Hello and welcome to day 11 of the 12 Days of Christmas.

Oh you do. Oh yeah just felt like dropping it in again. Oh I see. I've got five spooky

listener stories for you today. I tell you my nerves are taking a beating. I know.

It's 12 days of beating my nerves. That sounded a bit wrong but. We don't do that too

loudly. People would start to wonder what you're into. And story number one comes

from in the family. When I was a child my father took me and my brother to see a witch

doctor. This man supposedly had several spirits living inside him, bonded to his own. He

would allow them to possess him in order to carry out spiritual healings or cleansings.

But what he was best known for was exercising evil spirits. For context we live in Borneo

and my family is part of a tribe called the Ibanes or sea dialects in Southeast Asia.

The majority of the surrounding area is thick jungle and some places are untouched by

Western society and culture. Many people still believe and practice the ways of old despite

being converted to other modern religions. When we came to the witch doctor's house there

were dozens of people sitting on the floor and all the chairs waiting for their turn to

see him. We joined them and listened to their stories. A man who had unbearable migraines,

a woman who could not conceive and parents who wanted to stop their child's painful

skin condition. All of them tried modern medicine but the results were the same so they decided

to come to him for help. But what stuck with me after all these years was an elderly man

who asked the witch doctor to exercise the spirit of his recently deceased wife and

give her peace. Every night he would hear her whaling and asking for help, telling him

to come with her. After further questioning it was discovered that when she was buried

her husband placed a photograph of them together inside her coffin. In Asian culture, photos

...