Malaysian Guru Offering Tours Of Heaven And Hell
A visit to the afterlife will set you back $61. Via Mind Power News, an account from a reporter who attempted the otherworldly journey:
A group of daring people took the opportunity to be part of a ‘Hell Tour’ in Penang. The trip was organised by Master Kek Eng Seng of the Tze Bei Guan Yin Dhamma Centre, who claims that he can travel through the realms of Earth, Heaven and Hell. For the first time in Malaysia, he offered people the opportunity to visit the ‘Afterworld’.
The number of Hell travelers was brought down to slightly more than 50, including a dozen reporters from the Chinese dailies and yours truly.
As night fell, the group, all clad in white shirts symbolising purity and sincerity, gathered at Padang Brown in Georgetown for the “tour”.
After some prayers and rituals, we were all set to start our journey at around 10.15pm. My eyes were covered…
Hell In 3D, From 1860s Paris
A strange find from nineteenth-century Paris, a miniaturized version of Hell photographed in 3D, promising rewards for sinners in the underworld. Via Cine-graphics:
In the opening lines of his 1978 publication, Diableries: La Vie Quotidienne Chez Satan, Jac Remise relates how a crew of demolition workers in Paris discovered a mysterious wooden box hidden in the ruins of a condemned building. The box, which had been wrapped with old military belts, was found to contain a collection of photographs depicting a hedonistic world filled with drunken devils, sinister skeletons and scantily clad women. An anonymous note found buried among the glass images added:
“This is the work of my life, it is thus that I dreamed of Hell. If my visions are true, then the wicked may rest assured, the afterlife will be sweet for them to bear.”
What the demolition workers discovered that day was a series of photographs known as Les…
To Start Life Anew, Thais ‘Practice’ Death
Via Reuters:
For those facing a run of bad luck and wanting to start things over, one Thai temple has an unusual solution: “rehearse” death with a mock funeral, including lying down in a coffin.
Pram Manee temple in Nakorn Nayok province, 107 km northeast of Bangkok, holds two of the rituals every day: at exactly 9:09 a.m. and 1:09 p.m., since the number nine is believed by Thais to bring good luck.
Participants in a recent ritual stood in front of their designated coffins, holding flowers and praying for bad luck to go away, then asked to receive good luck.
All had paid 180 baht ($6) for the flowers, a white sheet and “merit set” — a collection of necessities sometimes including toothpaste, toothbrushes and food — to be offered to monks, and the promise of a better life …
Another Look What “Death” Is: Photos of ‘Sky Burials’ in Tibet
OK, this is some pretty rough stuff. But it really made me think about about how we deal with our deceased in Western countries. I suppose in some ways it’s appropriate for Earth Day. Or Halloween. Take your pick.
NOT FOR SENSITIVE SOULS!
Click through to mbvtravel to see the full set of photos. You have been warned.
Nicolas Cage Builds Pyramid To Rest In Peace
I think this guy has finally gone ’round the bend. via death+taxes:
In a move not seen since the ostentatious days of Egyptian Pharoahs, sane actor Nicolas Cage has done what, to anyone else, appears unreasonable, nay, unthinkable. Despite recently being hit by the IRS, the star of the National Treasure series, among other cinematic treasures Raising Arizona and Leaving Las Vegas, purchased a plot within a historical New Orleans cemetery and constructed a 9-foot pyramid to hold his bodily remains. Many things remain uncertain at this time regarding the Great Pyramid of Louisiana, such as, will Cage be disemboweled and mummified?
