From Fiji Times Online (22 November 2010)
Healing hands
by Paula Tagivetaua
 |
It's all in the mind, and you got to have faith, says Fereti Kamilo. |
FERETI Kamilo is different from all men over 60 years of age.
The Rotuman was born in 1945 and for his age, is fighting fit and what sets him apart is that he has the ability and qualifications to cure illnesses in people with his healing hands.
Fereti is a karate expert.
He is a Black Belt, 4th dan in Kyokusin the ultimate truth the strongest fighting art in Japan.
On the curing side, Fereti holds a certificate in masters sports technician from the Australian Institute of Sports.
He has healed or cured illnesses in many prominent people and he says it is all in the mind.
"I strongly believe that healing without the mind and inner energy is ineffective in the sense that the mind is the backbone of our existence.
"The mind controls our nervous system and muslces.
"Part of the curing process is wanting to be cured."
Fereti has set conditions for himself.
First, he must be fit, look like a professional, dedicates himself to the healing process regardless of the condition of the patient and be patient and polite to his patients.
His list of clients is impressive.
People he has treated include the late Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara and Ro Lala, Ratu Epeli Nailatikau and Adi Koila and their children, Ratu Cokanauto, Ratu Finau Mara, Sitiveni Rabuka, Laisenia Qarase, the French ambassador and his wife, even Dr Tukaha Mua and many more.
But it has not always been good for the healer.
There have been sad chapters in his story like 10 years ago when he advised a young housewife to see a specialist for a lump in her chest.
The woman did not go to the specialist and had one of her breasts removed.
"When I was the supervisor and massage therapist at Polaris Edge fitness gym, more than 10 years ago, I told a lady to see a specialist about a hard lump on her lower stomach.
"She did not do as I told her and last year year she had an operation to remove the cyst.
"Last year I was asked to massage a Fijian taxi driver about 6pm. One look at him and I told the wife to take him to hospital immediately because there was nothing I could do.
"They took him to hospital at around midnight and he died at 3am.
"I refer people who I feel need a doctor's attention."
Fereti has also exorcised people.
"I was asked to see a Rotuman girl they said was possessed by the devil.
"As soon as she saw me entering the house, she started swearing and spitting at me despite a prayer group with her.
"It took me two hours to treat her because the lump in her body kept travelling from one part of her body to another.
"Later, she smiled at me and showed signs of relief, to the amazement of the prayer group, but that's not all because I got rid of the pain but not the lumps on her back and stomach which prevented her from lying down.
"I helped take her to the clinic at Amy Street for a scan and asked the image be taken to Dr John who told the family she had advanced cancer.
"A week before she died, the girl insisted that I massage her every day so she could die peacefully.
"Just thinking of her makes me sad because the family could have taken her to a specialist two years before but they thought she was the devil herself.
"Actually, her sickness originated from a family dispute over land."
Fereti was the masseur for the Fiji rugby team coached by Brad Johnstone that beat Samoa and Tonga.
He treated prop Bill Cavubati's headache minutes before they ran on to the field and massaged backline Lawrence Smith who had a swelling under the genitals.
"I did not massage the painful spot but loosened the quadriceps muscles and the lower abdominal muscles and applied ice to the swelling."
Fereti is retired now from work but people are still calling him to be cured and he obliges because he says it is a gift from God.
Like he said, it's all in the mind and you got to have faith. As they say faith can move mountains.
Fereti's magic hands can rid you of any mental or physical problem.
Check him out if you're interested. He is at 136 Nailuva Road.
From Fiji Times Online (24 January 2011)
Serve God, shun evil
by Paula Tagivetaua
THE existence of spirits—good and bad—in the world of the living is something that has been debated since time immemorial.
Some believe in spirits and the occult and some do not because their faith does not allow them.
People have written accounts of their experience with demons or evil spirits.
Movies have been made about ghosts of dead people returning to haunt the living, evil spirts possessing or taking over the body of a living person, people practising in devil worship or sorcery and there are the exorcists ù people who cast out evil spirits through the power of God.
