Tag Archives: haunted

Text: In 2004, a vengeful spirit forces a Bhawanigarh family to abandon their mansion. Decades later, Ruhaan and Reet, mistaken for dead, hide there, uncovering the spirit’s true identity as a family betrayal. The climax reveals a switcheroo between twins Anjulika and Manjulika, leading to a spectral showdown and a plea for forgiveness.

Context: My brother told me about a tale set in Bhawanigarh, where in 2004, a malevolent spirit forced a family to abandon their mansion. Fast forward to 2022, Ruhaan and Reet, who narrowly escape a fatal accident, seek refuge in this very mansion. Ruhaan becomes known as Rooh Baba, believed to communicate with spirits, amid the family’s misconception of Reet’s demise. The spirit’s identity is revealed to be Manjulika, Anjulika’s jealous twin, skilled in black magic. The plot thickens when the family discovers Reet is alive and Ruhaan’s pretended possession by Manjulika, who had been impersonating Anjulika all along. In a dramatic turn, the true Anjulika’s spirit traps Manjulika, advising the family to forgive Reet for her deceit. This tale, weaving through themes of supernatural revenge, mistaken identities, and familial bonds, culminates in a haunting yet poignant resolution, where the spirit’s entrapment brings an end to the family’s curse, leaving a lingering question of forgiveness and redemption.

Analysis:

The tale from Bhawanigarh intertwines supernatural vengeance with familial betrayal, reflecting deep-seated cultural values surrounding family dynamics and redemption. The malevolent spirit, Manjulika, driven by jealousy and skilled in black magic, embodies the dark consequences of familial discord, resonating with Domino Renee Perez’s observation that folklore figures “wield power by making often incomprehensible and at times contemptible choices” (Perez 155). The narrative’s twist, revealing Manjulika’s identity through a twin switcheroo, delves into themes of deception and truth, showcasing the cultural fascination with doppelgängers and the supernatural as mirrors to human psychology.

The climax, marked by a spectral showdown and a plea for forgiveness, underscores the cultural emphasis on reconciliation and the healing potency of forgiveness. This aligns with the belief in redemption’s possibility, highlighting the transformative power of understanding and absolution within personal and cultural realms. Furthermore, the mansion’s role as the story’s backdrop, abandoned due to the spirit’s wrath, emphasizes the significance of space in spiritual beliefs, akin to Ülo Valk’s analysis of how environments shape folklore (Valk 31).

Haunted Military Island

My friend, who is originally from Singapore, recalls them and their friends sharing stories about people who’d go off to Tekong Island, a training facility where those “shipped off” would receive military training, mostly mandatory. On this island, many have claimed to have heard strange noises deep within the jungle regions of the island and sightings of “shadowy” female figures. From within the facility, strange and random noises would appear during the night such as toilets flushing or the sound of moving objects. There have also been reports of people mysteriously disappearing while at the island or falling ill or dead without explanation during night marches. 

My friend has heard many stories like these from people in their school and amongst their peers, some of whom did end up going to serve on that island after high school.

I personally enjoy hearing about mysterious occurrences such as these ones. It seems like something I’d want to listen to a podcast about.

The Woman In The Corner – Ghost Story

Main Piece

Informant KO recalled a memorate from when she was in middle school after moving with her family to a new home. While renovations were being performed on the home, she and her family found a number of strange things: “a child’s train tracks, a weird oil permit…a picture of this woman in the wall.”

KO and her family started asking and telling each other stories about who this woman in the portrait might be: “What if she was someone’s mistress? What if she was murdered? [My family and I] went to all the dark stuff first.”

One night, while asleep in her bedroom, KO randomly woke up in the middle of the night – unusual for her – and recalls that it was either exactly 3 or 3:30am. She looked towards the corner of her room and saw the woman standing there “in a long white dress, with long black hair.”

She recalls that she was very tired and more nervous than afraid at the time, and “hoped she’d go away if [she] just hid,” so she pulled the covers over her head and tried to go back to sleep. When she woke up in the morning, the woman in the corner was gone.

KO told her parents and a few friends about the experience. When told, her Mom said that she’d been “hearing footsteps down the hallway” but didn’t want to say anything and scare KO’s little sister.

KO and her family have been living in the house ever since, but KO has never seen the woman again. She questions whether the experience was just a dream.

Interpretation

Informant’s Interpretation: KO, as stated, questions whether the whole affair was just a dream and thinks her “brain was primed to see a ghost” because of what had been found in the house and her mom’s observations. She finds it to be a classic example of thinking you may have seen a ghost, and key to her uncertainty about ghosts’ existence.

Personal Interpretation: I see this story and experience as reactive to and inclusive of the environment it takes place in, similar to many ghost stories. The context of moving, renovation (altering the old), and being confronted with unknown pieces of physical history set the stage to wonder and consider who lived in this house beforehand, and speaks to a human curiosity towards trying to understand the unknown. I also feel that this experience seems like it sticks out in KO’s memory so prominently because of the age she was when it took place–at a time when kids are starting to process their own place in the world and sort out what is real from what is, an personal experience with one of these unknowns holds a great impact. The actual appearance in the corner being a woman wearing a long white dress evoked wedding-esque symbolism to me, and I can recall many ghost stories focused on brides / the marriage status of a woman, particularly in relation to death and household spirits.

