V is for Vetala

I bet you thought I was going to say Vampire? Well, Vetala’s are ghosts or spirits from Hindu mythology. And, they possess corpses and use them to move around. These deadwalkers no longer decay while the Vetala is inside them. The Vetala’s are vampiric spirits.

“These creatures can be repelled by the chanting of mantras with good mind concentration. One can free them from their ghostly existence by performing their funerary rites. They pretend to have an uncanny knowledge about the past, present, and future which they communicate and manipulate the persons mind through dreams to control the person and a deep insight into human nature. They also communicate through thoughts which includes images and influencing the ‘manasu’ (thoughts of heart) which will be highly effective. Therefore, many sorcerers seek to capture them and turn them into slaves and use them for their selfish needs.”1