Another family came to receive authentic Hilot treatment though they only complain simple back pain but it ended up in opening of consciousness through the topics we have discussed during the treatment session.
Though having a small place to receive people, we still manage to welcome them and treat them individually.
Hilot usually does not require aesthetic space but utilize the area where the Spirits have provide us to do our sacred work of healing.
But I wish to have a formal aesthetic venue where the person who receives Hilot will not just be relieved from physical pain but also may be relieved from emotional and mental stress that they are receiving everyday in society where they live.
I also feel sorry for this family that they needed to travel far in order to receive authentic Hilot that will not only touch their Physical body but as well as in healing their souls . If only our Government could integrate Hilot into the Philippine Health Care Delivery System, people does not need anymore to go to far flung places in order to receive Authentic Hilot Treatment nor spend a lot of Money in Spa which commercialized Hilot but instead people will just drop by to their Local Health Centers which they can receive Hilot for Free that is part of our Healthcare delivery system.
In learning #Hilot we must not be just like plantito or plantita that enjoys to see their plant on a pot. Allow them to embrace the land and let them grow to be strong.
Being a #HilotBinabaylan is not just about connecting yourselves to the root but also allowing yourself grow by having a deeper connection to your motherland.
Working on our Curriculum about Remedial Hilot as i work on it i am reminded to be grounded on the Healing Principles that all individual has the ability to heal our selves so the treatment procedure we provide as manghihilot does not intend to heal but to help the individual to heal themselves.
In order for us to assist them in their healing, we should also better understand the Filipino Concept of Illness which is Pilay.
On April 27 i have to present 10 common filipino illnesses but i have identified 13 and have to divide into four category of filipino illness which is pilay ipit, pilay bali, pilay hangin and pilay lamig.
An ABS CBN REPORTER have reached out to us last night asking my opinion regarding the possibility of regulating Traditional and Alternative Medicine and its practitioners in our country and I graced him with my opinion early this morning.
I check out his network station website and I found an article written by Katrina Domingo with an Headline that says:
License for albularyos? Senate bills seek regulating traditional, alternative medicine
In her article it mention that there are 2 Philippine Senators that seeks to amend and update the Philippine Traditional Medicine Act of 1997 or Republic Act 8423 and they are Senator Emmanuel D. Pacquiao, Author of Senate Bill 1308 and Senator Ramon “Bong” Revilla, Jr., Author of Senate Bill 2127.
In the Explanatory Note of Sen. Pacquaio, the SB 1308 aims to create a firmer government regulations in the practice of Traditional and Altenative Medicine by revisiting the Traditional Alternative Medicine Acts of 1997 or in short, the Good Senator want to revised the Republic Act 8423 or Philippine Traditional Alternative Medicine Act of 1997.
In this bill under section 1 of the Definition of Terms, the Good senator has defined Alternative Health Care Modalities as:
“Other forms of non- allopathic, occasionally non-indigenous or imported healing methods, though not necessary practiced for centuries nor handed down from one generation to another. [ Some alternative health care modalities include], WHICH SHALL INCLUDE BUT NOT LIMITED TO, reflexology, ACUPUNCTURE, MASSAGE, acupressure, chiropractic, nutritional therapy, HILOT, NATUROPATHY, HOMEOPATHY/HOMOTOXICOLOGY, TUINA MASSAGE, OSTEOPATHY, ANTHROPOSOPIC MEDICINE and other similar [methods] MODALITIES.”
Senate Bill 1308 Explanatory note of Sen. Manny Pacquiao
In this clause, the Good Senator has categorized Hilot as an Alternative Health Care Modality whereas Hilot is not part of Alternative Medicine but instead it should be defined as our Traditional Medicine in the Philippines.
The Bill must also provide a clear definition between Alternative, Allopathic, Conventional, Complementary, Indigenous, Integrative and Natural Medicine; as all of these terminologies may be different from one another.
And going back to the explanatory note of Sen. Pacquiao that says:
“traditional and alternative health care, as defined in R.A. 8423, is “any knowledge, skill and practice, other than those in the biomedicine, which is used in the prevention, diagnosis and elimination of physical or mental disorder.” As listed in the Philippine Standard Occupational Classification (PSOC), associate professional of traditional and complementary medicines include drugless treatment healer, bonesetter, faith healer, healer of indigenous people (i.e. Mansi-bok, Mansip-ok), herbalist, scraping and cupping therapist, village healer, witch doctor, and acupressure therapist. On the other hand, traditional and complementary medicine professionals include acupuncturist, ayuverdic practitioner, Chinese herbal medicine practitioner, homeopath, hydrotherapist, naturopath and unani practitioner.”
