My Very First Blog

The Conjuring first came out in 2013 and created cinematic history for a horror movie. Directed by Malaysian-born James Wan (who also directed Saw, Insidious and Fast & Furious 7) and starring Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga as the famous ghostbusting couple Ed and Lorraine Warren, the movie was a hit in many countries and was catapulted into the same league as The Exorcist and The Sixth Sense.

Read my review of The Conjuring HERE.



































There were talks about a sequel back then, and true enough, three years later in the present 2016, it is back with The Conjuring 2. As the movie was again directed by James Wan and with both Wilson and Farmiga reprising their roles, I knew I just had to watch it!




Director James Wan 

The problem with sequels is you kind of have a higher expectation, so I tried my best to lower mine when entering the cinema hall. Also, as a fan of horror movies and having watched so many of them, I don't get easily frightened anymore. I gave the first Conjuring movie a scariness level of 6 out of 10 points (I'm sure many will disagree with me on this but it's really up to the individual) so let's see how I am going to rate the sequel at the end of this post :)

In any case, I knew that even if the movie isn't scary, at least it would be somewhat entertaining simply because James Wan is the director and my favourite actress is in it - yes, she's none other than Vera Farmiga - and guess what? She did not disappoint!




Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson

Oh, by the way, I love how they dressed up to resemble the 1970's era. If you are not too busy getting scared, do check out their nice 70's wardrobe!

And yes, this sequel also reveals the answer we all wanted to know from the first Conjuring movie - what did Lorraine Warren see during an exorcism rite that made her locked herself up in her room for eight days. It will actually provide the basis for the second movie although they do not seem related at first.





But if you are one of those people who have not watched the first movie, there is no problem watching The Conjuring 2 as the story is different. Although both centred around the Warrens, they are dealing with two different hauntings. The first movie involved the Perrons in Rhode Island, while the second one is about the Hodgsons thousand of miles away in Enfield, north London.

Both movies claimed to be "based on a true story", and probably that's what makes them scarier. Of course, you do need to take these claims with a pinch of salt as we all know factual documentaries don't sell that well, but well-made fiction do!

If you have not heard about the famous real-life Enfield poltergeist hauntings, then The Conjuring 2 may just be the movie to introduce you to it.

Watch the trailer below.



SPOILER ALERT beyond this point!!!

The Conjuring 2 begins with Ed and Lorraine investigating the infamous "Amityville House" murders where Ronald deFeo Jr. shot and killed six members of his family years earlier. Although the Amityville hauntings were debunked as a hoax in real life (critics said the killings were merely a homicidal act and not demonic in nature as claimed), the Warrens had insisted that it is not a hoax.

In the movie, Lorraine had an out-of-body experience during a seance at the Amityville house. She witnessed the shotgun murders and even saw something that led her to say "This is as close to hell as I ever want to get."

Then the scene switches over to Enfield, England (complete with the cool song "London Calling" by The Clash playing in the background - gosh! I love the choice of songs in this movie!) where we are introduced to single mother Peggy Hodgson (played by Frances O'Connor) and her four children living in a dark and damp council townhouse.

The trouble begins when Peggy's 11 year old daughter Janet Hodgson (played exceptionally well by Madison Wolfe) started messing with the Ouija board and ended up being possessed by the spirit of an old man named Bill Wilkins. The poltergeist activities in their house soon got out of hand and the church had to call the Warrens to step in to investigate.





I have to admit that a lot of the scenes in the movie are familiar and could be found in scores of other horror movies - things like loud banging on the door, TV switching on and off, toy train moving on its own, bedsheet gets yanked, even a little girl talking in an old man's voice - all cliched, yet for some reason, they don't seem boring to me. Perhaps this is James Wan's magic at work?

There is an amusing scene where two policemen visited the Hodgsons' house and after witnessing a chair moving on its own accord, they told Peggy that "this is a bit beyond us". Lol.




Interestingly, the Enfield hauntings is also widely regarded in real life as a hoax by some critics. This seems to draw some parallel to the controversial Amityville incident. Add in the Warrens' not-so-good reputation in real life (some people regarded them as frauds) and it must be quite a challenge to make a movie that is well balanced between authenticity and entertainment!





