Tag Archives: paranormal

Ghost at Winchester Mystery House- Folk Legend

Age: 20

Text:

Informant: “One time I went and visited the Winchester mystery house when I was 12 and the tour guide was telling us different stories of things people have witnessed while being in that house. And so one of the stories was that in the living room there was a fireplace and one of the men that worked there was a wheelbarrow guy and helped clean up. In the middle of the night, you can see his ghost cleaning the fireplace very rarely.”

Interviewer: “What is his ghost supposed to look like?”
Informant: “His ghost is covered in the ash.”

Interview: “Did you see the ghost or experience any paranormal activity yourself?”
Informant: “No, we went in the daytime.”

Context:

The informant heard this ghost story while visiting the Winchester Mystery House in San Jose with their family when they were about 12 years old.

Analysis:

This story is an example of a legend, a form of verbal folklore that takes place in the real world and is presented as something that could be believable or believed. The ghost of the wheelbarrow worker is tied to a specific location, the Winchester Mystery House, which helps make the story feel more realistic since there’s a tangible location already associated with anecdotes of experiences with paranormal activity. Legends are often connected to real places because the setting encourages listeners to question whether the event might actually be true.

At the same time, legends allow people to debate beliefs and explore uncertainty. Listeners may not fully believe the story, but they also may not completely dismiss it, and creating that sense of ambivalence that is central to how legends function. This specific tension between belief and skepticism encourages discussion about whether ghosts or supernatural events might exist. Even though the informant did not personally witness the ghost, sharing stories of reported sightings through tours or conversations help keep legends alive and continue to circulate and renew the legend for new audiences.


Whispers of a ghost

Date_of_performance: 03/29/2025

Informant Name: BT

Language: English 

Nationality: American

Occupation: Student 

Primary Language: English

Residence: Los Angeles 

Interview:

BT: I don’t necessarily believe, like I have my own spiritual beliefs. So like I don’t necessarily fully believe in ghosts, but like I have had like my own like parental experience.

BT: My mom is a realtor and she like does probably way more than like a realtor should do. Like she does like duties in her work that she’s, I’m like, okay, you should like have the client probably do that. But these clients like moved out of their house. And they left it like a little bit messy. But I think that they were probably like in a hurry to move out and everything.

BT: So she’s like, Hey, can you guys, like to me and my older sister, can you guys go and help me clean this stuff? We’re like, Yeah, of course.

BT: So, we went to the house and it was like, main floor was kind of big, upstairs was like a little lost.area and then downstairs like you walk down the stairs and there’s a room on this side of the room. *she gestures to the left with her hands*

BT: So we, my sister and I went downstairs, my mom stayed upstairs and I go and it’s scary because I don’t know if it’s a paranormal experience or if someone was literally in the house.But I go downstairs and I’m like first, like I’m going down and my sister’s going down behind me. And I look to the right in this room, it’s dark. It’s like after the sun went down, so it’s also dark outside. And I look in that room, don’t see anything.

BT: I look to my left and then there’s like a walkout basement, it’s a walkout basement, so there was a door. The door was open. *pause* The door was wide open, like leading to outside. So I was like, okay. I was like, let me just go shut it, ’cause we were like, maybe it was the wind, like maybe the family didn’t lock in.

ME: Yeah. Yeah

BT: And I had no explanation as to why it was open. So I went from the stairs into the room, the door was here, I closed the door, and I walked in.

ME: Okay.

BT: On my way back, I kind of stop here, so like here’s the stairs. My sister’s at the bottom. And I’m like, to my sister, oh, I don’t know why that was, I don’t know why that was open.

BT: But like, I don’t really survey the rest of the room. ‘Cause I was like, kind of jogging back because I was freaked out by the door being opened. And so as I’m saying that to my sister, and suddenly I hear heavy breathing…

ME: Oh my god! That’s terrifying.

BT: I hear very like heavy breathing from like the corner of the room, but it’s dark, so I can’t really see. It’s like shadowy, so I’m like, and I don’t even take a look. It’s like shadowy, so I’m like, and I don’t even take a look or even want to look back.

