Ancient Part I

babaylan healing dance rediscovered

MANILA, Philippines Babaylan is a Visayan term that means medicine man or woman, i n other words, a shaman. For American Indian and other cultures, a shaman is a respected member of a trib e who is not only a healer and priest but also an intermediary or channel betwee n the living and the departed. It was only after reading the article of Jeffrey Tupas in the Sept. 16, 2007, is sue 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 muc h 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 Escude ro (a natural catalyst and magnet for esoteric things) that Pompet Villaraza, th e 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 ju mped 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 e state broker and educator, made it. Accidental The story of how Pompet accidentally rediscovered the lost inner dance of the an cient Filipino babaylan was fascinating. It reminded me of the story of how Carl os Castaeda, an anthropologist at the University of California in Los Angeles, me t the Mexican Yaqui Indian mystic and sorcerer Juan Matus, who became his teache r. Like Castaeda, Villaraza was in California when, in 2002, he stumbled on a myster ious Mexican in San Gabriel mountain, who taught him everything he knew about wo rking with the subtle energy in the human body. The mysterious Mexican named Francisco knew everything about Villaraza s backgroun d and, like Juan Matus, actually anticipated his ward s coming. Villaraza followed the Mexican wherever he went until, after walking for God kno ws how long, Francisco collapsed. How long he remained unconscious, Villaraza co uld 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 k eep screaming. I cannot describe the actual movement in words. I was doing somer saults, 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 r eturn 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 fr iends 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 h e was known as Juan Lima. What happened to him in Kalipay Beach he could not forget. For three nights he c ould 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-f loor hammock to the second floor of my Robinson Crusoe-inspired beach house. Wit hout my conscious say-so, I was lying on the mat and my throat began to make gut tural noises, finally settling into a primal yet rhythmically enchanting melody. The voice again whispered, It began in Africa. After about 15 minutes of these chan ting sounds, simultaneously my hands ended up automatically making percussive mo vements on my lap, chest, hips and the bamboo floor mats. My upper body swung up wards and I found myself facing the leaves of the bamboo shoots directly bent ov er my Flower-of-Life vegetable garden. I wasn t possessed by some external force. That much e first time it happened to me. A year before this, I in central Palawan for a week-and-a-half and, for the irling over my seven energy centers as if directed by coming from within. was crystal clear. This was th fasted on a tree bed I made duration, my hands kept tw an inner force I knew was

Source: http://showbizandstyle.inquirer.net/lifestyle/lifestyle/view/20080107-11 0929/Ancient-babaylan-healing-dance-rediscovered