Context

This story was told to me over call while I was catching up with my family. I received it from my father, who used to live in rural Korea before moving to the US for education and work. He stated that the region was naturally superstitious and strongly spiritual, and many other ghost stories populated the area. Because it was conducted over call and not a formal interview, the story is written here more as a stream-of-thought.

The Story

When I was young, your grandfather passed away from a motorcycle accident. I was only just entering high school when it happened. In the time after, all of the members of my family had mysterious encounters, like voices and strange dreams with your grandfather. I think it was because he had an improper death because he died so young. Eventually, when I left to study abroad in Australia, your grandmother and my siblings in Korea visited some sort of mystic, I think he was a shaman. Buddhism was very strong in my village. He set up a pig’s head on a spike, and then shoved belongings of your grandfather up its nostrils. Then, he began shaking, and when he stopped, his entire demeanor had changed. He was talking differently, moving differently; I think he was channeling the ghost of my father. He said that he was cold, so cold. He asked for his coat to fight the cold and his notebook that he carried around with him everywhere in life. We threw them into the fire, and the spirit left the shaman. After that, we never had any of those strange dreams or encounters again.

The Informant’s Thoughts

My father believed that the shaman was being possessed by the ghost of his father. The fact that because the shaman’s demeanor shifted so much and that he requested very specific things from his life, there was definitely a link between the shaman and the world of the dead. He did mention that he was not there for the ritual himself, but heard of it through his relatives and vicariously experienced it.

My Thoughts

I found this to be a fascinating example of spirit possession and using mediums to speak to the dead. It reflects other Korean traditions where the spirits of great generals are invoked by shamans through ritual. In both, the shaman exhibits the personality of the person they are possessed by, seemingly transforming into another person entirely. The use of items connected to the person to connect with them also reminded me of voodoo magic, where related items can connect two disparate things. The idea of improper death also appeared, which made sense to me personally, as I remembered hearing about his passing at the time and feeling that it was all too abrupt and not a true ending.