Author Archives: cebi

Peganum Harmala

Nationality: U.S.A
Age: 22
Occupation: Student
Performance Date: 04/10/2018
Primary Language: English

The following story is collected from my friend. He is from U.S.A. This interview is done face-to-face. “A” refers to me, the collector. And “B” refers to the participant.

A:” Do you know any Iranian tradition?”

B: “Yes, Peganum Harmala. So it is essentially this plant, that is used in persian culture to bless someone in your family or someone for an important event. You get this plant, and burn it. It is very smelly and scent covers the whole place. You get the burned plant and put it on the person’s head. You wait until their body absorbs the smell. According to the myth, this keeps you safe and protected from people, who don’t like you. Smell is believed to protect you from the bad energy, other people sent to you.”

 

A:” Do you practice it?”

 

B: “Everytime I go back to visit my family, they do this to me. Especially if I achieved something important, we will do this since other people can be jealous of me and sent bad energy to me.”

Baba Vanga

Nationality: Russian
Age: 22
Occupation: Student
Residence: U.S.A
Performance Date: 04/15/2018
Primary Language: Russian
Language: English

The following story is collected from my friend. She lived in Russia for the most part of her life. Then she lived in England for few years and now lives in L.A. She talks about a mystical figure, who is famous in Western Europe. This interview is done face-to-face. “A” refers to me, the collector. And “B” refers to the participant.

A: “Do you know any mystical person?”

B: “So there was a woman who could see the future,  Baba Vanga, and in 1999, and she wrote a letter with her own predictions about the future. She said there is going to be a third world war in next 15 years between Muslims and Christians. First connection with a UFO in 2054 in Budapest, Hungary. This is going to be the first connection between aliens and human.”

A: “Is she famous in Russia?”

B: “She is famous in Russia and eastern Europe, everyone knows her.”

A: “Do people in Russia believe her?”

B: “Some do. She kinda predicted future wife of our president in 1990s. She saw that he was ill with…not cancer… I think a problem with his heart. She gave the exact date he will die.”

After this interview, I researched Baba Venga and found out she predicted certain events.

 

Fortune Teller

Nationality: Turkey
Age: 22
Occupation: Student
Residence: U.S.A
Performance Date: 04/08/2018
Primary Language: Turkish
Language: English

The following story is collected from my friend. She lived in Turkey for the most part of her life. Now she lives in the U.S.A. She talks about a mystical experience she had. This interview is done face-to-face. “A” refers to me, the collector. And “B” refers to the participant.

A: “Is there any interesting story you can tell me?”

B: “Last year, when I was walking around at the Beverly Center, a woman, with her daughter, approached to me and asked me if I have any problems in my life right now. At first, I thought she was crazy. But then she started talking about how the negative energy in my life affects my love life and academic life. Then she offered me to go to downstairs, so she can tell me more about my life. I thought she was a con artist, because she asked for money. But then she told me that, in her religion, there is usually no such things as dark magic, but she informed me that I am under the influence of a dark magic spelled by a woman, and that is the reason why everything in my life was unstable. She told me she can help me with it, but after she asked for more money, I just could not decide, and left her.”

A: “Did she tell you anything specific that is real?”

B: “She told me that, if there is something going well in my life, it will only lasts for a couple of days, like 10 to 15 days, but after that, everything just turns around and then it starts to go bad. She was right about this, my life is exactly how she explained it to me. Whenever a good thing happens, it does not last for too long.”

A: “Do you think she had mystical powers?”

B: “Yes I think she had some, but I don’t think everything she told me was true because of her mystical powers. If this is her job, I am sure she became good at understanding people quickly.”

I think it is interesting to see old traditions, like fortune telling, can be seen in very modern and urban places like Beverly Hills.

 

Unexplainable Alien Voice

Nationality: Russian
Age: 22
Occupation: Student
Residence: U.S.A
Performance Date: 04/15/2018
Primary Language: Russian
Language: English

The following story is collected from my friend. She lived in Russia for the most part of her life. Then she lived in England for few years and now lives in L.A. She talks about an event, which she considers to be unexplainable. This interview is done face-to-face. “A” refers to me, the collector. And “B” refers to the participant.

 

A: “Did you have any interesting experience in the past?”

B: “Yes. Okay so the story is this; Me and my friends were watching a movie together, and the most interesting thing ever happened to me… Guess I am kind of a boring person. It was me, my friend, and her sister watching a movie and then suddenly, the volume of the TV goes down to almost silent. Then we heard two guys in a very low voice talking in a language that is not distinguishable. Like a language that comes from outside of this world. Then a few seconds later volume of the tv goes up by itself. And movie continues. Me and my friends freaked out. I talked to my dad about this and he said, maybe it’s the people outside in the street and their radio interfered with our system but that does not make sense because we were watching it from a DVD player, which I don’t think has the ability to receive radio transmissions. Also, it was 10 years ago and we didn’t use the internet, so it can not be something related to that too. And I am not crazy, you can write that down, because my two friends heard it too. Very weird.”

A: “What do you think it was?”

B: “(Silence)… I don’t know… UFO”

A: “Do you believe in aliens?”

B: “I believe there are other intelligent beings in the universe… but I don’t prefer the word alien.”
In my opinion, she can not explain what really happened but she thinks it does not belong to this world.

 

Turkish Wolf

Nationality: Turkey
Age: 28
Performance Date: 04/19/2018
Primary Language: Turkish
Language: English

The following story is collected from my friend. He lived in Turkey for the most part of his life. This interview is done on phone. “A” refers to me, the collector. And “B” refers to the participant.

 

A:” Do you know any legends?”

 

B: :Turkish people had a nomadic culture many years ago. They would not stay in the same location for too long. They liked fighting but once they won the wars, they would just keep moving on rather than conquering the territory. When Turkish tribes moved from Asia to Anatolia, according to the legend, they lose their path. For few days, they can not find anyfood or water. Then just before they are about to die, a wolf show up. She is called “Asena”, which is a Turkish name still used this day. The wolf shows the way to water source and saves the people.The wolf is believed to save the Turks, and without her, there would be no Turks today.”

 

A: “Do people believe this?”

 

B: “Many people do. Over the years, it became a symbol for nationalism. There are organizations who call themselves; “Bozkurtlar” (The word means “Brownwolfs”). These people are right wing nationalist people and their symbol is the wolf, who saved the Turks. They even have a hand symbol that looks like a wolf. This wolf legend is very important for TUrkish identity”