http://thestar.com.my/lifestyle/story.asp?file=/2006/12/10/lifefocus/15753394&sec=lifefocus

The Star Online > Lifefocus
She hears dead people
BY EVON GABRIEL

WHEN I watched the movie The Sixth Sense, I thought it was impossible to
see dead people.  
I had never come across anyone talking about possessing this ability
until a few weeks ago, when one of my students actually wrote about a
similar extrasensory ability in her essay. 
This student can actually hear dead people. Creepy, eh? It's true.  

She has been having this "sixth sense" since she was a child, when she
began to hear "dead people" whispering or even having a conversation
around her. 
She can only hear their voices but can't see them.  
"Hearing their voices is creepy enough, if I start seeing them, I don't
know if I could take it," she said when I questioned her after reading
her essay. 

She recalled how it all started at the age of eight when she stricken
with a viral fever and hospitalised for weeks.  
Eventually she recovered but, after that, she started hearing strange
voices around her all the time. 

At first, she found it difficult to handle the situation. She used to
cry at night, afraid of the voices. Although "they" didn't harm her, she
could feel their presence everywhere she goes. Eventually, she got over
this fear.  
I was impressed with her because she handled the whole situation on her
own without much help from her parents.  

Being illiterate, they didn't bother to take her for a proper medical
check-up and simply concluded that she was hallucinating because of the
medication she was taking.  
Tired of being accused of telling lies, she stopped complaining to her
parents, and she eventually got used to the situation.  
Nowadays, she hears voices everywhere around her, when lessons are going
on, when playing with her friends, when watching television and even
when she goes to the toilet. 
However, one good thing about it is she doesn't understand "their"
language.  

One day, in the wee hours of the morning, she heard someone crying in
her room. I wonder what I would have done if I were in her situation. 
Life was usual for her even with this strange situation which keeps
haunting her.  

But recently she heard her name being called: "Ling, Ling!" She turned
around to find no one behind her. She felt a cold shiver running down
her spine.  
I advised her to consult a monk or, better still, to see a psychiatrist
for help.  
She's afraid "they" might harm her if she tries to get rid of the
voices. 
However she did go to a monk and she was given some talismans to ward
off the spirits. But nothing happened. 

One day, we were talking in the teacher's room at about 3pm, after
school was dismissed. Only the two of us were there.  
She suddenly stopped talking and stared right through me.  
"What happened, why are you staring at me?" I asked her. 
"Ma'am, I can hear someone talking behind you!" she said. 
I just stared at her.