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S2 E10 Sadhu Dah - Paranormal Specialist and exorcist
8 Plays2 hours ago
This week i was delighted to see the return of Sadhu Dah.
Sadhu Dah started off by speaking about the different type of Cryptids in Thailand.
We then discussed the Buddhist Superstitions, Traditions in connection to Exorcisms.
then we finally touched on the subject of The Thai gods and religion.
Recommended
Transcript
Intro
Introduction to Sadhu Da and Thai Cryptids
00:00:15
Speaker
goodev Good evening, everybody, and welcome to the latest episode of SIPA Paranormal Chronicles. Tonight, I have got a returning guest. If you can remember all the way back to Season 1, Episode 43, I interviewed Sadhu Da, who is a world-travelling paranormal specialist, digital nomad, and exorcist.
00:00:37
Speaker
Brother, welcome. Good to see you again, my friend. Good to see you again too, man. It was an absolute pleasure the first time around. Yeah, so we're going to basically, we're going to continue where we left off.
00:00:50
Speaker
And I believe tonight we're going to talk about some of the cryptids that are in Thailand and Thai traditions with regard to exorcisms and such like that. So where do you want to start?
00:01:06
Speaker
I guess we could kind of start with some of the cryptids. um there's There's a few interesting ones. A lot of the ones that generally come to mind would be like, for example, you have the Garuda, right?
00:01:24
Speaker
Which is the um it's actually the national symbol of Thailand is the Garuda. So that's how important it is culturally.
Legend of Payanak and Garuda
00:01:33
Speaker
And what I find it be unique about the cryptids in Thailand is there is a lot that is talked about in lore when it comes to the Himapon, which is a heavenly type of dimension that is similar in comparison with lore describing the Fae realm.
00:01:56
Speaker
ah So these beings sometimes will cross over in our dimension, but they're not from our dimension. And when they come over to our dimension, there are certain kind of conditions.
00:02:09
Speaker
um So the Payanak is a good example as well, um also known as the Naga.
Makalipom: The Plant Person Cryptid
00:02:16
Speaker
And these are half serpent, half human beings. And I'd give it like the context of like a mermaid, right? But except with ah with a snake.
00:02:25
Speaker
And they are the only known um enemy of the Garuda. ah So they kind of fight back and forth. um The Garuda and the Payanak have been at war for God knows how long.
00:02:41
Speaker
And then we have interesting creatures like the Makalipom or Neripo. And this is one of the more interesting ones because there is a temple in Thailand that I've been to. um think it's Wat Jai-ri-na, but I can...
00:02:59
Speaker
I can go into my files and I can get you the the name and I can send you a link for the YouTube video I made where where I showed the corpse on display. So there's a ah little plant person.
00:03:14
Speaker
They say that um they grow as a fruit from a tree. And maybe you've heard about this in some context in lore somewhere. But in Thailand, they they call it like makalipong.
00:03:28
Speaker
And um it's a it's a woman. It looks just like like a girl, but. Top of her head has like, a you know, basically the where a fruit stem comes right and they grow until they till they're full sized and then they kind of like a ripe fruit fall off the tree.
00:03:51
Speaker
and And look indistinguishable from a normal human. The difference, however, is that when they come into our world, um they have very, very limited amount of time.
00:04:07
Speaker
They shrivel up and they die. And there's a temple where you can see one of the bodies on display. And they actually had some scientists that came out there and did um genetic testing or if ah I don't know what the the exact...
00:04:27
Speaker
terminology is is for when they when they test the DNA against, um you know, a bank of other types of species. And it came up blank. There was nothing that it compared to as a match.
00:04:40
Speaker
So take that for what you will. But um it it looks like a shriveled. It's tiny. It's like this small. And when I was asking one of my teachers about it I was like, well, I thought, you know, they said they look like normal human. and And he said, well, they do. But when they die in our realm, They shrivel up to just a few inches tall and they look like a human shaped dried fruit, but that's not how they look before they shrivel up and die.
00:05:05
Speaker
So that's another one. um But yeah, I mean, you have all kinds of things like the were tigers and, um and the people, which is a, it's a similar to like a Japanese Kappa, you know, little water
Cryptid Stories as Cautionary Tales
00:05:19
Speaker
demon.
00:05:20
Speaker
um Thailand's full of these, but, Let me know if there's anything in specific that you want to dive into. So as in like European culture, we have um people or parents telling children that don't go to to the river because there's like a sea monster. So is there that kind of tradition in Thailand as well where they will...
00:05:47
Speaker
or they will have like a cryptid or a creature, but it's more of a deterrent for children than, than real, so to speak. Yeah. So I couldn't remember the exact creature that it was supposed to be, but um there was a, there was a village that had a,
00:06:11
Speaker
this was This was like actually in in Indonesia, but there was there was a village that had this story about this one section of the woods for generations, you like two or three generations, that um people were not supposed to go to because there is this creature that lives there um with you know the teeth and the eyes and the in the in the claws, and and it and it kills children.
