Context: 

I am an international student in the US. When I went back to India for my winter break, I took a trip to Rajasthan – the western part of the country – with my family. One night, my cousins and I decided to talk about our experiences with ghosts at 2 am. We turned the lights off, sat in a circle, and turned on our touches. One cousin of mine, let’s call her T for the story, volunteered to share her frightening experiences of being possessed by a spirit(S).

The Story:

One day, T was coming back home from school when she unknowingly stepped on a piece of lime on the road. Eatery items in India tend to have an association with black magic, where the magician uses food, i.e., items like sweets, lime, or fruits and leaves them on the roads or distributes them in temples, taking advantage of the naive nature of people as they unknowingly eat the possessed food item, considering it a gift of god.

However, in her case, T stepped on one instead of eating it. Coming back home, she was normal. But it didn’t take long for her to be abnormal. She started liking to sit in the dark, would randomly laugh, and would look at the right side of her bed, and would cry for no reason. 

As the days passed, no one in her family really noticed what was happening. One day, she was having lunch when she randomly picked up her lunch plate and took it out of the house. She walked towards the spot where she stepped on the lime. By then, her mom was out of the kitchen and realized that T was not there. Her mom, in search of her, came out of the house and shouted out loud. “Hey T, what are you doing?” This sharp sound broke her trance, but made her mom realize that something was not right with her. 

After a few days of repeated unusual things that T did, it made her mom certain that her daughter was possessed. She fortunately knew a priest, who previously had experience dealing with necromancy. When the priest paid a visit to their house, he gave a piece of paper with spiritual chants written on it, and asked T to read it for a week and then mix that piece of paper in a glass of water and drink it at the end of the week. T also mentioned that after mixing that paper, the glass of water would turn orange. Before that priest left the house, he told T, “Be strong, someone is fighting for you as long as you let them”.

Days passed, and the priest paid weekly visits. Even though the hallucinations were declining, they weren’t completely gone. Suddenly, one day, T stopped sleeping in her room, saying that the right side of the bed feels inclined, and I feel there is a gush of wind hitting my face whenever I toss towards that side.

After a couple of days, she began waking up in places she didn’t remember going to, and her mother started staying awake at night. One evening, T quietly started walking towards the balcony. As T walked closer to the edge of the balcony, her body refused to move, as if two magnets with the same polarity were kept head-on. It felt like something was pulling her forward and holding her back at the same time. That night, when the priest returned, he explained that  “There are two spirits. One is trying to take her. The other is trying to protect her.”

Over the next few days, the rituals became more intense. T read more chants and the priest performed cleansing prayers in the house. And the weird behavior slowly began to fade away. One fine day, it was the end of the week, when T began mixing the piece of paper in water, ready to drink, but it did not turn orange. After that day, everything stopped.

Their Thoughts: 

T says that it was a horrifying experience for her. She also believes that this made her more spiritual. Not only this, she initially was a bit reluctant to share this story with others, but now she has mustered the courage to talk about it among her peers, and feels “it is just cool, thankfully I have no spirit now”.

My Thoughts: When T began narrating the story, I initially was a bit skeptical about whether the story was true or not. Over the course of the trip, I spoke to her mom to ask if something like this really happened, and to my surprise, it really did. More so, it was scary for me too, as I used to hear legends about people being possessed by back magic, but I never believed them. This time, when it happened to T, I now feel black magic exists, and I try to be vigilant of my surroundings when walking on the road or when eating food given by people.