RAGPAT: A Christian Spiritist Prayer for the Dead

RAGPAT: A Christian Spiritist Prayer for the Dead1 Tecah C. Sagandoy Social Sciences Department College of Arts & Sciences Benguet State University ABSTRACT Earthbound souls seek help from the living. Through omens, visions, dreams, mediums, or inflicting of illness, these souls communicate with and ask help from their relatives. In this paper, the ritual ragpat ti minatay [lifting of the soul] is described and analyzed as the necessary ritual performed by a Spiritist sect to help earthbound souls. Interviews with key informants and spirits have revealed that suffering souls are restless and burdened spirits fleeing to and fro or bounded in a dark state or place. Due to such predicament of the soul, prayers and related rituals are performed by the faithful Spiritists to alleviate the burdens of the earthbound spirit. This ritual, the ragpat, ensures the soul of a transcendental realm, which is happier and more peaceful than the earth. A successful ragpat rests on the proper observance of its elements; its success is also dependent on the soul’s willingness to repent; but ultimately, the success of ragpat rests on God’s forgiveness and abundant grace to repentant souls. I. Rationale Ditoy daga, panay rigat ken tuoc ti malak-aman, ngem ijay pagarian ni Jesu Cristo, ada ti inkari na nga pagyanan dagiti annac na a mammati kenkuana; ket ragsac ken talna ti ipa-ay na. [In this world are hardships and sorrows, but in Jesus Christ’s kingdom, He has promised a dwelling place for His children who believe in Him; and He will give you happiness and peace.] (Excerpt from an advice for the dead) The promise of afterlife, being far better than earthly existence, has been echoed by many Bible preachers. As the excerpt above articulates, to live on earth is to live in hardships; to live in Christ’s kingdom is to live in peace. This belief in life after death is persistent across time and place and it is fundamental among most major religions (Obayashi, 1992, cited in Flannelly, et al., 2006). For believers, death is a transition from one form of life to another, and it is the responsibility of society to ensure a smooth transition for the deceased (Obayashi, 1992). In effect, this attention for the afterlife makes it impossible for the living to simply ignore the dead (Gordon & Marshall, 2000); mortuary rites are then carefully performed and praying for the dead is one ritual to ensure that the dead would be put in their proper place. The usefulness of prayer in helping both the living and the dead is pervasively shared among cultures (Sheldrake, 1994). As an invocation, prayer is used to communicate with the being to which the prayer is addressed for the purpose of asking something, giving thanks, or praising; and, when we pray, we pray for ourselves, for others, for the living or for the dead (Kardec, 1866/1987). 1 Paper presented during the BSU Agency In-House Research Review, June 1, 2016, La Trinidad Benguet 1|Page For the living, in the context of healing, prayer serves as an active process of appealing to a higher spiritual power (NCCAM, 2005)2 for the improvement of health, so that many people continue to believe that prayer improves their health even if empirical evidence supporting its healing efficacy is limited (Masters & Spielmans, 2007). For the dead, our prayers comfort them, lessen their unhappiness, reanimate them, and instill in them the desire for repentance (Kardec, 1866/1987). But adherents to the idea of death as a journey straight to heaven or hell contend that praying for the dead could not change the destiny of the departed. The story of Lazarus and the rich man recorded in Luke 16: 19-31 of the Bible proves this, they would argue. St. Paul also wrote that, “Just as man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment” (Hebrew 9:27, English Standard Version); thus praying for the dead would seem futile. Despite these Biblical pronouncements; however, many Christians continue to pray for their dead. In High School, our Religion teacher introduced to us the concept of purgatory.3 We were told that souls in the purgatory needed help from the living, in that, we had to pray for these souls. In several masses I have attended, I recall that at the start of the ceremony, the priest would say, “We offer this mass for the repose of the soul/s of [name/s of the dead]”. Apparently, the mass is being celebrated for somebody who is already dead. There is also the observance of All Souls Day, in which Catholics commemorate the dead whose souls are in the purgatory (Richert, 2015). These are Catholic traditions, which I thought are commonly practiced by Christians but such is not necessarily the case. Some non-Catholic Christians declare that the doctrine of purgatory “is a fond thing, vainly invented, and grounded upon no warranty of Scripture“(Protestant Episcopal Church, 1801, Article XXII). Praying for the dead is consequently rejected by these non-Catholics as gleaned from Bishop Jewel’s (1571) An Homily on Prayer, which tersely said, “neither let us dream any more, that the souls of the dead are anything at all helped by our prayer”. Purgatory is not commonly talked about in the Spiritist group where I belong, but the congregation certainly acknowledges the need to offer prayers for the departed members by their living kin. And while communications with spirits through mediums (persons who can channel messages from spirits) have revealed that the departed needs the prayers of the living, I still have queries regarding the ritual of praying for the dead. I assume this would also be true for non-Spiritists. Recognizing then the need to clarify issues surrounding the prayer for the dead, I attempt to explore the origin and development, and the elements of a peculiar mortuary ritual called ragpat4 ti minatay, loosely translated as, “lifting up of the dead,” or better, “lifting up of the soul” as practiced by Hope Christian Spiritist Church (HCSC) 5 , a sect of Christian Spiritists in Northern Luzon, Philippines. 2 National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine 3 Purgatory, from Medieval Latin purgatorium, “place of cleansing” (Collins English Dictionary, 2012), is a state of purification for God’s elect “so as to achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of heaven” (Catholic Church, 2012, In Catechism of the Catholic Church 1030). 4 The term ragpat is an Ilocano word, which may be loosely translated as ‘reach’, ‘attain’ or ‘see’. When preceded by the prefix ‘ma’; hence, ‘maragpat’, the prepositional phrase, ‘to reach’, ‘to attain’, or ‘to see’ is formed. [E.g. “Siasinoman a di agtulnog iti Anak, dinanto maragpat ti biag” (Juan 3:36, Revised Ilokano Popular Version), translated as, “He who does not obey the Son shall not see life” (John 3:36, Revised Standard Version)]. 5 The title ‘Hope Christian Spiritist Church’ (HCSC) is a pseudonym. This group was formerly affiliated with the Christian Spiritists in the Philippines, Incorporated (CSPI), but formally split in 1985 (B. Guintodan, 2|Page This exploration about the soul and the afterlife may affirm long-held religious beliefs or offer alternative perspectives that are worth reconsidering. It should be noted; however, that this study is not meant to refute or reject any belief about life after death. It only offers an invitation to the curious and to those who are in search of knowledge about the spiritual to explore further beyond what they already believe. II. Review of Literature The literature on praying for the dead in the context of Christianity is largely based on the doctrines of Christian religious groups that actually conduct prayers for the dead. The Catholic Church, for example, in its Catechism of the Catholic Church (1993), explains that the practice of prayer for the dead is “offered in suffrage for them (i.e. souls of the dead), above all the Eucharistic sacrifice, so that, thus purified, they may attain the beatific vision of God“. The said catechism further declares that besides remembering the dead, the Catholic Church also “commends almsgiving, indulgences, and works of penance undertaken on behalf of the dead”. It should be reiterated; however, that Catholics offer prayers only for souls in the purgatory, neither to “those who die in wilful, unrepented mortal sin,” nor for martyrs who have won “immediate entrance into glory, nor for canonized saints” (Toner, 1908 as cited in The Catholic Encyclopedia, 2012). Schouppe’s (1893) Purgatory: Illustrated by the lives and legends of the saints, gives accounts about the conditions of souls in the purgatory as revealed through apparitions and visions, which were drawn from the experiences of the saints and from selected ordinary faithful members of the Catholic church. In the apparitions that Schouppe cited, souls, by divine permission, appeared to some individuals and requested the latter to offer Holy Masses and prayers for the former. Consequently, these souls appeared again and told those who have prayed for them that they were relieved of their sufferings. Schouppe furthermore cited the cases of saints who, through visions, have prayed