Of friendly ghosts, a visit from a departed & a little miracle

It’s All Souls’ Day today, a time for story-telling about – hold on to your seats! – ghosts and some such hair-raising incidents.

Here are three true stories:

1. The Friendly Ghosts At The Pinoy Dream Academy

Stories have been circulating that some friendly and playful ghosts (you know, like Casper, your and my favorite ghost) have been teasing the scholars of the ABS-CBN reality-TV Pinoy Dream Academy (PDA). Instead of being scared, the scholars are amused by it all, although one time, they reportedly did request to be accommodated in one room – for comfort, you know.

One story goes that scholar Panky saw a beautiful girl inside the PDA. No, the beautiful girl couldn’t be one of the scholars. She was a new face who appeared out of the blue and disappeared like a faint smoke into the air.

Scholar Chay also reportedly saw the same child, while another scholar saw the ghost of a teenage boy who, like the beautiful girl, was friendly. The two ghosts simply appeared – and disappeared – perhaps without any intention of scaring whoever would see them.

In another incident, scholar Roni was practising, alone, when his CD started to play without being touched – by itself! – as if moved by an unseen hand. Oops! Another friendly ghost.

The story also goes that during the Pinoy Big Brother (PBB) Teen Edition, Matt Evans (with the curly locks) was fixing his hair at the bathroom when he noticed that the spray net he was using disappeared. After searching, Matt found the missing item outside the bathroom. There was no other human being around, so who could have moved the spray net? Yes, your guess is right!

Those in the know suspect that the friendly, playful ghosts (including a lady?) are those of the dead to whom the lot where the PDA building now stands means so much because it holds many fond memories for them while they were alive.

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2. How Papa Won The ‘Debate’

When Papa was alive, he and my uncle (his only brother, also now, ehem, playing mahjong with his dear departed friends because he was an inveterate mahjong addict here on earth) used to have a friendly running debate about life after life. Papa insisted that souls/spirits (kaluluwa) existed but my uncle stood firm on his belief that there was no afterlife.

Anyway, guess what happened three days after Papa was buried in Las Navas, Northern Samar, four decades ago – he appeared to my uncle.

It happened after midnight. My uncle slept in my Papa and Inay’s big bed covered with an embroidered mosquitero (very common in the provinces) while the rest of us slept sardines-like on cushions spread on the sala just outside the room.

So on the third day after Papa was buried, in the dead of night, my uncle bolted upright from the bed and ran out of the room, chasing somebody. He later told us that he was about to sleep when he felt the thick cushion tilt on one side. When he turned and looked, he saw Papa smiling at him, lifting a portion of the mosquitero, only in the white long-sleeved necktied shirt (but without the coat) he wore in his coffin.

That was how Papa won his long-running "debate" with my uncle who died a mysterious death several years ago (he simply disappeared, with hardly any trace, which was not a surprise because he was the lakwatsero/mahjongero kind of person who found "quorum" anywhere he went, whether in Samar or in Bacolod or in Legazpi or anywhere in Metro Manila).

Up There, Papa and my uncle must be "debating" about some other topic now.

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3. How Fr. Corsie Healed Pepe

I’ve heard stories upon stories about how Fr. Corsie Legaspi has healed people sick of all kinds of ailments by simply touching and/or praying over them, whether in person or through a "proxy" (bearing the sick person’s photograph) or with the sick simply watching Fr. Corsie’s healing Mass on TV.

The first eyewitness case I had of a Fr. Corsie healing happened to Pepe (name changed to protect his privacy). Pepe was on feeding tube for almost a month due to a stroke and was undergoing therapy.

A relative suggested to Pepe to try contacting Fr. Corsie, even if Pepe was not really a firm believer.

To make a long story short, Fr. Corsie granted Pepe’s request and prayed over him through the telephone. Lo and behold, after he hung up, Pepe recalled feeling "very hungry." He saw a bagful of pan de sal on the dining table and got a piece. Surprise, surprise! He was able to eat it without any difficulty at all. Yes, he was able to swallow, something he couldn’t do since his stroke (remember, he was on a feeding tube).

It was instant healing. Believe it or not! When Pepe showed up for the therapy the next day, his doctor was surprised. "You are cured," the doctor told Pepe. "We must remove your feeding tube now." (Pepe didn’t tell his doctor about Fr. Corsie who himself must be reading about it now for the first time.)

Since then, Pepe has become a believer, with his faith in The Great Healer firmer than ever.

(Incidentally, here’s Fr. Corsie’s healing schedule for the first quarter of November: Nov. 4, Saturday, 1 to 5 p.m., at the Coming Home Retreat and Meditation Center, Binakayan, Cavite; Nov. 6, Monday, 1 to 6 p.m., at the Annunciation of the Lord Parish, Bonoan, Dagupan, Pangasinan; Nov. 7, Tuesday, 1 to 6 p.m., at St. Thomas Aquinas Parish, Mangaldan, Pangasinan; Nov. 8, Wednesday, 1 to 6 p.m., at the San Fabian Parish Church, San Fabian, Pangasinan; Nov. 9, Thursday, 1 to 6 p.m., at the Epiphany Parish Church, Lingayen, Pangasinan; and Nov. 11, Saturday, 1 to 6 p.m., at the Meralco Main Office Compound, Ortigas Ave., Pasig City. For further inquiries, call Somil at 046-434-8759 or 046-878-0069, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays.)

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