An idea for a horror-ish story, based on stuff like the Mandela Catalogue, the Backrooms, some Conspiracy Theories, etc., but with an Indian setting:
The main thing is our Kundalini Shakti, the primal Spiritual Energy within our bodies, being targetted by malevolent beings, such as Bhoot, Pret, Pishach, Vetaal, etc. to consume.
This a food source for them, besides actual flesh and blood, and allows them to enter into our plane of existence. Also, they partially transform into the humans whose Energy they drain off.
The only people safe from these are either those who have not tapped into their Kundalini at all, or are at either the very bottom (Muladhara/Root Chakra) or at the very top (Sahasrara/Crown Chakra). These are the safe "zones", and anyone in between can and will be hunted down.
In the story, people can accidentally activate their Chakras, slowly over time, through yoga or other methods. This process is gradual and silent, so people won't even notice until they feel some changes within themselves as a Chakra activates.
At one point, people even had to come up with the false narrative that the Second Chakra is located in the Pancreas rather than the Sacrum to prevent people making it past the first Chakra (Based on the Pancreas Denial Conspiracy Theory, which comes really deep in the Conspiracy Theories' Iceberg, except I swapped the Manipura Chakra with the Svadhisthana Chakra).
But the problem is that once a spirit hunts down a human, they are now in our realm. This process actually begins with possession ("Bhoote dhora"), which slowly results in the malevolent being absorbing the human soul into themselves, and replacing it from within the body. This causes the human body to adapt to the presence of a new Soul inside it, and it manifests as an uncanny appearance that is a combination of the spirit and the human. This creature then roams freely and consumes flesh and blood.
These beings live in a separate realm, formed of fractals, which cannot normally be reached physically. Once people are in the unsafe "zones", the Kundalini Shakti radiates out as a form of Energy unnoticeable by humans, but causes a shift in the barrier between the two worlds, to let a spirit nearby squeeze out and attack.
Now why Gods and Goddesses don't come to protect the people is that these spirits are acting on purely basic instincts. They must feed to survive, so they do. Another reason I could add into this world is that Devi (Yes, I'm going with the Shakta Lore, obviously) when creating the Universe, split Herself into everything. Every single sub-atomic particle (One could have the lore go till: Neutrons = Sattvik, Protons = Tamsik, Electrons = Rajasik). This is kinda based on the God's Ego Death Theory, especially the interpretation that God exist because He split Himself up into everything. I just decided to apply it to Devi as an explanation for Her neutral stance in this matter, as with every other instance of predator-prey situation. She is in the humans, and She is in the entities too.
Another thing I wanna put in here is a weakness/deterrent against these entities being snakes and snake poison. This ties in with the Kundalini being associated with a snake (Maybe the snake arises to fend off these spirits at the Sahasrara Chakra as a guardian of sorts of the Kundalini Shakti?), and snake worship being common in Hinduism (and the old occupation of Snake-charming too, I suppose).
Another related thing is humans using certain "substances" to see these beings. Soma, Bhang, Ganja, Datura, etc. was used in ancient times to see these beings and their world. This helped them avoid contact till they activated their Sahasrara Chakra.
@zeherili-ankhein @dharagalaxias @stxrrynxghts