for souls being purged in the purgatory, in that after having received divine mercy, were accepted into heaven. The Orthodox Church, likewise, prays for the faithful departed and conducts a memorial service (called Parastasis) for the deceased. Together with the Church prayers, the memorial service is conducted on the deathbed, upon the graves, and during the commemoration of dead relatives. For the Orthodox Church members, prayers and memorial services for the dead are expressions of their love and respect toward their dead siblings, friends, and ancestors. Praying for the departed is a duty to ask God to be merciful to the sinful souls of the dead. Prayers, once heard by the sorrowful soul, are meant to quiet the grieving soul (Abramtsov, 1994 as cited by St. Luke the Evangelist Orthodox Church, n.d.). In Cannell’s (1999) Power and intimacy in the Christian Philippines, we read a seemingly syncretic application of the Catholics’ ritual of praying for the dead, in which rural Bicolanos, admitting to be Catholic Christians, engage in folk rituals (e.g. communicating with the spirits of dead, offering food to appease angry spirits) and at the same time perform religious rituals for the dead (i.e. commemoration and praying for the dead) commonly observed by Filipino personal communication, July 28, 2014). As a Christian Spiritist group, the HCSC acknowledges the teachings of the Holy Bible, conducts masses, and renders spiritual healing and counseling to individuals who seek for help. 3|Page Catholics. As presented by Cannell, rural Bicolanos rarely elaborate about heaven, hell, or purgatory as the destination of the soul after death but among them, there is a notion of a place of darkness where the dead is described to be helpless, unable to speak and see; thus, rituals are performed by local mediums and the living kin attend Christian masses and offer prayers for the burdened soul. For Spiritists, the act of praying for the dead is explained in Kardec’s (1857/1893) The spirits’ book. Accordingly, spirits told Kardec that God accepts a prayer addressed to him on behalf of a suffering soul, in that such prayer would certainly bring relief and consolation to the suffering soul. The prayer of intercession would also induce a feeling of gratitude and affection, on the part of the soul, to the friend who has shown kindness and pity to him. Asking about the usefulness of prayer for the dead, a spirit told Kardec (1857/1893) that: Prayer can have no effect upon the designs of God; but the spirit for whom you pray is consoled by your prayer, because you thus give him a proof of interest, and because he who is unhappy is always comforted by the kindness which compassionates his suffering. On the other hand, by your prayer, you excite him to repentance and to the desire of doing all that in him lies to become happy; and it is this way that you may shorten the term of his suffering, provided that he, on his side, seconds your action by that of his own will (par. 664, p.284). Kardec (1866/1987), in his book, The gospel according to Spiritism, further explains that when a person dies, its soul experiences the consequences of the good or evil deeds done during its earthly sojourn in terms of rewards or punishment in many worlds other than earth. In this regard, Spiritists who recognize the existence of such afterlife have the duty of helping wayward souls to enter the spiritual realm through prayers, which is also an act of demonstrating pity for suffering souls. Meanwhile, not all believers of the afterlife subscribe to praying for the dead. Besides many Christian Protestants, Swedenborg (1758), for example, in Heaven and hell, claims that after death, the spirit goes to the “world of spirits,” a place located halfway between heaven and hell; it is a place below heaven and above hell from where souls, in their proper time, would ascend to heaven or descend to hell depending on how they lived their earthly life. In this world of spirit, souls are drawn to spirits having similar thoughts and actions; likeminded spirits tend to gather together. God leads all the spirits to him through his angels and through divine inspiration, but those who are absorbed in evil resist God’s invitation to heaven; thus, they move away from the Lord and voluntarily cast themselves into hell. So, unlike in the Catholic purgatory, souls in the spirit world are left to themselves to choose their destiny because no help from the living earthly humans could save them from hell. With the foregoing literature, this study therefore hopes to contribute to the body of knowledge on how the prayer for the dead reflects the beliefs and aspirations for a better afterlife. This study also hopes to enjoin readers to reevaluate their perspectives about the relationship between the living and the dead as manifested in religious rituals (like ragpat), in particular, and incite their interest in the transcendence or spiritual that has traditionally characterized Christianity, in general. 4|Page III. Conceptual Framework Transcendence in Christianity Joel Robbins (2012), arguing for a distinctive anthropology of Christianity, points out that transcendence6 is one of the key features of Christianity. As such, Robbins situates Christianity as a “tradition in which the relationship between the mundane and the transcendent is caught between this- and other-worldly tendencies” thus rendering Christianity as fundamentally malleable. 7 Such malleability is manifested in the different handlings of the transcendent-mundane relationship by various Christian religious groups thereby meriting investigation (Robbins, 2003 as cited by Robbins, 2012). Along this line, I would contend that ragpat ti minatay or ragpat (for brevity) with its associated rituals is one in which negotiation with the transcendent-mundane relationship is played out by Christian Spiritists (i.e., the HCSC). Ragpat, a ritual of prayer for the dead, reflects the emphasis on transcendence. For the HCSC, it is a necessary ritual that is meant to help a earthbound soul—the suffering soul—ascend to a better spiritual plane—a place construed to be better than the existing imperfect earth. This Christianity’s promise of a happier, more peaceful state of afterlife places a member of HCSC in a situation where he/she has to endeavor negotiating with the material and spiritual requirements of being a Christian 8 ; this would require him/her to be charitable to his/her fellowmen, believe and follow Christ’s teachings, and allow the Holy Spirit to guide him/her even in things mundane. Moreover, a successful ragpat would also ensure the separation between the living and the dead, because the HCSC emphasizes that the living and the dead should not be together on this earth. The HCSC teaches that souls who linger on earth are equally subjected to the hardships and sufferings experienced by the living; thus if these souls are burdened, chances are, they would disturb their living relatives by seeking for the latter’s help. And in many cases, the dead would cause a member of the family to be sick. Consequently, the surviving family has to sacrifice time, effort, and money for the rituals that would appease and help the burdened soul, ragpat, being the most important. But while ragpat promises a better place for the soul, the condition of the soul or the place where the soul would spend his spiritual life is still open to questions9 among the HCSC members. Thus, a devout HCSC member has to strive knowing what the spiritual life might be like if only to do the necessary 6 I am using transcendence here as referring to a morally perfect, peaceful, heavenly spiritual state of being as opposed to an error-prone morality, troubled, earth-bound existence. 7 Robbins (2012) explains that Christianity—as practiced by various groups of Christians—is highly unstable or malleable in terms of the religion’s position regarding the spiritual-material/transcendence-mundane relationship. He argues that there are Christians who see the spiritual as so distinct and far from than the earthly or material, but others see these two to be similar and close. 8 To be a good Christian, a HCSC member strives to live by the words: Help one another with love and charity for all men. Becoming a member of the HCSC gives the member due authority to “conduct and perform any of the following: healing, counseling, meditation, ceremonial services and to preach the Holy Bible to all men who are in need of spiritual and material guidance under the Almighty Power of our Lord Jesus Christ” (lifted from the Identification Card of duly recognized members of the HCSC). 