Hoang Thi Thiem, a Vietnamese woman who says she can speak with the dead
© AFP/File Frank ZellerHANOI (AFP) - Clenching her shoulder is Hoang Thi Thiem, a professional psychic who says she is helping the girl channel the spirit of her dead grandmother who is speaking to the extended family from the grave.
"I use the energy from my hands to invite the spirits of the dead to enter the body of a living relative," said Thiem, 41, who says she discovered her special skill after a serious illness several years ago.
Sceptics may have doubts about psychics like Thiem, but for a growing number of Vietnamese -- especially those still searching for relatives missing from what they call the "American war" -- communicating with the other side is a deadly serious business.
More than 30 years after the end of the war that left at least three million Vietnamese soldiers and civilians dead, thousands here are seeking supernatural help in their search for the remains of their loved ones.
Communist Vietnam may officially be an atheist state, but in a country with a long tradition of ancestor worship, the out-of-this-world searches for those still missing in action has become a mainstream phenomenon.
Vu The Khanh, director of Vietnam's Science Technology Union for Informatics Application in Hanoi
© AFP/File Frank ZellerMany of those looking for fallen soldiers come to Thiem's workplace, the Science Technology Union for Informatics Application, a centre for the study of the supernatural located in a leafy Hanoi neighbourhood.
"There are people with different psychic abilities," said director Vu The Khanh, drinking tea in a fourth-floor office crammed with computers, Chinese landscape paintings, Buddha images and other religious icons.
"Some can hear voices from the other world. Some have the third eye. Others can smell the dead. Some were born with psychic ability. Others found it after a traumatic event like an accident, an electric or a mental shock."
Khanh says about 10 psychics now prominent in Vietnam -- out of a field of more than 100 self-proclaimed spirit mediums -- had over the years helped thousands of people find peace of mind by locating the remains of missing relatives.
Some of the mediums ask family members to show them pictures of the war victims, others say they need only their names and biographical details.
Demand has been so high that families often have to wait more than a year for appointments with psychics working at Khanh's centre and similar bodies such as the Centre for Research into Human Capabilities.
--- Psychics use mobile phones to lead families to war graves ---
Hoang Thi Thiem (C-white top) who says she can speak with the dead
© AFP/File Frank ZellerThe most sought-after mediums stay in Hanoi or Ho Chi Minh City and speak by mobile phone to relatives searching for mortal remains, passing on directions as they receive them from the souls of the dead.
"The psychic talks over the phone, pointing us to turn right or left, to dig in this or that place in a faraway jungle," said Khanh. "Before the search, we need to burn incense and ask for permission from those we are looking for."
Most Vietnamese do not have access to DNA testing to verify that the remains they find are those of their relatives, but for many searchers the more obscure and revealing details the mediums tell them are proof enough.
In a much-cited case, former deputy prime minister Vu Van Dung consulted psychic Phan Thi Bich Hang, 34, who says she has been able to see and hear dead people since emerging from a coma after being bitten by a rapid dog in 1990.
According to the Cong An Nhan Dan (People's Police) newspaper, Dung several years ago asked Hang to help him find the remains of his younger sister, who he knew had been killed by French colonial soldiers in 1950.
Dung says he was convinced Hang told the truth when she said the woman's spirit had told her about being tortured before her execution, in line with a confidential report Dung had received as a state official.
While the retired politician was satisfied with the spirit-assisted search, others have fallen victim to charlatans.
Last October police caught Dang Xuan Ba, a man who had claimed to be using telepathic powers to locate a soldier's mortal remains in return for money. The bones later turned out to be animal bones planted by the fraudster.
But stories like this do not shake firm believers, including state service retiree Hoang Phat Trieu, whose brother-in-law Nguyen Van Thai was killed along with his entire unit in a 1968 US air strike in central Vietnam.
"Because there were no survivors, there was no information about where and how he died," Trieu told AFP.
Medium Nguyen Van Lien, using a hand-drawn map and tape-recorded instructions, directed Trieu's family to a small cemetery in Quang Tri, where the remains had been re-buried by local villagers.
"Lien told us by mobile phone that we would find an unmarked grave at gravestone number 17 in the ninth row," said Trieu. "To our surprise, there was the grave of an unknown soldier set admid graves with names of people on them.
"Everything was exactly as Lien said, although he had never visited the area," said Trieu. "He instructed us over the phone in great detail, just as if he were at the site with us."
Local officials finally allowed Trieu's family to take the remains and rebury them in a Hanoi cemetery.
"We made the trip with a firm belief," he said. "We were told we had to conduct the search using our hearts. We absolutely believe that we found Thai."
©AFP