Monday, October 31, 2016. Halloween.

Moved Mongkut's shrine to the east side of the house, in front of my writing desk. I'd initially placed it on the west side of the house though had his image facing east, beside our family columbarium, so that Mongkut could join us for meals and other celebrations. I decided last night, however, that I should place the shrine where I can see Mongkut more frequently. He is now in my writing room, adjacent to my captain's cabin bedroom, so that I can see him whenever I go in and out of both rooms.

Mongkut wants to give the candy I offered him to Jaymark, for his little sister.

A change in energy. Jaymark has adjusted to the house. He no longer needs close supervision when working, and he exhibits initiative. He even looks different, for some reason. His face is more open, and he appears to be serene. I brought him to the family dentist today, then bought medication for him at a pharmacy. Apparently he'd been neglecting an infected tooth for some time. When we arrived home, Mike Luy was having a late lunch and an early dinner at M.'s cafe. I sat with him and had a root beer. Mike brought a bottled candle to be lit for Ivy on our altar on All Souls Day. He also brought me a ceramic jack-o-lantern with a set of tea candles for Halloween.

A lot of things went right today, but I can't say that it was a perfect day.

I've seen photos in which the adoptive parents of kuman thong placed toy cars on their shrines. I have never been partial to real cars or toy carts, but I wouldn't hesitate to buy Mongkut a toy car if he wants one.

Tonight, while watching TV in M.'s cafe over a root beer, I saw a commercial for Kinder Joy eggs and discovered that each egg contains a part of a toy car. The parts can be collected and afterward assembled. Apparently I need to buy three eggs and hope that they contain no duplicates but all of the parts that can complete one toy car.

Some time ago  I asked four people to try and get me someone who could help around the house. I wasn't expecting any quick response from them. Yet, Grace, who used to work for my father in San Jose, Occidental Mindoro, sent me her 16-year-old grandnephew, Jaymark. I've been teaching him how to maintain the house and cook dishes. So far, so good.

I considered the possibility that Mongkut sent me Jaymark. I look beyond the tangible whenever I can. Is Jaymark what Mongkut would have looked like as a boy? Is Mongkut 16 years old to date? Do Mongkut and Jaymark share the same personality and the same preferences?

Intrigued by the Thai word "katha", which means "power word/s" or "power prayer", pretty much what "oracion" means in Philippine magic.

In Tagalog, "katha" literally means "authored work" or "original work".

Done with my first-ever offering ritual to the kuman thong. All of it took no more than five minutes. I feel light and peaceful, as though a great burden has been taken away from me, and as though my day has become complete.

I recited the general katha and the katha before offering food. I am now thinking of translating all these to Tagalog, and perhaps composing new ones, maybe three or five months from now.

Saturday, Offering Day

Lit joss sticks in all burners on the ground floor. Lit the altar table lamps and the lamp at Mongkut's shrine. These will remain lit the entire day.

Bought a packet of three each of three assorted candies in a plastic sack at the convenience store next door.

Lunch with Aubrey.

Resting before doing the actual offering.

Traditionally the offering to a kuman thong is done early in the morning before everyone takes breakfast. Of late, though, I have been sleeping 5:00 AM and rising 11:00 AM. I do not wish to be a slave obsessive-compulsively following rituals to the letter; I will only be miserable and resent what I am doing in the long run, and that is the last thing I want to happen. I believe that the right way to do rituals is to incorporate everything in one's personal rhythm, that is why I have always preferred to be an individual practitioner rather than part of a group. That way one merges smoothly with his/her environment, with one's magic, and ultimately with the cosmos.

This evening at dinner I introduced my granddaughters to Mongkut. I explained what a kuman thong is and how to take care of it. I asked them to take care of Mongkut should anything happen to me. I don't want the kuman thong to be mistaken for one of my figurines and then sold, given away, or disposed of in some other manner.

Aubrey was impressed that I gave Mongkut a Kinder Joy egg.