9 The exact location of the transcendental place where the spirit of the dead would go after disincarnating is not clearly known. Some HCSC members would guess it could still be on earth; some would say it is in another dimension unseen to the naked eye. Interestingly though, no one would categorically mention of heaven or hell. 5|Page actions and precautions of living a good Christian life and prepare him/herself for his/her time to be lifted up to the spiritual plane after death. This is made possible by learning and living by Biblical teachings and communicating with the Holy Spirit and other good spirits. This pre-occupation with the afterlife certainly points to the existence of the soul—the embodied spirit. Ancient world literatures have chronicled the idea of the soul, from the Egyptian’s ka (subtle body of life-energy) to Homer’s thymos (life-force) and to Socrates’ psyche (breath, soul) (Thompson, 2002) to the translated works of Emmanuel Swedenborg (1688-1772) and Hippolyte Léon Denizard Rivail or Allan Kardec (1804–1869), which unveil more details about the life of the soul after the death of its physical body (See Swedenborg’s Heaven and its wonders and hell, 1758; Kardec’s The Spirits’ book, 1857 and Heaven and hell, 1865). Filipino traditions also reveal similar beliefs in the existence of the soul. For example, early Filipinos believed that a human being has a kaluluwa or kalag (soul) and ginhawa (breath). When the body dies, the ginhawa ceases to exist, but the kaluluwa survives and becomes the anito or spirit (Salazar, 1999). Likewise, the Kankanaey Igorots of Northern Philippines identify an entity called kadkadwa/abi-ik, which is the person’s spirit/soul. When the person dies, the soul is supposed to join other spirits in the sky world. But the soul is termed kakkading(Kankanaey) or kedaring (Ibaloi) when, after a person has just died, its soul is believed to be still lingering on earth (Sacla, 1987). Meanwhile, for disambiguation, “soul” and “spirit” are interchangeably used in this paper to refer to the same concept. The “soul or the spirit [is] the intelligent principle where the thoughts, will and moral sense are found.” This essential thing in human beings is differentiated from the body, which is “the material envelope, weighty and rough” enabling the spirit to relate with the material world, and from the perispirit, which is “the light fluidic envelope,” serving as the “intermediary bound between the spirit and the body” (Kardec, 1862). Hence, the soul or spirit would be treated as the Tagalog kaluluwa or the Ibaloi kedaring, which is called ghost (al-alia in Ilocano, banig in Ibaloi/Kankanaey) when it haunts or makes itself visible to the living. Cultural change in Christianity Robbins (2012) describes Christianity “as a religion that focuses a good deal of attention on the need for radical change and… grounds the possibility for such change in ideas about the ways the transcendent realms can sometimes influence the mundane.” I situate ragpat in such context. This is to say that ragpat reflects the cultural transformations—from traditional to Christian— necessary for the performance and success of the said ritual. The HCSC emphasizes that all prayers must be addressed to God in the name of Jesus Christ; all rituals (including ragpat) must be sanctioned by the Holy Spirit. With these pronouncements, members of the HCSC are expected to discontinue performing rituals that are construed by the HCSC as pinapagano (paganistic) or ugali di nankakay (traditions of the elders). As an illustration, let us consider the traditional Kankanaey ritual called kedaw and the Ibaloi ritual called tabwak. Sacla (1987) explains that in administering rituals meant for the well-being of persons, Kankanaey and Ibaloi call upon various spirits, which includes the kabunyan (deities of the sky world), ap-apo/kaapuan (ancestral spirits), and the kakading/kedaring (spirits of the dead). To these spirits, animals, wine, food and 6|Page other materials are offered for the restoration of health. Beyond asking these spirits to cure sickness, prescribed rituals are also performed for protection, purification, sanity, normal birth, and safe journey. Sacla further explains that the kakkading or spirit of the dead have need for “blankets, clothes, food, and animals” so that it would have to make its request known to its relatives. This is called kedaw or kechaw (literally translated as ‘request’). The kakkading would communicate with its relatives through dreams, omens, a medium, or by causing sickness among its living kin. If the requesting spirit is a parent, it may ask its living children to be honored by a tayaw (dance accompanied by gongs and drums). Thus, in a situation where a living kin has been afflicted with sickness by a kakkading, the sick is referred to a mansip-ok (one who discerns the sicknesscausing spirit), then the manbunong (traditional priest who conducts ritualistic prayers) communicates with the requesting spirit by chanting the prescribed ritual prayer that would eventually heal the person’s ailment. Related to the kedaw is an Ibaloi ritual termed as tabwak. According to Moss (1920), when the soul of the dead is not satisfied with the sacrifices offered to him for his journey to the spirit world, he may cause his relatives to dream that he needs clothing or food, or he may cause his relatives to become sick. This situation necessitates the performance of tabwak, in which a hog is killed, rice is cooked and tapuy (rice wine) is produced. Sometimes, blankets and clothing may be placed into the coffin. Then, the manbunong offers a prayer, asks the dead to eat and drink with the people but not to cause sickness, and to cure the sickness he may have caused already. The blankets, clothing, and food were believed to have souls, which are taken by the spirits of the dead when ceremonies are properly done (Moss, 1920). In ragpat, the HCSC deals with the same cases of souls or kedaring who make requests or inform their living relatives about their needs and predicaments. Similarly also, associated with ragpat are material (animals, blankets, clothes) and non-material (tayaw or dance) requirements10 that are necessary prior to the conduct of the ragpat. But the call of Christianity for cultural discontinuity requires the HCSC members to: (1) discontinue praying to and calling kabunyan and the ap-apo/kaapuan, rather pray to God; (2) stop offering food and wine to the kedaring, since butchered animals and wine are only for the living for physical sustenance; (3) stop consulting mansip-ok and manbunong, and consult the Holy Spirit through the HCSC mediums; and (4) reinterpret the meanings and symbolisms of the traditional rituals that were adopted in Christian terms. Thus, disengaging from the aforementioned traditional practices deemed unchristian is important for the HCSC, in that, all prayers and supplications for oneself and for the dead must be directed to God. When interpreted from a syncretistic lens, ragpat and its associated rituals show a close resemblance to that of traditional Kankana-ey and Ibaloi healing 10 For an outsider (non-HCSC member), the material and non-material requirements of rituals associated with ragpat may appear ‘paganistic’ and unchristian, but the HCSC believe in and interpret these things as Christian and are sanctioned by the Holy Spirit. It is for these reasons, among others, that the HCSC has been criticized as not really distinct from paganism or animism. When confronted with this issue, a respected member of the HCSC remarked, “Say nandeperensya-an tako si pagano yan din kararag. Din dawdawat tako yan ipulang tako en Jesu Cristo; da din pagano, ikararag da sin an-anito“. [What distinguishes us from the pagans is our prayer. For us, we submit our supplications to Jesus Christ; for the pagans, they pray to worldly spirits]. 7|Page rituals. This perspective illustrates Salazar’s (1980) hypothesis of "faith healing"11 as a form of continuity of pre-Hispanic medico-religious system of beliefs and practices; that is, when contextualized into the Kankanaey-Ibaloi experience, ragpat is a continuity of the Benguet Igorots’ traditional healing rituals. It may be countered however that ragpat is a form of change that reveals the transformation of animistic shamanism into Christian Spiritism (Martin, 1991). I would contend that the transformation that Martin (1991) points out has been made possible through HCSC’s appropriation and re-appropriation 12 of Christian and traditional rituals. In ragpat, the HCSC appropriated Christian doctrines to interpret the ritual as a Christian practice. The re-appropriation in ragpat could be expressed in a sense that the HCSC members were originally not Christians but were converted into Christianity thereby, discontinuing their traditional rituals of communicating with and granting the requests of the dead (since such practices are treated by mainstream Christianity as against its doctrines). With the introduction of Spiritism, these discontinued traditional practices have been reclaimed by the HCSC as not necessarily anti-Christian. The result of such appropriation and re-appropriation is that ragpat and its associated rituals become an example of synthesized rituals; it is an amalgamation of Christian, Spiritist, and traditional Kankanaey-Ibaloi religious beliefs and practices. However, I should emphasize that the HCSC does not see itself as syncretistic nor does it consider itself as split-level Christianity. The devout members call themselves Christian and claim to practice Christian rituals. Below is a schematic diagram showing the relationship of concepts used in this study. As illustrated in Figure 1, communication is established between the departed’s soul and his/her living relatives. Through such communication, the predicament of the soul is revealed. Ragpat then is performed to help the earthbound soul go to a better spiritual plane, thus alleviating the soul of its burdens and sufferings. Consequently, a successful ragpat heals the departed’s relatives of their physical illness, emotional and mental distresses that may have been caused by the dead. In other words, when the soul’s suffering has been alleviated, the well-being of the relatives of the dead is likewise sustained. BETTER SPIRITUAL PLACE COMMUNICATION 11 Faith healing is synonymous to spiritual healing. It includes various forms of healing like praying over sick persons. Another example would be what attracted the attention of scientists and non-Filipino patients called ‘psychic surgery’, which is a surgical operation done by bare hands (Mercado, 1988). 