Chapter 8: Engkanto/Anito
A male diwata is coined as engkanto, but they are a totally different race. They are believed to be malevolent and physically attractive, having light-colored hair and fangs. They reside primarily near the sea or any body of water. It is customary for Filipino fishermen to offer meat and other delicacies to the engkanto by throwing them into the sea, after a day's bountiful catch.
Engkanto are environmental spirits. They are often associated with the spirits of ancestors in the Philippines. They are also characterized as spirit sorts like sirens, dark beings, diwata, and more. Belief in their existence has existed for centuries, and continues, with some, to this day.
Anito is used to refer to spirits, deceased ancestors, nature-spirits nymphs and diwatas. Ancient Filipinos kept statues to represent these spirits, ask guidance and magical protection. Trees, rocks, ,bodies of water, and animals were believed to be animated by an anito.
During the last decade studying the Creatures of Philippine Mythology I have spent a profound amount of time pondering the spirit realm of the Engkanto. The evolution of folkloric creatures almost always begins with the belief in these spirits. Outside cultural influence, historical events, and oral tradition then transform them into the physical descriptions that exist in Filipino folks tales. Examples of this may be seen in my recent documentaries on the Tikbalang and Kapre. I take issue with the notion that belief in these folk creatures is completely born of ignorance and superstition. I think there is more to it, and I believe that science may be close to explaining why.
" Eyewitness testimony is the lowest form of evidence in science." – Neil Degrasse Tyson
When I discuss these topics, I am usually met with, "I've never seen one, so I don't believe they exist." On the other hand, those who do believe in such beings are relying on an eye-witness testimony from a second, third, and even fourth party. As Neil Degrasse Tyson so eloquently said, " Eyewitness testimony is the lowest form of evidence in science." Another hurdle is how us humans tend to immediately dismiss anything that falls within the communal gap in our knowledge. Every day science is advancing in methods to see further in the universe and deeper into the microscopic world. We are constantly discovering new ways to measure and calculate the unknown. Is it possible that we simply don't yet have the scientific method to measure or detect Engkanto as an observational fact or predictable certainty?
Quantum mechanics is the science that explains the behaviour of matter and its interactions with energy on the scale of atoms and subatomic particles. Dr. Stuart Hameroff and physicist Roger Penrose theorized that human consciousness comes from microtubules inside our brain cells responsible for quantum processing. This could possibly be interpreted as our "soul" (what makes us who we are). Hameroff and Penrose believe this is stored as "quantum information". When people have near death experiences, or their 'soul leaves their body', it could be quantum information leaving their brain, causing a 'light at the end of the tunnel' experience. They go on to theorize that this quantum information could live on after physical death. Most animistic belief systems hold that the spirit survives physical death. In today's day and age, with 100-240 volts of electricity running through our walls, cellular phones at our ear, Wi-Fi signals on every corner, and hundreds of years of religious dogma telling us what is "real", is it beyond the realm of possibility that we have lost the ability to sense the unique energy (or quantum information) that represents the soul?
In physics, energy is a property of objects which can be transferred to other objects or converted into different forms, but cannot be created or destroyed. Quantum energy teleportation is a hypothesis first put forward by Japanese physicist Masahiro Hotta of Tohoku University. Protocols of the quantum teleportation transfer quantum information, but cannot teleport energy itself. There is a growing sense that the properties of the universe are best described not by the laws that govern matter but by the laws that govern information, which could lend itself to the theory that quantum information (the soul) lives on.
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