On October 8, 2010, me and my friend Sidney Snoeck, the renowned photojournalist, traveled to Camarines Norte to document the exorcism rituals of Master Herminigildo Anos, the blind exorcist and spiritual healer. I have always been interested in exorcism and when I was younger in our province in Nueve Ecija, I had witnessed first hand people supposedly being possessed by evil spirits.
I first met master Anos some years back during the 2007 Feast of the Black Nazarene in Quiapo. In 2009, I even partially documented his exorcism rituals in Plaza Miranda, where Master Anos performed mass exorcism. You can view my previous post on him here.
Demonic possession fascinates me and I have tried my best to learn more about it through reading many books and magazines. Yet, some people may regard demonic possession as a psychiatric rather than spiritual problem. But the Bible records demonic possessions, and even Jesus Christ was known to drive away evil spirits from possessed people.
The video below is an excerpt of a documentary movie I am making of Master Anos and his exorcism rituals which I plan to present to you in full soon. Master Anos believes that during his exorcism rituals, Jesus Christ himself possesses him, and thereby can compel the evil spirits to come out from his patients. The evil spirits can be Satan himself or his minions like the tikbalang, kapre, dwende, higante, and nuno sa punso. Master Anos also believes that the spirits of dead relatives can possess people. Babies that have died unbaptized can possess their parents.
I just noticed that not all of Master Anos' patients have problems with demons. Many have problems with health and some have terminal illnesses that have been deemed hopeless cases by medical doctors. But Master Anos declares that all illnesses are caused by evil spirits, and that by casting out these evil spirits, he cures the patients' illnesses.
The scene towards the middle of the video shows a young boy named Kevin Opamil, an 11-year mute boy. Orphaned at a young age, Kevin is also disabled. He can stand up but cannot walk. He was brought to Master Anos' by his aunt, who consented for the exorcism ritual. During the ritual, Master Anos declared that Kevin was possessed by a dwende (leprechaun), and he uses his traditional method to exorcise the boy's dwende.
In the end, Master Anos said that he was already able to make Kevin talk, although it appeared to me that the boy was only making some unintelligible words. He also made him stand and walk with assistance, although I can see that Kevin cannot still walk unassisted. Master Anos declared that in a few more days' the boy would talk and walk more normally. Unfortunately, I cannot stay for a few more days to check on the boy's progress since Sidney and I have to go back to Manila the following day.
Meanwhile, you can check out Sidney Snoeck's creepy photo series here on Master Anos.
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