Thursday, October 25, 2007
GHOST STORIES
They are nowadays referred to as controversial anomalous phenomenon which is believed by some and shunned by the rest as mere figments of the imagination.
My eldest sister Fraulein could see them. Once during the night of a neighbor's death, she saw the spirit of the dead man outside his house, looking in through one of the windows as if checking on his family. On another occasion, an hour before my brother Junior died in his hospital bed in a Makati hospital, Fraulein saw him sitting on the step of her house as she was coming home from work. Instead of approaching him, she immediately turned around and took a cab to the hospital. Already comatose, Junior was pronounced dead shortly after her arrival.
Personally, I haven't seen any ghostly apparition. I could only sense them.
During the ensuing couple of years after my father's death, whenever I was feeling ill even with something as innocuous as a fever, my father would make his presence felt. At times, I could feel the denting on the side of the bed as if he was sitting on it. I wasn't afraid at all. In fact, his presence had a comforting effect that would lull me sleep.
Even more dramatic was when I was also nursing a slight fever a day or two after my high school graduation. I was tirelessly polishing my brand new Rado wristwatch with my handkerchief while lying in bed when I suddenly heard someone asked, "What time is it." As if by instinct I checked my watch and replied, "It's quarter to nine." Thinking it was my brother Junior, I looked up towards where the door was; it was closed and Junior wasn't anywhere near it. And then suddenly I realized it wasn't his voice but that of my father's. I then put the watch away and turned off the light. I went to sleep thinking that my father was probably happy that I had received that Rado watch -- a much anticipated graduation gift.
In Long Island, New York one summer, my best friend and I went bicycling along the north shore for a few days with Montauk Point as our planned destination. On our first night, we stayed at a youth hostel which was a huge house next to the church. Its ground floor served as a recreation center for the parish kids. That evening, when everyone had gone home, my friend and I decided to play another game of billiards before calling it a night. Towards the middle of the game, we both felt something eerie -- a presence of some malevolent entity. I got goosebumps and so did my friend. We just looked at each other and without saying a single word, we raced upstairs to the bedroom, while neglecting to turn off all the lights downstairs in the process. The caretaker, of course wasn't too pleased to have discovered the costly infraction the next morning.
When I moved back to the Philippines, my cousins would often ask why I wasn't too keen on staying over in their rarely-used houses inside the old naval base in Subic. One of which is a sprawling residence most probably reserved for the exclusive use of high ranking US naval officials. Anyway, the one night I spent in that house provided a good enough reason for me not to return. I didn't see or hear anything, but there was definitely some eerie presence in the bedroom where I slept. The caretaker admitted the following morning that strange things do happen in that house but she had gotten used to them.
Same as in the other cousin's nearby house. There also seemed to be some presence that threatened to show itself at anytime. Once when I stayed there overnight, I had the blanket covered my entire body throughout the entire night. I was scared silly. Subsequently, at some family gathering, my nephew justified my suspicions. He told us of certain apparitions that he had experienced for himself within the house and its premises. He also made mention of a certain stretch of road in the area in which lone motorists would suddenly see in their rear view mirror a ghost at the backseat. My travels to Subic since then became mostly day trips.
Where I live in Metro Manila is somewhat of the same story. Most neighbors claim that their respective dwelling hosts female ghosts dressed in white. Some of our overnight guests claimed to have either heard unusual sounds at night, or had actually seen some ghost-like apparitions.
Personally, except for the sounds of some little feet running around in the hallway and someone sweeping the yard with a broomstick in the middle of the night, I am yet to experience a full contact interaction with a ghost. However, I'm sure they're all aware that I could possibly die of fright. And this may be the reason why they don't make any surprise appearances before me whenever I get up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom.
