Thais report seeing ghosts on beach after tsunami.

[cliss]

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/text/2002138150_krabi02m.html

"They're haunted by the Lost on Thailand's coast of death"

The vast majority of Thais believe in ghosts, and so the stories are starting to emerge of dead tourists playing on the beach or of loved ones visiting surviving family members. "There are a lot of ghosts on Phi Phi Island right now", says Vinaporn Danghon, a 23-year old clothes seller who narrowly escaped last Sunday's raging waters.

More than 4,800 bodies have been recovered in Thailand so far, but thousands more are still missing off the southern coasts. Many of Thailand's dead were from Phi Phi island (pronounced Pee Pee), one of Thailand's most beautiful beach resorts, with dramatic limestone cliffs, sparkling waters and stunning coral reefs.

Vinaporn lost her aunt and several friends. "I cannot count. There are so many" she said Friday outside the provincial police station where she had come to file a claim for lost property.

When the tsunami crashed into her seaside village, Vinaporn and her boyfriend, a handyman, fled to higher ground. During the night, they heard a small group of people on the beach "screaming as if they were scared of the waves", she said with vacant eyes.

A policeman who was guarding the stranded villagers ran down to check the noise. According to Vinaporn, he saw several human figures "with no feet" floating across the beach. The policeman rushed back and told us what he saw", she said.

Many others in this traumatized nation have heard similar stories.
Samarn Damkul, the drive of long-tail boats for tourists, insisted Phi Phi was full of spirits. "There are ghosts, there are ghosts, there are ghosts," he said from one of Krabi's central piers.

Samarn told of a fellow speed-boat driver who lost his friend, a woman, to the 35-foot high waves. His friend spent several days looking for her body but could not find it. On Thursday night, Samarn said, the woman's ghost paid a visit to the boat driver.

She said, "Don't search for me anymore. I'm here at the Chinese Temple (where corpses are being collected). Please take care of my son." The friend went to the temple the next morning and found the body, which he returned to an island north of Phi Phi for a funeral.
<snip>
A 45-year old woman who came to search for her missing family saw "foreigner ghosts" playing in the water.
<snip>
When a person dies unexpectedly, the soul is not prepared to move on to the next place. "The ghosts of foreigners need particular help, Thitinun explained, because they do not know how to return to their native countries. Some wander around as if they are still alive".
==========================

This is one of the more gruesome stories I have read recently. It gave me the chills. As if it wasn't bad enough for the Southeast Asians to have to deal with the aftermath of this storm, in addition they have to deal with the dead. Hard for the family members who had to go back home to Europe to read about stuff like this.

The article mentions that Buddhist monks are helping with certain rituals to help the deceased.

There is a similar story on Yahoo news which was even more gruesome.

[Desertrose]

1. not at all surprising really....

perhaps this is another gate that needs to be opened....I feel the gate for compassion was opened wide with this tragedy. People "feeling" for other human beings....now maybe its time to open the door to the realization that it ain't over just becasue you check out of a body....

This certainly is the perfect condition for so many souls to get stuck & lost and I hope those who have prayers and rituals to help those lost & troubled souls are able to use them.

I know there are MANY groups -on both sides of the veil- doing and saying prayers to help those lost find their way to the light, and warmth and safety.
Just remember...if these souls want help it IS available.....

[Pallas180]

2. This is something I didn't know about, but sounds quiet lovely

and very Feng Shui:

Most Thais, more than 90 percent of whom are Buddhist, have "spirit houses" to honor the dead people who used to live on their property.
The spirit house is a miniature structure, like a doll house, usually made of wood or concrete and kept in the corner of the property. Homeowners typically place incense, water or tea, and a plate of fresh food in the spirit house every morning while saying a brief prayer. "

We'll have to ask Eloriel where the spirit house should be placed - I
suspect in the East.

