#usually when ppl make instructions they refer to things and what theyre referring to is clear as day to everyone but me i feel like

[perilegs]

ok ok as soon as i develop the ability to understand clear instructions i will have nøkk with both autopsy AND top surgery scars in my game and then it's over for me

[fairycosmos]

being stern with these things is key, good on the person's mom for telling it off. you have to combine sternness with prayer in order for them to go away or leave you alone, at least in my religion. no clue as to why and it also depends on what kind of entity they are.

in islam, we call them jinns (most ppl refer to them as demons, but the words 'jinn' and 'magic' share an etymological connection so isn't some foreign oriental concept i guess). they're part of the unseen and are made from smoke/fire, whereas humans are made from earth/clay. like humans, they have free-will can range from religious to malevolent to entities that simply like messing with humans. the normal/friendly ones don't reveal themselves to humans. they can possess humans and usually exist in old, abandoned, and dirty places. we're also instructed to stay away from trees and water past sunset bc jinns are found there. protection from them, aside from prayer, is water (a phenomenon i guess most know as holy water). it's why we purify ourselves with it before praying as well!

they tend to attack in dreams, so we're advised to stay away from purposely trying to lucid dream or astral project — if it happens, it should be God's will, as entering into the realm of the unseen is something most ppl need to tread lightly and be careful of. and the information that mediums, shamans, psychics receive are said to come from them too, rather than "angels" or "spirit guides". most humans have a guardian angel and jinn that follow them throughout their life, so one rumor is that ghosts are the jinns that were attached to these humans that take on their form upon passing. there are a lot of stories of these ghosts later revealing themselves to have taken on the form of other things, like children and stuff, so i'm starting to believe it

this is very cool to read. my closest friend is a muslim, and she was just telling me about jinns the other week. how they hang out around places like that after dark and can trick you, and how theyre made of smoke, and can mimic loved ones, and some are evil and some aren't etc. i was getting chills when she told me, and i've never even gave much credence to such a thing LOL. maybe you have to be stern with them bc they feed off fear or can control you through fear so when you show them that's not going to work, they know they cant fuck with you as much? makes sense that water is used as protection across regligion, i guess. my friend also told me that the medium my dad went to was probably speaking to a jinn, and not dead loved ones, if she wasn't a crook LOL which is ofc likely. i think it's a really interesting concept and kind of fleshes out the general idea of spirits in a fascinating way. i hope i'll be having a dreamless sleep tonight, for sure lol. thank you for sharing <3