Monthly Archives: May 2021

Passing Ashes After Cremation

Nationality: American/Chinese/Japanese
Age: 21
Occupation: Student

Description: After a family member is cremated, the family would pass the remains across the family chopstick to chopstick.

Background: The informant observed this in his family during funerals.

Transcript:

ML: Another thing I’ve noticed more is that we can’t pass food from chopstick to chopstick. Ao whenever we’re eating, and we share, she puts it on my plate. Because passing stuff from chopstick to chopstick is reserved for family remains after a cremation. I think my dad is the same way too. I think in Japan when someone dies, they’re cremated and their ashes and stuff are put into a urn and the family members pass the pieces to each other into the urn. Yeah, so then whenever I’m about to grab something out of her chopstick, my mom gives me a dirty look.

My thoughts:

This entry would be considered both a ritual tradition as well as a taboo. It is more accurate to say that it is a taboo that resulted from common practice. Rituals for the dead is not uncommon in any culture, but it is often in Asian traditions that I tend to find taboos that come from such traditions. One easy example would be the taboo of stabbing one’s chopsticks on a bowl of rice, as that is usually reserved for an offering for the dead. The association itself is plenty direct most of the time, as it’s easy to see why one would want to separate actions for the dead from ones of the living as the dead do not belong there and not many want to think about death when living their daily life. Another function of those specific rituals are also to provide some sort of closure for relatives, allowing people to finally move on after the passing of a loved one.

Annotations: 

The expression of the old East Asian funeral art: Author: Dae-Youl Kim – 

https://www-dbpia-co-kr.libproxy1.usc.edu/journal/publicationDetail?publicationId=PLCT00000694

Salt After Funeral

Nationality: American/Chinese/Japanese
Age: 21
Occupation: Student

Description: After a funeral, people would put salt on themselves in order to keep spirits out of their home.

Background: The informant observed the ritual from his mother.

Transcript:

ML: My mom puts salt on herself before entering the house after a funeral.

Me: Is there a reason that your mom does that?

ML: I think it’s a japanese thing, it wards off spirits so they don’t enter your home. she sprinkles it on top of her head right before entering our house when she comes back. She tells us to leave the salt by the doorway when she goes to a funeral so she can just grab it and pour.

My thoughts:

In many traditions, salt is seen as a way to ward off spirits. While I do not know precisely why that is the case, I have a few theories. It might be tied to salt’s ability to preserve food, linking it to an ability to ward off death and decay. Of course, the entire concept of preventing evil spirits from entering your home is a staple in not just Japanese culture but Asian culture in general. Home is a sacred place because that is where we spend most of our time. Evil spirits can curse your house and give you family bad luck. So there are often rituals such as this to ward off and prevent bad spirits from entering the home. On the opposite side, there are also rituals, such as presenting offerings, to draw in good spirits to the home and create good fortune.

Sad Satan

Nationality: American
Age: 23
Occupation: Student

Description: Sad Satan is a video game that resides inside the deep web. It is said that the game contains numerous real images of gore, violence, and other illegal content. The existence of the actual game is undetermined.

Background: The informant obtained the information from a youtube channel.

Transcript:

BD: I have another video game one in mind, it was another retro style “indie” game called Sad Satan that made the rounds a few years ago. Essentially a youtube channel that focused on obscure horror games released a multipart playthrough of the series

Me: Is it a real game?

BD: Yes, but it’s also one of those situations where the “true” version is murky. Basically the guy that played it heard about it from a subscriber, and the subscriber said he found the game on a deep web forum board that was unrelated. I don’t know too much about the gameplay because I didn’t watch the gameplay videos myself, but from the looks of it everything looks very dark/surreal. The guy who made the original playthrough started posting his video around online asking for help on finding info about it, and as more people got involved the more the rumor developed. The rumor being that the game also contained images of gore, violence, and other extremely illegal images. Basically, the reason why this gets murky is bc of this:

-the guy “linked” a downloadable version in his youtube video but the link was broken

-said guy does an interview saying it did not contain those kind of images but later recants and says it did

-right before said guy publicly recants, someone going by the same name as the person who posted the game on the deep-web(who’s believed to be the developer) says that the rumors were true, and provides a downloadable link

-link does not work for many people, with some saying it went so far as to break their computers (but keep in mind this is happening on 4chan), but for those who do manage to open it, they say it does contain said images. It’s kind of complicated and confusing to explain. I was trying to think how to summarize it best. But yeah essentially it’s a creepy retro indie game that someone recorded in hopes of having people help him figure out the meaning of the game, which blew up into a bigger thing as more eyes found it.

