By Jaime T. Licauco
INNER AWARENESS
Philippine Daily Inquirer
February 12, 2008
Tuesday
MANILA, Philippines—I sometimes read columns that give advice to people with love or relationship problems when I see an interesting question.
Most of the time, the advice is sound and helpful. Sometimes it is even sprinkled with a good dose of humor.
But I notice that the advisers assume this is the only lifetime the people involved have ever lived. And, because of this, the real cause or source of the problem is seldom, if ever, addressed properly.
For example, why does a person get so attracted to another when all reason goes against a relationship with him or her? Why cannot one leave the other despite suffering so much emotionally, mentally and even, at times, physically?
If we assume that we have lived only in this lifetime and have never lived before, we may not find the real answer to the deepest questions our souls are aching to know.
A woman who came to my seminar on Soulmates, Karma and Reincarnation several years ago told me before the class began, that she drove her husband out of their house because she could no longer stand his womanizing. She would forgive him and then he would do it again. So she finally decided to end the marriage once and for all. Her hatred toward her husband knew no bounds.
Role reversal
During the past-life hypnotic regression that I conducted during the seminar, she found out that, in a previous life, she was a man and was the husband of her present husband who, in that lifetime, was a woman. In other words, their roles were reversed.
During that previous lifetime, she was womanizing and cheating on her partner, now the husband she hated so much.
When she discovered this, she was shocked! She realized she was only getting in this lifetime a dose of her own medicine. In the language of the Bible, “She was reaping what she sowed.” She was only meeting her karma.
Karma is the law of universal justice or of cause and effect. It is the adjustment mechanism that refers our actions back to a past life that caused it.
Law of Karma
The Law of Karma is also called the Law of Compensation. It states: “Whatever we do will come back to us nothing less and nothing more.” There is no escaping the consequences of karma.
When this woman realized what she did to her husband in a previous life, she felt very sorry. Her hatred toward him completely vanished. Though she did not reconcile with him, her anger toward him was gone.
Emotional healing took place because of knowledge of her past deeds. She was only getting what she deserved.
This is what makes knowledge of past life and past relationship important. It makes us understand why certain people behave toward us and why we behave toward them in a certain way.
The behavior can either be positive or negative because both great hatred and great love bind us to another person.
Hated son
In another class, a woman discovered why she hated her second son. Unlike her other children, she would punish or castigate him at the slightest excuse. She felt she was being unfair to her second child but she could not understand her behavior or attitude toward him.
During the past-life regression, she saw herself as a slave in Africa centuries before. They had a slave master who was very cruel to them and who would whip or punish them for the slightest infraction. She hated the slave master so much that she cursed him and vowed never to forgive him.
This slave master became her son. She now had the opportunity either to continue hating him and exact revenge or to forgive. She chose to forgive. Her relationship with her son improved.
If you love somebody very much, you are bound to meet that person again in another lifetime. And, if you hate somebody very much, you are also bound to meet that person again in another lifetime.
So, if you do not want to meet your enemy again in your next life, better forgive him now and release him to his/her highest good. Otherwise, you are bound to meet that person again—and again, until you learn to forgive and release all things.
Visit: www.inquirer.com.ph
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
Rationale behind the inner dance
By Jaime T. Licauco
INNER AWARENESS
Philippine Daily Inquirer
February 5, 2008
Tuesday
Part V
MANILA, Philippines—Several members of our discussion group reported moving or swaying their hands and body involuntarily even after they had gone home. And, always, the feeling was one of bliss and inner tranquility.
But how does one explain such a mysterious process? Even Pi Villaraza was at a loss to find a rational explanation for it.
Carlos Castañeda explains this in his book “Magical Passes.”
In Castañeda’s foreword, I found the explanation I was looking for.
The magical passes, according to Castañeda’s teacher, the Mexican Yaqui Indian mystic named Don Juan Matus, were not invented. They were discovered by the shamans of Don Juan’s lineage who lived in ancient times, while they were in shamanistic states of heightened awareness.
“The discovery of the magical passes was quite accidental. It began as very simple queries about the nature of an incredible sensation of well-being that those shamans experienced in those states of heightened awareness when they held certain bodily positions or when they moved their limbs in some specific manner. Their sensation of well-being had been so intense that their drive to repeat those movements in their normal awareness became the focus of all their endeavors.”
This is similar to what happens after experiencing the inner dance. People want to continue it.
Two states
There are two states of consciousness. The normal state of awareness is what Don Juan calls the “tonal” and the heightened state of awareness, the “nagual.” Psychologist Lawrence LeShan calls it “sensory” reality and “clairvoyant” reality.
Don Juan believes “there is an inherent amount of energy existing in each of us, an amount which is not subject to the onslaughts of outside forces for augmenting it or for decreasing it.”
Usually hidden from the ordinary person, such energy, these shamans believe, can be released and perceived through heightened states of awareness and by performing those magical passes or movements.
