Superstition or Supernatural

It is so easy for a Westerner to dismiss the idea of ghost and vampires in the Philippines.  Then again, you have to wonder a little bit when it seems all the Filipino believe in them.  Not only believe in t hem but staunchly believe in and defend their belief.  While those from the West tend to dismiss it, they tend to think we just don’t know.  Are we so sure they are just silly superstitions.  I’m beginning to wonder.

The first time I read about a quack doctors, it was from an expat that took his girlfriend to one that had been sick for a while.  It was his first experience with a quack.  He didn’t really believe but at the same time, he commented how she got well that same day.  He explained the “doctor” said some chants and lit some fires and then she got well.

Last night, I was sitting on the porch again and I was thinking that I’d like to see that creature I saw the other night.  The bat with a birds body and a long beak, like that of a humming bird.  I wanted a better look.

Then I heard a few squeaks.  That’s exactly what I read during the day yesterday.  That people often hear a squeak.  Jessie called it a chirp or rather, like a chirp.

I quickly changed my line of thought as you’re never suppose to invite them in.  I’m thinking, did I call it up?  Did it call me up to invite it?  I know that sounds crazy but you didn’t see what I saw two nights before.

I had noticed that the trees in the house next to our house needed the trees trimmed that hung down over a walk way.   They are blocking my view and disturbing my Filipina watching.  LOL

I didn’t say anything to Jessie about it but last night she volunteered that the neighbors wont trim them because “the entity” gets upset.  She said the ya ya (nanny) who use to work there told her that.

I asked how they knew the entity gets upset.  Jessie told me that the ya ya’s Cebuano was “deep”.   Jessie can understand much of the local language but not all of it.  I’d like to know how they know, maybe she will be able to find out.

The house we live in had an old woman that lived here for many years.  Our landlord grew up here.  The old lady was her mother.

The ya ya said she once heard someone taking a shower in the bathroom downstairs.   She thought it was Jessie but when she got up, there was no one there.  I thought, perhaps she was just dreaming.  Perhaps she was.

Jessie told me that that same ya ya also saw a figure down stairs a couple of times.  She said the woman looked like Jessie from behind but she never saw the ladies face.  The woman was always looking out the door.

This ya ya is a perfectly normal person.  No drugs, no drinking just your average Filipina with a couple of kids of her own.

Aswang are usually depicted as female.

Aswang are usually depicted as female.

I have often felt a presence when I go downstairs.  I figured it was just my wild imagination running amok again.  I don’t like going down there late at night though.  I always turn the lights on.  I get a creepy feeling when the lights are off.  That’s a bit silly, I think.  I doubt the entity cares about lights.

I’ve seen Filipina attribute noises to various things that I thought could happen quite normally.  Then I get these creepy feelings.  I see what Jessie is sure was a aswang (vampire).  And I have to wonder, I can’t help but wonder.

Jessie told the ya ya what I saw and she said we should not go out so late.  That here are lots of aswang in this area.

At the very least, its fascinating to me that so many Filipino talk of it as a fact of life.  It just is.  Ghost and ghouls a real, very real to many Filipino.  I don’t know if this is true at all, though, I’ve seen and heard strange things.

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Filed under: Filipino Culture • Living In The Philippines

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