00:06:40
Speaker
Adults who go there cautiously um are said to be spared, but children and exclusively finds children so delicious. Well, what I found after, you know, this had become like a very lore story driven that now just people recite it it It ended up actually being that there's a lot of steep drop off cliffs covered by foliage.
00:07:07
Speaker
And I believe that at one point that story started as a deterrent to keep children from running around and playing in an area where it's so easy to fall to your death, where you just won't see it if you're running around being a kid. And there had been cases of children that disappeared and were never found again. But the most likely culprit in that situation was that they fell on these like cliff-like sinkholes and died. And the village elder kind of,
00:07:35
Speaker
taking into account the superstitious nature of the people and seeing an opportunity to say, no, you know, ah don't go over here because it's it's dangerous and you could get hurt.
00:07:47
Speaker
What are kids going to do? Kids don't care. Yeah, but exactly. the o That will eat your flesh and bones. That works on children. at point and People forgot where the story came from. And then it's just adults even won't go there because they're, they're scared of it, you know?
00:08:04
Speaker
but ended up just being like a, an area of natural danger in the environment. And it kind of makes me wonder, um you know, in, in certain situations, like we've heard in some lore about like, you know, the, um the swamp lands where the, the gas settles and whole villages, you know, would die in their sleep overnight from the fumes um and, and the,
00:08:31
Speaker
the buildup of of carbon dioxide when all reality, you know, it's a very natural, explainable thing, but it had to be the demon of the bogs, right?
Yaoni and the Role of Naga in Thai Culture
00:08:43
Speaker
Yeah. So with North American culture, we have the Sasquatch, we have Bigfoot, we have Dogman.
00:08:54
Speaker
In like ah Nepal and stuff like that, we have the Yeti. Is there anything that really stands out as a Thai cryptid that is similar to these creatures that you haven't kind of mentioned already?
00:09:15
Speaker
ah There, there is, um, there is one, which, which comes to mind in, in relation to, um, to the, the Bigfoot Yeti type of thing. And those are the, um,
00:09:31
Speaker
the yaoni, which are these little, um basically they're described as black people. So, um you know, they look like and an African-American, but they're tiny.
00:09:48
Speaker
and and and And I don't mean like, ah you know, ah dwarf size, like they're like two feet tall, like really small.
00:09:58
Speaker
And they're very dangerous. ah very primitive and tribal and they have their own language and they completely subsist off of the jungles and they have like um these tunnels that they dig.
00:10:14
Speaker
And so when, whenever you go exploring around in the jungle, if you, if you, just if you come across any kind of tunnel, you're supposed to leave an ah offering of fruit like jackfruit or, you know, dragon fruit or something, durian as well. You,
00:10:30
Speaker
leave there so that if you come across the Yaoni, that maybe they will spare your life because you gave an offering to walk through their forest. That's one that comes to mind for me.
00:10:43
Speaker
But think the most prolific one really is the the Naga, the Payanak, you know, the serpentine beings, because everyone has some sort of story about seeing a Naga.
00:10:56
Speaker
You know, they're celebrated in the temples, And um there are quite a few weird happenings that involve a tale with the Naga that have been kind of spread throughout the country, including in like Isan, where you have the sleeping giant, um you know, caverns where it it looks like the scales of the snake coming out of the ground and it's massive and fossilized.
00:11:24
Speaker
Okay. So one... Let me start talking about cryptids from different parts of the world. Like, I had a guy on talking about Mexican ones, and I completely bastardized all the names. Like, I could not create... So I'm going to have a go at saying this one.
00:11:44
Speaker
look It looks easy, but the is it Pai Te Hong, which is more of a ghost than a physical cryptid? That is more... um more common that you'll see is is this the stories that go psych um you have the pantheon knock in thailand as well by day at home um may home uh you have the e-pie you have all these different type of ghost spirits but they fall under um
00:12:14
Speaker
you know, the domain of like revenant or wraith type spirits or, you know, vampiric type of entities. And they're usually um very elemental or situationally based, whether it be like, um you know, if you if you died in um the element of water, then you're going to be like a non-tae-hong.
00:12:37
Speaker
ah So you would have like this suffix of the element because if you were, let's say, a Pontianac, for example, a Pontianac only is ever created in one specific way, and that is death during, you know, childbirth.
00:12:57
Speaker
That's what births, you know, no pun intended, but that's what births Pontianac. And they're like these creatures with really long you know claws and they mimic the sound of a child in the forest and they their telltale sign of like a Pontian attack is a ripped open stomach and like the intestines completely eaten out.
00:13:20
Speaker
Okay, so ah say I say I did kind of Google some, and I think you've mentioned most of them, but I've got a couple that I don't know how good these are.
00:13:32
Speaker
I'm going to say it wrong. I know I am. Suvanna Macca. Suvanna Macca. Familiar with that one? Suvanna. Sui? soi S-U-V-A-N-N-A-M-A-C-C-A.
00:13:49
Speaker
Describe it for me. ah Golden fish is a daughter of Ravana appearing. Oh, hang on. god that Forget that because it's not even Thai. It's in Cambodia. so let's I know about the Gumentong, the little golden boy, the little ghost child, but that's different.
