Tag Archives: memorate

Kapre Ghost Story

Date of Performance: 04/03/2025

Nationality: American

Primary Language: English

Residence: South Bend, Indiana

My informant describes a supernatural experience he had when he was very young, one he does not remember himself but was told to him later in life by his grandparents. He grew up in a very old house in Manila, the capital city of the Philippines. He says he was a “sensitive kid”, and was noticeably silent until he grew older – therefore, it was unusual when, while looking out a window, he exclaimed in surprise to his grandmother that he saw a large humanoid creature, as big as the banana tree outside the window, looking inwards at the house. His grandmother looked outside, but could not see the giant – which matched perfectly the description of a kapre, a traditional Filipino tree giant that stands at ten feet tall and is known for smoking cigarettes. Her being a very religious, superstitious woman, was dismayed by my informant’s observation and immediately called a priest to bless the house and his backyard with holy water. After this, he was asked if he saw anything in the backyard, to which he said that he didn’t. My informant, when asking his family if they believed in supernatural beings, was told this story roughly fifteen years after it happened, and had no recollection of it. 

My informant doesn’t seem to take this story very seriously – “superstitious people see things”, he says, and him seeing a tree giant in the yard could just be the overactive imagination of a two or three year old. It’s “not super difficult to see how a banana tree moving in the wind could look like a giant monster to a little kid”, he notes, but remarks that if any house were to be haunted, it would be the one he grew up in, which according to him had been there since Spanish colonizers still ran Manila. 

As the source of the story is relatively direct, only going from his grandmother to my informant, I think the details are likely pretty accurate to how it actually happened, regardless of if the tree giant was really there or not. I do find it interesting how common supernatural stories are amongst my friends (like my informant) who grew up internationally or in strong cultural/ethnic enclaves as opposed to those who were raised in more diverse or I guess “modern” communities in which folk creatures/stories take up less space. It makes sense that a strong cultural influence in one’s childhood household could affect the perceptions of a young child, leading to stories like this one.

Khmer Rouge Ghost Story

Date of Performance: 04/03/2025

Nationality: Filipino

Primary Language: English

Residence: Brisbane, Australia

My informant tells me of the supernatural experience of his father, who, according to their family, has always had “a third eye”. While my informant is somewhat skeptical, apparently his father would see and be able to communicate with spirits, and stories like this were commonplace in his family growing up. This particular one centers around a business trip to Cambodia, during which his father returned to his hotel after a meeting only to be unable to sleep – he was disturbed by a “large, uncomfortable presence from the top floor”. After a few failed attempts to go to bed, he decided to investigate, and went to the top floor, which was a bar and restaurant. When he got there, he was overwhelmed by the number of spirits he saw – all of which gave off an “extremely negative aura”. He could apparently tell based on this gut feeling that a horrific violent act had been committed on the floor, and asked the bartender if any such occurrence had taken place at the hotel. As he had expected, my informant’s father was told that during the Cambodian genocide, the Khmer Rouge had gathered up and executed a huge amount of dissenters in that very floor of that very building. Unsettled, he returned to his room and tried to sleep again, but was left awake all night. 

It’s clear my informant doesn’t fully buy into the story, but treats his dad’s third eye with a sort of reverence that makes even me inclined to believe it. His performance of the story was very compelling – it’s apparent that he has told this one a lot – and he seemed to relish in its telling. His father’s visions must have been a big part of his childhood, and so naturally, he holds their stories close to his heart.

As for me, I found this memorate really interesting, especially its link to a historical event/time period, an element of the story that gives it, to me, more credibility. From a more realistic point of view, I can imagine the functionality of his father’s “third eye” in my informant’s upbringing as a tool of discipline, serving as an authoritative way to impart moral and social lessons from a figure bigger than just his parents. My informant, like a lot of my others, grew up internationally., and so stories like these were likely a bigger part of his life, and met less resistance from his peers, than they would have here.

