Category Archives: Legends

Narratives about belief.

BABY BEACH GHOSTS

Nationality: Indonesian
Age: 48
Occupation: Shopkeeper
Residence: California
Performance Date: 4-24-2018
Language: Indonesian Primary / English Secondnary

BABY BEACH GHOSTS

 

Main Piece:

 

Indonesia is a land and island with a lot of spirits. You must be careful whenever you are leaving out at night.

 

My mother used to tell me that there are ghosts of babies, or what look like babies, that crawl out of the ocean and night in the beaches.

 

Background Information:

Why do they know this piece?

This is something that my mother told me/warned me about.

 

Where/Who did they learn it from?

From my mother.

 

What does it mean for them?

It is a very spooky story. Because of this story I don’t like going out at night even if my friends asked me to. Especially to the beaches because I heard other people (friends, family) seeing these baby ghosts crawling on the beach multiple times.

 

Context of Performance:

Talking to mother through the phone.

 

Thoughts:

This is very creepy and although I never seen it during my time in Indonesia, when I did come back to Indonesia for the first time since I left, I did feel a lot of spiritual presence there, especially during the night/midnight of the new year.

 

JINNS

Nationality: Indonesian
Age: 80
Occupation: Grandmother
Residence: Indonesia
Performance Date: 4-20-2018
Language: Indonesian Primary / English Secondnary

JINNS

 

Main Piece:

 

Jinns are spirits. Usually they are the bad ones, or the malicious ones.

 

When your father was very young he would be able to see ghosts, all the time. He would see them when he was in the bathroom, walking around, and eventually when he was driving/riding out.

 

It would be very hard for him because sometimes, especially when he is driving he would not know whether or not this body or that is a spirit or not (that randomly appeared in the middle of the road).

 

Your father would astral project his spirit out of his body a lot, especially when your mother was in Indonesia and he was in America, and he would tell her about what she was doing, what she was wearing, the next day (due to the time differences) and he would get them right everytime.

 

I warn you not to do this a lot or at all because when you do and the spirit leaves the body momentarily a window opens and jinns or other spirits can enter your body.

 

Your father also used to go to graveyard in the middle of the night when he was a teenager and raise the spirits there to battle each other. I think he had some kind of gift over them that allowed him to control them to fight against one another.

 

Fortunately your father never saw ghosts again after your mother finally got him to convert to Christianity (baptized perhaps?).

 

Background Information:

Why do they know this piece?

Raising your father who saw ghosts all the time I would talk to him about this to help him.

 

Where/Who did they learn it from?

Parents, friends, family, this was a part of our Indonesian Culture.

 

What does it mean for them?

That these are things to watch out for and not mess around with.

 

Context of Performance:

Talking to grandmother over the phone.

 

Thoughts:

This was a bit spooky for me because I heard of these kind of stories from my mother before but finally hearing all of this from my grandmother in full detail made me uneasy.

 

There was a period after my father passed away that I constantly had sleep paralysis and some sort of hard, jutting, out of body experiences. I told this to my grandmother and it was then that she started to warn me about the dangers of “opening this window.”

 

I don’t really have these things anymore.

 

But what was really interesting was that when my father did “astral project” himself from America (while he was sleeping at night) and go visit and watch my mother when she was up and about in the daytime in Indonesia – and when he recited to her what she was doing, what she was wearing, down to the jewelry, he would always get it right everytime. This was back then before smartphones, etc, internet, etc.

Dyatlov Pass

Nationality: Russian
Age: 22
Occupation: Student
Residence: U.S.A
Performance Date: 04/15/2018
Primary Language: Russian
Language: English

The following story is collected from my friend. She lived in Russia for the most part of her life. Then she lived in England for few years and now lives in L.A. She talks about a famous event, which up to this day not solved. This interview is done face-to-face. “A” refers to me, the collector. And “B” refers to the participant.

A: “Is there any legend you can tell me about?”