12 I use appropriation and re-appropriation here loosely, stripped of its negative connotations and anti-racial or dominant-inferior cultural relationship leanings. By appropriation, I mean cultural elements are borrowed and owned by one cultural group from other cultures. By re-appropriation, I simply refer to the act of reclaiming cultural beliefs or practices that were dispelled or discontinued. 8|Page Figure 1: Schematic diagram showing the relationship of concepts used in the study IV. Objectives Ragpat is one of the many rituals the HCSC is committed to conduct as part of its avowed services. With the aim of helping an earthbound soul enter the spiritual world, and as a consequence, comfort the bereaved relatives of the dead, members of the HCSC perform the necessary prayers and actions of the ragpat. This paper presents how ragpat is conducted and its consequences. Specifically, this study aimed to: 1. Trace the origin and development of ragpat as practiced by the HCSC; 2. Determine the condition of the soul and how it requests for ragpat from the living; and 3. Describe and analyze the performance of the major elements of ragpat. V. Procedure/Methodology This study is qualitative in design. It employed the case study method of research. Primarily, this method involves the conduct of in-depth personal interviews with purposively identified respondents based on some set criteria and participant observation. Gummesson (1991), as cited by Askenas and Westelius (2003), explains that “in case study research, good access to the organization is crucial: access that allows the researcher to follow the course of events… and develop an understanding of the processes and the people.” Such method was selected since I, the researcher, am an insider, that is, a member of the HCSC; thus, having close ties with the key informants and have been involved in the practice of ragpat. However, I used pseudonyms when referring to the key informants in the text for ethical purposes. Informal interviews with key informants (knowledgeable members of HCSC) were conducted in several occasions. Key informants included two mediums, two ragpat ritual leaders, one Bible preacher, one pioneer aide of the acknowledged founder of the HCSC, and the General President of the HCSC. Informal talks have also been conducted with several members of the HCSC. No structured interview instruments were used for data gathering. As a member of the HCSC, I have attended prayers for the dead for many times in years; thus, I drew insights from the experiences and observations I had in relation to ragpat to further support the data I gathered from the interviews and from pertinent documents. Data derived from the interviews and observations were analyzed qualitatively. Analysis of some documents, which included hymnal and ritual books (termed by the organization as cultos) was also done. VI. Discussion of Results The Beginnings and Development of Ragpat For Spiritists, praying for the dead is done due to the requests of suffering spirits who “earnestly implore of us to pray for them” and as an act of charity, it is a means of bringing spirits back to goodness (Kardec, 1865/2003). In 1900, 9|Page when Agustin dela Rosa and fellow believers founded the first Spiritist Center in Manila (Union Espiritista Cristiana de Fiipinas, Inc., 2014), the initial activity of this Spiritist group was to engage in “consultas familiares” or communicate with the spirits of the dead. Through mediums, the departed’s spirits revealed about their situation in the afterlife and asked for prayers from their relatives (Pavia, 2000). For the HCSC, the beginnings of praying for the dead started during the early 1960s. In a rural area, about 43 kilometers north of Baguio City, Juaning13, a mother with her sick young child, travelled about three kilometers to consult a local healer14 in the neighboring barangay (village). As Juaning and her child were about to reach the healer’s doorstep, the healer’s mother, Asyang, remarked, “Itan net kono’e toon engagto ni nganga!” [There is a man carrying a young child on his shoulders!] Surprised, Juaning inquired what the remark meant. It turned out that Asyang was a mengsas or man-ila(someone who could see, especially the unseen or spirits) who saw a man’s ghost carrying a child on his shoulders. The healer, this time, revealed that the ghost belonged to Juaning’s dead father-in-law and the child was Juaning’s child’s soul. The healer further explained that the ghost was so fond of his grandchild that he wanted the child to be with him always. This, the healer claimed, was the reason why her child was sick. The healer did not elaborate how the dead man’s soul caused the child to fall ill. Informed of the diagnosis about her child’s ailment, Juaning asked how the matter could be remedied. The healer said a ritual was needed to appease the dead man’s spirit and a prayer had to be conducted for the same spirit. On the date scheduled for the ritual, the healer went to Juaning’s home and performed the ritual. The ritual was rather simple: the healer called for the dead man’s spirit, presented it to God in prayer, gave the spirit some advice, and pleaded to God for the acceptance of the spirit in the spirit realm. No songs and other actions were involved in the ritual. Soon after the ritual, the child regained her health. This, according to Juaning, was the first ragpat ti minatay15 (prayer for the dead) that she witnessed the healer performed. On another day, while the healer was telling stories with Juaning and some companions, the healer called Juaning’s attention: “Iyay kono’e kansyon; idistam…”[Here is song, write it down…], and she started singing what became to be a ritual hymn to be used in the ragpat ti minatay. The first line of the song was adopted as the title—Oh Dios co a Nadungo [Oh My Loving God]. Since the 1970’s to date, the prayer for the dead came to be known as ragpat. It is unclear where the term was derived. It could have been adopted from the Christian Spiritists of the Philippines, Inc. 16 or CSPI’s kararag iti panangiragpat ti kararua or prayer for the soul, which could be gleaned from the 13 Juaning was one of the first companions of the local healer who performed the ragpat. During the healer’s mission as a hilot (traditional masseur) in the early 1960’s to several far and near barangays, Juaning acted as her aide (J. Gaspar, personal communication, September 20, 2014) 14 The local healer referred herein would become the founder of the Hope Christian Spiritist Church (HCSC), which was earlier mentioned to have split from the CSPI, Inc. in 1985. 15 Juaning cannot recall any specific term to call the ritual at that time the local healer performed it. She simply referred to it as kararag para iti minatay [prayer for the soul]. 16 The CSPI is a split group of the Union Espiritista Cristiana de Filipinas, Inc. (UECFI). It severed ties with the said group in 1966 due to a pronouncement made by the UECFI’s General President against Jesus Christ’s divinity (Buasen, n.d.). 