One can recall such a heightened state only by breaking down the rational barriers erected by western mental conditioning. Once we go past these rational mental barriers then we can truly perceive reality.
Don Juan calls that “seeing” as contrasted to merely “looking.”
When we only look, we see a person as an ordinary physical solid being. But when we “see,” we see him or her as “luminous fibers of light.”
I think Don Juan is referring here to seeing the human aura, because those fibers of lights are “egg-shaped,” which is the shape of the human aura when seen in its totality through clairvoyant vision.
Don Juan described “seeing” as “a state of heightened awareness in which the human body is capable of perceiving energy as a flow, a current, a wind-like vibration.”
During such magical passes or inner dance movements, one’s rational mind steps momentarily aside and he or she sees things from a totally different perspective.
He/she sees himself/herself as connected to everybody also through an energy flow and he/she gravitates toward those with similar vibration. And there is a redeployment of energy to where it is needed by the body.
Healing automatically happens, I believe, because during those altered states of consciousness one becomes whole, not fragmented as we ordinarily are because of the stresses of modern life and negativity in our mentality.
When we become whole and connected to the entire universe, the automatic effect is healing. What does healing really mean except to be “whole?”
And that is what the inner dance of the ancient Babaylan is ultimately all about.
Visit: www.inquirer.com.ph
INNER AWARENESS
Philippine Daily Inquirer
February 5, 2008
Tuesday
Part V
MANILA, Philippines—Several members of our discussion group reported moving or swaying their hands and body involuntarily even after they had gone home. And, always, the feeling was one of bliss and inner tranquility.
But how does one explain such a mysterious process? Even Pi Villaraza was at a loss to find a rational explanation for it.
Carlos Castañeda explains this in his book “Magical Passes.”
In Castañeda’s foreword, I found the explanation I was looking for.
The magical passes, according to Castañeda’s teacher, the Mexican Yaqui Indian mystic named Don Juan Matus, were not invented. They were discovered by the shamans of Don Juan’s lineage who lived in ancient times, while they were in shamanistic states of heightened awareness.
“The discovery of the magical passes was quite accidental. It began as very simple queries about the nature of an incredible sensation of well-being that those shamans experienced in those states of heightened awareness when they held certain bodily positions or when they moved their limbs in some specific manner. Their sensation of well-being had been so intense that their drive to repeat those movements in their normal awareness became the focus of all their endeavors.”
This is similar to what happens after experiencing the inner dance. People want to continue it.
Two states
There are two states of consciousness. The normal state of awareness is what Don Juan calls the “tonal” and the heightened state of awareness, the “nagual.” Psychologist Lawrence LeShan calls it “sensory” reality and “clairvoyant” reality.
Don Juan believes “there is an inherent amount of energy existing in each of us, an amount which is not subject to the onslaughts of outside forces for augmenting it or for decreasing it.”
Usually hidden from the ordinary person, such energy, these shamans believe, can be released and perceived through heightened states of awareness and by performing those magical passes or movements.
One can recall such a heightened state only by breaking down the rational barriers erected by western mental conditioning. Once we go past these rational mental barriers then we can truly perceive reality.
Don Juan calls that “seeing” as contrasted to merely “looking.”
When we only look, we see a person as an ordinary physical solid being. But when we “see,” we see him or her as “luminous fibers of light.”
I think Don Juan is referring here to seeing the human aura, because those fibers of lights are “egg-shaped,” which is the shape of the human aura when seen in its totality through clairvoyant vision.
Don Juan described “seeing” as “a state of heightened awareness in which the human body is capable of perceiving energy as a flow, a current, a wind-like vibration.”
During such magical passes or inner dance movements, one’s rational mind steps momentarily aside and he or she sees things from a totally different perspective.
He/she sees himself/herself as connected to everybody also through an energy flow and he/she gravitates toward those with similar vibration. And there is a redeployment of energy to where it is needed by the body.
Healing automatically happens, I believe, because during those altered states of consciousness one becomes whole, not fragmented as we ordinarily are because of the stresses of modern life and negativity in our mentality.
When we become whole and connected to the entire universe, the automatic effect is healing. What does healing really mean except to be “whole?”
And that is what the inner dance of the ancient Babaylan is ultimately all about.
Visit: www.inquirer.com.ph
Inner dance explained
By Jaime T. Licauco
INNER AWARENESS
Philippine Daily Inquirer
January 29, 2008
Tuesday
Part IV
MANILA, Philippines—PI Villaraza told me I could find some explanation of what the inner dance was all about and what happened during the dance in the book of Carlos Castañeda, “Magical Passes.”
I am familiar with that book. I told Pi I bought that book in 1999 but never read it. Pi said, “Read it.”
And when I did, I was really amazed at what Castañeda had to say about “Magical Passes” that Don Juan taught him but were never mentioned in his previous books, most of which I had read, beginning with “The Teaching of Don Juan” that became an instant bestseller in the ’80s.That a person stores within himself/herself tremendous power and energy has been known since ancient times. How to release and control that stored energy has preoccupied mystics, gurus and seers all over the world.