Commercial Ghost Story

Date of Performance: 04/05/2025

Nationality: American

Primary Language: English

Residence: Los Angeles, California

My informant describes a ghost story from their youth in Texas at their cousin’s house, which apparently was haunted, and was the site for many encounters with supernatural creatures. Apparently, it was built near a Native American burial site, and as my informant and his family were deeply superstitious, they treated such incidents with caution and respect. On this one occasion, my informant was sleeping over at his cousin’s house, and was the only one awake, when the TV played an unsettling advertisement about the devil (whether this was supernatural, or an ad for a TV show or movie about the devil is unclear). Scared, my informant went out in the hallway, where they were met by a large, 7-foot tall figure. My informant then ran into his cousin’s room, woke him up, and waited outside the house until his cousin’s parents got home. Following this incident, his aunt had the house blessed by an exorcist, and apparently there wasn’t another ghost sighting for a few years after the fact.

My informant fully believes in ghosts, and was clearly affected by the story – he told it with dramatic flair, but was fully serious, fully believing his telling of events. His family is Christian, and apparently all of them acknowledge the supernatural, which definitely affected his perception of the world growing up.

To me, the tale sounds like it can be attributed to the paranoid imaginings of an elementary schooler – but you never really know. The less urbanized, relatively remote area of Texas he grew up in likely contributed to his deep belief in the supernatural, and as my informant is highly creative as well — he’s a writer – it’s easy to see how, through the years, a simple commercial could have spiraled into a full on ghost story.

Hand Ghost Story

Date of Performance: 04/06/2025

Nationality: Filipino

Primary Language: English

Residence: Melbourne, Australia

My informant recounted the one ghost story he knows, told to him since he was younger by his older brother and his friends, who encountered a supernatural phenomenon in the attic of their house. One night, after drinking and partying, the five of them decided to hang out in my informant’s brother’s attic, which was barely used. Nothing was in there but old things, and as the house was quite old, passed down from generation to generation, my informant’s family had lost track of what exactly was kept up there. The group decided to take a photograph of themselves up there, but when the photo came out, in the very middle was the clear image of a white, slender hand. It did not belong to any of them, and its features appeared eerily similar to those of an aswang, a traditional Filipino vampire. The group immediately left the attic, and didn’t venture back up there unless it was absolutely necessary. They retold this story to my informant, who fully believed them, and from then on avoided his attic completely.

My informant showed me the photograph, and while it was eerie, wasn’t necessarily conclusive proof of the story – it was somewhat blurry, and could have been the reflection or distortion of one of the old objects lying in the attic. My informant reacted to my skepticism indignantly, and restated his belief in the story.

While he was confident in its validity, there are a couple of elements to the story that could have contributed to its exaggeration and gravitas, like the group of them drinking beforehand, as well as the tale being retold over and over in my informant’s youth, when one is susceptible to superstitions of this manner. From a cultural point of view, as has been the case across many of the folk narratives I’ve encountered, the supernatural encounter is reinforced by the superstitious and perhaps religious beliefs of the culture my informant comes from, and remains an important aspect of his worldview.

Spider Nightmare

Nationality: American
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: San Francisco, CA
Language: English

Text:

I was sleeping, not sure if it was a bed or a crib at that age. I don’t know what was happening, but out of the dimly lit room I could’ve sworn I saw these bugs starting to appear. I saw the wall behind me slowly slide out like it was on wheels, unveiling an unrealistically massive tarantula that I was convinced was going to eat me. Later that night, I woke up on the beach with the same spider from before, who was trying to kill me. That night, I truly believed that the tarantula was there, and from that day on I was deathly afraid of spiders.

Context:

The informant, A, experienced this event as a child and believes it was the moment that inspired their lifelong fear of spiders. They originally encountered this memory during a vivid dream, which they clearly felt was real at the moment. A interprets this dream as a symbolic warning—one that shaped their perception of spiders from that moment on.

Analysis:

This is a classic example of a memorate, as this is a personal supernatural story that felt incredibly real. Even though this memorate took place while A was dreaming, the long-term effects felt are central to the story. The wall opening and the oversized spider create an ominous liminal space, evoking classic symbols of hidden dangers. A developing a lifelong fear of spiders solely due to this one dream highlights how folk memories can have long-term personal consequences. Overall, this story shows how childhood experiences can become lasting parts of a person’s own folklore.