The Enlightenment

…discovering one’s purpose in life…

“We dream and make plans for our future, but there are those whose fate is predestined. No matter what they do, their lives are led to something entirely different, eventually, they realize that it is their mission in life. Our Creator knows what is best for us, and following His lead, will give us that sense of fulfillment, the total satisfaction, and real happiness no one could have ever imagined possible.

I have been regarded by my relatives, friends, and associates as sort of “weird’ or ‘unique’, to put it lightly. I’ve been known to face challenges head-on, consequences aside, and always come out successful. Going against the tide excites me no end. I have looked for ventures that would test my strength, my wits, imagination, and intuition, and to say the least my intellect and talents. Pursuing various types of endeavors and challenges dig deep into my insatiable desire to accomplish almost anything within the scope of my person and environment.

As most astrologers would describe, Geminis are people who get bored when they aren’t doing something. They need constant change, as they are multi-tasked individuals, always on the go, ready for both physical and mental challenges. Being a Gemini, boredom is something I never would want to experience. When boredom hit me, I could not contain it! I would stop everything I was doing., even if it would cut into my finances, cost me my career, my job, or lose someone dear.

Boredom struck me sometime in 1997. At that time, I stopped everything I was doing. I closed my business without a warning, I stopped drinking, which I enjoyed so much before, and refused to go out with friends and associates, I just stayed at home-doing nothing.

For some people, they may consider this as depression but I say it isn’t so, I was plainly and simply bored. That is where my “uniqueness” becomes evident. I was different in a way most people could not understand.

Almost a year had passed; I did a lot of soul-searching, digging deeper into my whole being there was something missing in my life and I didn’t know what it was. I didn’t realize that whenever I turned on the TV, I would tune in to religious programs or to programs with religion as the topic. I was searching for my spirituality! At that time, I could not connect my boredom with my soul-search and what I was missing.

I experienced such a level of boredom several times in the past, while I was at the peak of it. It is my steadfast principle: I will stop while I am on top, I’d rather leave ahead than be booted off when I’m down and out! I also firmly believe that nothing is forever, nothing is permanent, but change is constant. From our roller-coaster emotions, the luck we are enjoying, the power and authority we have accumulated or earned, and even more so the people we hold dearest and most precious to us.

My personal analysis then was, I must be in deep fear. Embedded in my subconscious was the pain of losing somebody or something in countless imaginable ways. Antipaciting all these possibilities that could give me deep sadness. Yes, that maybe was the right conclusion; I would rather sacrifice everything I have rather than undergo a painful situation.

THE DECISION:

It was one late right of June in 1998 when I had a date with my fate that changed my whole being, my sense of belief, and my focus in life.
That fateful night, I felt the height of boredom, which I never experienced before, my head was totally blank, almost psychotic. Right then and there, I decided to end my life. The question kept banging inside my head, “Is there anything else for me to do more than I was able to accomplish and have already done before?” I felt that there wasn’t enough challenge for me to continue living.

Yes, too many people, I may not have reached the top of the world, or there had been not much that I accomplished a lot more than most of my contemporaries and peers. knowing the limitations for a guy with simple family background and simple beginnings, as I was a self-made man! I know the “One Above” blessed me with so much luck, I was able to overshoot goals no one could have ever imagined.

That night I prayed very deeply and asked God for His forgiveness.

I was able to locate on psychic card reader. Her first impressions astonished me. She said that a shimmering white light was enveloping me. I was really a skeptic with psychics because I felt that they were too good to be true and that they are only using what seemed to be the “unseen”, and could not be verified anyway, just to earn money. I ignored the first impression she told me and reiterated my request that I consulted her to look for my guns, to tell me who took them, and to concentrate on that alone.

To my amazement, she said that a “spirit” took all my guns away. I wanted to laugh after hearing that. Sarcastically, I told her that spirits were presumed to possess unlimited powers and that they do not need guns to protect themselves. She insisted that was what she had seen. She left a statement that it was the truth; she wasn’t lying nor inventing a scenario to please me. I could either believe her or not, and it would be up to me.

The next day, the first thing that we did was to find another medium or somebody who could talk to spirits, halfheartedly believing what the first psychic told me. Being a skeptic, I knew that this could be a big joke. But badly needing an answer, I went ahead to consult another, one more time.

