Aumakua Pranks

Some pranks are just too good not to give a person kudos for. Some are so good that extra kudos should be given for execution, style, and suitable assistants. This entry deals with one such prank.

Over the holidays, a very dear friend (rialian) gave me two books he said he'd found at a dollar-store sort of shop. He gave them to me because they were quite unusual books to find at such a store, and I seemed to be the right person to pass them to. The books were "Obake: Ghost Stories in Hawai'i" and "Obake Files: Ghostly Encounters in Supernatural Hawai'i", both by Glen Grant.

I liked the idea of reading them very much, as I've always enjoyed true tales of supernatural encounters and have been researching Hawaiian shamanic traditions of late, but I did not really have the time to sit down and read them at length till now. I had skimmed through them a bit immediately after getting them, browsing some of the stories, but had never really taken a look at the introductions till today, much less read the books through from cover to cover. Today, having some free time and feeling more like reading than working on a project, I cracked open "Obake: Ghost Stories in Hawai'i" and began to read the introduction....

Very shortly, I realized I'd been had. Again. From beyond the grave, no less.

"Do ghosts really exist?"
It is a question I have been asked a thousand times. For those who believe that they have made spirit contact, such a question is irrelevant. Of course the dead return from their graves--we've seen their apparitions, heard their disembodied voices, or felt their chilling presence on a cold, lonely night. For those from many non-Western cultures, communication with the "other world" is ingrained in daily life. The 'aumakua, or ancestral spirits of the Native Hawaiian community, are real for those who seek their consultation or guidance. The thousands of Chinese in Hawaii who annually visit the graves of their ancestors during the Ch'ing Ming festival know that the spirits of their loved ones are strengthened through the nourishment offered at the gravesite. For those who revere their dead, there is no question that the human personality survives beyond the grave and can influence the living.

This impression was only enhanced by a statement within a later paragraph:

However, I can share the stories that I have been privileged to hear from thousands of sources in the Hawaiian Islands--written and oral--which have taught me how the spirits of the dead communicate with the living.

Then there's the introduction of the second book, which describes in detail a ritual the author took part in where he felt a presence at his right shoulder which was later described in detail by the kahu who had conducted the ceremony as being the author's dead father.

When synchronicity bludgeons with the force of a blunt instrument, it's hard not to see conscious intent wielding it. And I have absolutely no doubt in my mind about whose intent that would be in this case.

I just want to know if Ri was in on it when he gave me the books. ;-)