In the spirit of Halloween, check out this photograph and let me know whether you think it's real or not.
posted by Señor Enrique at 4:41 PM
40 Comments:
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said... I can also feel presence, Eric. Here in our house, sometimes I feel someone's standing beside me, or is lounging at the couch. But I'm not scared. It's my house anyway. :)
Not really sure about this phenomenon - but I remember reading an article that said the human body emits and leaves positive and negative charges in places they go to, and that these electrical charges later on form into an image of the body - thus this "living ghost" phenomenon. Which explains why, there are times we seem to see loved ones (living) around the house, when in fact they are not home.
One time - when I was still teaching, as I was about to ascend the stairs, I swear - I saw one of my students sitting in the bench. I even called him to go back to the classroom since it was already time. He didn't answer. Then I proceeded upstairs. But when I got to the classroom - he was there too! I said: "I saw you downstairs, how come you are here already?" He told me he didn't go down for recess and was in the room all morning.
Could someone enlighten me more on this? :)-
INKBLOTS said... You scared me with that one! Hahaha! Did I see a figure behind the lamp?
Pareho tayo. I could only feel them, like a whiff of air...going against you, or some goosebumps here and there, cold air on one side but hot on the other side, aroma of flowers, candle, tapping. etc.
When my father was interred in our house in the province, I managed to sneak out and have some sleep. I felt the whole bed was shaking. I did not fear though knowing it was him shaking it. Perhaps he was reminding me it was my time to look after him.-
said...
Oooh, ghost stories. I also have a weak sixth sense, which makes me somewhat brave enough to go to scary places. But I do know of many stories, perhaps I might post some in my blog just in time for Halloween.
As for the photo. I've seen others. It may be explained as a glitch in the camera (you might know the details, you're the photographer, hehe), but others are quite unexplainable.-
said...
hehe interesting experiences...i haven't seen a ghost (thank goodness) and i want to keep it that way :D
as for the picture, these days, it's hard to tell what's real and what's photoshopped...during the late 90s btw, a former schoolmate and her friends had their picture taken as a group, in Baguio...when the film was developed, there was a "guest" that nobody remembered being there when the picture was taken...there was a wall behind the group, so passersby would probably not squeeze in, esp when a picture was being taken...it was weird, since the "guest" looked totally out of proportion...-
said...
I personally enjoy watching horror movies and reading ghost stories. I like the feeling of being safely scared but in reality I dont believe in ghost. I think fear of ghosts is just part of our broader inherent fear of the unknown. I think the reason majority of ghost sightings happens at night is because our sense of sight is blurred in the dark and our mind misinterpret the stimulus from the environment.
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NOYPETES said...
Another "koinkidink" Eric. My dad gave me his Gold Rado watch when I was in my senior year in high school!
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Señor Enrique said...
Speaking of horror flicks, Leo, when unable to see The Exorcist when it first came out due to mile long lines at the cinema, I decided to play hooky one morning to see it when I was sure I'd be able to get a ticket although it was still jam-packed inside that theater. Being a weekday morning, I couldn't find anyone to go see the movie with me so I was alone.
Anyway, although I had read the book, its film version was so scary that at one scary scene -- inside Regan's bedroom -- I couldn't help but grabbed the woman next to me -- and she to me -- who was also went to the theater by herself. At the end, we both laughed at the whole thing but remained embarrassed, nonetheless, to even introduce ourselves to one another.
But the movie back then that gave me a nightmare was "The Devils" with Ken Russell.
I"ll willingly believe in ghosts provided they don't appear themselves to me :)-
Señor Enrique said...
That's surely mind-boggling Cyberpunk, but then again I shouldn't be too amazed because there was a short film clip in the Internet once -- a scene from Three Men and a Baby -- that showed a living room scene in broad daylight. By the window, as the camera spanned, showed a young boy of less than ten years of age. During the filming, no one except for the actors involved in that particular scene were within camera range. And the editor missed it during post-production.
Anyway, when the owner of the house was questioned by one of the production staff later on, she admitted that her young son had died years past.
So, the uninvited figure in your schoolmate's photograph may indeed be a ghost.-
Señor Enrique said...
