THE justice system anywhere in the world relies on evidence and science to get to the bottom of any crime.
In all cases, the guilt of a person/s should be established beyond reasonable doubt through unquestionable integrity of evidence, especially in heinous crimes involving loss of lives like murder or homicide.
But in cases where the wheels of justice run slow, some resort to another form of fact-finding in the hopes of unearthing what the law can’t– a paranormal investigation.
LightSeers
Among those who perform paranormal interventions in criminal investigations is a group called LightSeers.
Aiming to bridge the gap between the living and the unseen, Lightseers is an offshoot of the original Spirit Questors, Inc. which became famous in the ‘90s for the high profile cases it handled, including the Vizconde massacre in 1991 and Ozone Disco tragedy in 1995.
Co-founded in 2019 by Ryan Valera, Peachie Dioquino-Valera, and Juno Olimpo, Lightseers is composed of volunteer psychics (and psychics in training), mediums, and energy healers all coming from different backgrounds and industries who taking on variety of cases during the weekends.
Now making their name in the mainstream, the LightSeers has received numerous requests from families seeking answers to what truly happened to their departed loved ones. But is it even possible?
Is it possible?
For Valera, yes, it is, but what they uncover only has limited use.
“It’s possible to provide an insight, but we always explain dun sa agents namin na hindi siya admissible sa court,” Valera said.
This is because the scientific process of the law is still what’s going to prevail in the case. At the same time, they acknowledge that their special abilities are not infallible, so their “biases” and “margins of error” could negatively influence the seekers or the family should they be wrong.
“But we’ve had a lot of cases where we provided insight so they may continue their investigation,” he said.
“We discourage that ‘yung findings namin would be their sole avenue of investigation,” he added.
The dead don’t always cooperate
Unlike in the movies where the dead haunt the killers until they turn themselves in, it’s not always the case in real-life paranormal quests.
While some do want to avenge their death, most of the departed, according to Valera, are no longer after justice or retaliation and are simply unwilling to give details about who killed them.
This could be due to two reasons:
- They are not comfortable reliving what happened to them
While one would think the dead are eager to speak about what happened, the victims surprisingly have a different mentality about their death. This is because in most murder cases, at least according to the ones Lightseers has handled, “70-80 percent” of them prefer to leave things be.
“Some of them are in denial while others are still in pain,” said Valera.
“If you’ve gone through something very traumatic even in our daily lives, sometimes we retreat from sharing details kasi it’s still painful for us,” he added.
- They don’t want to put the lives of the family they left in peril
In most murder cases, the family, especially those with money and power, are after one thing – revenge. This is why the dead, according to Dioquino, refuse to give details about their death for fear that their family would be at risk once the cycle of retaliation goes into play.
“Yung information na ishe-share namin will have blood on our hands kasi may mga cases rin kami na highly political, na ang pakay lang talaga ng family members is gumanti,” Dioquino said.
Valera also noted that a lot of the murder cases he’s handled were more concerned with passing on messages to their families rather than sharing details of what happened to them.
In one of the cases Lightseers handled, the family sought for the help of the group to communicate with their murdered patriarch. During their quest, the father specifically said there is no need to seek justice for him because it will only lead to more chaos.
“Kahit nagmamakaawa ‘yung anak, we made the decision to not say or even give direction kung saan pupunta kasi alam mo isa lang ‘yung gusto talaga nila,” Dioquino said.
“We have to make an ethical call, hindi na siya for justice eh,” she added.
Process
Lightseers uses a number of means to communicate with the dead. Aside from their clair senses or psychic abilities corresponding to the enhanced capabilities of the five senses, they also undertake a few practices to channel entities.
However, if the dead do not want to reveal what happened to them when being channeled, Valera said this is when the group employs certain rituals to get to the bottom of things. But the group discourages the family from sharing details to them about the case so that they won’t develop biases or build stories around the case.
- Psychometry
Also known as object-reading, psychometry is the process of accessing facts and impressions through contact with objects associated with the person. Stuff like jewelry, watches, bags or clothes of the person, especially at the moment of death, are the usual things used in this process.
Valera recalled a previous case he handled about a town mayor in the north who was killed. Like most cases, the mayor, upon channeling, did not want to recall what happened to him.
Apparently, he was killed by his mistress whose existence was already known to the family. It seems as if to the deceased mayor, sharing what happened is tantamount to him admitting to the affair, so he was not willing to share details about it.
This was where Lightseers tried psychometry. The group used the shirt the mayor wore at the time of his death, which still bore the bullet holes and his jewelry.
“We used that to see what happened to the mayor and shared what we found with the family. What we saw was exactly what happened,” Valera said.