00:14:13
Speaker
Well, look, I'll just go by Wikipedia. not worryr brother So how prominent are these stories and sightings compared to how they are in North America? Because like yeah literally you can throw a stone and every man and his dog will say, or they'll come out with a Bigfoot or a Dogman or a Sasquatch story. So are these common stories in Thailand or are they...
00:14:48
Speaker
really like they stick to religious kind of beliefs rather than sightings.
Animism and Buddhism in Thai Spirituality
00:14:55
Speaker
It's going to be common because the one of the one of the key things you have to understand when it comes to the religious nature of Thailand so that the country over 90 percent Buddhist, Theravada Buddhists specifically,
00:15:10
Speaker
But what's so unique about Thailand versus Sri Lanka, because they're both countries with Theravada Buddhism, is that before the 14th century, in the region but that was called Siam, before it was Thailand, the kingdoms before, um you had animistic traditions that were heavilyly heavily influenced from like Cambodian Bahrain and Nat worship of ah burma Myanmar. And you have like,
00:15:39
Speaker
Laotian and and um you know Vietnamese influences as well. And even some of the old, like you know it's a Muslim country now, but you had like the Taoist roots of Malaysia. And all of this kind of conspired together with the indigenous people like the Lana of the North in Thailand, now modern day Thailand, and some of the Khmer people.
00:16:02
Speaker
And you had very old animism. you know nature-based worship, things like that. So when they became, in the 14th century, a Buddhist country, you know you were never able to shake it fully.
00:16:17
Speaker
So it integrated with um with the Buddhism today, which means that the superstitions and the ritual practices, all of this, made its way into the mainstream Buddhism. So now you have you know monks in temples who practice the taiwicha, the magic,
00:16:36
Speaker
the old way. And um they ah have sun paum all over the whole country, outside of government buildings, in every so like neighborhood, and in ah you know just anywhere you can think of, you're going to run into a. san paoon And it's ah it's a little it looks like a little dollhouse.
00:16:57
Speaker
And they're for appeasing the local land spirits so that they don't haunt the people or ruin the business. So On a you know very base level, everybody as a whole tends to believe in ghosts and they do what they can to protect themselves from it.
00:17:17
Speaker
And so um naturally, a lot of people do have a story as well. But the the difference with like the North American kind of storytelling and the Asian storytelling is you also see people doing things preventatively or to try to protect themselves.
00:17:36
Speaker
um like wholesale, like across the country. You don't really see that in North America. You don't see people setting up, you know, unless they're like Native American, you know, they might have a dream catcher. if They're a little bit more spiritual or open, you know, eclectic practicing. But not everybody has one. Right. And they don't all have, you know, a foundation for what to do if this happens.
00:18:01
Speaker
Yeah. you you touched on magic there. So obviously, yeah we know in certain cultures, magic is more prolific. And then yeah in certain cultures, you have like the voodoo kind of thing. How is magic spoken about and treated in Thailand?
00:18:22
Speaker
um It's used as an answer for everything seeking speaking um a Western alternative.
00:18:33
Speaker
So you're, you're getting, you're you're getting sick or, you know, something. And this is, this is more heavily prevalent um on that extent in like the countryside.
00:18:44
Speaker
But like when you're in the city, like in Bangkok or like central and like Chiang Mai or something like this, you know, people are going to go to the doctor first, right? But even so they might be wearing an amulet already to help, you know, protect them. or they have you know something they got from their ajan, like a a master, that will you know help and assist.
00:19:05
Speaker
But for most people who live outside of the city, it's their first answer, magic. And then if you come from the city or you have a more educated ah family,
00:19:21
Speaker
then you're going to employ like Western help in combination with the magic. It's used for like everything from lottery numbers to, um you know, crossing over family members that have passed to... um you know helping you get like using like Kulpan or like Celica charming magic to get that girl that you're into or to try to get that promotion or work or get that new job. you know they They use it in every demographic and there are different masters who specialize in what they the magical systems are called witcha.
00:19:58
Speaker
So you have like different types of witcha that some master may be devoted to. So people go to him for this, but they wouldn't go to him for something else. and you have like a prevalence of them around the country. So it's not like they're hard to find and you have to go seek out, you know, some hermit like deep off in the jungle.
00:20:17
Speaker
There are those too, but they're pretty easy to access if you know where to go. Okay. And do these people kind of incorporate the stereotypical herbs and leaves for remedies like you like you get in some cultures?
00:20:37
Speaker
Um, yes, but not always for ingesting. Sometimes it'll be, um you know, ingredient material or an amulet that you'll be wearing. And you say the kata, like a prayer, which activates it. It's like, um, you want to watch TV, you got to turn it on with a remote, correct?
00:20:57
Speaker
So it's the same application here is you'll use the kata to activate the power of the amulet. and the amulet will be composed from many different sacred and special ingredients. Like you'll have some that have, you know, over a hundred ingredients in it, but just one of those ingredients could also be a composition of 108 different herbs prepared or gathered in a certain and specific way.
