Circles of Light in Photographs

WHAT do you think are these circles of light appearing in my photos?” Jean [not her real name] recently asked me in a text message.

One picture only has two or three of the circles but some pictures have dozens of them. They sometimes cover the entire frame.

“They seem to be following me wherever I go. I’m getting scared!” Jean cried.
She is a well-known, attractive and dynamic wife of a ranking government official who has made a name for herself for her philanthropic and social work. She used to anchor a radio program focusing on women’s rights and issues.

When Jean showed me the photos that terrified her, I found that the circular objects were nothing more than orbs, which many people had lately been catching with their cameras, specially digital ones.They are, as far as I have gathered, totally harmless and should not be cause for fear or apprehension.

Nothing to fearI told Jean that of the half a dozen people I knew, in whose photos orbs appeared, no evil or negative thing had happened to them.

Jean was visibly relieved. But then she asked, “Why are they following me? When I was in Rome, they appeared in pictures I took there. I went to China and they were also there. And here at home, they still appear in my pictures.”

I said, “Maybe they want you to acknowledge their existence, or maybe they want to convey a message to you. I really can’t tell. But whatever it is, there is nothing to fear from them.”

The first to call my attention to this photographic phenomenon was the movie actress Rosanna Roces about two years ago. She was surprised when the orbs appeared all over the pictures she took in her farm in Antipolo and in their house near Fairview, Quezon City.She couldn’t see them with the naked eye; they only appeared in photographs. Why? We can’t tell. Somebody explained to me that new cameras could capture objects much faster than our eyes could see.
Osang told me later she could even command the orbs to go to, let’s say, the foot or head of a person. When she took his/her picture, the orbs would be seen only where she asked them to be.

Dust particlesSome skeptics have advanced the theory that these are nothing more than dust particles caught by the camera. But if these were merely dust particles, why do the orbs appear in one frame and not in the next or the next?And why do they vary in size, even in shape? Although mostly circular, Osang had orbs that were diamond-shaped.
I have a theory based on my observations and answers of people who have captured orbs in their cameras. First, they could be spirits of the dead that chose to appear as circular lights so as not scare people. Second, they could be elementals similar to St. Elmo’s Fire. Or third, they could be ET’s or extraterrestrials.

I believe the orbs appearing to Osang and to Jean are ET’s.

When the orbs are blown up or enlarged, we sometimes find geometric figures, strange writings and even faces in them. In one of the pictures taken by Jean, we saw a very clear image of an ET’s face.

Why are they following people like Osang and Jean? I really don’t know. I advised them to be aware of their thoughts and their environment. Perhaps in due time these invisible creatures will show themselves to us and we can tell them, “Take us to your leader!”

Not newThe appearance of orbs in photos is not really a recent phenomenon. They only appear more frequently now than before and in greater numbers with the development of digital cameras.

In a British series of books on the supernatural, for example, I saw a picture taken in 1949 of a large orb beside the person being photographed. The photo was taken in a yard in Japan. The caption simply said the mysterious object just appeared in the photo. They didn’t have a name for it at that time.

The need for further investigation of this photographic phenomenon is obvious, but nobody so far has shown any interest. Since there seems to be nothing strange or bad that happens to people from photographing these objects, there is little, if any, interest in studying them in depth.

But this attitude must change if we are to understand the nature of this phenomenon. Perhaps after close scrutiny, orbs may indeed be nothing more than reflection of light. But my gut feel or instinct tells me there’s more to these orbs than meets the eye.

Note: I will be on a lecture tour of Sri Lanka and India, Sept. 3-28, upon the invitation of the Sri Lankan and Indian chapters of the Young Presidents Organization, an international association of top level executives, based in Dallas, Texas. During this period my column may not come out regularly.

http://showbizandstyle.inq7.net/lifestyle/lifestyle/view_article.php?article_id=17696

The power to materialize things

THE Christian Bible has a story about Jesus Christ feeding 5,000 people with a few pieces of bread and fish. Not only did they have their fill, but several baskets of leftovers were collected.
This act is considered a miracle in Christianity. Today, the science of parapsychology calls it “materialization,” “producing something out of nothing.”

Stage magicians and illusionists, like the world-renowned David Copperfield, can make birds appear out of nowhere and even make a live elephant disappear in front of a large crowd. But they do these by sleight-of-hand, illusion or trickery.

I have personally seen cases of materialization that are not products of illusion or trickery. One involved Sri Lankan spiritual guru Swami Premananda. He just moves his hand, palm down, in the air. When he turns his palm up, a statue of a Hindu god, or crucifix or anything suddenly appears on it.

