By:

Abella, Jomaica
Benitez, Jennifer
Castillo, Alithea
• Is phenomena in which physical illness appear to be
cured by means other than those of drugs, surgery ,
regimes, manipulations, recognized psychological
methods or common sense
• a prerequisite of healing is belief in the healers
powers, or belief that the sufferer will recover, or
belief that God wills recovery from the particular
ailment
 -protest against the mechanistic and a return to the
tradition of regarding man as a complex of the
physical and the spiritual
 a rediscovery of old wisdom
 a demand for marvels or simply a relapse into
superstition and quackery
 a part of the Healing Process
 has 2 basic needs
 The world must make sense
 The person must feel himself to be more than a slave of
implacable fates, gods or mechanism
 Faith healers (e.g witch doctors) recognize these dual
needs and attempted to satisfy them
 In the Philippines, there are different types of
traditional healer
 Most of these healers consider their healing craft as
God-given, a calling from a supernatural being, and
consequently, their healing practices are profusely
infused with prayers and religious rituals.
 Usually rural-based, they are also present in the urban
and suburban communities.
 animistic and mythological ethos, nunos, lamang
lupas, tikbalangs and kapres - creatures that often
complicate the conundrum of pathophysiology.
 diagnostic rituals and treatment modalities are
affected by the belief in these creatures.
 Kanyaw:
 the sacrificial chicken spurting and dripping blood from
its gashed neck as it circles the grounds of the haunting
habitues, and later to be shared as a poultry dish
 to drive away the evil spirits.
 prayers - whispered (bulong) or written (orasyon).
 methods of treatment used: prayers, spitting, rubbing,
plastering and murmuring."
 Prayer -use of prayers to invoke some saint or God.
 Spitting -chewing and spitting on the object for a cure.
(e.g in circumcision, tobacco mixed with guava leaves is
chewed Then spat on the newly cut foreskin).
 Rubbing -little massage with the use of an ointment or
a liniment,(e.g. Kerosene is used to rub on the joints
that are painful or aching).
 Plastering -herbs are pounded in the mortar and
applied with a piece of cloth.
 Murmuring - special secret phrase with specific
wonders on certain ailments. It is not directed to God
or a saint. The words themselves are responsible for the
results. They can also be used to ward off evil.
 Although most are available for daily consultations,
some practice their craft only on tuesdays and fridays,
days of the week coinciding with the feast of the Sto.
Niño and the feast of the Black Nazarene, when they
believe their healing powers to be at their optimum.
 'chiropractic' manipulation and massage for the
diagnosis and treatment of musculoligamentous and
muskuloskeletal ailments.
 their practice is limited only to bodily complaints
amenable to chiropractic manipulations and massage.
 Tools : an amulet, an 'empowered' cane, or a
nazarene-garb.
 attribution of the healing effect to God, that it is
through His guidance that they are able to
manipulate the spiritual and energy channels, hoping
to expel evil spirits that may have invaded the
patient's etheric space and may have caused the
physical ailments
• technique of massage: patterns of symbolic patterns
of the cross, crown of thorns, the rosary, and the
nailed hands and feet.
• Panghihila: After gently massaging coconut oil over
the areas of concern, the "panghihila" is performed
using a mirror, a strip of cigarette cellophane paper,
or a strip of banana frond. Any of these is passed over
the body areas. If the material, instead of being pulled
smoothly, sticks to a specific spot, this is presumed to
be an area of malady - "sala," strain or muscle pull,
and the massage directed to this area.
 Bintusa: The treatment is usually supplemented with
wrappings of medicinal leaves.
 Incorporates some elements of "science" (meridians,
trigger points, reflexology, basic anatomy and
physiology)
• unfortunate outcomes:
– delayed diagnosis of serious maladies and many
occasions
– attempting complicated fracture reductions without
radiographic imaging resulting in non-union, often life-
time, deformities.
• Like the albularyo, the hilot 's services are "free-of-
charge", fearing that set fees will lessen the hilot's
healing powers. abilities. Voluntary donations are
accepted: P10 - 100 or in kind - cigarettes, snacks, etc.
• determines the cause of an illness through the ritual
of luop.
• luop is used for gastrointestinal complaints caused
the inhalation of unpleasant odors
• ritual paraphernalia consists of the kalanghuga (a
kind of freshwater or saltwater shell), salt (to weaken
the supernatural spirits), benditang palaspas (piece of
blessed palm leaves from Palm Sunday), charcoal
made from a coconut shell, a coconut midrib and a tin
plate.
• A fiery concoction is made from these elements is
made on a tin plate, in consonance with prayers and
invocations and performing the sign-of-the-cross
thrice over the patient, the kalanghuga is examined.
• The diagnosis is suggested by its appearance:
Roughness, a slight affliction; stickiness, a sprain; a
figure or form (hugis-hugis), a displeased
environmental spirit; brittleness, a really angered
spirit.
• The treatment is then suggested and the necessary
alternative referral made.
• After the diagnostic ritual, the shell is powdered while
praying, a sign-of-the-cross is performed on the
patient's forehead, both palms and plantar arches of
both feet.
• Then, the ritual paraphernalia are thrown under the
entrance stairs to prevent the evil spirits from
reentering the house.
 performed by most alternative healers that serves in
providing clues as to the nature and cause of the
illness.
 derived its name from to its chemical nature - alum,
an astringent, crystalline double sulfate of aluminum
and potassium - and early on, was used exclusively in
the diagnostic ritual.
 today, tawas refers to a diagnostic ritual or procedure,
utilizing a variety of materials: candles, eggs, mirrors,
plain paper, cigarette rolling-paper, and alum.
 mediumistic healing
 mediums are believed to possess extraordinary
powers to cure sickness, to exorcise evil spirits from
the rice fields, or out of the human body, and to
intercede with good spirits for the petitions of the
people.
 claim to have special knowledge of the
environmental spirits. They perform all important
rituals, chant prayers for the community when the
barrio faces a crisis.
 To insult or harm a medium is to endanger one's life.
To imitate his work is equally harmful.