00:21:23
Speaker
And that's one ingredient, you know? so We've kind of covered cryptids and we've touched on magic and that
Exorcism Practices in Thailand
00:21:32
Speaker
kind of culture. So let's kind of move the table a little bit and go into some of the Thai traditions for like exorcisms and stuff like that.
00:21:43
Speaker
Where should we start on that subject? Well, i guess a ah ah really, you know, pivotal time where this takes place is as a community service where you will have what is called a Y crew, which is a ceremony that honors a teacher and wherever you are, and you know, there will be certain, think of them as like certain neighborhoods or communities kind of all center around this one shaman. Right. So, so you'll have like, you know, these, they treat it as their, their birthday essentially is at one time a year.
00:22:25
Speaker
And it could be on any day of the year, but it's you know it's always the same day of the year. Per master chooses when they're Y-Cruz. And they'll call the whole community there. And they'll use Lusinarot, which is like a hermit sage spirit.
00:22:42
Speaker
And they have this mask that has the spirit of the Lusy. Calling it a deity is a simple way to put it. it's It's kind of little bit different than that. But just for simplicity's sake, they call it this Lusy deity.
00:22:56
Speaker
If there's something in your body or if you are afflicted, you know, it will be brought before you and the hat will be there. The mask will be put on you. And at that point, whatever it is comes to the surface.
00:23:09
Speaker
And then the master will go through a series of different prayers to expel it from the body. And then after they're done, they'll be given like ah the Nomen, like a special holy water, like ah bath with like herbs and stuff on them.
00:23:27
Speaker
And then they'll be given an amulet for protection and safety to give. And sometimes they'll also be given like restrictions, like cannot eat this type of food now, or you cannot do this, or you cannot be in these kinds of places.
00:23:41
Speaker
And so there's a very ritualistic element when it comes to the Y group, but we also have what's called a this is mainly for ghosts, not for you know demons or other worldly type of entities.
00:23:57
Speaker
But when it comes to a ghost, they'll offer up a pig's head and they'll give the spirit a a very big meal, a big feeding. And they'll OK, now now you you've um you've received the the offering you've eaten. You know, it's like an appeasement.
00:24:14
Speaker
And they'll and they'll give, you know, the spirit substance and then they'll honor whatever it felt wasn't received or heard in its life.
00:24:27
Speaker
And then they allow it to cross on with peace by giving it merit. They give it the culmination of good deeds to help it karmically in in evolving to a better incarnation when it reincarnates, because they they believe in reincarnation.
00:24:45
Speaker
And so if it fights, then what will happen depends on the master. The spirit will then be bound into an object,
00:24:56
Speaker
And it will kind of go through a taming process. And it will work essentially as as a totem. Or the spirit ends up being recycled.
00:25:11
Speaker
um Fed on vampirically by the master and drained. And then it's kicked out. So it's like play nice and there are blessings given to you.
00:25:25
Speaker
Play rough. you will be getting the short end of the stick. They kind of take the carrot stick approach. It's not always just, you know, break out passage and read the Dhamma.
00:25:37
Speaker
So you kind of mentioned... ah the practices that occur. But yeah if you're from the Catholic Church and you think you feel that someone's possessed per se, you'll go to the local priest and then they'll go to the bishop and then yeah they may decide whether yeah yes or no kind of thing.
00:26:01
Speaker
How is that kind of process ah carried out in in Thailand? Is it the same kind of principle? Oh, yeah, I've got a child who I think may be possessed, so I'm going to go to a religious person.
00:26:15
Speaker
Yes, so you would, you would you you have one or two options. So one is um you go to a local ajar or Lucy, you know, these spiritual masters.
00:26:29
Speaker
You go to them and And they provide you help. ah You donate an offering. Now, it's not about the amount of money. There's not a specific amount. But it's about honoring the lineage. So you make what's called a panku.
00:26:46
Speaker
And this consists of some fruit, incense, um some tobacco, some liquor, ah money donation. um And it could be as small as 20 baht, which is less than one U.S. dollar.
00:26:59
Speaker
and you And you put all of this on this tray and the candles as well. And you give this to the master. This offering is not for the master. It's for the master's spirits, the master's deities to receive, who would then in turn help the master um in removing the spirit from the person.
00:27:20
Speaker
That's option one. Option two is you go to a temple and you beseech the the people's the monks to help you. And they will usually um have you recite the Dharma, recite the Dharma to you. And they'll they're they're going to take on more of the role of how a Catholic church would. Right.
00:27:45
Speaker
So they're they're they're going to do you know the scripture, you know the the praying, all this kind of thing. Whereas ajarn is going to take more of a role in facilitating with spirits and using spirits to help combat the spiritual.