My thoughts:

The deep web is often a source of illegal and unsettling activities. An example would be the red rooms. Because of this, there are many scary tales that come from the deep web, real or not. These kinds of tales, real or not, serve to entice our morbid curiosities. Of course, it’s entirely possible that such a game or multiple such games existed. The internet, with minimum security, is a place where anything can exist. The game itself existed but its the rumors of the gory and dark imagery that keeps it going around communities.

Polybius

Nationality: American/Greek
Age: 22
Occupation: Student

Description: Poybius is a possibly fictional arcade game that was created during the 90s. There are people who recalled that such a game cabinet existed but no physical copies exist. There are those that believe the cabinets were a part of the MK ULTRA secret experiments 

Background: The informant obtained the information through internet videos.

Transcript:

DT: The supposed creation of an arcade cabinet during the 90s called Polybius. Someone thought it existed, and it spread from there like a Mandela effect, of people remembering something that didn’t actually exist but potentially vaguely similar to it. It’s an urban legend that lasted for a while, and even got assumed it was a part of the MK ULTRA secret experiments. With conspiracy theories coming up that the cabinet was created by the government to give people nightmares as a way to test stuff that leaked from MK ULTRA.

Me: So it(the cabinet) didn’t really exist?

DT: It’s still kinda unclear if a cabinet of the like actually existed or not, but the video I saw concluded that it most likely wasn’t real. I forget the specific evidence to prove this but it’s still kinda up in the air. But regardless of its existence, the crazy effect it had on if people remembered it or not was what really got people involved with it.

My thoughts:

The 90s were a time where rumors about digital media were abundant. Things that come to mind were numerous video game rumors such as the Mew under the truck in pokemon. At the time, the internet was still in its infancy and information was not easily accessible nor entirely accurate. The coupled with the introduction of new technology gave rise to many rumors and theories. Polybius is an example of a product of that time, when people didn’t have ready access to information and when any kind of information can be spoken from anywhere.

Kanye Quest

Nationality: American
Age: 23 and 22
Occupation: Students

Description: A video game created in the RPG maker game engine. On the surface, it seems to be a regular role playing game centered around the musical artist Kanye West. However, there is a secret terminal within the game that eventually leads to the implication of cult recruitment and activity.

Background: Both informants received the information through internet videos.

Transcript:

TS: But basically there was an arg thing in it that people aren’t sure is like an Easter egg or actual cult recruitment (like 90% chance it’s the former but still)

BD: there’s a few video essays on it on youtube

BD: it was an rpg maker game. like the base game was kanye quest but there was a terminal you could enter a password into and it’d go into a weird pseudo game where you had to keep entering passwords and then if you got to the end there’d be a thing saying “congrats you ascended” and would ask if you wanted to move into the next step and if you selected yes it’d ask for your info but the version of the game that was playable didn’t have internet capabilities however original version is lost i believe bc the creator locked it

Me: How does Kanye tie into all that?

BD: Honestly it(Kanye) doesn’t, that’s just what the game was. If you didn’t know about the terminal there was a whole full-ledged game about kanye basically.

TS: Yeah like it was a meme rpg game totally unrelated to anything. That’s why the ARG cult stuff was such a surreal thing.

BD: Also because the cult(referenced in the game) is a real cult.

Me: Is there actual indication that it was real cult stuff?

BD: That’s where it gets murky, like since the game didn’t have internet capabilities people think it was just a thing to spook. There’s also rumors that that’s because it’s the second released version of the game if i remember.

My thoughts:

Cult recruitments through the medium of the internet is certainly not something that is unthinkable. I think what is interesting is how under the surface it is. A seemingly innocent game having cult implications if someone digs deep enough. It is a popular genre when it comes to internet mysteries. One example would be the popularity of the iceberg, where obscure knowledge and rumors about a specific topic is placed within an iceberg image, separated by how obscure the rumor or fact is. This kind of thing tends to be a recurring theme when it comes to the internet. As everything on the internet is somewhat public and monitored, people start to devise methods to encrypt their actions and the information that they want to spread. I think it’s the feeling of secrecy that makes these tales so compelling, the feeling that you are within a secret club for a specific hidden knowledge. Also the hidden sense of excitement and fear when something digital begins to affect the real world. In this sense that hook also applies to many ARGs that have existed. As for what I believe, I think that there is a good chance that the cult elements were real. It is not unthinkable for cults to recruit people through these obscure means, and having Kanye fans as a target does make sense in some ways (some fans worship him like a god).