kind of established, corrupted systems. And it was played in both level of life, public and private. In public level, the political setting of Roman empire’s colony in Palestine (with its representative and smaller puppet kings) tangled with religious setting of Jewish as a strict, established religion whose people were expecting for a freedom from prolonged colonization. The power game was played obviously. Pilate who knew that Jesus is innocent, but was under pressure by Caiaphas who played his first card. He knows Pilate’s deep fear: threat from Caesar to dismantle his political power over the area. Caiaphas’ second card, the mass. He used the mass to pressurize Pilate to release Barabbas, a zealot, and exchange him with Jesus as a detainee.
In private level, Pilate, who was warned by his wife about Jesus’ innocence, was afraid that something bad will happen to his family if he persecutes Jesus. Judas as an inner ring of the disciples thought that 30 silver coins is something, and perhaps (some interpretation said this) that by putting Jesus in the corner, He will show that He is truly a Messiah, who will free Israel as a nation from Roman colonial power, physically. And there a public expectation, that this street Rabbi will turn into a military general, who will lead a rebel against Roman colonial (Jesus might have started to disappoint them when He came into Jerusalem riding a slow, young, donkey, and not a big, powerful and well trained cavalery horse). See how many realms are portrayed in this big epic: economic, politics, social (incl. religion), and ethics. They overlapped in this story, that portrayed how complicated human-made system that comprises civilization have been developed and at one point tangled in a complicated way to prepare the way the Son of a man should die. It is a big show of a humiliation. Total public embarassment. These small powers on earth were playing their own cards over the real Power Holder of the universe, without realizing it. As if they knew, world’s and humankind history might have been different, very different that I don’t have suffice imagination to imagine it. It is beyond my capacity to interpret it, I must admit.
Quiet Saturday 2009
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