B: “American director made movies about this. The story is called “dyatlov of pass” in English, I think. There were 6 teens from my city’s university. It was part of their vacation or something to go to Ural mountains. So they took a trip to the mountain. One of the girls wanted to go with them but she broke her leg just before the trip, so she could not go. She stayed but 5 of them went to the mountain. They had to return in few days but they did not come back. So a search team is sent and they were shocked by what they have found. The tent was cut and everything was damaged. Members of the group were killed brutally and some of them were cut in pieces For example; ears, legs, and hands were found in different parts of the place. Maybe they found one or two bodies, which were not cut in pieces but they were damaged as well.”

A: “What do you, or other people, think happened to them?”

B: “There are 5 theories people believe in.

1)    Something to with KGB. I think there was a hidden military base around the area. Group had to be killed because they saw something they should have not, like a secret operation. But this doesn’t make sense to me since KGB wouldn’t kill them this brutally.

2)   Yeti. Apparently, there are Yetis in the are and this makes sense to me, because when you see the pictures of what is left of these people, you think they are attacked by a monster. No officials materials were revealed about the event and it was a classified case. Many people heard that the tent was opened from inside, but there was blood outside. The thing that killed them was out of this world.

3)    There was a maniac like a cannibal who killed them brutally.

     I don’t remember the other theories but this case is still a mystery. I can’t come up with a reasonable answer.”

 

This event is very famous and known widely. For another version of this legend, you can check the movie “Devil’s Pass” by Renny Harlin.

Turkish Wolf

Nationality: Turkey
Age: 28
Performance Date: 04/19/2018
Primary Language: Turkish
Language: English

The following story is collected from my friend. He lived in Turkey for the most part of his life. This interview is done on phone. “A” refers to me, the collector. And “B” refers to the participant.

 

A:” Do you know any legends?”

 

B: :Turkish people had a nomadic culture many years ago. They would not stay in the same location for too long. They liked fighting but once they won the wars, they would just keep moving on rather than conquering the territory. When Turkish tribes moved from Asia to Anatolia, according to the legend, they lose their path. For few days, they can not find anyfood or water. Then just before they are about to die, a wolf show up. She is called “Asena”, which is a Turkish name still used this day. The wolf shows the way to water source and saves the people.The wolf is believed to save the Turks, and without her, there would be no Turks today.”

 

A: “Do people believe this?”

 

B: “Many people do. Over the years, it became a symbol for nationalism. There are organizations who call themselves; “Bozkurtlar” (The word means “Brownwolfs”). These people are right wing nationalist people and their symbol is the wolf, who saved the Turks. They even have a hand symbol that looks like a wolf. This wolf legend is very important for TUrkish identity”

 

Headless Mule

Nationality: Brazilian
Age: 18
Occupation: USC Student
Residence: Los Angeles, California; São Paulo, Brazil
Performance Date: 04/20/2018
Primary Language: Portuguese
Language: English

In Brazil, there is a common myth, an urban myth, that on Thursday’s, a woman who has any physical relation with a member of the Catholic Church ends up becoming a headless mule, sort of like a donkey animal. And instead of having a head, she would have a big flame of fire. And she would run around and kill any animal of person on her path. She is attracted to nails and teeth, so if she were close to you, you had to hide your teeth and your nails. I was particularly afraid of it when I was little, I would always get cautious whenever it was a Thursday and I was at countryside and there were horses and donkeys running around. I was always thinking that maybe one of them would turn into one of the headless mules and just kill me.

This is the type of story that you only believe when you are young. As Pedro said, he used to take this ghost story seriously when he was younger but now he doesn’t. In my opinion, this is something rather impossible to happen and although there are people who do actually believe it can be true, I completely disagree. I had listened to this story before, at a young age, but I didn’t know the exact context of how the woman turned out to be a mule. Now I am more familiar with the folklore but in my opinion it’s an impossibility of the world.