Hear in Taiwan

Last week I posted about  my interview with a spiritual medium, Mr. Hsieh Yen-tang.  In the second half of our interview, I wanted to know more about these spirits and the state of existence they occupy. Mr. Hsieh began by explaining to me how to differentiate between different kinds of spiritual beings.

He said that spirits may be divided into two kinds. The first kind is the gods. These are either the gods of nature or the souls of people who have become gods through the good works that they did in their lives. The other kind of spirits is the souls of normal people who have passed away.

Sometimes, Hsieh told me, a spirit’s condition in the afterlife is greatly affected by how and where it died. He said that one kind of spirit that comes to mediums for help are the souls of people who died away from home. They might have died in an ancient war and perhaps lost their head or a limb. Their families didn’t perform the rites to help them become whole again. Today, if someone dies in a car accident, for example, the family of that person might enlist a Taoist priest to go to the site. The priest then helps the spirit to find its way home. If they lost an arm or a leg in the accident, the priest also helps the spirit to become whole.

Another topic we touched upon during our interview was the idea of ‘possession.’ Mr. Hsieh talked very casually about what might be considered a very strange phenomenon.

“A spirit may possess the body of a medium,” he explained. “They do not touch the medium’s soul when doing this, but merely borrow their body to communicate. While possessed, the medium has no control of their body. The spirit is wholly in control. If a spirit is from another country, for example, they might speak a language that the medium cannot, such as Hakkanese. They can use then use language of the person they inhabit to communicate. Because our bodies are only meant to contain one soul at a time, there is a physical effect to being possessed. When there are two souls in one body, it results in a sort of conflict. I, for example, become feverish, while other people might belch.”

Hsieh also discussed the spirit plane in greater detail. “Our religion divides the place that spirits inhabit into three levels, heaven, hell and the realm of the living in between,” he said. “Which level a spirit inhabits is decided by what it is there to do. We are always surrounded by them, science just has yet to reach a point where it can detect them. Some people see them, and some people don’t. We inhabit the same plane. The part of that plane we see can be referred to as ‘yang,’ while what we don’t see is ‘yin’ Spirits inhabit our world, and we in turn inhabit theirs.”

In my last post, I mentioned Mr. Hsieh’s mostly silent companion who he referred to as Master Zhao. Master Zhao is a tall, imposing figure with a stony countenance. So I was surprised to learn that what he is a master of is ‘spiritual healing.’

The idea of spiritual healing is of course known to our Western listeners, though it’s usually associated with Christianity. Where Western spiritual healers call upon the power of God to heal people, their Taiwanese counterparts use what’s referred to as “qi.” Qi is the Chinese concept of a life energy, an essence within all living things that can be applied to different ends. For example, practitioners of Chinese kung fu make frequent use of qi in their martial arts. But Master Zhao uses his understanding of qi to more peaceful ends.

“Spirit healing,” he explained, ”uses qi to alleviate pain or discomfort. It’s often faster and more effective than traditional medicine. If you go to a doctor and can’t find any answers, perhaps the problem has to do with a previous life, in which case we can fix it in five minutes. Only after someone has experienced it for themselves can they believe it’s for real.”

Master Zhao went on to tell the story of how he came into this unique profession.

“I used to run a noodle shop,” he said. “Business was good, but the physical toll of the repetitive movements eventually became unbearable. A friend sent the man who would become my teacher to offer me his services as a spiritual healer. I was reluctant at first, but I gave it a try. As the healer used his methods on me, I felt a warmth pass across my body until I discovered the pain was gone. It returned after I went back to work, so I knew I would have to learn the methods if I wanted to sustain the effects. I began to study spiritual healing with my teacher. I’m not yet an expert. You can study for a very long time and still have a long road to walk. But now I can teach people that this strange and wonderful thing really exists. I can help them to rid themselves of their pain.”

Check out next’s week ‘In Mystical Taiwan’ where I examine one of the creatures of Chinese / Taiwanese folklore.