Tag Archives: #Ghost

The Ghost of a Suffragette

Age: 55

Date of Interview: 12/03/24

Date of Story: 07/2000

Informant Name: DP

Language: English

Collector’s name: LP

Nationality: USA

Occupation: IT enginneer

Primary Language: English

Residence at the time: Washington DC

Current Residence: Pennsylvania

It was dark night in July 2000 after the museum closed.   The museum was silent and dark.   We could only hear the wind outside the windows.  The stairs creaked as we walked up the stairs.  We went from room to room, checking the exhibits.  The moonlight shown through the windows as we walked.  I heard a noise on the far side of the building, in the room opposite of the room I was in.  It sounded like a clatter.  Someone had tripped.  I went towards the noise, and found nothing was there except an overturned chair.   I picked up the chair, and started to walk away and cross the hall, when in my peripheral vision I saw light.  I turned around and saw it.  A woman in what seemed to be late 19th century bed clothes, glowing and walking across the room towards me.  I stood and stared and was about to call out, and the woman ran past me and into the and wall and disappeared.

Ghost Story

Text: 

A couple of years ago, the informant was living back home in Torrence, Los Angeles. He would stay up in the living room studying, and when it got late, he would often see a shadow in the corner of his eye. At the time, he would tell himself that it was just late, he was tired, so it was probably nothing. Eventually, he would start seeing things during the day such as a little girl. The informant states that he believed the shadow was a random manifestation, but the girl he would actually see as a manifestation of other objects, so he would see a girl made up of clothes on a chair. It kept happening more and more frequently, so he began to get suspicious. He told his sister about it, and she said she was seeing the same thing, so they asked their whole family living at the house and everyone said they saw it too. What caused the family to really freak out is that his little cousin living there had told her mom that a little girl had grabbed her arm. She was only five years old, so she would not have come up with this story.

One night, his uncles and grandma came over and asked him about what he had been seeing, and all they said was, “Yeah that’s how that happens”. They said in Mexico, it’s a common thing to see where the black shadow is an evil spirit, and the girl wasn’t actually evil but was his slave, so the girl was a lure to get people alone in rooms. The informant was completely freaked out after that as they told him not to be in a room alone, he always had to have the lights on and they even brought a priest over to bless the house. One night, he was sleeping in bed when he woke up with his heart racing and he did not know why. He did not have a nightmare so he woke up with his eyes closed as he did not want to open his eyes. He knew that he would see something, as he was laying in bed extremely scared, and did not move. Eventually, he did look and saw the shadow of a man sitting on the chair. This time was different because previously the shadow would just be a fast blur, but this time he was just sitting in the chair as he stared at it. It started walking towards him so he closed his eyes and fell back asleep.

Context:

The informant explained that his grandpa’s side of the family was accused of being witches. His family believes that someone had placed a curse on an ancestor, and it had passed down so this haunting was taking place in their house. His uncle also suggested that the reason he had been seeing it more and more was that it was getting closer to Halloween, so after Halloween, nothing would be seen again. The informant did believe it because he was experiencing it first hand but states that his family doing things such as bringing a priest solidified or confirmed his belief that it was real. Looking back on it, he no longer believes it now, as he would explain it by tiredness. Additionally, he states that other people in his family started claiming that they saw things once he said it, so everyone else believed it as well or their minds would trick them into believing it.

Interpretation:

This legend is that of a ghost story. It seems that much of this legend stems from fear and history. Other ghost stories tend to have a specific factor that leads to the creation of these stories and in this case, the ghost story comes from the informant’s past beliefs of ancestors indulging in witchcraft and confirmation bias. Once the informant had explained his situation to others, they also began to see the same thing which comes from confirmation bias. They are expecting to see ghostly things in their house, so any small instance of a blur or shadow immediately becomes a potential ghost or demon in their mind in order to confirm their beliefs. Additionally, once the informant was told by his family of his past, and of the same legend happening so commonly in Mexico made the informant begin to see these things more frequently. The more fear he held, the greater the legend became, and as soon as someone confirmed the information about the potential reality of what he was seeing, it became real.

High School Ghost

Text:
The informant went to high school in Laredo, Texas. At her high school, she always heard stories of this boy with a red backpack in her high school. She heard that it began in the 1990s when janitors would see him really late at night. She says they would try to get his attention, calling out to him, saying, “Mijo, Mijo” but the boy would just walk away. They were always at opposite ends of the hallways and there was never any noise of the doors opening or closing when the boy would disappear. She heard another story of one day when the basketball coach was doing basketball tryouts and while in his office after tryouts, when all of a sudden he heard a ball dribbling. It was already late at night and he went out to check who was dribbling the ball. There was no one there and so he returned to his office. Once again, the coach heard the ball dribble so he went to check. This time the ball is dribbling toward him but there is no one to be seen. Other stories she heard did not involve the kid with the red backpack but were about supernatural instances such as books falling over. There was also this corner in the library that was always really cold. Some say that if you stood in the corner you could feel his presence.

