Last week, a businessman from Pampanga came to see me in my office in Makati. He introduced himself as one of the participants in the Inner Mind Development seminar I had conducted in Clark Field Hotel many years ago. I sensed a puzzled look on his face, although he was outwardly smiling at me.

As we sat down, I asked him what made him come to see me. Instead of answering me directly, he reached into his chest pocket and handed me a piece of paper with a handwritten note.

“Here,” he replied, “I wrote it down so I won’t forget it. I hope you can explain this mystery.”

As I read quickly the note he handed over to me, it related three successive occasions in which people saw him in places when he was somewhere else.

Two months ago, a friend told him he was seen in Bacolor many times, although he seldom visited the place.

On another occasion, three employees of his saw him at Marquee Mall with a companion, but again he seldom went to that place.

The third incident was the most puzzling of all. “While I was having a board meeting in Bulacan, my inaanak sa kasal saw me eating at McDo Nepo in Pampanga with a female companion.

“I told him that was impossible because I was just talking to her sister on a cell phone minutes ago. She was in our office in Angeles, Pampanga, at that time.

“I just want to know what you will say about these strange incidents,” he said. “I have been told that if someone is seen in a place where he is not physically present, it means he is about to die.”

Physical and astral bodies

“That’s not true!” I exclaimed. “Who told you that?”

“Well, that’s what I’ve been told. That’s a common belief in our place. But I am not personally worried about it. I am an espiritista and I know that death is not the end of life. It was my friends and employees who insisted that I consult you. That’s why I came.”

I explained to him that what happened to him was a natural and not-so-uncommon case of bilocation. The word literally means “being seen in two places at the same time.” When one bilocates, I explained to him, his physical body is in one place but his astral body or etheric double is seen somewhere else. This usually happens without the conscious knowledge or intent of the person.

I told him that many saints and mystics of the Catholic Church have been documented to have bilocated, among them St. Martin de Porres, St. John Bosco, St. Anthony of Padua, St. Ambrose of Milan, St. Isidore de Labrador.

But the most famous bilocator is St. Padre Pio, an Italian Capuchin monk and stigmatist. There are numerous witnesses of Padre Pio’s ability to be in two places at the same.

Although considered by some to be a miracle, bilocation is in reality a natural and not-quite-rare phenomenon. Many ordinary individuals have experienced bilocation, although they’re not aware of it.

I recall the case of Vivian, a young audit clerk in a rubber shoe manufacturing firm I used to work with. The plant manager of Plant IV brought to me Vivian, who was uncontrollably crying one Monday morning. She related to me that six co-workers of hers saw her in the factory the previous Saturday, although she was at home on sick leave. One even talked to her. Because of her fear that it meant imminent death, she started to cry.

I explained to her that she had nothing to fear at all, because what happened to her was a natural case of bilocation. Her astral body went to the factory and was seen by several people, although she was physically at home.

I told her that the astral body is also called the “desire body,” because it goes wherever one wants to be, although this is not consciously known to or intended by the person concerned.

Usually, one’s projected body is seen but does not talk to anybody, even when greeted. But there are rare occasions when it does answer back.

However, what I cannot explain, in the case of my visitor, is how he was seen with a female companion eating at a fast-food restaurant very far from where he was physically. Was his companion also a projected astral body? I guess we will never know.

Attend the next Basic ESP Seminar on March 28-29, 2015, 9 a.m.-5 p.m., at Rm. 308 Prince Plaza I Condominium, Legaspi St., Greenbelt Makati City. Call 8107245 or 0998-9886292. Follow Jaime Licauco on Facebook.