10 | P a g e group’s guidebook written by Carlos Buasen (n.d.). When I asked about the Biblical justification of the ragpat, a Bible preacher of the HCSC cited the ascension of Jesus Christ into heaven as the basis. Juaning and other older members of HCSC recalled that sometime in the 1970s and early 1980s, the action for ragpat involved a member of the departed’s family whose cupped palms were used as platform on which the soul of the dead was summoned to stand upon. Standing on the person’s cupped palms, the soul would await for his/her time to be lifted up to the spiritual realm, while hymns are being sung. This method became necessary because a single ritual leader could not conduct the ragpat by him/herself if several souls had to be lifted simultaneously. A prayer from the prayer book of the Union Espiritista Cristiana de Filipinas, Inc. (UECFI)17 was also adopted by HCSC as a required prayer, together with additional hymns, in the conduct of ragpat. In 1985, by the time the HCSC was formally registered as a new organization (as its founder decided to break away from CSPI), Bible replaced the use of the cupped palms as platform for the soul to be lifted up. This change had to be introduced in the ragpat because according to those who have experienced lifting up the soul with their cupped palms, they felt itchiness on their palms during and after the conduct of the ragpat. Such irritation, they claimed, was caused by the contact of the soul with the skin. From here on, the prayers and hymns to use in conducting ragpat were incorporated in a ritual book of the HCSC also termed as cultos. It is not clear why Bible was introduced as a substitute for the cupped palms. However, one HCSC member opined that the Bible serves as a protection and guide of the soul to be lifted up. At present, ragpat is conducted by a medium or by a designated ritual leader of the HCSC with the assistance of the faithful members. Usually, the ritual is performed at a quiet time of the day (i.e., there are no disturbances such as noise). The quietude ensures that the ritual would proceed smoothly as possible without distractions. In my observation, most cases of ragpat are conducted late in the afternoon or at night—a time when all other rituals and activities, related or unrelated to the ragpat, have been complied. From the foregoing details of the beginnings and development of ragpat, Robbins’ (2012) concept of transcendence in Christianity surfaces. Apparently, souls of the dead requested the living to pray for them, perhaps, so that they (the spirits) would be comforted from their sufferings (as in the case of the early Spiritists who conducted spirit-communications). In the case of Juaning, her story about her child and her father-in-law’s spirit reveals the notion that the departed’s spirit should not live with a living person on this earth; rather, a spirit should go to and live in the spiritual realm. This emphasis on transcendence would be reflected further in the following sections of this paper. At this point, it would suffice to have a glimpse, though scant in details, of how ragpat developed. Soul manifestation and request for ragpat There is this belief among members of HCSC that when a person dies, its soul remains on earth; the soul does not immediately go to the spiritual realm or to heaven or to hell. During this period, which has no exact duration, the soul wanders and visits the places it used to go to when it was still physically 17 The UECFI was founded by Juan Alvear, Agustin de la Rosa, and Casimiro Pena in 1905 (registered as a corporation in 1909). This group pioneered the Christian Spiritism movement in the Philippines (Martin, 2002) 11 | P a g e incarnated. The soul may also make its presence felt by people to whom it is affiliated with through dreams, visual manifestations (as a ghost), or via mediums. When manifesting itself, the soul may or may not communicate with the person/s to which it showed itself. There is also the belief that spirits who have already reached the spiritual realm are forced by some circumstances (e.g. family conflicts, atang or food offered to spirits) to return to the physical plane. When it is time for the wandering soul to be lifted up (ma-iragpat), which, in most cases, if the soul requests for it, the relatives of the dead would inform the congregation; thus, ragpat is performed. The duration of time needed before the soul is lifted to the spiritual realm varies from one case to another. There are members of the church who would perform the ragpat the soonest (i.e. 40 days since the dead person’s burial), while there are those who would allow the soul to wander for more than a year before conducting the ragpat. As mentioned, the deceased’s soul seeking for ragpat may reveal its request through a medium. Such medium enters into a trance, which is commonly understood by most members of the HCSC as possessed (mayshedpo in Ibaloi) by the soul seeking for help. Through the medium, the deceased’s soul communicates with its kin giving details of its situation. For instance, before the ragpat for our dead grandmother’s spirit, my paternal aunt claimed that she had been sensing the presence of a spirit in their house but had no inkling of who it was. Perplexed by her intuitions, my aunt consulted a medium about the matter. True enough, by influencing the medium, our grandmother’s spirit talked to our aunt and complained that she was continually disturbed by some of our relatives who kept on calling her (our grandmother’s spirit), asking her to help our relatives find an alleged buried treasure. We heard the spirit say that she was so burdened by the summons that she came down here on earth. Thus, she requested for ragpat, so she could go back to the realm of spirits. Other mediums, by mental telepathy, could also communicate with the dead and after which, relay the soul’s messages to the deceased’s relatives, so there is no need for the spirit to possess or influence that medium just so the spirit could communicate with its relatives. This is generally termed by the HCSC as palti-ing (revelation), although palti-ing is reserved to mean divine revelation; that is, the HCSC believes that it is through divine revelation that the Holy Spirit communicates with morally elevated mediums. Another means by which the soul of the dead manifests itself to the living is through apparitions or the dead appears as a ghost. By repeatedly appearing to their kin, the spirit’s family would be troubled and therefore would have to consult a medium to inquire about the matter. If the medium confirms that the apparitions are indeed true, communication with the spirit is sought. In some instances, a spirit may communicate directly to a member of the family who has mediumistic abilities, usually by mental telepathy or communication through the thoughts (T. Balictan, personal communication, March 14, 2015). If the spirit requests for ragpat, the said ritual would be performed the soonest. Similar to visual apparitions, spirits could manifest themselves through dreams. Members of the deceased’s family may repeatedly dream of their minatay (dead relative’s soul). In those dreams, the spirit may reveal its condition, say for instance, appear to be dressed in wet clothes, crying, or in melancholic disposition. Again, these dreams have to be consulted with a medium for interpretation. If the medium confirms that the minatay needs help, the necessary rituals have to be performed; ragpat is the culminating ritual in most cases. 12 | P a g e Still, one way by which a soul makes its request for ragpat is causing a member of its family to fall ill. For the affected person/s, this manner of spirit manifestation is usually the most “unlikeable”, because being afflicted with unexplainable illness causes much anxiety and physical pain. Feelings of discomfort and distresses become worse if the sickness would linger for longer period of time. For instance, one of HCSC’s members narrated to me about her experience and said: Nagsakitak iti maysa bulan. Riknak ket kasla nga napalpalpal ti bagik. Kasla nga adu ti agkarkarayam ditoy imak ken sakak. Haanak nga maka-bangon. Awan met iti panunot ko nga agpa-check-up wenno idamag iti medium no anya ti gapuanan na daytoy sakit ko. Idi nagpasyar ni Aida (maysa a medium), inawat na nga diyay gayam natay nga nanang ko ti gapu ti panagsakit ko. Kuna jay kararwa ni nanang ko nga sukatan mi ti ules na. Inbaon ko ni lakay ko nga apan na kitaen jay tulang ni nanang ko ijay ili mi. Idi lukatan da jay kahon na nga naikarga iti maysa nga kuweba, nakita da nga narunot jay ules na ken nagyan ti lakey ijay tultulang na. Inaramid da ti linis ken ragpat ket, manipod idin ket mayaten ti riknak.(G. Domis, personal communication, February 18, 2015) [I got sick for about a month. I felt like my body was heavily beaten. I felt like some things were crawling all over my arms and legs. I could not lift myself up. I never thought of going for (medical) check-up or consult a medium and ask the cause of my sickness. When Aida (a medium) visited me, it was revealed to her that my dead mother was the cause of my ailment. My mother’s spirit told me to change her blanket. I sent my husband to our town and check on my mother’s remains. When they (my relatives) opened my mother’s coffin, which was placed inside a cave, they noticed that the deceased’s blanket was rotten and white ants were crawling all over the bones. They performed cleansing and the ragpat; since then, I became well]. From the above-quoted narrative, a request by the burdened soul had to be fulfilled before the ragpat was performed: “linis”, cleaning the bones and changing the corpse’s blanket. Exhuming the remains of the dead is an ancient tradition practiced in the Philippines and in Southeast Asia; this is called secondary burial or “re-deposition of the bones after a period of temporary deposition to allow for the decomposition of the flesh” (Tillotson, 1989). Among the Ibalois, this ritual is called Okat (“bring out [the corpse]”)(Baucas, 2003). As re-appropriated by the HCSC, secondary burial is done in compliance to the request of the departed’s spirit. It is performed as a way of showing care and respect for the dead. Meanwhile, sickness attributed to the spirit of the dead is termed “ghost illness” (Freed and Freed, 1990 and Putsch, 