Perhaps the most popular figure in Philippine horror literature, the Manananggal has become almost a symbol in pop culture. The manananggal is our answer to Western literature's vampire. Very much similar to the vampire, the manananggal is a blood-sucker, and is also related to bats. Unlike vampires, however, the manananggal doesn't belong to the undead. It is a transformed creature that roams around only at night, and lives as a normal human being during the day.

In Maximo D. Ramos' book, The Creatures of Midnight, he describes the manananggal as follows:

She is called manananggal by the Tagalogs.
Her name means that she can drop off part of her body.
Her name comes from the Malay word tanggal, 'to drop off'.
She is called wakwak by many Visayans.
Some say her head and her stomach fly out at night.
Others say all of ther upper body flies out.
She flies with her arms which she turns into wings.
She perches on a roof and sucks the viscera of those in the house.
Folks know she is around when the crows are noisy.
So they sprinkle salt, vinegar and spices out of the window.
They sprinkle these and call out, "Salt, vinegar, spices!"
This makes the manananggal fly away.

The Manananggal as an Astral Body
The comicbook Baylans' take on manananggals, however, is quite different from its treatment in folklore or local movies. In Baylans, the manananggal is no longer a physical being, but rather something etherial in form. I have had the opportunity to discuss with a modern Filipino shaman practicioner, Tony Perez, who has encountered quite a number of spiritual beings all over the country, many of which aren't human. He believes that the manananggal is an astral body, whose only the upper-half remains visible due to the luminance of the upper chakras.

The existence of astral bodies is an accepted belief in the field of parapsychology. According to this pseudo-science, the human body exists in many forms, not just the physical one. During an unconscious state, the consciousness can separate itself from the physical form, and may travel in its astral form. This experience is called an OOBE, or Out-of-Body-Experience. Occasionally, Perez explains, these astral forms can be seen by a psychically attuned witness, who may mistake the floating form to be a physical one.

The belief in chakras stemmed from Hinduism, and is now part of the New Age movement. The body, the Hindis and New Agers believe, consist of power centers residing in key organs. These power centers are called chakras. The main chakras reside in the base of the foot, knees, groin, solar plexus, heart, throat and crown. Since the human consciousness resides in the head, the more powerful chakras reside in the upper half, from the solar plexus up. Aura from these chakras radiate more than the lower ones, and hence are more visible to the psychically attuned. It is for this reason that, Perez believes, an astral body may sometimes appear to be a flying torso, a form which folks have popularized as the manananggal.

The Manananggal as Anima
Pioneering psychologist Carl Jung believes in the multiplicity of the human psyche. As the human mind continually interacts with its environment, various aspects of the self continue to develop, depending on that psyche's role. A mature male, for instance, may have a female self, a child self, and an animal self within his subconscious. In extreme situations that cause psychological trauma, portions of the victim's psyche may be damaged that remain unhealed indefinitely. By means of hypnosis or regression, these repressed selves may be brought out to release emotions of anger and pain. In Baylans, the so-called wrath of the manananggal is the release of repressed anger by the beaten wife. I believe it is more than just coincidence that a high number of manananggal sightings occur in depressed areas of Manila, like Tondo, where poverty can cause domestic violence in a male-dominated society.