I was born in a rural area of Shandong. During my childhood, until I went to elementary school, we did not have electricity. What left a deep impression on me was that in the summer nights, people liked to cool off in the grain fields. I saw many starry skies there and heard many ghost stories. Among them were the famous “ghost hitting the wall” (a phenomenon where a person is inexplicably trapped, walking in circles and continually ending up back where they started, as though guided by an unseen force) and various ghost tales from LiaoZhai ( a collection of ancient Chinese ghost stories). As a result, I was too scared to walk alone at night when I was young, always afraid of ghosts.
The Story of My Father’s Death
In the countryside, there are people who are said to be able to “communicate with spirits,” usually middle-aged or older women, whom we call “Shen Pozi” (spiritual mediums). When someone in the family falls ill or something bad happens, they often seek the help of these mediums. In March 1987, my father died in a tractor accident. On the third day after his death, a woman, my aunt, who was also a “Shen Pozi,” came to our home, suddenly collapsed to the ground, and started speaking to my mother. Her tone and the things she said sounded exactly like my father, and she spoke about many things only my parents knew. Everyone said that my father’s soul had possessed her, and I was terrified. There was another time when I witnessed my uncle being possessed by a ghost. His body and arms trembled at a speed far beyond what a normal person could do. It terrified me deeply.
Therefore, from a very young age, I realized that there was another realm, the spiritual world, beyond what I could see with my eyes. These events were kept inside me, and I always tried to seek an explanation.
My Scientific Explanation
When I went to university, I took a first-year course called Modern Technology, which introduced the concept of entropy. I tried to use scientific principles to explain the phenomenon of ghost possession. I believed that each person has an energy field emitting signals, like a television tower. When the tower loses power, its signals can still linger, and if these signals are picked up by someone else, they might cause a reaction. Ghost possession, in my view, could occur when a deceased person’s energy is received by someone else, resulting in the effect of possession. I felt good about my explanation; it seemed logical.
The Paranormal Event in 2004
However, a few years after I graduated from university, I had an experience where I saw a ghost. In the fall and winter of 2004, for a period of time, every night when I lay in bed and closed my eyes, I could feel a dark shadow at the foot of my bed. When I opened my eyes, I saw nothing. The feeling was very real, and it terrified me; I couldn’t sleep the entire night.
I worried that it might be a mental issue, so I inquired and heard that a philosophy professor who had just returned from France, studying under a master of psychoanalysis, had opened a clinic at Sichuan University. I contacted him and went.
This professor’s clinic was located in the faculty dormitory area of Sichuan University, and there was a reclining chair in the room that could be adjusted to any position. The process had no set procedure—he just let me talk, whatever I wanted to say, without offering any feedback. After I finished speaking, he would simply tell me to come again next time, charging fifty yuan per session. On the third visit, I arrived on time, but the professor opened the door and said my time was up. He asked me to pay another fifty yuan. I paid, feeling resentful, and decided not to return.
When I was in college, my dorm was on the same floor as the philosophy department, so I was familiar with many of the philosophy students. Many of my friends were preparing for graduate school, so I went to ask them for advice. One of them, a Buddhist, said that reciting the Diamond Sutra would help calm the situation. So, I started reciting:
“Thus I have heard. At one time, the Buddha was staying in the country of Shravasti…”
But even though I recited it, the situation did not improve.
Bible Study
There was a graduate student in the philosophy department, named Wang, who was studying Christianity. Previously, a Korean student had preached the gospel to me, but I didn’t feel anything. One day, while having a meal with Wang, I asked him if the Christian God could control Chinese ghosts. He didn’t answer directly but shared many testimonies of Christians driving away ghosts and invited me to a Bible study held at an office in the campus every week. I went and started attending the study, and through it, I learned that there is one God, and indeed only one God. Around the same time, a debate between a Christian apologist Gideon ( 基甸) and the scientist Fang Zhouzi (方舟子) was published in New Threads (a Chinese publication), and besides attending Bible study weekly, I also watched their debates daily. I started seeing the flaws in evolutionary theory from a scientific perspective and tried to find the evidence for God’s existence, which shattered my previous “scientific view.”
There was one example that I still remember vividly:
We say that cameras are designed based on the principle of how the human eye works. Yet, while we believe a camera must be designed and created by someone, the human eye, which is far more sophisticated than a camera, doesn’t need any design—it naturally forms in nature. This is very unscientific.
Before long, I could no longer see that shadow at the foot of my bed, and my ghostly encounters problem were over.
Quitting Smoking
I started smoking after graduating from high school, smoking heavily—about three packs every two days. My ex-girlfriend also wanted me to quit, and I wanted to as well. I tried to quit eight or nine times, but it was always very difficult, with my longest period being a month. One time, after Bible study, I went downstairs and lit a cigarette. A brother saw me smoking and said, “Brother Ye, your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. How can you burn fire in the temple?” I felt deeply ashamed and decided to quit smoking before my baptism, asking others to pray for me.
One day, I was in my office, looking at a website called Chinese Christian Life Web (which still exists today, cclw.net). The site had a story about a Christian who wanted to quit drinking. He threw away all the alcohol he had collected. At that moment, I seemed to hear a voice, or maybe it wasn’t a voice, but an awareness or command that said, “Throw the cigarettes on your desk into the trash can.” I did as instructed.
It was a very miraculous experience. From that day on, whenever I smelled cigarette smoke, I felt disgusted and had no desire to smoke. Twenty years have passed now, and while I may occasionally smoke a few cigarettes to accompany someone, I no longer have a craving. I generally don’t urge others to quit smoking because I know it’s really hard, and for me, it was God’s grace. He helped me quit in a miraculous way, so I don’t feel comfortable asking others to quit. I pray that God will help those brothers bound by nicotine addiction and that He may personally assist them.
Baptism
On March 27, 2005, Easter, I was baptized in the Fuhe River upstream from Sandao Yan and officially became a Christian. This March marks exactly twenty years. Over these years, I’ve encountered many events—some that require rational understanding and others that defy explanation and must be accepted in faith. There have also been times when I doubted God, but through my experience of faith and the wonderful miracles He has given me, these graces have confirmed my belief and I no longer waver between faith and doubt.
My testimony may not be very rational, and it may not align with the style of Early Rain Covenant Church (ERCC). But God’s way of choosing people is wondrous, and everyone’s path is different. My path seems to be—between science and superstition, fear of ghosts led me to become a disciple of Jesus. Thanks be to God for His selection, glory be to Him forever.