Sharon has been able to see, hear, and feel things most people cannot ever since she was young. “Part of me wants to remain anonymous because I don’t want to be judged, but everyone who knows me well knows that I have this ‘gift/curse,’ so you can put me down as Sharon,” she says “I’m a production designer, which means I go to places not everyone gets to go to like old mansions, mental institutions, old buildings with history, and so on.”

Do you believe in the supernatural? What got you interested in it?

I believe in the supernatural because weird things have been happening to me ever since I was a kid. I saw my dad astral travel and I am very sure (it really happened) because the memory is clear as day to me to this day. I would see “people” in my peripheral vision that disappear when I would look for them. Then my mom got me and my brother into reading, so we tried to read about the paranormal.

As someone who believes in science, what do you make of things classified as supernatural or paranormal?

I never really thought about this. Even though I went to a very strict Catholic school (which taught me to question a lot of things even my religion), I just accepted all these things as fact since they happened to me like it was part of normal life, even if they were not normal at all. I believe there are things that dwell on this earth that seem to be guardians or keepers of trees, bodies of water, or mountains. They seem to be a type of energy that is bound to these elements and can control some things in our world but seem to follow some rules (who made the rules up, I don’t know). That’s my impromptu answer to this question.

What explanation do you have for your experiences, if any?

What I understood from this question is why do I have this gift/curse and some don’t? I don’t know why I have it. I mean if we all had it, the world would go mad. (laughs) I used to think I was crazy because I could hear things as if I was some sort of transistor radio. Like in a law class in college, I could hear the answers of my classmates to the questions for recitation. But there were also days I would sit at home and all these voices would come all at the same time and it was maddening. Maybe I have it because there’s a purpose for me to use it in this world. That’s the only thing I can think of.

Story One: Dad’s Astral Travel

The first time I realized that I was different was when I was about 6-7 years old. I was playing with my mom and brother on my brother’s bed, which was perpendicular to my grandmother’s bed across the room. We were tickling each other and dad was lying on amah’s bed. I stopped stared at him.

I saw a white transparent version of my dad sit up. Our eyes locked and then he lay back into my dad’s supine position, staring at me till he was back in my dad’s physical body. I told my parents about it. My dad insisted that I’m lying or imagining things but fortunately, my mom never let me feel like I was crazy or that I made things up.

Story Two: A Geometric Being

During college, I made the “unfortunate” (during that time i regretted it) decision of enrolling for Tony Perez’s Spirit Questor class since thought it would be an easy pass for my last semester elective. Many things happened: I was possessed by spirits a couple of times, a headless priest in the University wanted to talk to only me during the Ouija board exercise, and so on but what stuck with me was during this time something came to my room.

I don’t know what it was but as I was about to sleep, this thing that was mostly sound appeared and started forming this weird hexagon-like hive over my room. I would sit up and cough to tell it to stop and the sound would come to a slow halt and retract. It was funny, weird, and freaky all the same time. The next night, it was forming this thing that looked like a crumpled piece of burning plastic over my room. I would sit up and cough to make it stop, and it would. I asked Tony Perez what the hell was happening to me. He said it was probably my spirit guide giving me power. I’ve never heard of anything like that happening to anyone.

Story Three: Voices in an Empty Room

This is a recent experience. I thought I’ve been rid of my “gift” because nothing weird has happened in a long time. I’ve been living a quiet “normal” life.

Then I was suppose to do a horror film. After a long night of shooting a romcom, we were told we needed to do an ocular for the horror film in an institution the next day. I was half asleep as we drove into the place. I walked in groggily and we look around the ground floor. Everything was normal.

Then they told me to check the rooms on the 2nd floor. Boom. I felt this overwhelming sense of dread, sadness, and hopelessness. I thought I was going to burst into tears, though I had no reason to. I could hear people crying and screaming “Ayoko na!” (I can’t take it anymore). I had to rush out of the place. When I asked the rest of the crew if they had heard anything, everyone said no.

We found out that the place was an institution for sexually abused women who have gone crazy and whose families have abandoned them.