Encountering the supernatural in Singapore

“Mass hysteria closes part of a factory”, “Medical experts pinpoint psychological worry as the main cause: Do not fear Koro…”, “Firms put mass hysteria under scrutiny.” (Straits Times). These are headlines that appeared in The Straits Times from 1967-1980, addressing outbreaks of “mass hysteria” in the Lion City. These short news stories document how a city undergoing rapid change and development managed to coexist with the spirt world and negotiated its boundaries. These headlines also reveal how the city state’s denizens imagined these supernatural encounters and how the corporate and medical world interfaced with accounts of ghost sightings and spirit possession. Tracing this archive of supernatural encounters, also elucidated the ways in which many of these encounters appear in hypermodern contexts and during a time of rapid modernization. Here, I mean modern in the Fareed Zarkaria sense, where he argues that “to be modern without becoming more western is difficult, the two are not wholly separable” (Zarkaria, 126), but in the spirit of Smith-Hefner and Menon, my goal is to ultimately trouble these notions of modernity and tradition. After tracing these articles as well as videos of Bomohs, Malay spirit mediums, on YouTube, I am still left with many questions: Are these spirits vengeful of modernity? Or are they trying to integrate themselves among skyscrapers and smartphones? Are Singapore’s residents pushing up against the change they see around them? Are factory workers manifesting dissatisfaction with their employers during these “mass hysteria” events? Do the disenfranchised mobilize through spirit possession to make claims to their rights or desires? Perhaps the most important question for me is: How does one write about the topic of spirit possession without psychologizing these episodes and breaking away from the ways in which interlocutors imagine these events but still contextualizing and analyzing them? In this blog post, I will analyze and discuss two of these historical “mass hysteria” events. 

First, I would like to note that this post does not intend to reinforce any type of gender binary or sex-gender conflation. I am trying to find the language to describe the ways in which the press genders these supernatural encounters but do not wish to reproduce exclusive, narrow,  or harmful notions of gender or sex (if anyone has any suggestions on how to best find the language to talk about these issues, feel free to let me know!). While many of the events I have read have gendered valences, many of the articles claim that spirit possession or “mass hysteria” tends to largely affect Muslim Malay women and feminine spaces, a 1967 outbreak of “mass hysteria” took on a masculine anxiety in the press. The koro, “a retraction of the male sexual organ”, epidemic was initially thought to be caused by pork consumption. While the Straits Times does not give any demographic information of those who were affected, I think it is relevant to note that pork is not a halal food but rather a haram one, forbidden by Islam. In some instances, the language of these supernatural encounters is heavily Islamic. The spirits are described in Islamic terms as jinns and Bomohs recite verses from the Quran to relieve people of their possession. Many times the language and manifestation of these supernatural encounters are deeply syncretic. Perhaps this outbreak was spurred by a vengeful God or jinns angered by pork consumption. Singapore’s cosmopolitanism or modernization possibly facilitated a break from Islamic customs such as maintaining a halal diet. 

In 1973, an “outbreak of mass hysteria among 25 female employees yesterday caused the General Electric (USA) and Appliance (Pte.) Ltd. to shut down part of the factory in the afternoon.” (1973, The Straits Times) One of the women working in the factory recalled: “the women went into a trance and started screaming.” (1973, The Straits Times) I am interested in the conditions and contexts that precipitate these supernatural encounters. The prevalence of these supernatural in factories is particularly noteworthy and illuminates how the spirit world interfaces with machines, corporate hierarchies, and corporate time. In this instance, the event occurred in a multinational corporation’s factory. What does it mean for a company headquartered in the United States to have its operations disrupted by such an encounter? The spirit world seemingly took over production and ceased it. The multinational corporation was forced to negotiate with the spirits. This episode reveals the transnational character of the Malay spirit world.

Another example of how the spirit world transgresses Dunia Melayu (the Malay World) is the emergence of spirit mediums (seemingly based in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu, which has long-standing connections to the Malay World) advertising their services in Facebook groups for Singaporean and Malaysian professionals. I found many of these posts by searching “#Bomoh” on Facebook. I was surprised yet unsurprised to see the religious iconography of my own religion, Hinduism, when I used this search term. One Facebook user posted in a Singapore business networking group with the hashtags: “#Bomohmelayu”, “#Bomohminyakdagu” advertising their “Blackmagic services” that can alleviate “Legal problems” and “Business Problems” among many others. (Facebook post). The user has both an Indian and a Malaysian Whatsapp number and a Gmail. The post employs a mixture of Tamil Hindu terms and Malay terms to describe its services and the spirit world. Analyzing Facebook posts like this one, demonstrates the ways in which the spirit world can use Whatsapp, operate in multiple locations and in multiple idioms and through multiple identities, and intercept the systems of modern capitalism and the state. Moreover, it is worth noting that many of these posts were made in Facebook groups for “professionals.”

Sources: Facebook, https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/from-the-straits-times-archives-past-mass-hysteria-cases-in-singapore

Image Source: Facebook post by Facebook user [name withheld for privacy]