Kalipimu: Move with Spirit

By Katrina A. Holigores
Philippine Daily Inquirer

Last updated 16:33:00 03/28/2008

MANILA, Philippines—Stuck. Trapped. Blocked. Disconnected. These are words that formed part of my daily dictionary. Active as I was on the outside, inside I was feeling lethargic, and going through the motions of life on automatic pilot. I had tried meditation to clear my head of a thousand voices—but they just wouldn’t shut up. Even my outward movements felt mechanic, truth be told, finding quiet time was a skill I did not possess. An inner desperation led me to an old acquaintance (on recommendation of a mutual nephew) to Kalipimu. Kali what? Kalipimu, without delving into details (since you can Google it or go to www.innerdance.multiply.com) it was explained to me as an ancient healing ritual indigenous to pre-colonial Philippines—practiced by tribal shamans, the baylan (male) and the babaylan (female). They were the soul “doctors” before Christianity was brought (some say ‘forced’) upon us with the arrival of the Spaniards.

Feel it to believe it

But describing the power of this healing ritual in words is unjust. Experiencing it is the only way to go, or in this case, flow. I was simply asked to sit down and close my eyes. I felt light touches on various parts of my body and later on was slowly and seemingly stretched with gentle pushes and pulls. Part of me thought, “Ok, feels nice, but … ” and my mind started to drift off, to the usual traffic of what I did that day, what I was going to do later … etc., etc. The being moved around continued and at some point I found myself lying down on my back, eyes still closed taking in the music that was being played and trying desperately not to think about anything else but stay in the moment. I decided to just let my friend finish his work and I would politely just lie still until the session was over.

The tipping point

My friend stopped physical contact with me and moved a short distance away. My hands started to tremble, and jerk—to an irregular beat all on their own. My arms, planted firmly on the floor, started to sway, in no fixed direction left, right, round, up, down. At this point I should have freaked out, but I didn’t, I was mesmerized, transfixed (even with my eyes still closed) by the flow, by the loss of control which was still, weirdly enough, controlled. I felt little snaps of electricity traveling from my elbows to the tips of my fingers, as if something was slowly being released into the world and beyond. The trembling and shaking continued and this time, the voices in my head did shut up and my mind flew free. There was a lightness I felt, although I was still very connected to my body. All I could comprehend in this in-between state was that something had opened up within that allowed me to see into another dimension of myself, one that acknowledged an inner life force that had long been dormant. My body continued to move on its own and as I turned my head to one side my eyelids opened slightly and I ‘saw’ standing over me a woman, dressed in what seemed to be native American garb, her expression was one of observation. There was nothing sinister about her presence, she just seemed to belong there. Minutes later I heard a voice in my ear welcoming me back to the present. I left that night feeling like I had definitely found something. “This practice is a guru-less one,” my friend explained, “all you need is to find spirit and you can continue this on your own.” That night, alone and lying in my bed, I plugged in my iPod, closed my eyes and was taken over by movement once more.

Level Up

A month passes and I find myself on a plane to Davao, and greeted in the airport by Pi Villaraza—who I will identify basically as the moving force behind the awareness and expansion of Kalipimu and its benefits. I was going to spend the Easter weekend at his base, in the Don Bosco Youth Camp in Makilala, North Cotobato. For the next three days, I was going to immerse myself in all the healing qualities that this inner dance had to offer. First was release, the blocks, past life traumas, issues, hurts that were contained in my subconscious. The movements that took over my body were sometimes violent in their force and speed, but they never once caused any injury nor any fear in me, it was almost like I welcomed the spasms, the coughs that escaped from my throat and, on one occasion, tears. In the midst of one of my almost cathartic states, I had images of all the people in my present life who had hurt me and as tears flowed I heard myself addressing each of them saying, “I’m sorry, I’m so, so sorry,” Yes, it was a reverse, instead of forgiving I was the one asking for it instead. That particular session left me with a rather deep sense of emptiness, and as it was performed on a rock overlooking a beautiful flowing river, I curled up into a fetal position and allowed the Universe to cradle me once more, so vulnerable, and yet open to what was around me. The key was, I was no longer caught up in the past, it was a giant, giant leap for me as I came to understand later on during my stay. We are emptied out, so that we may change what fills us, what makes us, and what moves us.

