heeler the peeler's supernatural tales of horror and suspense

Afternoon meeting with Jinwoo, a Korean friend, in the Costa Cafe on Nassau Street.
We are getting together to discuss an article I wrote recently on supernatural nightmares.
Jinwoo is a personal acquaintance of Hyunjin, the girl who provided my original information.
The cafe buzzes with life.
Summer rain is dusting the pavements outside.
"These experiences are very common in Korea," Jinwoo told me. "And not just Korea. In China and Japan as well. In fact all over Asia. We are not surprised when these things happen."
"But could they be just dreams?" I ventured.
"No. They are real."
"How can you be sure?"
"We know what we are experiencing."
I drank some latte.
"So tell me what happens again."
"You wake up. You cannot move. You are aware of a presence near you. All your senses are working. But you cannot move."
"And it's not a nightmare?"
"No. Our name for it in Korean is Ka Wi. It means: The ghost wants to play. Scientists in Korea have investigated what's going on. They concluded that the experiences were related to REM sleep. You know. The deep stage of sleep where you have dreams. But they are wrong. I am very surprised that people in the West do not have these experiences. I don't understand why you don't believe they are real. We are afraid to tell Westerners these stories because you all think we're crazy."
I grinned handsomely.
"I never said I didn't think they're real," I told her. "I have to ask you the best journalistic questions I can in order to have a chance of finding the truth. But for myself, nothing you've said seems impossible. And plenty of people have contacted me to say they've had similar experiences since I published Hyunjin's story. In the West we often explain away the supernatural by suggesting it is merely a human mental perception arising from biological processes. Sometimes this explanation is true. I doubt that it is always true though. Again, speaking for myself, I've had some sort of sleep disruption from early childhood up through my adult life. I usually explain it away as arising from psychological fears about life or about myself. Childhood traumas. Blah, blah, blah. But I have had the occasional perception that more was going on. That there is a spiritual component. In the last few years the disruptions have ceased altogether. I mean I still get bad dreams but they no longer bother me at all. It is as though they have no authority over me. I believe I conquered whatever was going on, either psychological or supernatural, through the grace of Christ. I believe Jesus has authority over the physical and biological realities just as he does over the supernatural ones. It was only when I seriously started praying and turning to Jesus and his church and his word and the sacraments, it was only then that the fears which had haunted me for three decades were repudiated."
"So you think Jesus helped you?" wondered Jinwoo.
"Yes I do," I answered. "The Lord has a one liner in the Bible after he healed someone: Go and do not sin again lest something worse happens to you. This speaks to me. It suggests that sometimes when we're doing wrong, we allow evil spirits to have power over us. Even without meaning to. I think that's what Jesus was warning against. I'm a bit suspicious that some of these night time phenomena which we all want to believe are dreams, are actually related to this level of reality. But if we even take the smallest step towards Jesus, their power over us is diminished, much much less, and then nothing at all."
Jinwoo nodded.
She is a Christian.
"I think this too," she murmured. "We have the Ka Wi all over Asia. And all over Asia we have Shamanism. A sort of magic. The worship of trees and rivers and idols. I think this could be releasing evil spirits. Or giving evil spirits power over people."
Her words intrigued me.
"In Ireland we had the tradition of the fairies," I recalled. "They were meant to be magical spirits inhabiting country areas. Belief in them has all but died out. At one time many people actually lived in fear of them. Perhaps they are a reality related to the reality of the Ka Wi in Asia. Perhaps they can only gain influence in the mortal world when mortals have dealings with evil or with magic. I think Jesus has ended the power of all such things. Their power was always based on fear anyway. And Jesus doesn't ask any human being to live in fear. One of my favourite prayers goes: Jesus you are perfect love, and perfect love casts out fear."
Jinwoo smiled.
"It is a good prayer," she said.
We got up to go.
Outside the rain had cleared.
Dublin clamoured around us.
In the gentle light of evening, the dirty old town seemed really quite heavenly.