![Fr. Jose Francisco Syquia, head of the Commission on Extraordinary Phenomena for the Archdiocese of Manila, explains why mass possession happen in schools during a meeting with some of the media at the International Eucharistic Congress Convention Center of Cebu or IEC3 in Cebu City on August 25. | CDN Digital FILE PHOTO [Mary Godinez]](https://cebudailynews.inquirer.net/files/2023/09/Screen-Shot-2023-09-15-at-11.35.12-PM.png)
Fr. Jose Francisco Syquia, head of the Commission on Extraordinary Phenomena for the Archdiocese of Manila, explains why mass possession happen in schools during a meeting with some of the media at the International Eucharistic Congress Convention Center of Cebu or IEC3 in Cebu City on August 25. | CDN Digital FILE PHOTO [Mary Godinez]
Fr. Jose Francisco C. Syquia, director of the Archdiocese of Manila Office of Exorcism, cites several factors for these to happen.
Fr. Syquia said that these people, would be those, who were immersed in the occult, who possessed a strong psychic energy since childhood, and yet, they would have no allegiance to God.
READ: Almost 200 students in Bohol ‘possessed’ by evil spirits
Albularyo and third eye
“And if you talk to these kids, bukas yong third eye nila (their third eye is opened). They are very sensitive. They are psychics, and they are being brought to a lot of “arbularyo”. And all they need that, maybe, a child throws a stone to a tree that is infested (with evil spirits) and they will be easily possessed,” he said.
He said that repeated exposure of a person or child to “albularyo” or faith healers might make them prone to developing demonic obsessions that could become all-consuming and would interfere with their daily lives.
This obsession could lead to compulsive behaviors and affect the mind, resulting in blasphemous and suicidal thoughts.
“That means this person can start to hear — like voices, start to see things, start to have suicidal thoughts, or the child doesn’t know where it’s coming from,” Fr. Syquia, who is also the head of the Commission on Extraordinary Phenomena for the Archdiocese of Manila.
READ: The many ways to exorcise evil spirits
Form of spiritual oppression
He said that the number of collected spirits over time could lead to a form of oppression and affliction that could have a detrimental effect on one’s physical health, emotional and psychological well-being, spiritual life, relationships, and work.
He said this form of spiritual oppression could manifest with no apparent cause, and could prove difficult to diagnose or treat using conventional medical science.
“The child will wake up with bruises on the body, scratch marks, the child will always have sicknesses that cannot be diagnosed with doctors, the child may have a lot of nightmares, the child will have a lot of mood swings, the child will have a lot of suicidal thoughts and tendency, attacks of a– we may say depression,” Fr. Syquia said.
“Because the demon will have more and more power over the emotions, the imaginations, and the memory of the child, ” said the priest, who is an exorcist, on why this was so.
READ: PH lead exorcist receives 10 suspected cases a day
Exorcist on bringing a child to an albularyo
Bringing children to albularyo or traditional healers or ‘cult practitioners and not a priest will have dire repercussions on the child or a person, too.
“If brought to traditional healers, or ‘cult practitioners’, instead of a priest, this can often lead to possession — the most extreme form of spiritual attack wherein demons take complete control of a person’s body (not the soul),” he said.
“And the person, who has been possessed, will have no recollection of what occurred while they were under the influence (of the demons),” Fr. Syquia said.
In cases of mass possessions such as in schools, the priest describes how an exorcist could handle this.
READ: ‘Possession’ or mass hysteria?
How to exorcise mass possession
“And usually in mass possessions, the first person who gets possessed is usually the one where the main spirit is,” he said.
“You have to exorcise him (or her) first, then separate the kids and bring them away from the elemental, usually, it is an elemental that is in a certain area in the school or maybe, a tree, and then exorcise them one by one,” he said.
“Then you interview them and let them go to confession if they are old enough to go to confession, and to renounce, and also the parents, to renounce whatever cult practices they did,” Fr. Syquia said.
“Then once you renounce the right of the spirit, it will be easy to expel them,” he said.
READ: A student’s panic attack causes chain reaction in Carcar school; 20 hospitalized
Mass hysteria
The priest also explains why the term mass hysteria is no longer used in science.
“That is why there is no such thing as mass hysteria. That term is no longer used in science, in psychology, because they have never found the real cause of mass hysteria,” he said.
He said that there was nothing traumatic that the kids did in these cases of mass possession.
“Naglalaro lang sila. May binato doon sa puno or maybe, they were doing ‘spirit of the glass’ in the classroom and all of them had gotten possessed,” he said.
(They were just playing. Then someone threw a stone to a tree, or maybe, they were doing ‘spirit of the glass’ in the classroom and all of them had gotten possessed.)
READ: The exorcist is in
How to prevent this from happening
Fr. Syquia said that focusing on prayers and one’s spiritual development especially in a child could help a lot in preventing or lessen the chances of these things happening to the child or a person.
He also said that holy sacramentals could help a lot by placing them in your homes or schools.
He described sacramentals as rosaries, crucifixes, holy water, holy images or statues among others.
He said that the less use of sacramentals to a place, the most likely the place or a home would be in danger of being infested by evil spirits.
READ: Exorcist tackles tough love and how to ward off evil spirits in your home
How some people get possessed
Aside from being exposed to the occult, Fr. Syquia also said that in committing a sin, keeping the anger inside, and to never forgive a person’s actions, could also be a factor of possessions in some cases.
“When a person commits a sin, it can be likened to sharks smelling blood in the water, attracting evil spirits drawn to anything that is ‘similar to them’,” he said.
“These spirits can invite themselves into a person’s life that has recent traumatic experiences, deep psychological and emotional wounds that prevent forgiveness and having recently engage in a quarrel with family members,” the priest said.
He cites a case of sisters, who were abused when they were young, and got possessed by evil spirits.
“Many of our cases– like of sisters who got possessed they were sexually abused when they were young and keep it and as later on, they got older a spirit attached to them and they remained because there’s a lot of anger there and unforgiveness,” Fr. Syquia said.
“Usually spirits remain because of a certain choice of the person– it’s not their fault that they were abused, but if they keep the anger and hatred there [the spirits will remain],” he said. | Mary Godinez, CTU Intern and Rick Gabuya
