On any given night, Kapol Thongplub and his camera crew could be chasing after spirits. Holding a portable device to detect unusual energy frequencies, the 49-year-old entertainer visits places believed to be haunted by ghosts.
In one episode of The Shock, he entered an abandoned building where a man had hanged himself.
As he was walking onto the fourth floor, the arrow on his device was shaking violently.
"The meter detects an unusual wave of frequency," he said in the weekly TV programme. "There may be something that humans can't see here."
The cameraman then turned his hand-held camera to capture goosebumps on Kapol's arm.
His programme is shot in the dark, conjuring up images from Hollywood's Paranormal Activity movies.
Kapol, a radio DJ and TV host, is known as one of the most popular celebrity ghost hunters in Thailand. Hundreds of thousands of people tune into his programme week in and week out to see him use gadgets in an effort to prove the existence of the paranormal.
"We use the same scientific devices that were used by Ghostbusters Club in America to detect unusual levels of energy and temperature to show that there are things that we cannot see."
Asked if he was a ghost buster, he shrugged. "I am searching for spirits. I am not an exorcist. You have to leave that to experts who know how to do it."
Kapol confided that he had never seen a ghost in person but said, "Sometimes, I felt like someone was watching me or a flash of movement, things that cannot be explained.
"If I didn't believe in spirits, I would not be able to do this programme for 30 years."
The Shock has not actually busted any spirits but the show's audience is glued to the TV to witness unlikely incidents such as sudden dog barks. Kapol's programme has commanded a solid audience for many years, thanks largely to a fascination with ghosts and Kapol's entertaining style.
A HAUNTED VILLAGE
Ghosts exist in every culture in different forms. Spirits in Hollywood's Ghostbusters look like monsters. The most popular Thai ghost is Nang Nak, a female ghost who died during childbirth.
It is believed that each type of ghost requires a different approach to reach them, depending on the historical background and culture where it originated.
Earlier this year, a ritual was conducted at the remote Koksala village in Udon Thani province. A group of villagers invited a senior monk in the community to perform the ritual to rid the community of ogres and ghosts.
The residents had faced a series of unfortunate events. Seven people in the village died from various causes within a short period of time and several chickens in the farms died for unknown reasons.
Preliminary -- and unofficial -- autopsies of the dead chickens revealed the birds' intestines had disappeared from their bodies.
The villagers asked the abbot of Nong Sawang temple to perform a ritual to quell bad spirits. The items used to bust the spirits were three bowls of sacred water, rocks, sacred yarn, bananas, sugar cane, a golden shower tree and bamboo tubes.
The abbot began the ceremony with a chant to summon the ogres. Then, the monk used white cloth to seal 17 bamboo tubes, one for each spirit the villagers believed they had trapped at the ceremony. The sealed bamboo tubes were cremated at the temple.
Following the ritual, villagers said their luck had turned. Nobody has since passed away and no chickens have suffered an unexpected death, according to local Thai newspapers which covered the colourful ritual.
Siriwan Thepwong, a 54-year-old resident, was quoted as saying that the villagers agreed to ask the abbot to perform the ritual. It was the second time since 2010. At that time, six people died unexpectedly. After the ritual, tragedies stopped.
She hoped that this time around the ritual would rid the community of bad luck once more.
GHOSTLY STUDIES
Manasikarn Hengsuwan, a lecturer at Chulalongkorn University's Education Faculty, studied ghosts for her master's and doctorate degrees.
She said that people try to communicate with ghosts or things they cannot see partly to address insecurities and anxiety about death.
"The belief in supernatural beings and animism exists in every society as part of attempts to understand life after death," she said.
People have always generally believed in animism. When religious beliefs entered communities, people tended to incorporate the concept of animism into their religious beliefs, she explained.
"This lack of explanation and knowledge feed human insecurities, partly attributed to religious beliefs.
"We pray before going to sleep because we want to be protected from things we don't see. We cannot deny that.
"Since the concept of ghosts is abstract, human beings try to find systematic evidence via physical, scientific and anthropological aspects to explain the concept of supernatural beings."
For instance, people try to use scientific advice to detect the energy or dynamism emanating from things that human beings cannot see.
Some people cite the existence of supernatural beings to explain their psychological state when they think they see things that other people can't, she said.
Ms Manasikarn said people try to use scientific methods to address the concept of ghosts based on Albert Einstein's law of energy that states: "Energy cannot be created or destroyed, it can only be changed from one form to another."