Background

Informant KO is a current student at USC pursuing a degree in Narrative Studies from Seattle, Washington. Her family (mom, dad, younger sister) still lives in the house noted in the story. KO remains unsure whether she believes in ghosts, but thinks of this as a key part of her belief that they “maybe” exist.

KO is white and of Canadian and Swedish descent, and is female-presenting.

The Ghosts of Eddison and Ford Estates

Nationality: Phillipino
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Fort Meyers, Florida
Performance Date: 04/04/23
Primary Language: English

Text: “One popular myth from my town is that about the Edison and Ford Winter Estates being haunted by the ghosts of Thomas Edison and Henry Ford. The estates used to be the winter homes of these two famous inventors, and after their deaths, there have been reports of strange occurrences and paranormal activity. According to the legend, the ghost of Thomas Edison is said to wander his estate, tinkering with machines and conducting experiments. Visitors have reported hearing strange noises and seeing unexplained lights, and some claim to have seen Edison’s ghostly apparition.

Similarly, the ghost of Henry Ford is said to haunt his estate’s gardens and greenhouse. Some visitors have reported hearing the sound of footsteps and seeing the ghostly figure of a man walking among the plants. I was always too afraid to visit and the houses were pretty far from my home, but it was still a super scary story I heard about in like middle school.”

Context: This story was told in a lighthearted manner because me and JD are very close, but I could honestly tell that telling the story kind of made him uncomfortable or on edge. While not necessarily a super famous legend among the whole state of Florida, it was apparently very common in the immediate city where JD resides. He was first told the story by his cousin when he was in the 6th grade, which likely explains why he became frightened when talking about it. JD is personally a believer in ghosts and super natural beings but he is unsure about whether or not this particular ghostly legend is true or false, but he also has no intention of finding out or “getting anywhere near those places”. JD and I had a good conversation about how the story circulated among his friend group but because of his superstition he was frightened of the story.

Analysis: I personally found this legend fascinating. I think The ghost stories associated with the Edison and Ford Winter Estates in Fort Myers, Florida add a layer of intrigue and mystery to the already fascinating history of these historic sites. According to legend, both Thomas Edison and Henry Ford are said to haunt the estates, with many visitors and staff members reporting paranormal activity and unexplained phenomena. While there is no concrete evidence to support these claims, the ghost stories associated with the Edison and Ford Winter Estates add to the sense of mystery and intrigue surrounding these historic sites. Many visitors are drawn to the estates specifically because of these stories, hoping to catch a glimpse of the supernatural. It’s worth noting that many of the ghost stories associated with the estates may be attributed to the power of suggestion. The estates are known to be haunted, and visitors may be more likely to see or hear something unusual if they are already primed to believe in the paranormal. Because many people believe these ghosts to be real, but they are not yet proven to be so, this falls perfectly into the category of a legend. I for one had no idea these famous figures resided in Florida, but I was interesting in seeing them after hearing this legend.

Haunted house at the end of the street

Nationality: Mexican
Age: 21
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: April 4, 2023
Primary Language: English

[A]: I grew up in like an 8 house horizontal neighborhood, you know like 8 houses and they were gated off, and when I turned 5 or 6 the last house at the end, the people left and the house was just there sitting for like 3 years between the period that the family was living there and the next one. So me and my friends that lived in the other houses always used to say that that house was haunted and that’s why they had left. So when Halloween would come around we would walk over to the house, ‘cause there was also like…it was at the end and it was blocked off with big hedges so you couldn’t totally see it like the rest of the neighborhood. So we used to go in there and grab little stones from the pavement and toss them at the windows to see if a spirit would appear or something. So for that whole time we used to say that the house was haunted.

[Me]: Did you guys just decide one day that the house was haunted or was there something specifically that happened?

[A]: I think we always used to just say it…I don’t think there was anything specifically but we used to say a bunch of stuff about why it was haunted. It was the last house, number 8, and we used to say that 8 was a haunted number and that we had seen the number in the night and that the house would spin in circles and the lights would flicker on and off…allegedly…we were probably just little kids making up stuff

[Me]: Did you ever go on to the property?

[A]: I don’t think we ever broke into the house but we definitely went into the yard and on to the patio and the driveway and we used to again throw rocks at the windows then one of us would scream that we saw something then we would run away or whatever

A is 21 years old and grew up in a small town in Mexico. He told me this story after I had asked him if he remembered any scary or ghost stories from when he was younger, but as he recounted it like more of a happy memory than one that still scared him—as most scary stories from youth seem in adulthood. Afterwards I prompted him to tell me a bit more about the role the number 8 played in the story, but the details were unfortunately lost to time. Regardless, reflecting on our class discussion about the “luckiness” of numbers in certain cultures, it got me thinking about how the number 8 is perceived in popular American culture; typically it’s considered a lucky or at least auspicious number (i.e. magic 8 ball), so I’d be interested to dive deeper into whether this was just an instance of kids being kids or if there’s some deeper significance in Mexican culture.

A’s story contains many motifs common to the general concept of a haunted house: blocked off from the rest of the community, a mysterious backstory, etc. I found it interesting that both of the haunted house stories I collected for this portion weren’t necessarily well-known in the community but were instead primarily known and/or created by a group of young kids.