1988). In Putsch’s study, three cases of individuals suffering from combined physical, mental, and emotional illnesses were examined; all three patients narrated about their recurrent disturbing dreams of deceased relatives. These dead relatives as dreamed by the patients were believed to have caused their sickness; thus, some traditional rituals, coupled with Christian ceremonies and biomedical treatment had to be performed. Interestingly, Putsch’s study revealed that the traditional rituals have helped the patients to overcome the mental and emotional distresses brought 13 | P a g e about by the belief that the dead have inflicted them with sickness; the physical ailments suffered by the patients however had to be treated with conventional biomedical procedures. Similarly, the Christian Filipino Bicolanos, as Cannell (1999) observed, believed that the spirits of the dead could inflict sickness on their living relatives. If an ailment, Cannell explained, has been diagnosed to be caused by the dead, a local healer (usually a medium) is sought to appease the spirit, thereby healing the sick person. Cannell further elucidated that rural Bicolanos believe that when spirits of the dead visit their surviving family, a member of the family would often get sick; thus, to prevent the spirit from coming to their home, the surviving kin would have to offer Christian prayers and masses for the dead so as to appease the spirit of the departed. At this point, it is apt to ask: What exactly is the condition of the soul seeking for ragpat? In several occasions that I have had the chance to listen to the messages communicated by the departed’s souls through mediums, one vivid circumstance that these souls mention about their whereabouts is that they are in sipnget, a “dark place or a dark state”. One soul of an old woman, for example, told us that when the ragpat was not yet conducted for her, she was in a dark place. Other souls would say they are agkatang-katang, fleeing to and fro without a definite destination. Still others would simply say they are kakaasi ken marigrigatan, pitiful and burdened. There are also earth-bound souls who become envious of souls who have been nairagpat, lifted up and so they would ask their relatives to help them find their way to that better spiritual world. Whatever is the condition these souls say they are in, one thing is sure: they are all burdened by some kind of predicament, problem, or situation that hinders them from leaving the physical plane and go to a better spiritual world. In the The spirits’ book of Kardec (1857/1893), spirits have explained that when a spirit says he/she is suffering, it is “mental anguish, which causes him/her tortures far more painful than any physical sufferings.” Moreover, when a spirit complains of suffering from cold or heat, it is the spirit’s “remembrance of pain” while yet in the physical body that causes him/her the mental torture; it is a “remembrance as painful as though it were a reality”. Elements and conduct of the ragpat Ragpat as a ritual has the following major elements: (1) prayer; (2) hymns; (3) action; and, (4) moral advice. These elements are performed solemnly in an arranged order. The ritual starts with a Bible opened and placed on top of a table. The ritual leader instructs a member of the family of the dead to hold the Bible. Then, the ritual leader talks to the soul of the dead, saying, “Ita, sika a kararua ni [name of the dead] ket ma-iragpat ka. Adtoy dagiti anak ken kakabsat mo. Ket naggastos da tapno ada ti ipigsa dagitoy tat-tao nga tumulong a mangikararag kanyam. Ket agsagana ka ngarud ta iragpat daka iti mabiit.” [Today, you, the soul of [name of the dead] will be lifted up. Here are your children and your brothers and sisters. They spent money [to feed] the people who are here to help in praying for you. So prepare, for you will be lifted up in a little while.] In the above-quoted statement of the ritual leader, the departed’s spirit is being informed of his/her relatives’ fervent intentions to help him/her ascend to a higher spiritual plane. In particular, the ritual leader mentions to the spirit of the 14 | P a g e gastos, expenses of his/her family, perhaps, as a way of telling the spirit that his/her family has exerted their effort (inkarkarigatan da) to fulfill the spirit’s request for ragpat. The ritual leader also informs the departed’s spirit of the willingness of the church members to offer intercessory prayers for him/her. In many instances, there are spirits requesting for ragpat who would ask their living kin to butcher animals (e.g. pig/s) and cook these to be eaten by those who would attend and help in the ragpat. The food is not meant to be offered to the dead; it is the departed’s way of showing (through his/her family) generosity and gratitude to the congregation. One HCSC member told me those persons (while still alive) who used to attend or do ceremonies that involved butchering of animals are often the ones who would require pigs to be cooked and eaten prior to the conduct of the ragpat. At times, a medium that is present in the assembly is possessed (influenced) by the soul of the dead and through such medium, the soul communicates with his/her living relatives. The soul leaves some messages or gives advice to his/her family. Then, the ritual leader summons the soul, saying, “Sika nga kararua ni [nagan ti natay], umay ka; agbatay ka ditoy Biblia.” [You, the soul of [name of the dead], come and stand on top of the Bible.] This action is called, panangibatay iti cararua iti Biblia (Laying of the soul on the Bible). The ritual leader signals the congregation to sing the following song: O Apo Shios Gavat Mo E Tacday Co O Apo Shios gavat mo e tacday co Agak amta e shanden co Nabdeyac ja ultimo, ni anap ni shanden co O Apo itneng mo, e shawat co Moga itusho say amtac e shalan co Silvim e davdavan co Egshiim e tacday co, bantayim e catin co O Apo makasac nem ayshi ha No calabi-an mala, ambulinget ja pasiya Ultimon agac ma amta Aknimac ni namnama, say ayshi e shuashua O Apo itneng mo e shawat co (HCSC, 2012, p. 38) [Oh Lord God Take My Hand) Oh Lord God take my hand I don’t know which way to go I’m so tired searching for my path O Lord hear me, this I pray Show me which path to take Light my way to wherever I go Hold my hand, guide my steps Oh Lord, without you I will fall When night comes and all is dark I could no longer discern Give me hope, dispel my doubts 15 | P a g e Oh Lord hear me, this I pray] The above-quoted song is based on the gospel song “Take My Hand, Precious Lord,” a song that has become a traditional tune played and sung during a deceased’s wake in many Christian homes in Benguet. Apparently, such song has been appropriated by the HCSC in the context of the ragpat. Thus, a closer inspection of the lyrics of the song would make an impression of a suffering soul, in a state of darkness, weary of finding the light and right path towards God’s kingdom. The soul, being burdened and losing hope, prays for God’s help and guidance; thus, he cries: “Nabdeyak ja ultimo [I’m so tired], ni anap ni shanden ko [searching for my path]… Moga itusho say amtac e shalan co [Show me which path to take]… Egshiim e tacday co, bantayim e catin co [Hold my hand, guide my steps]… Aknimac ni namnama, say ayshi e shuashua [Give me hope, dispel my doubts]…” After the first song, the ritual leader talks again to the soul, saying, Ita nga oras nga ma-iragpat ka, saan mo kuman nga lagipen pay iti anyaman nga problema iti kuarta man wenno alalikamen mo ta dagitoy ket makalapped iti panaka-iragpat mo. Kitaem, adtoy ti pamilyam, ket naggastos da piman ditoy a panaikararag mo, gapo met laeng iti ayat da kanyam. Ket manipud ita, agtalec ka ken Jesu Cristo, a dika pasulisug iti siasinoman nga mangngayab kenka nga agsubli ditoy lubong tapno dika kaka-asi nga agkatang-katang ditoy daga. Ditoy daga, panay rigat ken tuoc ti malak-aman, ngem ijay pagarian ni Jesu Cristo, ada ti inkari na nga pagyanan dagiti annac na a mammati kenkuana; ket ragsac ken talna ti ipa-ay na. [At this hour, you are to be lifted up, and so do not think of any problems about your money or your properties for these things will hinder you from ascending. Look, here is your family; they spent [money and effort] for this prayer service, for your sake and love for you. From now on, entrust yourself to Jesus Christ; do not heed the temptations of those who are summoning you to come back here so that you will not be miserably wandering here on earth. In this world are hardships and sorrows, but in Jesus Christ’s kingdom, He has promised a dwelling place for His children who believe in Him; He, too, will give you happiness and peace.] The foregoing statements are referred to as the pamagbaga iti kararua (moral advice for the soul). In this section of the ragpat, the ritual leader is appealing to the soul to realize of his/her family’s efforts, sacrifices, and love for him/her. The ritual leader ensures that the soul realizes that earthly things are hindrances for his ascent to a better spiritual realm, so he says, “Saan mo kuman nga lagipen pay iti anyaman nga problema iti kuarta man wenno al-alikamen mo… Dika pasulisug iti siasinoman nga mangngayab kenka nga agsubli ditoy lubong [Do not think of any problems about your money or your properties… Do not heed the temptations of those who are summoning you to come back here]. Of the acts that tempt certain spirits to come back on earth is peltek, offering a few drops of wine to the spirit and atang, offering of food (meat, rice) to the spirit. These food and drink, according to the elders of the HCSC when repeatedly offered to spirits, rekindle in the spirits the desire for earthly needs. Specifically, peltek is a tradition that, when overlooked, could easily offend a kedaring and may cause the offender to become violent (Sacla, 1987). 