However, the movie cleverly took advantage of all the controversies and brilliantly played along, even to the extent of suggesting that what happened at Enfield was a hoax all along with the proof of a video recording... until that last minute twist near the ending.

There is also a scene where the Warrens' reputation was put on the line. They were interviewed on live TV and being criticised by Stephen Kaplan for promoting hogwash with their Amityville investigation. Not familiar with this man Stephen Kaplan, I googled his name and was surprised that he's actually a paranormal investigator himself and not only that, he's also a vampirologist!

Hmm, I really wonder if this live TV interview really happened in real life or just a fictional adaptation by the film makers.





Conjuring 2 was not particularly scary to me, but I do have some favourite scary scenes. One of them is this scene where Lorraine's daughter saw the demonic nun Valak in the hallway of their home.





This shot is very creepy and the haunting music by Joseph Bishara seems to heighten the creepiness.





And the scene where the painted Valak picture flew across the room towards Lorraine was intense!





I also liked how Enfield was always raining. It added a gloomy atmosphere that is so perfect for a horror movie.





This scene where Janet and Lorraine met for the first time was truly memorable for me. It showcases excellent and strong acting skills (Oscar-worthy performances even) from both Madison Wolfe and Vera Farmiga.





In fact, I can still remember part of their dialogues.

Janet : It said it wants to hurt you.
Lorraine : When did it say that?
Janet : Right now.

Gosh, when Janet said the words "Right now" it was so chilling that I felt an enormous dread falling upon Lorraine.





The rest of the cast gave quite commendable performances too. I also like the idea of throwing in a second paranormal investigator, Maurice Grosse (played by Simon McBurney) and a skeptic, Anita Gregory (played by Franka Potente).

At first, I thought these characters are fictional and thrown in to spice up the story but the end credits where they show the real photos of the original persons proved me wrong.





I have to mention that the camera work in this movie was brilliantly done. I particularly like the scene where Janet, presumably possessed by Bill Wilkins, was sitting in the rocking chair behind Ed Warren but her image is blurred while the camera solely focused on Ed's face, leaving our imagination to work overtime on what is happening behind him! Excellent stuff.





Although this movie has its fair share of jump scares, it's really the atmosphere, the music and the 70's ambience that really got to me. Perhaps some of the scariest movies like The Exorcist and The Omen belong to the 70's.





And how could I forget those posters of David Soul and Paul Michael Glaser plastered on the girls' bedroom wall? So 70's!





There is only one thing I didn't like about this movie. It is the tall and long-limbed Crooked Man. It looks more like a monster to me and seems out of place for a ghost movie. Personally, I feel it would be better if they leave him out.

But I do like the Crooked Man rhyme. It goes something like this...

There was a crooked man, and he walked a crooked mile
He found a crooked sixpence upon a crooked stile
He bought a crooked cat, which caught a crooked mouse
And they all lived together in a little crooked house....

Is there any more to it?





The scene showing the crosses all turning upside down was fairly intense and dramatic, although not that scary to me, until I got a jolt from the cheap scare of the ghost jumping out from the corner of the screen.





The basement scene where Ed tried to fix the leaking pipes was rather suspenseful, but nothing that really made me sat in my seat in fear.





Compared to the first movie, I feel Conjuring 2 is less scary but more interesting. Some say it is more like a love story than a horror movie, and perhaps they are right. It's more about the loving relationship between the Warrens and how Lorraine ultimately saved her husband.





Perhaps the movie felt a bit too long at 2 hours and 14 minutes. It could definitely be tighter, and shorten to just 2 hours, maybe?





I thought the scene where Ed Warren sings Elvis Presley's Can't Help Falling In Love in front of the children was a nice touch. It's actually one of my favourite non-scary scenes in the movie.

And that song by the Bee Gees - I Started A Joke - that almost made me cry. It was just so fitting.





The twist towards the end was inevitable. I would be very disappointed if the whole Enfield case was completely fake. Then where would the demonic nun Valak fit in? So yes, I expected the twist.





The ending sequence is pretty exciting, although I think it could be even more exciting. The battle with Valak was just too short and easy for me!