Went to the market to buy a stock of meat this afternoon. There were many stalls selling Halloween stuff. I'd no plans to buy any but ended up buying two jack-o'-lanterns. I felt that Mongkut wanted them for the house. I placed them inside our small loggia, by the driveway.

Mongkut slept beside me on my bed last night while the TV was on Typhoon Lawin watch. He is most welcome to roam the entire house except my granddaughters' rooms and hang out in my room, but I said to him that there are times when I need to be alone. It is important to all of us that we have our own rooms, and Mongkut's shrine is his room.

Still no dreams of Mongkut, but I already intuitively know what he likes and doesn't like. He seems to defer to my preferences most of the time.

Aside from having no dreams of Mongkut, I don't see unusual things or movements from the corner of my eye, so to speak. Neither do I hear unusual voices or sounds. The explanation is clear to me: All of those aren't necessary, because I already have direct communication with Mongkut.

Mongkut's superior intelligence humbles me whenever he is outside with me and gives me advice as to whom to talk to, what to say, and how to behave. At home he is a sweet, soft-spoken, eight-year-old boy who likes cuddling up.

Sometimes, when I am resting in bed and watching TV,  Mongkut saunters into the room, stands beside me, and looks at what I am watching.

Back from a TV interview at GMA-7 for the talk show Mars. The episode will air Tuesday All Saints Day, November 1, 2016. The show is hosted by Suzi Abrera and Camille Pratts. Guests with me were Mayton Eugenio and TJ Trinidad. Our topic was "Deathbed Visions".

Before leaving the house I asked Mongkut to come with me. The event was a success.

Searched the Internet for the provenance of Mongkut, and this is probably it:

http://www.138amulet.com/item/166/

The series was made by Buddhist monk Lp (Luang por [Venerable Father]) Lum Watt Samakkeetham. Mongkut is serial #65.

Last night was Mongkut's third night in our house. I kept the paraffin oil lamp at the kuman thong shrine burning. Henceforth it will be lit Saturday nights only.

Mongkut seems quite happy under my care. I see him now as an eight-year-old boy rather than a baby. This morning I told him that he is welcome to come to the kitchen and the dining room at any time to partake of whichever food he prefers. I also said that he is welcome to come with me whenever I leave the house.

Going to a 2:00 PM, taped-as-live TV interview this afternoon. My first in approximately 20 years, especially after I announced that I have become a hermit (by my definition). I just acquiesced to do this for a friend, who is a consultant to the program. The program will air on Halloween.

Lit joss sticks in all burners on the ground floor. This is the third day of lit joss sticks now since Mongkut's arrival. Joss sticks will be lit every week, on Saturdays, henceforth.

Morning offerings to Mongkut. I also gave him a sweet bun from a pack that a neighbor gave me yesterday.

Tonight I lit joss sticks on the ground floor again. There are five separate burners, including the one at the kuman thong shrine. Also lit the paraffin oil lamp at the kuman thong shrine for the night.

This evening I bought a box of cling-wrap to cover and keep safe whatever exposed food and drinks I will be offering Mongkut.

I've already found the answer to "After offering food to a kuman thong and leaving it with him for some time, should the food be disposed of or can it be ingested by a human being?"

The answer is yes, it can be ingested by a human being. There is an incantation that is recited before taking food offerings away from the kuman thong. After the incantation, the food becomes normal food once again and is no longer spirit-offering food.

I am referring, of course, to wrapped candies and fruit. Exposed food, milk, water, and soda in tiny vessels should be disposed of, liquids always at the kitchen sink.

Groceries. Bought Mongkut fresh milk, a bottle of strawberry FrutZoda, and a Kinder Joy For Boys egg filled with tiny candies. While buying these things I listened hard twice for an indication from him as to what he likes and does not like. He is not partial to stuffed toys and Halloween stuff.