- Regression
Regression is a method using hypnosis to recall memories of past life.
“We use regression to,[for lack of a better term, travel back in time to see kung ano ‘yung mga nangyari. And we use ‘yung mga energies nung agent, ‘yung mga naiwan dito or ‘yung mga gamit, to help us facilitate that process,” Valera said.
Sensational cases
Through the years, Lightseers has helped a number of families in their quest for justice. Though made aware that none of the group’s findings would stand in any court, some still resort to paranormal intervention in the hopes of speeding up the quest for justice. if not simply to achieve closure.
Among the most sensational cases handled by Dioquino is the gruesome murder of veteran actress Nida Blanca in 2001 when she was still part of Spirit Questors Inc.
“Pumunta kami sa murder place, nagquest kami, pinakiramdaman namin ‘yung place, then we had a seance, kinontact kami ‘yung spirit ni Nida. She did [communicate],” Dionquino said.
In their quest, Dioquino said she saw the manner in which the actress was killed.
“Nag-start ‘yun dun sa dance studio, nandun siya out of leisure,” she recalled.
“Dance studio ‘yun na pinupuntahan daw niya talaga ‘pag gusto niya magsayaw or ano. Dun siya pinuntahan. Pagpunta sa kanya doon, I don’t know nga bakit may window na concerned eh, hindi ko alam kung lumabas to sa investigation, but there was a struggle, a physical attack. There was intent really to kill her,” she said.
One name emerged as the prime suspect in the actress’ murder, her American husband Rod Strunk.
While Dioquino did not specifically state his name, the image description of the man they saw in the quest fitted him exactly.
“I don’t know what Rod looks like but I described it to the family so sila na nagsabi. Well, alam natin caucasian siya, but feature-wise, you have to say he was wearing this, his eyes looks almond, ‘yun ‘yung mga descriptors para sure tayo na ‘yung sinasabi mo ay kilala rin nila,” Dioquino said.
More than seeking justice for her death, the actress was channeling more the emotion of regret and self blame, said Dioquino.
Law enforcement’s take
Regardless of what paranormal probes yield, there is no court in the world that would accept its findings as admissible because criminal investigation is solely dependent on tangible evidence and science.
Captain Philip Ines of the Manila Police District likened the use of paranormal interventions in a criminal investigation with a polygraph test, better known as lie detector test.
“‘Yung ginagawa nila, makokonsidera natin na parang polygraph test. Nakakatulong siya pero hindi natin pwedeng gamitin sa criminal procedure. Kasi nagbibigay sila ng mga lead, sabihin nating mga clue, pero kahit ano man lumabas doon hindi natin pwedeng magamit sa panuntunan sa pag-i-imbestiga,” Ines told republicasia.
A polygraph test simultaneously measures the certain physiological changes in the human body that involuntarily happens when an examiner consciously deceives the questioner. The Supreme Court of the Philippines, however, ruled that an accused’s “faith and credit should not be vested upon a lie detector test as it is not conclusive.”
Basic criminal investigation proceedings
As opposed to quests, seances and sessions, criminal investigation has a conventional and systemic process in approaching a criminal case. In an actual investigation, authorities rely on tangible pieces of evidence sourced and processed through technical and forensic examinations, said Ines.
“Sa pagiimbestiga kasi natin, kailangan natin dito ‘yung mga ebidensya na hayagan nating makikita,” Ines said.
Examples of this are recovery of the suspected killing weapons in cases of murders, the presence of semen in suspected rape cases and bodily specimens from both the victim and the suspect, among others, he said.
These pieces of evidence are what is accepted in any court of law, he said.
“There is no such thing as perfect crime. The mere fact na nagkaroon tayo ng contact sigurado tayong may makukuha tayong ebidensya,” he said.
Paranormal ‘can’ help
As a law enforcer, Ines is well aware of the weakness of the Philippine justice system, let alone the flaws in criminal investigation which inevitably force a number of victims’ families to resort to other means like channeling the dead to resolve their cases.
But he is also familiar with some criminal investigations that employed paranormal intervention.
In fact, the US Department of Justice recognized its help in possibly solving crimes, although “the usefulness of psychics in police investigations is controversial, but psychics have long been and will undoubtedly continue to be involved in unsolved criminal investigations.”
Ines said he won’t discount the possibility that paranormal interventions may help.
“Kung makakatulong naman sila, ako bilang pulis, welcome naman sila na tumulong o magbigay sa amin ng information na maaring maging lead namin o makatulong sa amin para ma-pin-point namin sino ang maaring gumawa ng isang krimen,” Ines said.
“Pero hindi natin ito matatayuan sa korte, kailangan ito suportahan ‘yung mga binigay nilang information,” he added.