Sen. Manny Pacquaio
Are those Modalities mentioned in the Senator’s explanatory note are the modalities being prescribed to have licensure in accordance to section 2 of this bill in paragraph k? It is said that as listed in the Philippine Standard Occupational Classification, that the associate professional of traditional and complementary medicine includes Faith Healer and Witch Doctor. So will that mean that Faith Healer and Witch Doctors in the Philippines must be a licensed professional before they could perform Faith Healing?
What about the Religious Groups such as the Charismatic Movement who does laying of hands and Faith Healing? What about the Union Espiritista? Jesus Miracle Crusade? Philippine Benevolent Missionary Association? And also Luntiang Aghama Natural Divine Arts Shrine of Healing Inc? Do we need to have a license or permit from Pitahc before we can heal people who come into our shrine?
What about our Constitutional Right that says in Article 3 Section 5 in the Philippine Constitution that says:
“No law shall be made respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof. The free exercise and enjoyment of religious profession and worship, without discrimination or preference, shall forever be allowed. No religious test shall be required for the exercise of civil or political rights.”
1987 Constitution of the Republic of the Philippines
And the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of the United Nations has said in Article 18 that says:
“Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.”
Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Now if this is true, why when I wrote an Email to Pitahc, they did not consider my request to have an Audience with the Director General in presenting the Hilot what we are teaching in the Academy that includes the practice of Tawas which is our traditional spiritual diagnostic method. Which their only response is this:
Mahal na Rev. Comon,
Isang mainit napagbati sa ngalan ng aming Director General, Dr. Annabelle Pabiona De Guzman. Salamat sa inyong ibinahagi tungkol sa ginagawa ninyong katutubong gamutan katulad ng hilot babaylan.
Tungkol naman sa ginagawa ninyong pagsasaliksik sa kaalaman sa pagtatawas, halamang gamot at pagpapahid (masahe) ay aming ipinagbibigay alam na ang pwede gawan ng pananaliksik ay mga halamang gamot at paghihilot.
Ipagbibigay alam ko sa kinauukulan kung pwede kayo mabigyan ng oras at araw para maipakita ninyo sa amin ang paraan ng inyong pag gagamot.
Salamat po.
Lina Regis,
Standard and Accreditation Division
Though in their response, they do not specifically mention Tawas but only mention that the only allowable to conduct research is about Halamang Gamot and Hilot (pahid).
In PITAHC website which is PITACH.GOV.PH /GLOSSARY-OF-TERMS, they have defined Hilot as this:
HILOT
The Science and art of the ancient Filipino Healing Tradition grounded on the principle of balance of the physical elements, together with the mental, emotional, and spiritual aspects of the person with the use of manipulation for the prevention of disease and for the restoration and maintenance of health and well-being. It includes the use of medicinal plants and bulong/orasyon.
Though in the part of defining Traditional Medicine on the same page, they have written:
Traditional Medicine is the Sum Total of the knowledge, skill, and practices based on the theories, beliefs, and experiences indigenous to different cultures, whether explicable or not, used in the maintenance of health as well as in the prevention, diagnosis, improvement or treatment of physical and mental illness.
Here we could see that the Institute has difficulty of defining Hilot as Philippine Traditional Medicine as it only defines it as Filipino Healing Tradition and does not clearly define it as Philippine Traditional Medicine; as the role of Hilot of Treatment of Physical and Mental Illness has been omitted in the Glossary of terms in Hilot, whereas the word Traditional Medicine is applied to the Traditional Oriental Medicine:
Senate Bill 2127 filled by Senator Ramon “Bong” Revilla, Jr.
Summary to the Explanatory Note
In his explanatory note, the good senator have noticed that many have taken interest into alternative modalities in searching for cure for their ailments as well as there are various universities that offers degree and graduate program that offers traditional and complementary medicine. In this bill he proposed to update the Traditional Alternative Medicine Act of 1997 to respond to the growing awareness and consumption of alternative care system by empowering the Philippine Institute of Traditional Alternative Health Care.
Through this Bill, we find the same clause that defines Hilot under the category of Alternative Health Care Modalities which can be found on Section 1.d. ; and on paragraph K, they have merge the term Traditional Medicine to Complementary Medicine. Whereas in paragraph J, it defines complementary medicine as:
– A BROAD SET OF HEALTH CARE PRACTICES THAT ARE NOT PART OF THE COUNTRY’S OWN TRADITIONAL OR CONVENTIONAL MEDICINE AND ARE NOT FULLY INTEGRATED INTO THE DOMINANT HEALTH CARE SYSTEM. IT SHALL BE USED INTERCHANGEABLY WITH THE TERM ALTERNATIVE MEDICINE.
