LS stands for Lawang Sewu = Lost Spirits

The above title is just a twist of words. Lawang Sewu in fact questionably equals to Lost Spirits. Lawang Sewu, literally means a thousand doors. The following is an account of my less than 2-hour experience inside the palace-like-no-bathroom-creepy-historical place (very well sums it all up).

On September 11 through 13, 2004, I joined this so-called historical tour to Semarang. That is in Central Java, Indonesia, in the Southeast side of Asia continent (this is when you pretend to check out your map). It’s five and a half hours by train from my hometown, Jakarta or 45 minutes by plane. The city itself was located on the shorelines on the North of the island. From the location, it tells us the kind of climate it has: hot and humid. Some say dehydrating, but it’s summer all the year for others.

The trip to LS was on September 12. I don’t remember if it was at 3 o’clock or at 3.30 when we entered, but I remember it was so hot and my skin felt as sticky as honey spread on top of an overcooked donut. Plus, I have drunk 3 bottles of mineral water to keep me from dehydration (that equals to 900 ml).

So we entered this notorious place. Oh, I should tell you that from time to time we had heard strange ghost stories and mysterious phenomena happening inside this place before it was closed for public years ago. There were about 45 of us, including the guides and we walked in through a doubled-door entrance. Once I was inside, I could only see darkness. However, it only took a few seconds for my eyes to adjust and I saw a great staircase leading up. Halfway up, there were these beautifully crafted windows. (Pictures are in my wallpapers section).

Other than these windows, there was nothing else but dust and dark-long-never-ending corridors with rows of doors on both sides. Some girls started counting but quickly stopped once they reached 100 or 200. Understandable. So we went on inside, up and down the stairs, passing doors and more doors and one room full of bats. By then I wondered how the multi-billionaire Bruce Wayne must have smelled after working for hours inside his Bat-cave. Alfred must have had a special soap to get rid of the smell of dung. Anyway, I covered my nose and ran all my way out. I only started breathing once we passed the Bat-room.

To tell the truth, after the Bat-room, I have already lost direction and would have been lost should I got separated from the group. The dust I inhaled was starting to hurt my nose and the heat inside this place was unbearable. I have drunk up all my mineral water and stupidly didn’t carry any spare. My throat started to get sore and the sweat caused my skin to get even stickier. My face felt like burning and thinking about a glass of cold cola didn’t help much.

I noticed however, a strange thing about this place. There were windows and 2-meter doors all opened, while the ceilings were mostly higher than any in more modern buildings. However, the heat seemed to be trapped inside the rooms and the air circulation was so bad. The dust worsened it even more.

A moment later, when we were back on the ground floor, the guides announced that they were leading us to enter an underground tunnel, and warned us that it was flooded with water about 3 cm high. Well,… with the heat and the flood, I declined the invitation. I was not the only one though. There were around 10 to 12 people chose to stay on the ground while the rest disappeared one by one into the dark. Watching them going down the dark steps into the tunnel made me feel uneasy. I imagined they were like going down inside the earth and they would emerge somewhere in China. In fact, I thought they would come back the same way they went in. I was wrong though. They came out from somewhere outside the building.

While waiting for them to come back, we were instructed neither to go anywhere nor to wander around. We were supposed to stay put because they were afraid that we would get lost in the maze. Yeah right. I told my best friend Wasti that I couldn’t stand the heat and would directly violate the first rule. Another friend of mine, Roche, joined us and the three of us started walking out of there.

After a moment of walking in a straight line I saw these cute 2 puppies running around. One of them stopped and sat in front of the doors. I took out my camera and started to take a shoot on the puppy. Meanwhile, Wasti and Roche were arguing or discussing about a half-closed door in front of us. They didn’t remember passing through it and was beginning to doubt our course. I didn’t give too much attention because I was busy chasing the puppy around.

Then these two heroines started to push and kick the door. Why, if it could be moved easily, it might be one of our fellow tourists who swung it close in the first place. The door stuck still, unmoved, a proof that we certainly hadn’t passed through here. When the two were busy fighting the door, I was also busy looking at the puppy. I remember Wasti commented that it seemed to be looking at the door at someone. Its master, she joked. What she meant was that its master was a ghost we didn’t see beyond the half closed door.