Different names
What caused some confusion is the fact that such energy is called by various names. In ancient China it was called chi, in Japan ki, in India prana.
Western researchers like Reichenback called it “odic force” and Wilhelm Reich, “orgone energy.”
Indian yoga philosophy teaches that at the base of our spine lies a powerful force or energy called kundalini which, if opened prematurely, can be dangerous.
The ancient Greek philosopher Heraclitus stated, “Everything is in a state of flux.” Nothing in the universe remains static or stationary.Modern quantum physicists could not agree with him more because they have discovered that the fundamental stuff of the universe is energy, which is constantly in motion. Movement is the law governing the smallest particles of matter.
And the release or activation of that energy within us is the primary goal of the Babaylan Inner Dance. But what is activated is a feminine energy so it is gentle and safe.
Pi explained it this way:
“The word ‘dance’ may confuse people into thinking that the Inner Dance is a discipline. It is not. A discipline is something that can be studied and practiced regularly by a disciplined person. A discipline is an active cause that leads to a desired effect.
A mirror
“The Inner Dance is not a cause. It is an effect. Think of a cosmic mirror that reflects whatever kind of energy is within you. The acronym of the Inner Dance is ID, for identification. The Inner Dance mirrors who you really are outside of your masks and illusions.”
According to Pi, “People, for a long time, have been looking for an inner work that works, a way of connecting with our Creator” as sitting in meditation and memorizing prayers do not seem to do the job quite well.
He said the Inner Dance worked in several dimensions.
“First, it is a way of quieting the hyper-mental space of even the busiest workaholic.” Members of our spiritual discussion group, for example, are extremely busy businessmen and women.
“Second, it has miraculously healed some difficult ailments.” He cited two examples: a large cyst popped out of the wrist of a participant after he did the movements and a woman’s acute glaucoma was healed.In our own group, several reported the complete disappearance of serious back pains, stiff neck and headaches.
“The third dimension,” according to Pi, “is the most important. The Inner Dance even clears a pathway to a higher state of energy awareness not in a conceptual way, but through a very real and often transformative experience in mind and body in a way that is difficult to doubt, especially once you notice your appendages moving without your conscious volition.”
Visit: www.inquirer.com.ph
INNER AWARENESS
Philippine Daily Inquirer
January 29, 2008
Tuesday
Part IV
MANILA, Philippines—PI Villaraza told me I could find some explanation of what the inner dance was all about and what happened during the dance in the book of Carlos Castañeda, “Magical Passes.”
I am familiar with that book. I told Pi I bought that book in 1999 but never read it. Pi said, “Read it.”
And when I did, I was really amazed at what Castañeda had to say about “Magical Passes” that Don Juan taught him but were never mentioned in his previous books, most of which I had read, beginning with “The Teaching of Don Juan” that became an instant bestseller in the ’80s.That a person stores within himself/herself tremendous power and energy has been known since ancient times. How to release and control that stored energy has preoccupied mystics, gurus and seers all over the world.
Different names
What caused some confusion is the fact that such energy is called by various names. In ancient China it was called chi, in Japan ki, in India prana.
Western researchers like Reichenback called it “odic force” and Wilhelm Reich, “orgone energy.”
Indian yoga philosophy teaches that at the base of our spine lies a powerful force or energy called kundalini which, if opened prematurely, can be dangerous.
The ancient Greek philosopher Heraclitus stated, “Everything is in a state of flux.” Nothing in the universe remains static or stationary.Modern quantum physicists could not agree with him more because they have discovered that the fundamental stuff of the universe is energy, which is constantly in motion. Movement is the law governing the smallest particles of matter.
And the release or activation of that energy within us is the primary goal of the Babaylan Inner Dance. But what is activated is a feminine energy so it is gentle and safe.
Pi explained it this way:
“The word ‘dance’ may confuse people into thinking that the Inner Dance is a discipline. It is not. A discipline is something that can be studied and practiced regularly by a disciplined person. A discipline is an active cause that leads to a desired effect.
A mirror
“The Inner Dance is not a cause. It is an effect. Think of a cosmic mirror that reflects whatever kind of energy is within you. The acronym of the Inner Dance is ID, for identification. The Inner Dance mirrors who you really are outside of your masks and illusions.”
According to Pi, “People, for a long time, have been looking for an inner work that works, a way of connecting with our Creator” as sitting in meditation and memorizing prayers do not seem to do the job quite well.
He said the Inner Dance worked in several dimensions.
“First, it is a way of quieting the hyper-mental space of even the busiest workaholic.” Members of our spiritual discussion group, for example, are extremely busy businessmen and women.
“Second, it has miraculously healed some difficult ailments.” He cited two examples: a large cyst popped out of the wrist of a participant after he did the movements and a woman’s acute glaucoma was healed.In our own group, several reported the complete disappearance of serious back pains, stiff neck and headaches.