Would you believe I haven't purchased Photoshop, yet, and therefore not too savvy on image manipulation until now, Dave? I really couldn't tell, to tell you the truth, if that picture is genuine or not.
Okay, I will be looking forward to reading some of your ghost stories. :)-
Señor Enrique said...
Yes and thanks for reminding me, Ding! I completely forgot about smelling candles and flowers.
I could sometimes smell my brother Taba's favorite cologne. I would know then he was nearby. This would happen not only at night, but anytime during the day, especially when I'd be in my workshop prhotographing still life images. He seems to enjoy keeping me company during those times.
Thank God he and my father are not in the habit of shaking my bed, though ... hehehe.
The figure-like image in the above photograph was created by the crack on the wall.
It was actually the outside wall and the streaming light cast on it emanated from the overhead flourescent lamp inside the house. I was intrigued by the lines of light on the wall so I dragged some stuff from the house to create that still life image.-
Señor Enrique said...
Wow! That is quite amazing, Rhoda! You saw one of your students outside while he was inside the classroom all along!
I am really intrigued by that theory -- "the human body emits and leaves positive and negative charges in places they go to, and that these electrical charges later on form into an image of the body - thus this "living ghost" phenomenon."
Thanks for sharing, Rhoda!-
Señor Enrique said...
A gold Rado, Pete? Whoa!
Mine was only made of stainless steel but you can imagine how much I lusted for one throughout my senior year. I'd longingly stare at its full page ads at the back of magazines.
However, it was only much later on when I realized that the hand-me-down Bulova and Hamilton watches I got from my older brothers proved to become more valuable as collectibles. Ouch!-
carlotta1924 said...
a few years ago my neighbors told our helpers that they see a white lady and tikbalang in the mango tree in our backyard that appear at around 1-2:30am. when i left the house that early on an excursion i didn't see anything at all.
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said...
I think Rhoda witnessed a phenomenon called Doppelganger. Kung sa provincial folks ito ang tawag "pinaglaruan." :-)
I notice whenever I am in a very natural setting (which means "not urban") I get a lot of extraordinary or what you call supernatural experiences. Once i noted a heavy tobacco smell in one part of our garden. I often test how far the smell would emanate by walking back and forth a certain distance. No, the smell would only be in one specific place. I even brought my husband (a left-brained guy) to the site where the tobacco smell emanated. he agreed that it was quite strange. We agreed to offer some more tobacco leaves to the source believing it is the guardian of the garden. Funny thing, the next coming days, the smell was gone. I told my husband about capres. And to think no one passes our isolated garden and we have no tobacco smelling plant either.
I have seen a lot of pictures like you have. I really haven't seen a true-blue ghostly emanation although lots of hair-raising events and lucid dreams about people I do not know who give me their names. So, I just light a candle and pray for them.
Happy Halloween!-
Señor Enrique said...
It's interesting, Carla, that oftentimes, it is the neighbors that tend to see the white lady that may inhabit our houses.
My sister Inday supposedly shares her abode with a white lady, which her neighbors see but not by her.
As for the "tikbalang," they are supposedly helpful creatures. They have been part of our folklore going back to the Spanish colonial times, if not even earlier.
Thanks for sharing!-
Señor Enrique said...
I also light a candle and say a little prayer whenever I smell powerful scents of candles and flowers out of nowhere while inside the house, Bernadette.
I guess, being out in the country or province, makes one more in tune with its natural surroundings and energies. I like what you had done -- making an offering of tobacco leaves on the spot where you smelled its scent. I should keep that in mind and suggest the same to those who may have similar experiences in the future.
