Something extra

The San Miguel Beermen shaved their heads and won a big game against the PBA’s leading Talk ‘N Text Phone Pals. The Talk ‘N Text Phone Pals, then known as Mobiline, dyed their hair blonde to try to win without exiled center Asi Taulava. The Negros Slashers wear the numbers of fallen or injured teammates on their jerseys as a sign of support. And Michael Jordan would wear his North Carolina practice shorts under his Chicago Bulls uniform for luck.

In the Philippines, the tradition of "pahiyang" or "pabuwenas" has its roots both in long-time Catholic beliefs and pre-Christianization animism. Even in business, family affairs or even romance, we’re always looking for something extra to give us a boost.

In the corporate world, team-building and outdoor exercises like climbing rocks, trees and walls are used to confront fears and dispel interpersonal problems within groups. This is now a common practice among professional sports teams, the PBA and MBA included. Since all things are considered equal in terms of training and individual preparation, teams want to step into the bounds of the subjective to improve their communication and alertness to each other during actual games. And this can be done mostly by putting themselves through unusually stimulating exercises.

Coaches are known to wear the same shirt during consecutive games in the hope of prolonging a winning streak. Players tie their shoelaces a certain way and have rituals to bring them good fortune. Teams have mascots and cheerleaders, a long-held habit that originally attempted to ward off evil spirits and amuse the gods of fortune. Today, it is merely the Filipino habit of being sigurista.

There are all these self-imposed rites and beliefs which seem to spring out of nowhere. And then, there is the more popular Chinese geomancy or feng shui, extremely popular in China and Hong Kong. No new endeavor, relationship or business is started without first consulting a geomancer.

"All of nature is energy," explains feng shui expert Aldric Dalumpines. "Some people may think of it as superstition, but it is actually very scientific. The Chinese have been doing it for thousands of years."

Sometime, we are very surprised to find that spectacularly gifted players cannot seem to get along with equally skilled coaches. There seems to be no explanation for the friction. Dalumpines offers an explanation.

"It may be the influence of their birth signs. For example, the player may have been born under the sign of the dragon, while the coach was born in the year of the tiger. In feng shui, they are mortal enemies. Knowing this, one or both parties may apply some remedies to smoothen their relationship. This would save each of them a lot of problems."

Dalumpines also explains that life is a cycle, and that there are times, like now, which are particularly bad for certain signs. This year, for example, is not particularly good for dragons, he says. But the awareness of this brings both a little relief, and the opportunity to find means to prepare for hard times and lighten the impact.

Dalumpines has one client, a champion PBA coach, who had difficulty getting his team to win. After some study, feng shui remedies at the coach’s home created a more positive atmosphere which contributed to a string of championships.

Does it really work?

"It really depends on the individual," Dalumpines explains. "No matter how much you do to change the energy of your home or attract good fortune, if you yourself are very negative or do things to sabotage yourself, no amount of geomancy can fix that."

At the end of the day, all of our attempts to improve our fortune should be thought of as a help, not the main thing. At the Rumble in the Jungle in Zaire, Muhammad Ali spooked George Foreman by sending a "witch doctor" to put a curse on him. In a subsequent sparring session, Foreman was cut across the eyebrow, the first cut he had ever received in his career. Needless to say, all this superstitious mubo jumbo scared the heck out of him. Ali had all the leverage he needed to rope-a-dope his way to an upset knockout win.

You can carry a million rabbits’ feet, put your shorts on left leg first, and create whatever rituals you want, but, at the end of the day, it all depends on you.

Lady Luck loves those who take their destiny into their own hands.

Are you feeling lucky?