“The third dimension,” according to Pi, “is the most important. The Inner Dance even clears a pathway to a higher state of energy awareness not in a conceptual way, but through a very real and often transformative experience in mind and body in a way that is difficult to doubt, especially once you notice your appendages moving without your conscious volition.”
Visit: www.inquirer.com.ph
Like an Indonesian ritual
By Jaime LicaucoINNER AWARENESSPhilippine Daily Inquirer
January 22, 2008
Tuesday
Part III
MANILA, Philippines—Jimmy was only supposed to take pictures, but right at that time I was feeling Samuel in the room, Jimmy started making noises through his throat, I think? He just dropped his camera and lay back on the chair,” Celia recalled.
“But since my eyes were closed, I did not know what was happening to him because he was getting affected by what was happening. All I knew was that everything would be okay. Although I was aware, because I could hear Jimmy, I was too relaxed in my state and was being told it was okay.
“Everything was recorded in that video. Jimmy’s hands also started moving in a very smooth way, not like him. The energy can lead anyone present in the room.
“What an experience! My lower back pain was so relieved. (My) stiff neck was gone. After the session, I could still feel the high. My body was still moving in that same motion.
“Once it is opened, it will always be there. And so now, I am able to do this inner dance on my own. It feels so great! It is a form of meditation that keeps you very focused.”
Ritual
When I first heard of this inner dance and after talking to Pi Villaraza about it, the process reminded me of the so-called latihan, an Indonesian ritual that was not a ritual.
I first came across this process in the early ’60s. Latihan is the main ritual or process of an Indonesian esoteric practice called Subud (if I recall the name correctly).
During latihan, participants, who may be complete strangers to one another, go inside a room. They are not told what to do or what to expect. There is no leader to lead the group or explain what will happen.
For a few minutes they start to wonder what the whole thing is all about. After a while they experience some uneasiness at the whole thing. Still, nobody talks or gives any hint of what is going on.
Somehow the energy in the room changes and one by one the participants in the room move or sway or drop to the floor. Others begin to roll all over the floor but nobody bumps into each other. Pretty soon, everybody is moving in whichever way the energy moves him.
After the latihan, everybody feels very good. This is similar to what happens during the inner dance. Pi does not so much lead as activates one or few persons and the rest begin to follow on their own with their eyes closed.
The second time I experienced the inner dance was with our small spiritual discussion group called the Areopagus, which meets once a month. I invited the members last year to meet Pi and be introduced to the Inner Dance.
Surprisingly, a great majority of them attended although I hardly told them anything about it except that the process was a very powerful experience that Celia and I had experienced.
If I recall, there were about 13 or 14 of us who attended that special meeting. Since they are publicity-shy and very private individuals, I cannot reveal their identities.
Remarkable & special
Almost everybody in the group experienced something remarkable and special during that inner dance session with Pi. He started by making Celia dance until everybody started moving on their own, propelled by an inner energy stored in their bodies.
At this time, something happened to me that I had not experienced before. I went into a trance and fell from my chair to the floor. Then I went into a journey back in time from my present adult life to childhood and then birth. I saw myself inside the womb of my mother. I crouched and assumed a fetal position for a few minutes, then I went forward in time again until I reached my present age. I went back in time and returned.
It was an inner dance—an inner rebirth. It was a very powerful experience for me and I found myself teary-eyed. It was a cathartic experience I could not forget.
Each one experiences the inner dance in his or her unique way. And each experience is not necessarily the same. About two members of our group said they felt nothing special. Maybe the place had something to do with it, maybe the group had something to do with it and maybe even the phases of the moon had something to do with these different experiences.
I wanted to find out more about it.
Visit: www.inquirer.com.ph
January 22, 2008
Tuesday
Part III
MANILA, Philippines—Jimmy was only supposed to take pictures, but right at that time I was feeling Samuel in the room, Jimmy started making noises through his throat, I think? He just dropped his camera and lay back on the chair,” Celia recalled.
“But since my eyes were closed, I did not know what was happening to him because he was getting affected by what was happening. All I knew was that everything would be okay. Although I was aware, because I could hear Jimmy, I was too relaxed in my state and was being told it was okay.
“Everything was recorded in that video. Jimmy’s hands also started moving in a very smooth way, not like him. The energy can lead anyone present in the room.
“What an experience! My lower back pain was so relieved. (My) stiff neck was gone. After the session, I could still feel the high. My body was still moving in that same motion.
“Once it is opened, it will always be there. And so now, I am able to do this inner dance on my own. It feels so great! It is a form of meditation that keeps you very focused.”
Ritual
When I first heard of this inner dance and after talking to Pi Villaraza about it, the process reminded me of the so-called latihan, an Indonesian ritual that was not a ritual.
I first came across this process in the early ’60s. Latihan is the main ritual or process of an Indonesian esoteric practice called Subud (if I recall the name correctly).
