Category Archives: Folk Beliefs

Sleep Paralysis and Devils

Nationality: Chinese-Korean
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: Diamond Bar, CA
Performance Date: 4/21/2014
Primary Language: English
Language: Chinese

Sleep Paralysis

The Informant:

My friend, was born in Diamond Bar, CA. He is the son of a pastor whose church is in Diamond Bar. He lives with his parents and three younger siblings, a sister and two brothers. His father is Chinese and his mother is Korean.

The Story:

The first time that this happened to me was when I was either a sophomore or a junior in high school. I was lying on my bed, obviously in the middle of my sleep, when all of a sudden I realized I couldn’t move. I couldn’t move my body, I couldn’t scream, there was no air in my lungs. I tried to scream but couldn’t and I started to freak out. All of a sudden… I felt super cold, from top, my head, down, to my feet. I don’t remember if I was outside the blankets or inside but regardless I felt the wind. Suddenly I felt a heavy weight on my chest, as if something was sitting on it, and a shadow on top of me. I don’t really remember what happened after that. All of these instances blur together after a while. This was the first time it happened. After that it happened on a weekly basis for at least a year. There are times when I know it’s coming. You just feel like you’re getting really tired, or sometimes you can just sense something is off, as if there’s something in your room with you. I’ve never seen anything in my room though, and it always happens at night. There’s nothing I could do except wait for it to pass… and I’m always alone when this happens.

The Analysis:

This is a different occurrence of the scissor lock that my other friend experienced. We talked about this in his room, and a couple other friends were present. As he continued to tell his story, our other friends slowly became quiet, and then silent. The way Trevor spoke was genuine and even though such an occurrence would be questionable, there was no doubt in his voice that this was true. In Trevor’s instance, this happens on a semi-regular basis, with the last one occurring a couple months ago. Before that, it happened once a week or once every other week. There is no basis for why he goes through the scissor lock so often, but his actions showed that he doesn’t get used to it, even though it’s happened numerous times. It is creepy that this has happened so many times that they all seem to blur into one for him. One aspect that was interesting is that he is a pastor’s kid. This was one difference I noticed between him and my other informant on this same topic – it is probable that his stronger faith or adherence to Christianity has an affect on these continual occurrences. Whether it is due to faith or not, I wondered if it was the devil’s doing, and led me to question the existence of the devil and it’s many forms.

 

Researchers have attempted to examine the causes of the scissor lock, dubbing it generally as sleep paralysis: http://link.springer.com/article/10.1023%2FB%3ADREM.0000005896.68083.ae

A different version of sleep paralysis from someone not religious can be found at: http://kerryonian.wordpress.com/2013/01/11/the-experience/

Scissor Lock

Nationality: Korean
Age: 21
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: 4/25/2014
Primary Language: English
Language: Korean

Scissor lock

The Informant:

My friend, was born in Los Angeles, CA. He is an only child and stayed in Southern California his whole life. He came over to my room one day and I randomly asked him if he had any good stories. I asked him specifically if he ever heard about the scissor lock and he told me:

The Story:

You’re asleep. You wake up in the middle of the night and you’re in your room. You see a figure in a corner – a grandma. She’s a Korean grandma wearing traditional clothing, not the nice kind of the type that commoners and poor people wear, with gray hair. She’s sitting on a chair, moaning and weeping. You want to get up and talk to her but you can’t. All you can do is move your eyes. You look to the right and it’s a blank wall. You look back at the grandma and she’s gone. Suddenly you feel a presence at the base of your head. You want to look up but you can’t – you’re petrified. You want to do something but you can’t because you’re stuck. You can’t move. Then I started saying prayers and singing praise songs and everything went away.  You wake up with your arms crossed and hands on your shoulders, like a scissor.

 This never happened to me, thankfully, but I know people who have experienced it.

The Analysis:

The scissor lock is an occurrence that I first came across two years ago. When I asked my friend to tell me this story, it was late at night around 11pm. The room was very bright and the story did not seem scary at the time. The scissor lock appears to be a common occurrence among Koreans, Korean Christians especially. This version included specifically seeing a grandma clothed in old, dirty clothes. It is not known whether this is a general case of a specific case for just my friend. The name scissor lock appears to come from the position in which one wakes up in, with your arms crossed diagonally across the body.

