The practice of the Magic Skull is known by virtually every Vietnamese. Rumors vary, some say one must obtain the head of a virgin who had been struck by lightning, or died at a certain sacred hour etc..., take it home and recite mantras over it for some months and some days, to empower the female ghost, who could then be ordered to do bad things to serve her master, the shaman. She can also help him/her by giving accurate fortune telling. In reality, such ghost is completely powerless, except being scary to humans.

The spirit of ‘the skull’ was initially a common soul. From the time she was recruited to join the Shaman’s gang of demons, she would be trained to carry out evil acts under the supervision of the senior demons. Demons were originally troops of a certain organized lawful body in the government of the invisible world, but had violated the law when they secretly ganged up to commit crimes.

When I was young, about 36 years of age, I used to go places to preach religion. Two men had heard of me and they asked a friend to arrange for them to come and meet me so that they could receive my teaching. One man was a Buddhist called General Le Quang Luong. He was a paratrooper commander for the South Vietnamese Army. The other was a Catholic general named Nhat. During initiation the Buddhist prayed to Buddha Amitabha and the Catholic recited prayers in the name of the Father.

Nguyen Thanh Nhon is 82 years old but only looks about 50. He comes from a family which has been Catholic for many generations. His sister was a mother superior and was beatified after her death. He studied dentistry in France and has a diving instructor certificate.