Night after night, she dreamt she was suffocating in a cave of bloody flesh. What freed her?
By
Gemma Koh
, 10 August 2021
Indonesian Jaime Chiah experienced night terrors since she was a child. A breakthrough came when she heard human voices speaking in languages she did not understand. She met her Singaporean husband, James Chiah, in what seemed like a chance encounter. Photos courtesy of the Chiah family.
Imagine being trapped in a cave, surrounded by walls of flesh oozing with red blood. Imagine the squishy meat “multiplying like cells”, surrounding you and squeezing you.
This recurring nightmare plagued Jaime Chiah, now 42, from as far back as she can remember.
As a child in Indonesia, she was taken to mediums. They described her as “sensitive to spirits” and washed her in “flower water”.
“But it never stopped the nightmares from happening again,” Jaime said. Since moving to Singapore from Indonesia 13 years ago, she has been working as an administrator in the healthcare sector.
Jaime had frequent nightmares since she was a child. Being trapped in a cave of bloody flesh was a recurring one,
When she passed by certain places of worship – even altars by the roadside – she would faint. Or her legs would swell.
These episodes happened so often that she came to accept them “as a part of everyday life”.
She would also awaken to “the heavy breathing sound of a beast”. She felt a pressing on her back.
In her 20s, personal problems, like failed relationships, plus worsening nightmarish episodes took a toll on her. At her lowest point, the 1.72m-tall Jaime weighed just 48kg.
“I was scared to fall asleep and suffered from insomnia,” she said.
“I started having suicidal thoughts.”
“Game” that spun out of control
When she was around junior college age, Jaime and her girl friends started “playing around” with a ouija board.
One of her friends truly believed it could be used to contact the dead. The others joined in “for fun”.
The girls would put their hands on top of the pointer. They would ask questions like “Can you tell us how you died?”
The pointer would move to certain letters. At the end of each session, they would tell the board, “It’s time for you to go back.”
In her early 20s, the nightmares became darker, and she sensed the blood-fleshed walls suffocating her.
But one day, the pointer started “spinning out of control”, said Jaime. It wouldn’t stop even when the terrified girls told it to “go back”.
Crying hysterically, the girls dumped the board.
But even more terrifying episodes came to haunt Jaime.
“The darkest moments of my life were in my early 20s,” she recalled.
The nightmares became darker, and she sensed the bloody fleshy walls suffocating her.
She recognised the nightmare as recurring, and would try to wake herself up.
Jaime looked like she had a glamorous life when she was in her 20s. But in fact, the recurring night terrors were taking a toll on her.
Then it manifested into something else. “When I woke up, I would feel something pressing my back.
“I could feel something breathing down my neck. It sounded like the heavy breathing sound of a beast.
“I would feel something breathing down my neck. All I could do was stare at my ceiling in fear.”
She knew it was no longer a dream as her eyes were wide open.
She would feel paralysed and was unable to shout or call out.
“All I could do was stare at my ceiling in fear.”
She is not sure what brought on these new terrors. Perhaps she was burdened by the stress of working and doing university studies at the same time.
To others, she appeared “high-functioning” and normal. She went partying and drinking to numb the pain and “to escape from reality”, she said.
On the inside, she was full of turmoil.
“I made bad choices in relationships and friends,” she recalled.
There was a lot of self-blame and self-pity.
“I felt sorry for myself all the time.”
Then, one night, just like many other nights, she was struggling to break free from the evil spirit’s grip.
“I was in great fear because the grip was tighter than usual. The grunts were louder and sounded almost like moans.
“Then I heard human voices.”
“It was something that I had heard when I visited a church where people were speaking in tongues.”
She could not tell what language they were speaking. But she recognised them as “something that I had heard when I visited a church where people were speaking in tongues”.
A few years earlier, she had caught up with a childhood friend who was visiting from another part of Indonesia. Jaime accompanied her friend to church so that they could spend more time together. It was there that she had heard the worshippers speaking in tongues. She now remembered the voices.
“As my focus was drawn towards these voices, I felt the grip (of the “beast”) loosen.
“I felt warmth and peace.”
For the first time in a long time, she relaxed and fell asleep.
“It was only for two hours. But it was the best two hours.”
The song about the deer
The first thing she saw in the newspapers the next morning was a big advertisement on the back page. It was for a Sunday service at a local church.
“Somehow I managed to get changed and I made my way to the nearest branch of the church to attend the first service at 7.30am.”
At the end of the service, she went up for prayer. She had been thinking of suicide and had been cutting herself.
