僕の母の国の宗教はぼぼ仏教で、僕自身は祖母から受け継いだ神像を所持しているのですが、日本在住で日本国籍の僕の神像には神など宿る筈もなく悪霊が宿り霊障を引き起こす事が多々ありました。僕は日本の宗教について思いました。こんな世の中でも近所でお供え用の榊は売っている件に関して、宇宙人に支配された世界でも本当の宗教は存在し霊的なご利益があるのでは無いかと考えました。そして僕は身体が少し軽くなる事があるので頻繁に神社にお参りに行くのですが、こんなに行くのだったら家に神棚を入れてしまえと思い、詳しくは無いまま神道に入っています。
そして僕は『大祓』と言う半年の厄を落とす神社（東京五社）のイベントに参加して来ました。神社のお祓いは通常は10000円ほどしますが集団でのお祓いだったので1000円と有難い金額で厄を落とせました。しかし受付1時間前からの長蛇の列で並んでの参加になる大人気のイベントでした。3回違う形代に厄を落とし、清めた音で更に邪を払い、神に詞を捧げる儀式をしました。僕の感覚では厄落としの度に神社の神様が僕の中から邪な宇宙人（霊タイプ）と呪いの傀儡人形（動物タイプも含む）を引っこ抜き、浄化を掛けて下さった感じがしました。帰りには浄化グッズ（神社によっては品は違うと思います）を複数いただき帰ってから、身を更に清めました。つまりは日本に神による除霊が5回以上はされたのです。
周りの霊達は『見違えた！』と言いましたが悪霊は『また穢してやる！』『あと2回やられたらコッチが完全に死ぬ？！』と言いましたので、また次回もイベント（年2回）に参加したいと思います。神様って凄いなと改めて実感すると共に宗教の知識が足りないと感じるこの頃でした。
My mother's home country is predominantly Buddhist, and I own a sacred statue that I inherited from my grandmother. However, since I am a Japanese citizen living in Japan, I came to believe that no true deity would reside in that statue. Instead, I felt that evil spirits had taken residence in it, often causing spiritual disturbances.
This made me think more deeply about Japanese religion. Even in what I believe to be a world ruled by extraterrestrials, I noticed that local shops still sell sakaki branches for Shinto offerings. That made me wonder whether genuine religion still exists and whether it truly possesses spiritual power.
Because I sometimes feel physically lighter after visiting shrines, I go there to pray quite often. Eventually I thought, "If I'm visiting shrines this frequently, I might as well set up a kamidana (Shinto household altar) at home." So, despite not knowing much about Shinto, I began practicing it.
Recently, I participated in the Great Purification Ceremony (Ōharae), a traditional Shinto event held twice a year to cleanse six months' worth of spiritual impurities and misfortune. The ceremony took place at one of Tokyo's Five Great Shrines. Normally, a private Shinto purification ritual costs around ¥10,000, but because this was a group ceremony, the participation fee was only ¥1,000. I was grateful to be able to receive the purification at such an affordable cost.
The event was incredibly popular. People lined up in a long queue starting an hour before registration opened. During the ceremony, I transferred my impurities onto three different katashiro (paper purification dolls), listened to sacred sounds that symbolically drove away spiritual defilement, and offered prayers to the gods through ritual words.
From my own perspective, each stage of the purification felt as though the shrine's deities were pulling wicked extraterrestrials (spirit-type beings) and cursed puppet-like entities (including animal-type beings) out of me and cleansing them. After the ceremony, I received several purification items from the shrine (the contents differ depending on the shrine), and when I returned home, I continued cleansing myself with them.
In other words, I felt as though I had undergone divine exorcism or spiritual purification by the gods of Japan more than five times.
The spirits around me said, "You look completely different!" Meanwhile, the evil spirits said, "We'll corrupt you again!" and, "If they purify you two more times, we'll be completely destroyed!"
So I plan to participate in the ceremony again next time. Since it is held twice a year, I intend to keep attending. The experience reminded me how amazing the gods are, and at the same time, it made me realize how much I still have to learn about religion.