Through this I want to reiterate that:
“HILOT IS THE PHILIPPINE TRADITIONAL MEDICINE. IT IS THE MEDICINE USED BY OUR ANCESTORS PRIOR TO THE ARRIVAL OF THE SPANISH COLONIZER AND INTRODUCTION OF MODERN MEDICINE IN OUR LAND. HILOT CAN NOT BECOME A COMPLEMENTARY MEDICINE AS PER DEFINITION OF THIS BILL THAT STATES THAT COMPLEMENTARY MEDICINE IS A BROAD SET OF HEALTH CARE PRACTICES THAT ARE NOT PART OF THE COUNTRY’S OWN TRADITIONAL OR CONVENTIONAL MEDICINE!!!”
My argument might be ignored and considered just a terminology. But if we are going to define something through the law it is something very important for the people of our future. We can not teach and apply law that is misleading and not true. So it is important that the law makes will give clear definition of Hilot as our very own Traditional Medicine. It does not come somewhere else. It originates in our Country.
With regards to Section 7 of the proposed Bill it says:
SPECIAL RULES AND EXEMPTIONS. –
RECOGNIZING THE UNIQUE MANNER OF OBTAINING THE KNOWLEDGE AND SKILLS OF TRADITIONAL MEDICINE, IT BEING HANDED DOWN FROM ONE GENERATION TO ANOTHER WITHOUT THE INFLUENCE OF FORMAL EDUCATION OR TRAINING, PRACTITIONERS BELONGING TO THIS CATEGORY SHALL BE EXEMPT FROM THE STANDARD EXAMINATION REQUIRED BY THIS ACT.
NONETHELESS, THEY ARE STILL MANDATED TO ACQUIRE THE NECESSARY GRANT OF AUTHORITY IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE GUIDELINES TO BE PRESCRIBED BY PITAHC.
IT SHALL BE NECESSARY FOR TRADITIONAL PRACTITIONERS TO ESTABLISH THE LENGTH OF TIME FOR WHICH THEY HAVE BEEN KNOWN TO HAVE PRACTICED TRADITIONAL MEDICINE AND PROVE THAT, IN THE COURSE OF THEIR PRACTICE, NO RELATED COMPLAINT, WHETHER REPORTED OR NOT, WAS MADE AGAINST THEM.
FURTHER, SHOULD THEY OFFER, WHETHER FORA FEE OR NOT, OR USE AS A MODALITY, HEALTH PRODUCTS, PRACTITIONERS MUST SEEK FOR THE APPROVAL OF THE SAME.
Not all Formal Education are regulated by any government agency, such as Religious Seminary and Institution that teach Spiritual Healing and Laying of Hands to the Sick; There is also an Islamic Medicine which is known also as a Prophetic Medicine; and we as religious institution do practice Spiritual Healing., so as the Union Espiritista and Philippine Benevolent Missionary Association that do Spiritual Healing with the use of Bulong and Orasyon.
For the reference of the mentioned Bill, check below.
Even before the Christian Era, our ancestors already know how to pray. It is documented that since the late Neolithic or before 2000 BC. the Ancient Filipino already know how to pray. This is evidenced through the cave wall writing in Angono, Province of Rizal through the Angono-Binangonan Petroglyph.
The engravings are mostly symbolic representations and are associated with healing and sympathetic magic.
This natural monument in the Province of Rizal shows that we as Filipino believe that there is a Higher Power than us that could provide us healing when we are sick. And in search for that Higher power we have learned how to pray. And for us we believe that Prayer has an amazing power to heal us in time of illness.
But how can Prayer Heal?
People recognize that they are sick when they feel it as secondary reaction to the main disorder of their internal system. It is through our feelings that we describe our illness. When we assess people when they are sick, we ask them how they feel. We usually measure their pain as well as the limitations it gives when we are sick.
Prayer can help people get well and have healing since it works towards the mind and emotion. Prayer is a form of Divine Communication that we express our thoughts, and our thoughts describe through prayer what we feel; and our feelings/ emotions as a reaction to the stimulus that been made. Prayer is a form of voicing out what is within us such as in a distressful situation we call out for Help.
In praying for Healing, we recognize that we are in need; that something is not going right within us that make us ill. By recognizing that something that is not right, we are given counsel by our higher selves the thing we need to do so that we may feel better and restore wellness back into our life.
Lana at Liwanag, our Tools in moving prayer
Hilot is a form of Prayer in Action. Action is needed when we pray as we have taught it in the Shrine.
Prayer in Action
Every action that we do in Hilot, whether in Pulse Reading Analysis, Tawas Spiritual Diagnosis, Suob/ Palina Ritual, Kilubansa, Dagdagay, Bentusa and Masahe are all form of Prayer and communication of the manghihilot to the Divine Self of the Patient we are healing. Thus as Manghihilot, our Orasyon or Prayer is not useless but it has direct effect of healing to relieve the person from illness and dis Ease.
Remember our August 8, 2019 post about Guava Leaves? Here we got result. I received a private message thanking us for our post and testifying how the Guava Leaf tea help her in her problem.
