GHOSTS, HAUNTINGS, POLTERGEISTS:

Encounters of an unexplained kind

This world and our lives are full of events that defy logic and baffle people. Men of science and psychology pore over these happenings in a bid to find an explanation, but unable to do so, stash them in the category of the paranormal.Edgar Alan Poe, the famous writer of classic horror and mystery stories, once wrote about three shipwrecked people adrift in the sea, who in a bid to survive, cast lots and then cannibalised one of the group, named Parker. While this story was pure fiction, a newspaper report appearing many years later reported a court trial involving three shipmates, who were accused of first killing and then devouring their fourth companion – a cabin boy named Parker. The accused claimed that they had been shipwrecked and had done the deed in order to survive. Was this sheer coincidence or was Mr Poe seeing into the future.Our own part of the world, particularly the subcontinent, has a history of unexplained events and mysterious happenings. Take, for example, the oft told story concerning the spectral, blood spattered figure of a dishevelled young woman, who appeared in front of motorists on a busy main road in Karachi during specific nights, only to disappear when approached. It was even said that trying to converse with this entity was an ill omen.While the story from Pakistan’s largest city may be a figment of imagination, there are some things that happen to everyday people, who refuse to talk about them for fear of being ridiculed. I am acquainted with men and women, who are known in their family circles for precognitive abilities. Precognition is the gift to see or feel an event before it actually occurs. One such person is a young woman (distantly related to me), who migrated to the West, a few years ago. She was for all purpose like any other teenager, except for the fact that at times she said things in passing - things that actually came to pass in the future. Telekinesis is the ability to move things without physically touching them. There are many cases where people have bent metal objects by sheer mind power or levitated objects including themselves. My mother, who along with her family spent the summer months at Dharamsala (a hill station in the Kangra Hills) in the years before 1947, often told us about an old Sadhu, who sat near the Hindu fire temple and who had the ability to defy gravity, while sitting cross legged. She claimed that she had seen this happening once, as she took some visitors from Lahore around various spots of interest, one of which was the volcanic flame that appeared out of a cleft in the rock within the temple.During my tenure of posting in Bahawalpur area, I was confronted by one of my employees, who appeared to be in a state of panic. He requested that the department’s quarter allotted to him should be withdrawn and he be given leave to return the family to his village near Sahiwal. I was surprised at the request, as this very individual had moved heaven and earth to get the accommodation, so he could live with his wife and children. Questioning revealed that since the day he had moved in, his home had been incessantly pelted with bottles and stones that appeared from nowhere. Matters had so aggravated that clothes lying in closets were catching fire - needless to say that I allowed the distraught man to proceed on immediate leave. An interesting twist in the story occurred a few days later, when the old occupant of the house submitted an application asking that the house be re-allotted to him. I called the individual and asked him as to why was he risking his life and limb by occupying a ‘haunted’ house. His response convinced me that, perhaps, the unseen ‘entity’ plaguing the quarter was none other than this very person.It is an established fact that during our lifetime, we use only a tiny portion of our brain, while geniuses perhaps use a relatively larger segment of the grey matter. It is, however, people with paranormal powers, who are gifted with the ability to use a much bigger part of what is inside our skull as compared to normal human beings and this is what gives them attributes beyond our understanding. I can only imagine the capabilities of a race of humans, which could master the use of what the entire brain has to offer - they would then indeed not be humans, but super humans.
The writer belongs to a very old and established family of the Walled City. His forte is the study of History.