Monthly Archives: November 2013

The Well of Lost Souls

Nationality: American
Age: 45
Occupation: Muralist / Mother
Residence: Los Angeles, California
Performance Date: November 12, 2013
Primary Language: English

“My second ghost story umm happened just only a few years back, maybe about three years ago. When my children and my sister decided to take a visit to the Queen Mary in Long Beach, California. Umm it was around Halloween time and they do a umm haunted ship or a haunted Queen Mary tour. Umm I’m kind of a scaredy cat and a chicken, so I went ahead and I sent my sister, who loves to be frightened and scared, with a portion of my family and I went ahead and decided to take a tour of the ship by myself with my two younger children.
So as we went ahead, and we started walking up and down the different floors, we decided to catch the end of a tour on one of the upper decks. So, as we were walking through, I guess it was the main deck to the back side of the ship, or which I believe is called the stern. We saw the tour enter this back umm entrance of the ship, so I -we- happened to be held back, because I think one of my children, her shoe was untied, so I went ahead and tied that. In that lapse of time, we kind of lost the group that we were following, but we know what area that they were going to go ahead and tour.
So we started walking down these red steel steps and my daughters were first and I was following behind them and as I made it to the bottom of that landing, I look up to my left and I see a sailor dressed in, I guess, its nautical clothing or a sailor’s outfit, but very dated. And he looked like he was behind a boiler, so I kind of shook my head and continued to walk through this what looked like an empty office with a lot of windows, a panoramic view basically of the bay. As I was walking through this area, I had a very uneasy feeling and at the same time, my middle daughter, she turned to me and she said “we need to get out of here and we need to get out of here now.” So I asked her “what happened, what happened?” And she says” we just need to get out of this place right now.” So we left that area of the ship and we went back to the main deck to catch some air. And when we arrived up at that upper deck, I asked her what happened and she said while she was there and even though we were the only ones now that were touring that area, because we had lost the other group. She said that there was a hand that or this pressure that came across her neck and was squeezing her neck very tightly and making sure that she understood that there was a presence there with her, but not a good presence, a bad presence. So between my daughter’s incident and what I saw and the sickening in my stomach, I was convinced that I needed to go and either find a historian or talk to somebody who knew of the sightings of the Queen Mary.
In my head, I kept on hearing this… this… I don’t want to say a voice, but I kept on hearing “the well of lost souls.” It was repetitious in my head. And the more this was happening the more I was desperate to find somebody who had answers for the way I was feeling and the incident that happened to my daughter. So when I finally got to the entrance, mind you, of the Queen Mary, which is also on the main deck, but kind of I guess it’s the lobby, they directed me to a historian who was in the bookstore. And I had told him of my account and what I had seen and what my daughter had seen. They had confirmed that yes the sailor that I saw is a frequent spirit that is always there and is always seen. That the ill feeling I had in my stomach and this word of “the well of lost souls” umm because what happened in that area that we were touring happened to be behind the – in front- of the infirmary umm and below that was the morgue. They had told me also that their main offices was in that portioner that area of the ship, but because there was so many sightings and incidents they had to relocate all the Queen Mary corporation offices off of that area and actually on to the main land. So, that was a little strange.
They also told me that the ship in itself had actually 49 deaths that happened on the ship and it was also called the Grey Ghost. Because Not only was it a luxury liner, but in World War II, it was a transport ship, so that’s why it was called the Grey Ghost, because they had painted it grey. During that time that it was a transport ship, there was an incident in the atlantic as it was crossing the atlantic with a sister ship, where the sister ship was sinking and the Queen Mary was zigzagging through the debris of this fallen ship and they had left behind 300 survivors in the water, of shark infested waters. So here you have also a guilt I guess, of these 300 people -I’m sorry- ya 300 people that were suffering in freezing cold water with sharks that were left at sea and either got eaten by the sharks or drowned. So since then, I do not go back to the Queen Mary and will not go back to the Queen Mary even though it is a tourist attraction, because I will never want that experience or wish that experience on anybody. I hope you enjoyed my second story and thank you for listening.”

Analysis:

Firstly, this story shows a harmful and unfamiliar ghost. In the sighting and incident, the ghost appeals to the senses. In the case of the storyteller, she sees him. In the case of her daughter, she feels a pounding on her neck. It is important to notice that ghosts can be perceived in different ways and not solely through sight. Secondly, this story draws a line between official and unofficial history. Most people are not aware of thew massive and horrible 300 person death in the seas. The Queen Mary tries to bury this secret and the ship is haunted by its guilt in a sense, because the ship has frequent sightings. Lastly, it is important to notice the way in which the Queen Mary staff talk about these stories, because it shows that ghost storytelling is a business in which money can be made.