As for the doppelganger phenomenon, this is what Wikipedia has to say about it:
"Doppelgänger has come to refer (as in German) to any double or look-alike of a person—most commonly an "evil twin". The essential meaning of the German word is "doublewalker", someone who is walking the same way as another person. The word is also used to describe the sensation of having glimpsed oneself in peripheral vision, in a position where there is no chance that it could have been a reflection. They are generally regarded as harbingers of bad luck. In some traditions, a doppelgänger seen by a person's friends or relatives portends illness or danger, while seeing one's own doppelgänger is an omen of death. In Norse mythology, a vardøgr is a ghostly double who precedes a living person and is seen performing their actions in advance."
Fascinating!
Thanks, Bernadette!-
said...
Eric, I can also feel presence. Whenever I go somewhere, the first thing I take notice of is that do I feel eerie in the room or is there something abnormal going on. I've never seen apparitions but like you, I've hear footsteps in the hallway or water dripping sounds from the bathroom when I bunked over at my school's hostel.
I could die of fright too so I hope it'll stay this way. Halloween is coming so, Happy Halloween Eric!-
pusa said...
i too feel their presence, like someone is looking over you or someone is just behind you but if you look no one's there... thankfully i cant see them, i'm so afraid to see a real ghost (just like the kid in the sixth sense) that would be so scary.
@ rhodora - funny i had a similar experience with my officemate, i was so sure i saw her walking in the corridor to go outside and i was about to call her but decided not to and i when i turned back i was really surprised to find out that she was sitting in her cubicle . when i told her about this all of us got baffled and one of our utility (an old lady) said that it means bad luck or death to the girl i saw, and she immediately asked me to tap my officemate with a broom thrice.... we followed her advise not knowing why or what is the logic behind it but nonetheless we did it wala namang mawawala eh.-
said...
Oh, doppelganger?
Jeez, that wiki info is kinda scary, Eric. So I think I just have to stick to the scientific phenomenon of electrical charges being emitted by the body.
Come to think of it - this may have some basis. Consider The Matrix, huh. It's a heavy sci-fi, I should say, but nevertheless - doesn't it challenge the mind - where the idea all came from?
Just a thought. :)
And oh - thanks, Bernadette! :)-
Señor Enrique said...
Thank God it involved a simple tapping with a broom. I can't imagine how that officemate of yours would react if she had to subject herself to a severe hazing-like whipping with a broom ... hehehe.
But seriously, Pusa, what you and Rhoda experienced which Bernadette thinks of as Dopperlganger phenomenon, in all honesty is the very first time I've heard of it. Truly enlightening! And thanks, for sharing your supernatural stories.
Yes, merely sensing a ghostly presence is good enough for me :)-
Señor Enrique said...
I've a feeling, Kyels, that the ability to sense such presence is inherent in all of us although some choose not to pay any attention to it in fear of ridicule from peers.
Happy Halloween to you, too!-
Señor Enrique said...
Very intriguing, isn't it, Rhoda? And now you have akindred spirit, Pusa, who had a similar experience with an officemate. This is truly worth exploring, at least, for personal edification.
As for the electrical charges, remember the entry I once posted, "Obscured Reality?" To date, I haven't found any logical explanation :(
http://senorenrique.blogspot.com/2007/01/obscured-reality.html
Thanks, Rhoda!-
pusa said...
cool dopelganger! i missed that comment by bernadeth... so our utility then was correct in saying seeing one means badluck!
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said...
Welcome, guys! The supernatural are actually natural occurrences. It all is lumped as horror or scarey stories. But then these are all energies asking us to harmonize with them. We are really like the Matrix in my opinion---positive and negative. And we can "neutralize" all negative energies daw by emanating peace and love. Going back to St. Francis prayer---that is how. But then love is not passive as usually defined but an active action through prayers and yes, even standing firm on Truth (that is scarier for most people nowadays ;-)).
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Señor Enrique said...
"But then these are all energies asking us to harmonize with them."
I like that, Bernadette.
Fear of them then is somethuing I ought to work out.