During latihan, participants, who may be complete strangers to one another, go inside a room. They are not told what to do or what to expect. There is no leader to lead the group or explain what will happen.
For a few minutes they start to wonder what the whole thing is all about. After a while they experience some uneasiness at the whole thing. Still, nobody talks or gives any hint of what is going on.
Somehow the energy in the room changes and one by one the participants in the room move or sway or drop to the floor. Others begin to roll all over the floor but nobody bumps into each other. Pretty soon, everybody is moving in whichever way the energy moves him.
After the latihan, everybody feels very good. This is similar to what happens during the inner dance. Pi does not so much lead as activates one or few persons and the rest begin to follow on their own with their eyes closed.
The second time I experienced the inner dance was with our small spiritual discussion group called the Areopagus, which meets once a month. I invited the members last year to meet Pi and be introduced to the Inner Dance.
Surprisingly, a great majority of them attended although I hardly told them anything about it except that the process was a very powerful experience that Celia and I had experienced.
If I recall, there were about 13 or 14 of us who attended that special meeting. Since they are publicity-shy and very private individuals, I cannot reveal their identities.
Remarkable & special
Almost everybody in the group experienced something remarkable and special during that inner dance session with Pi. He started by making Celia dance until everybody started moving on their own, propelled by an inner energy stored in their bodies.
At this time, something happened to me that I had not experienced before. I went into a trance and fell from my chair to the floor. Then I went into a journey back in time from my present adult life to childhood and then birth. I saw myself inside the womb of my mother. I crouched and assumed a fetal position for a few minutes, then I went forward in time again until I reached my present age. I went back in time and returned.
It was an inner dance—an inner rebirth. It was a very powerful experience for me and I found myself teary-eyed. It was a cathartic experience I could not forget.
Each one experiences the inner dance in his or her unique way. And each experience is not necessarily the same. About two members of our group said they felt nothing special. Maybe the place had something to do with it, maybe the group had something to do with it and maybe even the phases of the moon had something to do with these different experiences.
I wanted to find out more about it.
Visit: www.inquirer.com.ph
Demonstration of inner dance
By Jaime Licauco
INNER AWARENESS
Philippine Daily Inquirer
January 15, 2008
Tuesday
Part II
POMPET VILLARAZA, the person who rediscovered the lost healing inner dance of the babaylan, was told later that he had to share the inner dance with his fellow humans.
That's when he started teaching the inner dance to the fishermen in Palawan and later to the farmers in Cotabato, at the foot of mystic Mt. Apo where he decided to stay. Once in a while he came to Manila to conduct workshops.
He found a ready audience among people he did not expect would be interested in what he taught.
He realized that what he discovered was the lost healing inner dance of ancient Filipino medicine men and women, the Babaylan, healer priests and priestesses of pre-Hispanic Visayan tribes.
As he said, he found his body creating movements on its own without his voluntary will. It was being moved by a very strong invisible inner energy.
He found he could transfer this inner energy to other people, who moved involuntarily, many being healed while doing the inner dance.
Later he discovered they could also send energy to other people and heal them. Today he has a good number of followers or disciples wanting to help protect the environment and heal planet Earth.
Activating the inner danceWhen I first met Pi (as Pompet is known in Mindanao), he demonstrated the activation of the inner dance to Celia, who readily cooperated. I was content just to take pictures of the whole process because I never danced in my life. In fact, I panicked every time somebody asked me to dance.
I just watched the process from a distance. Pi asked Celia to sit on a chair and relax while he did some fancy movements and body contortions behind her back. She did not see what he was doing but all of us who were there could see.
Aside from Rosanna Escudero, the hostess, there was her family friend named Mike who was also very interested in everything esoteric, mystical and strange.
Pi started moving closer to Celia while moving rhythmically and swaying in a strange way. He was making quick motions, both with his hands and feet without touching her.
Then I noticed that Celia was getting into a trance-like state. She began swaying her head ever so slowly to one side then the other. Then Pi lightly touched the top of her head with his index finger. One of her hands began to swing, then the other. This went on for a few minutes as I continued to take pictures.
Shortly after he touched her forehead, I felt the energy in the room change and I went into a trance. I sensed the presence of a tall male spirit, like a shadow.
My camera fell on the chair beside the big armrest but I did not mind. I could not move. I let out an eerie scream and started coughing. It was as if negative energy was coming out of me.
I felt Pi touch the top of my head and my head started moving. He helped my hand go up by lightly touching my elbow. My hand began swaying on its own. I felt funny doing these motions, but I just allowed the energy to flow through me. I could not resist it, or did not want to.
Healing touchAfter a short while, I felt somebody sit on the right armrest of my chair and place his hand on my chest, as if healing me. I thought it was Pi. I found out later it was Celia. She stood up, swayed and moved closer to me until she sat on the armrest and placed her hand on my chest.