I have watched many horror movies.
I am not the type to scare easily but the movie which ranks above all horror movies is The Amityville Horror.
It is based on a true story about a house possessed by spirits of the dead rising from the Indian burial ground the house was built on.
Another horror movie based on a true story is The Exorcism of Emily Rose—the story of Bavarian girl Anneliese Michel.
Watch it and see for yourself.
Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, says possession is when Satan or the devil enters and takes over the physical and mental capabilities of a victim, however, the soul and will remains free.
Satan acts through the victim without the victim's consent, thus the victim is morally blameless.
Satan does not act alone when he possesses an individual.
He works side by side with many evil spirits such as spirits of lust, hate, destruction, suicide, revenge, anger, anxiety, desperation, death, torment, etc.
I have come across cases where a person was curumi tevoro ù possessed by an evil spirit and talking in a voice not his or hers and telling other people things they never heard and passing insults and bad things against God and everything good.
In such cases, people use holy water or the power of prayer to rebuke the evil spirit and cast it out.
I always wonder what really happens when someone is possessed by an evil spirit because the only experience I had are bad dreams where a force seems to freeze my body during sleep and I cannot move but I always struggle my way to consciousness by wriggling my big toe as I was told to do so by someone.
In November last year, I wrote a piece on Fereti Kamilo, a 60-year-old man who is fitter than most men his age.
Fereti can heal sick people using his hands and therapy.
He admits that he can also exorcise evil spirits from people.
He sent me a piece he wrote on ancestral spirits, exorcism and Christianity and this is what he wrote:
"My father was half Rotuman and half Wallisian.
"Unfortunately my grandfather, who was a very stubborn six-foot-plus man, tried in every way possible to make things uncomfortable for the Catholic missionaries at Sumi a few metres from where we lived.
"I was about six years old then and had never seen him go to church.
"I was about seven years when I gradually realised that many Rotumans still worshipped their ancestral spirits and sometimes called on them for assistance.
"My father, as far as I can remember, never called on his ancestral spirits for help yet they tell things or warn him of a mishap that was about to happen.
They would appear in his dreams and show forthcoming events in a proverbial manner and he would figure out the meaning the following morning.
I was so scared of him because I was not allowed to make eye contact.
"I remember he would make me stand straight and lean against a coconut tree with an orange on top of my head and he would shoot the orange with his rifle from about 40 or 50 feet away.
He would make me hold an egg supported by a sasa broom and he would shoot the egg from my fingers.
"I was not afraid of the bullet, I was more afraid of him.
"One night about midnight, someone came to our back door and shouted out to my father to come out.
"As I opened the door I saw my aunty who lived a few yards from us, standing there with unblinking eyes and her hands on her hips. When she spoke, it was my grandfather's voice and she told my father to vacate the land and let his daughter (my aunty) be the guardian.
"Immediately my father ordered me to run to the Catholic priest and ask for holy water.
"I had to grope my way through the darkness among the sleeping cows belonging to the Catholic mission, not to mention their manure, and had to pass the cemetery.
"When I returned, it took my father and my uncle to hold down my aunt so I could pour holy water into her mouth.
"She was so strong.
"As soon as the holy water entered her mouth she became lifeless.
"She was sick for a couple of days and could not remember what happened.
"My auntie was serving two masters—God and my grandfather's spirit.
"My father encouraged her to serve God and respect the dead.
"We found out later that just before the spirit entered her, she had heard a tiny bird singing in her ear which induced her to sleep and she was oblivious of what happened.
"Another aunty of mine fell overboard from a ship in the middle of the sea between Fiji and Rotuma and as the ship turned around to search for her, they saw half of her body was out of the water as if she was standing on something.
"That something was our clan totem—the sting ray.
"I have a lot of stories to tell about the sting ray but, next time."
Fereti's story adds to the list of tales from the nether world.
"It lends credence to the belief that demons exist—believe it or not.
They have been there since the beginning of time.