Tag Archives: dream

Viking at the Cabin

Nationality: American

Age: 19

Occupation: Retail

Residence: Belton, MO

Performance Date: November 29, 2024

Primary Language: English

Language: English

MAIN DESCRIPTION

Q: “So, you’ve mentioned before you grew up with spirits. What’s one you remember that stands out from the rest?”

A: “Well, um, I grew up on an old abandoned farm that was built over. And it was a log cabin. And there was lots of spirits there, but I remember once in particular I was getting ready for bed and my mom wasn’t home yet. So, I was by myself in my room. It was dark and I heard a creak in the hallway because our floors are really creaky, and I thought that, y’know, maybe she was getting home or something. And the door opened and I saw her shadow. And I was like okay, I don’t know why you’re not turning on the light, so, you’re gonna trip and fall. But, she didn’t. Um, she, what I thought was her, um, she came over to me, and like her form, the outline of her body, turned from what she looked like into like this Viking, big scary dude with like a huge axe. And he like, swang it at me, and I remember hiding under my covers, and I remember hearing all the noises like it was real.  And then, I got up out of my bed and asked my brother to wake up because I was scared, and there was nobody there. So, there’s that.”

INFORMANT’S OPINION

Q: “Do you think it was a ghost or something else?”

A: “There were a ton of spirits in that house. I encountered them, um, pretty regularly. They weren’t always so scary. I guess I could’ve been dreaming.”

PERSONAL INTERPRETATION

It was hard to analyze the informant for any cultural significance relating to Vikings. She was not of a descent remotely similar to the origins of Nordic heritage. What stands out to me is the idea that the Viking was, at first, her mother. The fact that her mother seemed gentle at first and then became violent struck a chord with me. Perhaps there is a personal projection of abuse or neglect. A spirit could symbolize this, or even be a warning of some sort. Going further than this would be irresponsible and hypothetical, but I do believe that the detail of the mother is where the heart of this story, in some form or another, lies. I believe there is substance here for this occurrence being only a dream, but it interests me in the sense that it’s quite hard to tell from her description. Why could she hear sounds so vividly? Why can she not tell whether or not this was a dream? I believe this liminal area between being asleep and awake screams of a memorate. She mentioned other spirits as well. I could see the possibility that this was just a wandering spirit as well.

Old Man Waterface

Nationality: American

Age: 47

Occupation: Education

Residence: Sedalia, MO

Performance Date: October 27, 2024

Primary Language: English

Language: English

MAIN DESCRIPTION

Q: “What’s something strange that’s happened to you?”

A: “Like, what kind of strange?”

Q: “That’s up to you.”

A: “Oh, well… I used to have this recurring dream, um, in which I, when I was young, I would have to take out the trash every week. And I’d have this recurring dream about when I would take out the trash, and I would take it out to the alley behind our house, that there was a figure there and he had no face. His face moved around like— it looked like it was water. So, I named him Old Man Waterface. So, I would have this dream about every six months. And, um, my mom would think, of course, that I was trying to get out of taking out the trash, but I 100% had this dream over and over and over again.”

INFORMANT’S OPINION

Q: “Do you believe this occurrence had more significance than being simply a dream?”

A: “It always happened the exact same way. There was never any variation in the dream. All I know is, well, being honest it scared the hell out of me.”

PERSONAL INTERPRETATION

The fact that this is a dream and the figure remains faceless leaves room for a million perspectives. I could see Old Man Waterface as a mere kid’s nightmare. I could see a faceless figure representing the spirit of a person who has lost their identity or been forgotten as well. There is a wealth of possibility. The consistency of the dream is startling, but there is not enough evidence to draw much beyond that point. The creature had no cultural significance, and the informant named him. So, it looks like it could be his monster!

Reach Out and Grab ‘ya!

Nationality: American

Age: 19

Occupation: Retail

Residence: Raymore, MO

Performance Date: November 30, 2024

Primary Language: English

Language: English

MAIN DESCRIPTION

Q: “When’s a time you felt different? Outside of the ordinary? A strange occurrence?”

A: “When I was a kid, you know this already, that area right in front of the stairs. I’d get that feeling, almost like sleep paralysis, y’know? Like, um, where you can feel you’re awake but can’t move. I used to run by the stairs and something would reach out and grab me. I was a kid, I think it was nothing. But, y’know when you look up at a popcorn ceiling and can see pictures? When I looked at the carpet, in the shadows and all, I felt like I could see things. Figures and hands. And I could feel the hallway getting longer and pulling me in.”

INFORMANT’S OPINION

Q: “So, as you said, you don’t believe this was anything more than a dream?”

