Brandon is running. Though not the athletic type, he was able to propagate his slightly overweight body through the rugged 3-kilometer terrain that connected his house to that of his girlfriend’s, at amazing speed, albeit like a marathon champion.
The reason – he saw a giant, dark skinned, gruesome creature situated on a massive Mango tree, puffing a forearm-length cigar, so he claimed, smiling at him. A Kapre, so he believes it was. Even without spitting out some more details, people will surely reiterate the term, for that surely was…a “Kapre,” as what his grandfather and ancestors told him.
This dark ugly giant among countless others is one of the most feared mythical creatures in Philippine folklore. It surely is, but not to Stefan, a classmate of Brandon’s. Unlike this article’s main character, this guy Stefan is a real skeptic when it comes to the stuff that Brandon and the rest of his classmates firmly believe.
On any given day, these young people would argue for long hours, Stefan, single-handedly against the rest of the class. His stand: Kapres, Engkangtos, Duwendes, etc., etc., etc., are not real. They’re by-products of people’s imaginations. His classmates’ stand: what Brandon saw was real. Others had similar experiences.
Though many others haven’t, they sure have heard stories from reliable sources that have seen the creature too. Both parties can’t blame themselves for they just fight for what they believe in. But are both parties right? To a thinking observer, they can’t be.
Like Brandon’s antagonist, I also am a skeptic. I completely understand how Stefan might have felt every time his classmates attack him for being so insistent with his disbelief in such powerful creatures. He might just as well rip their skulls open and pour in the logical facts that make him claim that those creatures are in fact, not real.
In Stefan’s mindset, people like Filipinos are so accustomed to tradition. And this fact makes the unreal seem real. In order for non-skeptics to accept his point of view, they should separate the real from those that “became real.” Sounds confusing, doesn’t it? He didn’t give a detailed explanation to this statement, but being on Stefan’s side, I think what my pal is trying to say is that, Brandon’s experience may indeed be a real one, what’s not real is what he saw.
Forgive me for being more confusing than Stefan. To settle the mud, let me put it this way. Stefan and I believe that the devil exists. He is powerful, cunning and well, just devilish. What else could he be? Because people think and speak “there is a white lady on the 3rd corner of that street!” and many others spread the word, the devil with the demonic nature within him, makes an appearance as that creature people speak of.
He can do it effortlessly. He has the power to do so. Likewise, if the same group or other people would say, “There is a brown gentleman appearing every full moon at Mr. Abrea’s rice field!” The devil would then again, make that hearsay “real.” See the point now?
“Let me tell you this lamebrain, what I saw was very vivid. I was never on a high and was never drunk! That dark ugly monster was right on top of me! And you’re telling me that such a creature is not real at all?” Brandon may say this to Stefan.
But I would gladly protect my ally by saying “That creature was the devil, in the guise of the monster you firmly believe exists.”
If the devil can be a serpent, is it so hard for him to be a bearded, fancy-clothed little man? If he can appear as an ethereal image, couldn’t he take the form of a grotesque huge guy slumbering on a tree? He certainly can. He may even appear as a chair, a trash bin, an animal or anyone else.
It’s not impossible for an entity that was once the right-hand of God Himself. So you want Stefan to believe in the white lady you saw? Fine, you should also believe in the brown gentleman in Mr. Abrea’s rice field. It’s not real, for now. But it will soon be. If someone will put enough faith on it!
This is what my buddy meant when he said about separating “the real from those that became real.” So a Kapre is a big, muscle-bound powerful creature, eh? Then what is he doing on top of a tree? Why can’t he be seen on city streets? Is he afraid of street lights? Or being run over by a tricycle?
“That house is haunted. Ghosts are there, scaring the hell out of anyone who dares to interfere with their peaceful dwelling,” I was told once. But aren’t ghosts intangible, incorruptible by real-world harm? What are they hiding there for?
Are they afraid they might be gunned down? Why can’t they just scare the wits out their would-be tormentors before they can disturb them? The simple answer is this, they possibly can’t, for they…are not…real. People make them up, the story got entangled by a demon’s joyride and then, taddahh! real life ghost stories.
So Brandon and the others who were into that experience were just imagining things? No they don’t. The devil or one of his minions is just doing one of their ‘trippings.’ Like a prankster doing an occasional gag on the chosen, unlucky person, a fallen angel is just doing what it is meant to do.
“So you believe in them after all! Fallen angels, that’s what they are. That’s the nature of the Kapre I saw” Yes I believe in them. But just as “fallen angels” not as a Kapre, Manananggal, Duwende or whatever. Those are just clothes the devil wears. Inasmuch as you acknowledge the wearer of the clothes but not the clothing, please, for logic’s sake, just believe in the existence of the devil, disregarding his clothes, period.
Here’s more for you to ponder. What could be the reason why there’s no such thing in say, the US? Why is there no Kapre there? Is he insecure with Shaquile O’Neal? Can’t he stand the cold? Because, my non-skeptic friend, the residents there simply do not have your belief!
It is a totally different place there, a different set of people and a different culture. They have their own versions of our mythical creatures there. That’s why they have werewolves, and some grotesque monsters whose attributes are unknown to us. Since these beings are part of their folklore and legends, these will what the devil transform himself into.
In another country, where there’s another set of beliefs, then our unseen enemy will certainly again, adapt another guise. Whatever form, appearance, or image he may try to portray, he is still, and will always be the Devil.
That mythical creature that transformed Brandon into an instant marathon champion is let me say it again, one of his street clothes. You think that the t-shirt you’re wearing is a breathing entity apart from your own? That’s totally weird pal.
It is said that clothes make the man. But that doesn’t mean the clothes ‘is the man,’ if that’s true, then there would be nothing wrong with this situation: “I’m going to my Boss’s house, I’m gonna discuss something to him. Oh I remember, he’s out of town! That’s alright, his suit is there, I’ll talk to it.”
Oh I remember, I wrote something about mythical monsters that I posted here weeks ago. Would you like to read it too?
I’m hoping I just gave you something to think about… deeply.
In fact, I don't know much about it, but I don't know much about it.