Category Archives: general

The Women on the Road

Age: 54

Nationality: Guatemalan

Occupation: Nanny

Residence: Los Angeles, CA

Performance Date: November 28, 2024

Primary Language: Spanish

Language: English

Story

EG: “Has there been a time where you witnessed and unexplainable occruence?”

CDL: ” Hmm. not directly, but my dad has told me a couple stories. Well, here’s one of them… One night my dad and his friend decided to go out and party. Oh, and the pueblo we are from in Guatemala was a lot of open fields… so you can imagine how dark it would look at night. As they were heading there, they uh were driving through a lonely road… and suddenly they both see a woman on the side of the road. Umm they both tell each other: “Should we give her ride?”, and the quickly agreed. So… um they uh stop and ask her if she needs a ride, but she never says a word to them and just gets in the car and sits between the two. When she was in the car with them there was a point where they both got chills but ignored it. When the lady got off the car, she did not say a thing and they just saw here walk into an open field where at some point she uh disappeared. After the this they both started talking about it and my dad told his friend that he saw the women facing him the entire time, and uh my dad’s friend he saw the women facing my dad the entire ride. So… uh… both of them never saw her face.”

Informants Opinion

EG: “Do you think it was a women’s spirit that appeared that night?”

CDL: ” Oh yeah for sure… Uh I do think it was a ghost because they both never saw her face thinking that they both did. Things like this would happen commonly in my hometown because we lived in open fields, so there was always lot so of empty dark areas. I am not sure exactly what the motive of the spirit was, but I am glad she never harmed them.”

Final Thoughts

I can agree with the informant that this was a ghost. Being in lonely dark areas at night opens the opportunity that a ghost may appear. This story seems to be a common one because I have heard of people seeing women with long dark hair in a white dress in the middle of lonely roads, or just women in general asking for a ride. It is possible that this spirit may have died by the roads, and he spirit still isn’t at rest, yet which is why she appeared upon the informant’s father and friend.


Warning From a Ghost Father

Nationality: American
Age: 18
Occupation: College Student
Residence: Norristown, Pennsylvania
Performance Date: November 29, 2024
Primary Language: English

CONTEXT:

The informant holds this story as a memory from her childhood as she has now begun college. Her father passed away from cancer months after she was born and has been raised by a single mother. She has a close relationship with her mother and often learns about her father and his character. The story is a close connection to her family that her and her mother reminisce on. She is my lifelong best friend, and this story was told to me by her and recorded with the details she provided.

STORY:

“When I was really little my mom had a ghost encounter. I had a nanny for a while who would babysit me and take care of me when my mom was still working at her current job or if she was out late. Well, one night she was out pretty late and came home after I was asleep. She heard a bunch of footsteps or noises coming from upstairs where my bedroom is.”

“…I obviously don’t really remember this because I was still a baby, but my mom remembers it well and told me when I was older. But after hearing the noises, she walked upstairs to go to my room, and she thought she saw my dad, who died a year or so prior, in the area outside of my room upstairs. She said it was like an outline of him whose arm and finger were pointing into my bedroom, almost urging my mom to go in. She was caught off guard and entered my room.”

“…From there, she found a hat on top of the lap in the corner of the room. The light was on and the hat was scorching hot, like it probably would’ve started burning or catching fire within minutes. It most likely would have turned into a fire if she didn’t think she heard someone or something happening upstairs when she came in. The hat situation happened because my nanny made a dumb mistake and put the hat on the lamp while it was on and it got hotter and hotter. My mom fixed the situation at almost the perfect time after seeing the sight of my dad at the entry of my doorway.”

INFORMANT’S TAKEAWAY

“The sighting of my dad has to be connected to the problem with the babysitter. Considering it wasn’t very long since my dad passed away, I think he was definitely giving my mom a warning sign and kind of reconnecting with us in a sense during that moment. My mom hearing the noises right after entering the house also shows how she was meant to go up just in time. It’s genuinely such a crazy story and experience. My dead dad helped stop our house from catching on fire!”

PERSONAL THOUGHTS:

Ghosts tend to connect to superstitions or real-world events in unique ways like this. I think the sighting of the father’s ghost figure really brings together the concept of family and security. The ghost showing up to the mom not long after passing reveals the authenticity of the story, especially considering how he showed up during a time of danger with the burning hat. It also makes sense that he was there for his daughter since he died shortly after her birth. Overall, the mom’s experience underscores how ghosts appear to their families at certain important times.

