paranormal, are you in or out?

Paranormal (para/beyond+ normal) is defined as a catch-all category of popular thought, designed to mix together all that is strange or weird, whether fairly or unfairly, related or unrelated.

Ghosts, witches, Extrasensory Perception (ESP), haunting, life after death, doppelganger (a ghostly double of a living person that haunts its living counterpart), reincarnation, monsters, Electronics Voice Phenomena, and so many things that cannot be explained by science. Whether or not they are true, only those with "physic abilities" or those who claim to have been acquainted with the paranormal realm can vouch for their existence.

Cebu is highly-urbanized but would you believe there are reportedly a number (if not a lot) of paranormal sightings happening within this island of about three million people?

Ederts Cojuangco, founder of the newly-launched Cebu Paranormal Society (CPS), said that they've been invited to some haunted houses here, mostly built before the second World War, and witnessed paranormal activities. He cited an incident in an Urgello house, where according to its present occupants a series of unexplained events had disturbed them. Cojuangco said they later on found out that somewhere near the old house buried was an aborted fetus. The group talked to this unrested spirit as one of the process of "healing" the place from such unexplained phenomenon. CPS, he explained, was founded to help people in trouble with paranormal beings and the like.

One of the CPS' advisers is Rene Espinosa, a former ABS-CBN's Nginig paranormal investigator. Espinosa said that paranormal here in the country has not been given that much importance yet, despite the country's love for fairy tales and folklores. It has been set aside like it's a dirty laundry. However, CPS, he added, would hopefully change that image as the supernatural world really exists and people have only to open their eyes to see the world beyond.

Psychic, as defined, is a medium or channeler, one through whom the dead or the other inhabitants of the spirit world are supposed to speak.

Espinosa, who claims himself as one, told TF that indeed they can see and talk to ghosts. It does not need a "third eye" (it's not even the right term as people in his field would rather use "sixth sense" in place of this one) to see paranormal things like they do. Although he explained it requires a great amount of dedication and an equal amount of belief that there are other unseen forces other than the humans, to be one of them. The group, by the way, is open for those, with psychic abilities and those who is willing to learn the trade, and membership is for free. But having the supernatural skills already is a plus, he said.

CPS currently has 12 members, with not much of "gadgets" needed in its quest to help people bothered by weird incidents have a "peaceful coexistence" with whoever is/are spawning them. It is all about the ability to do it, said Espinosa, while explaining that simple materials like a kinetic bell and salt (yeah, the ordinary salt) are enough to "heal" the haunted houses or the supernaturally disturbed person.

So ghosts are coexisting with the living? Espinosa, who was famous for a while with his stint in Nginig wherein they foraged spooky places in the different parts of the country (including those struck by calamities that left several people dead…), explained that it is very possible that a house inhabited by normal people is also used as a dwelling by spirits. And spirits like humans have also different characteristics. Espinosa recalled a case that involved an old man, who had been dead since but refused to leave his house because he was attached to his daughter. The old man reportedly harassed the new occupants everytime he felt disturbed. It is just a matter of talking to them, explaining to them, and the problem would be solved, Espinosa said. And that was what they did to the man, talked to him and put him in a small tightly-closed jar. Then there was peace in the house, the young psychic stated.

And if they co-exist with the humans, do they see each other too? "Apparitions in the morning is very rare, it most likely happens in the evening when the people are resting," Espinosa replied, while adding that ghosts can also make themselves appear like normal people. But, they are not without head or zombie-like as depicted in films, Espinosa added.

Juren Sumalinog, also of CPS, said they are encouraging those people who have the capacity to see "dead people" and ghosts, to help them understand this gift and nurture it if they want to.

The group uses a digital camera to record a haunting, for example. A haunting, by the way, is a kind of "recording" of a past event on an environment, such as a house, building or any ancient place. These recordings play back, over and over in a kind of loop that is always the same, like it was video recorded. It is said that the presence of certain people can trigger these recordings to play back. It is not known, though, how these recordings are made, but they are often associated with a traumatic or strongly emotional event. Cameras, unlike the human eye, can reportedly capture hauntings that are in most cases associated by ghost-like figures.

A spirit or a ghost (or apparition) is the energy, soul or personality of a person who has died and has somehow gotten stuck between this plane of existence and the next. Most psychics believe that these spirits do not know they are dead. Or if they do they are just attached to the earthly life that they don't want to move on to, they say, the other world. That explains, according to Espinosa, why they co-exist with the normal beings.

In this computer age, paranormal has become a popular topic in the discussions in the world wide web. However, questions such as whether there are actually paranormal occurrences will always be asked as paranormal events are not in accordance with scientific laws. Even Christianity has not accepted this "belief" as what it usually thought as paranormal is the power of God to do beyond the ordinary things. As for the skeptics, this myriad of paranormal and fringe science claims may either be absurd or crazy.

Being interested in the "out of the ordinary" phenomena is legitimate, in fact, there's no law prohibiting anyone to be involved in these things. But if by any chance you hear a door banging and you don't see anyone doing it, might as well ask this question: "Yo! spirit, you there?" Who knows you get a reply. VATSKI