[underseasurveyor]

3. Reminds me of an upsetting dream I had years ago

I had this dream 20+ years ago: My then husband (he's gone now) and I were sitting in a comfy living-room when appears on the couch next to him is the woman he was engaged to before we met. She was sad and lost asking him all kinds of questions and begging him why couldn't they be together anymore, she loved him so much and she missed him and where had he been, why did he suddenly go away, why did he leave her behind. She had no awareness of my presence, couldn't hear me or see me at all, I was like a 'ghost' to her. He didn't have the heart to tell her she was killed in a car wreck they were in years ago(1975 or 76). Now I am seated on the other side of a coffee table sobbing, growing more frustrated and angry at him as I'm listening to her desperate forlorn pleas of "whywhywhy" and he won't tell her why and I'm feeling so deeply sad for this poor confused woman for many reasons and since she can't see me or hear what I'm saying, I'm begging my hubbie to please tell her she's dead, she has to know, tell her you're sorry, tell her you love her but you must tell her she is dead so she knows why she can't be here with you, help her understand and that it's ok so that all of us can move on. Tell her, tell her she's dead, tell her, tell her...........

I woke up still sobbing and my pillow was drenched. Not a nightmare for me but an intensely sad, helpless feeling, unsettling dream. She was so lost and bewildered and I couldn't do anything to help her.

I knew a lot about the lady before me of my then hubbie, Nancy was her name. The stories he shared with me and pictures he had of her and of their life together before the car accident that killed her (she was also 4 months pregnant) and two other friends that were in the back of his van. My hubbie along with his 3 month old saint bernard/german shepherd mix puppy Sugar Bear, both very broken and injured, barely survived. The medic folks said Nancy probably never knew what hit her, instant gone. I can only hope that was the case.
So in my dream Nancy's demeanor and character which was solely based on the things I heard about her made this dream even more heart-wrenching. I would have liked this young woman in life I'm sure:-) I'd like to think that when my ex husband finally lost his fight with cancer in Jan. 1997, as we cried our good byes to him as he was leaving this place, that Nancy was there waiting to greet him with smiles as he arrived in that place.

[cliss]

4. That is so sad,T.

Heart-wrenching. It brings tears to my eyes. Incredibly generous of you, also, to release him to the beyond and what lies ahead for him.

I wonder about our dreams. Sometimes they are so life-life that you can't help but wonder....is there any validity to this? In a case like this, you could have been in touch with her in the astral plane.

The thing that makes me so sad about the tidal wave is that people (their astral body) are just floating in this plane, trying to figure out what happened to them. And when they look around, they see debris, a few people here and there, and their families are gone.

What are they to think? I would feel abandoned, like my family didn't care about me, they just went home....? I don't know. And shouldn't there be loved ones, older family members to greet them when they die, and take them to another place?

[NJCher]

5. from my reading, experience

Yes, I think that was a communication through you, temperancedissent. I read a great deal on this topic and I've read other instances of how spirits communicate through dreams.

I've been reading about ghosts since I was a young girl. From most accounts that I've read, those passing from the earth plane are met by their loved ones and that includes animals. I do recall reading about those who pass over under such conditions as the tsunami but I can't recall the details. Maybe they will come back to me and I'll post again on this thread. Point is, there is material on this topic.

Interestingly enough, having read about ghosts for so many years, it was only in the last few years that I saw a ghost. I really didn't know it was a ghost at the time I was seeing it. It was very real but it did appear peculiar since the ghost was dressed in the style from another century.

The ghost I saw appeared to be floating and the legs thinned out toward the ground. Since it was snowing at the time I saw him, I didn't think this particularly unusual.

Some sources say ghosts are about 3 feet up from where we are in the earth plane. They vibrate at a different frequency, which is why we have such difficulty communicating with them.

Last night I was reading about the passage over and the writer (Moody) examined various sources that discuss what it is like. It's interesting that the reports are similar yet the writers of such reports could hardly have consulted each other. Plato and The Tibetan Book of the Dead are two descriptions that bear similarities and where it is not possible for the writers to have consulted each other.


Cher

[underseasurveyor]

7. It was the only dream I ever had of her or that she was in

And I have often wondered if it was more of a communication versus being 'just' a dream. Yes it was a dream yet, there was a different feel or sense to it, a depth, an intensity, something more tangible. I'm not sure I can put it into words. Those of you with a greater scope of knowledge, understanding and experience on the subject probably could.

