Khmer Rouge Ghost Story

Date of Performance: 04/03/2025

Nationality: Filipino

Primary Language: English

Residence: Brisbane, Australia

My informant tells me of the supernatural experience of his father, who, according to their family, has always had “a third eye”. While my informant is somewhat skeptical, apparently his father would see and be able to communicate with spirits, and stories like this were commonplace in his family growing up. This particular one centers around a business trip to Cambodia, during which his father returned to his hotel after a meeting only to be unable to sleep – he was disturbed by a “large, uncomfortable presence from the top floor”. After a few failed attempts to go to bed, he decided to investigate, and went to the top floor, which was a bar and restaurant. When he got there, he was overwhelmed by the number of spirits he saw – all of which gave off an “extremely negative aura”. He could apparently tell based on this gut feeling that a horrific violent act had been committed on the floor, and asked the bartender if any such occurrence had taken place at the hotel. As he had expected, my informant’s father was told that during the Cambodian genocide, the Khmer Rouge had gathered up and executed a huge amount of dissenters in that very floor of that very building. Unsettled, he returned to his room and tried to sleep again, but was left awake all night. 

It’s clear my informant doesn’t fully buy into the story, but treats his dad’s third eye with a sort of reverence that makes even me inclined to believe it. His performance of the story was very compelling – it’s apparent that he has told this one a lot – and he seemed to relish in its telling. His father’s visions must have been a big part of his childhood, and so naturally, he holds their stories close to his heart.

As for me, I found this memorate really interesting, especially its link to a historical event/time period, an element of the story that gives it, to me, more credibility. From a more realistic point of view, I can imagine the functionality of his father’s “third eye” in my informant’s upbringing as a tool of discipline, serving as an authoritative way to impart moral and social lessons from a figure bigger than just his parents. My informant, like a lot of my others, grew up internationally., and so stories like these were likely a bigger part of his life, and met less resistance from his peers, than they would have here.

Commercial Ghost Story

Date of Performance: 04/05/2025

Nationality: American

Primary Language: English

Residence: Los Angeles, California

My informant describes a ghost story from their youth in Texas at their cousin’s house, which apparently was haunted, and was the site for many encounters with supernatural creatures. Apparently, it was built near a Native American burial site, and as my informant and his family were deeply superstitious, they treated such incidents with caution and respect. On this one occasion, my informant was sleeping over at his cousin’s house, and was the only one awake, when the TV played an unsettling advertisement about the devil (whether this was supernatural, or an ad for a TV show or movie about the devil is unclear). Scared, my informant went out in the hallway, where they were met by a large, 7-foot tall figure. My informant then ran into his cousin’s room, woke him up, and waited outside the house until his cousin’s parents got home. Following this incident, his aunt had the house blessed by an exorcist, and apparently there wasn’t another ghost sighting for a few years after the fact.

My informant fully believes in ghosts, and was clearly affected by the story – he told it with dramatic flair, but was fully serious, fully believing his telling of events. His family is Christian, and apparently all of them acknowledge the supernatural, which definitely affected his perception of the world growing up.

To me, the tale sounds like it can be attributed to the paranoid imaginings of an elementary schooler – but you never really know. The less urbanized, relatively remote area of Texas he grew up in likely contributed to his deep belief in the supernatural, and as my informant is highly creative as well — he’s a writer – it’s easy to see how, through the years, a simple commercial could have spiraled into a full on ghost story.

Hand Ghost Story

Date of Performance: 04/06/2025

Nationality: Filipino

Primary Language: English

Residence: Melbourne, Australia

My informant recounted the one ghost story he knows, told to him since he was younger by his older brother and his friends, who encountered a supernatural phenomenon in the attic of their house. One night, after drinking and partying, the five of them decided to hang out in my informant’s brother’s attic, which was barely used. Nothing was in there but old things, and as the house was quite old, passed down from generation to generation, my informant’s family had lost track of what exactly was kept up there. The group decided to take a photograph of themselves up there, but when the photo came out, in the very middle was the clear image of a white, slender hand. It did not belong to any of them, and its features appeared eerily similar to those of an aswang, a traditional Filipino vampire. The group immediately left the attic, and didn’t venture back up there unless it was absolutely necessary. They retold this story to my informant, who fully believed them, and from then on avoided his attic completely.

My informant showed me the photograph, and while it was eerie, wasn’t necessarily conclusive proof of the story – it was somewhat blurry, and could have been the reflection or distortion of one of the old objects lying in the attic. My informant reacted to my skepticism indignantly, and restated his belief in the story.

While he was confident in its validity, there are a couple of elements to the story that could have contributed to its exaggeration and gravitas, like the group of them drinking beforehand, as well as the tale being retold over and over in my informant’s youth, when one is susceptible to superstitions of this manner. From a cultural point of view, as has been the case across many of the folk narratives I’ve encountered, the supernatural encounter is reinforced by the superstitious and perhaps religious beliefs of the culture my informant comes from, and remains an important aspect of his worldview.

Mt. Misery Road

Age – 17
Language – English
Nationality – American
Occupation – Student
Primary Language – English
Residence – New York

Text: “There is this road down the street where we live called Mt. Misery Road. I’m not sure what the exact story was but apparently there was a group of students killed there a long time ago and they’re supposed to haunt the road at night. It’s said on Halloween if you put your car in neutral they move your car, so we did it on Halloween and the car actually did move which scared me a lot.”

Context: The informant talks about a local road called Mt. Misery Road, which has its own legend near where she grew up. She doesn’t know all the details but mentions that a group of students were killed there, and their ghosts are said to haunt the road at night. They tested it out and when it worked she freaked out.

Analysis: This an example of how legends grow around a certain place. People tend to make up stories about roads or other spots in their area, based on real events. The idea of a haunted place is something that gives people a shared experience, and the Halloween setting just makes it spookier. The informant’s personal experience makes it feel more real, especially since the car actually moved. It’s also interesting how the name of the street symbolizes danger.

Grade Killer

Age – 17
Language – English
Nationality – American
Occupation – Student
Primary Language – English
Residence – New York

Text: “I have always been scared of the dark since I was younger and I was told this story once as a kid from someone in my class. The story was that there was a man that went around and killed kids who weren’t actively getting the best grades at school. This story sounds dumb, but one night I woke up dreary in the middle of the night and thought I saw something in the window or a moving figure outside my window and then my lights started flickering and I freaked out and ran into my parents room. I couldn’t sleep alone in my room for a week after that.”

Context:
The informant tells a story from childhood where a man supposedly killed kids who didn’t do well in school. The informant said this stemmed from kids trying to scare people in school and her fear of academic failure. This story scared her a lot, especially since she was already afraid of the dark.

Analysis:
This story plays into common childhood fears like the fear of failure and punishment. The man who kills kids for bad grades is a way of turning something as schoolwork into a nightmare. The informant’s personal experience, where she was already scared of the dark and then had something strange happen, justified her fear in the moment. The flickering lights and the feeling of someone watching really make this myth feel true in her life.