Not only on Halloween

FOR as long as I can remember, every All Saints’ Day I get calls for interviews from radio and TV about ghosts, witchcraft and other mystical phenomena. This has become so regular and predictable that my children and their friends have labeled me the “Halloween Personality.”

Last week, a friend of my youngest son told him, “Oh, Halloween is coming. We will see your Dad again on TV.”

I used to be merely amused with mass media’s preoccupation with ghost stories, witchcraft and the supernatural every time Halloween came around. But lately, I have become bored and tired—even cynical about it.

The media keep on repeating the same worn-out stories. The same questions I’ve been asked the last 20 years are being asked me this year. So I have declined most requests for interviews, unless they want to know something new.

One of the most often-repeated stories this year is about the ghosts in society columnist Maurice Arcache’s house in Sta. Ana.

The story had been told and retold so many times that poor Maurice had to hide from reporters every Halloween. The latest I heard was that Maurice finally sold his famous (or infamous) house and the new owner had it demolished.

Although he lived alone in that house for a long time, Maurice said he was never afraid of them. He went about his business without minding them at all.

Horror stories
Most articles that come out at this time are horror stories or scary encounters. The scarier these are, the better.

One TV network researcher texted me, asking if I knew of “a love story that developed between a ghost and a living person or about a ghost and a living person writing to each other, or a wife who was embracing her departed husband, but when she realized he’s dead, he’s gone.” What is really the value of repeating such stories?

They are not really new. There are hundreds of documented cases in the history of paranormal phenomena around the world. People don’t seem to tire of hearing them year in and year out.

Evidence
Celebrating Halloween or the “Day of the Dead” on November 1 is not indigenous to our culture. It was introduced by the Spaniards and the Americans. Halloween, in the West, is one of the year’s most important “festivals of the witches.” It used to be a sinister occasion linked to the pagan Sabbath and the Black Mass.

Today it is celebrated principally by children. And yet, for the most part, people still associate it with ghosts, witchcraft and scary encounters.

For years, I have refused to succumb to the temptation of writing about Halloween ghost stories because everybody will be talking about the same topic anyway. But the other reason is that it is not true that ghosts appear and make their presence felt only at this time. Truth is, they may, and do appear, any time, day or night.

What I can’t understand is why, despite so much incontrovertible evidence of the existence of ghosts and other spirits, people still ask: “Do ghosts really exist?”

Let me say this much for the last time. Spirits of the dead not only have been seen by so many people since time began. There is enough evidence to prove they have been photographed, appeared solid to some people, wrote letters, sent fax messages, texted loved ones on their cell phones, fried eggs, flushed toilets, turned on and off TV and radio sets, photo copying machines and computers, called and talked to loved ones on the phone, signed their names on vouchers and delivery receipts, drank soft drinks and wine, saved people from accidents, or even had sex with the living.

On a more positive note, some “ghosts” have even healed the sick. Ghosts have been known to be able to do everything a living person can do, except beget or bear children.

Note: I’ll be conducting seminars in Poland the entire month of November, so I may not be able to answer e-mails immediately.

Source: http://showbizandstyle.inquirer.net/lifestyle/lifestyle/view/20081028-168784/Not-only-on-Halloween

Criminals who use hypnosis

MANILA, Philippines—Reader Lorenzo Tan wrote to say he has also encountered criminals in the Binondo area who use hypnosis to rob people.

“My few encounters,” he said, “included chanting of prayers and the use of hypnotic eyes. You won’t notice their eyeballs or even see their mouths open during the chanting. I was hearing words that seemed foreign, as though they were coming from my own brain.

“Although I have managed to avoid previous hypnotic attempts, in my third encounter, I was forced to look deep into one’s eyes and that had a bad effect on me. I couldn’t help recalling the face of this person and the chanting during sleep.

“Fortunately, I recalled from one of my readings on visualization how to counter such condition. I made a visualization of fire, burning his face repeatedly until his face ceased to appear in my mind.

“An encounter with these types of people is really scary. Avoid looking into their eyes, and distract them. That’s the only thing I can recommend.”

Thank you for that suggestion. The problem is in practice, one realizes only too late that he or she has been hypnotized. It comes without warning.

Mr. Tan followed his letter with the following questions:

1. “Is the future fixed?” Is it true we can’t change our future?”
My answer is “yes” and “no.” If the future depends on the will of man to be fulfilled, and is not yet completed in the astral or spiritual realm, it can still be changed. However, if the future event is already completed on that higher plane, it cannot be changed anymore.
For example, Edgar Cayce, the late American psychic and prophet who died in 1945, was in a building waiting for the elevator door to open. When it opened, he saw three or four persons inside. Instead of entering the elevator, he stepped backward. The elevator door closed. After a few seconds, he heard a loud crash. The elevator cable broke and everybody inside crashed to death.
When asked how he knew the elevator would crash, Cayce replied that when he looked at the people inside the elevator, they had no more aura.
In other words, they were already practically dead and there was nothing he could do about it. Cayce could see the aura and knew that only living beings have auras.

2. “Why do some people have the gift of seeing the future even if they can’t change it?”
There are several reasons. First, to prepare the person emotionally and mentally to accept the inevitable. Second, since we really cannot tell for sure whether the future, even if seen, can be changed or not, seeing it beforehand can serve as warning to avoid it, if possible.
Some say the future is just a bunch of probabilities and really not fixed. It can still be changed by us.

3. “Are spirits given the rights to influence the future?”
Not really “rights,” but the fact that they’re spirits let them see things happen before they actually do. Before anything happens on the physical plane, they appear or happen on the mental and spiritual planes.

There is no exception to this. Before a chair or a table becomes a physical reality, it must exist in the mind of the carpenter or designer.

So if one can see what’s happening on the spiritual plane, he or she can influence its becoming a physical reality.

Why 30% of people can’t be hypnotized

Reader Mary Ann Ong asked why 30 percent of people can’t be hypnotized. What prevents them from being hypnotized?

Actually, there’s no definite answer hypnosis experts can give us. What some say is these people who can’t be hypnotized either cannot focus or concentrate. Their mind or attention span is flighty or of short duration. They may be emotionally disturbed.

They may be too skeptical or too analytical and can’t relax. Or it could be the other way around. Others are not easily distracted and may be too focused on other more important things.

Source: http://showbizandstyle.inquirer.net/lifestyle/lifestyle/view/20081020-167502/Criminals-who-use-hypnosis