WELL, ANOTHER ONE

NOTE : THIS ONE IS ABSOLUTELY NOT MINE !

The
Guardian

This is a true story that happened to a
friend of mine when I was in college back in 1984. We lived in a men's
dormitory called Coop Housing which is about three kilometers off but
inside the UPLB campus. The residents walk to and from their classes
because there's no transportation that goes to the dorm. It was built
beside a hill and not very far away one can see the enchanting Mt.
Makiling.

One
day while walking back to the dorm, my friend Jhun Banaay crossed paths
with a very beautiful girl who's carrying some green mangoes to sell. He
was so enamored by her looks that he decided to buy some mangoes and
tried to befriend her. She seemed quite kind and friendly too.

Since
then and for several weeks onward he would invariably see her in
different places in the campus or on his way home and whenever he could
he'd buy a few of her green mangoes which he came to acquire a fondness
for. Not for a minute did he think of anything unusual since she looked
like any ordinary girl but for her attractive features. However,
whenever he would tell the other guys about this new friend, nobody
seemed to know or have seen her anywhere in the campus so this intrigued
him a little bit.

One
time he saw her again at the lobby of the Department of Agronomy
building wearing the usual white blouse and floral skirt he's seen her
wear before along with some native bracelet and necklace made of twine
bamboo and leather. So he made some conversation with her and tried to
ask a few questions about where she lives and whether she goes to
classes there as well. He only got curt and vague replies. She said she
just live very close by and yes, she's also a student.

After
this conversation she left him and one of Jhun's friend happen to pass
by and so he asked him what he thinks of her. To Jhun's surprise and
amazement his friend replied that he didn't know whom he's talking to
because he just saw him alone earlier and even wondered why he's so
animated as if talking to someone else. This definitely sent goosebumps
all over Jhun but he didn't say a word.

The
moment of truth finally came one Saturday afternoon while Jhun was
sleeping in his room in Mt. Isarog, one of the eight housing units that
make up the dormitory, named after the mountains in the Philippines. He
dreamed of the girl again like always but this time its as if the dream
was real. In his previous dreams he'd be making love to her and this
really turned on his manhood a lot. But this time she finally revealed
who she was - the guardian of the barren mango tree across his window.
She took a liking for Jhun and offered him to become the prince of her
domain.

He
was incredulous and politely turned her down. But this made the girl,
now transformed into an ugly looking woman very mad and started dragging
him to come with her. Jhun screamed at the top of his lungs and this
startled his dorm mates. They went to his room and tried opening the
door but it wouldn't budge. In the meantime, Jhun was trying his best to
open the door from the inside and this went on for several
minutes.

When
those outside we're finally able to open the door they were shocked to
see Jhun look as if he's seen a ghost and aside from scratch marks on
both of his arms they also saw hand marks on his neck as if somebody
tried to choke him. He never saw the girl again. By the way, the girl's
name is not Maria. It's Mirasol.

Edgar
Millan

Poltergeists

When I think about it, I've had a lot of
close encounters with the unknown either from people I've known
personally and was fortunate to hear their stories or through personal
experiences since my childhood. Being gifted with a creative mind to
conjure up such accounts from fragments of my memories and imaginations
you, my dear reader, are able to read these short anecdotes peppered
with both fact and fiction.

Well, here's a thought I want you to
consider carefully. Do you believe in apparitions by affinity? Is it
possible for ghosts or other-worldly spirits to haunt a person across
the miles? Once again, this true story happened to somebody I used to
know in Los Baños during my memorable years in university. His name is
Paulo Viterbo. In fact, he once ventured to become a matinee idol
because of his good looks but I don't think anything much ever came out
of it. He's from the province of Antique. Yes, that notorious for
ghosts, capres, manananggals, mangkukulam, tikbalangs, and every other
dislocated spirits one can think of. Here's his story in his own
account:

" I never really believed in ghosts.
I grew up in a town called Sibalom where I heard stories of the
paranormal abound. I was raised a catholic and never once had I
encountered any experience with the unknown.

