There are several reasons tales of paranormal or psychic events are not readily accepted by Filipinos, especially those who have been exposed to Western scientific tradition.
First, these events seem to defy science. For instance, bending spoons with one’s mind, or knowing future events, couldn’t be true.
Second, such experiences as seeing spirits or UFOs happen only to some special or gifted persons and not to people in general. It is easier to label such people who see these things as weirdos.
Third, hundreds of years of conservative Christian religious conditioning have made Filipinos look upon anything extraordinary and strange, such as possession, trance mediumship or spirit healing, as the work of the devil.
Fourth, there are many who make unwarranted and unverifiable claims about psychic abilities or phenomena which are hard to believe. So, the tendency for the logical-minded is to reject them.
Fifth, mass media have contributed much to the misinterpretation of the subject. Because of sensationalism, what the public gets about paranormal phenomena are often distorted and exaggerated.
True vs false
Despite such attempts to undermine paranormal and psychic phenomena, the greater portion of the population seems to believe such things as natural events, which they really are. The problem is really in separating the false from the true.
Through my years of explorations into this fascinating world of psychic phenomena and mysticism, I have come across many strange stories and personal encounters with the unknown. Integrating and understanding such events in the context of our daily existence is no easy task, because current scientific and religious beliefs contradict them.
If we realize, however, that the physical world is only one level of reality, and that there are planes of existence above the physical, where such paranormal events may have their origin, then it becomes less difficult to understand and explain such events. Considering that similar phenomena are also found in other parts of the world would indicate the existence of some universal principle or law governing them, which may be unknown to mainstream science.
Modern quantum physics appears to be discovering these new scientific paradigms.
Incredible
Here are some incredible but true events told to me by highly credible people. Upon deeper reflection, we realize that these stories are quite possible and believable.
One of my favorite stories concerns a ghost who even signed a check voucher. Mr. X was an executive of an advertising and PR company who suffered from leukemia and was confined in a hospital for a long time.
Because of his long confinement, he ran out of money to pay the hospital bills. So, his colleagues started raising funds. Donations poured in.
But one morning, he died. In the afternoon, an advertising executive, who had not yet heard of his death, sent his secretary to the hospital to give his company’s contribution.
The secretary knocked on the door of the patient’s room. A voice answered from inside the room asking her to come in.
When she entered the room, she felt a chill envelop her. She saw a man sitting on the bed. She announced her company name, saying she brought their contribution. He thanked her.
The secretary said he had to sign the check voucher as proof of receipt. The man obliged and signed it. The girl then said goodbye and left.
When she reached the office, she was told that the patient she visited had died that morning. The secretary almost collapsed in disbelief.
A more fantastic story, which, up to now, has not yet been verified, was a Tupperware party apparently organized by the dead.
A Tupperware saleslady got a call for a demo in a house at Valle Verde in Pasig. The saleslady promptly went there and saw the party going on and made her presentation.
After her sales presentation, she listed down the guests’ product orders. The products were to be delivered the next week.
When the saleslady went to deliver the products to each of the guests who had placed orders at the party, she was told they had been dead for months and even years. So, who were at that party?
When I met Tony Gonzalez, former Tourism secretary and president of Mondragon Industries that distributed Tupperware, I asked him whether or not that ghost story was true. He said he had heard about it but could not tell if it was. He promised to look into it.
He later told me that the saleslady had migrated to the United States and they had lost contact.
Stories about ghosts being seen by the living abound. But stories of ghosts who leave behind physical marks or evidence are rare.
E-mail jaimetlicauco@yahoo.com; call 09989886292.