Part of this immersion was also reconnection to the purity of nature. Our party hiked, swam, took in the icy cold and warm waters offered by the mountains, natural heated pools and the cleansing benefits of breathing clean air and drinking fresh, flowing water. I felt like a child again, there were no “no’s” involved in anything I did as I explored what surrounded me and what was within me. By the end of the weekend, I had even learned the healing art of massage through Kalipimu. During this heightened state of connectivity to spirit you can activate another’s own life force to remove pains, both physical and emotional by touch. You become so sensitive to energy that sometimes you don’t even need to look where to place your hand, you are guided to it intuitively.

Everyone Can Heal

To think that Kalipimu is an instant fix is a huge mistake, it is part of a process, one that is designed for you to dig deeper and deeper, and you realize how much you may have repressed when the rigidity of adulthood took over the free spirit you possessed as a child. We all have aches and pains, but the ones we repress are the most difficult to bear. Kalipimu is like a much needed hug to a bruised heart or a broken soul. There is an almost instant soothing that takes place, but it doesn’t make all that pain or past issues go away. It takes practice, and sincerity. When it is later combined with an intention to heal, it may be used to free others from their own issues. It has been known to ease physical ailments, enhance creativity and more importantly (as in my case) feel connected again. Visualization ( if you’ve been on the recent law of attraction bandwagon) is energized when in a state of inner dance release. This could possibly take you one step closer to the person you were meant to become.

No one experience is the same; to resonate with spirit at this level is different for everyone, and is definitely for everyone.

A three-day Inner Dance convergence in Makilala, North Cotabato will occur on May 8-12. For more details call or text: 0919-2358153 and 0916-4748496

Special thanks to Betsy Gamela of the Don Bosco Foundation for Sustainable Development and her staff.