I shrugged and took my camera again to get another shoot at the puppy. I adjusted my camera and turned off the flashlight and looked at the LCD monitor. At first I saw the puppy wagged its tail and looked up towards the door. Then I realized that someone was standing at the door. A woman, probably 1.90 meters tall, with long black hair. The way she was standing was quite menacing, however, the puppy didn’t seem to be affected. It was, as Wasti said, looking at its master. I nervously hit the button on my camera to capture the scene while my eyes were glued to the LCD monitor. I only realized too late that I probably should have looked at the door instead of looking at my LCD monitor, but when I lifted my gaze, she was nowhere to be found. Wasti and Roche were still on their efforts to open the stupid half-closed door as if they didn’t see the tall woman.

I shouted at them and asked them to go back to where the group was waiting, half running back. I told them I didn’t know the way out and that I had seen something at the door. Although they didn’t believe me at that time, they followed me back nonetheless.

Before I got any chance to relate my story to Wasti and Roche, one of the girls, I think it was Bing, pushed a door open and we all went out to the clear. I exchanged glances with Wasti, knowing that we had been indeed following the wrong course. Lucky us, thanks to that tall lady in there, otherwise the three of us would ended up inside the maze for quite a while.

By night, everyone in the group had heard of my story. Words traveled really fast. Not only that, some even had some phenomena captured in their digital cameras. One girl, Camelia, had these strange two figures posing in front of the building. Of course, her camera had infrared. Many others had bubble-like shape in the pictures. The talk about ghosts and lost souls quickly spread around like ants. And each one of course had their own theory about it.

I too, have a theory about it. However, mine is not the same as theirs. I have to admit that that was not the first time or the last time I saw humanoid presence other than humans. And my theory might sound too science fiction for some people but to me it’s the most logical explanation to all the things I’ve seen.

I believe that instead of living in a 2 dimensional universe, which consist of space and time, we are living in a multi dimensional one. Thus, our space and time might in fact criss-cross with others. This I call dimensional frictions. With all the technology that we have, I believe, some causes a leak. I use the term ‘leakage’ because I personally think that the multiple dimensions are supposed to hold each form firmly. Thus, a leakage, caused by the energy fields, might enable one person in our dimension to see the other life forms but never in a clear form and only during a short period of time. Partial apparitions, noises, forms in haze, such things are the result. I also believe that those life forms are as intelligent as us, perhaps some posses even a more advance technology.

My explanation regarding the ‘tall woman apparition’ is very simple. The leak caused in the dimensional friction in this area is probably very high. Maybe there’s a massive energy source on the other side, or it could be a constant energy burst from our side in that specific area. I believe, they too feel it and as we are, and they are interested in knowing the cause. This female humanoid life form that I saw could have been just a person like me, walking around and suddenly saw me. Or she could have been a scientist who tried to make contact. My image could probably be as distorted as hers. She might look at me taller or thinner, or even partial, or maybe she could hear my distorted voice, who knows?

In our modern society, ghost stories and scary tales are still popular. The stories are not just to scare kids on Halloween, but sold to TV stations for series and reality shows. A small kid who watches these stupid shows might just grow up to be a believer. A believer do not have an open mind, thus will have no interest to unravel the mystery. Maybe one day, when the people are not so absorbed anymore by ghost stories, we can find a way to use the dimensional frictions to communicate with them. Call them Djinn, call them ghosts, call them monsters, but I believe they are intelligent life forms.

I fear only one thing: How big can a leakage be before it becomes a hole?

Then it leads me to another question: How far is the safest distant as not to get sucked inside the hole?

This ‘hole’ thing of course will lead to many more questions that sometimes cannot even be explained scientifically. Worm-hole, black-hole, unstable gateway, etc, etc… I’m not gonna rant about them here.

However, until my questions are answered, I have but one thing to do. When I see those life forms I took some steps back or turn away from it. Being sucked into another dimension is not on the top of my priority list.

As I said, my theory sounds so much like science fiction. But hey, I don’t believe that we are alone in this world. I have an open mind to every possibility that our form of life is not the highest level of a life form. We are unable to reveal the secret of gravity yet, so I believe that this old Earth still holds so many secrets to unravel.

I remember a singer put down in words something about spirit. It goes like this:

If I die tonight, I’ll be alright,

Because I believe,

After I’m gone, my spirit carries on.

Well, if you believe in such things, then Lawang Sewu, LS could mean Lost Spirits or Lost Souls. But to me, LS is never an abbreviation of Lost Spirits, because I believe that death is the end.

I can think of another twist:

LS is Live Satisfied, live content, live for the day.

LS is Carpe Diem.

**End**