Spirit Mediums V Buddhist Monks

[seonai]

Hi, I'm doing a paper on this subject and believe that where, in the past, Thai people sort of kept quiet about seeing a medium... it is now becoming very popular. Monks are still visited of course but more spiritual guidance is now the thing. What is your experience of what your Thai friends/family when they seek assistance in their life?

[chownah]

Is a "spiritual medium" a person who goes into a trance and then the spirit expresses itself through that person? Is this what you mean by "spiritual medium"? If so, isn't this kind of thing uncommon generally speaking....I'm not saying that there aren't people who claim they do this...I'm just saying that you don't find one of these in every village...but you do find monks in every village.

[seonai]

Yes Chow, that's what I mean. Thai people are sometimes reluctant to admit that they visit these mediums - called 'Khon Song' (like 'song' as in 'send' a letter). But I do know that many do go to see them to get advice etc. Interesting that not many people have replied so far

[Brucenkhamen]

I've heard of a lot of Thais going to fortune tellers, but I've never heard of Thai spirit mediums.

[chownah]

I asked my wife and my uncle about khon song and they both replied with the same thing....they had seen this years ago in Lampang (more than 200 kilometres distant from here) and that they don't know of anyone doing this now although they assume that there are still people doing this but don't know where and that many years ago this sort of thing was done some in smaller villages but not any more.

Additionally my wife commented that the reason for going to see this was to find out how their dead relatives were doing in the afterlife...and that they did not go for assistance in their life...and that she went there about 20 years ago.

Additionally my wife commented that she doesn't have much faith in these sorts of things.

Chownah

Edited September 20, 2007 by chownah

[sutnyod]

I think it depends on the reputation of the person in question, the reasonable travel distance and the urgency of the problem.

If you have a monk nearby who has a reputation for healing mental sickness and somebody seeks advice on that, of course he will go to see the monk.

When it comes to lottery numbers, I'd guess, reputation is everything... Travel distance is not important in that case.

For fortune telling people still get to see a medium.

And finally another thought: people cannot approach just any monk with requests for clairvoyance etc. because some are quite strict and would advise the people that this has nothing to do with Buddhism. However, one could always go to any medium with such requests. In the past there were several children in Thailand, being famous for being a medium. Anybody knows what happened to them?

[seonai]

Interesting stuff. In my op I was trying to distinguish between the two but, of course, there are many monks who claim to have these 'powers' as well and do practise exorcisms etc - in fact I've had one done myself