Author Archives: Kawai Chik

Collection 2: Ghost in the bedroom by Karen Chik

Nationality: Phillipino and Japanese
Age: 51
Occupation: Psychiatrist
Performance Date: October 29th, 2011
Primary Language: English

The subject is the mother of my friend here at USC. She told me this legend that personally happened to her. The subject came down to USC for parent’s weekend, which is when I learned of this ghost story. I met her in my friend’s room and interviewed her, with her husband and several of my friends surrounding us. The subject’s encounter with the ghosts and apparitions first happened to her around five years ago, and again a second time around a year apart- so four years ago. To understand this story, it is important to know her family background- her grandmother’s profession in particular. This legend is important to the subject because it is the spiritual connection between her deceased grandmother and her.

Transcript of the story:

So I was lying in bed, maybe 1 in the morning, and I was still awake, and I could see like a white gauzy-smokey film intertwined with black gauzy film and I was watching it. And I could see little children dancing at the foot of the bed. And I nudged [my husband] and I was like “Look! Do you see that?” And he’s like “No I don’t see anything” And I said “Don’t you see the apparition above our bed, and the children dancing at the foot of our bed?” And then another time this happened was maybe 12:30 in the morning and this happened again and I woke him up again but this time there was no little children by the bed, just the apparition on the ceiling. And I know I’m awake because I am having this whole conversation with him.

You should probably know the background to my family history in order to understand this story. My grandmother is called a ‘kahuna’, which is the Hawaiian culture is a priestess, which is an intermediary between the spirit world and people, and in particular madam pele who is the goddess of fire. She acted as an intermediary between the people who needed Madam Pele’s help by taking offerings like whiskey and roast pork and she would be able to walk over hot lava and throw it into the volcano to offer to Madam Pele to take care of the people’s problems. 

The time when the ghosts appears to me was around the time of the anniversaries of my grandmother’s passing. When I asked and talked to my dad about this (because my dad also sees apparitions), he said it was probably your grandmother because it was around the time that she passed.

I personally believe this ghost story because it happened to the subject more than once. It also has a very strong symbolic connection and meaning, because the apparitions appear during the anniversary of the subject’s grandmother’s passing. It is also in the bedroom, which as we have learned in this class is where a person is most vulnerable (Davies 2007). Moreover, her profession when she was alive was to communicate with the spirits, so it makes sense that she would visit the living after death, because she was capable of supernatural abilities even when she was alive.

 

Works Cited:

Davies, Owen. The Haunted. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007. Print.

Collection 1: Ghost in the forest by Karen Chik

Nationality: European
Age: 18
Occupation: Student
Performance Date: October 19th, 2011
Primary Language: English
Language: French

The subject, a current student at University of Southern California, and a personal friend of mine, told me this legend about her friend’s mom in Switzerland. I asked my friends in my dorm room if they had any ghost stories, and my friend, the subject, stepped up. The subject learned of this ghost story when she was at a sleepover in middle school. As a standard activity at a sleepover, the subject and her friends started telling ghost stories, when her friend’s mom volunteered to tell a legend that personally happened to her. This event happened to her friend’s mom when she was a teenager, when she lived in Rochester, New York.

Transcript of the legend:

My friend’s mom was driving in the car with her and a couple of friends down this like isolated forest where a little girl had been murdered a couple years back. So as they were driving they heard some like random screaming but they didn’t think it was anything so they continued driving. But the screaming gets louder and louder and then like all of a sudden they see like a figure run past the car and they freak out and they like stop the car and then they look in the forest and they see the dead corpse of the girl who was like walking in the forest. They knew it was the girl because apparently she was wearing the clothing they found her in, because they found that girl’s dead body in a particular clothing that was torn up. They had pictures on the news and stuff because it was a known murder and it was a small town. They sped off and just went home and told their parents, and the parents though they were lying but to this day her mom refuses to drive past the forest in Rochester. 

It is very common for ghosts to appear at the place where they died because it has strong emotional connections to the deceased. I believe that there would be an apparition where the girl died, because she was murdered and therefore has unfinished business. Not only was there a visual, but there was also auditory sensory of the girl screaming. I believe that the ghost of the girl is there to warn people of the dangers that a forest- a place where danger lurks.