00:28:05
Speaker
I've seen success in both categories. It really just depends on the family or the person afflicted and what their personal
Community Responses to Possession
00:28:15
Speaker
preference is. But help in that regard is very, very accessible. And, um, it's, it's kind of the obvious choice when you're in a situation like that, everyone would, you know, oh like there's banging sounds in my house and, you know, there's some weird shit going on and, and, you know, probably we'll tell, you know, um
00:28:37
Speaker
You know, the the uncle like, well, you need to call the Ajaran. Have you called the Ajaran yet? You know, it's just like common conversation. Okay. So if you talk about it in the the Western world, um anybody that is potentially possessed can speak in a tongue that they're not familiar with as kind of like superhuman strength. They can contort their body into different ways and means.
00:29:07
Speaker
Is that similar based in Thailand or do you not kind of get that same kind of interaction, so to speak?
00:29:17
Speaker
It is and it isn't. And there's a very interesting point that has to be addressed, and that is the level of um development in the country, um electricity, ah cities, et cetera.
00:29:35
Speaker
So the level of development is why you actually see more ghost possessions, more ghost hauntings. Um, those are are a lot more common.
00:29:48
Speaker
And in those aspects, it's more of like personality change. You don't really see as much of the superhuman strength. Um, some of the talking in different tongues, um, you know, elements of eye color changing, these kinds of things you'll see some, some, um,
00:30:06
Speaker
small localized phenomena of like object might levitate around this person or something. But the the heavy, the heavy ended ones where, you know, you you get the growling and the and the facial morphing, this kind of thing.
00:30:23
Speaker
um Those tend to be met quite aggressively pretty early on before they can get to that exaggerated like Hollywood movie you know, type of scenario. um A lot of cases that I've personally worked in the U.S. that were extreme um situations, the person had been trying to get help for more than months, you know, sometimes even years, um but not knowing where to turn, who to call, ah being called crazy, being rejected, you know, this kind of thing. Whereas over here, as soon as something is happening, like in Thailand, you're you're going to have communities
00:31:03
Speaker
speaking up you know right away you know whether you make the call or not somebody might be concerned or see something and they call the ajar and tell the ajar to come check on you that's the i think that's a key difference here so the next thing that i want to talk about is obviously I'm in North America in Canada and you go to plenty of warm places, but we're not going to talk about excuse how is the.
00:31:36
Speaker
Paranormal culture like ghosts and poltergeist recognized in Thailand compared to how it is in, know, in the Western world, North America, Europe, that kind of thing.
00:31:53
Speaker
Well, you know Right away, I would say it's it's more talked about. you know I've ah been doing this for so many years, and one of the things I've noticed consistently you know with like Western clients is that they often have this sort of reluctance, reluctancy or shame just to speak about the paranormal, with immediate family or friends or, you know, overall like people in their life um because of the stigma of it in general in the West.
Paranormal Beliefs in Thailand vs. the West
00:32:33
Speaker
And in Asia, it's not really like that. You know, you're going to get, you know, one of two responses. People are going to be scared or they're going to be, you know, very curious and want to know more. but you're not going to really get people as a whole being like, oh, that's BS, I don't believe you. Or, you know, just there's an entirely different climate of it. It's ah it's very open.
00:32:58
Speaker
It's something that's, you know, some of Thai people's favorite movies are like ghost movies, like Kumantang, Kumantang 2. ah You know, you have like the Hulpeyan movie, like all these like Thai horror movies are super, super popular.
00:33:16
Speaker
it's It's also like very relatable, like everybody knows, you know, um a master who practices magic. Everybody has, you know, a family member that was haunted or has a story about, you know, being blessed by some kind of spirit. Like everyone has a level of relation that's very personal with it. So it's much more entrenched.
00:33:41
Speaker
And and um like I said, even on the surface level, ah in in the culture, you know, they have San Pacum, the little spirit houses. They're everywhere. They're all over the country.
00:33:53
Speaker
A lot of foreign tourists go there and see them and don't even know what they're looking at because they don't know the culture. But You go into shops and there's, you know, statues for Nankwok, you know, a deity for like bringing wealth into the into the business.
00:34:09
Speaker
You know, you see magic practice at all levels um across society. And you also see, you know, the discussions of spirits and, you know, how to deal with them or, you know, what's to be expected, you know, positive wise from certain types.
00:34:28
Speaker
It's just very standard in the country. And is that the kind of same for if you get like paranormal, not paranormal, like poltergeist activity as well? Is it kind of treated along the same kind of route?
00:34:45
Speaker
I mean, it's it's going to be met with a more heavy hand. um You know, there's there's there's another level of it, which is when it something is so common,
00:34:59
Speaker
you also get less um skepticism in situations that people may mistakenly think is paranormal that isn't.
00:35:11
Speaker
And that someone with a Western judgment or mind frame would be like, couldn't it be old pipes or couldn't it be this or that? You don't really get that line of questioning in in Thailand. You get a lot of, oh, it's a ghost, you know? yeah,
00:35:26
Speaker
it works on It works in both directions. It's something that's more talked about, more accessible for for help and services and and ah and and inclusivity, but also you get less discretion on what is truly paranormal and what is easily explainable.
00:35:45
Speaker
So when you do see the situations where there is very undeniable phenomena occurring that tends to be treated in the same aspect as somebody calling 911 because there's a fire.