I have never felt or been afraid of ghosts ever since I can remember and I could not figure out why so many people were. Except to say first they are afraid of the unknown, which is pretty normal I think, coupled with the horror stories of poltergeists, amity-ville houses and horrible grisly murders.

I haven't yet actually seen a ghost (while awake anyway) but I can and do feel their presence when they're near. Sometimes I feel cheated because I haven't seen one. Perhaps I'll only be able to see them if they come to me through my dreams.

[underseasurveyor]

6. When I was a very young girl about 6 or 7 y/o there was this question

about death and for many years I thought about the 'what ifs' and 'how it might feel', 'what would that be like', etc.

If a person is killed instantly and they never knew it or saw it coming, Do they know they're dead? What must that be like for them?
It bothered me deeply the idea that a person could be dead and not know it and it felt heavy on my tender young brow. The only conclusion I ever came up with then in my young mind, is that it must certainly have to be a sad, lonely, bewildering place.

Other kids rolled their eyes and thought I was so off the wall. For them it was simple, when you die you go to heaven if you're good but if you're not good, well you know, H-E double hockey-sticks :evilfrown:
I just couldn't accept that answer, I was absolutely sure even then, there was so much more to us, our souls/spirits/consciousness, our entire being, to be that easy or simple or 'that's it- that's all'. I had so many questions in my head that stemmed from things I had personally experienced that it was not possible for me to find comfort or answers in their beliefs of god, death, and heaven.
I was just a kid that supposedly watched too many 'ghost' movies and her imagination is simply running amok. But I didn't watch 'ghost' movies and I didn't like hearing or the telling of ghost stories at slumber parties. The teasing can be unbearable when no one believes you when you insist your tears come from sadness and not of fear :-(


I think of all those lives, so so many of them lost in the tsunami, not ready to go. The thousands of bewildered and lost people aimlessly wandering, searching and not understanding this strange place they suddenly find themselves in and not knowing what to do, where to go. It is all very sad yet I do take some comfort in knowing, now:-), there are people with the knowledge and the skills that can help these dead find their way.

[cliss]

8. Here's an account from 'Past Lives, Future Lives'

by Jenny Cockell.

"I knew that I had died. I could remember leaving the body, not just drifting out of it but being suddenly thrust out, rather like a buoy cut loose from its moorings. This, I later concluded, might have been due to the loss of the weight of the physical body, which no longer held me down.

After this sudden, swift upwards rush I was aware of settling some 10 feet above the body and slightly to one side of it. Although I was at a higher level than the ceiling, there was somehow nothing obscuring my view of the room. I remained there for some time, long enough to see my husband come to the bedside, though how much later this was it is hard to say as my sense of time in this state seemed very vague, and certainly irrelevant.

What happened from this point on was no less clear. I was still looking back at my now vacant body when I seemed to be drawn from behind - almost sucked - into a long, narrow tube, like a fold in space, a dark vortex that wrapped around me and drew me into another dimension. Through it I travelled backwards, feeling somehow folded as though in a loose fetal position; slowly the hospital room drifted away from me, looking like a view thrugh the wrong end of a telescope, and finally it faded completely.

Now, intensely bright beams of light began to emerge on either side of me. They were prismatic, like the shafts of a rainbow, but much, much brighter. To describe them as light seems somehow insufficient: the rainbow colours were much more vibrant than normal light.
<snip>

"Dr. Raymond Moody, author of another study of NDE's, Life AFter Life, found that of the many details given by people who he questioned nine came up most frequently, and of these most people mentioned a few. They are: a sense of being dead; feelings of peace and painlessness; an out-of-body experience; travelling down a tunnel; seeing people of light; being greeted by a particular being of light; having a life review; a reluctance to return; and a personality transformation after returning to life.
======================
The most important part here is that people, after they have moved on, seem to share a reluctance to go back. This was very reassuring. Maybe these poor souls on the beach at Khao Lak are in a better place now.