When an adoptive parent takes on a kuman thong, enculturation inevitably happens, as it will for any living child. This encompasses housing, food, and material things such as toys and doll furniture, and, eventually, values and preferences. The bond between parent and kuman thong then strengthens and evolves. And transcends even traditional rituals that have no intellectual and emotional truth for the adoptive parent. There will come a point, therefore, when no adviser, Thai or not Thai, can impose "You should do this" and "You should not do this" on me. It is the unique historicity between adoptive parent and kuman thong that will count the most.

Besides, if Angelina Jolie can do her production number, so can I.

A former student in Mindanao sent me a Messenger message that I feel I should post here:

"Good morning, sir. It has been so long since I've had an interaction again with other entities in my almost out of body experiences. (I just consider it 'almost' since I have never left my room from the multiple OBE's I've had in the past.) Just before I woke up today, something happened which haven't before. I was not aware that I was actually having an OBE. I thought I was just having a really bad headache from trying to get up from bed. Even when I saw the red energy emitting from my pink bag and purple ones right across the upper bed bunk, I still was not aware. Then, there were two ladies knocking at my door in which I told them to open since I am not able to do it myself. I was not able to see their faces even if, I think, I was looking straight at them. But their voices were so clear that when they closed the door, I heard them saying 'Sino yung maganda na yun? (Sorry, I had to say it even if it is embarrassing as I do not want to miss a single detail.) Ba't sya napunta dito?' I am very curious as to the second sentence. Of course, I was in here because it is my room. I don't understand how they seemed to be perplexed. Then, I grabbed my phones. I tried to look at the time. My sight was not really good, this time. I could not read anything from the screen because my vision was blurry. Unaware that I was not in my reality, I tried over and over sitting on my bed until I am relieved of my headache slowly. I woke up an hour ago but I still feel a little pressure in my head right now. I wonder what made this experience slightly different from the ones that i have experienced in the past. Thank you for your help."

My reply:

Hello ____________!

Headaches are a natural side effect of astral travel if your body is not hydrated. You had difficulty coming back to consciousness because you entered a dimension that the two ladies belong to in their location, and they entered the dimension you belong to in your location. If you can conceive of it, it was somewhat like an out-of-location experience as well as an out-of-body experience.

The two ladies are not astral travelers. They are spirits of the deceased. They mistook you for a deceased person too.

I didn't dream of Mongkut at all last night. I was quite disappointed. Then I realized that I may not have had to dream about him at all, since, from the very beginning, I already was directly connected to him.

Performed the name-changing ritual this evening. Lit joss sticks once again on the ground floor. Dedicated a paraffin oil lamp to the kuman thong shrine. I prefer paraffin oil lamps to candles.

I recited the incantations in what must have been very stilted Thai, and then in English. Vibrating incantations in an incomprehensible language is not new to me, since many, if not all, oraciones of Philippine magic are in pidgin Latin and Spanish.

His name is now Mongkut. I did tell him that, if he is actually not a boy but a girl, I would be equally happy, but that he should communicate that to me in a dream, after which I will need to conduct another name-changing ritual. He must be a boy, though. The source called him a kuman thong, not a kumari thong, which a girl spirit is.

I feel that he protests whenever I turn off the ceiling lights. He must still be feeling claustrophobic and annoyed by the dark after his long trip to the Philippines. Will keep a shaded lamp on or the paraffin oil lamp lit through the night, every night.

I enshrined the kuman thong at 2:00 PM. He has candy and a glass of water for now. Among the items on his shrine are a faceted crystal ball. I lit incense sticks on the ground floor again, beginning with the burner dedicated to the shrine of the kuman thong. I introduced myself to the kuman thong and told him about the residents of the house and our guests. I was pleased that Cerefina walked toward the shrine and lay down peacefully near it to take a nap.

