“I grew up in Rancho Penasquitos, CA, which is apparently built on an Indian burial ground. There were often stories about strange sightings or occurrences in the neighborhood that we didn’t really pay attention to until we started experiencing strange things ourselves. They always involved water. One time, I walked into my bedroom on a warm summer day and stepped into a freezing puddle of water on the carpet. There was no apparent cause or source. I blotted it up and forgot about it. This happened around the house from time to time with no logical explanation but nothing scary that would make us consider moving. It all culminated one night when my step dad bolted up in bed because he felt cold water on his feet. He turned the light on to see that the comforter wasn’t wet at all. When he threw back the comforter, he saw a puddle forming on the sheets under his feet! That was the last occurrence I remember in that house.”

Context: The informant, 61, grew up in Rancho Penasquitos, California; these events occurred during his childhood.

Interpretation: The association of haunted places in the U.S. being built atop Native American burial grounds is a popular trope used to explain supernatural events. This likely stems from a collective guilt-fueled fear that modern Americans will be repaid for the atrocities of colonization (by the spirits of Native Americans killed by colonizers). Even if the strange events themselves aren’t violent in nature, they are more easily confirmed by this belief shared among residents of Rancho Penasquitos, perhaps strengthening a sense of identity and belonging within that group.

Text:

3 years ago, the informant did a past life regression hypnosis to look into herself and understand why she has had such trouble with romantic love. In the hypnosis, she received the image of herself laying in bed with someone that she felt very in love and connected with. At the end of the guided hypnosis, she was told to go to the moment of her death. In the vision, she saw herself crying in a field, grieving the loss of the aforementioned lover as well as the loss of a child through miscarriage. After the hypnosis, she felt that there was one person (the lost lover) that she was separated prematurely from in her past life, and that she was meant to reconnect with them in this life. 

Two years later, the informant was in her apartment in college when she began doing tarot card readings because of what she felt was a very strong connection to the spiritual realm, as a medium. She had never been able to successfully do a reading for herself, and felt that this was because the spiritual realm did not want her to act as a medium for herself. As she was shuffling the cards one day, however, two cards flew out at her. The cards signified a lover from the past coming back into her life, and the second signified a miscarriage in the past.

Context:

The informant knows this myth from her own experience, from a guided past life regression hypnosis that she did herself. She believes that her connection to the spiritual realm allows her to do accurate and reliable tarot card readings. This is because rather than simply pulling the cards and knowing their meanings, she believes that the universe uses her openness towards it to communicate things to others. She uses these two experiences to understand why she hasn’t found love with anyone yet in this life, because she believes that the tarot cards verified the images that she was shown from her past life. The experience felt almost paranormal to her.

Analysis:

The informants performance of this past life regression shows her longing to understand the mysteries of our existence here. Her connection to the universe that she believes allows her to act as a medium tells us that she believes the answers to these mysteries lie in the universe and spiritual realm. These beliefs of the informant are very clear examples of our human longing to have any understanding of why we are here and the mysteries of our existence. The informant’s willingness to accept the tarot cards’ messages as well as her visions in her past life regression exercise as the truth exemplify our willingness to cling to any sign of how we are here, because having any sort of belief in these messages gives us a level of comfort about our existence. Ultimately, much of humanity wants to feel like we have some sort of understanding of our existence on Earth and the mystery of what happens after. This is why many turn to religion. Much like religion, this informant’s experience is another example of trying to make sense of the universe and our creation.

Text:

There is a ghost of a little girl that stands on the side of the freeway in small towns, and if you stop to talk to her, she will be able to follow you home and haunt you. 

Context:

The informant heard this myth from her peers in elementary school. It was told in her town about a freeway in the hills where, allegedly, the ghost of a little girl lived and would get in the cars of anyone who stopped to talk to her. The informant then kept the myth going by continuing to tell people after her. The myth was very scary to the informant and her sister as children. 

Analysis: 

This ghost story exemplifies the myths that spread easily around small towns where there is a large sense of community and strong relationship with home. Because the informant comes from a very small town, everyone who hears this myth knows the exact area of the freeway that it is about, and so the myth quickly becomes well known. It also acts as an example of society’s fascination with paranormal activity, because while ghost stories like this frighten their audiences, they also must excite them to some degree, because they continue to be told and remembered. 

Text:

When the informants grandmother died, she requested that her ashes be spread in the ocean, and her mom (the informant’s great-grandmother) died shortly before, requesting that her ashes be spread somewhere tropical. The informant’s family decided, then, to spread both of their ashes together in the ocean near a small beach in Maui. During the ash spreading ceremony, the informant’s family paddled far out on surfboards and, in ceremony, released fallen plumeria flowers that they had found out into the sea. 

Four years later, the informant, her sister, and her cousin (who had all been present for the aforementioned ash spreading ceremony years before) went out to the same beach at sunset. Two of them swam out to where they had done the ceremony years before, with the last staying on the shore. Then, they all released plumerias for their grandmother again, the two of them releasing them from their place in the ocean, and the other releasing them from the shore. The next morning, they returned to the beach, the same two going out to swim in the ocean and the last staying on shore, again. Suddenly, the cousin on shore saw a plumeria lei floating towards her from the sea, all the way into her hands. Then, two more plumeria leis floated towards the cousins in the ocean, seemingly from nowhere. They believe that these plumeria offerings must have come from their grandmother. 

Context: 

The informant knows this myth/story from her own experience with her family members. The family members all know and appreciate this story as well. The informant, along with everyone else in her family, believes the plumeria offerings to have been a message from their grandmother, and use this experience as a sign that her grandmother is not completely gone, and is always with them. 

Analysis: 

This story exemplifies the tendency that so many people have to not accept that their loved ones are truly gone. Because we do not truly know what happens after our lives on Earth, we are inclined to believe whatever comforts us most about the mystery of our existence. Believing that our loved ones are still here, all around us, helps us to make sense of their deaths and the loss of someone who was once always around. When paranormal experiences such as the informant’s experience with the plumeria leis happen, we want to believe in any kind of sign that our loved ones still exist. This could be both because of our love for our late friends and family, and also because of the fear that much of society has of ourselves completely disappearing after we pass on.