Sometime in the mid-1990s, I received an unexpected call from a well-known bold movie star, Anna Marie Gutierrez, who became famous for her daring role in the steamy movie “Scorpio Nights” (1985).

I thought the call was a joke by somebody pretending to be Anna Marie. But it soon became clear it was serious.

She said there were strange things happening in her apartment, where she lived with only a housekeeper, and asked me if I could come over to take a look.

She said that whenever she woke up in the morning, she would find her blouse unbuttoned. This happened many times. She also found bruises all over her body. But she never felt anything strange or someone doing these things to her at night. She slept alone in her room, which she locked.

She also had difficulty sleeping in her bed, and every time she invited a man over, they eventually quarrelled and separated.

She first noticed these strange things happen “about a year ago.”

So I asked her if there was anything she remembered that happened to her about a year ago, or something she brought to her room. She said, “Oh, I bought this 100-year-old dresser with a mirror a year ago, and that’s when these strange things began to happen.”

The stool moved

As she was relating to me her strange experiences, I sat on the stool of the antique dresser. Suddenly, the stool moved as if somebody was pushing it toward the wall, until I hit the wall.

I told Anna Marie that I felt the owner of the antique dresser did not want anybody else to use it. The owner wanted it back. I told Anna Marie it was better to return it where she bought it , or get it out of her house. Otherwise, she will not have any peace of mind.

She was reluctant to part with the mirror because she liked it very much and it was very expensive. I said it was up to her to decide.

Strange noises

I interviewed her housekeeper, who slept under the stairs leading to Anna Marie’s bedroom on the upper floor. She told me that whenever Anna Marie was not there, she often heard strange sounds, like somebody walking in chains, or furniture moving around. Anna Marie said she didn’t know these things were happening when she was not around.

Anyway, Anna Marie later called to tell me there were no more strange manifestations in her apartment. She said she removed the dresser from her room and placed it outside the house.

The case of Anna Marie Gutierrez is one reason I advise people not to buy or bring antiques into their houses, unless they know the origin or history of that antique.

(She later migrated to the US and died in Los Angeles in 2009.)

Anyway, about two weeks later, I received a call from another bold movie star, Maria Isabel Lopez, who asked me to look at her collection of antique wooden santos. These were small wooden figurines of Jesus Christ, angelic creatures, etc., which adorned all corners of her house. She said she heard what I did in Anna Marie’s apartment.

I found nothing negative about Maria Isabel’s santos and told her not to get rid of them. She was so relieved, she gave me a large painting of a mermaid and merman, which she herself painted.

The next Soulmates, Karma and Reincarnation Seminar will be held June 22, 1-7 p.m., in Makati. E-mail [email protected]; tel. 8107245, 0998-9886292.