He has done this countless of times before various audiences. I’ve also seen video tapes of more spectacular materializations performed by the Indian guru Swami Satya Sai Baba.
Strict scientific observations have been done by western investigators on these two spiritual teachers with extraordinary psychic powers. No one has ever proved that any one of them is performing trickery. They were genuine materializations.

Our world-famous Filipino faith healers and psychic surgeons are also able to materialize things. But what they materialize are diseased tissues or flesh and blood, not birds or elephants. They also materialize objects inserted into victims’ bodies through sorcery or black magic, such as broken glass, cockroaches, nails, egg shells, hair, plastic ropes, etc.

Mental power
How is materialization done? There are different ways of doing this. One is through sheer mental power.

A person must be able to visualize in very clear and vivid detail the object he wishes to materialize. He must be able to see, feel, taste, smell and hear the object. He must also have a strong desire or intention to make that object appear physically in front of him. And he must be able to slow down his brain waves to the Delta level (almost zero to four cycles per second) without falling asleep. These are the conditions for materialization to take place.

In the late ’80s, I observed a poor man named Estong materialize coins from his mouth on the streets of Edsa Central in Mandaluyong City. Bus and jeepney drivers would give him, for example, 25-centavo coins. He would put the coin in his empty mouth and when he opened it, a one-peso coin had replaced the 25-centavo coin.

Others are able to materialize things with the help of some spirit helpers or guides and not just through their mental powers. These people are able to get such spirits to do their bidding.
Materialization need not be immediate or instantaneous, like what Swami Premananda or Swami Sai Baba does. It can be over a period of time. But the result is the same eventually, namely, the sudden physical appearance of something desired.

For example, a housewife one afternoon wanted to eat a banana but it was not being sold nearby. After a while, that same afternoon, somebody knocked on her door, a banana vendor. He said it was not his usual route. Isn’t this a case of materialization, too?

Examples
There are many examples of this type of materialization in daily life. A boy wishing to have a particular toy receives it as a gift, although he told no one about it. A lowly employee wanting to own an expensive camera he couldn’t afford suddenly gets one from a cousin who unexpectedly arrives from Saudi Arabia.

A regular reader of this column sent me recently a text message saying, on many occasions, what she had in mind would just come to her or would be offered to her without her telling anybody about it.

If one argues that only God can make miracles, like making things appear out of nowhere, tell him that Jesus Christ himself said in the Bible: (John 14:12) “All the works that I have done you can do, and much more than these.”

If Jesus Christ, who is the son of God, said this, it must be true we can materialize things like he did over 2000 years ago.

http://showbizandstyle.inq7.net/lifestyle/lifestyle/view_article.php?article_id=16505

More questions and answers on paranormal phenomena

IT is said elves or dwarves in the house is good luck. Is this true?
It depends on what type of dwarves you have around. If they are the positive or white ones, then yes. They may bring you good luck and good fortune. But if they are the negative or black ones, they may cause more harm than good.

Dwarves belong to what we call earth elementals or nature spirits. Sylphs belong to air elementals. Undines, water spirits and sirens belong to water elementals, and salamanders belong to fire elementals. The latter live in hot springs and volcanic lava.

How can I get rid of negative elementals in my house?
I suggest you don’t attempt to drive them away yourself unless you are trained to do so. Otherwise, you may only bring more harm to yourself and your family. Ask a qualified and reliable psychic or medicine man or espiritista to deal with them.

If you want to know more about these invisible creatures, read my recent book “Dwarves and Other Nature Spirits, Their Importance to Man” published by Rex Publishing Corp. It is available in all Rex Book Store branches and selected branches of National Book Store and PowerBooks.

Is it really dangerous to use the Ouija Board?
Yes, because to use a Ouija Board the players have to open themselves up to the spirit world and call on a spirit to answer questions the members may ask. Often it is the lower and negative spirits who enter the Ouija Board.

The popular local version of the Ouija Board is Spirit of the Glass, but the principle is the same.
I have known cases in which people were possessed by evil spirits after playing Spirit of the Glass. Some suffered a nervous breakdown. At least one woman had a spontaneous abortion or miscarriage after she played Spirit of the Glass.

One can never tell what type of spirit will enter the glass or board. So avoid this practice at all cost. It is not worth it.

Do all people have the Third Eye?
Yes. The so-called Third Eye is nothing more than clairvoyance, which everybody has. It is not really a physical third eye but merely a symbolic representation of inner knowing. Clairvoyance comes from two French words, which mean “to see already.”

Although everybody has clairvoyance, some are more highly developed than others. It is the same as the ability to draw or sing. Everybody can draw and sing but some people are better at it than others.

A person with a so-called open Third Eye can see things (e.g. elementals, fairies, angels and other spirits) that ordinary people cannot see.But, in reality, anybody can strengthen his/her natural psychic perception through practice and regular meditation.