I wrote five names on five separate pieces of paper and spread them out at the kuman thong's feet. I said that these were my five name choices for him, and asked him to choose which one he liked best. I also said that I liked the first name best, Mongkut, because it means "crown/man with crown" and also sounds like "monk". I asked the kuman thong to indicate his own choice by moving the piece of paper that contained his preferred name. Later, I placed a doll's bed and doll's table and chair on the shrine. I saw that one of the pieces of paper somehow stood up (not shifted sideways) and propped itself against the glass of candy while I was not looking. It moved because of my physical movements, I am sure, but I had no intention of making those movements so that any piece of paper would move. There are the following important things: only ONE piece of paper moved, and theother pieces lay where I originally left them; and, even if I subconsciously moved so that a piece of paper would move, I had no idea WHICH ONE that would be. But, sure enough, the piece of paper that moved was that one which bore the name Mongkut. I now need to recite the chant for name-changing some time later.

Toto was able to fix the second glitch on my Word document.

My first kuman thong, consecrated by a Thai Buddhist monk

In the base of the kuman thong are:

1) Salika Takrut, handwritten chants on tiny scrolls, a golden salika (a kind of bird) amulet, and red strings

2) Loop Om, the residual spit of eminent monks. Monks chew betel nuts and leaves and then spit. Devotees collect the spit, roll them into balls, and venerate them. They are globular in shape. They are allegedly protection against evil spirits.

3) Pebbles from ten cemeteries.

4) Pebbles from ten temples.

5) Wood splinters from two, ten-year-old coffins.

6) Other stuff.

Saturday, October 15, 2016

The kuman thong arrived 1:30 PM today. Toto was working on my Word document; he managed to fix only one out of two glitches.

I knew the kuman thong would arrive today, Saturday, instead of its projected arrival this coming Tuesday. For one, I've had LBC packages shipped to me via speed delivery many times before, and all of them came on a Saturday. The delivery man knows me. Actually he knows more about me than I expected, for some reason. Maybe he has read my books or my blogs?

Been searching round the house for things that I can place on my kuman thong altar. Some of them are antique miniatures. All of them are made of porcelain, copper, or glass.

Also been lighting joss sticks. There are five joss stick burners on the ground floor now, including the one dedicated to the kuman thong altar.

A storm is due to hit eastern and northern Luzon very soon. I wonder if the kuman thong will arrive before or after it.

Ross, a former student who is now in the U.S.A., got in touch with me again through Messenger. I have been thinking of him a lot lately. The thoughts alternate with thoughts of the kuman thong. I cannot see the connection between the two, however, if there is one.

Yesterday I heard on the news at 7:48 PM that the King of Thailand passed away. This evening, on TV, I saw footage of the nation's mourning.

I wonder how my kuman thong is while it is still in transit. I am no longer picking up fear. I hope it can sleep its way through the rest of the trip. It must also be mourning the passing away of the King.

This afternoon I put together a list of ten names to choose from. I have a feeling that I shall end up with five kuman thong, but I don't want to jump the gun. Time will tell whether I can be a good, adoptive father, first to one kuman thong.

I've already been feeling the presence of my kuman thong. I connected to it as soon as my student brought it to his house, where it stayed for two days fed with milk and Cadbury chocolate bars. I remained connected to it when my student placed it inside a box, bubble-wrapped the box, and placed it in an LBC sheath for speed delivery. I immediately sensed that it was terrified. It had always been hand-carried during travel days and had never been shipped this way.

My kuman thong is afraid of the dark and of cramped spaces. Could its spirit, then, be that of an aborted fetus rather than that of a baby or child who experienced a violent death?

I didn't sleep a wink last night. I didn't feel sleepy at all. I was always hungry, though, and I gorged myself on ice cream and pudding in the kitchen. I admit that I was working on a novel, but I did keep thinking about the kuman thong all the time. I sent it thoughts of love and reassurance every once in a while, though I know that it remained unhappy and terrified.

