Balinese “ghost stories” behind Halloween: lost souls, leyak and kerauhan

Denpasar — Stories of ghosts, witches and possession are central to Halloween in many countries, but in Bali ideas about the supernatural sit within a wider cosmology where visible and invisible forces are understood to interact in everyday life. A feature by lifestyle magazine NOW! Bali uses this framework to introduce three narratives often framed as “ghost stories” for foreign readers: the atma kesasar or lost soul, the sorcerer figure known as leyak, and kerauhan, a state of trance or possession during rituals and performances.

These accounts combine elements of Balinese Hindu belief, older animist traditions, ritual practice, performance and contemporary folklore. They are presented in a tourism-oriented publication’s Halloween feature, so they represent one way of explaining complex ideas to visitors rather than an authoritative description of how all Balinese communities understand the supernatural.

The danger of a lost soul

NOW! Bali describes the soul, or atma, as associated with Tanah Ane Wayah, a spiritual realm above the mountains considered the abode of gods. According to the feature, a person’s soul is ritually linked to the body through ceremonies beginning in infancy, while death rites are intended to return the soul to its proper realm.

When those rites are incomplete or disrupted, the article introduces the notion of atma kesasar, literally a “lost soul”, said to linger in the earthly world and to be associated with misfortune, calamity or sickness. The same piece connects this idea to accidents and severe shocks, suggesting that a fall, loss of consciousness or sudden changes in behaviour may be interpreted as a disturbance in the soul’s connection to the body.

Additional ceremonies may then be performed to restore that connection or guide the soul onward. The narrative functions less as a conventional ghost tale than as a story about ritual responsibility, trauma, illness and the boundary between life and death in a worldview that links visible events to disturbances in the unseen realm.

Leyak: sorcery, transformation and balance

The second tradition concerns the leyak (also written léak), which NOW! Bali presents as a practitioner of harmful magic operating in the unseen, or niskala, world. The article situates this within ajian pangleyakan, a body of esoteric knowledge about Balinese sorcery. It distinguishes between ritual expertise used for healing and protection, associated with priests and traditional healers (balian), and knowledge directed toward causing harm, which leads to someone being labelled a leyak.

NOW! Bali notes local classifications that speak of multiple types of leyak with different abilities, including causing illness or accidents and changing form. Transformations described include animals, objects, balls of fire and the well-known image of a bodiless flying head trailing its entrails. Other sources on Balinese folklore likewise describe leyak as humans who practise a specific branch of esoteric knowledge and can send their spirit out of the body at night in these shapes.

The figure is closely connected to Rangda, the witch-like demon queen who leads armies of leyak against the protective lion-like Barong in ritual dance-dramas symbolising the struggle between destructive and ordering forces. Scholarly and cultural accounts link this opposition to the Balinese concept of Rwa Bhineda, the principle that cosmic harmony depends on the coexistence and balance of paired opposites such as good and evil, life and death.

In this framing, leyak are part of a larger system of spiritual power and moral intention rather than simple monsters.

Kerauhan: trance, ceremony and performance

The third narrative is kerauhan, described by NOW! Bali as a state of trance or possession in which a spirit is believed to temporarily control a person’s mind and body. According to the publication, this may occur during temple ceremonies, processions and dance performances. Those in trance may speak or move in unusual ways, and later report little memory of pain or exertion.

NOW! Bali associates kerauhan with ritual acts such as ngurek, a self-stabbing practice using kris daggers, and performances in which participants hold burning coconuts. In the magazine’s description, priests may use holy water while someone in trance rests or loses consciousness, and the state is understood as contact with deities, ancestors or other spiritual forces rather than random behaviour.

The feature also notes deliberate forms of spirit mediation, where a balian or a designated medium acts as a channel in healing rituals, and where sacred trance dances like Sang Hyang Dedari involve young performers entering a distinctive state associated with spiritual presence.

For international audiences, the crucial distinction drawn by these accounts is between watching a religious or ceremonial performance and interpreting it as horror: outwardly dramatic or frightening scenes belong to a ritual context in which trance is framed as an expression of faith and cosmology, not merely a supernatural scare.

Sources

• NOW! Bali – 3 Balinese Myths and Mysteries to Scare You on Halloween
• Wikipedia – Balinese mythology
• Northbound Bali – Rwa Bhineda: The Balinese Balance of Opposites
• Dyerbolical – Rangda: Bali’s Witch Queen and the Enduring Paranormal Legacy
• BaliSpirit – Léak (Leyak) in Bali: Meaning, Pronunciation & Protection Against ...
• ISBI Bali journal article – Barong and Rangda as Cultural Symbols: Dualism, Conservation ...