16 | P a g e Furthermore, the moral advice makes it clear to the soul that between earth and Jesus Christ’s kingdom, the best option is to reach and dwell in the place where believers of God would stay as promised by Jesus Christ himself in John 14: 2, which states, “In My Father's house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you.” After the moral advice, another song is rendered: Inca Ken Cristo Inca ken Cristo, dica agtactac Ta isu’t adda dita arpad Awisen naca a siaayat, cunana, ‘umay ca’ O, amangan a nagsam-it da Timec na a panangayab kenca Dica bumdeng, mapan ca ita, ur-urayen naca Awan sabali a maca-iccat Iti liday mo ken dandanag Suctan na’t adu a ragragsac, cunana, ‘umay ca’ Dica bumdeng, dica agbain Basbasol mo’t inca itaclin Pacawan ennanto kenca itden, cunana, ‘umay ca’ No cunam, ‘inton madamdama’ Ngem amangan ton maladaw ca Cabsat inca ken Cristo ita, cunana, ‘umay ca’ (HCSC, 2012, p. 39) [Go with Christ Go with Christ, don’t dally For He is by your side He invites you with love, He’s saying, ‘come’ Oh, how so sweet Is His voice as he calls for you Don’t hesitate, go now, He’s waiting for you No one else could take away Your sadness and worries He gives much happiness, He’s saying, ‘come’ Don’t doubt, don’t be ashamed Confess your sins to Him He will forgive you, He’s saying, ‘come’ If you say, ‘in a while’ You might be too late Brother, go with Christ now, He’s saying, ‘come’] The above-quoted song gives the impression of persuading or convincing the suffering soul to go with Christ without hesitation. It is telling the soul that Christ is merciful to sinners, in that Christ is waiting, inviting, and calling on souls 17 | P a g e to go to His place. To the suffering soul, the song gives assurance that Christ will wipe away sorrows and fears, and replace these burdens with abundant happiness. When gleaned from the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus Christ gave the assurance of rest to the weary when He said: Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. (11: 28-29, King James Version) After the second song, the prayer for the dead is read: Aracupem man Diosmi, daytoy a cararag nga idatagmi kenka nga idatonmi iti cararua (da/ni)[nagan dagiti/ti kararua]. Aramidemman a maliwliwa itoy a cararag ta dumanon coma (kadacuada/kenkuana). Aramidem coma (kadacuada/kencuana) ta sumango coma kenca, ket Sica coma ti awagan (da/na) nga agnanayon. Aramidem coma a lipaten (dan/nan) toy daga ken dagiti aramid ken cababalin (da/na) nga naalas a cacoycoyog (da/na). Ipaw-itam man Apo iti Espiritusmo nga mangtaripato (kadacuada/kencuana) tapno kibenenda iti kinaimbag ket masilnagan iti nasantoan a nakemmo. Amen. (Hope Christian Spiritist Church, 2012, p. 39 as adopted from the UECFI’s ritual booklet, n.d.) [Embrace, Oh God, this prayer we offer you, in which we present to you the (soul/s) of (name of soul/s). Let this prayer comfort (them/him/her). Make (them/him/her) come before your presence, in that (they/he/she) entrust/s (themselves/himself/herself) to you forever. Make (them/him/her) forget this earth and all (their/his/her) worldly deeds and dispositions. Send (them/him/her) your spirits to take care of (them/him/her) so that they would guide (them/him/her) to righteousness, in that (they/he/she) would be enlightened by Your holy Will. Amen.] The above-quoted prayer is made on behalf of the suffering soul; it is an intercession imploring God to bestow His mercy to the soul. The prayer further pleads from God to send His spirits (note the plural form of the term) to help the soul discern righteousness. The preceding statement reveals a belief that spirits are sent by God to guide or render help to souls who are in need. Furthermore, the prayer for the dead reveals how prayers could alleviate the sufferings of souls, when it avers: “Aramidemman a maliwliwa itoy a cararag…[Let this prayer comfort him/her]”. In this regard, Kardec (1866/1987) writes that when souls recognize the prayers offered for them, such prayers provokes in them a desire to repent, make them turn away from bad thoughts; thus, shortening their suffering. After the prayer for the dead has been recited, the third and final song is sung, which reads: O Dios Co A Nadungngo O…o…o…o…o…o…o… 18 | P a g e Diosco a nadungngo Hmm…mmm…mmm… Mangisuro nga napudpudno Jesu Cristo a pangulo, a nasantuan Agur-uray ditoy daga Anian a tuoc ti linac-am na ditoy a disso Ibaon mo ti Espiritum a nadungngo Nga napudpudno isu’t mangsalabay caniac Ket kibinnenac ita, umayac dita ayan mo Apo Hmm…mmm…mmm… Mangisuro a nasantuan, nga sursuro ni Jesu Cristo A…a…a…a…a…a…men (HCSC, 2012, p. 40.) [Oh My Loving God Oh…oh…oh…oh…oh…oh… My loving God Hmm…mmm…mmm… Teach me righteously Jesus Christ, holy king In waiting here on earth He suffered great torment in this place Send your loving Spirit Who is the true one to accompany me And lead me by the hand; I will come to you, Lord Hmm…mmm…mmm… Teach me holiness, the teachings of Jesus Christ A…a…a…a…a…a…men] The final song, O Dios Co a Nadungo, is prescribed as the final song to be sung during the ragpat. It has a similar theme as the first one (O Apo Shios Gavat Mo E Tacday Co). In the lyrics, the impression is that the soul recognizes the sufferings of Jesus Christ while incarnated here on earth, which may be an allusion to what souls may go through if they remain lingering here on earth instead of going to the spiritual realm. In the second-to-the-last stanza of the song, the soul asks for God’s Spirit to help him reach the dwelling place of God. While the second-to-the-last-stanza is being sung, the ritual leader signals the person holding the Bible to slowly lift the book upward. When the song has ended, the ritual leader signals the person holding the Bible to put the book down. He (ritual leader) then gently blows the open pages of the Bible, closes it, and declares the end of the ragpat. The lifting of the Bible where the soul is placed is an important act of guiding, of prodding the soul to embrace or go with the Holy Spirit to the spiritual place God has prepared for willing, repentant souls. In conversations I had with some members, mediums, and ragpat ritual leaders of HCSC, I was told that souls who have been prayed for by their families are comforted by the thoughts of their living kin but these souls still remain to be earthbound because they (the souls) are not shown the right path to take in order to reach the better spiritual 19 | P a g e realm. The lifting of the Bible, apparently, is the key action of guiding the souls to reach their rightful destination. The act of lifting the soul is somehow an act of panakisabet, meeting with the Holy Spirit that was sent to take the penitent soul to a better spiritual realm. Immediately after the end of the ritual, the ritual leader tells the assembly, “Bediente, 18 umay yo ibaga wenno ibingay nu anya ti inpalubos ti Apo nga inpakita na kadakayo” [Vidente, come and tell or share what the Lord has allowed you to see]. Bedientes would reveal to the assembly what they have witnessed. And one of the things clairvoyants see is that when the Bible is lifted up, a white-colored web or cage-like material (likened to chicken wire) descends from above, envelopes the soul, and eventually the soul disappears from the sight of the clairvoyant. Other clairvoyants claim to see a bright light or a cloudlike thing that envelops the soul/s, which would disappear at the end of the ritual. Interestingly, the foregoing testimony of clairvoyants seems to find allusion to Jesus Christ’s ascension in which, “…while they [Christ’s disciples] beheld, he [Jesus Christ] was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight” (Acts 1: 9, KJV). The last advice that the ritual leader who conducted the ragpat would intone is: Nalpas daytoy nga ragpat, ngem saan koma nga ibaga iti nagpa-kararag nga, ‘Uston ta nairagpat metten ti minatay mi’. Itultuloy yo koma nga ikarkararagan dagiti minatay yo. [This ragpat has been concluded, but you who have requested for this prayer should not think and say, ‘It is done, our relative’s soul has already been lifted up’. Continue praying for the soul of your dead kin.] The ritual leader’s advice to the departed’s family points out the need for continually praying for the soul of the dead beyond the conduct of ragpat. For the HCSC, praying for the soul of the departed is a manifestation of one’s charity for everyone, for both the living and the dead. It is an act of compassion