MANILA, Philippines - “Bistado! (exposed!)” exclaims the healer’s assistant.

Bicolana-American healer “Doctor Freeman” is mildly pressing the spine of a male patient. As she loosens up the tension in his upper body, she burps continuously.

She discovers he is extremely toxic from smoking, drinking and other excesses. Her hands seem to be sucking the negative energy from him while the continuous gross burping releases it. She blurts in Tagalog, “I can also sense indiscretions.”

In her clinic, she sheds off her image as onetime screen vamp, Elizabeth Oropesa (Freeman is her father’s surname). She is giving a demonstration on the Dorn Method, a gentle vertebrae and joint treatment for ailments linked to the spine, enhanced by her psychic gifts.

She claims a voice would sometimes divulge to her if a male client had wandering affections.

Adultery could also be determined from reading the aura of couples.

“In harmonious relationships, the aura is one and it’s beautiful. When the man is fooling around, the aura literally strays from the wife and favors the man.

“When the wife asks me if her husband is unfaithful, I can’t control my mouth. But I’m not the one who is talking,” says Oropesa. She adds she’s just a “channel.”

Like substance abuse, there is no cure for infidelity. Oropesa explains.

“You can’t meddle (with karma.) Not even God can stop a husband from fooling around. There is free will.”

She returns to the client and rubs special oils she has formulated. Nobody could duplicate them because Oropesa had prayed over them for over a month. “You have prominent lymph nodes,” she tells the client.

The client’s history shows he has been in the quagmire of indulgences which have become a comfort zone. Yet, Oropesa looks at the client with compassion and affirms his innate goodness. She assures him he is lucky that because of divine protection, he is not sick. She advises, “Your Guide is telling you to be more spiritual from now on.”

Seeing dead people

Born with power of touch and psychic abilities, Oropesa describes her life as if it were an M. Knight Shyamalan thriller.

Like, Cole Sear, the child with psychic gifts in the movie, “The Sixth Sense,” she sees dead people.

From her childhood to this day, Oropesa has been a reluctant medium, and says she still receives frequent visitations from spirits. She also had the gift of hands through the transference of healing energy.

As a child growing up in Albay, she could sense if the farm animals were sick, then she would cure them.

She was married at 16 and widowed at 23. At 18, Oropesa became an overnight sensation in the cult classic, “Ang Pinakamagandang Babae Sa Balat Ng Lupa.”

She, in wet garment clinging to her 36C bosom, became an iconic image in the ’70s.

“I became an actress because my mother wanted it. I had to keep quiet [about the paranormal powers.] In the mirror, I would see someone else. I couldn’t focus.”

As a coping mechanism, she turned to alcohol. Being in show biz, repressing her psychic gifts for fear of ridicule and living with temptations, became a turbulent period.

Her second marriage to Taiwanese martial-arts actor Meng Fei ended because of his infidelity. After some long-term partnerships, Oropesa, 53, has found happiness with her third husband, Joe Valdez, a licensed physical therapist and bodybuilder who is 21 years her junior. He understands her bizarre experiences.

Later in her career, some media people learned about her gifts. In 2004, during the location shooting of the telenovela “Te Amo, Maging Sino Ka Man,” the Argentinean lead, Sedgundo Cernadas, fell ill and complained he’d see a woman in his room in a Cavite resort.

“I told my friends the spirit of a beautiful woman was attracted to him. If we don’t do the ritual, she would follow him,” recalls Oropesa.

At first, her colleagues didn’t take it seriously. Then she performed the ritual of prayers, offering raw eggs and burying them after three days. The ghost vanished.

Reinvention

After three decades and a slew of acting trophies, Oropesa felt the been-there-done-that syndrome. It was time to move on and reinvent herself at midlife.

“It became difficult for me to accept roles I didn’t like. I’m not extravagant. I don’t need much to sustain my lifestyle. I thought, why don’t I use my gifts? People are more open now.”

The past four years, she has been mentored by healer Jo Bilasano who helped her harness her psychic powers.

She went to Indonesia to become a Master of Tetada Kalimasada, an Indonesian healing art that harnesses one’s inner powers through martial art, breathing exercises and concentration. During her training in Bali, she would only get two hours of sleep since her schedule revolved around frequent meditation, exercises and healing sessions.

A sick person would be brought into the session; she would have to diagnose the ailment just by looking at the aura.

Oropesa was given a scholarship in Doctorate of Philosophy in Alternative Medicine from the International Open University for Complementary Medicine in Sri Lanka, and graduated at the top of her class.

Her first case was healing a nun who was suffering from cervical cancer. A week later, the nun reported her doctor gave her the clean bill of health and she even donated blood to the Red Cross.

“I cried. Before I’d only see spirits. What good would it do? I didn’t even want to talk to them. Once you start talking to them, they never stop, they are very noisy,” she says. Healing, on the other hand, has given her blessings.

Her husband offered a part of his gym in Fairview, Quezon City, as her healing center. It offers the ion cleanser which removes toxins through the feet, the Beam Ray, a light device which destroys pathogens through frequencies; Dorn, a German-developed mild spine manipulation; and Bowen, an Australian-developed technique of reprogramming the nervous system through gentle touch.

During a Bowen training class, under Australian mentor Andrew Zoppos, Oropesa met two old ladies, who complained about stomach pain but their doctor could not provide the accurate diagnosis. Using her sixth sense, Oropesa saw the scratches in the large intestines which were acids. While applying the Bowen technique, she would constantly burp.

“It meant energy was coming out. The person needed healing in a different way,” she says.

No sex

Oropesa also handles paranormal cases. One client once complained about the unexplained cause of her bruises. The healer asked the patient to do astral traveling and she later saw a lady traveling with the patient.

The brother, who was with the patient, cried when Oropesa described what she saw: it was their deceased mother who was accompanying the woman in her out-of-body experiences.

But Oropesa cautions against having high expectations in healing.

“Some people think once I touch them, they will be healed instantly. Some illnesses are karmic,” she explains.

“They don’t have anything to do with the physical manifestations in their body. First you cure the spirit. Balance the energy, then you fix their head, then you fix the body.”

Oropesa adds the services at the center complement modern medicine. Sometimes doctors send their patients to her to assist in the healing process.

Some cancer patients sit under the Beam Ray to ward off the effects of chemotherapy. As a community service, the clinic also offers medical missions for the needy.

In all, she credits God for her healing powers. “It doesn’t matter what your religion is. Just make the connection with God and persevere. Be ready to make sacrifices.”

One of the sacrifices was periods of continence. “I could not have sex so much because when I’m healing, I’m using my energy,” she says. She is grateful her husband shares the views. He also forgoes sex before a body-building competition to keep himself focused.

She has also been very selective about acting commitments.

“TV consumes so much time. A healer prays for long hours. You need good sleep, otherwise your energy will decline.”

From screen hussy to humanitarian healer, Oropesa feels she’s on the right path.

“I’m so lucky to be given the chance to serve. I can pay for the sins I’ve committed. It’s not only in show biz. There are things you do without realizing you are committing a sin. Then you realize you were wrong. How can you fix that? Maybe in another lifetime. But if you have a gift and you use it well to serve, you are assured of a better future.”

The Healing Center is at 20 Winston St., East Fairview, QC. Call 4311147 or 0922-8155319, 0928-9546737. For Bowen healing, call 6662943.