I’ve Been Haunted By Multiple Types Of Ghosts. Here’s How I’d Rank Their Scariness.

The ghosts that have haunted me, ranked from least to most scary

After my story on how to avoid getting haunted was published, I got a bunch of emails and texts asking me which ghost was scarier. Evidently, the moral of my article was lost on you folks. As you already know, I’ve been haunted multiple times in my life. In some of those instances, I’ve had the misfortune of pinpointing the exact ghost that was disturbing me. If you thought pochongs were scary, you ain’t seen nothing yet. Without further ado, here’s my ranking of all the known ghosts that have haunted me.

My Colleagues Are Hunting Ghosts. As Someone Who Has Been Haunted Before, Here’s My Advice.

Penunggu

A penunggu is a spirit that guards a particular place. They can turn malevolent if someone trespasses on their abode. Such places include forests, deserted areas, and cemeteries. This is why older folks always recommend announcing your intentions loudly whenever you step into an abandoned building or visit a riverside.

In my previous story, the spirit haunting my uni’s storeroom was a penunggu. Apparently, it latched onto the area many years ago and started disturbing undergrads. Thankfully, one of the lecturers then had a supernatural gift. After confronting the spirit, he discovered that it was simply too strong but it wasn’t evil. As such, he instructed students to always knock on the storeroom door before entering, wait a few seconds, and finally enter whilst announcing their intentions in the storeroom. This advice has since been passed down to every new undergrad in the school.

As you already know, the day I was haunted by the penunggu was the day I neglected to do any of the steps when I entered the storeroom. Coupled with the fact that I didn’t bathe when I reached home, the penunggu ended up following me and disturbing my sisters. Luckily, that’s all it did.

Scariness rating: 5/10. It wasn’t evil, plus it disturbed my sisters more than me.

Pochong

When Muslims pass on, they are wrapped in a white burial cloth. This cloth is supposed to be untied when they are buried. If the cloth remains tied at the top, the person’s spirit will become restless and turn into a pochong. Personally, I think pochongs are the scariest spirits. After all, they’re a grim reminder of the imminence of death, and technically, anyone can become a pochong. All it takes is some idiot to not untie your burial cloth.

In fact, they’re so scary that I’m still not putting a picture of them in my articles.

That being said, I wouldn’t put my pochong haunting as my scariest haunting. To recap, one of my secondary school friends insulted a pochong as we were cycling, and ended up getting possessed by it. Don’t get me wrong; I’m still scared sh*tless by the experience. Seeing your friend’s body contort in physically impossible ways in the middle of the night at Old Tampines Road will traumatise anyone.

However, the pochong didn’t physically manifest itself in front of us i.e. we did not see a spirit in white cloth anytime during the possession. All we heard was its voice. Had I actually seen a pochong in the flesh, then yes. This haunting would have shot to the top of the list. This brings us to our winner.

Scariness rating: 9/10. Traumatic since someone actually got possessed right in front of me.

Pontianak

Till today, there’s still some uncertainty as to what defines a pontianak. Some say that it’s the spirit of a woman who died during childbirth. Some say that it’s actually the spirit of the woman’s child. In any case, for all intents and purposes, let’s just define a pontianak as a scary female spirit in a white cloth with long, black hair.

My pontianak haunting was simply insane. It spanned multiple days and affected multiple people. All because I decided to host a birthday chalet. So many crazy events happened during that chalet that I only have enough time to go through one.

It was my 25th birthday. A milestone year. I wanted to throw a three-day chalet to commemorate the occasion. Unfortunately, my less-than-stellar salary then meant that I could only afford the cheapest chalet in Singapore. As luck would have it, the only bungalow available during that period was the one directly opposite Old Changi Hospital.

Alarms started ringing in my head. Not only was OCH haunted, it was THE MOST haunted place in the East. Was I willing to risk it just to save a couple of bucks? I then looked at my bank account.

Yes.

The first day of my chalet was set aside for my family. The event was pretty wholesome with relatives from both sides of my family coming down to celebrate. That is until it was time to cut the cake.

As I was preparing the cake plates, I realised that the birthday cake itself wasn’t there. My youngest sister was supposed to collect it about 20 minutes ago. I felt uneasy and called her immediately. It took two attempts before I finally got through.

“I’m…op..opposite. G..Gi..Give me s..so..me time.”

My sister was clearly sobbing. I went outside and saw her standing shakily at the bus stop opposite our bungalow—the one that’s in the same lane as OCH. I immediately grabbed my cousin and ran out to fetch her. Thankfully, my birthday cake was still in one piece.

We asked her what was wrong and she refused to answer, insisting we took her back to the chalet. Once inside, we didn’t tell the others about what had happened and continued celebrating like nothing was wrong. Throughout the entire event, my sister kept quiet.

After most of the guests had left, my mother noticed that something was wrong and asked my sister if she was okay. My sister immediately started bawling.

“I saw a pontianak at the bus stop.”

We were stunned. Apparently, my sister missed her stop and had to alight at the OCH bus stop. There, she saw a white cloth dangling off the roof of the bus stop. She stepped forward and looked up, only to come face-to-face with a pontianak. The spirit stared at her for what seemed like a minute, before flying off.

Thing is, this wouldn’t be the last time that the pontianak visited my chalet.

Scariness rating: 100/10. Haunted multiple times by the same spirit, which is a first for me.

Haunted by ghosts

These are just some of the hauntings that have been ingrained in my core memory. Stay tuned next week as I tell the complete story of the pontianak that haunted my birthday chalet.

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