Spiritualism and the Paranormal

POSSIBLE SPOILER!!! I have been following NBC’s weekly supernatural cop drama Grimm since it first aired a few years ago. I’ve even gotten a few friends watching along, too. But, being a Filipino, the episode “Mommy Dearest” has me addicted to the show even more. Watch on Hulu here " Mommy Dearest ". NBC’s Grimm site “ Mommy Dearest ”.   After watching the first 10 minutes of the episode, a thought came to mind, “Aswang!” If you’re not familiar with this creature, read my previous post " Aswang: Filipino Folklore ".     After watching the episode and the following episode, it’s evident that Drew Wu, AKA Sergeant Wu will no longer be a peripheral character. His trauma of being attacked by an actual aswang has left scars and started an underlying arc: Is Wu in or out? We know he’ll be part of the “in” group. Only the writers of the show know at this point when or if that happens.   Reggie Lee grew up in Quezon City and plays Sergeant. Wu has submitted four...

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.