I have a heart problem but Pi did not know that. Celia knew that but she had no recollection of what she did. Later, she was surprised to see herself seated on the armrest of my chair.
She said she felt like I needed healing. Pi explained that really happened during the inner dance. One felt like going to a person in the crowd and heal that person with no words being spoken. It was automatic. No one directed the movement.
This was how Celia described her experience to her cousin Billy, who was abroad: "What a super experience for us! We went to the house of Rosanna who had invited Jimmy to meet up with Pi Villaraza. He is the one doing this inner dance thing. Through the energies, he is able to tap something inside of you and make you move in a very healing and relaxing way. Each person moves in a different way. I was strangely sensual in my dance. Rosanna took a video of it. Nakakahiya nga. But I couldn't help my movements. Jimmy was supposed to be the one, but he just wanted to observe, so I was suddenly his 'guinea pig.'
"Anyway, he let me close my eyes just seated on a chair in the middle of the room. Then slowly I felt my head turning around. It was like some string was pulling my head toward a certain direction and all I did was follow whatever it was. My hands were also moving and later flowing. My back was moving, too. He only touched some points in my body, like the crown and some parts in the arm or back. It caused my arms to just lift up as if a magnet was pulling it in a very warm relaxing manner.
"While in that state, I was still conscious, wondering what this was that was making me move. It's just that the feeling was so nice that I just moved according to that energy.
"In the beginning of the session, I invoked Sam (her spirit guide) to be with me for protection, as I did not know what I was going to be doing. Then, in the middle of the session, I felt his strong presence and I felt better that he was with me in whatever I was doing."
Visit: www.inquirer.com.ph
INNER AWARENESS
Philippine Daily Inquirer
January 15, 2008
Tuesday
Part II
POMPET VILLARAZA, the person who rediscovered the lost healing inner dance of the babaylan, was told later that he had to share the inner dance with his fellow humans.
That's when he started teaching the inner dance to the fishermen in Palawan and later to the farmers in Cotabato, at the foot of mystic Mt. Apo where he decided to stay. Once in a while he came to Manila to conduct workshops.
He found a ready audience among people he did not expect would be interested in what he taught.
He realized that what he discovered was the lost healing inner dance of ancient Filipino medicine men and women, the Babaylan, healer priests and priestesses of pre-Hispanic Visayan tribes.
As he said, he found his body creating movements on its own without his voluntary will. It was being moved by a very strong invisible inner energy.
He found he could transfer this inner energy to other people, who moved involuntarily, many being healed while doing the inner dance.
Later he discovered they could also send energy to other people and heal them. Today he has a good number of followers or disciples wanting to help protect the environment and heal planet Earth.
Activating the inner danceWhen I first met Pi (as Pompet is known in Mindanao), he demonstrated the activation of the inner dance to Celia, who readily cooperated. I was content just to take pictures of the whole process because I never danced in my life. In fact, I panicked every time somebody asked me to dance.
I just watched the process from a distance. Pi asked Celia to sit on a chair and relax while he did some fancy movements and body contortions behind her back. She did not see what he was doing but all of us who were there could see.
Aside from Rosanna Escudero, the hostess, there was her family friend named Mike who was also very interested in everything esoteric, mystical and strange.
Pi started moving closer to Celia while moving rhythmically and swaying in a strange way. He was making quick motions, both with his hands and feet without touching her.
Then I noticed that Celia was getting into a trance-like state. She began swaying her head ever so slowly to one side then the other. Then Pi lightly touched the top of her head with his index finger. One of her hands began to swing, then the other. This went on for a few minutes as I continued to take pictures.
Shortly after he touched her forehead, I felt the energy in the room change and I went into a trance. I sensed the presence of a tall male spirit, like a shadow.
My camera fell on the chair beside the big armrest but I did not mind. I could not move. I let out an eerie scream and started coughing. It was as if negative energy was coming out of me.
I felt Pi touch the top of my head and my head started moving. He helped my hand go up by lightly touching my elbow. My hand began swaying on its own. I felt funny doing these motions, but I just allowed the energy to flow through me. I could not resist it, or did not want to.
Healing touchAfter a short while, I felt somebody sit on the right armrest of my chair and place his hand on my chest, as if healing me. I thought it was Pi. I found out later it was Celia. She stood up, swayed and moved closer to me until she sat on the armrest and placed her hand on my chest.
I have a heart problem but Pi did not know that. Celia knew that but she had no recollection of what she did. Later, she was surprised to see herself seated on the armrest of my chair.
She said she felt like I needed healing. Pi explained that really happened during the inner dance. One felt like going to a person in the crowd and heal that person with no words being spoken. It was automatic. No one directed the movement.
This was how Celia described her experience to her cousin Billy, who was abroad: "What a super experience for us! We went to the house of Rosanna who had invited Jimmy to meet up with Pi Villaraza. He is the one doing this inner dance thing. Through the energies, he is able to tap something inside of you and make you move in a very healing and relaxing way. Each person moves in a different way. I was strangely sensual in my dance. Rosanna took a video of it. Nakakahiya nga. But I couldn't help my movements. Jimmy was supposed to be the one, but he just wanted to observe, so I was suddenly his 'guinea pig.'
