Today, my subject matter is a little weird because I woke up with PMS and I’m feeling grumpy.

Some of you may find it distasteful or disrespectful but you shouldn’t because it isn’t.

So.

You know how people like to talk to dead people?

Either in their thoughts or actually whispering the words or even wailing them out loud, I know people who talk to the dead.

I’m not talking about mediums or bomohs. I mean normal people.

Normal people, like you and me, go to grave sites or columbaries to visit loved ones who have passed away.

And we talk to them as if they can hear us.

Do any of us really think the dead can hear us?

Many people grow up with the subconscious assumption that when people die, they become powerful spirits or souls. These powerful beings can see you, hear you, grant you favours or hurt you. That’s why people are so afraid of ghosts. (I blame the movies for that.)

So people offer prayers to dead loved ones and, besides keeping the dead updated with their lives and how they miss them so much and how life isn’t the same without them, etc, they also ask the dead for favours.

“Please make sure ah boy studies hard for his exam, and give him good marks so he can go to a good school ok?”

“Please give me 4D numbers in my dreams.”

I’ve often wondered about this. If people really believe that the dead are so powerful they know what’s going on in the living world and can grant favours, then why is everyone scared to death of dying?

We should all look forward to being powerful beings who can alter the fates of our still-living loved ones. Or even our enemies.

Have you also wondered: If these spirits/souls can hear or see us when we talk to them, doesn’t that mean they can see us any time of the day, 24/7?

So your dead relative knows when you are sleeping, he knows when you’re awake.

He knows if you’ve been bad or good.

Etc.

It worries me. Actually, scares me.

When I go to the columbarium to pay respects to my dead relatives, I have to go with the assumption that they know I’m there to “see” them and that they can “hear” me when I think to them. Otherwise, what the hell am I wasting my time there for? Which means I also have to assume that they can see or hear me at any given time of my life. Unless you believe they actually live in the columbarium and are limited to contact within the premises.

Regardless, it all means that my dead relatives also know when I cheat on my bus fare and they can also see me shave my legs in the bathtub.

Ack.

So it’s not a new concept because people already believe that God, or whatever deity they believe in, can see them and judge their actions.

But it’s a bit discomforting to think also that someone, who used to be a peer in your life, can now spy on your every activity just because they passed away before you did.

If we don’t believe that, then why do we talk to the dead?

And why do people believe that their dead parent/ancestor/whoever will watch over them?

And for people who ask for favours and offer flowers and food, and burn paper clothes, cash, cars, credit cards, condominiums, laptops with broadband access…

What are they thinking?