Petting a wet dog = death by car accident

Nationality: American
Age: 20
Occupation: student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: 2014-04-29
Primary Language: English
Language: Spanish

“I don’t understand this one at all: my grandmother always used to say that if you pet a wet dog, you’d get hit by a car. I genuinely do not understand where she got an idea that stupid. But she told it to my dad and all of her children.”

The informant’s grandmother, who received no formal education, was born, lived, and died in Irapuarto, Mexico. The informant is generally mistrusting of all things he has learned from his grandmother, as he refers to most folk belief as “batshit.” Such beliefs hold no weight to him and serve only to be laughed at.

Don’t Comb Wet Hair

Nationality: American
Age: 20
Occupation: student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: 2014-04-29
Primary Language: English
Language: Spanish

The informant learned from his father, who learned from his mother, not to comb your hair when wet, as doing so would make you more susceptible to being struck and killed by lightning.

This belief is likely rooted in the observation of static electricity, a phenomenon which immediately evokes images of lightning.

The informant’s grandmother, who received no formal education, was born, lived, and died in Irapuarto, Mexico. The informant is generally mistrusting of all things he has learned from his grandmother, as he refers to most folk belief as “batshit.” Such beliefs hold no weight to him and serve only to be laughed at.

Roommates

Nationality: Thai
Age: 22
Occupation: Student
Residence: Orange County, CA
Performance Date: November 11, 2013
Primary Language: Thai (laotian)
Language: Thai (not Laotian)

Ghost Story – Bangkok, Thailand

            “So this story happened at the University of Chiang Mai. There were these two girls who were roommates, and they were best friends too actually. They lived on the, like, seventh floor, I think. Anyway, one evening, one of the girls, let’s just call her B asked her friend if she wanted to go grab dinner. Her friend felt like she had a fever and also had to stay up late to study. B was pretty worried about her friend so B told her friend that it was okay, she can go eat by herself. Her friend then asked B to bring some food back to her, some Pad Thai if possible. B agreed and said she would hurry back with the food. As the night grew, it started to rain heavily. B’s friend was too tired to study and couldn’t concentrate, or something like that, and so she went to sleep. But, then, of course she was worried about B because it was getting late, the rain was getting super intense, and the roads do get slippery and dangerous, especially outside the campus area. So apparently B fell asleep. But then she woke up in the middle of the night and heard some noises and they were getting closer. At first she thought B had come back but then she then heard a knock on the door, and realized it couldn’t be B because B has the keys. She slowly opened the door but then found no one. The only thing she saw was a paper bag with Pad Thai in it. She wondered where B was, why B didn’t come in, why B disappeared so fast, and why there was a trail of water along the hallway. She didn’t think too much of it and ate the food and took her medicine.

            In the morning, she found out that B had been raped and killed last night. B’s body was a complete mess. The murderer must have hit B with an iron rod or something because her arms and legs were broken. The rumor was that B was so worried about her friend that she used her chin to drag her body up the stairs and all the way to her friend’s door to give her the food. So yeah, I thought this was a disturbing story but then I thought it was kind of sweet how much B loved her friend.”

My friend, Tiptara, who like me, is from Bangkok heard this story from a friend at her high school back in Thailand. This story is not the most popular story, but the context of haunted dorms is the same as many cultures. Thai colleges are said to be especially haunted because many students come from the most rural areas into the big cities and provinces to receive a higher education. The stress and pressure to fit in and adjust to the city life, which is significantly different from life in the suburban areas, cause a lot of suicides, crimes, and rapes, which is why stories about ghosts in dorms are told throughout Thai culture. My friend believes that there this story might have been merely a rumor but it is based on a true story. Rapes are common occurrences in universities, and the University of Chiang Mai is located in the northern province of Thailand, where many parts of the area surrounding the university are abandoned businesses and buildings that the local people there do not go to. This creates a dangerous atmosphere for the students.

I personally believe in ghosts, therefore, I think this story could have truly happened. However, I believe that the most crucial point of this story is to express the meaning of friendship and the fact that nothing, even death, can come between connections between two real friends. Friends that can be trusted, relied on, and have people’s best interests are difficult to find, especially in universities, where there are high competition rates.