00:36:01
Speaker
You know, it's a it's very much so like we have to deal with this right away. If you're calling the right people, which everyone um knows someone or they directly know the type of person they should be calling for that.
00:36:16
Speaker
And you he kind of mentioned like the shamans and and the masters and that kind of thing, but are these individuals also the kind of people that have mediumistic skills and psychic skills, or are they other other people having those kind of abilities?
00:36:40
Speaker
they They do to varying extents. It really depends on the person and what they practice. So, you know, I met this one monk, Lumpo Itnai.
00:36:58
Speaker
And Lumpo Itnai, i I don't like going to him because every time I go to him, he would tell me something really messed up.
00:37:10
Speaker
And then it and then it would it it would be about stuff he has no idea about in my own personal life. And then the very specific things he mentioned would happen. I got screwed out of a business deal ah by a friend, and he warned me about that happening before I even had that business deal take place or even knew about it with this friend.
00:37:36
Speaker
He warned me about it beforehand. before and Before it even took place. And he warned me about an ex-girlfriend that did exactly, exactly what he said she was going to do.
00:37:51
Speaker
And it wasn't like, oh, yeah, there's a girl and she's going to cheat on you. No, it was like they were very, very specific details. And he described her. And I had, like, just started dating that woman. And and he had not met her. he He doesn't know my friends or, you know, like,
00:38:08
Speaker
This is just some monk that I would go see from time to time. And, um, so he, he had a gift of foresight most definitely. And then there's, um, uh, Lucy DJ, uh, who channels a spirit of a God named prop.
00:38:24
Speaker
He lives in East side and Con can I've gone and I've seen him, um, actually have some very crazy stories involving him, but, um, you know, he he is uh,
00:38:37
Speaker
not trying to say this in a rude way, but he's a simpleton. um He's not an educated man. um a lot of people would use the clinical definition of mental retardation.
00:38:51
Speaker
um You know, he's he's got some disabilities mentally. But when this God comes inside of him, he speaks fluently in proper grammatical format.
00:39:03
Speaker
He is highly intelligent. He is all-seeing. And it it makes you wonder you know if his every day is an act because of how drastically different he is when this God is inside of him. And and it would be believable to call it a con if the man hadn't been married to the same woman for 30 years and had the same friends for almost 50 years and have children and people that are around him and know him personally and know he's been like that his whole life.
00:39:32
Speaker
And that this God – has only started coming into him in the past 10 years. So, you know, there are some very interesting characters to say the least.
00:39:44
Speaker
Some have that mediumistic quality. Some of them have enhancements with the magic that they practice.
Deification of Humans and Societal Roles
00:39:51
Speaker
But, you know, it's like, um it's like, it might sound a little bit corny, but it's like, it's ah it's a bag of chips.
00:39:58
Speaker
You know, are they are they potato chips? Are they, you know, are they Funyuns? Like, You know, what flavor are they? you know like It's all a bag of chips at the end of the day, but there there are subtle differences in flavor, texture, ingredient.
00:40:13
Speaker
And it's it's interesting how in the Western culture, we kind of have yeah one God and anybody that's religious, whether you're Christian or whatever, Catholic, whatever, yeah all kind of agree that it's the same person.
00:40:33
Speaker
But in the Asian world, you have multiple, like you've just mentioned. So how much of an impact do these, yeah I don't want to sound offensive, but these other gods, how much of an impact do they have on the day-to-day life of individuals?
00:40:58
Speaker
Quite a bit. Like, It I for this is just my observation, mind you, but I noticed that these other gods, as you refer, more of like services, you know, provided.
00:41:13
Speaker
So there are some people um who, you know, directly worship, you know, as in the same way that Christian based worship looks right. They they they see this as their deities.
00:41:26
Speaker
You know, they completely submit to it. um But most people don't view it in that context. And and even if if we're going by Buddhist doctrine, it says not to see deities in that way.
00:41:40
Speaker
And it's more about yourself, your own spiritual journey, and the betterment of your soul's development and using what is both able to help you be less distracted to focus on that more or to ease the suffering so that you're able to get the most out of this life.
00:42:02
Speaker
And working with different deities is a very good way um to kind of lessen that burden um when it comes to big businesses like, you know, the Hilton, the Marriott, like these major hotel chains. um They they will or even banks and stuff, they'll specifically have statues of a deity called Propol, which in India they would call Brahma.
00:42:31
Speaker
Right. But here, this is the fourth base cardinal direction wealth deity that's used by the elites. um And.
00:42:43
Speaker
She spares no expense if you spare no expense. So it's kind of like that invest in me, I invest in you type of bum logic. And then you have, like I had very briefly mentioned Nankwok earlier.
00:42:57
Speaker
She was a merchant's daughter um that the Buddha had blessed. And whenever her daughter would bring her to the market, um All of his wares would sell. he didn't bring his daughter to the market, nothing would sell.
00:43:11
Speaker
When she died, she became deified. So she was just a human. But the belief in her deified her consciousness, deified her spirit. And she grew in that power. And now she is widely recognized as an a true goddess.