Context:
The informant did not actually believe in the story as she believed that it was just a chance to talk about something in class and thus not do homework. She was told this story by teachers and the librarian so she also believes it was a story used to scare the students.

Interpretation:
This story seems to be very similar to the stereotypical ghost stories that kids are scared of. Thus, because of this, it seems that this story very much grew out of word of mouth and kids trying to make the story scarier every time it was spread around. For example, elements such as the empty school hallways, the basketball dribbling by itself, the books falling over, and the cold spot in the library are all elements commonly seen in fiction and in movies. None of these elements seem to really have any malintent behind them and thus, the ghost doesn’t seem to come from any evil place. It is very convenient that only certain adults would ever see the boy in the red backpack. Nonetheless, the legend stays relevant because it is something that high school kids can look to and claim as their own.

Soldier Loses Rifle Magazine

Context:

D is a college student at the University of Southern California, he is 22 and from Singapore. He served in the Singaporean military from 2018 to 2020 (it is mandatory for all men 18 and older), where a fellow soldier experienced a supernatural encounter. He told me he didn’t believe in ghosts, even though ghost stories and beliefs in ghosts were common in Singapore; however, he thinks that this story has no other logical explanation and that this occurrence changed his mind.

Text:

“So, I was in the military, and we were in the jungle, and this guy loses his riffle magazine, which is a very bad thing because they are very important, and you cannot lose your riffle magazine when you’re in the military. They are very strict about not losing your riffle magazine because if you do, you’ll get punished in a really bad way. So, he goes around looking for it, but he can’t find it, he calls all his friends to help look for it and none of them can find it. So, he thinks he’s screwed because when he gets back, he’s going to get punished. It gets late and there’s no point searching for it, so he goes to bed. He dreams about a little girl, around 5 years old, and in his dream, the little girl points at a rifle magazine. It isn’t that far from him (10 meters), and the little girl is just pointing. But then he looks up and sees himself in the third person on the ground sleeping. Then, the little girl picks up the rifle magazine and walks toward him. As she gets closer to him, he feels the need to wake up; but when he wakes up, the riffle magazine is already in his hand.”

Analysis:

There are many legends and superstitions in the army since it is a folk group with a very strong culture and folklore. Oftentimes, people resort to supernatural explanations for events that don’t make sense or cannot be rationalized with logic or science. Singapore has a very spiritual population whose culture appears to believe in and celebrate ghosts and spirits, so for a group of Singaporean soldiers, the thought of a ghost making things happen in the camp does not sound too impossible. A common motif in ghost stories seems to be little girls, perhaps it is because they are a representation of innocence and goodness, in this case, if this experience were to be a tale, she would be seen as a wise donner figure from another realm that helps the hero.

Goodbye From a Ghost

Nationality: United States of America
Age: 22
Language: English

Text:

“So it was back in the 60s. I think 64 or 65, but basically um my grandma she had this one uncle that loved her like she was his favorite like niece and basically she heard a knock at the door and my grandma went to open it and he lives in Japan so he was just like “uncle what are you doing here” and then um my grandpa was like “Mona who’s there? Who are you talking to?” She turned around to my grandpa was just like “It’s uncle” and turned back around and he was gone. And then the next day she found out that he had passed away. So um yeah that was sort of like his, how she interprets it is like him sort of saying goodbye, you know like “I remembered you” yeah.”

“She was just like, “I saw him but no one else could” it was just like sort of strange, it was just strange like she seemed confused by the whole situation, “what was that?” um especially um the timing was like it was like coincidence or like it looks like a coincidence. I don’t she says that she believes in ghosts after that so I guess it’s not a coincidence but um yeah she was just very shook I guess.”

Context:

The informant was told this ghost story by her grandmother when she was growing up. The informant is unsure if she believes in ghosts or not. However, due to the timing of the ghost visit and the loved one passing, she believes in the story enough not to dismiss the possibility of ghosts outright.

Analysis:

I am not going to judge the validity of this ghost story. However, I think it is a great example of how ghosts can often represent a longing for our deceased loved ones and the confusion that follows immediately after experiencing a loss. While grief affects people differently, it can often make people lose track of time or generally feel ‘out of body’ and confused. Furthermore, a final goodbye from a loved one is often not possible but could help start the process of recovery.