When, after being baptised, Jaime experienced another spiritual attack, she focused on God.
The nightmares did not stop. But there was one huge difference.
“I started to have confidence and assurance that my soul had been saved.”
I sang Seperti Rusa Rindu Sungai-Mu (Indonesian for As the Deer) over and over again.
One night after she was baptised, she experienced another episode.
“I tried to pray, but no sound came out. It was like I was paralysed.
“I could only say in my mind and heart what I heard from church. I sang Seperti Rusa Rindu Sungai-Mu (Indonesian version of As the Deer) over and over again.
“The worship and praise comforted me.
“I called Jesus’ name. It worked.
“Over time, I learned to claim authority over my body so that the evil spirit has no place over me.”
Almost without her noticing, the nightmares ceased.
Surrendering her “husband criteria”
As she continued to attend church, she was mentored by a pastor and his wife.
“Even after becoming a Christian, I had failed relationships … until I surrendered to God.
“I finally let my pastor and his wife and our cell group pray that I would find a good husband.
“I prayed a simple prayer, ‘I will entrust this to You. I will not use my own criteria for a spouse anymore as it has not done me any good.’”
After that things happened “very, very fast”.
“You will have to come to cell group with me. I have no time to take you anywhere before that.”
Jaime was then working in the life insurance industry in Indonesia, and had to look after a group of invited speakers from Singapore who had come to train the local managers.
One of them, a James Chiah, had come along as a volunteer to help his friend.
She didn’t know then, but he had intended to cancel the trip on the morning he was due to fly to Indonesia. But somehow decided to go on the trip.
They did not have much opportunity to talk as the three-day course was so intensive.
When she dropped off the Singapore group at the airport, she was headed to her cell group meeting when her handphone rang.
It was James who had decided to stay back and asked if there was a hotel he could go to.
“I told him, ‘It is not safe for foreigners to travel alone. I’ll come to get you, but you will have to come to cell group with me.
“I have no time to take you anywhere else before that.”
“I witnessed so much goodness and so many miracles when I let God take control of my life,” said Jaime. Her husband, James, 42, works in the financial advisory industry. Their son, Arthur (second from left), is 6 and their daughter, Annabelle, is 8.
She instinctively knew that he was a Christian.
Her pastor and his wife were pleasantly surprised to see Jaime with a man she had only just met at their doorstep – and so soon after their prayer for her to release her own “criteria” for a spouse.
James and Jaime got married six months after they met.
Fixing the cracks
After marrying James, Jaime moved to Singapore in 2008.
After their second child was born, the Chiahs hit a “bad patch” in their marriage.
“We stopped talking to each other for a few days,” Jaime recalled.
The nightmares and the oppressive spirit returned.
“I was reminded that the enemy attacks what is valuable to us. For me, it is my family.”
“I was reminded that the enemy attacks what is valuable to us. For me, it is my family,” Jaime said.
“It was a pretty clear warning to fix the cracks in my family life.”
The couple tried to work things out.
“I have not had the nightmares ever since,” she said.
They also benefited from a marriage workshop facilitated by a pastor and his wife.
“It helped us understand God’s blueprint for marriage and provided us with encouragement, hope and practical tips to grow our marriage,” said Jaime.
It required her to jot down what had been happening to her.
“I had a long list of anger over things that others did or said to me.”
She also had “condemning thoughts about myself” – “silly things I had done in the past”.
“I had a long list of anger over things that others did or said to me.”
“The intercessors helped me to pray and declare that all these things had no more hold over me. And to release forgiveness to others and to myself.
“Towards the end of the session, they asked me to close my eyes and focus on God and hear His direction on moving on.”
When she went home to her bedroom and closed her eyes, she felt a warmth and saw a bright light.
Through eyes that were tightly shut, she “saw God open His hand, and ask me to come to Him”.
“I knew that He had forgiven me. I knew I also had to forgive myself.”
Till today, she has no idea what her nightmares were tied to.
“But without them, I may not have known God,” she said.
In a video in April 2021, she shared, “Some may think that what I had encountered was merely the results of my psychological state. But I know that my God is real.
“He gave me hope.”
She also learnt that “even before I knew Jesus, He heard my cry, answered and rescued me.
“God has been blessing me abundantly and has revealed unimaginable goodness in my life.
“If you are going through challenging times now or struggling with anything, don’t lose heart. God helped me and I know He can help you too.”
This is an excerpt of an article that first appeared in Salt&Light.
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