Percakapan Dengan Lelaki Malam

Ceritanya malam itu murid saya sudah pulang. Saya tidak pulang. Pulang kemana? Orang itu rumah saya. Saat itu rumah saya sedang tidak ada orang. ya selain saya, kalau saya masih dianggap orang. Saya teringat harus memasukkan motor kedalam rumah dan mengunci pintu rumah supaya motor bisa dikeluarkan lagi besok. Tapi semilir angin malam yang sejuk, bulan yang pucat seperti malu untuk bersinar terang-terang kali takut dibilang pamer, anak tetangga yang main suling mungkin buat tugas sekolah atau memang punya hobi dan bakat, karena main sulingnya bagus. Semua bikin saya malas untuk turun dari balkon. Jadilah saya tiduran di balkon. Andai pembicaraan bisa dilakukan sendiri maka saya ikhlas jika waktu harus berhenti saat itu. Tapi tidak. maka saya undanglah seorang teman mengobrol.

Halo. Aku adalah laki laki malam, Begitu dia menyebut dirinya. Toh saya sudah tahu siapa dia, tetapi tetap ia sebut namanya sebelum duduk bersila di karpet kecil tempat saya mempersilahkan murid saya duduk selagi saya mengajar. Saya juga yakin dia kenal saya tapi tetap juga saya perkenalkan diri saya. Kemudian hening. kami berdua terdiam.

Saya juga tidak mengerti. Saya membutuhkan teman bicara saat itu. Tetapi ketika dia datang tak satupun pembicaraan yang dibicarakan. Ada sesuatu pada laki-laki malam yang membuat kita tak gampang bicara. Laki-laki malam itu seusia kita, dengan pembawaannya jauh lebih dewasa. Namun nada bicaranya memancarkan ketulusan khas anak-anak.

Habis ngajar apa mas? Lakilaki malam bertanya. Basa-basi. Dia tidak sekolah untuk mengerti kurikulum. Tapi hanya orang jahat yang menolak basa-basi dan saya tidak mau jadi orang jahat. Maka saya jawablah tentang benda langit. Tentang hukum kepler. Tentang Jarak antara benda langit.

Untuk wisuda dan yang setelahnya

Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves, like locked rooms and like books that are now written in a very foreign tongue. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer.

- Rainer Maria Rilke

It is ok to doubt. because doubt is one of greatest driving force i know. 

Overcomitting to a bit can be your undoing

Diner, was just goofing around when watched the news of Guntur Bumi in National News. This nation has nothing more newsworthy than a bogus paranormal, has it? In this country with rich culture and spiritual beliefs, metaphysical stuff like dukun and black magic can't be left out. Even with the development of technology, those stuff won't be considered primitive. You can count the amount of paranormal-themed product in mainstream media. Tv, website, or even magazine likewise. But never i have a faintest thought that on national news, a scam by paranormal will be a headline. I only think that paranormal stuff like those is reserved for those who ignorant enough to be entertained with it. Like anime or wrestling or dubbed tv series. So what is the difference with this one?

This is the guy who claim he can heal almost all of symptomps and disease. This is the guy who make others beliefs as mockery by saying that he is merely channeling God's will to cure people. This is the guy who make money through the overzealous faith of religion. This is our average dukun, our average scammer.

We can find this kind of dukun in almost every corner of Indonesia. you can try to commute by angkot or kopaja and you can find the advertisement of this kind of practice. You can buy the design-deprived paranormal magazine and see what you can find. So what make this guy special? what make this guy receive exposure on national tv in a primetime news programme?

For the conspiracy-theorist, there is of course issue management theory. But after listened to the explanation of the expert and the debunking of the methods used by Guntur Bumi, i think that because he simply tried to much. 

While other dukuns will only use the power of persuasion and word-play to seduce the victims, Guntur Bumi actually used electrical devices in his practice to inflict the sensation of being paranormally healed to his victims. Maybe he mean to do his heist more convincingly. That unlike other average dukuns, his methods is more convincing because of the technology involved. And that unlike other average dukuns technology leave evidences.

The use of technology to give sensation of curing process give away evidences. This evidences unlike usual mind games and verbal seduction is actually can be solid evidence to categorize this scam as an actual crime. And if there are real evidence, real investigation can occur.

Has Guntur Bumi use the usual methods of paranormal scams, maybe these things wont happen. Maybe he will be considered as the average paranormal who make a living by feeding of people ignorance. He wanted to be different. he wanted to be better. he developed more nifty heist, he wanted to be stand out. But sometimes , especially in despicable act, average is better. By wanting to do more, you start your own downfall.

By the way, i dont really despise perdukunan. i am not a bit superstitious. so i don't bothered by those kind of stuff. but i kind of think that people that ignorant enough to believe in dukun deserve to be scammed.