Liquidity (7) - Spirit medium sitting in boiling oil, Singapore

Known as an 'oil wok' ritual, a mixture of medicinal herbs are cooked down in boiling oil for 6 to 7 hours. After it cools, it is generally given to the poor or elderly who apply it as a 'cure all ' remedy. The cooking is overseen by spirit mediums in trance possession states, and it is believed that while channeling a deity, the human mediums become the deity incarnate. The oil is blessed in many ways, but the most novel is that all spirit mediums present (there were 8 on that particular night) took turns sitting in the boiling oil. Not only did this help fortify the oil with the deity's power and efficacy, but also proved to their devotees that the trance possession state was not faked as ...View all