The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida

Dr. Ranee attempts to help Maali seek the Light and turn away from Sena. Maali still holds onto resentment that while living, Dr. Ranee used some of his photographs without permission or credit in her articles. Dr. Ranee insists that it no longer matters, saying, “I am not my previous birth. Neither are you” (90). She tells Maali about the process of searching for the Light. The first step is to meditate over one’s corpse, which Maali has done. The second is called an Ear Check. The third is to bathe in the River of Births. If Maali stays in the In Between afterlife, he risks becoming a ghoul or enslaved to a yaka or preta. Maali isn’t sure he wants to leave the In Between because he wants people to see what he saw, which Dr. Ranee calls an illusion of his ego. 

Sena tells the other ghosts his story. He grew up impoverished and was taught that his poverty was his own fault. He accuses ghosts like Dr. Ranee of being Bad Samaritans who want other ghosts to find the Light so they forget about their lives and nothing on Earth changes.