The Helping Hands

Nationality: Indian
Age: 18
Occupation: Freshman Student at University of Southern California
Residence: Los Angeles, California
Performance Date: 11/13/13
Primary Language: English
Language: Hindi

This story was told to me by a fellow student, Priya, and is a personal experience of hers involving an eerie yoga camp.

Priya: ” So we were in yoga camp, and yoga camp already has a creepy vibe cause it was beside a mental asylum, like actually because you know they say yoga is therapeutic.  So we were all split into groups and we had to do dances, and I was with my friend, and my friend and I went to this auditorium and there was no one there…are you listening? Well ok,  And it was this HUGE auditorium, no one else was there everyone else was at dinner, and we had to like set up for our performance and whatever, and this never happens, but we were on stage and between like these HUGE curtains, like they were HUGE, um and the lights go off.  And like I grab her, and we like entangled for a couple of seconds, and it was freaky cause it was dark, and like we were young, and away from our parents, and we thought that we would get raped, and the lights came back on and we ran.  And then I talked to her and I was like, ‘I’m so glad I had you to hold on to,’ and she was like, ‘what do you mean.’ *nervous laugh* IT WAS SO WEIRD, it was so weird cause it was like I held on to hands, its not like I held on to some pillar I held on to actual hands, like around me, no one else was on stage just me and my friend the whole auditorium was completely empty…it was weird, it already had this really creepy, like if you went into some parts it had these creepy vibes. (in reference to the yoga camp).”

Me: ” So you it was just you two , you went in, the lights went off, you hugged someone…”

Priya: ” we were leaving, onstage, and we were getting on to leave, and we were onstage between the curtains, and the lights go off, and then I grab like I just grabbed someone in between the curtains, because I thought she was right in front of me, so I just grab hands, like actual hands, and then we ran because it was so creepy, and then we ran back to the dinner place and then I was like ‘I was glad I had you to hold on to’ and she said ‘you didn’t hold my hand.’  I mean I didn’t want to think about it much then because I had to think about the dance performance or whatever…but ya…”

Priya decided to tell this story because it was something from her childhood that still affects her, and since it was at a vulnerable stage in her life.  She felt that yoga is a pretty creepy thing, because it is usually an out of body experience, and she felt that there is something surreal, ethereal about it.  She and fellow campers found out there was a mental asylum near by, before this incident, and the camp became eerie after they found out.

This is a great story, following the story themes of “creepy camp” surroundings, near by threat (mental asylum), and psychological affects of being separated from protection (camp away from parents.)  Priya pointed out she was young and away from her parents when she experienced this, showing how she felt vulnerable to danger.  This vulnerability is specifically pointed out when she mentions that they were afraid of getting raped, also a theme most tragic ghost storied involve.  This was also a liminal period in her life, when she was growing up and adjusting to being a teenager.  She mentions they found out about the asylum before this incident, so they were already weary of scary things to occur.  Add that to the fact they were alone in an overwhelmingly large building, and you have the perfect setting for terror to occur.  With the “huge” curtains and stage, Priya could imagine “something” easily lurking in the darkness.  The fact that the lights going off in the stage “never happens” makes Priya and her friend feel something has gone wrong, and strange stuff can occur when things are out of place.  Priya talks to her friend afterwards and thanks her for her comforting support, and when the friend replies that she did not hold on to Priya, they both come to the conclusion, based on the eerie camp and mental asylum near by, that something “not human” held Priya, since they were both alone, and felt vulnerable to attack.  She mentions again and again the creepy vibes the camp gave her, so this conclusion was easy to come to for them.  The fact that she held actual hands stuck with her, because of the creepiness of the contrast from the emotional support she got in the moment and the horrible discovery afterwards.  She also validates the asylum’s nearness to the camp, stating that yoga is therapeutic, so the patients in the mental asylum could use the camp to their benefit, and may even haunt some areas in the camp.

The White Figure

Nationality: Indian
Age: 50
Occupation: Family and Marriage Counselor (Therapist)
Residence: California
Performance Date: 11/12/13
Primary Language: English
Language: Hindi, Tamil

This ghost story was told to me by my mother, Radha, who lives in Northern California and is a family therapist for a living.  It was told to her by her father, who claims it all to be completely true.

“It was a dark night, and three men, including my dad, were driving back home from a business meeting,” she starts.  “They had a flat tire and it delayed them, so when they did start to drive, the only road they could take back was very dark and desolate. They only had their headlights to see ahead.  There was not one soul out there.”  “They were concerned another tire would go flat, so they wanted to get home as quickly as possible.  However, as they started driving down the road, they saw a narrow bridge in the distance, one they would have to cross.  On that narrow bridge, they saw a white figure standing near the side.  Their hearts pounded as they drove closer to the white figure, and as they approached the bridge, they saw it was a crazy woman, in all white clothing, with crazy eyes and flowing black hair.  She stared at each one of them through the car with a deranged smile, and even touched the car.”  “They screamed and sped through the bridge, and when they looked back to the bridge moments after seeing her, she vanished.”