The medium while in a strange gave me exactly the same information that the first psychic had seen – that a very bright light was enveloping me and added that I have a mission to fulfill. She also mentioned that I possess powers more that she had.

My mind went blank. My consultations with these readers turned out to be more confusing that revealing. I still did not get a satisfactory answer about my missing guns. Whatever they were saying then, didn’t sink in. I didn’t see the relevance to what I wanted to know.

SEMINAR:

While driving home one Sunday night, I heard on the radio about a seminar being conducted by Prof. Jaime Licauco. I didn’t know him personally but I had seen him in several TV programs before and that he was known as the foremost parapsychologist and leading expert on the paranormal in the Philippines. The next morning, I called up his office and inquired about the seminar. Over the phone, I was sure I would not be able to ask him about my concern, so I just decided to enroll in the seminar. Then probably while at the seminar, I would be able to talk to him personally and ask him about my concerns.

Communicating with God, I asked for one sign before going to the seminar – that if God wanted me to be in that seminar, then there would be extra cash coming my way to pay for the fee. One day before the seminar, I received a payment from a long overdue bill in the exact amount of the seminar fee!

In the seminar, I got the chance to ask Mr. Licauco if spirits were capable of getting physical items from us, and he said, “Yes”. I was satisfied with his answer though I wasn’t convinced. I decided to finish the seminar anyway, as I had already paid in full.

During the seminar, I found out that I was seeing things while the others could not. The truth was, almost all of the participants wanted to be psychics and I was only there to get a convincing answers about what  happened to my guns.

ENCOUNTER OF A DIVINE KIND:

In the seminar, I learned how to meditate and in one of those meditations, I experienced an encounter of a divine manifestation. Around 9:00 PM, almost two weeks after the gun incident, a very bright light appeared in my room.

Initially, I was scared because the “Light” almost pierced through my body! It was not painful as I initially thought it would be, in fact it had a soothing effect on me.

Then I heard a voice, a rumbling sound at first, and then a voice that echoed from a distant place. I gathered all my strength and courage, and asked the “Light”, if he could show himself to me physically. I thought for a while that I could be hallucinating and none of these were real. Then the “Light” answered, “YES, I will”.

Slowly the “Light” started to form into a white-haired figure. The outline of his face could now be clearly seen. The manifestation was disrupted when somebody entered the room. The “Light” and the silhouette of the man immediately disappeared. I thought maybe, I was indeed imagining things or hallucinating at that moment.

Early the next morning, while my houseboy and I were talking in the kitchen, a mysterious picture fell in front of us. I easily recognized it as the “One” who appeared the previous night in front of me. The rest of the day, I was more concerned about who was the “Man” in the picture and less concerned with how that picture suddenly appeared in front of us.

HEALING POWER?

That night, I visited my grandmother who fell from a sixteen-step stairway earlier that morning. She got bruised and had a broken rib as a result of the fall. She didn’t want to be taken to a hospital because she wanted me to do the healing myself. I was surprised, and told her, “I am not a doctor nor a healer, you know that because I grew up with you in this house!” But she was so sure that I could hear her. She took my hand and placed it on her chest for a few minutes. I felt a certain warmth in my right hand and a sucking sensation while my hand was on her chest.

On my way home, I kept on rubbing my hand on the window of the car, because I felt that there was an invisible jelly-like substance stuck on my palm. At home, I found my houseboy in pain. He was suffering from acute ulcer and he was already moving bloody stools. He also didn’t want to go to a hospital. He firmly believed that I could heal him. He held my hand and placed it on his stomach. I was so puzzled. What in heaven’s name was happening? These people knew that I was not a healer all throughout my life, but insisted on my healing them myself. I went ahead and did healing, the way I could at that time, thinking there was nothing to lose anyway. And if they do get healed, wouldn’t that be great?

I went to my cousin’s house to wind down, but it seemed that was the night of revelation. Upon entering the gate of my cousin, she asked me to heal her goiter that was far bigger than it was the last time I saw it. I looked up at the sky to see if the moon was affecting the minds of these people, but the moon was hiding at that time. I asked my cousin, “Do I look like a hermit?” as I looked at myself in the mirror.