There's however one thing I do not quite understand - if knowing the name of the demon is key to casting him back to hell, why would the demon tell Lorraine his name in the first place?





Make sure you remain seated after the movie ends to watch the end credits!

The real recordings of Janet Hodgson speaking in the demonic voice is revealed. Also the real photos of the Hodgsons and other people involved in the case are shown too. I guess this is a good idea to make the story more believable and to strengthen their "based on a true story" claim.

But if you watch carefully, you will also notice that the film makers have sneakily inserted shots of the hideous Valak in between, though they are very brief but just enough to ingrain the images into your subconscious.

Will there be a Conjuring 3 next? I certainly hope so!





Storyline : 7/10
Scariness : 5/10
Sound Effects/Music : 9/10
Suspense : 8/10
Acting : 10/10

*Warning Note : Scariness is subjective. I have watched too many ghost stories and horror movies to get scared anymore. My 5/10 may turn out to be 8/10 for you.

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I am sorry to say I have forgotten all about the Spiritual Feng Shui seminar by Lillian Too which I blogged about back in 2013! I was supposed to do 3 posts on it, but I had only done 2.

The Hungry Ghost month that is upon us now somehow reminded me about this seminar so I was thinking what better time than now to continue sharing what I had learnt!

Anyway, to refresh your memory, please click the links below for Part 1 and Part 2.
Spiritual Feng Shui By Lillian Too (Part 1)
Spiritual Feng Shui By Lillian Too (Part 2)

Now, let's move on to Part 3.

This is the month where the Hungry Ghosts from Hell are let loose to walk the earth. Lillian Too said we must be careful and be protected from these ghosts. One way is to display this Vairochana Mantra Plaque.



She told us a short story how she learnt about this Vairochana Mantra. She was on the phone with her guru, Lama Zopa Rinpoche who was in California. At that time, there was a wildfire about 40 miles away from where Lama Zopa was staying. Lillian was concerned and asked why he had not evacuated from the area. Rinpoche told her not to worry, he had the Vairochana Mantra with him and he believed the wind direction would change and blow the fire away from his place. And indeed, that was what happened later. From that incident, Lillian made sure she get hold of the Vairochana Mantra.



Besides that, Lillian also recommends the Kalachakra Mandala and the Samantabhadra House Amulet to keep bad spirits away.

Now besides the Hungry Ghosts that only come out for a month every year, there is another type of ghosts which we called spirits. Every space has its own local spirits, even your own home. These spirits are neither good nor bad. They can either cause problems or protect you from problems.

These are some things that local spirits can create.



Talking about black magic, do you know that all black magic are caused by low level spirits? If you do not understand what are low level spirits, read Part 2 for more information. Since black magic is not caused by higher ranking and more powerful spirits, you do not need to be afraid. However, you really do not want to be a victim of black magic!

The most powerful black magic, according to Lillian Too, does not come from Indonesia or Thailand. Guess where does it come from? India! Yes, Indian black magic is the most powerful and India has the oldest tradition in black magic, so be very careful!

Looking at the list of things that local spirits can cause, now you may wonder if sometimes you really feel lazy, or the local spirits trying to make you lazy. When you feel jealous of your neighbour, is it really you or the local spirits whispering bad things in your ear to make you feel jealous? So, be aware.

However, the good news is local spirits can also protect you! Here are the list of things they can protect you from.



Lillian Too said that they can delay you to avoid accidents. For example, you were about to be involved in a car crash but because you could not find your car key, the timing was delayed and you avoided the accident.

As for stopping the rain, Lillian Too said all bomohs in Malaysia can stop the rain - it's no big deal. Lillian said she teaches how to stop the rain in her Magic Class. And also how to bring the rain too.

Oh, Lillian also mentioned about the haze that blows in from Indonesia every year. She said the haze was caused by spirits, not the weather! The spirits could change the direction of the wind and that's how Malaysia ended up with the haze. But of course, you can get the spirits' help to create rain to clear away the haze!

Local spirits can also keep burglars away! Interestingly, Lillian said that try as they might, the burglars simply could not find your house.  It's as if your house is invisible to them!