I still have unanswered questions. Will my kuman thong understand what I am saying in English and in Tagalog? Can I translate the katha into English or Tagalog because I can't read and speak Thai? After the spirit of the kuman thong is ready for reincarnation and leaves, will it be replaced by the spirit of a Filipino child or another Thai child?

Even so, the kuman thong already started playing pranks on me. An expected visitor failed to arrive last night. And, after saving pages upon pages of my novel in my C drive at dawn, I shut down the computer only to remember that my techie friend placed my C drive on deep-freeze and I should have saved everything in my D drive before shutting down. I lost all of the pages, of course, and I am spending the entire morning writing all of the passages I composed from memory and by sheer tenacity.

LBC has no idea that it has a frightened child in one of its packages. I hope that speed delivery is speedier delivery and that the package arrives soon.

I had a succession of dreams last night about traveling, conducting workshops, and cleaning house. I recall that my mother was in the last one, and that I asked her if her maid could clean my room next week. Such dreams, however, are not unusual to me. I would not even interpret them as a subconscious or psychological preparation for the arrival of my kuman thong. I think that, if I do have a kuman thong dream, I will know it for sure.

In a sense adopting a kuman thong is not detached from Filipino culture. Many people I know place a Christ Child instead of a Toh Tee Kung in their homes and in shops, and offer them candies, water, wine, and joss sticks. The Christ Children in particular have entire wardrobes of vestments, are given eccentric names, are bought toys, are conversed with as though they were real, and are prayed to mainly for prosperity. They are even showcased in annual exhibits and parades. I would be surprised if these images, like the kuman thong, are not already inhabited by the spirits of deceased children.

Further readings on the kuman thong seem to indicate that there is a specific type of kuman thong for:

--prosperity
--success
--power
--love
--defense of one's self and one's home
--revenge
 
I do not think that such kuman thong are "programmed' like wands. I believe that I should wait for the kuman thong to introduce itself and tell me what it does best, and we shall both proceed from there.

Today I sent a moneygram to a dear student who obtained for me an authentic Thai kuman thong, and so, while I am still waiting for it to arrive via LBC, I already consider it officially mine. The person who made the kuman thong available advised my student to offer it sweets and milk before shipping it to me, which, of course, he did. He reported to me having a headache, which I feel was unrelated to the acquisition of the kuman thong, and prolific dreams in which he was always traveling. He would also wake up at dawn at the same hour. I am certain that my student was only too glad to finally ship the kuman thong to me. He confessed, though, that, as he was placing the kuman thong inside the box, he felt that he had become somewhat attached to it after its albeit brief stay in his home. He said a moving goodbye to it, and also said that it was time to leave his house and go to mine.

I found a lot of material on the Thai kuman thong on the Internet, including advice on its placement, what to feed it, how to keep it happy, and specific incantations to use. I also found a list of suggested names to call it. I didn't want to give mine a pretentious, foreign name, though--I actually believe that as soon as the spirit of the Thai child is able to move on, the kuman thong will be immediately possessed by the spirit of a deceased, Filipino child. Herein lies the great responsibility in adopting a kuman thong. You are to love it as an actual child until it is ready to move on to the light, after which another spirit enters for you to also love until it is ready to move on to the light, and so on. The name Robert occurred to me, but we shall see. The kuman thong will allegedly appear to me in a dream and give me the name pleasing to itself.

Before going on-line I prepped the location for my kuman thong, where I shall place it as soon as it arrives. I included two tiny tea glasses, a saucer for candy, and doll furniture. It is in an inconspicuous place where my family members hardly look. Having said that, I am required to converse with the kuman thong, explain our house and its rules, and tell it not only about every member of the household but about frequent guests as well.

The kuman thong was quite expensive, but I am satisfied. To begin with, it was extremely difficult to obtain one. A real one, I mean, not a commercial curio. My student contacted approximately five sources in Thailand, none of which were responsive. Just as I told my student to abandon the idea and give up, one source responded and agreed to a meet-up.

Thus a kuman thong is finally coming to my house, in Cubao.