BANGKOK — Shortly after midnight, the phone rang in the cramped radio station where Kapol Thongplub hosts a nightly call-in show dedicated to the supernatural.
The caller had recently encountered a ghost in a Bangkok hotel room.
“I saw someone standing in my room, a woman,” she said.
“Did you see her face?” Mr. Kapol asked over the air.
“I heard some sort of Indian noises, some sort of Indian praying,” the woman said. “I felt heavy pressure on my body.”
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“I was such a bad son. My mother was constantly crying,” Mr. Kapol said. “They wanted me to be a civil servant.”
Now, at 48, he has 20 employees and a mini ghost empire. He has bought his parents a house and a car. He paid for his father’s expensive kidney operation.
All is forgiven, for which he thanks the spirits.
“Ghosts gave me my job and my career,” he said, sitting on a stool at his restaurant. “I’m afraid of them, but I love them.”
A version of this article appears in print on February 11, 2015, on page A9 of the New York edition with the headline: In Thailand, the Ghost Business Thrives. Order Reprints| Today’s Paper|Subscribe
