Spiritualism and the Paranormal

I was introduced to the Filipino folk stories about the “aswang” when my cousins emigrated from the Philippines in the late 1980’s. They told of a creature that resembled a woman with bat wings who revealed her true self only at night. During the day, she could only “scoot” along edges of sidewalks to get around. When a woman lost a child, the townspeople would attributed it to an aswang who had a proboscis-like tongue to suck out the fetus. The following and very informative documentary goes into detail about the history and gathers information about this paranormal folk creature of the Philippines. Things I’ve learned: There is no consensus about the facts regarding the aswang. The aswang is a shape-shifter, so unexpected large animals (e.g. dogs, pigs, cats) can be aswangs in disguise. Some of the “facts” about the aswang have been shaped by historical events.  

[ The following story is a first-hand, cautionary account about the Ouija board and does not promote it’s casual use. It is NOT a game. It is NOT a toy. If you decide to use the board, please take spiritual precautions such as saying a prayer before use. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED! All names are fictitious to protect the identities of those mentioned in the story. ] After contacting Ya-Ya we used the board less and less often. What we thought was fun and a curiosity at first start started to become serious. Yet, because of that same curiosity, we would ask Ya-Ya questions if something were to happen that we could not explain. One such reason was when one of the other cousins, who was not participating, came down with “something”. Background Although the Philippines is for the most part Christian and predominantly Catholic, each region’s animistic and shamanistic folk beliefs still continue until the present day. Aside from being religious, Filipinos tend to be very superstitious as well....