Well then, I relented and touched her neck and kept my hand there for a few minutes. That done, and having fully winded down, I went home to get a good night rest. I was too tired to even think of what happened to these people, and why I was even asked to do healing for them, one after the other. I thought that the next morning, all would be normal again… but I was wrong.

GETTING HEALED?

The phone rang early morning. I received the good news that my Lola was miraculously healed. Her bruises were all gone (I personally checked and saw later that day). In my mind, I said, “That was good”. Then remembering my houseboy whom I healed after my Lola, I asked him if he was okay and he said, yes, and that the blood oozing out along with his stool had stopped. Well, I thought, that was more good news! So, I called up my cousin, my third patient yesterday, and asked her if she had gotten well. At the top of her voice she shouted that the lump in her neck had miraculously disappeared. I could not believe what I heard. I was almost in shock and I remember staying motionless for a couple of hours.

The whole day I kept thinking of the events. It seemed I really didn’t know who I am; I could not explain the things that were happening to me. Again, I asked myself, “How come these three people got healed by a mere touch?”

MEETING THE IMPOSSIBLE

I could not sleep that night. Sleeping was a hard task to do as I tried to get answers to what was going on. It was beyond human comprehension.

Still awake at around three o’clock in the morning while seated in the sofa. The now familiar “Light” appeared again in front of me. I got scared once more in spite of the familiarity. I stood up to run to the bedroom to hide, but my knees were trembling. Falling down on my knees, I started to cry. They the “Old Man” in the picture appeared again. I was shaking with fear, but there was no other recourse but to communicate with the man who by now is standing in front of me. I needed to know what was happening. Knowing that divine manifestations happen only to “good” people, I wanted to know why I was given the privilege. With me asking the first question, we started conversing in Tagalog.

AVV: Bakit ho ako? Hindi ako mabait, hindi ako pala-simba. Hindi ako relihiyoso. (Why me? I’m not kind, I seldom go to church, and I’m not that religious.)

O.M.: Higit kitang kilala kaysa pagkakilala mo sa sarili mo. (I knew you better than you know yourself.)

AVV: Bakit ho Kayo nagpakita sa akin? May nagawa ho ba ako? (Why did You show yourself to me? Did I do something?)

O.M.: (No reply)

AVV: Manggagamot ho ba ako? (Will I do healing?) Hindi po ako marunong. (I don’t know how.)

O.M.: Tuturuan kita. (I will teach you how.)

The “Old Man” taught me for two hours and a half on how to heal. I was given the prayer to use, whom to call and thank. He also gave me the ability to do x-ray visioning to be able to see ailments, to read a person’s life – his wrong-doings why he got sick and many other abilities I could use to make my mission easier. The most important was the wisdom that accompanies the ability.

AVV: Manggagamot na nga ako, pero papaano malalaman ng mga tao ang tungkol ditto? (I know now how to heal, but would the people know about this?)

O.M.: Gagawa Ako ng paraan. (I will pave the way)

AVV: Sino po ba kayo? (Who are you?)

The old man did not respond to my inquiry. Yet, I was so eager to know who He was. I was so sure of His Divinity because I could feel deep inside the very core of my bones the powerful energy radiating from Him.

AVV: Kayo po ba ay isang ermitanyo? (Are you a hermit?)

AVV: Kayo po ba ay si Amang, tanda? (Are you Amang, tanda?)

Still, the Old Man did not respond. Actually, I already suspected who He was; I was just too afraid and hesitant to ask straight. After asking him so many names, I resorted to ask Him of what I first suspected.

AVV: Kayo po ba ng Ama?

O.M.: Tawagin mo akong Ama. (Call me the Father.)

I cried so hard, overwhelmed by the presence of the Divine Being in front of me. I had mixed emotions but humbled because God entrusted me with the task of healing people in spite of the fact that I had not lived my life according to His desire. As I covered my faced with the towel I had with me, I sensed the Ama started to move toward me. He tapped me lightly on my shoulder. Then He was gone. Then, another Being appeared in front of me; this time an image of a Lady.

AVV: Kayo po baa ng Ina? (Are you the Mother?)

LADY: Oo, ako ang Ina (Yes, I am the Mother.)

I cried once again. She approached me like a mother to a son. She placed my head on Her shoulder while she patted my back. She showed great love and reassured me that everything will be fine.

LADY: Huwag kang mag-alala nandito Kami para tulungan ka. (Do not worry. We will always be here for you.)