"Anyway, he let me close my eyes just seated on a chair in the middle of the room. Then slowly I felt my head turning around. It was like some string was pulling my head toward a certain direction and all I did was follow whatever it was. My hands were also moving and later flowing. My back was moving, too. He only touched some points in my body, like the crown and some parts in the arm or back. It caused my arms to just lift up as if a magnet was pulling it in a very warm relaxing manner.
"While in that state, I was still conscious, wondering what this was that was making me move. It's just that the feeling was so nice that I just moved according to that energy.
"In the beginning of the session, I invoked Sam (her spirit guide) to be with me for protection, as I did not know what I was going to be doing. Then, in the middle of the session, I felt his strong presence and I felt better that he was with me in whatever I was doing."
Visit: www.inquirer.com.ph
Ancient 'babylan' healing dance rediscovered
By Jaime Licauco
INNER AWARENESS
Philippine Daily Inquirer
January 8, 2008
Tuesday
Part I
MANILA, Philippines—Babaylan is a Visayan term that means medicine man or woman, in other words, a shaman.
For American Indian and other cultures, a shaman is a respected member of a tribe who is not only a healer and priest but also an intermediary or channel between the living and the departed.
It was only after reading the article of Jeffrey Tupas in the Sept. 16, 2007, issue of Philippine Daily Inquirer that I learned of “inner dance” in connection with the babaylan’s healing practices.
I found the article very interesting but rather sketchy and incomplete. It left many questions unanswered. I was told Gilda Cordero-Fernando wrote earlier a much longer article on the same subject that unfortunately I had not read.
I was still looking for Gilda’s article when I received a call from Rosanna Escudero (a natural catalyst and magnet for esoteric things) that Pompet Villaraza, the person who rediscovered the lost healing inner dance of the babaylan, would be a guest in her condominium in San Juan. She asked if I wanted to meet him. I jumped at the opportunity. I sent text messages to several friends who, I thought, would be interested in the subject but only Celia (not her real name), a real estate broker and educator, made it.
Accidental
The story of how Pompet accidentally rediscovered the lost inner dance of the ancient Filipino babaylan was fascinating. It reminded me of the story of how Carlos Castañeda, an anthropologist at the University of California in Los Angeles, met the Mexican Yaqui Indian mystic and sorcerer Juan Matus, who became his teacher.
Like Castañeda, Villaraza was in California when, in 2002, he stumbled on a mysterious Mexican in San Gabriel mountain, who taught him everything he knew about working with the subtle energy in the human body.
The mysterious Mexican named Francisco knew everything about Villaraza’s background and, like Juan Matus, actually anticipated his ward’s coming.
Villaraza followed the Mexican wherever he went until, after walking for God knows how long, Francisco collapsed. How long he remained unconscious, Villaraza could not tell. But afterward, he was a changed person.
“For what felt like two hours (it could have been no more than 30 long minutes), I was moved to dance in a way I didn’t think was humanly possible,” Villaraza said.
“I felt powerful surges of electricity [and] I was trying to contain them, but the only way I could keep from exploding—I really thought then I would combust—was to keep screaming. I cannot describe the actual movement in words. I was doing somersaults, something I cannot do, as I twirled this stick that lay on the sand. And I found an intricate and powerful stick-fighting technique which, I was stunned to find, I had unknowingly mastered.
“I remember praying in thankfulness for experiencing an inner gracefulness... And when it was over, the perfect moment collapsed into this dead-tired 29-year-old man spread-eagled on the beach, staring at a clear blue sky that was as empty as the conscious mind.”
Time to come home
Then suddenly a spirit of a woman appeared and told him it was time for him to return to his native country. So he did as he was told.
He came back to the Philippines to look for a place the woman described to him. He found it in a small, uninhabited beach called Kalipay on an island in Palawan. He stayed there alone for two years. He abandoned his work, his family, his friends and everything else about the modern world.
He ate only what he could find on the island, mostly coconut, bananas and other fruits. He became as lean as the coconut trunk he learned to climb to survive.
He was told by his spirit guide to use the name Pi in Mindanao. But in Palawan he was known as Juan Lima.
What happened to him in Kalipay Beach he could not forget. For three nights he could not sleep. Then a voice spoke to him and said, “The Mother and I are now One.”
This is how Pi Villaraza described what happened after that.
“In an instant, I was a human puppet and strings were dragging me from the first-floor hammock to the second floor of my Robinson Crusoe-inspired beach house. Without my conscious say-so, I was lying on the mat and my throat began to make guttural noises, finally settling into a primal yet rhythmically enchanting melody.
