Coming to the “paradise city” of Nakhon Sawan, Thailand, stories about flying saucers and aliens are constantly buzzing in a small Buddhist community. The stories are hard to believe but true.
A small community of Buddhists in Thailand believe they hear extraterrestrial voices during meditation – Photo: CNN
About a three-hour drive north of Thailand’s capital Bangkok is Nakhon Sawan, which means “heavenly city” in Thai.
It was a peaceful little town, at least until the day a Buddhist claimed he heard a telepathic message from extraterrestrials while meditating.
Since then, word of mouth has spread that if you meditate on Khao Kala Hill on the outskirts of Nakhon Sawan, you have a chance to hear the voices of silvery creatures speaking in your head, in the language you use to think…
Story over 20 years ago
It all started in 1997. One day, retired sergeant Cherd Chuensamnaun was meditating at home when something strange happened: he believed that an alien voice appeared in his head.
The man told his family members and their natural reaction was to ridicule him.
“I told him, ‘Dad, tell the aliens to appear.’ The next day, my brother and brother-in-law were sitting on the sofa and suddenly jumped up and spun around, from inside the house to the alley,” Wassana, the sergeant’s daughter, told CNN.
At the same time, from an upstairs window, Wassana’s sister-in-law confirmed seeing a flying saucer. “It was about 10-15m long, hovering about a treetop above the ground,” she described.
After that day, Wassana quit her job as a nurse to pursue extraterrestrials; her father continued to receive mysterious messages for the next three years until his death in 2000.
“Before he passed away, my father taught us how to communicate with aliens. Today, more than 100 Thais have this ability,” Wassana explained.
“Buddha is the greatest wisdom of mankind”
According to locals, most of the UFO sightings occurred near the Wassana family home, in the sugarcane fields and Bueng Boraphet Lake in the Khao Kala hill area , on the outskirts of Nakhon Sawan.
Wassana said the aliens told her that Buddha was “the greatest human wisdom”; they preached advice about karma, reincarnation, greed, fear… and other topics common to Buddhism.
In Thailand, 95% of the population is Buddhist; while Buddhist teachings are open to the concepts of ghosts, spirits, and even extraterrestrial life, they advise believers not to pursue irrational, hopeless fantasies.
Mr. Veeranut Rojanaprapa, a Buddhist scholar in Bangkok, commented on the phenomenon in Nakhon Sawan: “Whether aliens exist or not, that is not important, it also does not help us reach Nirvana. We do not judge whether human communication with aliens is right or wrong, but most of the time they are just illusions.”
However, Thai authorities became alarmed as more and more people gathered at Khao Kala Hill to talk to aliens, threatening to damage the protected forest area there.
In August, authorities had to mobilize about 40 people, including Thai Forestry Department officials, to disperse a crowd of curious onlookers on Khao Kala Hill. They petitioned the court to ban future large gatherings.