It was already 6:00 am and my house helps saw me kneeling and crying but they were unaware of what transpired earlier. The feeling of ecstasy overpowered me. I was still crying up to 9 that morning. I wrote the whole incident, so I won’t forget anything except for the prayer, which I considered too sacred to write.

THE LULL

Three days had passed after that incident and still I have not told anyone of what really happened. I don’t want tell anyone, because I dreaded the thought that they would not believe me and instead suspect me as lunatic, crazy or simply hallucinating. But I was so certain that what took place were real. All I had to do was to wait for the fulfillment of His promise that He will make a way for people to know about me. But three days have passed and everything seemed normal. The news about the healing of my grandmother, my cousin, and my house helper remained within our family. It seemed that everybody were back in their senses, even though the question of me being a miracle healer still hovered in their minds.

THE LONG WAIT OVER

After three days, at around 9:00 o’clock in the morning, an angel appeared in front of me. He was almost 7 to 8 feet in height. He had golden-brown hair and a white complexion. He wore a shimmering white robe with a golden rope belt. Then he spoke to me about an incident that will happen to a well-known local actress. I was shaken at first, but realized that there was really an angel in front of me. He spoke:

ANGEL: Lo and behold, there is a message for you.

AVV: Are you an angel?

ANGEL: Yes, I am Gabriel. He was quick in giving his name. Something is going to happen to this woman.

Like a television screen on his left side, he showed me a face of a woman that resembled Ms. Dina Bonnevie, one of the better local movie and television actresses.

AVV: Sinong maniniwala sa akin? You better show me some concrete proof. (Who will believe me?)

ANGEL: Sige. (All right)

The angel instructed me to go to the adoration chapel in our subdivision. There I found three one fourth sheet of paper with notes written on it. The first one-fourth sheet contained a drawing of a trumpet and wings. The second one-fourth sheet read like this: Dina, B__? __l, A__? __a and Peru. In the last one-fourth sheet was written: Dina Bonnevie will die in Peru. I trembled because I was not hallucinating after all. I went home still in a state of shock. I pondered on what I would do to relay the angelic message to Ms. Bonnevie.

1. JAIME LICAUCO. Then I recalled that during one of the seminars that I’ve attended, Jaime Licauco mentioned that he is a friend of Ms. Ali Sotto. I presumed that I could use that channel to relay the message to Ms. Sotto, then eventually to Ms. Dina Bonnevie who was at one time her sister-in-law.

My friend Rene Casis and I went to the office of Jaime Licauco to give the message. When he got hold of the three one-fourth sheet of paper, I knew deep inside me that he was not convinced at all. I left this place frustrated even though he assured me that he would do something to relay that angelic message. I knew the angelic encounter was real but surmised that maybe the man wanted to investigate before believing.

Me and Ms. Dina Bonnevie

THE MORNING AFTER. At around 6:00 in the morning I received a phone call from Mr. Jaime Licauco. He sounded very excited while I was still groggy with sleep. He frantically relayed to me that writings on the three one-fourth sheet of paper were validated by Ms. Dina Bonnevie. She also deciphered the two words that were not clear in the second sheet – Brazil and Africa; two places she planned to visit before Peru. She was indeed planning to leave the country secretly and that the three places mentioned in the sheets of paper were the three countries she planned to visit. It took some time after our conversation had ended, before the gravity of the news sank into my consciousness. I was jumping out of joy. I had saved a person from a certain death. It proved that the message was genuine and the angel Gabriel did appear in front of me.

The morning of the next day, call from several friends and relatives poured in. They told me that I was the banner story of the life section of several newspapers and tabloids. When I got hold of the copy, I felt nervous and excited at the same time because I do not know what will happen next. I was not ready for this. Consequently several radio and television shows invited me as guest, repeating my story in each one of the shows. I finally met Ms. Dina Bonnevie in Jaime Licauco’s radio program, the Inner Mind on Radio.

I thought that was all about it – a short stint in print media, radio and television. But I was wrong; it was only the beginning. People picked up the story and started flocking to my place both for healing and counselling. Soon enough, I recognized THIS was indeed the work of God because in two months time I was already well known to so many people. I was certain that as long as God wanted me to help people, He would make the way. This is how I begun – the story of my enlightenment.