I seldom check my social media apps, but with the enhanced community quarantine in effect in Metro Manila, there’s not much to do at home except read books, watch TV and check the internet. That’s how I got the message from a reader, RRM, about what happened during the wake for his cousin who died a week before:
“Hello, Mr. Licauco. Do you believe in the supernatural? I do. Something strange happened during the wake for my cousin Bing.
“Olive, cousin Ranny’s wife, borrowed his phone to make a call. But before she could dial, the phone rang. The caller ID said ‘Ate.’ Now Ate is (or was) Ranny’s older sister, Bing, who had just died.
“Olive, knowing that Bing’s daughter, Anjuli, now uses her mother’s phone, immediately called the attention of Anjuli, who was across the room. But she was not using Bing’s phone as it was being recharged. Anjuli then checked the phone to see if it registered the outgoing call. It did not.
“How was it possible for our dead cousin to make a call?”
Not rare nor impossible
Dear RRM, messages coming from the dead are not really that rare nor impossible. There are many documented cases around the world where the dead have communicated with the living by various means or devices, such as (formerly) fax machines, tape recorders and now through cell phones.
I remember a case of an employee who suddenly died in Davao. He sent three messages via fax machine to his office in Manila, in which he also revealed he had another wife unknown to everybody else.
In another case, a murder victim registered a message from his cell phone, although his phone’s SIM card had been removed and was kept by the police.
Still, another case which I had investigated, a dead man wrote in his own handwriting a message on the wall mirror in his mother’s room using a woman’s lipstick.
Have you heard of electronic voice phenomena or EVP? In the 1970s there were many studies done by Western researchers of voices of the dead which could be heard on AM radios between broadcast stations. Such voices also appeared on tape recorders that were kept running during the night. Some of the voices even identified themselves to be relatives of those listening to them.
Local espiritistas and mediums receive messages from various spirits during seances. In spiritualist circles in England, the dead even appear as “ectoplasms” during such sessions, which are often conducted in the dark. That’s why skeptics have labeled such phenomena to be fraudulent. However, I believe not all of them are fraudulent.
Authenticity
There are many thoroughly researched books written about the dead communicating with the living. One of the earliest books on the subject is called “The Dead Are Alive,” by the American psychic researcher Harold Sherman. He came to the Philippines in the mid-1970s to observe our faith healers and psychic surgeons and was convinced of their authenticity.
A more recent book on spirit communication and what happens after death is “Handbook to the Afterlife” by Pamela Rae Heath and Jon Klimo. I met Jon Klimo when he was president of the Rosebridge Graduate School of Integrative Psychology in Concorde, California. That school no longer exists and Klimo has migrated to Hawaii.
I myself have received verified or authenticated messages from at least five spirits of the dead in the ’80s and ’90s. These usually happen spontaneously and while I am in a trance state. I cannot do this deliberately or intentionally.
Is it wrong or bad to communicate with the dead? Perhaps this depends on one’s intention or purpose. The Bible itself provides us with proof that we can talk with the dead. In Book 1 of Samuel (28:3-19), it is written that King Saul of Israel and Judah communicated with the spirit of the Prophet Samuel through a female medium at Endor. Everything that Samuel told the king came to pass. Can the Bible, which is believed to be the voice of God, be wrong? INQ
jaimetlicauco@yahoo.com