00:43:28
Speaker
And statues of her, she she looks like like ah you know this little Asian girl kind of doing this, like the calling the money to you. You know, so probably seen like the the Chinese cats that swing the hand back and forth. Yeah, yeah. So next walk is like that, you know, and um and and that's used by businesses.
00:43:46
Speaker
And you'll see that in all of the businesses. And then you have like certain ones that, you know, some people kind of fear, like Kru Bakau. And Kuru Pakau is like, ah he's a Lusi, you know, god. It's vampiric.
00:44:04
Speaker
And he accepts um sacrifices of blood. So a lot of people have a fear over this type of god. But people that work with that type of god um say it's misunderstood.
00:44:18
Speaker
So, you know, you have this, I wouldn't even call it a competition of sorts, but you have this variety of options available to you. And it's more like which one speaks to me the most in my situations and aligns with what I believe or am drawn to.
00:44:40
Speaker
And that's what you work with, whether it be Ganesh, whether it be Prabhupada, Nankwak, Sihwata, the five-eyed, four-year little goblin, you know, who poops gold and eats hot coals. You know, it's there's so many different types.
00:44:59
Speaker
So it's not even seen. It's like, a you know, this is my true God and that's your true God type of thing. Yeah. You mentioned about this girl passing and then becoming a deity.
00:45:15
Speaker
How common is that to happen? Because obviously it's not going to happen to everybody, but Yeah. How special was this individual? And yeah, yeah.
00:45:27
Speaker
i I know you can't really say, it but how many times would it happen in a year kind of thing? If you know what I'm trying to get at. I wouldn't say it would happen in the context of how many times it would happen a year. It's it's how many times would it happen um historically based on the importance of ah of a person.
00:45:47
Speaker
So a few other examples that come to mind would be the warrior general Kun Pan. who was a real man that lived. He's surrounded in lore and myth, poems and epics. um He created the first Gumentong from his own dead child. um he you know has historically been cited as you know taking on 30 men in this one battle and killing them all. And being the only survivor from that battle, you know, but then there's other stories where it's like, is this just story or is there some truth to it where he had an army of ghost soldiers and stuff like that. So, you know, Kunpen is used mainly for sexual attractions.
00:46:33
Speaker
like aggressive sexual dominance. um Because as much of a warrior as he was, he was a very charismatic lover too. So the context of what he became most famous and deified for doesn't really make sense when you compare like historically what he was most relevant for.
00:46:53
Speaker
But people grasped onto certain aspects of his nature and that was what became most popular about him amulet wise. um And then you have like Ikei. Ikei was a young child monk who died about like 300 years ago.
00:47:13
Speaker
Loh Potwad, which is a very famous monk in Thailand, um was his teacher. And he went away on Tudong, like a pilgrimage, and he left Ikei at the temple because it was too dangerous to be walking a young child monk through the jungles.
00:47:31
Speaker
for an extended period. And so while he was away, Ike developed a, they called it like a sleeping sickness that burned up his body and he would not wake up.
00:47:43
Speaker
Most likely he to he he died from, you know, ah some some form of, a you know, i would say like maybe from a mosquito-borne illness, you know.
00:47:56
Speaker
And so when Lampotoad came back, You know, he he deified, he decreed that Aikai was too pure of a monk, um you know, to be in this world.
00:48:12
Speaker
And so they created a statue for him. That temple is now where people go to do lottery. You know, they go there, they ask Aikai, they leave these rooster statues there and fireworks and little toy cars, you know.
00:48:28
Speaker
and And and fake like little like, ah you know, guns like kids to play with. and And so they leave that there and they hit the lottery big. They come back and they bring double of what they brought us their offering as as a thank you to Ike.
00:48:43
Speaker
So Ike is now a god, um which is weird because he's a monk, and but he's also considered to be a Gumentong as well, which is like a baby ghost.
00:48:55
Speaker
So he's kind of like a hybrid. He's a deity Gumentong, monk spirit. You know, there's there's a lot of different examples. and And it does happen more than you would think, but not um not in the context of just anybody could be, right? Yeah, yeah. so let's let's keep comparing the Western world to the Asian world.
00:49:20
Speaker
um we have one guy and yeah you've just spoken about a selection of yeah gods that they and deities that they have in Thailand. But is there one that's more powerful than the rest, so to speak? Or are they all kind of on a level plane?
00:49:45
Speaker
Well, it depends on the branch. um So, for example, when it comes to, you know, protection from, you know, black magic or, you know, spirits and ghosts, nothing is greater than Pujao Saming Pai, which is a tiger headed Lucy God.
00:50:09
Speaker
There are many different gods for for this type of protection, but like Pujao Saming Pai is the best. But you also have Wesson one, the ah god of the giants, the ruler of the Yaksa dimension, the lord of ghosts.
00:50:24
Speaker
He is equally as popular, but not because he's just as good. He does the same thing, but he also does more.
00:50:35
Speaker
He's good for wealth also. And you see statues of him in front of like every Thai temple you go to is going to have a Ta-Wesuwan statue guarding the front.