As Gary Zukav once wrote:
"The human emotional spectrum can be broken down into two basic elements: love and fear. Anger, resentment, and vengeance are expressions of fear, as are guilt, regret, embarassment, shame, and sorrow. These are lower-frequency currents of energy. They produce feelings of depletion, weakness, inability to cope and exhaustion. The highest-frequency current, the highest energy current, is love. It produces buoyancy, radience, lightness and joy."
This has certainly been enlightening!
Many thanks again!-
Señor Enrique said...
And isn't that something, Pusa? You now, at least, have an explanation for such a surreal experience.
Thanks again!-
Aura said...
Fascinating comments you received for this post SE..
Could´nt say I believe in ghost but as a kid, i heard a lot of ghost stories from the old people in my hometown province in Pangasinan. Kapre, Tikbalang, White Lady ,Dwende ,etc.etc. Very fascinating and i did believe all those stories. As years passed,never seen or experience any of it,i´ve outgrowm my fear and fascination.
I have only this story to tell..My father passed away same day of our arrival in Mla. Dec.12. 1988.I did´nt know he was sick as i saw him, three months before that.It was a big shock for me when my brother told me, my father died same day..I have this orchid that was given to me during our flight at SAL, it was so beautiful that i thought i´d keep it not knowing that i´ll be offering that orchid to my father..
To make the story short,in Jan.1989,hubby & i decided to leave Dubai for good and start a new life in Portugal. My first months in Portugal was more of solitude and despair. Hubby worked in a shipping company as pilot to a cargo ship. He come home twice a month for 2 or 3 days..Alone in our house, without family or friend in a new country, my father would come in my dreams looking handsomely well with his yellow sweatshirt giving me company on a cold lonely night..Those dreams with my fathers presence continued( although not everyday)until my husband left the company after six months, Since then, he rarely visit me in my dreams again..-
said...
Like I said to you before, i believe in ghosts and spirits. They're a reality that may not be as material to many but to which I have several encounters with.
Like for example when I was about 10 years old, me and some cousins were playing in a bedroom, throwing pillows and climbing the double-deck beds, when suddenly one of us, Farrah, suddenly just stood still and looked upward to a very tall tree just outside, inside the next house'd yard, and cried without any reason. I remember that it was me who asked her why she was crying all so suddenly. And she answered that a woman in white was sitting in one of the branches of the tree and was looking at her.
After sometime, we have learned that the house where the tree had stood had once been resided by a nurse that had already departed into death.-
said...
okey, that's it for me, enough with overtime...i'm gettin' outta this building.....!!!! i'm runnnnnnnnnnin.....
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Señor Enrique said...
Hey, hang on a sec, Cacofonix ... overtime at work, did you say? Weren't you supposed to be doing something work-related and not blog-hopping? Hehehe!
Enjoy your weekend!-
Señor Enrique said...
Farrah was probably frightened by the apparition, Major Tom, but I bet it wasn't intended to be so.
A friend of my sister Inday has told me that the only difference between our world and the spirit is that we cannot see them, but they're very much as part of this universe as we all are. And that the spirit is just as abuzz with activities at all times, not just at night time.
Truly fascinating, Major Tom.-
Señor Enrique said...
Through the years, Aura, the many all "sensitive" folks I've met said the same thing, that my father and brother Taba, to this very day, have not left me, and are now amongst my "spirit guides."
In times of trouble, my brother Taba would always come in my dreams, much like your father did during your early months in Portugal. And just as with you father, Taba always appeared at his best in my dreams
Many thanks for sharing, Aura :)-
gmirage said...
Andito na naman ako, the antagonist of such things! hehe. I dont normally comment when it comes to these. But these things really happen, question is where do ghosts come from? Are they really the dead ones showing themselves? Totoo ba yung mga pananakot sa atin ng mga matatanda?
As far as I know, the Philippines (perhaps next to Africa) is a nation deeply rooted in pamahiin, kasabihan ng matatanda (pareho yata yun), kababalaghan, beliefs of 'powerful creatures,' spiritistic phenomenons...