So how you get the local spirits on your side so that they help protect you instead of creating problems for you? Appease the spirits by burning incense and also offer food and other offerings to them on a regular basis.



Lillian also mentioned about the wildfire which is always happening in the United States. Why are there so many fires over there? In the olden days, the Red Indians used to give smoke offerings to the spirits. But as more and more Red Indians moved to the city, these tradition is no longer practised. So the spirits decide to create their own smoke offerings - by burning the pine leaf forests. We can say that the smoke from the fire is like incense to them.

Spirits have many different ranks. High ranking devas (eg. Yaksha, Rak-Sha-Sha) control the sky and fire elements. Middle ranking beings (eg. Naga, Gyalpos) control Water and Earth elements. Most obstacles like accidents, illness, difficult people are usually caused by Gyalpos.

Lower ranking spirits like Mamos are actually female spirits who like to disturb men and even women. During the seminar, Lillian said not to make fun of them because they were in the room! That actually gave me the creeps! Mamos are very beautiful but do not be afraid of them -  Lillian said they are subservient to higher ranking spirits.



Lillian Too also shared a joke with us. She said if you are in construction line, you have no choice but to appease the spirits (if you do not want accidents to happen) because they are very active in construction. However, if you are in finance, then not so bad as the spirits do not understand finance so well. LOL. (I'm not sure if she's really joking!)

Lillian Too said we all need Cosmic Protectors. These are powerful spirits that have sworn to protect us. They control the lower class spirits (mentioned above). To request for their protection, you need to offer food, tea, incense, and sometimes alcohol.



Lillian suggests planting a tree with pine leaves so that you can cut the branches and leaves and burn them to produce aromatic incense for the cosmic protectors. As for food, you can offer white sugar, butter, honey, and biscuits. In fact, Lillian said they love Lexus biscuits and Quaker oats biscuits!

Who are these powerful protectors? They are the Buddhas, Yidams and Deities. Think of them as enlightened beings, not Gods. They are most compassionate and wise. They are always on your side. They help everyone who request for their protection. In fact, you do not even need to be a Buddhist for them to help you. They help you irrespective of your race, color and religion.



Lillian also introduced to us the White Goddess Umbrella also known as Guan Yin to the Chinese. The White Goddess Umbrella protects us from all forms of obstacles and black magic. If you suspect someone being harmed by black magic, just bring this White Goddess Umbrella plaque and hang it in his or her house.




Alternatively, you can get him or her to wear this seed syllable "OM".



Goddess Guan Yin (also spelt Kuan Yin) also brings us wealth and success.



There are different types of incense for different cosmic protectors. In the case of Green Tara, you have incense powder (available from Lillian Too's feng shui shop and online) specifically for Green Tara. Also, chanting Green Tara's mantra helps a lot too.



Medicine Buddha helps with health related problems. Chanting the mantra also helps!



The White Dzambhala solves your money problem. Bathing the Dzambhala and the four Dakinis daily while reciting the mantra will help attract big money luck.





To sum it up at the end of the seminar, Lillian said that we need the enlightened beings and the cosmic protectors to protect us and we need to appease the lower ranking spirits.



Otherwise, there would be lots of obstacles thrown our way.



Finally, invite Guru Rinpoche into your home - most powerful for overcoming all obstacles.



I hope you have found this post most interesting and perhaps benefitted from it in some way. I am just sharing what I learnt at the seminar. Of course, everything is simplified for us to understand easily. If you wish to learn more, or go deeper into Spiritual Feng Shui, do get in touch with Lillian Too or visit her World Of Feng Shui shops for advice.

Continued from Part 1

According to feng shui expert and world's best selling feng shui writer Lillian Too, there are 3 dimensions to feng shui. They are, as mentioned in Part 1, the Space dimension, the Time dimension and the Spiritual dimension.

Spiritual Feng Shui is all about engaging the beings of the cosmic realms. Who and what are these beings? This is what we are going to delve into in this post.

Basically, there are SIX different realms of existence. We are in the HUMAN realm. We are somewhere in the middle as there are higher and lower realms than us.



The Upper Realms are made up of the God realm and The Asura realm. These consists mostly of the Protectors and Guardians like Buddhas, Bodhisattvas and wisdom beings.

