Tag Archives: ghosts

The Pen Spirit (笔仙)

Context:

Me and the informant became friends in middle school due to our common interest in ghost stories and spiritual ceremonies. We decided to summon 笔仙 (a spirit that can be summoned through the action of two or more participants holding a single pen over a sheet of paper), and to let them answer some of our stupid questions, and it actually worked, somehow.

Text:

“笔仙 (Pen Spirit) is a very popular folk ritual in China,” the informant recalls, “even for people who are not into spiritual study, it’s almost safe to say that whenever people think about spiritual rituals, they would immediately think about 笔仙. Like any other folk ritual, the 笔仙 ceremony has multiple variations of how to perform it, but what we did was we wrote the alphabet on a piece of paper. We held a pen in our hands and chanted an incantation and start drawing in circles. If the spirit has been successfully summoned, the pen would start moving on its own, and then it is time for us to ask whatever questions we want. However, there are limitations, of course. You can’t ask how the spirit that is summoned died, or else it would be considered disrespectful. In addition, after you finish all your questions, you need to respectfully ask the spirit to leave.”

“And the spirit you summon can be random. For everyone who is performing the ritual, you are not summoning the same ghost. It varies—some can be friendly, some can be hateful toward us. So I’m really surprised that back then we even had the courage to actually do the ceremony, because if we were ever to summon a spirit that wanted us dead, they could potentially curse us. But he was so friendly (the informant was referring to the spirit that we successfully summoned). We didn’t ask any questions regarding his death, of course, but we did ask him something about his past life and the reason why he is still around on earth. I remember he said he actually spoke some English, and he went to college, and I think he died at a young age.”

“He was very generous with our stupid questions”, I said.

“Yeah, because I remember we were asking questions like who would be the next president of the United States. It was back in 2020, before the presidential election. He said it would be Biden, which he did get right. Many people summon 笔仙 to predict things, you know, but I don’t think the spirit that we summoned had that much power or energy to do so. We just asked a lot of random and silly questions, and we let him go, as if we were chatting with a friend or something. This is still a totally crazy experience, you know—we were two crazy middle schoolers.”

Analysis:

The interview highlights how rules and boundaries play an important role in shaping folk rituals, even among young participants. The informant describes clear limitations, such as not asking about the spirit’s death and the need to respectfully dismiss it, showing that the ritual follows an understood structure and moral code. At the same time, this experience reflects a coming of age moment, where engaging in something slightly forbidden or risky becomes a way for middle schoolers to test boundaries and bond with each other. The mix of caution and curiosity suggests that the ritual is not only about contacting a spirit, but also about navigating fear, respect, and social connection. And for sure, me and the informant became closer after this experience.

Domestic Detroit Ghost Stories

Age: 20

TEXT:

Informant- “I have seen a ghost before. I remember when I was moving out of my second home that I ever lived in to move into the home that we currently live now. I was, I got into an argument with my sister and I was sleeping by her feet and my feet were by her head and I was looking at the hallway because the door was right in front of where our feet should be, but by my head because I was mad at her. And I was on my phone and I looked up and I remember, it happened for two nights, the first night, it was these two white girls and they were like from the shining and they were like laughing like “hee hee hee” it was almost at like slow-mo and they rushed past me and it was like instant. I screamed and then I turned around and I went to bed. Second night, same thing, I had my head where (my sister’s) feet was. And I was looking up the stairs that’s like right in front of, um, right on the side of the doorframe. And I see this little black boy and I’m thinking it’s my younger cousin, J. And I’m like,” J, like, what are you doing here? Like, how did you get here?” And same thing, he just starts laughing, “ha ha ha ha.” And he skips down the stairs and runs past me. And that was the first and last time I ever seen ghosts. It was the most craziest thing I ever, like, whoa, I never experienced anything like that in my life. Even now, like, it feels surreal because it’s like, did that really happen? But it did.”

CONTEXT:

These ghost stories happened to the informant herself and in her adolescence in her home in Detroit, MI. The informant later shared with me that the previous owner of the house that these occurrences happened in, had gotten very sick and passed away, but had not died at the house, which I feel like is helpful to add to the story.

ANALYSIS:

Because these occurrences only happened once it is hard to say if they are true, but because my informant believe so deeply in the validity, of them, so do I. Ghost tales and legends traditionally are spread throughout time and repetition, but because the informant still lives in the house where these occurrences took place one could say there is still time for repetition.

The Haunted New Sheridan Hotel (Telluride, Colorado)

Text:

“What is the New Sheridan?”

Interviewee: “It’s a hotel and bar.”

“Why is The New Sheridan Hotel considered haunted?”

Interviewee: “Why? Because Telluride used to be an old mining town, and the miners would work in a small town called Tomboy up above Telluride. They would come down to the new Sheridan and get drinks and, like, get with prostitutes, and there would be fights. Like, people would die and stuff.

“Why would they die?’

Interviewee: “I mean, it was just, like, an old Western town. Like, there were no laws, people would just shoot each other. Like, if you lost a poker game and couldn’t pay your money, you would just be killed.”

