Parapsychological Adventures in Vietnam

Dragons Greeting Clouds

In Vietnam, when there are favourable conditions for anything they say Rồng gặp mây, meaning ‘Like dragons greeting clouds’. Here, in Ha Long (meaning ‘Descending Dragon’) from 6-8 December 2019, the conditions were indeed favourable for an extraordinary meeting between a group of Western parapsychologists and Eastern practitioners. Organized by the equally extraordinary Bingo Wu, we were here for what was billed as the 2nd International Life Science and Parapsychology Studies Association Forum and Sixth Sense Mind Sport Competition. Few of us knew or could imagine what we were in for.

The name of Bingo Wu will be familiar to members who have been to recent SPR conferences – and to readers of this magazine who will have seen reports of those conferences. In previous years he has journeyed from his native China to the UK to present on his work teaching blind children to ‘see’ using allegedly paranormal means. In Leicester last year, he even taught some of those techniques to conference delegates, with interesting results. Now, however, he was organizing his own conference with thirteen speakers and a variety of demonstrations, ‘competitions’ and entertainments. Chaotic at times, but never boring, it was a unique event.

The Westerners comprised, in alphabetical order, Prof. Bernard Carr, Dr Glenn Hitchman, Dr Michael Nahm, Prof. Adrian Parker, Dr Annekatrin Puhle, Dr Leo Ruickbie, and Petra Szilagyi. Attending, but not presenting, was also Dr Julie Svay – originally from Cambodia, but now living in France. The Easterners, all from different parts of China, were Kang Shu Tian, Tang Fu Xiang, Zhou Aiwu, Shen Chang, Chen Zhiye, and, of course Bingo Wu. Our translator, who has asked not to be named, made it all possible, not just by translating, but by looking after us and shepherding us through this bewildering adventure.

Most of us arrived in Hanoi in northern Vietnam at roughly the same time and were able to share a minibus on the long drive from the airport out to the town of Ha Long on the coast. We sped through a kaleidoscope of changing images: straggling urbanization that turned every roadside into a mix of junkyard, workshop and market; endless traffic, with scooter drivers flouting every road traffic law they could think of and a few that have yet to be invented – including a very near miss with an oncoming lorry that our driver took in his stride; paddy fields with workers in coolie hats; concrete husks of construction projects; vistas of distant mountains; fields of fire and smoke as they burnt the stubble (no concerns about global warming here); grandiose Communist monuments; elegant colonial-era houses jostled by ramshackle sheds; and an incongruous church spire. It was the image of a country in a rush […]

For the full article see Paranormal Review 96.