“The voice again whispered, ’It began in Africa.’ After about 15 minutes of these chanting sounds, simultaneously my hands ended up automatically making percussive movements on my lap, chest, hips and the bamboo floor mats. My upper body swung upwards and I found myself facing the leaves of the bamboo shoots directly bent over my ‘Flower-of-Life’ vegetable garden.
“I wasn’t possessed by some external force. That much was crystal clear. This was the first time it happened to me. A year before this, I fasted on a ‘tree bed’ I made in central Palawan for a week-and-a-half and, for the duration, my hands kept twirling over my seven energy centers as if directed by an inner force I knew was coming from within.”
Visit: www.inquirer.com.ph
INNER AWARENESS
Philippine Daily Inquirer
January 8, 2008
Tuesday
Part I
MANILA, Philippines—Babaylan is a Visayan term that means medicine man or woman, in other words, a shaman.
For American Indian and other cultures, a shaman is a respected member of a tribe who is not only a healer and priest but also an intermediary or channel between the living and the departed.
It was only after reading the article of Jeffrey Tupas in the Sept. 16, 2007, issue of Philippine Daily Inquirer that I learned of “inner dance” in connection with the babaylan’s healing practices.
I found the article very interesting but rather sketchy and incomplete. It left many questions unanswered. I was told Gilda Cordero-Fernando wrote earlier a much longer article on the same subject that unfortunately I had not read.
I was still looking for Gilda’s article when I received a call from Rosanna Escudero (a natural catalyst and magnet for esoteric things) that Pompet Villaraza, the person who rediscovered the lost healing inner dance of the babaylan, would be a guest in her condominium in San Juan. She asked if I wanted to meet him. I jumped at the opportunity. I sent text messages to several friends who, I thought, would be interested in the subject but only Celia (not her real name), a real estate broker and educator, made it.
Accidental
The story of how Pompet accidentally rediscovered the lost inner dance of the ancient Filipino babaylan was fascinating. It reminded me of the story of how Carlos Castañeda, an anthropologist at the University of California in Los Angeles, met the Mexican Yaqui Indian mystic and sorcerer Juan Matus, who became his teacher.
Like Castañeda, Villaraza was in California when, in 2002, he stumbled on a mysterious Mexican in San Gabriel mountain, who taught him everything he knew about working with the subtle energy in the human body.
The mysterious Mexican named Francisco knew everything about Villaraza’s background and, like Juan Matus, actually anticipated his ward’s coming.
Villaraza followed the Mexican wherever he went until, after walking for God knows how long, Francisco collapsed. How long he remained unconscious, Villaraza could not tell. But afterward, he was a changed person.
“For what felt like two hours (it could have been no more than 30 long minutes), I was moved to dance in a way I didn’t think was humanly possible,” Villaraza said.
“I felt powerful surges of electricity [and] I was trying to contain them, but the only way I could keep from exploding—I really thought then I would combust—was to keep screaming. I cannot describe the actual movement in words. I was doing somersaults, something I cannot do, as I twirled this stick that lay on the sand. And I found an intricate and powerful stick-fighting technique which, I was stunned to find, I had unknowingly mastered.
“I remember praying in thankfulness for experiencing an inner gracefulness... And when it was over, the perfect moment collapsed into this dead-tired 29-year-old man spread-eagled on the beach, staring at a clear blue sky that was as empty as the conscious mind.”
Time to come home
Then suddenly a spirit of a woman appeared and told him it was time for him to return to his native country. So he did as he was told.
He came back to the Philippines to look for a place the woman described to him. He found it in a small, uninhabited beach called Kalipay on an island in Palawan. He stayed there alone for two years. He abandoned his work, his family, his friends and everything else about the modern world.
He ate only what he could find on the island, mostly coconut, bananas and other fruits. He became as lean as the coconut trunk he learned to climb to survive.
He was told by his spirit guide to use the name Pi in Mindanao. But in Palawan he was known as Juan Lima.
What happened to him in Kalipay Beach he could not forget. For three nights he could not sleep. Then a voice spoke to him and said, “The Mother and I are now One.”
This is how Pi Villaraza described what happened after that.
“In an instant, I was a human puppet and strings were dragging me from the first-floor hammock to the second floor of my Robinson Crusoe-inspired beach house. Without my conscious say-so, I was lying on the mat and my throat began to make guttural noises, finally settling into a primal yet rhythmically enchanting melody.
“The voice again whispered, ’It began in Africa.’ After about 15 minutes of these chanting sounds, simultaneously my hands ended up automatically making percussive movements on my lap, chest, hips and the bamboo floor mats. My upper body swung upwards and I found myself facing the leaves of the bamboo shoots directly bent over my ‘Flower-of-Life’ vegetable garden.
“I wasn’t possessed by some external force. That much was crystal clear. This was the first time it happened to me. A year before this, I fasted on a ‘tree bed’ I made in central Palawan for a week-and-a-half and, for the duration, my hands kept twirling over my seven energy centers as if directed by an inner force I knew was coming from within.”
Visit: www.inquirer.com.ph
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