In our time here in Bali, we have always been amazed at just how many things are used as a confirmation of people's specific beliefs about good/evil spirits, ancestors actions after death, and Hinduism in general.
Nearly every imaginable occurrence, whether good, bad, physical, emotional, simple, and/or complex is taken by the holy men to solidify existing thoughts about what happens and why.
The following is an interesting example of this from a temple in West Bali. What we Westerners would see as just a strange result of genetics and chance, the Balinese usually see the same thing as a definitive confirmation of their belief system. Here's the story about the three headed cobra... it was taken from the paper:
People about to perform prayers at Rambut Siwi Temple in Jembrana, Bali, were shocked by the appearance of a three-headed cobra at the entrance of the temple's cave.
"Many people have seen the cobra. One of them even took a photograph," said the temple's priest, Jero Mangku Wania, as quoted by metrobali.com.
Wania said the cobra turned up at around 3 a.m., when some people arrived to perform their prayers.
He said the temple's caretakers had tried to find out about the cobra through supernatural ways and had declared that it came from three strands of hair from Danghyang Nirartha, the founder of the temple hundreds of years ago.
"In the past, the hair was kept and respected by locals. The hair has reincarnated into the cobra."
After the incident, local people agreed to make a statue of the cobra in the temple.