London Calling

It's been over 10 years since I got my M.A. from the UK ( wow that rhymes) and more or less 10 years since I last set foot in London. This was to be the last leg of a 6 day (crazy) work assignment and I had already shelved the idea of having enough time to go around and see a city that held a lot of wonderful memories. I was hoping to see my classmates ( or at least one) from my school before, have some typical pub fare and catch a show at the West End. After taking a look at the itinerary given to me by the DOT I decided not to expect anything since the 3 days we were going to be there would have us occupied from early morning til evening. In fact, it got to a point that I had to ask my friend and her husband to make an allocation to just meet me in my hotel for drinks since I didn't think I would be able to step out and see her! But, on a very happy note, things turned out much, much better than expected. Apologetic for our 'blitz' like stay in Berlin the DOT informed us that 1) Our first afternoon in London would be spent at our leisure and 2) that they were going to get tickets for two West End performances.Namely Lord of the Rings and Wicked. My heart leapt-I had been DYING to watch Wicked ever since I read the book and heard from my friends who had seen it in New York that the music was terrific. I wasn't too keen on Lord of the Rings since I wanted to spend an evening with my friends, and I hadn't heard any reviews about it-at least about the music, it was heralded to be a feast for the eyes in terms of visual effects and stage design. So, when the clock hit 4pm I got a phone call from my former classmate, Natasha, and we met in my hotel lobby to hit the streets of London. The sun had decided to come out that day so walking around was still cold but definitely more bearable than Berlin PLUS you could see around you for miles with the sun beating happily down. After walking around and taking photos in South Kensington and Knightsbridge ( the photos will be posted soon) we went for typical pub fare in the Soho district. I couldn't decide between fish and chips or a heartier bangers and mash...so I just asked the waitress who laughed and said "The bangers and mash of course! It's so much healthier!" her cheery sarcasm was appreciated and I went with the 'healthier' option.
I was able to reconnect with Natasha and her husband, Gavin, who I never met since they were wed about 7 years ago ( I was unfortunately not able to make it to her wedding) and as luck would have it Ulrike another classmate of mine was able to join us! She was someone I hadn't seen since we had our graduation ceremonies down in Kent. Although I was pretty tired ( our night ended around 10 pm) I thoroughly enjoyed myself and felt so happy that my friends could join me at a last moment's notice! Plus, I had Wicked to look forward to the next night, this trip could have already ended with that thought since I hadn't expected much in terms of personal activities.
Again, the luck of the Irish was radiating strong in Londonium because the next morning during breakfast of warm brown toast and jam we were told that we could have the morning free since the DOT activities were going to begin in the afternoon. That was GREAT news our hotel was within walking distance of two museums, The Natural History Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum ( the V&A) I sms'd Tash just to see if she was free to meet up with me at museum's opening at 10am and she was! We spent a great remainder of the morning visiting them both and I caught a great exhibit at the V&A that dealt with costume design and set design (in miniature) and we popped down to the coffee shop where I had my absolute favorite, scones with clotted cream and tea! Yum!
The afternoon was spent at the Excel Center where the International Dive Show was taking place and I must say that the Philippines' booth was practically the only destination exhibit booth there. So many people came and went especially when Filipino food was served for as well as drinks towards the end of the evening- we even had a band playing and some San Miguel beer accompanying the mixed cocktails! At night, it was off to Wicked, which was marvelous, I loved every moment of it and the theater was packed-literally from first row all the way to the back. It had a lot of funny moments-great delivery from the actress who played Glinda and the music was powerful- gotta get my hands on the soundtrack!
After the play it was off for some comfort eating of Asian fare at Bugis Street Resto at the Millennium Hotel in South Ken, again walking distance from our hotel (Grange Strathmore).
Even if that night ended in some rain and quite late ( not much sleep for the wicked watchers) I don't think I could have asked for a better way to bulldoze through 72 hours in London the way we did. God Save the Queen ;-) Photos coming soon!

Amsterdam Airport

I have been Schipoll'd! I don't think I have been to an airport as many times in as many days. KLM is the only carrier that has flights direct from Manila to Europe and because of this it was our stopover de rigeur on my recent trip to Berlin and London. My travel companions and I had the unfortunate experience of having our flight cancelled, literally at the 11th hour ( inside the plane and already taxing) on our first night. So, instead of landing in Berlin to enjoy a full day of touring the next day we were transported to the Holiday Inn around midnight-or 1am. I was so exhausted from the MNL-AMS trip plus all the waiting that I kind of lost track of time. After gorging (fatigue=hunger) on the hotel's buffet ( it was hot food, not great but it was hot and filled a need) I schlepped off to bed. Really cute hotel room though, and I slept like the dead. We had to check out at noon and spent the next 6 or so hours back at Schipoll since KLM could only rebook us an evening flight to Berlin. Sad. Schipoll isn't the most happening airport I'm afraid, at least not the terminal we were in. The other people travelling with me made a joke on how they had walked the length of the airport and had pretty much memorized the placement and prices of every product. Thing is, every leg we had from thereon had a stop in Schipoll so, I can even include myself in the "memory" game. I don't want to complain too much though as rumor has it that KLM is also going to pull out of the Philippines (as Lufthansa is about to end of March) and it's a good airline-movies and TV on demand. Schipoll-ing all the way may be a bit of a pain ( no free wifi internet like in Singapore or HKG airports) but with a good magazine, book or company is bearable-for as long as there are no more cancellations last minute. As you can see from the first photo, we would have actually done that on the runway just to get off the ground. ha ha ha! Anyway, til next time Schipoll!