ONE OF the most unusual questions I?ve been asked recently came from a seminar organizer of mine in Cyprus named George, who confessed he has an obsession with UFOs (unidentified flying objects).

?Can you ask your friend, [faith healer] Alex Orbito, if there is a special phrase or prayer one can say for a UFO to appear?? wrote George. ?I know it?s a long shot but we have nothing to lose by asking him.?

The reason George thought of asking if there was a power word to call on a UFO is that when he was in the Philippines to attend Orbito?s seminar last April, Alex taught him ?a special phrase which when uttered and at the same time press with your thumb a lump on a patient?s body, it dissolves.? George said he had tried it and it worked. He said the healer has many magical phrases and wondered if there was one to call on UFOs to appear.

I told George he must be referring to what is known here among Filipino healers and mystics as oracion, or literally ?a prayer,? which has magical effects. Without having to ask Alex, I told George, I doubt if there was such an oracion.

I said I have heard of oracions to render one immune from bullets or knives, to heal all sorts of illness, to call on spirits or guides, to attract the opposite sex and even render one invisible. But I?ve never heard of a power word or oracion to call on a UFO.

As I had anticipated, when I had a chance to contact Alex Orbito and ask him that question, he replied, ?That?s the first time I ever heard such a thing. I don?t know the answer to this.?

So I asked another person I know who has knowledge of power words and talismans. He replied categorically that ?There is no oracion to call on UFOs because one contacts them through telepathy.?

Strange words

There are many people in the Philippines, especially in the rural areas, who believe in power words or oracion. And many of those whom I have talked to about these strange words, which sound like Latin, but are not, swear that they work. One local albulario who has a college degree told me the language of the oracion is called ?Burnay,? a combination of Tagalog and bastardized Latin. Some, however, are completely unintelligible.

Where did this belief in oracion come from?

According to some folk?s stories, they were brought to the Philippines by the Jesuits during the early period of the Christian occupancy of our islands which lasted almost 400 years.

I believe, however, that the practice of uttering power words must have originated much earlier than that, perhaps in ancient Egypt. When Western men first beheld the temples and huge pyramids of Egypt, they found magical words, chants and hymns dedicated to their gods. These power words were supposed to protect the dead from their enemies and those who might desecrate their bodies during their journey into the underworld, called Hades by the ancient Greeks.

The Christian Bible, especially the Old Testament, also contains power words or special prayers which have the power to heal, cast out evil spirits and protect a person against his enemies. In more recent times, people?s belief in oracion or power words has again become popular because of the Harry Potter books and movies.

Ultimately, the power of the oracion essentially boils down to the power of one?s mind and one?s strong belief and not inherently in the oracion itself. If you truly believe without doubt the oracion really works then it will, because the mind knows no limits, aside from those it accepts.

Note: The next Basic ESP and Intuition Development seminar will be on August 29-30, 9 a.m.-5 p.m., at Rm. 308 Prince Plaza I 106 Legazpi St., Greenbelt, Makati (tel. 8107245, 8159890; e-mail jaimetlicauco@yahoo.com).