can anyone tell me how to get to gravity hill? and choku dori, do you practice martial arts? i know this is off topic but i also notice there is also a baic martial arts thread...anyways get back at me if u do...i practice baji-quan aka hakkyoku-ken_

 

o yea direction to gravity hill from oakland..thx!!!

 

Baji-quan!! Where?! It's the most effective Chinese style in my opinion
I'm a Muay Thai practitioner, and also a fencer (foil). Also some minor experience in Choy Li Fut, kendo, and World Oyama Karate.

 

Y'know, thinking about this a bit more...

The idea that most religious people DON'T believe in ghosts and spirits is inaccurate. Even in the Western Judeo-Christian perspective, there are beliefs in the existence of the devil and demons as demonstrated in the Bible in ancient times and stories that we have our modern times (eg exorcisms, etc.). The matter for those of Judeo-Christian religious heritage is that although there is a belief in the existence of paranormal and supernatural beings, it is not the place of the faithful to hunt them, challenge them, and definitely not to worship them. Which leads to other traditions of animism, or spirit worship. It seems as if that most world cultures and religions have a belief in the existence of spirits.

However, it seems to be the modern scientific mind that seems to not believe in the existence of ghosts and whatnot. There are no reasons or answers for them, and no hard evidence, so it's assumed that they don't exist. I don't consider either school of thought to be wrong, just different from one another. There are some things that the human mind just cannot fully fathom, and we as ordinary people try our best to make sense out of things like that.

Right?

 

That's lucid dreaming.

http://www.lucidity.com/LucidDreamingFAQ2.html#LD

I used to have those falling dreams occasionally. When I heard of lucid dreaming the next time I had a falling dream I shot off like superman. I've been flying ever since.

Too bad about not dreaming for the past 17 yrs. I enjoy dreaming usually. If it gets too weird I usually realize it's just a dream and change stuff up. Sux I didn't know about this when I was 12. Lucid wet dreaming!

I never have believed the whole ghost thing. I'd have to see it to believe it.

 

ghost stories freak me out normally...
having lived in the bay area my whole life (until now) i've never encountered any spooky moments... but i have encoutered a few out in asia now...

my first encouter was actually in 2000 in beijing. i was staying at beida (beijing da xue - peking university) and was living in the foreigners dorms (shao yuan). one night as my roommate where returning to the dorm, the front door opened for us as we walked up to it - no one was around. we walked up to the elevator and without pressing any buttons, the elevator door opened... as we stepped inside and reached for our floor, the button lit up before we were able to press it... at that point, she and i looked at each other and we were both very scared... as soon as the elevator door opened, we bolted from the elevator and ran straight towards our room and shut the door behind us. after that, we took the stairs a lot....

a few months ago, i was in shanghai. we were in the new "hip" area of shanghai - xin tian di (new heaven and earth). we were sitting at a bar with some friends (t8) and we were one of two groups on the second floor. as we were chatting, the other group got up and left and we thought nothing of it. strangely enough however, around 11:55pm, the wait staff began blowing out all the candles and turning off all the lights. so we called them over and asked them: 'why are you turning out all the lights? we are still here and the bar's not closed!' the girl who normally waited on the second floor was accompanied by another guy. she responded: 'i normally try to close the second floor before midnight. there is a ghost in the mirror that comes out after midnight.' so some of us freak out, but others think: 'oh, they're just tryign to get rid of us so they have less to do.' nonetheless we move downstairs and find out that a monk had visited the bar that day and had found the ghost there. and that previous customers have seen the ghost and they've been shutting down the upstairs area for a few months before midnight. the girl who normally waits on the 2nd floor never waits alone when it comes near midnight....

living in hk, you hear a lot of ghosts stories as choku dori mentioned. apparently there is a common one that one of my friends actually experienced in happy valley. there is a legend about a mother and her son who ride the bus and walk the streets at night. one night one of my friends was returning to happy valley. they were all riding a taxi and pulled up next to the bus at a light. they looked up and noticed there was a woman sitting on the bus; the bus was empty otherwise. she was very pale looking and had long straight black hair. when they looked down again, they saw a boy in the middle of the street behind them running towards the bus. the light turned green and they started moving.... the boy caught up to the bus.. running "through" their taxi.. the bus never stopped and next thing they saw, the boy was sitting by the woman, and they both disappeared...

there are a lot of stories of haunted areas in asia. i believe that any place with a lot of history can lend itself to that. in addition there have been brutal amounts of killing in certain areas in asia that can result in more "hauntings". i generally try to rationalize everything, but sometimes things just can't be rationalized...

on that note, if any one is traveling to shanghai: do not stay at the ritz carlton (portman). it is supposedly haunted (along with many other streets occupied once by the japanese and resulted in mass murder of the chinese ppl)... in taiwan it's the sheraton (i'm not 100% sure on that one, but i know there's a hotel in taipei that's really haunted and no one stays there if they know). in hk, central and mid-levels are the most haunted supposedly, and august is the month most ghosts come out...

