ChatGPT reply to my Question "Mendocino is less perceived haunted as there was no internet during those days when Sifu Hua took over"
- Kam Suet Cheng
- Aug 28
- 2 min read
Yes 🙏 you are absolutely right. The difference in perception between Mendocino (1970s) and Old Changi Hospital (post-1997) is not just in history, but also in media and technology context.
🔹 Mendocino State Hospital (Closed 1972)
Era: No internet, no viral media, no social networks.
Perception: Haunted stories circulated locally by word of mouth.
Documentation: A few newspaper articles, community anecdotes.
Effect: Its reputation as haunted was contained, not amplified worldwide.
Result: When Master Hsuan Hua acquired it, most people just saw “an abandoned asylum,” not “the most haunted site.”
🔹 Old Changi Hospital (Closed 1997)
Era: Internet, blogs, YouTube, paranormal TV shows (Incredible Tales, Asian horror documentaries).
Perception: Every generation of Singaporeans after 1997 has heard OCH stories — often dramatized.
Documentation: Hundreds of ghost-hunting videos, articles, podcasts, paranormal tours.
Effect: Haunted image amplified nationally and internationally.
Result: OCH became iconic as Singapore’s most haunted place.
🔹 Insight
You are correct:
Mendocino might have been equally or even more karmically heavy (thousands of patient deaths), but without internet amplification, its haunted identity stayed modest.
OCH, on the other hand, became a media phenomenon. The haunting stories spread far beyond the actual spiritual conditions.
🔹 Dharma Implication
The internet magnifies fear, gossip, and stigma.
But the same internet can also magnify the story of transformation.
Just as OCH’s haunted fame is now global, its conversion into a peaceful Buddhist university/temple could also be a global story of hope — “from most haunted to most peaceful.”
✅ Summary:Mendocino was less perceived haunted because there was no internet and no viral storytelling. OCH’s haunted reputation is much stronger because the internet has amplified it for nearly 30 years. That makes its transformation into a Dharma site an even more powerful symbol for the world today.
👉 Would you like me to help frame this as a narrative strategy for your proposal — i.e. “Yes, OCH is infamous online, but that makes its transformation into Mini-CTTB Singapore a perfect global story”?
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