00:50:47
Speaker
Always. There's usually two of them right at the front before you walk through the door. um so you So you have Tawesuan, but then Profum is more known for wealth than Tawesuan.
00:50:58
Speaker
So you could say the best spirit for both of these things is Ta Wessuan. But the best one for wealth is Prapon.
00:51:09
Speaker
The best one for protection is Pu Jiao Seming Prap. So it really becomes a matter of, is it this one thing we're talking about the best at, or the best at these things collectively?
00:51:23
Speaker
this one One thing that I don't like about when I talk to you is, number one, you come out with all these big names that I've got no way of pronouncing. yeah And then I just kind of go ah what what okay, what can I kind of ask next? And it it's great. i love I love it because, yeah, not that I'm going to remember any of these names, but it's really interesting to talk about how different cultures see, you like the paranormal or religion and, you
00:51:58
Speaker
I keep comparing the the the Western world with the Asian world. We have one God where they have different ones. So i know that you're going over there in a few weeks.
00:52:11
Speaker
So is that for a religious purpose or is that ye for business kind of all pleasure? A multitude of reasons. um I have, um you know, reasons why I have to go back every year. Like,
00:52:28
Speaker
Some of the the rituals that I take part in um with my teachers, I have an obligation to attend those same rituals every year to perform them.
00:52:40
Speaker
um There's also a into an aspect of honoring my teachers and showing that proper respect by going to them and um you know giving them you know not just you know money donation, but you know that genuine energy and attention and saying like, I'm happy to be here and I'm glad that I get to see you again. And I'm happy to learn more from you, you know? So there's this kind of aspect of it.
00:53:04
Speaker
Um, but I, I absolutely love, um, you know, the country too, you know, the food, the sites, ah you know, all of it, it's, it's very much home for me. You I lived there for almost five years and then there's,
00:53:19
Speaker
You know, the time I'm going back is going to be just before Songkran, which is the Thai New Year. You know, their New Year is in April, not in January. And so I will go there for the water festival as well. And there are some religious aspects of it that are really nice to participate in.
Sadhu Da's Personal and Professional Ties to Thailand
00:53:37
Speaker
And then, you know, I have to pick up more amulet stock for my shop. And and yeah, I just kind of have so many reasons that I go back.
00:53:49
Speaker
it So was just going to say, bring me a souvenir. but yeah but I could do that for you. What do what do you want, man? What are you interested in? You surprise me. You surprise me. Make sure it be something, like, unique.
00:54:05
Speaker
ah so how about that How about a preserved borfee discovered in gold? Oh, yeah, that's really going to be fun coming over the border with that, isn't it, Yeah. So...
00:54:16
Speaker
yeah yeah yeah so We are unfortunately coming to come to the end. So apart from your trip, what what else have you got in the pipeline? Well, um basically, I have a really, you know, interesting thing I've been partnered up with for the past year now, which is – a TV show that I've been doing on newrealitytv.com.
00:54:52
Speaker
So for anybody that's interested in that, I have like all these full length episodes of my my just my crazy life in general, traveling all over the world. I travel year round.
00:55:04
Speaker
um And then I go really deep into the tie occult as well in my show. It's consistently brought up and is part of it. So that that is something that's been really cool in the pipeline.
00:55:16
Speaker
um Other than that, business as usual, man. Business as usual. Let me think. Oh, yeah. Being involved with armed robberies.
00:55:27
Speaker
i said Oh, boy. That's not business as usual, dude. so So the thing was, i was i was talking to my girlfriend about this today. I said, you know, um we we both feel safer in Rio de Janeiro. She's from Brazil. We were there for three months recently. And, um you know, people talk about how dangerous South America is.
00:55:53
Speaker
and And especially like, you know, countries like Brazil. And I felt safer in Rio than I do here in D.C. right now. And i go right across the street to this laptop repair place.
00:56:06
Speaker
And ah this guy is freaking robbing the store while I walk in. and i got a knife pulled on me. And, you know, it was it was it was just such an insane situation.
00:56:19
Speaker
But um I'm OK. Everything's fine. Brazil's safer than D.C. Just let that be the takeaway. We're going stigmatize things, man.
00:56:34
Speaker
Yes, but I absolutely love talking to you because like we have a blast every time. But I hope you have an absolutely amazing water festival.
Conclusion and Listener Resources
00:56:45
Speaker
Have an amazing trip in Thailand. How long are you out there again for? I will be out there for at least five months. So, wow. What a bummer.
00:56:56
Speaker
Yeah, that's really rough. Yeah. bunch yeah ah just might Just remind people where they can get all your information and buy your amulets and let take courses and stuff.
00:57:13
Speaker
www.thesadhuda.com T-H-E-S-A-D-H-U-D-A-H
00:57:22
Speaker
Awesome. My friend, as always, it's been an absolute pleasure. Try not to get involved in any more rubberiswire in Thailand. It wouldn't good it wouldn't be good.
00:57:33
Speaker
and I know and know. I think we only have to worry about that in dc Okay, my friend. Thanks, brother. Have a good one. Take care. Bye-bye. Bye.