How to Approach a Study of Spirits
Including practical tips for seekers of supernatural knowledge.
I’m sure you’ve heard a lot of stories about the supernatural. I personally know two middle-aged ladies, who have never met each other, each one courted by an engkanto back when they were younger, living in the province. Being courted by these invisible beings may manifest as sudden sicknesses that doctors can’t explain, hallucinations and being visited by strangers in dreams, and entering trance states. It’s always interesting (but unsurprising) to find out that some friends were brought to albularyos when they were younger, because the doctor can’t explain their condition. There are invisible forces around us and they go by many names. Our animist ancestors had rituals and customs that allowed them to co-exist with the spirits of nature. These forces still exist, even in urban and Christianized areas. There are abandoned buildings where you can still hear the echoes of war and empty streets haunted by victims of abuse. A person’s health is connected to harmony with the world. Don’t offend others, or else you might be the victim of kulam. Ask for permission before crossing a forest or else you might bump into engkanto.1
The skeptics, who claim to be “scientifically-minded,” think that all this is simply “in your mind.” But where else should it be? All reality is mental; we only react to things we believe to be true. Just because something is mental, does not make it any less dangerous. You don’t have to believe in its “scientific reality” to acknowledge that there are strange forces we can’t explain. As Jaime Bulatao said, “Certainly, I cannot reject the phenomenon. I have to accept it; and if I want to become a good scientist, I have to try to explain it.” There is a wealth of anecdotes in the Philippines surrounding magic and spirits to write multiple empirical papers. And while it is true that anecdotes don’t make science, Bulatao said that “anecdotes certainly provoke thinking, provoke you to set up hypotheses. And hypotheses, after all, are the start of science.”2
There are also religious people who don’t believe in the supernatural—this is ironic, because the whole point of religion is to believe in it. Somehow, believing in angels, saints, and demons makes more sense than believing in anitos and laman-lupa, which, if you actually look into the ethnographic data, are pretty much the same thing. Again, it’s all about the symbols we use for the same invisible forces. Regardless, these are common archetypes that can be found across culture, implying shared experiences.
Today, as more people find less comfort in religion and no answers in science, they turn to the occult. Like any field, the New Age space has con artists who exploit the grief of those who want to speak to their dead relatives or the gullibility of those who are simply looking for answers in a society of mindless consumerism, transactional relationships, and alienated labor. The skepticism that “serious” people have about divination and dream interpretation is founded in this distrust. The suspicion of religious people about esoteric forces also makes sense, because if you truly believe in spirits, you would know how dangerous they can be.
But there is something here worth looking into, for many good reasons. First, brave researchers can demystify these experiences and show that they are both psychologically normal and culturally important. You will see that once this is achieved, there will fewer quacks. Second, the field of psychology, being a study of the mind, can benefit greatly from learning its metaphors. Sacred symbols and folk beliefs are keys to the deep mind, just as a clock tells time but does not contain it. These symbols are simply tools that represent subjective realities and psychic projections. You can, for example, call a household disturbance either a poltergeist or duwende infestation, and you would be referring to the same phenomenon. Finally, if anything, the supernatural affirms our relationship with the world. Our respectful relationship with nature spirits shows our attitude towards the environment. Our fear of kulam shows how important it is to maintain healthy relationships with people.
In the end, we use what works in order for us to engage with profound truths. So long as it is not used to exploit others, I see no problem in using it towards personal and collective transformation. If the symbols on tarot cards allow you to find clarity, then it can be an important psychological tool. It does not matter to me if you pray to anitos, ancient Egyptian deities, or one God in three persons—as long as we agree that we must care for the environment and one another, as part of a living ecology, then we will get along fine. We may not use the same symbols, but actually, as humans, we are talking about the same thing.
Practical Tips for Seekers
I’m aware that there are a lot of people who are looking for guidance—and usually in the wrong places. There are many charlatans, egotistic teachers, and cult-ish organizations, and they will all claim to have the (only) solution. Far be it from me to discourage you from your search for the mystical, so let me just give you some advice.
Magic can be incredibly dangerous for those who do not know what they are doing, so there are those who are knowledgeable who offer their services for a price. What you are paying for is their knowledge, gained from hours of study and practice. This should be fair. But, do not immediately trust anyone who says that they have a very, very special magical technique that only they know, and they charge too much for it. True practitioners know that magic is accessible to all (with some effort), and many of those who are truly called to heal or prophesy don’t even charge.
Doubt anyone who claims an exotic origin for their esoteric wisdom because most likely, their practice was exploitative. We are so drawn to people who say that they’ve been trained in the jungles by a tribal shaman, and then when they returned to “civilization,” they’d charge ridiculous prices for it. Always ask: Are they part of the culture, and if not, do they embody the culture appropriately?
If you are experiencing real medical, financial, and psychological concerns, go to professionals. There will be people who claim to be so, displaying questionable certificates from sketchy places. Many of them are just playing, and they don’t really know what they’re getting into. Before ingesting mysterious potions to “cure” your ailment, go to a doctor. We can of course doubt the motivations of “Big Pharma,” but somehow medical treatments do, in fact, work. A tarot reader can’t tell you how to invest your money; run immediately if a “mystic” says you should give them a lot of money to “invest” in the universe, who will supposedly return your money sevenfold. Also, as a psychologist, I am telling you to please seek therapy first if you are experiencing “spiritual” disturbances that are creating difficulties in your personal life. If a psychologist can’t help you, try an exorcist (they will also ask you to go to both a doctor and a counselor first to rule out non-spiritual explanations).
When your interests are unique, you may experience social stigma. It is important to reach out to others who share the same values, and who understand what you are experiencing. Find community, but get out of it immediately when you sense that something they believe in is a shared delusion. They might enforce this belief, shaming anyone who disagrees. Be wary of specialized language and expensive initiation rituals. You might be entering a cult.
Spiritual knowledge is incredibly mundane. If you do just a little bit of digging, going deeper than the superficial, surface-level stuff, there are a lot of great places to find this knowledge. For those who are interested in learning more about my work surrounding this, you can read my articles here. For those who want to go deeper, you can subscribe to watch my recorded lectures:
I talk more about this in my recently published academic article, Kaluluwa, Kapwa, Kalikasan: Mental Health Implications of Filipino Folk Beliefs.
Jaime Bulatao, Phenomena and their Interpretation, 1992.