 The mediums believe that rites of the priests are
more effective than their own as they "contain" more
powerful magic. That is why the baylan often
supplements his own prayers with Latin prayers; and
takes his ritual paraphernalia – holy water, the cross,
pieces of wood from the santo entero (Christ in the
Sepulchre), incense, and others from the church.
 psychic or astral surgeons who claim to cut incisions
with their fingers and perform other miracles of para-
science.
 spritistic apport, an apport being the appearance or
disappearance of an object within a closed space.
 dematerialization, where substance just disintegrates
and dissolves into nothing.
 Unlike that of the Greeks or Romans, this does not
have generally long epics nor has it been relegated to
history.
 Although there is no scientific evidence for any of
these creatures, there is also no shortage in the rural
parts of the Philippines of people who believe firmly
in their existence.
 These creatures are also called shape-shifters
 They are human-like by day but transform into
different monstrous forms to harass and eat awake
humans at night, especially pregnant women who are
about to give birth.
 These are creatures that have been denoted as flesh-
eating night dwellers who favor the human liver.
 Particularly enjoy feasting on pregnant women who
are about to give birth.
 Can detect them by the scent of ripe jackfruit.
 are creatures which, in Philippine mythology, imitate
the form of a child.
 It usually takes the form of a newborn baby and cries
like one in the jungle to attract unwary travelers.
Once it is picked up by the victim, it reverts to its true
form and attacks the victim.
 a half-man and half-horse creature. It has a horse's
head, the body of a human but with the feet of the
horse. It travels at night to rape female mortals.
 The raped women will then give birth to
more tikbalang. They are also believed to cause
travelers to lose their way particularly in mountainous
or forest areas.Tikbalangs are very playful with
people, and they usually make a person imagine
things that aren't real. Sometimes a Tikbalang will
drive a person crazy.
 Literally means “one that removes”.
 This creature is usually an attractive woman by day.
 At night, especially when there is a full moon, her
upper body detaches from her lower body;
 it utters a special demonic prayer and applies some
kind of oil on all of its body parts before the
‘detachment’.
 Bat-like wings sprout out from its back, and it uses its
long tongue to feed on human blood and flesh
(usually that of unborn babies).
 The name Mangkukulam was derived from the work
kulam, a Tagalog term which literally means
bewitchment; magic spell.

 witches, wizards, bruho (male) and bruha (female)

 or sorcerers who cast evil spells to humans.
 old folk say they have red eyes. And "don’t look
directly at those eyes or you will catch a spell", they
add.
 Typically, the mangkukulam recites spells and mixes
potions.
 The modern version of the mangkukulam uses dolls.
 Superstitious folks still attribute certain illnesses or
diseases to kulam
 In some rural provincial areas, people completely rely
on the albularyo for treatment.
 To fight the curses of the mangkukulam, one should
look for him or her and offer bribes.
 said to be centered on:
 the islands of Siquijor and Talalora
 Western Samar
 Some province of Sorsogon, where many of the
country's faith healers reside.
 Kulam also exists in many of the hinterlands,
especially in Samar and Leyte.
 a witch who uses insects and spirits to enter the body
of any person they hate.
 Mambabarangs are ordinary human beings with black
magic who torture and later kill their victims by
infesting their bodies with insects. They are different
from Mangkukulams - the latter only inflict pain or
illness.
 Also refereed to as vodoo.
 Often described as giant-like and hairy, wearing
loincloths (or bahag) and smoking tobaccos
inhabiting trees particularly the balete and old acacia
or mango trees.
 Kapres are not particularly evil. They just love playing
pranks on people, and would sometimes look for
friendship with mortals.
 They are little creatures who can provide good
fortune or bad fate to humans.
 In the Philippines, duwendes frequently live in
houses, in trees, underground, termite like mound or
hill, and in rural areas.
 They are known to be either good or mischievous,
depending on how homeowners treat them.
 usually come out at 12 noon for an hour and during
the night.
 Sigbin is a creature of Philippine mythology said to
come out at night to suck the blood of victims from
their shadows.
 walks backward with its head lowered between its hind
legs.
 resembles a hornless goat
 emits a very nauseating smell
 possess a pair of very large ears which are capable of
clapping like a pair of hands
 also claimed to issue forth from its lair during Holy
Week, looking for children that it will kill for the
heart, which is made into an amulet.