But shortly after I arrived in College,
Los Baños, I encountered what I now believe to be
"poltergeists." These are said to be ghosts or spirits that
are essentially harmless but mischievous, supposedly responsible for
unexplained happenings and noises such as door slamming, chain rattling,
or rapping sounds on walls or tables. But that's the dictionary's
definition. Here's what I have experienced first hand.

I just moved to an apartment inside the
campus but after a few days I noticed something unusual happened. One
night while reading in my desk I suddenly heard a faint knocking sound
underneath the table. That was strange, I thought so leaned down to see
what it was but there's nothing there. I dismissed it quickly and went
back to my book but after a few minutes the knocking occurred again.
This time I quickly looked under just in time to catch the sound again
but I swear there's empty space down there.

Another instance occurred while I was
taking a shower when all of a sudden the lights began to flicker on and
off. Someone or something literally flipped the switch from the inside
but I'm all alone. Doors that open and close by themselves became a
common experience for me. As I've said, I remain unfazed because I
really don't believe in ghosts at all. But what happened next really
made a believer out of me.

I woke up late one night realizing that
my blanket wasn't over me. I found it under the bed so I pulled it up
covering me up to my face and started to doze off again. But before I
did I could feel something tugging on my blanket and pulling it down
again. That's when I began to really get scared. Beads of perspiration
started forming all over my face and body. I recited the only prayers I
know by heart, "Our Father" and "Hail Mary" silently
at first. Then I prayed them again over and over as loud as the beating
of my heart.

And then I felt it. Something touching my
feet and moving upward, outside the blanket. I couldn't take it any
longer. I tried to wish it to go away or maybe I was just having a
nightmare so I thought I should will myself to snap out of it. But I
knew I was wide awake and this was no dream. When I could feel the touch
on my chest I gathered all the courage that was left inside me and with
a big heave threw back the blanket to see what it was that was touching
me.

At first I expected to see nothing but
unfortunately, I did saw something. It was my lolo Amancio from Sibalom.
He died earlier that year and I didn't get to see him before he passed
away. It seemed he was trying to keep in touch with me. I silently
prayed for his departed soul that it may finally rest in peace. When I
opened my eyes again he's no longer there. And that was the end of the
paranormal disturbance for me. But I finally believed."

Edgar
Millan

Astral Projection

I

swear my grandmother, our Apo Balo (Lola Mamang) could teleport while in
her sleep. Two times in my life, I have seen her floating or walking
very lightly across the room....at night....room very dimly lit....with
me slightly awake....and I knew for a fact she was not even sleeping in
the house that night...

One
time in the early 70's, I was asleep in my bedroom with my brother (we
had separate twin beds). I woke up in the middle of the night. I either
heard a rustling or movement in my peripheral vision. Anyhow, I turned
my eyes and tried to focus. I barely saw my grandmother leave my
bedroom, yet, I did not hear the door close. did she go through the
door????? She's not that tall. Was she floating??? I woke up the next
morning and told my mom that I saw Lola walking through our bedroom last
night. My Mom told me that she wasn't even home last night, that she was
staying at my uncle's home (2 blocks away). Hmmmm....

I
was in the Navy. In roughly 1983, while stationed at Mare Island Naval
Shipyard at the Technical Schools Command (no longer there now) as a
Navy Instructor, I woke up one morning to get ready to go to work. It
was still dark down stairs. I had my white navy pants on, with socks and
going down the stairs. I didn't bother turning the lights on before
going down. I was half way down, when I noticed a movement just inside
of the window of the living room. When I focused on it, the apparition
went out through the window (floating). I recognised my grand mother!!!
I thought, she's supposed to be in the Philippines!!!! Did she just die
and now showing herself to me for the last time (or something
supernatural like that)???

For
some reason, I was more intrigued than scared and I lost my balance and
tripped down the last 4 steps, creating a rucus of noise, etc. I got up.
I opened the door. By this time I did feel scared. The door swung open
and I swear a cloud of my grandmother waving back at me lifted upward
and beyond the swing set that was in front of our housing unit where we
lived. By now, I was really SCARED. I rushed back upstairs where there
was light, went back to our bedroom, found my wife had awaken from the
noise of my falling down, told her what apparently happened, and asked
her to accompany me down stairs. I WAS TOTALLY SCARED now. I did not let
her go back up to sleep until after I left the house for work and the
morning light has come around. When I got back home that afternoon, my
wife still had all the lights on. I evidently scared her too.