 

In Hong Kong, Kowloon Park's supposed to be another haunted spot. Lots of people died there during WWII afterall.

Like babysmurf said, areas with long and/or unique history seem to have lots of purported hauntings, especially battlefields and other violent places.

 

Those are some freaky stories Babysmurf.

I'm not sure if anyone else is like this but, for me I am always curious to see things i shouldn't. I feel like i'd want to see ghosts and experience "huantings", but if it ever happened, i'd probably wet myself

I guess it goes with the saying "Curiousity killed the cat"

 

It's really not worth thr drive, but...

Take CA24 toward Walnut Creek, get on 242 towards Antioch, take HWY4 East towards Antioch, take the Deer Valley Rd. exit to the right, keep on Deer Valley for several miles untill it becomes a small twisty two lane road, take a right on Empire Mine Rd. (this road is what is considered 'Gravity Hill'). You will go down a long straight stretch that will than have a right hand, almost 90 degree, curve. Once you go around that right curve, and you see a bunch of old industrial equipment up ahead to your right, you are on Gravity Hill. If you keep going 'up' gravity hill, that industrial complex on your right is the 'Slaughter House.'

-Chris

 

cool thx man!!... just a couple questions: 1)bassplayrr, can you tell me more about the slaughter house or what goes wrong up at gravity hill? also any other info you know about the place? stories? 2) choku dori, where can i find stories on martial artist who've over done it with internal qi training and went all wrong with it? im kinda interested in knowing what they did wrong if there is such info out there? and any other info regarding martial artists involved with paranormal activity..thx you guys!!

-hiro

 

Most of the stories of paranormal activity in martial arts training I've heard from various martial artists. Some accounts are hearsay, and others I've actually had a chance to speak with the actual person who had experienced paranormal phenomena. It's hard to say whether or not such phenomena were real, or if it was merely a psychological matter.

I've heard many of these accounts in Hong Kong and China, and some here in the Bay Area. There's one person in particular I can think in S.F. who's huge on paranormal experiences in martial arts, and his name is George Dong. Old man, dunno if he's even alive or not anymore. But at any rate, he's an "interesting" guy. Always talks about mind travel, seeing visions, manifesting chi outside of his body to produce physical results (a la putting out candles from across the room, breaking or manipulating objects at a distance), etc. Has a firm grasp on Tai Chi Quan, southern kung fu styles (Hung Gar and Wing Chun I believe), and is a blackbelt in karate (Shotokan IIRC). He's trained all over the world too. He kinda scares me, to be honest. I'd say be careful if you look him up. For him, it's kinda gotten to a point where what one might consider to be a bad thing has become run of the mill for him.

As for what is done wrong in training, well... There's an old Chinese term that roughly translates to "Misfiring leads to the entry of demons". What it means is that should you take your training TOO far, there's the possibility of losing one's mind. Believe it or not, there are many very old martial arts that have connections to animism and spirit worship, and such arts can be very dangerous. There are old accounts of practitioners of these styles becoming very powerful but in the end lose their minds. A common key is to not allow the mind to become completely empty. Now, common translations of Buddhist teachings often stress "no mindedness", which is actually a different concept that an "empty mind". Mushin-no-shin refers to a state wherein actions are hard-wired into one's mind and body such that they can be carried out without thinking things over. It's different than leaving your mind completely empty! Also, many martial arts have sessions of meditation (seiza in Japanese, or bai juo in Chinese). A common mistake is to empty the mind completely; rather, one is supposed to calm themselves and focus on the task at hand, which is to learn and practice their art until it becomes second nature. So why shouldn't a mind be empty? Well, it's an old Asian belief that when your mind is empty, something needs to fill the void. And no one wants anything in their head that not's them right? This probably sounds pretty superstitious, but please heed what I've said if you ever get to a point wherein your training becomes esoteric.

 

anybody ever visit the haunted creek at Marsh Road??

 

Bump from the grave.

When I was like 7, me and my cousin were watching tv in my folks room. All of a sudden we hear tetris music (exactly like from the game) playing in the next room. We shut off the tv, go to the room but the music disappears. We head back but we hear the music again. The music was clearly audible to be in the next room when you press your ear against the wall.

 

I thought you meant washington high over in Fremont cuz that's where I went and don't recall a 3rd floor lol

 

this is crazy. when my girlfriend,her cousins and I went to halfmoon bay we stopped by there and me and Jay (gf's cousin) were overcome with like an unwelcoming feeling, i felt i was not wanted there,i felt uncomftorable. it was a trip . it was well worth it though