“So, the ghosts who died are apparently the ghosts of people who would kill for, like getting with the prostitutes or losing poker?”

Interviewee: “Yeah, and also just, like, minors who died. Like, I think their ghosts supposedly hang out at the New Sheridan, because that’s where all the minors hung out.

Context:

The interviewee lives and grew up in Telluride, CO.

The New Sheridan Hotel is a historic hotel in Telluride, an old mining town. The interviewee explains that the hotel is considered haunted because of its history during the mining era, when miners traveled from nearby towns like Tomboy to socialize, gamble, and visit prostitutes. Violence, accidental deaths, and shootings were common in this lawless period, which contributed to the hotel’s reputation as a haunted site.

Analysis:

This is an example of a legend tied to historical events. The tales of miners dying from gambling disputes, fights, or other misadventures function as a way to connect visitors to the town’s dangerous and lawless past.

The ghosts’ presence is tied specifically to the New Sheridan Hotel, where the miners congregated. The narrative blends real historical practices (gambling, prostitution, and violence) with supernatural belief, showing how folklore can preserve memory and transform past events into entertaining ghost stories.

The Electrician’s House

Context: While in a class discussion, the student told me about an eerie experience she had at her old house in Connecticut, previously owned by an electrician.

Text:

“My house is pretty old in Connecticut and it was created by an electrician — and so there’s like seven outlets in my room alone. There’s so many places to charge things, which is actually very useful, but there’s a lot of switches in the house that don’t do anything. Obviously they connect to something, but we’re not sure what they connect to.

There’s two different switches for the fan on my ceiling. One of them doesn’t really do anything, but the other is a sliding switch so you can choose how fast the fan moves. There was one night where the fan kept spinning on its own. And so I turned it on and turned it back on, and I went to my parents’ room and told them the fan was spinning. I said that I feel like there’s something weird. I feel like there’s something in my room.

My parents were like it’s probably a ghost, cause we believe in that stuff a lot. My mom was like ‘go in and tell the ghost that you know that you’re here and you know something’s the matter. I need to go to bed and you have to go. You are not welcome here.’

I go back and jump into bed and I’m under my covers. I’m sitting there look up at the fan and I say all that stuff. And then the fan stops.”

Analysis:

One thing that I found so interesting about this story was the similarity we shared in our interactions with weird phenomena in our spaces. I had shared my own story about telling a possible spirit to “stop,” which was followed by a complete cessation of action. The student and I shared that the scariest part about that situation was when the mysterious force halted. As she told me the interaction, it was alarming to imagine something listening to her fears and realizing that they were finally getting a reaction. I’m curious to see if other people who have had ghost stories where they were scared and decided to face it head-on ended up having similar responses.

As Cowdell notes in the article on scary folk elements, “folk horror is a feeling.” Stories like these are passed through performance and the thrill of imagining oneself in that type of situation.

Mystery Man on Tecate Ranch

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Age: 28

Text: Interviewer – “What kind of ghost stories have you been told, told yourself, or know? Where did you learn them?”

CB – “There is a one specific ghost story for my family. A long time ago they used to own a ranch in Tecate. Near the southern edge of property was an old graveyard. According to my mother local cartel would double stuff the graves there with people they are getting rid of and one of those victims stayed around. Sometimes late at night, you can see him standing out the side of the road like he was waiting for a ride, for the afterlife or to a job you’re supposed to go to nobody knows. My mother swears she saw him once when they were out hunting rabbits in the evening. Normally, they weren’t allowed in the area at night because of the cartel, but she could see the access road from the hilltop and swore there was a man there that her sister couldn’t see.”

Interviewer – “Have you shared this story with anyone else outside of your family?”

CB – “Nope. Not really.”

Interviewer – “Thank you for sharing it with me, then.”

Context: This ghost story was told to CB by their mother, detailing the events of their own upbringing and paranormal stories. This being one of the many stories that their mother shared, usually ending with multiple spines of cacti, though with this ending in a much more supernatural atmosphere, unsure of what she saw was actually there or not. The story itself, until me, was only circulated within the family’s own folk group of believers and nonbelievers, whether it be something spooky to be feared or silly to be laughed at.

Analysis: Stories of the paranormal run deep within areas of burial, death, or where spirits would be inclined to seek revenge. Given how the circumstances of the cartels pressence within CB’s mother’s story lines up, the tale aligns itself with others of its kind where the point of origin is a crossroad of death. Additionally, CB’s mother’s perspective aligns with an environment which would encourage one to become more naturally accepting of the paranormal, supernatural forces, or spirits/apparitions. Given the setting, an old graveyard with a trouble history of unrest at night all with only one other person, CB’s mother, regardless of whether she actually saw something, would be automatically more inclined to agree that she did due to the mood and environment. Furthermore, attaching stories to the deceased is a classic trope of ghost stories, imposing their own subtales onto the larger tale at large, whether it be a woman in white, lonely hitchhiker, or in the case of CB’s mother, a victim of the cartel waiting for a ride to work.