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Every Halloween when I was a child, I would see people getting possessed on the news. This is called sapi. This is a very common phenomenon among Filipinos, which has led to the question of how Filipinos view mental conditions. The Jesuit priest-psychologist Fr. Jaime C. Bulatao was known to handle strange psychological cases usually attributed to spirits or folkloric beings.Father Bu was one of the founders of the Psychological Association of the Philippines and the Ateneo de Manila University Psychology Department. His classes were known as spaces where students explored the paranormal through psychic experiments. Father Bu was also known as the priest who often spoke to trees. The folklorist Herminia Meñez had written about the “Ingkanto Syndrome”, which is a form of madness associated with engkantos (attractive, usually Caucasian spirits known for their generosity and obsessive tendencies). One of the symptoms of the Ingkanto Syndrome is talking to mysterious beings in trees. (Another symptom is frequently disappearing and reappearing elsewhere, with little to no recollection of what happened.) The Ingkanto Syndrome usually manifests with altered states of consciousness–that is, spirit possession.
Although Father Bu interpreted cases of spiritual madness through the lens of modern psychology, he integrated the processes of folk healing in his treatment. In his essay, Local Cases of Possession and their Cure, he said that the healer must utilize the patient’s understanding of the situation. So, if they understand it as a sapi, then the healer must deal with the case as though it were one. The patient is placed under a hypnotic trance, and the spirit is called. The healer then talks with the spirit, asking them what needs to be done for it to leave, convincing it to leave the patient. After this is done, the healer then invokes the protection of saints, perhaps by asking the patient to visualize a light entering them. Then, after bringing them back from the trance, the patient is tasked to go on a task (such as a pilgrimage to Quiapo Church) as a way to give thanks for their healing.
The sapi trance state can be interpreted in various ways. Angelica Vidallo Ang and Cristina Jayme Montiel published a 2019 article on how priests, psychologists, and folk healers interpret these cases. Of course many of the Western-trained Filipino psychologists interpret it as a disease. The Canadian scholar Heather Davediuk Gingrich interpreted sapi in the Philippine context as a form of dissociation caused by trauma. The priests interpreted sapi as a kind of emotional or spiritual vulnerability, which opens the door for evil spirits to enter. The Filipino exorcist Fr. Jose Francisco Syquia has often cautioned against dabbling with the occult or engaging with the spirits of Philippine folklore. They are, according to him, demons that do not deserve our fear–in the biblical sense, if God is with a person, then no one can be against them.
This interpretation of folkloric beings as “demons” may be an echo of the tendency of early Catholic missionaries to destroy and demonize local folk beliefs and customs. However, Fr. Jocis has had much experience dealing with actual manifestations of these local spirits; various documented accounts of Filipino exorcists show the dangerous side of folkloric beings. This is not so far from actual folktales. For example, engkantos do cause madness and, in some cases, take the soul of a person. I remember a story shared with me that this man hunted and killed a white crocodile. Crocodiles are considered sacred beings in local folklore. Apparently, it is said that that crocodile was owned by an engkanto. As a form of retribution, the spirit of his child was taken. The child was said to have lost their appetite, until eventually they passed away. In a dream, the engkanto visited the mother of the child and told her not to worry, her child is now a princess in their kingdom. Now, from a psychological perspective, we can interpret the mother’s dream as a manifestation of her guilt for the death of her child. The connection they made of the child’s death and the father killing the crocodile may have been a coincidence. However, their story aligns with local folklore, and since folk beliefs are passed down through generations, then that implies that these spiritual phenomena are actually quite common. If we believe that folkloric beings are “real”, then it may be that these local exorcists are actually dealing with them. Many modern interpretations of these beings are sanitized and seen through fiction, but local mythologies across the archipelago are often bloody, involving violence and insanity.
When the folk practitioners were interviewed, they interpreted these cases of sapi trance states as either “being chosen” by spirits, or being the victim of kulam (that is, magic done with harmful intent, usually by someone that the target offended). Being chosen by spirits is actually what the engkanto belief is about–the folklorist Fr. Francisco Demetrio interpreted this as a form of shamanic initiation. Interestingly, he also referred to engkantos as “demons”, but not in the Christian sense. They were demons in that they were both seductive and dangerous. They caused fear, but also a morbid fascination.
The sapi trance state is an open door to an indigenous understanding of how Filipinos interpret what might be considered as “mental illnesses.” As we conduct more research into these strange experiences, we seem to only be validating that there are, in fact, very real and very dangerous forces around us.
Note: All references are linked in this article. Most of them are open access, and so are publicly available for reading.
Carl Lorenz Cervantes is a writer and researcher. His essays have been published in academic journals, magazines, and online platforms. He finished his masters in counseling psychology at Ateneo de Manila University, and his thesis, which was published in an international journal, was on telepathy. He is currently a lecturer in the University of the Philippines in Diliman, Quezon City. He handles Sikodiwa on Instagram, where he shares his research into folklore and Sikolohiyang Pilipino (Philippine psychology).
To purchase his digital zines, click here. To listen to his podcast, click here. To follow his blog and receive articles through email, click here. To read his other writing, click here.
