Today is when we go visit the graves of our departed loved ones. Among middle class Filipinos who have cemetery plots in memorial parks, tents are usually pitched even the night before.
Nov. 1 is virtually a family reunion. Families bring food potluck. There will be a lot of eating and storytelling. But at night, the young members of the family may start scaring each other and pull off spooky pranks for the fun of it.
Don’t look now, but even adults may get scared staying in the cemetery, especially when left there alone. But do we really have reason to get scared of cemeteries and being in a cemetery?
For this season of Halloween, I spoke to psychic consultant Francis Gaw (francis_gaw@yahoo.com), whose clients belong to show business and politics. Actor and Laguna Gov. ER Ejercito is among them.
I asked Francis to rank in order the places that are often infested by ghosts. Here is a short list.
On top of the chart are hospitals. Spirits of the departed usually hang around there because that’s where they die mostly and a lot stay behind. Most of them do not know where to go. I can imagine those whose lives were quickly snuffed out after a sudden death. Most likely they do not even know that they are dead.
No. 2 on the list — Churches. Most spirits go to places of worship to ask for forgiveness. Those who are not allowed to enter heaven go to churches to wait for a miracle — hoping and praying their sinful deeds on earth will be forgiven and they will eventually be allowed inside heaven.
Third on the list are morgues and funeral parlors. Those who died in hospitals, homes and maybe in places where they figure in accidents most likely don’t leave their earthly bodies until they get to the morgue in funeral parlors. And then they stay there until they could move on.
Surprisingly, Francis lists down cemeteries as the one with the least congregation of ghosts among places we normally suspect to be haunted. Why is this so? Francis reasons out: “Because the dead wouldn’t want to see that they are dead and look down at their tombs.”
No ghost towns
I have a friend who once remarked that the subdivision in Baguio where I got myself a little place is a “ghost town” because there are supposed to be a lot of spirits lurking in the community.
Of course, in the English language, ghost town refers to a once flourishing and populated area that becomes deserted maybe due to an economic crisis or as in most villages in the south are abandoned due to terrorism.
Some Pinoys though often mistake supposedly haunted locales for ghost towns. I’ve heard a number of Filipinos call New Manila a “ghost town” — maybe because this pre-war subdivision is dotted with mango trees (said to be attractive to spirits because of the sweet smell) and most of its roads are dark. And at the very end of New Manila is Balete Drive, infamous for its white lady.
According to Francis, ghosts do not haunt a particular neighborhood. “You have to check house to house,” he volunteers.
It is actually his job to cleanse homes of ghosts, especially those that bother its occupants. He even does ghost busting in hotels and other commercial establishments.
In one posh hotel, where the people in the area are aware that a foreigner had once shot himself dead in a room there (even actress Caridad Sanchez told me about the incident), guests had always complained of having trouble getting a restful sleep. Those who have keener senses — the so-called third eye — had reported seeing ghosts in the hotel.
When Francis was called in, he discovered 67 spirits mingling with hotel guests. He got rid of all 67 and business in this hotel is now booming. In most cases, he only has to burn paper money — those that you get in Chinatown — to pay off those ghosts to leave. Yes, they are no different from informal settlers, except that it must probably be easier to deal with spirits than squatters (oops, was I being politically incorrect with that term?).
Prior to the shoot of the 2010 Regal horror movie White House (starring Gabby Concepcion, Iza Calzado and Lovi Poe) in a mansion in Baguio that is reputed to be haunted, Francis was called in by Roselle Monteverde to check if it was safe for cast and crew to work and film in the said place. (He was even given an onscreen part there where he talked about spirits.)
The psychic consultant drove with the Regal staff to the City of Pines and he checked the mansion where he found six spirits. One was the ghost of a young woman who committed suicide after she got pregnant out of wedlock. This was after the war when society still frowned on such scandals. There was also this kid ghost that played mischief on transient guests.
When he reported his findings to the Regal people, they immediately told an old caretaker who had been watching over the place for 28 years about the spirits. The caretaker, who also seems to have a third eye, said: “Yes, there are ghosts here — maybe five.”
The Regal crew looked at each other because the numbers didn’t tally. And then, all of a sudden, the caretaker blurted out: “Oh, I forgot. There are six here. The boy ghost actually just passed by.”
Francis didn’t have to drive the spirits away because he felt these weren’t harmful and gave the go-signal for Regal to begin filming there. Although some cast members later reported the presence of ghostly intruders during the shoot in the place, Francis was correct. Nobody got harmed until the movie was finished.
Do we always have to get rid of spirits? Francis claims that we can actually co-exist with ghosts, especially those that are not malevolent. But he warns: You can never tell when you can offend them. It’s best to have spirits cleansed.
Better safe than sorry. But don’t be scared. Prayers are still the best weapons against harm.
(Note: Francis will talk about feng shui next issue.)