Category Archives: Folk Beliefs

College Ghosts

Age: 19

Date: 12/3/24

Language: English

Collector’s Name: Lia

Nationality: American

Occupation: Student

Primary Language: English

Residence: United States

Subject: I haven’t personally experienced any ghost stories myself, but there is a story in my dorm about some freshmen with spirits. Would that work?

Interviewer: Definitely. Could you tell me a little about it?

Subject: Sure. Okay, in August of the 90s, three freshman guys were roommates. Two of the guys were trying to join a fraternity, and the last roommate was a little bit different from the other two. Let’s call him Jake. Jake spent a lot of time in his room alone, was not that conversational, and secluded himself from the other roommates. One night, Jake randomly invited the other two roommates to partake in a haunted ritual to connect with spirits. The roommates were excited that Jake might finally begin to open up, so they agreed. 

Interviewer: Wait, so there wasn’t any sort of hesitation from either of the roommates about a haunted ritual they are only just hearing about? 

Subject: No, not at all, really. They are teenage boys who likely felt invincible and thought the whole thing wasn’t real. Jake started telling them about how to perform the ritual, which needed to take place in the haunted dorm room of the college. The three roommates walked over to this room that nobody stays in anymore, and messed with the lock to get in. Jake instructed them on how to begin the ritual, where each person would stand in one corner of the room with their eyes closed, leaving one corner of the room vacant. In increments, all of the boys would switch corners. They repeated this process on Jake’s command until being told to abruptly stop. Jake told them all to slowly open their eyes and shift their heads to the vacant corner. They all did as he instructed, and in the corner was a boy, one that looked just about their age. He was a little bit translucent, and his eyes had been scratched out from their sockets. There was dried blood all over his hands. The most notable thing about him, they say, is just how silent he was. His presence could take noise away from anything around him and leave this empty silence. Until he began to scream. He screamed the loudest any of the boys had ever heard, and all of the roommates covered their ears with their hands. He continued to scream with his piercing, angry voice and then started to walk towards the roommates. Immediately they all ran out of the room, closing it behind them. They returned to their dorm, trying to find somewhere that felt safer. They locked themselves inside of their room and sat down trying to catch their breath. Slowly, one another looked at each other, noticing that each of their eyes had scratches around it, and were slowly starting to swell. 

Interviewer: Did anyone else in the dorm building hear any of this?

Subject: It is a very well-known story, but that night nobody but the three roommates heard anything. Now, people who have a dorm room near the haunted one claim that every once and a while they will hear screams through their wall, but only one room can hear it at a time. Nobody really knows who that boy is, or what his story is. 

Child’s View

Age: 19

Date: 12/2/24

Language: English

Collector’s Name: Lia

Nationality: American

Occupation: Student

Primary Language: English

Residence: The United States

Some people claim to have the ability to sense spirits. Something in their presence is apparent only to particular individuals. This story comes from a girl whose mother had always been taken aback by her daughter who seemed to see things that others couldn’t. 

“Ever since I was young, my mom had told people that I was a bit of a weird kid. I had these tendencies that left my mom feeling pretty on edge. I would sleep, talk and walk a fair amount at night, which is kind of scary in and of itself. I just did a lot of things that put me out of place. I think things can become scary when they are offset from their typical routine, so when you see a four-year-old in the middle of the night walking around and talking to something that doesn’t seem to exist, I would definitely understand why my mom would get kind of freaked out. 

Things became a little more real for my mom when I started to tell her about the things I would see in the house. There wasn’t anything special about our house that I know of. I have never been told that it is haunted or has been built on any historic lands or anything. I was too young to remember any of this, but have been told about this night several times by my mom. It was a weekend, and we stayed up in the living room to watch some TV together. Once it got late enough into the night, my mom picked me up from the couch where I had fallen asleep. My father was away on a work trip, and all of my younger siblings had gone to bed already. I was being carried up the stairs, with my chest to her chest. My mom put me in my room to sleep and then shut the door. She must have waited in the hallway for a couple of minutes or so, doing something on her phone. She tells me that as she was standing in the hallway leaning on the wall, my bedroom door opened, and I stepped outside, facing her in the hallway. She was super confused as to why I had woken up, and why I was standing in the hallway facing her in the middle of the night. With my eyes still closed, I lifted my arm and pointed towards her. I whispered, “Mom, do you see what’s behind you?” My mom was immediately scared, and did not turn around, but picked me up and guided me directly back into my room. She tucked me in, and I went back to bed with no problem. Apparently, this wasn’t the first time I had done this, and it wouldn’t be the last. Each time it happens, the next morning I wake up and can describe exactly who I had seen the night before.”

What’s Behind the Curtain?

Nationality: American

Age: 21

Occupation: Vet tech

Residence: San Rafael, CA

Performance Date: December 2nd, 2024

Primary Language: English

Language: English

Main Description:

“So I was staying in Fort Bragg at my dad’s house and I was getting ready to take a shower and I think my dad was in town or something like he was going shopping like grocery shopping. and so the fan in the bathroom doesn’t work. So there’s there’s a door that goes to the outside because there’s an outdoor shower also. So we keep the door cracked when we shower inside just to let the moisture out. So, you know, it makes the shower curtain billow a little bit, so I get in the shower and the shower curtain is billowing because of the air flow. 
And um at one point, I lean against the shower curtain, and it’s as hard as a rock, like I push against it and it does not move. Um and so I take a step back and I look around the shower curtain. There’s nothing there. 
And the shower curtain is still like billowing a little bit. So I was just kind of left like what the hell was that? But I think it was a shower or not a shower. 
It was a bathroom ghost. Fort Bragg bathroom ghost, just I don’t know what he was doing. He was leaning against a shower curtain. 
That’s all.”