The Lower Realms are made up of the Ghost realm, the Animal realm and the Hell realm.

Within the spirits realm, they have their own different levels and hierarchies. Even the Protectors and Guardians have different ranks of their own. Those of the lower levels are afraid of those from the higher levels, or to put it more nicely, the lower level beings respect those that are of higher levels than them.



According to Lillian Too, the HUMAN realm is the best realm to be born in. It is only in the human realm that one can have the potential to achieve enlightenment, meaning a state where you can truly understand everything about the true nature of your existence, so that there is no more learning.

Also, in the human realm, one can appease and control the spirits, which makes one's life smoother and happier.

It will be most unfortunate if you were to be born into the Animal realm as animals do not have the intellect to understand such profound wisdoms or to achieve enlightenment. And even worse, is to descend into the Hell realm, for you will be one of those hungry ghosts that are only allowed to roam the earth during the Hungry Ghost month!


A hungry ghost image source

As such, the Human realm is seen to be very precious. Lillian therefore advised us against taking our own lives. She even said that people who harm themselves are stupid beyond words! The message here is to take good care of our lives for as humans, for we are indeed very precious and at an advantage compared to the others.

Now there are billions and billions of spirit beings! And they are not just of this world, but of other worlds too, in fact, the whole Universe. So who really are these ghosts and spirits?

According to Lillian, ghosts and spirits are beings that are trapped in the BARDO. What is the Bardo? The Bardo is the in-between world between realms!



This is how it works. When we die, we spend 49 days in the Bardo. That's exactly 7 weeks! This is also why the Buddhists and Taoists pray for 49 days for people who have passed away.

3 things can happen when you are in the Bardo ...

1) You get reborn (either into human, animal or hell realm)
2) You stay trapped in the Bardo
3) You become enlightened and go on to the higher realms

Most spirits get reborn, but some get trapped in the Bardo. How does one get trapped in the Bardo?

Well, when you are too attached to life on earth, you will get trapped in the Bardo. When everyone cries and mourns your death, you may find that you are not able to let go. So it is important to say good bye and not cling to your past life when you die.

If not, you will be a slave to the King of Bardo. But what is worse since you are so attached to life on earth, is that the King of Bardo will tell you to pull in another relative. That's one reason why you notice that sometimes when a person dies, 2 or 3 weeks later, his close relative or family member also dies. This is also why a lot of prayers are needed for the dead so that they do not stay trapped in the Bardo.


Wandering in the Bardo image source

How did Lillian know about all these? You are probably thinking she invented it all right? Well, according to Lillian, she got all these knowledge through lots of research and by learning from the Tibetan lamas and also from reading the sutras, which are the direct teachings of the Buddha.

Personally, I think it's way more complex than what Lillian explained to us during the seminar. But then, I think she did a great job in simplifying and making it easy to digest for the layman.

Lillian's advice is to live in such a way that when you die, you know HOW to die. But in the meantime, those of us still alive have a life to live. We all want a happy, smoother life and one way to achieve that is to have good feng shui. Besides good feng shui, we also need to have good Spiritual feng shui, in other words, we need to appease the spirits around us.


The Diamond Sutra image source

Now every space has its own local spirits. They are neither good nor evil. KL has its own local spirits, Mid Valley (Lillian mentioned this since we were having the Spiritual Feng Shui seminar at The Gardens next to Mid Valley mall) has its own local spirits, and your house has its own local spirits too. Lillian said her house is a paradise to her because she always keep her local spirits happy.

In Part 3, I will share with you what kind of harm and obstacles these local spirits can do to you, and how you can actually appease them so that instead of harming you, they turn around to protect you from harm!

Possibly also in Part 3 (if the post is not too long), I will share some of these interesting stories like...
- how Lillian's guru, Lama Zopa Rinpoche changed the direction of the fire raging through the forests of California (is it magic?)
- why the Indonesian haze plaguing Malaysia may be spiritually related...
- how Lillian created the rain to wash away the haze! (magic again?) and...
- all about black magic, and which country has the deadliest black magic of them all! Can you guess?

Don't miss all these and more, in Part 3 coming soon! : )