A: “I doubt it. I mean, it’s unsettling now but like, I was also a kid.”

PERSONAL INTERPRETATION

When analyzing his story, sleep paralysis seems most likely. Especially since he named it. Seeing things when he was awake could have just been the fear following the dreams. I suppose they could also have been some sort of sign the dreams were valid and there was danger near. An angry spirit would make sense, but isn’t a home-run conclusion because he grew out of these occurrences. The spirit could be unique to a child’s eyes. Regardless, he can’t say for sure whether it was a dream. The undecided nature of his response reveals the mystery and the possibility that this could be an angry spirit. However, spirits like this don’t just disappear unless something is done to them. So it feels unlikely he’d randomly stop experiencing paranormal activity and strange dreams forever while living in the same house to this day.

Grandmother’s Goodbye

Genre: Folk Narrative – Ghost Story

Text:

“My dad once told me a story about an experience he had with a ghost. My dad was really close with his grandparents; he spent a lot of time over at their house when he was younger and as a child, he had these really weird dreams where his grandmother would appear to him. In the dreams, she was just sitting on a stool beside his bed and talking to him.

“When I was around ten years old, my great-grandmother, his grandmother, passed away. But my dad told me he had one of those dreams the night she died: in his dream, he was a child again as he was looking at her, and just as she always did in the dreams, she was sitting on a stool and talking to him. But he had a feeling that this dream was different. Although he doesn’t remember the details of the conversation he had in the dream, when he woke up, he felt a visceral change and later discovered that that was the night she passed away.”

Context:

“My great-grandparents on my dad’s side, around when I was ten years old or so, were dying of Alzheimer’s and they needed a caretaker. It was a really big burden on my family, and I remember my dad talking about them a lot during that time because he had a really deep connection with his grandparents. He spent a lot of time with them growing up, and he even ended up remodeling their house and turning it into his parents’ house, which is where my grandparents live now. I think my dad’s dreaming of them was a representation of the deep emotional connection they shared. I think he really felt a change in that connection the night his grandmother died, and I like to think of that dream as her way of saying goodbye.”

Analysis:

Although I am skeptical about the idea of a truly prophetic dream, I think this is an example of how dreams can sometimes help someone process an ongoing trauma or complicated emotions. The informant explained that his great-grandparents were dying of Alzheimer’s, which is a slow end. It is possible that the informant’s father dreamed about conversations with his grandmother as a way of processing this difficult mental condition, and only after hearing news of his grandmother’s death did he feel that, at the time of the dream, he felt that he knew she had died at the time. Memories are notoriously faulty and dreams even more so, which is why I personally believe that this was not a ghost the informant’s father envisioned the night his grandmother died, but merely a way of his brain processing the difficulty of losing a loved one.

Another idea to consider is the fact that the informant’s paternal family is Mexican. Ghosts are prevalent in Mexican culture, particularly the ghosts of loved ones (as seen in holidays such as Día de los Muertos). It is possible that this cultural background influenced the informant’s father to be more inclined to believe in a supernatural explanation for his dream/ghost rather than a scientific one.

Interactions beyond the grave

Age: 18
Occupation: Student
Residence: USC
Performance Date: Apr 4, 2023
Primary Language: English

My informant talked about some paranormal activity that happened after her brother passed away.

The first incident happened a couple weeks after the death. The brother had a bmw, and through some series of events, his boyfriend received it. When he was driving the car, he got into a car crash. After the car crash, when the boyfriend checked his phone, he had missed a call from the deceased brother on snapchat, exactly when the crash happened. After informing the family, they checked the brother’s phone, as snapchat accounts can only be logged in on one device at a time, and the account was never logged off. No one else in the family logged on so there is no plausible explanation for this event.

The second event that happened was a couple days after, when the boyfriend had a vivid dream that he and the brother were touring my informant’s, and her brother’s, high school. Afterwards, he described what he saw in the dream to one of his friends, and everything he stated was accurate. The catch? The boyfriend had never been to that school in real life.

Both of these stories are true paranormal stories. These stories contain the trope of a loved one being visited by the dead sometimes in a time of need. The call during the car crash could have been one of warning, and if the boyfriend had picked up (which you shouldn’t when driving) the crash may have been avoided. Similarly, seeing your loved one in a dream is also a common story. Dreams can be seen as some sort of liminal space between life and death, allowing for the communication between the two parties. This isn’t something that directly impacted my informant, but was something that she witnessed.

No one has a reason to lie, leading me to believe in the story, but realistically, it doesn’t make sense. The first can be attributed to shock perhaps, as people often hallucinate or imagine angels or something when in accidents, but the second doesn’t seem to have a plausible reason.