for the suffering soul. It is a fulfillment of the commandment: Love one another. Indeed, such act of love for the departed is in conformity to Jesus Christ’s teachings as “Jesus prayed for the sheep that have gone astray; thereby showing you that you cannot, without guilt, neglect to do the same for those who have the greatest need of your prayers” (Kardec,1857/1893). People, HCSC members and non-members, who sought for ragpat testify how they were greatly relieved from their mental and emotional distresses and/or physical ailments. Even the nairagpat spirits express their joy and gratitude through mediums for the prayer offered on their behalf. To the eye of the observer of the ritual, ragpat appears too ordinary, but the relief a successful ragpat brings to the suffering spirit and to the concerned relatives is something only the soul and his/her affected relatives can fully express. Indeed, the power of prayer should not be undermined for: Bediente comes from the Spanish term Vidente, which means “seeing or sighted” (WordReference.com, 2014). As appropriated to by the HCSC, a bediente is a person gifted with seeing things that the naked eye could not discern such as spirits. The bediente is a clairvoyant, a psychic, popularly referred to by many as having a “third eye.” 18 20 | P a g e Prayer elevates the human spirit to God. It frees [the spirit] from all earthly concerns, transporting [the spirit] to a state of tranquility, of peace, that the world could not offer. The more confident and fervent the prayer, the better it will be heard and the more pleasing it will be to God (Kardec, 1863, in The Spiritist Magazine, 2013, p. 10). So what would become of the nairagpat nga minatay, lifted soul? Communications with the nairagpat souls reveal that these spirits are brought and gathered in a spiritual place filled with light, peace and comfort. One soul claimed that in such spiritual place, they continue listening to and learning the words of God just like what happens in a church. Moreover, some spirits reveal that they would be mabaduan ti puraw, clothed in white once they are accepted in that better transcendent world; “white” in this context is taken to mean purification—the result of having repented and gaining forgiveness for one’s misdeeds. In a recorded conversation with a spirit of an old woman, the spirit said, “Sahey too nan-iyan shi apil a kuwarto” [Each person (soul) occupies a different room]. When asked about the room where she was placed, the soul replied, “No baley koma, two storey a baley, shi ma tattapew to” [If it were a house, a twostorey house, (I am) in the upper level]. Narrating further, the spirit said, “Maniyan kamid man; no kuwan sha ey, ‘en-awas kayo, jo asen e tinaynan jon pamilja yo, ikwan jo ey mansingsigpet ira,’ en-awas kami nem aliwen kanajon” [We stay there; if we are told, ‘go out, go see your family you left (on earth), tell them to behave well,’ we leave (the room) but this is occasional]. From the foregoing paragraph, it could be inferred that once suffering souls are lifted up, they are brought to a place, which they (the spirits) describe as better than the dark place where they came from. It is also apparent that they may have a dwelling place (a house) in which a room is assigned for each of them. Some spirits inhabit the lower levels and some stay in the upper levels. Conveniently, one could clearly imagine the truth in John 14: 2 about the many mansions Jesus would prepare for his disciples. Moreover, the spirits are said to occupy different places because, according to the same spirit of the old woman, “sahey tan sahey, dag-en toy baley to” [each of us will build his own house]. Such statement could be pointing to the biblical phrases: “work out your own salvation” (Philippians 2:12. KJV) and “the Son of man…shall reward every man according to his works” (Matthew 16: 27, KJV). At this juncture, it should be noted that not all ragpat are successful. In some instances, there is also a need to repeat the ritual for a number of times. There are occasions that the suffering soul would not go on top the Bible when summoned to do so or jumped out of the Bible while the book is being lifted. This is attributed to several reasons, one of which is that the soul still clings to worldly passions or has other earthly problems to deal with. According to a member of the HCSC, for example, the soul of his dead father hesitated to be mairagpat, lifted up because some members of the departed’s family were harboring grudge against him (the dead). Apparently, the spirit wanted his family to forgive him of his shortcomings while he was yet incarnated. Why a soul of the dead remains in the physical plane is due to several reasons. Leadbeater (1952), in The Life After Death and How Theosophy Unveils It, explains that some souls cling to the earth where their thoughts and interests are fixed, so that they suffer when they realize they are losing hold and sight of it. Other souls remain earthbound by the thoughts of regret or guilt due to crimes they have committed or duties they have not done; others still worry about the 21 | P a g e condition of persons they left behind. Believing then that wayward spirits need help, Leadbeater urges that it is the charitable duty of the living to help these errant beings. In this regard, Kardec (1857/1893), in The Spirits’ Book, quotes a spirit who said that “prayer is only efficacious in the case of spirits who repent,” in that, spirits who persist in wrong doing cannot be acted by prayer. Thus, prayer for the dead may shorten the soul’s suffering only when the soul, “on his side, seconds the [relatives’] action [of praying] by that of his (the spirit’s) own will.” In one conversation I had with a medium, I was told that the souls of people who have known and learned the words of God are easier to be mairagpat unlike the souls of the napeklan nga pagano (hardcore pagans). The medium further said that it would take several ragpat just so a pagan’s soul would be brought to a better spiritual realm. This is so because even if the pagan’s soul were brought to a better place than earth, it is easy for the pagan’s soul to be tempted by earthly or material matters, which would cause the soul to return to earth and burden itself with earthly pleasures and passions. It is these earthly desires that would cause the soul to reject being lifted up to a better spiritual world. There is also the case of one earthbound spirit of an old man who declined to be mairagpat. Through a medium, the departed’s soul informed his relatives that even if he wanted to be lifted up, he said the Lord would not accept him yet because he was unable to guide and discipline his children while he was alive in the body. In a conversation with the departed’s brother-in- law, I was told that the spirit remarked: “Din adi-ak nangurnosan si pamilyak say isingsingir da en sak-en [I am being questioned for not having done my obligations to my family well]. Thus, the old man’s spirit urged his relatives to take good care of their family and advised the latter to hold on to their faith in God. Indeed, ragpat is an important ritual that members of the HCSC must understand and learn to conduct. As one HCSC preacher shared: Masapul nga ikarkararagan ti minatay ken masapul nga isuro kadagiti ubing ti wagas ti ragpat ta isudanto met ti mangitungpal iti ragpat kadatayo into nu datayo ket matay [We should keep on praying for the souls of our dead relatives and we should teach our children the actions of ragpat for they will be the ones to perform ragpat for us when we are already dead]. VII. Conclusion The beginnings of ragpat emanate from the pleading of earthbound souls who asked to be comforted of their sufferings. Communications between the spirits of the dead and of the living have, through mediums, revealed the need to pray for the departed’s souls. Rituals coupled with prayers had to be developed to ensure the successful transition of the soul from the physical plane or from a dark place to a better spiritual plane. Thus, a ritualistic prayer, the ragpat ti minatay, had to be performed to effect the said transition. There are diverse ways by which burdened souls could manifest themselves to the living. In this regard, mediums become important channels of spirit manifestations for through them conditions and requests of spirits are 22 | P a g e clarified and confirmed, and through mediums with the help of ritual leaders, solutions to problems caused by the suffering soul/s are sought. When ragpat is properly performed, the concerned soul/s to which the ritual was done for is ensured of a better spiritual life and place. The departed’s affected living relatives are equally comforted and cured of the ailments caused by the burdened soul. Care is therefore observed for each of the conduct of the key elements of the ragpat Moreover, the success of the ritual also lies within the soul’s willingness to dispel itself of earthly attachments and go to the spiritual realm. But ultimately, the success of ragpat rests on God’s forgiveness and abundant grace to repentant souls. 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