My mom wanted to tell this story because it was an interesting family anecdote for her, and also partly to scare me as a child.  She heard it from her father, and remember him being too terrified to tell the story than to have any motive to scare my mom.

This story has all the classic elements of a ghost story: dark night, lonely road, and “white” ghost.  The stark contrast of the white woman in the dark of the night makes this story all the more scary.   The men were already weary of danger, because of a flat tire that caused them to delay and want to rush home through the darkness.  They almost subconsciously anticipated danger, because of their surroundings and unstable car. My mother also claimed that my grandfather found out there was a mental asylum near the road.  They figured the ghost had come from there to haunt anyone who passed.  The deranged smile the woman had led the men to believe she was in fact insane, and intent on them driving off the road.  The fact that she allegedly touched the car made the horror real for the men.  My mother used to replicate the deranged face of the woman in order to scare me and my brother even further when she told us this story.  This ghost story could serve as a warning to be weary when you drive on dark roads, cause there may be dangers ahead.

The Organ Ghost

Nationality: Filipino/White
Age: 18
Occupation: Student
Residence: Seattle, Washington
Performance Date: 10/31/13
Primary Language: English

This story is told by a girl who used to go to Holy Names Academy, an all-girls Catholic high school in Seattle, Washington.

 

“They [the school teachers] told us this story once. There was a girl that used to go to Holy Names – all-girls school, right? – and then she wanted to um…she, like, found a guy. She was gonna go get married. And they were gonna go get married at the chapel that was in the school, right? But her husband left her at the altar. And so, she became a nun, because she couldn’t get married to her first love, so she became a nun, and she was working at the school. And she would play the organ – cuz she could play the organ, right? – so she would play it for the different weddings and things like that. And, you know, when you’re playing the organ, you’re not facing anybody, you’re just facing the wall and the organ, right? And one day, she looked back during one of the weddings, and she sees the guy that she was supposed to marry marrying someone else. And she got really upset, and so she committed suicide. But now it’s like rumor that sometimes you can hear the organ being played throughout the school – like in the chapel, when there’s no one in there. I’ve heard it before when no one was supposed to be in the chapel and wasn’t sure what to make of it, but turns out the janitor was just messing around with us.”

 

I was surprised to collect this story from this girl. She claims that she “does not believe in ghosts, but is still scared of them”. She told me this story on the evening of Halloween, so the atmosphere was apt for the story. When telling the story, she seemed fascinated by it and expected me to share her fascination (as is indicated by the various times she asks “right?”). It seems interesting that although she claims to not believe in ghosts, she still is scared of them (especially during 3am, which she believes is the ghost hour), and is somehow still fascinated by this story. She even for a second wondered whether a ghost had actually been playing the organ instead of the janitor. This indicates that perhaps she is too scared to admit that she believes in ghosts, perhaps for fear of being made fun of or for fear that then the ghosts will be more apparent to her.

The narrative itself seems like a very typical ghost story, with the motif of a forlorn lover and a bride left at the altar who now haunts the place where her lover betrayed her. Furthermore, the fact that the teachers of the school tell this story and pass it on suggests that this story and this ghost are a part of that school and its community, which can bring the students together.

The Ghost on the Stairs

Nationality: American
Age: 18
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: November 12, 2013
Primary Language: English

                In the house where I lived there used to be a family that lived there and they moved to the city while we were still there because their oldest daughter was still in high school and there were two brothers.  One was a senior in high school and the other was a sophomore in college and they were at a party one night and they were drunk and they had an argument because one of the brothers was going to join the army and the other one was like, “That’s really stupid, don’t do that.”, and so it got so heated that the younger one was like, “Fine.  I’ll just walk home. Don’t give me a ride.”  So, he decided he was going to walk across the freeway and he didn’t make it home and he got hit by a car.  So like in my house.. so his bedroom was right next to my bedroom and we’ve had people come over to our house who don’t like believe in ghosts and spirits and they’ve sworn that when they are coming up the stairs that they’ll like see something at the top of it or they feel a presence there and we assume that it’s the ghost of the boy.

                This story was the first story told in a ghost story telling session.  She was perfectly calm and was eager to tell the story and while she told the story a friend made sounds effects such as screaming during the car crash and a ghostly moan with the mention of seeing the ghost at the top of the stairs.  She truly believes that her house is haunted by the boy who wanted to join the army, but they find that he isn’t a bad ghost, but rather just haunts the house.  The boy’s death was a bad death, because he died young and after a heated argument, which is probably the reason why he became a ghost and haunts this house.  The popular stair motif is exhibited in this story, since at the the top of the stairs is usually the location in which people see the ghost of the boy.  I believe her when she says that her house is haunted by the ghost of the son of the family that previously lived there.