There are several types of clairvoyance. One is seeing what’s going on at present; another is seeing the past (called retro-cognition). Another is seeing the future (called precognition). Still another is projecting one’s awareness to a distant place and describing it accurately. This is called traveling clairvoyance or remote viewing.

Are humans the only ones who have ESP (extra-sensory perception) or psychic powers?
No, even animals have ESP. There are many documented cases of dogs saving their masters from certain death by anticipating the collapse of a house, the occurrence of an earthquake or similar events.

Several books and articles have been written about animal ESP. It is known, for example, that a dog can tell whether his master, who is at a distant place, is about to come home.
Dogs and cats, as well as horses, can sense the presence of spirits. They also know when a person close to them is about to die.

There is also evidence that dogs may have dreams because they exhibit rapid-eye movement (REM) while asleep. A person who is dreaming exhibits REM.

In which part of the brain is psychic ability located?
ESP is associated with the right side of the brain. According to some theory, the third eye is located in the pineal gland. However, there is no hard evidence of this yet.

Intuition, imagination, synthesis, depth and perspective, space relations, etc., all these belong to the right hemisphere of the brain. Analytical, logical, technical and mathematical thinking belong to the left hemisphere of the brain.

Biologist Roger Sperry discovered the specialized functions of the hemispheres of the brain for which he received the Nobel Prize for medicine, although he was not a physician.

How will meditation help me?
Dr. Herbert Benson, a cardiologist from Harvard Medical School, revealed the value of meditation in controlling stress and anxiety. He believes meditation is the natural response of the body to un-stress itself. He calls it the Relaxation Response, the opposite of the fight-or-flight syndrome discovered by Dr. Hans Selye.

Regular meditation also helps one develop sensitivity to psychic forces.

http://showbizandstyle.inq7.net/lifestyle/lifestyle/view_article.php?article_id=15258

Why people dream and other questions

LET me devote this column to various questions sent in by readers and by listeners of my dzMM radio program.
Why do we dream? What is the effect if we do not dream?

Dreaming is apparently necessary for our psychical health, as well as for our general well-being.
In a scientific study conducted in the ’70s at the Maimonides Dream Laboratory of the Maimonides General Hospital in Brooklyn, New York, pioneer dream researchers Dr. Montague Ullman and Dr. Stanley Krippner found that everybody averaged 30 dreams an evening.

They then tried to find out what would happen if people were deprived of dreams. They woke up a person as soon as s/he started to dream. They could tell when a person was dreaming through the brain waves and the rapid-eye movement that indicated a dream was taking place.

After weeks of preventing subjects from dreaming, the researchers found that these people developed nervousness, irritability, depression, and other emotional and psychological problems. The symptoms disappeared as soon as they stopped interrupting the natural dreaming process.

If reincarnation were true, how come nobody ever recalled being an animal in a previous life, during a past life regression?
Something is wrong with this question. It implies that we should have been animals in the past for reincarnation to be true. This is what is known in elementary logic as a “loaded question.” It is similar to the question, “Have you stopped beating your wife?” It implies you were beating her before.

Reincarnation does not presuppose a previous animal existence. As a matter of fact, in all the 5,000 regressions conducted by psychologist Dr. Helen Wambach on 3,000 subjects, not one ever recalled being an animal in a previous life. That does not mean reincarnation is not true. Several western scientific studies found no evidence of a person reincarnating as an animal.

It is true some eastern religions, notably Hinduism and Buddhism, believe a human being can reincarnate as an animal, depending on how s/he lived his/her life.

Although I respect such religious belief, I have not yet come across hard evidence that that is the case.Are spirit guides true? How do spirit guides differ from guardian angels?
In 1960, French journalist Pierre Jovanovic wrote a very interesting book, “An Enquiry into the Existence of Guardian Angels.” In the book, a product of several years of meticulous investigative work, Jovanovic proved beyond reasonable doubt the existence of guardian angels. The book is full of documented accounts of angelic information into human lives.

What’s the distinction between angels and spirit guides? A guardian angel is a religious concept. According to the Christian religion, an angel is a “messenger of God,” and a “guardian angel” is assigned by God to every person at the time of his/her birth. An angel is a pure spirit who has never had a human physical existence. A spirit guide is a being that guides another by mutual agreement, to help him/her out during a particular time. A spirit guide may have lived life on the physical plane. A person may have more than one spirit guide.

How long does it take for one to reincarnate after death?
This depends on the consciousness of the individual soul and his karma. There is no fixed or standard time for everyone.

Some souls remain in the spirit world for years to learn certain lessons before they incarnate back to earth. On the other hand, I’ve read of souls incarnating in the same family while the parents are still alive. So there is no standard answer to this question.

