Spirit Mediums: "First Uncle"

A Shrine to the First Uncle

So last night I finally got to go to my first spirit medium possession, which was really exciting because it's basically the entire reason I'm here. The god being channeled was the First Uncle (sometimes called Elder Grandpa) and it's actually debatable whether he's a god at all as he's generally considered to be a ghost. I should point out though that, in the Chinese sense of word, a ghost is not necessarily a bad thing and generally refers to a spirit who either died a violent death or is unable to worshipped (meaning ancestor worship) by their family for any of several reasons.

At this point you're probably curious why people would consult someone like this for any reason. Well, the Chinese imagining of the underworld as well as the god realm (...aboveworld?) is set up a lot like the Chinese government was back when there were emperors, eunichs, Confucian scholar exams, and all that good stuff. (Which makes me wonder what Chinese religion would look like if it mirrored the Chinese government today...a post for another day!) So, this particular ghost is basically an official in hell who, according to his devotees at least, has accumulated enough good merit to be considered a low-ranking deity. I suppose this raises another question...why go to a low-ranking deity? Well this guy isn't above requests that other gods may view as petty, such as the giving of lottery numbers and issues with wealth, etc. He's also easier for "lower class" to relate to as, unlike higher-up gods, he smokes, drinks, and he's great with kids (no but really...the mediums that channel him love kids when possessed).

With that background information out of the way, now we can get to what happened last night. We drove up pretty much right as the medium was becoming possessed. All of the lights in the temple were out except for a dim red light above the altar, which (obviously) made things a little creepy to begin with. and if that wasn't creepy enough the medium was convulsing. off to a great start! sarcasm aside, it was actually really cool. the medium became possessed and put on a ritual outfit so he'd look like the god he was channeling.

Here's a picture of the medium in ritual garb.
So here the medium is posing like the statue of the god he's channeling (see above). His mouth is black from opium (did i mention he does that too) and he's holding an opium pipe with a cigarette in it. There's also a bowl of Guinness (yes...a bowl) which got refilled several times during the possession.

how the Gods drink Guinness

So after all of these rituals (yes, even consuming large quantities of alcohol is a ritual in this case) the medium sat at a table with his "interpreter" on one end and the person consulting him on the other. The interpreter basically deciphers what the medium is saying as, in the possessed state, the medium's voice changes dramatically and, in some cases, may speak in another dialect or accent that laypeople may have difficulty understanding. Mediums can also give cryptic responses, which the interpreter unpackages for the devotee. I was really surprised by how casual the whole thing was from this point on. People just sat down and divulged their problems and, in turn, received a combination of spiritual and practical advice from the medium. In some ways it was like any other consultation someone might go to save for the shrines, incense, and possessed guy. I had definitely expected it to be a lot more formal.

The people that came had somewhat similar complaints ranging from questions of wealth and health to questions of general luck and spirit disturbances.

The set up

After everyone had consulted the medium, the medium's assistants asked if I wanted to ask the medium anything. uh....what? It took me a while to respond but I said sure (when in rome...) and sat down and asked him questions related to my research. I didn't get much advice there, but then Dr. Lye asked the medium if he had any general advice for me about my "studies". Well the medium had a lot to say about that. He very accurately informed me that I don't know how to relax and that I should try various things to destress. But, according to the medium, I will apparently be successful. It sounds a lot nicer when you hear it from a God haha.

Just me interviewing a God...no big deal

So after that very interesting experience I told the medium thank you and got up to ask some of the people that work at the temple some questions. However, while the medium was "depossessing" (not the actual term but I really don't know what else to call it) the First Uncle kept coming back into the medium, which is apparently very abnormal. Why was this happening? Well, apparently the First Uncle liked us (i.e. Zach, Dr. Lye, and myself) that we wanted to know if we could come to his birthday party in October. Really...I'm not making this up. We had to tell him that we would unfortunately be in the US and wouldn't be able to attend. So Dr. Lye told him he would send a friend on the First Uncle's birthday to send him our greetings. And at that, First Uncle said OK and then medium finally depossessed.

The medium during depossession

In short, this was definitely not what I expected my first experience with spirit mediums to be like AT ALL, but I'm very happy with what I got to see and experience.