Ghouls may come alive in museum

Not sure how many of you visited the 'Ghost' exhibition at the Shah Alam Museum. I didn't go myself probably because I was too scared :-) Anyway, there's so many articles in the newspapers recently about the exhibition.

The Director of Selangor Museum Board, Mohd Lotfi Nazar claims that 90% or the exhibits are real. Lotfi said he came up with the idea of exhibiting the ghost collection when he was involved in a project in Kuala Selangor. As he had a deep interest in the mystical world, several villagers who were also involved in the project convinced him to visit the Muzium Nurul A'la owned by Safuan Abu Bakar and which has rare items including a ghost collection.

Here are some pictures from the exhibition:



The following article was published in The Star yesterday:

The owner of the supernatural items being exhibited at the Sultan Alam Shah Museum here may finally have the opportunity to bring his “ghouls” to life.

And if the event takes place, Safuan Abu Bakar will be doing it at an annual paranormal conference held in Britain.

Bob Rickard, founding editor of a British paranormal magazine, who visited the exhibition recently, said he would source for sponsors to send Safuan as well as his team and exhibits to Britain.

“I will speak to my publisher as well as others who may be interested in seeing Safuan bring his exhibits to life,” said Rickard who founded the monthly magazine Fortean Times more than 30 years ago.

Rickard who visited the exhibition after reading about it in The Star also had a lengthy discussion with Safuan at the museum.

Sufi master Safuan had claimed that he could bring some of the supernatural items such as langsuir (vampire) to life to prove that they were genuine.

However, he said he would respect the wishes of the religious authorities, which prohibited him from doing so on grounds that the action would contravene Islamic norms.

“I won’t do it in Malaysia but if Bob (Rickard) manages to get me sponsorship to do it in Britain, I will do it there as part of a paranormal experiment,” he said.

Meanwhile, Rickard described the exhibits as some of the best that he had seen.

“I have gone to many exhibitions highlighting similar items but they are nothing near to what I’ve seen here,” said Rickard.

He praised the museum authorities for organising the exhibition to give the Malaysian public a glimpse into their cultural heritage.

“It is an excellent effort by the museum to bring this topic into discussion as well as to open the people’s eyes to their own historical and cultural identity,” said Rickard.

For me,I think it's all just a big publicity stunt to pull in the crowds. What do you guys think?