Can the dead be seen again? The belief that the dead can show themselves to the living follows the teaching of an immortal soul. However, Ecclesiastes 18:4 states: 'The soul that is sinning—it itself will die.' Also Ecclesiastes 9:5-6 clarifies 'For the living are conscious that they will die; but as for the dead, they are conscious of nothing at all, neither do they anymore have wages, because the remembrance of them has been forgotten. 6 Also, their love and their hate and their jealousy have already perished, and they have no portion anymore to time indefinite in anything that has to be done under the sun.' ----The dead are 6 feet under the ground...
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Who then are those (dead) that people claim they see...Rhodora is right, about the electrical charges but thats not always the case...
The accompanying alibi of the pamahiins (as written above) is 'Wala namang masama kung susunod sa kasabihan at pamahiin ng matatanda.' Which is very misleading... Things like, hahampasin ng walis, kakatok ng 3 beses etc...when done is showing that we believe in spirit forces other than God, which is the ground of Spiritism, an activity that God abhors because spiritism are works of demons, (who also tricks people into seeing the dead). (sorry humaba uli)-
Señor Enrique said...
A young entrepreneur I met once here, G. Mirage, said in exasperation, "Hay naku, Eric. Kung susundin ko lahat ng mga isang katutak na pamanhiin ng mga matatanda sa pamilya namin -- Pinoy at Chinoy -- hindi ko na maaatupag magbukas ng sarili kong negosyo. Matatakot na lang ako"
Indeed, there's so much to know and learn and follow, but in the end, as long as we feel that love is what guides our thoughts and actions, then we're all right. And this is why at troubled times, before I take action, I'd always ask myself, "Is this a loving thing to do?" This way, we won't have to cope with karma later on ... hehehe.
Thanks, G. Mirage!-
Amadeo said...
Eric:
Time for you to take up Kirlian photography, one of the things I learned about when I tried to dabble in parapsychology in the past.-
Señor Enrique said...
Not sure if your suggestion was made in jest, Amadeo. But you know what? I'm intrigued!
I will begin reading up on Kirlian photography. Hopefully, the gear I have as of now would be sufficient to get started.
Thanks, Amadeo!-
said...
this is a good topic. i rarely get scared of horror movies but i get easily scared with ghost stories. ayoko ng mga kuwento tungkol sa bruha at mga taong pugot ang ulo. they really scare the heck out of me. i remember when i was a kid, i bought this book called "cubao, pagkagat ng dilim" written by tony perez, and every night, me, my brother, and my sisters would take turns to read a chapter a night. we would come upstairs, turn off the light, light a candle, and read the book out loud, with feelings pa.
holding the cover of the book itself is scary. on the front cover, it has a black and white picture of a lady dressed in 1920's-like gown, looking at herself in the mirror. creepy.
speaking of which, i went to siquijor just last week. i was thinking that visiting that place would be a nightmare, but it turned out to be a very nice dream. :) you can check my pictures in my blog.
http://biyahengpinoy.blogspot.com/-
Amadeo said...
Eric:
I am getting the sense that you have a certain fascination for the paranormal, culled from a number of your entries.
While Kirlian photography started with trying to capture auras around persons, we have seen now how video and photography are also harnessed for recording paranormal events. On the premise that what the eye can't see may be seen by the camera.-
Señor Enrique said...
Yes, you are correct, Amadeo, and your mention of Kirlian photography immediately got me excited about it. It is something that might enhance my understanding of the paranormal as well.
I won't place much expectation on Kirlian photography, though, but will enjoy every phase of learning it :)
Maraming salamat!-
Señor Enrique said...
It was blogger friend Dave who had recently made me aware of Tony Perez's name, and I will check out some of his writings, BiyahengPinoy. And your mention of his book heightened my curiosity about Tony.
I can vividly envision the nighttime readings you did as kids :)
Thanks for the head's up on your Siquijor journey, I shall definitely check it out, too!