I
called the Philippines two days later, and found out she slipped in the
bathroom and broke her hip, and that she almost died in her sleep for a
while two days before my call and then she got better just the day
before I called. She actually passed away eleven years later at age 97,
but she hasn't visited me again since that 1983 incident.

Gaylord
Ugalde

Fredericksburg, VA/ San Felipe, Zambales

ZambalesForum (ZF) member

The Gift

I almost neglected to tell the story of my lolo Cipriano who happened to
be a grand uncle from my mother's side. He lived in Gordon Heights in
Olongapo and died eighteen years ago from an unknown illness that not
even doctors were able to diagnose. But his life was full of adventure
and mystery that's worth retelling and I'm simply recalling from memory
what I remembered about him based on what he told me when I asked him
some questions that bothered me and a lot of our relatives who had been
witness to the supernatural occurrences that happened around him.

According to his own account, he was walking home from the rice fields
one day when he was a young man in his twenties when he stumbled upon an
old man who looked like a beggar dressed in tattered clothes and
coughing profusedly by the wayside. He went to help him by taking the
old man home and giving him some food to eat. His kindness didn't go
unrewarded for before the old man left he told him that because of what
he did for him he wanted to give him an amulet as a gift.

My lolo was
hesitant at first to accept anything from the old man but because of the
latter's persistence he finally relented and was told to make a promise
that he will only use the gift for good. After he made his oath he was
astonished to see the old man regurgitate something from his mouth and
before he could move the old man produced what seemed like a small
pebble and told him to swallow it. This he did and expected to
experience something extraordinary but nothing happened. Well, not yet
anyway. He was told that in the same way that the stone was transferred
to him will he also bestow it to the right person he sees fit when the
time comes. This he must do or something bad will happen to him after
which the old man left as mysteriously as he found him. As to how the
old man got the amulet, he was told it came from an enchanted carabao
that masticated this magical stone.

After this incident happened, my
lolo Piano noticed some unusual things and abilities he possessed. All
of a sudden, he realized that his eyes were opened to see the world of
the supernatural. Good elves appeared to him whom he eventually
befriended. He discovered he could heal people with different ailments
like backaches, concussions, broken bones, etc. just by using his hands.
He could also drive away evil spirits from people possessed with them
most especially those who were cursed a spell by a mangkukulam. More
importantly, he found out he gained extraordinary strength he was able
to lift unbelievably heavy objects that normally would require three or
more persons so much so that people nicknamed him kalabaw and so we
affectionately called him lolo kalabaw because he apparently acquired
the strength of the lowly water buffalo.

My uncles all have their own
stories to tell of how my lolo amazed them with his uncanny abilities.
One story goes that he had a giant spider for a pet that keep on
producing little spiders that my uncles played with when they were
children. One uncle fell from a guava tree once and after massaging the
broken foot was restored to normal.

There were other stories about
encounters with tikbalang, kapre, manananggal, tiyanak and other
entities that he fought or overcame in the course of his long life.

When
at last the time came for him to pass on the gift that was given to him
he tried to convince one of his children but none of them wanted to have
anything to do with it. And so he waited but nobody turned up whom he
thought deserve the gift he possessed. He even asked me once when I was
in high school if I wanted it but I politely declined. And I remember
what he told me. He said that I could have been great if I wanted to but
he realized I distanced myself from that responsibility early on in my
life. When I asked him how he knew, he simply replied, "didn't you
have that encounter with the dwendes when you were little?" and he
gave me a knowing smile. When he died in 1984 it was of mysterious
circumstances. He was found in a ditch by a cousin of mine with his
throat all swollen and his eyes bulging wide as if he was struggling to
expel something but couldn't.

Edgar Millan

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Love Conquers All :)