So, last night I was watching television late into the night. I started out with CSI: Miami (just don't ask which season, I don't keep track at all) and when it ended, I was channel surfing between Channel U's 女人我最大 QUEEN, a Taiwanese female-based info lifestyle magazine that finally earned it's spotlight on TV due to the good info that is beneficial to women and Channel 8's 不老传说 (Immortal Love in Mandarin).

Channel 8 won since I remembered watching 不老传说 (Immortal Love) when I was still a student and it featured Chew Chor Meng and a slew of other great actors/actresses during Singapore's golden days of drama serials. Current Singapore-made drama serials weren't so good, but the very latest seems interesting to garner some views. In other words, it's a 1997 drama serial and you all can roughly gauge my actual age more or less.

While watching 不老传说 (Immortal Love), I kind of noticed something really interesting that I probably never paid attention to while watching Mandarin-speaking drama serials. Anyone who knows a Taoist in the drama would atuomatically know Taoist rituals when emergency arises. Vampires, possessions, exorcisms, you named it, everyone knows the Taoist rituals for it. Seems funny, you might think so?

Even old Hong Kong vampire movies are not spared either. Let me give you a scenario since I don't recall some of the actors in those old vampire Hong Kong-based flicks. The master is a Taoist who specializes in minor ghost busting activities like catching ghosts, doing exorcisms, basically really regular jobs in the scope of "ghost-catching". Major ones are the vampires or 僵尸 that needs major destroying.

Vampires are not a good sign in Mandarin or Cantonese-speaking drama serials, movies and the like. Therefore, anything that sucks blood and creates more of it's kind have to be destroyed, one way or another. So, back to topic. Master knows Taoist rituals to do all these stuffs for a living, his disciple will definitely know a trick or two to survive unforseen circumstances, although most will end up in more haphazard scenarios that demands the master's immediate attention. But in the end, everything's well again although the master would be more or less angry at his disciples for making a misstep in one of the Taoist rituals performed, that calls for the master to solve it somehow.

And this somehow weirdly brought me back to when I was reading a book about the Tokyo subway gas attack orchestrated by Shoko Asahara. Yes, it is a tragedy when one recalls about that incident. Normal people going about their daily lives, catching public commute to work or school or maybe even enjoying a long-awaited holiday with loved ones for all we know. And this madman just had to totally ruined it for everyone by orchestrating a gas attack just to prove his illogical points. Although, if we do consider the pros and cons about it, we should probably be glad it's just nerv gas instead of an actual bomb, or the consequences won't be just the statistic "13 dead, thousands more suffered from after-effect".

Back to what this post is actually about: "Cults, Religions and their lol moments".

This weird little cult so-called Aum Supreme Truth had it's members following the teachings of a fat, bearded, partially sighted false prophet Shoko Asahara. And get this straight! Members wear "Mickey Mouse" headpieces through which they believe they will receive Shoko's thoughts. Which is a mixture of Buddhism, Hinduism, yoga, New Age occultism and mostly crankiness. If you're unsure how that description looks like, look no further:



Somehow, I doubt anyone would hear any type of messages through those ears at any time soon. If Walt Disney is still alive, he'd possibly demand a huge compensation for making people believe that "Disney is Evil" due to the mis-use of those ears. Poor Mickey Mouse, and I've never ever met that famous mouse up till now. And now, it's famous ears has been implicated by Shoko Asahara for his weird beliefs. I'd rather go live like a hermit than to wear that kind of stuff if I ever found myself joining a cult for no apparent reason.

But on the other hand, Witchcraft has been officially announced to be a religion and followers and practitioners are free to pursue Witchcraft without having to be tied and burned at the stake, huh? End story, Witchcraft isn't all about hexing and cursing due to this little law called Rules of Three, which I'll just shorten it to "Whatever you do to others, it will come back to you 3 times you've sent/give out". In other words, if I wished you good luck and the time comes when you do receive good blessings, it will come back to me by 3 times. Same goes for nasty purposes. If I intend to send you a cursing, say, for you to go bald even though I know you love your hair to death. You'll go bald, and when it's time for me to suffer, it won't just be plain old balding when it comes back to me, Yeah, sucks one way or another if you go around cursing someone else.

But on hindsight, Witchcraft or Wicca isn't all about the bad stuffs. I've come across various books and websites on Wicca-related stuffs and most rituals I've come across are more on the "blessing" than "cursing" ones. Besides, who wants to be re-cursed back three times at one go? Not me! And talking about Witchcraft or Wicca rituals, most of them are really about blessings and the items/materials needed are mostly found in your own kitchen. Good luck charm for finding a job, a tamer version of making someone feel uncomfortable by just using cat feces and a photo, and also slimming rituals. LOL

Ultimately, it's not in anyone's right to stop you from following a religion. But if that so-called religion imposes weird rules and statements about armageddon, mass suicide. Please stop and think. No right religion would advocate suicide in order to prepare for armageddon. That hot, steamy and fiery planet called "Sun" will keep shining on for another few million more years to come. So therefore, none of us will have the "good fortune" of ever seeing armageddon happen in our current lifetime. Maybe on Hollywood produced movies or drama serials.

Last but not least, a list of Opening theme videos of SBC/TCS/Mediacorp Series if anyone of my readers are curious about the golden days of Singapore drama serials.