Informants Opinion:

JS: What do you think that ghost was doing there?

OG: “I think he’s stuck in the bathroom so he just hangs around and listens to people sing in the shower.”

Personal Opinion:

It’s hard to say what this could mean but to my assumption it would have to do with the previous owner of the house not wanting others using their shower or even living in their house. Or maybe it’s a more kind approach and they’re simply visiting their former home to see who’s living there.

Family Comfort

Collector’s Name: Aarushi Kumar

Nationality: Indian

Relationship: Mother 

Occupation: Employed

Performance Date: November 30, 2024

Age: 53

Primary Language: Hindi

Context: When talking about ghost stories with another subject, K willingly chimed in with her story. To maintain confidentiality, names and adjectives suggesting relations to the interviewer have been removed. This recollection has been transcribed from the interviewee’s native language, Hindi, to English. 

A.K is the interviewer, K is the interviewee

Transcription: 

[A.K] Do you see any of your loved ones who have passed away in your dreams?

[K] I have very vivid dreams, yes. I see “Daadi” (the subject’s mother-in-law) more than [her husband] does– he never sees her, but I do. 

[A.K] And what is she doing?

[K] Oh, she’s always doing what she did before she died. Cooking food, sitting at the dining table, chatting on the phone. It’s like she never left.

[K] I often see my mom in my dreams. She appears usually, uh, after big events, like when I got into the car crash– the one by the stop sign– and she’s always there to give me advice. She never speaks- she normally gives me, like, a nod or a smile from the corner [of the room], but that- that is her way of saying what she needs to say. Like when I got married– I did not want to get married at all. I really didn’t! I argued so much with [her father]. But, the night before the wedding, I saw my mother in my dreams with a reassuring smile. That’s how I knew I would be okay, and only then did I feel ready to marry. 

The Subject’s Thoughts: 

[A.K] Why do you think you see her so vividly and only in crucial moments of your life?

[K] She is watching over me. I think she is resting peacefully, but she died so young. She didn’t get to raise her children properly, and I think that is what makes her reappear in my dreams. She wants to raise me, so she.. I think she does it in the afterlife by showing up in my dreams.

My Thoughts: 

K’s story demonstrates a very heartwarming instance of an ancestral ghost story. 

It’s common for people to see their loved ones in their dreams, and, like in K’s story, they often are there to provide some sort of reassurance. For K, her mother appears to her in very anxious moments of her life, and K always feels calmer and more in charge after her appearance. Often, as an adult, there are fewer sources of comfort for people to turn to because you are usually emotionally and physically farther away from your birth family, and this is the case for K as well. Having her mother make appearances, therefore, is very important to K because it’s one of the only times when she can feel not alone. This is especially important to note for K’s instance because K immigrated to the United States and away from her family 3 decades ago. She has been very isolated from her birth family due to this, so these appearances by her deceased mother help bridge the distance between her childhood and her adulthood. 

It is also important to note the cultural background of this story. K had an arranged marriage, a custom that was very standard at the time in India, and her reluctance to get married makes more sense in this context. She would have rather stayed in India with her birth family, but the marriage opened the door to a new family and, soon after, a new home across the globe. Although she is very happy with her life now, K describes how she always misses home. Seeing her mother in her dreams is a way to go back home without physically going back, adding to why it is so comforting for K.

Grandpa’s Voice

I was up late with my roommate and his friends and we were chatting about all sorts of things when I finally asked them if anything unusual had ever happened to him. My roommate said nothing while one of them, a 19 year old from Shanghai named K.H., told this chilling story. 

“So I was at my grandma’s house. I used to go over a lot just to keep her company because my grandpa had died so she was lonely and sad. Anyways so I was just sitting in the living room, scrolling through my phone, and out of nowhere I hear my name. Like, really clear. I froze, looked around, but there was no one there. I just kinda sat there, like, okay, whatever, maybe I’m just hearing things. So, I get up to grab my charger, and as I walk past the hallway, I swear, I see something move out of the corner of my eye. It was like a shadow, or maybe the way the light hit, but it was just… wrong. I don’t know. I honestly was too nervous to check so I ignored it, but the whole time I felt like someone was watching me. Then, right as I’m about to leave the kitchen, I hear my name again. This time, from the back of the house. Now this voice sounded exactly like my grandpa who had died. It was scary as hell so of course I quickly went into the living room where I found my grandma still sitting there, reading her book, completely calm. I didn’t say anything to her, but I swear it happened. I’m pretty sure it was the ghost of my grandpa. Or I’m just schizophrenic haha.” 

When K.H. finished, I didn’t know what to say. It wasn’t some crazy ghost story, just quiet, personal, and kinda eerie. My roommate shrugged like it was nothing, but it stuck with me. The part that got me was his grandma, just sitting there like nothing happened. Maybe she didn’t hear it. Or maybe she did.