People have the impression that we can see ghosts or spirits only with our eyes open. It may surprise you when I say that this is not true. The fact is, we can see ghosts even if our eyes are closed.

I have actually experienced seeing spirits of the dead with my eyes closed on at least two occasions.

The first happened in the mid-1980s in Quezon City. I was invited to attend a meeting of a Japanese religious cult. Out of curiosity, I went. I had heard of this religious group before and was intrigued about what they were doing. They were known to spend a lot of time chanting in the Japanese language.

There were about 30-40 men and women in the group. The leader gave a brief introductory talk and then we were all asked to sit facing the wall and to close our eyes. Then the group started chanting.

After about 10 or 15 minutes of chanting, when I was getting somewhat uncomfortable sitting with crossed legs, I suddenly “saw,” with my eyes still closed, a pair of dark-skinned human feet (up to the ankle), in the center of the room which was behind us.

Invisible friends

After a short while, the two feet started “walking” slowly toward me. I kept quiet and very still. The feet stopped right behind me. I was beginning to be a bit anxious.

After standing briefly behind me, the two feet walked to my right side, between me and another member of the group. Now, I found that strange because we were all sitting very close to each other, shoulder to shoulder, and there was no way anyone could fit between two people. But the feet stayed there for a few seconds and then walked back to the center of the room, where they disappeared.

After that ceremony, the leader asked if anyone experienced anything during the chanting. I raised my hand and asked, “Do you have any invisible friends in this room?”

He asked me why I said that. I told him. He said that was their spirit guide who approached me to greet me, because I was the only new person in the group. The leader asked me if I was afraid, and I said, “No.” He said, “That’s good.” I never went back there again.

The second experience I had of seeing a ghost or spirit of the dead with my eyes closed happened in Jaffray, Canada, around the late 1990s or early 2000s. I was invited to stay in a community led by a Russian-American lady named Natacha Kolesar, Ph.D., founder of the Institute for Development of Education, Arts, and Leisure. They are followers or disciples of the Bulgarian spiritual teacher or guru named Omraam Mikhael Aivanhov, a disciple of the founder of the Universal White Brotherhood.

The Ideal Ranch is a community of around 40-50 individuals and small families who stay there for a week or two and sometimes for several years to learn the teachings of Omraam.

They perform ancient rituals like greeting the morning sun as it rises in the East, praying before meals, and asking for blessings before going on a journey. Each individual or family shares a room or occupies a small cottage. The setup in the ranch reminds me of the Findhorn community founded by Peter Caddy and others in Northern Scotland.

I was invited by a community member named Coutot, to listen to the daily lectures and to share with them my research on the world-famous but controversial Philippine healing practice of psychic surgery.

I was assigned a small room in a cottage formerly occupied by a couple. Because the wife was with a newborn baby, she transferred to a bigger room at the other end of the cottage.

Yves LaForest

On my first day, I was fetched at around 5 a.m. by Coutot to join the morning salutation to the sun. The morning breeze was too cold for me.

The next morning, while I was sleeping sideways facing the wall, I noticed, with my eyes closed, a man enter my room without knocking on the door. He walked toward my bed and leaned forward as if trying to see who was sleeping there. After a few seconds, he slowly turned around and walked out of the room without opening the door. That’s when I realized he was a spirit. I thought it was Coutot who came to fetch me.

When I got up and joined the other members, I asked Coutot if he came over to my room earlier and he said no. I narrated what I had seen. The man had been wearing a yellow-brown leather jacket. But he appeared to be taller than Coutot. Then Christine, who was carrying a baby, shouted, “That must be my husband!” They used to occupy that room.

Her husband, Yves LaForest, was the first Canadian from Quebec who climbed Mt. Everest, the highest summit in the world. He died when his boat capsized. One of the survivors was in the group I was talking with that morning. Here’s the clincher: LaForest had a yellow-brown leather jacket that he usually wore.

Christine asked me frantically if he said anything and I said, “No, he just looked at who was sleeping in the room.” This encounter with the ghost of LaForest spread fast in the ranch and elsewhere.

In 2005-2006, I met in Poland a lecturer from Canada. He was a member of the Ideal Ranch and he told me that the story about LaForest appearing to me spread all over the community.

Yes, we can see ghosts with our eyes closed. So, when you see a ghost, don’t close your eyes and hide under a blanket. The more you will see it.

Email [email protected]; Tel. 0998-9886292 for the online seminar on Soulmates, Karma, and Reincarnation on Feb. 6, 2-5 p.m.