How to See the Spirits (According to my Father)

One day in one of my father's visit, during my early year lived and worked in Jakarta, alone; I asked my father how he could see those spirits/ ghosts. He was sitting on the floor against my room's door, sucking his heavily traditional unfiltered cigarettes', he said, "It just a matter of channeling your frequency, make your frequency the same channel as theirs, usually I just tuned my self down, and I felt something around me, I looked up on the trees, I saw something there, it was just sitting on one of the branches, looking at me back, and usually when you do that, they also feel your energy and they can feel that you can see them as well." that is how he explain about one of his "encounters" with spirit. I looked back through my shoulders, felt the goosebumps and the cold air on the hallway touched my back neck, and bravely asked, "can you feel if there anything that living in my place along with me which I couldn't see?" fortunately, my father said, "your place is clear, only human live here." which I responded with a deep sigh.

I was born and raised within a family, which have the ability to see such a things; spirits and ghosts, but I couldn't and never seen any one of them my self, whole my life, which I am so grateful for that. My grandparents, my parents, my uncles, my aunties, my cousins, they are all, have the ability to sense and to see those spirits. Growing up, I have been told numerous ghosts stories that happened in my family; my mother's exorcism, the mysterious event happening during my father's birth day; my father's encounter with the queen of the Javanese south sea, and many other ghost/ spirit stories I would like to share in other articles.

Among whole family members, my father is the one that used to like to challenge and sit aside with those spirits, probably he has the most number of encounters with those spirits and their realms. Not all of them are bad spirits, and not all spirits are come from human who passed away; he told me in another occasion when we were visiting my grandparents' house (his parents). "Some of those spirits already existed even before the human civilization existed; their realm is just like another dimension which human cannot reach that dimension yet." he explained that to me while looking at the roof of my grandparents' traditional kitchen. "They are just an inter-dimensional being, some of them are also love to live in peace in their own realm, therefore when human trying to touch and rudely get into their realm, they will felt offended." he sighed deeply, probably remembering his old days when he tried to breach another realm, LoL. Well, I never know.

In our Javanese culture, people will call my father, probably like the Shaman or a Medium. Many people with power and money, come to him, seeking guidance and asking a short-cut to get what they wanted. One good thing about my father is, he is not greedy about position, power, or such thing like money, I think because he had learnt his own lesson in the past, and he knew the consequence followed for such greediness not that worth his inner peace. Hence, my father never done any ritual for his own goodness, the rituals he had done usually by the requests for other people, even though he already warned them about the consequence follows the ritual, which usually would be an accident or tragedy happened in one of your family's members.

"Is Roro Kidul really the queen of the south sea?" I asked my father while we were having our lunch, just to satisfy my curiosity about this mythical and mysterious being that I have been heard so many times before, mistakenly considered Roro Kidul (The Lady out of the South Sea) with Nyi Ratu Kidul (the Queen of the South Sea) "What do you mean?" he asked me confusedly. "Roro Kidul is not Nyi Ratu Kidul, but if you asked; is Nyi Ratu Kidul the queen of the southest sea, yes, she is, but do not mistakenly her with Roro Kidul, they are different inter-dimensional being." he explained it carefully. "One is the queen who has the highest position and the most powerful in the South Sea, and she is also the wisest, the other; Roro Kidul; she is the commander-in-chief of the queen's trust. I was stunned could not believe my hearing, not because the fact they are actually two different inter-dimensional being, but more to how my father described it like he described the independence day of Indonesia, which is, it is totally real and full of facts.

"A while back ago, a young man who wanted the high position in a big and successful company, came to me, asked me to make him the successful candidate, there were 2 candidates, him, and another man, he wanted the position so badly, because we had such a good relationship, then I just tried my best to help him." my father opened his story. "So I did it for him. It was the full moon night, the moon was so round and very bright in the middle of the deep night with the very clear sky, I was standing on the one of the rocks jutting out into the ocean at low tide. With me, there were other more than 10 people doing the same rituals, in front of us, we placed an offering in the form of 7 different kind of flowers and different colors. It was so peacefully night, very quite, and serene."

"After wait for hours, we started to see a big wave coming from the far sea, within the wave, I could sea someone was riding a very glamorous and beautiful carriage that you never seen before, but instead of horses, it was the wave; and I could see the most beautiful woman inside the carriage coming toward us; in a second, I realized it was the Queen of the South Sea." my father stop himself and sipped his coffee that been resting in front of him slowly. "But at the same time; the greatest fear creeped into my very own deepest dark thought. I was not ready to die." he stopped again, looking into the darkness of his coffee. "At that very moment, I became so small in this universe, everything is not a matter anymore, I just want to be alive, to get home and to see my family again; there came a thought; there another more powerful thing in this universe, above the power of the Queen of the South Sea." I could feel the fear in his voice. "I closed my eyes tightly, screaming within my heart, seeking for the greatest help, seeking for mercy, I was asking for forgiveness for any highest power which I don't know where it come from, I just did not want to die at that moment."

He took a deep breath, "The big wave swept us right away, but I was standing still on my position, drenched wet by the wave, only less than 5 people seen on the shore including me, the others were taken away by the queen, vanished? dead? I never know; for sure, I know I was still alive." he closed the story, looking back at me that cannot even blinked my eyes while listening to his story. "What happened to the guy that asked you for the high position?" I asked him. "He was fine, he got that position, but since then, I never contacted him again, that was our last communication and my last time done such rituals for people, I quitted from such a dark world." I was stunned.

To these days, such a realm, such mythical being, still mystery for my curiosity. I still never be able to see spirits or ghosts. One thing for sure, my father never told me a lie, he is a very honest human being, hence I believe his stories, yet I am glad that I never be able o experience such paranormal activity. My father almost 70 years old now, but he already left behind such activities, he does not want to do that anymore, and he lives in more peaceful life now.

-Ratri Kelana- UK, 2021