Is there any scientific proof of the human aura?
Yes. Several scientific studies were done on the human aura. The first was conducted by a Dr. Kilner, a British medical scientist at the St. Thomas Hospital in London in the 1800s.

He developed what became known as the Kilner Screen. It is a flat piece of glass that enables ordinary persons to see the aura of another individual simply by looking through that glass. The glass is laced with certain chemicals or dyes that render the aura of a person visible.

In 1939, a husband-and-wife team of photographers, Semyon and Valentina Kirlian from Krasnodar, Russia, invented what has since been called Kirlian Photography.

They accidentally revealed the auric emanation in plants and humans by using high-voltage photography. Living things they photographed showed vivid colors around them.

Kirlian Photography is still controversial. Some scientists question whether what is seen through Kirlian photography is really the aura or just some reflection of light. Others, however, believe in it.

Psychics and clairvoyants see the human aura without need of any instrument. And they have confirmed the existence of the human aura.

No conflict between religion and the paranormal

HERE are the rest of Julian Qua’s questions about my work in parapsychology or psychic research:

What is the Inner Mind Development Institute?
It is a small organization I established in 1988 aimed at expanding people’s consciousness and hastening their evolution. It develops and conducts training programs and workshops to develop people’s inner mental faculties and powers. The institute is open to any man or woman regardless of color, race, religion or political beliefs.

What gave you the idea to establish the institute?
My background is business management. I’ve been in the corporate world for over 20 years, specializing in human resources, management training and development, as well as consultancy.

As head of human resources, I’ve seen the utter failure of many industrial training programs that address only the employees’ outer mind and external behavior. Nothing was done to train their consciousness or inner faculties.I sought to correct that weakness by developing programs that would train people’s inner minds and enhance their innate powers or abilities for practical purposes.

How would you key in religion with the paranormal?
I see no conflict nor incompatibility between religion and paranormal phenomena. As a matter of fact, all religions, whether Buddhism, Islam, Hinduism or Christianity, started with a paranormal phenomenon, with a vision or contact with a supernatural or divine being.

Since I believe that “truth is one,” it cannot contradict itself. Truth is truth whether it comes from God or the devil himself.

I think the problem lies in the erroneous assumption, especially by Christian religious authorities, that everything that is paranormal or supernatural must come from the dark side. This is not true at all.

Even Jesus Christ performed so many paranormal wonders, like when he predicted the future, read people’s minds, healed the sick, walked on water, changed water into wine and revived the dead. Calling them miracles does not change their paranormal nature.

How does science fit with the mystical and paranormal?
Again, I say, true science cannot be in conflict with paranormal phenomena. However, because of the reductionist, rationalistic and materialistic paradigm that modern science has adopted, it has eliminated many aspects of reality that fall outside its chosen categories.
So, consciousness, the spiritual and the mystical are considered outside the scope of materialist science. But true science should encompass all of reality, should it not?
But, as things now stand, science and the so-called paranormal phenomena seem to be incompatible. In fact, the paranormal is defined as that outside the scope of what science considers normal.

So, there you are! The conflict between the two is a question of definition. It is more superficial and accidental rather than substantial or essential.

The living are very much affected by spirits, but are spirits also affected by the living? How?
The answer is yes. When a person dies suddenly—either because of accident, violence or sickness—his/her consciousness is still here on earth, among the living. If he/she has any unfinished business, his/her spirit can be seen by sensitive individuals.

The dead will still be affected by the affairs and thoughts about them by living relatives, close friends and other persons significant to them when they were alive.
That’s why it is wrong to mourn too much the passing of a person. It keeps the dead from ascending to higher realms in the spirit world. Prayers help the spirits of the dead but calling on them all the time is bad for them. They will be pulled back to earth.

How do you feel about television shows or movies that depict the mystical and paranormal?
They are mostly unrealistic and exaggerated. Some are downright false! This is especially true of local shows. Their only objective seems to be merely to scare people, not to educate or inform them of the facts about these mysterious happenings. I don’t pay too much attention to them.

At least some foreign productions are well researched and more realistic. A few outstanding examples are “Ghosts,” starring Demi Moore and Patrick Swayze; and “Sixth Sense,” starring Bruce Willis and Haley Joel Osment.

What would you say to the skeptical and nonbelievers of the paranormal?
Nothing. I have no interest in converting them to my way of thinking. Maybe one thing I would want to tell them is, “Do your homework. Conduct some in-depth research and serious reading before making any conclusions or before dismissing these things as nonsense.”

I held that same skepticism before I started investigating thoroughly these phenomena. I thought they were nonsense and a product of people’s fertile imagination, until I came across real scientific data and extensive research supporting belief in them.
So, unless they have proof of the phenomena’s validity or experience the events themselves, they are correct in not believing.

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