There is a popular national park in Thailand called Phu Kradung. One night eight young men decided to go camping there, to relax away from the city.

They set up camp and then hiked to a beautiful spot where they could watch the sun set and chill out and share a drink or two.

One of the friends, by his own admission, was a foul mouthed, irreligeous and irrespectful young man and in a drunken moment cursed and challenged the Spirit of the ancient forest, its Guardian.

At dusk they started to walk back to the camp, a journey of maybe an hour from where they'd hiked to and drank, something strange happened.

They started to hear strange noises and see strange shapes in the twilight. They weren't alone when they started heading back to the camp, it was a popular spot as was the picnic area they had visited, but suddenly they realised that they were all alone.

Somehow, everyone else had disappeared into thin air.

The path that they were sure was the way back, for some of them had been here many times before, became narrower and narrower. Assuming that they had somehow got lost, they decided to backtrack, but to no avail. The path continued to narrow whether they moved forward or backwards along the single path each way was impossibly blocked with tall grasses and thick clusters of trees that they could not possibly have passed on the way to the picnic spot.

They found some narrow ditches along the sides of the path that blocked them from heading backwards or forwards, and realised that some of them were in the direction they needed to head so they decided to jump over them and find the right path that they has so strangely lost. But even the ditches were a matter of a few feet wide, several of them somehow fell into the ditches, twisting ankles, getting scratched by thorns and becoming muddy, cold and wet.

It was then that things became really strange.

In a clearing between the dense trees the youth that had cursed the forest Spirit suddenly suffered a seizure and collapsed. His friends tried to carry him, but all seven of them could not even pick him up. Later the youth said that although he could not speak or move, he saw a black shadow of a huge man pushing him down, preventing his friends from lifting him. His friends meanwhile began to despair, they could not leave their companion here and yet they had to get help somewhow. As thye were arguin over what to do, out of nowhere a motorcycle appeared silently, its rider a hooded shape. His voice was strange but offered to give the collapsed youth a lift to the hospital along with one of his friends. They agreed but wondered why they hadn't heard the hooded rider approach them.

The hooded figure bent down and easily picked up their fallen companion, and they wondered at this too.

Being all that the hooded figure could carry, the others made their way as best they could back to camp. They could see the communal camplights several times, but each time they moved in that direction, they would find themselves back on the same narrow path they had tried so many times to leave, blocked forwards and back by the impenetrable forest.

They almost gave up, but one final time when they had seen the camp lights again they pushed forward throught the dense foliage. This time they stumbled onto the correct path, the camp was just a few hundred metres away. Incredulous, they turned around to see the dense foliage that had fooled them for so long. There was none, all there was was a path leading straight and untroubled along the trail to the picnic spot.

It should have taken them an hour to return to camp, instead four hours had gone by while they were lost. One of their number became unnerved, and ten minutes later when they reached their tents, he and his companions lit incense sticks and apologised to the forest Spirit.

At that same moment, at the hospital, the youth that had cursed the forest Spirit suddenly awoke, much to the puzzlement of the perplexed doctors who could not understand the nature of his seizure. He felt perfectly okay and five minutes later was discharged. He and his friend went to find the hooded man, to thank him for his help, but no-one recollected ever seeing him at all.

Later, the friends got together, the youth that had cursed the forest Spirit was repentant and changed overnight into a respectful, considerate young man. He became devout in his spiritual duties and took up works of charity to help others. At his insistence, the group of friends rang a radio station and asked if they could be allowed to relate their experience to others so that, they too would learn to respect the spirits and not trun their back on nature.

These young men had a collective epiphany. Respect the earth and those that guard her. Yet we are doing exactly the opposite as we plunder her sustenance for our individual greed and profit.