Some people believe that if a human body is a combination of electric power and chemical power, and when a person dies, the two powers are separated. Chemicals, which form the body, would change into earth, while electric power may remain in a different form. Based on that understanding, people use gadgets to detect surrounding magnetic forces and unusual temperature levels.
There is now also a mobile phone App called Phantom Radar Ghost Detector and an Electronic Voice Phenomenon machine to detect voices with unexplained origins.
CULTURAL SPOOKS
Ms Manasikarn said Thais and Westerners share certain concepts regarding supernatural beings to address their universal insecurities.
EXPLAINING THE UNKNOWN: Manasikarn Hengsuwan studied ghosts in university. Photo: courtesy of manasikarn hengsuwan
For instance, Thais and Westerners share the concept of a guardian goddess of children. In Thai, it is called "Mae Sue" while it known as the "tooth fairy" in English. The concept is based on people's concern over the health of their children and they pray for paranormal beings to protect their babies.
The concept of ghosts can also be explained through ethno-linguistics. Individual types of ghosts have unique characteristics which relate to their places of origin.
For example, Phi phet or Preta, the unusually tall ghost, originated in the dark forest as Preta's shadow resembles big trees, Ms Manasikarn said.
Several Western paranormal beings, most notably vampires like Dracula, are fed by blood because it reflects the old epidemics in Europe which were marked by blood. Salt is used to get rid of ghosts in Western culture because it was considered a valuable item in the past.
Thai ghosts are mostly women, partly because of parochial male insecurities related to the sexual power of women and their ability to give birth.
Ms Manasikarn said Nang Nak is suppressed by sacred water as it reflects Thailand's agricultural society in which water has been an integral source of life. This can also be seen in monks blessing laymen by splashing holy water.
In addition, back when the maternal mortality rate was high, people believed that the Kumarnthong, or newborn spirit, could be suppressed by a round ceramic container similar to a mother's womb.
Threshing basket ghosts originated from villagers who used threshing baskets to keep rice and grains. Villagers believe that threshing basket ghosts would steal their grain.
But young people today may not be familiar with this type of ghost because people in the city no longer use threshing baskets.
The concept of threshing basket ghosts has also gradually disappeared with time, she said.
While old ghosts lose popularity, there are new spectres to match modern technology such as cyber ghosts or air-conditioning ghosts.
"The concept of modern types of ghosts show how people try to explain things that they feel insecure about such as the air conditioning ventilation which could look creepy," she said.
The concept of air conditioning ghosts is also cemented by the popularity of a Thai movie called Phee Chong Air released in 2014 that producers claimed was based on a true story.
Although most people never see ghosts, the concept of spirits and ghosts has been passed down via popular culture and media, said Ms Mahasikarn.
Some paranormal beings such as Dracula have been imported via pop culture.
Old-fashioned ghosts such as threshing basket ghosts, hardly ever mentioned in modern popular culture, are likely to continue to fade with time.
Nang Nak, however, has remained the most popular ghost because the character is reprised over and over in various movies.
MIGHTY GADGETS
Kapol's TV programme has helped perpetuate the belief in ghosts in Thai popular culture. The Shock and Ghost Hunter are also uploaded on YouTube, giving them more viewers.
Asked if he was deceiving the public, he said, "We are using science to prove things that we cannot see. I use a device to capture unusual levels of energy such as magnetic waves and another device, a vibration detection machine, to show the audience that there might be a spirit present."
For instance, he used one of the devices to show the rising scale of sound that was believed to be the result of accumulated energy not audible by humans.
"People believe that a ghost's sound is infrasonic, or such a low-frequency sound it cannot be heard by the average human. The gadget is used to prove that there is a sound which is not audible to humans, but is there," he said.
"I don't blindly believe in ghosts. I am somewhere in between the believer and non-believer.
"The gadgets make the abstract belief of ghosts more tangible."
THE MOTHER OF THAI GHOSTS: Young women dress as the famous ghost Nang Nak. Her tale has been rendered in many popular movies. Photo:Patipat Janthong
INSPECTOR GADGET: Kapol flashes one of his ghost detection devices. These work by identifying magnetic frequency waves, which could indicate a supernatural presence.
GHOST TOWN: Villagers in Surin province dance to showcase a traditional belief about threshing basket ghosts, said to be notorious for stealing dried grains. The tradition has disappeared over time. Photo: NOPPARAT KINGKAEW