Nginiiig!
For over two years, Nginiiig! has been traveling the country in pursuit of monsters, demons, and the angry dead. During that time, I have constantly come face to face with something so terrible I shudder thinking about it. No, I’m not talking about spooks. Rather, I’m pertaining to Filipino superstition.
You must understand that most Filipinos are poor, poorly educated, or (more commonly) both; and thus extremely superstitious. After all, superstition is the child of ignorance. I used to want to believe that the lack of a formal education is not necessarily synonymous with the lack of common sense. Yet my experiences in the field prove otherwise.
Look. Most of the people who call us are either fruitcakes who believe they have superpowers or people desperate for a cheap cure to expensive illnesses. The former are poor saps who want to feel special. They seem to feel that they are insignificant in the scheme of the universe and thus delude themselves into thinking that they have uncanny abilities. The latter are ignorant people who would rather attribute supernatural causes to scientifically explainable illnesses because a witch’s hex can more easily be remedied than cancer. Besides, a quack doctor or a psychic is more affordable than a real physician. It’s all wishful thinking.
Now, you’re thinking: is Nginiiig! legit or is it a hoax?
Throughout the years, a lot of people have asked me if what we do is real. Are the psychics genuine? Are there really ghosts? Look at it this way: Quests aren’t scripted and the subjects aren’t actors. If they look sincere, it’s because they probably are. Yet sincerity is not an assurance that there really are spooks. One can be sincerely deluded.
On the other hand, I don’t believe in ghosts and demons and spirits. I believe even less in psychics. Every single supposed proof of the paranormal can and have been blown to smithereens by real science.
The counter argument of believers in the paranormal is that if you haven’t experienced it yet you won’t believe it. But I have had weird things thrown my way. I’ve had bizarre encounters with the unknown in the course of this program. Yet these things cannot be reproduced in a clinical environment. Until irrefutable evidence of the paranormal is presented then I’ll keep on going about in the real world as if the existence of psychic powers and spirits is possible but highly improbable. As I’ve said in one of my earlier posts: I’m a skeptic with a disclaimer.
The show, then, is real in the sense that we present cases of people who believe they have been touched by the shadow world. We investigate these cases using people who believe they have psychic powers. We document what happens during the course of the investigation and present it in what we hope is an entertaining way. That’s all there is to it, really.
By the way, we just taped the last episode of Nginiiig! Paranormal Investigation last night. Though I won’t deny that a part of me is sad because this Friday’s edition will be our last hurrah, another part of me is glad that it’s finally over. It’s been more than two years already and (I never thought I’d be saying this) I’m sick of the paranormal. I’d like to move on to other shows now, thank you very much. Something inspirational, maybe. Like the 700 Club.
Shyeah, right.
Steel Said,
September 14, 2006 @ 4:25 am
Nginiiig is down to its last episode? Where will your writing prowess be witnessed next, O Most Astonishing One?
Seriously, in a reality show like that where the characters, like what you said, follow no scripts, where does your talent come into play?
Randy Said,
September 14, 2006 @ 5:30 am
We’re still waiting if any of our proposed docu shows will be approved. In case none of them gets a go, you’ll probably see my work in some shitty drama show.
A writer’s job in a docu show comes in planning how to mount an episode and how to string events together afterwards so that the events look awesome and not as uninspired as real life. For example, in a haunted house there is a forbidden room where research tells you someone died. The room hasn’t been opened in thirty years. As a writer, you of course tell the people around you that the last room to be explored should be the forbidden room because that is potentially the climax of the episode. Now, should it be a dud, and the second room actually explored is the one that produces the sensational haunting, then you rearrange events in your script so that that room is the last to be featured. You also say, hey, we need to explore this more so let’s go to the suspected witchman and make him confess on national TV that he’s a fucking cannibal! You also write the hosts’ spiels. It’s easier than writing drama scripts (and no, drama here doesn’t necessarily mean tearjearkers but dramatized events in general, fiction or otherwise) in some ways because you don’t have to think as much but it’s also harder because you’re dealing with real stuff and… oh, hell, just wait for my next Riting is Easie article.
If you ask me, though, I enjoy docu writing because of the chance to travel. But I prefer drama because I like making stories up.
Ruel Razuli Said,
June 13, 2007 @ 5:09 am
My pare! You know of all people how I work as the HEad of the….how can i term it?Hmmmm..ok Psychics. I AM NOT FAKE! Wahahaha! I am not 100% accurate in my readings..just 98.7%…but still I even tell you in a very scientific way how the brain waves work, quarks, leptons,and ofcourse my ever famous “See what poverty can do to mankind?!” Hahaha! But we can only show as much. SOmetimes people would come to us saying they are being hexed, nah…they are just being whiney and blamey!! But still, we need to help them and meet them in the level they will accept or else we will just be a know-it-all sonofabitch without even helping! Sana nagbabayad sila! Hehehehe!
Randy Said,
June 13, 2007 @ 7:06 pm
You know me, pare. Ever skeptical. Even if a ghoul jumps up and bites my balls I’d probably spend ten minutes looking for a plausible explanation. Still, as I said, I’m a skeptic with a disclaimer. The universe is too big for me to be 100% sure of everything I hold as true and sane.