A Ghost Friend in the New House

Nationality: American
Age: 51
Occupation: Investment Company Employee
Residence: Blue Bell, Pennsylvania
Performance Date: November 28, 2024
Primary Language: English

CONTEXT:

The informant, my aunt, has one daughter and she and my uncle raised her in the same house for years. Their daughter became close with the neighbors and their daughter who was about five years younger than her. The couple next door also had a little boy a few years later. Eventually, the neighbors and their two kids decided to move, and the various ghost encounters occurred at their new house. The parents stayed in touch and told the informant all about the creepy events that were occurring. The informant provided me with the details of the story and I recorded it.

STORY:

“When the two of them moved out with both of the kids, some of the first things we heard from them afterward were about how they think the new house is haunted. Creepy things started to happen in the backyard, and the kids both started mentioning stuff about a woman. After looking into it more, they discovered that a previous owner had committed suicide in the house. The pieces started to make sense and creep them out even more.”

“…There were so many different instances where the mom noticed the ghost or something about it. First, the kids would act strange when they were outside playing in the yard. The two of them would tell her that they were talking to ‘the woman’ and it confused her. She was concerned, but it wasn’t anything conclusive yet. Then, she would notice the swings or other things in the yard moving with nobody there, and their dog would just sit and stare or bark occasionally. She started to conclude that the house must be haunted.”

“After she kept noticing little things, the kids would again tell her that they were talking to ‘the woman.” Their mom remained freaked out about the ghost of the woman who was most likely roaming around outside. I’m not exactly sure what else happened after that, if they ever saw the ghost directly, or if anything else came of it. It must have been a harmless ghost who was finding ways to stay in the house.”

INFORMANT’S OPINION:

“The new house was definitely haunted. The previous owner committed suicide and was most likely haunting the house. Since the kids were still pretty young at the time, it’s also possible that the ghost was making herself known to them and even communicating with them. It was so interesting to hear about from the mom after they moved. She always joked about us coming over and seeing the ghost.”

PERSONAL TAKEAWAY:

This is a very straightforward ghost story that was very interesting to hear about since it was so connected to me personally. It embodies so many traditional motifs of ghosts. The haunted house is a classic and is one of the most common instances of ghost sightings or supernatural experiences. The ghost connecting with the children and alarming the dog is also common and makes the story a lot more eerie. It may just be a case of overthinking or disorientation due to them having just moved, but I think all of this coming together and knowing the previous owner died tragically, there has to be some supernatural elements present. I wonder if anything else happened or if the ghost is still there today!

Unlucky #4

Nationality: American

Chinese folklore considers the number 4 to be unlucky because the pronunciation of “four” in Chinese sounds like the pronunciation of the word “death”.

The informant is an American who previously lived in Shanghai for two years and attended an international school.

G explained that while living in Shanghai she noticed that some buildings didn’t have a fourth floor. After realizing this omission, she began to notice that the number four was avoided culturally if possible. She asked some school friends about it and they explained that in Chinese folklore it’s unlucky to use the number 4 because it sounds like the word death. G found this superstition to be interesting and continued to notice it, but she never believed in it herself.

Beware The Douen

Douen are mythical creatures with backwards feet that live in the forest and are supposedly the lost souls of children. If a Douen learns a child’s name they are able to call out to the child in their parents voices to lure them into the forest. The backwards footprints confuse both the children and anyone looking for the children. The children are never seen again.

The informant told me this story while we were talking about working in the entertainment industry. C told me that he loved the industry because of its diversity and community. I originally asked about the folklore of the industry but once I said the word “folklore” his face lit up and he told me this story. While working on the show “Saint X”, one of the Dominican crew members told him this legend of the Douen. It stuck with C because of the physical description of the creature, with the backwards feet.

The Douen, although not well known in America, is a piece of Caribbean folklore that seemingly resonated with C. The only physical description that my informant gave me was the backwards feet, implying the rest of the creature is fairly humanoid. I believe this resonated with my informant because of the common proverb in American culture “stranger danger”. The danger of the Douen is directed towards children, emphasizing their ability to be easily manipulated or tricked, which echos the same warning as “stranger danger”. The detail of the Douen needing to know the child’s name is interesting because it serves as a warning against sharing personal information with anyone/anything. It also could stem from magical folklore, where using or knowing someones name can be considered powerful.