An X-File - You won’t believe, although the truth is out there!

2008-12-09T22:38:00.040+08:00

Recently, I bought a DVD set of the first season of The X-Files, which was first aired on September 10, 1993. It’s fascinating, although it’s a 15-year-old science fiction television show, featuring in conspiracy theories, spirituality, and the belief in the existence of extraterrestrial life. By definition in The X-Files TV series, an X-File is a case that has been deemed unsolvable by the FBI, more or less concerning with unexplained phenomena.

My X-File

For me, I got an X-File, too. That is: I saw people playing with 2 types of psychic stuff with my own eyes:

Type I: Fortune-telling by Dish-spirit (碟仙)

First, it’s required to summon a particular spirit by certain methods. On a table, an upside-down dish with a marked pointer is placed on the top of a piece of paper filling with words and digits (e.g. he, she, it, they, yes, no, love, hate, 0-9, etc..., new words can be added onto the paper if necessary. I only saw people did it in Chinese words).The summoned spirit able to tell one’s past, present, fortune, and help one to solve problems, is believed to live inside the dish. That’s why it’s called a Dish-spirit. Then, 2 people are required to point their middle finger on the dish, and ask questions in voice. The Dish-spirit will answer questions by moving and stopping the dish at a particular place, where the pointer of the dish directs specifically to a word at a time. By repeating the moving-and-stopping cycle for a few times, a sentence of word with meanings will come out, which may give an answer to the question asked by the people. I should make clear that the dish is not moved by the middle fingers of the 2 people, instead their fingers are moved by the dish (in turn the dish is believed to be powered by the Dish-spirit). My parents play this psychic stuff quite often, and they’re definitely not crazy. Therefore, it’s logically unsound to say that they move the dish to lie to themselves (only idiot will do so). Moreover, different spirits can be summoned at different times, the spirit sometimes claimed to be Buddha (佛祖), Guan Yin (觀音), and for most of the times my dead grandpa - consulting the dead! (remark: Buddha and Guan Yin are considered as gods in Chinese culture) What the hell!!!

Type II: Fortune-telling by spirit-possessed psychic (問米)

This is the creepiest experience that I’ve so far in my life. It’s required to summon a particular spirit, too, as the one with the Dish-spirit. Similarly, the spirit is believed to be the base for the ability of fortune-telling. I saw my relative did it once. Upon being possessed by a spirit, the psychic shook vigorously like something rushing into her body. Then, the appearance, behavior and voice of the psychic were changed as if into a different “person”. Then, people surrounding the possessed psychic asked “her” questions about their past, present, fortune, and solutions to their problems. It did work! I saw it! When everything was finished, the spirit went away. The psychic woke up, but she had no memory of what she had done duration the possession period. People do pay my relative for such psychic stuff, and this is her main job!

Reflection

On Monday (8/12), I had dinner with two friends of mine (let them be R and Y respectively) in a restaurant in Hang Hau (somewhere in HK). We dined and talked. It was surprising that we all had some spiritual experiences, with mine of course being the freakiest. To begin with R’s, his sister paid a famous fortune-teller in HK for asking the fortune of all of her family members. Only information given to the fortune-teller was her birthday and birth time. Then the fortune-teller could tell the past and present (the fortune-teller told future things, too, but it’s not sure where it’ll happen or not in the future) about R’s family members one by one, but the fortune-teller couldn’t tell R’s. Second spiritual experience, Y’s grandma took Y to a fortune-teller in China for asking whether Y could enter a university or not. Y’s grandma also paid the fortune-teller for it. However, the fortune-teller couldn’t make any prediction, because Y has never paid any tribute to any ancestor and god (in the Chinese culture), said the fortune-teller. Lastly, my parents used to spy on me by 2 psychic methods aforementioned. You know, parents usually find difficulties in communicating with their sons, especially Chinese parents. They’re so introverted to express their feelings of concerns, but they do care about their sons. What my parents did was that they asked my dead grandpa for my feelings and everything! They successfully did it in the past! However, they cannot do the same thing on me now!

It’s clear that fortune-tellers and psychics cannot tell the fortunes of certain types of people, R, Y and me being the examples. But why??? We, three, have one thing in common - we’re Christian. Once I became a Christian, my parents cannot spy on me anymore with their psychic means. My psychic relative also said that a cloud of darkness blurred my fate to be seen. For that reason, they tried their best to prevent me from baptizing, because they realized that they couldn't help when I face difficulties in the future, by the psychic strategies. However, I overcame it and finally became a baptized Christian! I swear that this is true! A possible explanation for such difference for us is told by the Bible:

“Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.” [James 4:7-8]

"You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world." [1 John 4:4]

It seems to me that there’re two sides in the spiritual world - one belongs to God (the One declared in the Bible) and the other not (the Devil's side). There appears to be no in-between of the two, because I could still be spied by the psychic methods before becoming a Christian (meaning under the jurisdiction of the Devil's side). Once, you're in the God's side, you're sheilded from the influence of the Devil ('cause God is more powerful). In fact, the fortune-telling and psychic tricks are hated and blamed by God in the Bible:

“Let no one be found among you who sacrifices his son or daughter in the fire, who practices divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft, or casts spells, or who is a medium or spiritist or who consults the dead. Anyone who does these things is detestable to the LORD, and because of these detestable practices the LORD your God will drive out those nations before you.” [Deuteronomy 18:10-12]

Both sides are mutually exclusive. If the Bible is right, then the other side is wrong, or vice versa. For me? I have faith in God, and know God loves us always! There is no denying at least to me that the psychic stuff really works under certain circumstances. However:

"Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world." [1 John 4:1-3]

For sure, I know my story is weird, and probably you won’t believe it.

“You can deny all the things I've seen, all the things I've discovered, but not for much longer, 'cause too many know what's happening out there, and no one, no government agency has jurisdiction over the truth.” [Fox Mulder, The X-Files]

The question is: which side do you belong to?

anthony's journal

An X-File - You won’t believe, although the truth is out there!