Hi Nacht, all,

First of all, thank you for starting this thread. It makes great reading and a great source of knowledge.
Let me share my story.
Before I turned 12, my family stayed in palm oil plantation in one of the northern states. The nearest small town from our "village" was 1.5 hours away.

During our stay there for many years, there were many kind hearted neighbours yes, but there were some whose hearts filled with jealousy and hatred. I was soon subjected to numerous disturbances, such as having horrible nightmare almost every single night(it will always be the same nightmare night after night), sometimes ended up sleepwalking, talking in my sleep, and when I came to, it feels so horrible, but the thing is, as soon as I wake up, I could not explain what I saw.

I can only feel the extremely horrifying feeling, but I have no words to describe them. Even now, some 20+ years later, when I close my eyes, I could still feel that vaguely. The closest words to describe what I saw in those nightmares are...something massive is beside me, and I feel so helpless. Sometimes it's chasing me, sometimes I was cornered. Bad description I guess, but that's all I have words for. It's really weird.

My parents were, as you guessed it, worried sick about me. They told me deep into each nights, my body would shake, I would mumble some words that could not be understood, I would cry, and run around horrified. They have to catch me and gently wake me up when I did all that. Often I woke up standing up with myself in their arms and them calling my name again and again. I would be drenched in cold sweat

No longer could tolerate nights like these, they brought me to my grand aunty, who is a buddist/taoist practioner. My mother used to have the same faith but had given it up when she got married. My grand aunty brought me to a house-cum-temple set up, and they performed "Qi Tong" (sorry I am not SJK educated) and that aunty, with a different voice, described our house perfectly. Bear in mind that our house is in one of the northern states, deep in palm oil plantation, and the temple was in one of the sourthern states. She/the Deity described the surroundings of our house perfectly, and said that some people in the village due to jealously has placed something troublesome in me. Not life threatening, but something problamatic or a nuisence.

They told us to be careful of green insects that enter our house, those green leaf-like insects. If not mistaken, (this was a long time ago) they say after you kill those insects, pull the head, sometimes it will have a strand a hair extended from its body and exposed once the head is removed. Then she offered some advice for my parents to do.

They also took a tshirt of mine, did some incantations and such, stamped the back of it and asked me to put on every night.

With all those, it finally stopped.

Nowadays, I am not a religious person, but I do believe in these things to a certain extend. When I ask my parents about my past things, they usually reluctant to say.

In a seperate case,

I heard that a relative of mine, while playing in the playground, picked up the golden $1 coin buried in the sand. He too, got similar distubances until he placed it back.
Not sure how much more there is to the story though. Just thought I'd bring it up.

I grow up to respect any and all religions, as long as they do not harm innocent people. I believe there are reasons for each practices, and people, no matter how educated they are, who easily sway these beliefs/practices aside without bothering to learn more about them needs to be more humble.
Anyways, few questions from me:
0. What can you share with me, about my stories? Ever heard of anything similar?

1. I read somewhere in this thread, saying that in a decade's time, hopefully these practice will still be around. Now, let's say they dwindle down significantly, what will happen to the Deities? Will lack of worship causes more chaos to human world?

2. According to your belief, what will happen to others of different religious faith when they die? Will they go through the same process like your belief, or they will go somewhere else based on their faith?

3. Out of sheer curiousity, can you tell/share more about Mao Shan sect magic?

From your words "don't trust them" "amoral" etc, sounds like you have more things to share.

4. What can you tell us about Genting Highlands? There are so many stories surrounding the place. I love to go there, and what will be your advise about travelling there safely and avoid offending any parties?

Sorry for the amount of questions, thank you and have a nice day

Thanks again for sharing those info!

It is only natural that someone of culture/faith X will seek religious specialists of culture/faith X despite being faced with black magic originating from culture/faith Y. This decision is always made out of cultural/religious familiarity and personal convenience. If the power of your religious specialists is sufficiently strong, it really does not matter that the black magic you are facing originates from a different faith/culture.

I'll give you a real-life example.

Pregnant couple (we'll call them Steve and Jenny) came to my teacher's place to consult Tua Ya Pek. I was there to help clerk their case. Jenny had been dreaming of a sinister old Malay-speaking Nyonya-ish woman who told her that she would take her baby and eat it alive (obviously a pontianak). Steve told her not to think too much of this, until Jenny started bleeding from the birth canal. Doctors did scans and all that and said that things were fine, but they were scared stiff, the baby being very precious due to them having tried for a long time, and begged Tua Ya Pek to help.

Tua Ya Pek gave them a talisman that Jenny had to wear around her pregnant belly, and told them that the next time the pontianak came by, "She's gonna wish she never died."

Few nights later, Jenny dreamt of the pontianak trying to physically attack her, but the vampiress burst into flames the moment she tried to lay a hand on Jenny. Jenny said she could hear the pontianak screaming in pain even after she woke up in a cold sweat. Steve didn't hear any screaming, but he heard a loud flapping noise outside the bedroom window like some sort of large bird was trying to get in. All they could do was hold each other tight until the noises eventually stopped.

No more trouble at all after that. Baby Rachel was born smoothly, is now a talented teenager and has totally no clue about what threatened her in the past.