“Thank you for posting information about the use of Guava Leaves Tea. It is Effective! I thought I will be sent to the Hospital as I suspect that I got Dengue as I don’t like to see doctors and Hospital. So I boil guava leaves. I drink 4 mug of tea and on the following day I was able to get up from bed. Thanks God for all his blessings and Guidance.”
This testimony encourage us in doing well. Through the information we share we can save lives. It is much better than earning money because all Lives Matter.
Colonization brought new form of medicine to our People, but as they bring new Medicine- the colonizer also bring new diseases into our land. When the colonizers settled into our Land they formed their own government over ruling the native people and had control of our land. As time pass by, they do not only own the land but also control people lives by implementing laws that will serve their interest up to present time.
There are also laws made concerning medicine and healthcare that forbid the use of our indigenous practices but instead use what is prescribed by the modern one. With the continues use of modern synthetic medicine, they also have the power to modify our DNA that will conform to their will. From our birth to our death, Modern Medicine has rule over us. They are the only one who is allowed to perform procedures on which our ancestors before us called as ritual in birthing as well as in funeral.
Before Anxiety and Depression is relieved by our Babaylan through rituals and meditation, now Modern Medicine prescribed drugs to tame it or lessen its effect unlike the Babaylan ways of changing it by teaching us how to control it. The focus of modern medicine is more mundane and carnal that it aims to control not only the cells of our body but also into the atomic level. But for us as Binabaylan Hilot we balance the Body and those level to the soul that gives life.
Recently my focus on study is about mental health. The problem of Drug Addiction, Juvenile Delinquency, Criminal mindset and so on… This i do probably as one of my Vow as dedicated Member of the Correllian Order of Peace Weaver. Though i don’t have the solution yet, but i already have found an answer why it happened to person.
The answer is due to the progress of the Soul within the person. In our studies we teach that each individual has 7 souls. As the time a child is born he or she receives his soul gradually. I also found that at the moment of Coitus, the union of Egg and Sperm Cell- the Spirit of Life begins to form. This union of cells become the Ancestral Soul of Life that made an Individual to be both Male and Female.
As individual we are both gender as Male and Female, because a Man could not germinate a baby without female nor a female can give birth without male. So the Power of Creation is present in the Union of this Power.
As the Baby come out of the womb, we know it is alive because of the First soul that comes with the Baby and we call it as ULIRAT. The Force or electricity of Life that was made from the union of the cells.
Then the next soul will come. We see this when the Baby is Placed to the breast of the Mother. On this stage, sensation is being developed to a child so as the intuition. This soul becomes the Child Muwang. The purity of the soul that has no Malice sucking divine milk from her mothers breast.
As the Baby grow s/he is introduced to the Community where the baby will receive his/her 3rd soul which is Malay. And this stage as i see is a very critical stage for the child where the child will be influenced by the people in his environment. What ever the Child see will become normal and correct that s/he will bring it up until adulthood. On this stage of Soul Progression, as an Adult we have a role on how we mold the child behavior towards live as the behavior is also a soul which we call as Bait/ katinuan.
This is the reason why religion comes in by having Child Baptism. The Church want to influence the development of the Child Kamalayan. and this continue in school as well as in social media and the Government. Now what ever the child adopt when s/he grows becomes the poison that we as Hilot Binabaylan must cure. And we can not do that by simply doing Massage or Tawas.
Everyone must level up to the Highest Calling as Hilot Binabaylan and that is to become a Teacher of Life.
A Japanese artist went to me for Hilot. So i give her Hilot and start with Tawas Ritual. I prepare a glass of water and raw egg and start to pray and make the egg touch the body parts of the client which are the gate way for the soul. After prayer i break gently the egg into the glass of water and it started to form shape so as telling its stories.
Raw Egg broken into a glass of water is a divinatory method that is categorized as Scrying. The raw egg and the glass of water is the medium and the interpreter is the channel for the messages of the soul (higher and lower self of the client) whom the Manghihilot have contacted to communicate with.
Each shape that been formed in the glass tell specific stories. Even the way how the egg is brocken tells specific areas of the clients life. Each stories may refer to situations, and each situations may tell the condition of the wellness of the client where the manghihilot must determine which body organs radiating that situation.
Tawas is not just a Divinatory Art that tells a story. Because the story that been told by tawas is your own story which the Manghihilot would channel to locate the areas in your life that needs attention.
Remember our August 8, 2019 post about Guava Leaves? Here we got result. I received a private message thanking us for our post and testifying how the Guava Leaf tea help her in her problem.
Colonization brought new form of medicine to our People, but as they bring new Medicine- the colonizer also bring new diseases into our land. When the colonizers settled into our Land they formed their own government over ruling the native people and had control of our land. As time pass by, they do not only own the land but also control people lives by implementing laws that will serve their interest up to present time.
Hilot Academy of Binabaylan 
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