BT: I literally, I swear like adrenaline, I think. I literally carried my sister like up the stairs, ’cause I was pushing her, like she didn’t hear it.

ME: Oh my god.

BT: that I literally carried my sister like up the stairs, ’cause I was pushing her, like she didn’t hear it. She was like at the bottom of the stairs. And I was like, go, like go, go, go, go, pushing her up the stairs trying to get out. So we literally ran up the stairs and like fell, like I literally fell up the stairs. Once I got to the top, I fell on the ground. Once I got to the top, I fell on the ground. My mom was standing at the top of the stairs because she heard us running up in a hurry and she was like “What the heck just happened?” And I was like, I think that there’s someone downstairs.

ME: Oh my god.

BT: And I told her I heard someone breathing right in my ear. And I was like, someone literally opened the door and the door is open, so I think a person was downstairs. And so my mom was like, “Okay, let me go check.” She goes down and there’s no one.

ME: That’s crazy!

BT: So I’m like, either it was a real person, which is even scary to me. It’s like they waited  before my mom got down there, and they’re gone. So that was my only like– Oh my god. Yeah, and it just felt eerie and weird and scary to me.

ME: No, that would freak me out.

BT: Yeah, it was freaky. It was probably like 8 o’clock we had gotten there. So it was like sun was going down and then by the time we went downstairs, it was dark.

ME: That would be the last time im every entering that house again.

BT: Exactly! It’s like I’m not messing with it. I’m not messing with any ghosts in there. But that’s my personal paranormal experience. I hope that is helpful!

ME: That’s perfect! That’s amazing!

My interpretation

I want to believe that this was a ghost that my friend heard down in the basement. If it was a person, I feel like she would’ve heard footsteps if they walked back inside or coming up behind her. And since her mom is a realtor, she definitely would’ve down a check down there after the clients left or heard the door open. Her sister also didn’t hear the whisper herself, so it likely is a ghost. And if it was someone trying to scare her, they would’ve done more than just breathe, they could’ve talked or grabbed her arm to really freak her out. She mentioned how she has her own spiritual beliefs and that could fall under believing in ghosts. This also could be a psychological feeling, she got freaked out by the door being opened and thought she heard something, since her mom didn’t see anything, so I am leaning towards it being a ghost or her imagination.















































Urban Legend- Herobrine in Minecraft

Nationality: White
Age: 20
Occupation: College Student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Primary Language: English

Story:

Minecraft players have talked about this figure Herobrine, who basically looks like the character Steve but without eyeballs, for a few years. You summon Herobrine by making an altar our of gold, nether, and torches. It’s less common to see Herobrine himself – although some players have claimed to – but you can tell he’s been in an area in a number of ways. For example, the trees might have no leaves, you might see a random 2×2 tunnel, something you built could be on fire, he might put up signs with threatening messages … those are a few things that players have linked to him. Some people claim to have seen him even without spawning him using the altar; there are some blurry screenshots circulating online as proof, but it’s been debated whether those are edited or not. It’s most likely that if he’s real, he’s a glitch, based on the way he acts. But some people have started a rumor that Herobrine is the dead brother of Notch [the founder of Minecraft].

Context:

The informant, BN, is my classmate at USC. He is an avid Minecraft player, and came across this legend through posts on Reddit and YouTube related to the game.

Analysis:

Personally, I think Herobrine is real. Although I’ve never seen the ominous character himself, I have tried to spawn him in using the gold/nether altar – and soon thereafter I saw leafless trees, as well as a sign in front of my house in the game, saying “You will burn.”

The development and spread of the Herobrine legend shows the nature of the Minecraft community. The square-based universe of Minecraft is one adjacent to our real world, so it has its own folklore and urban legends. Players’ thoughts on whether Herobrine is real or not stem from their personal experiences with the game, as well as the YouTube and Twitch content they consume of it. This is similar to how many people’s belief in ghosts comes from their own perceived encounters with one, or convincing video content that someone else has interacted with/seen one. Plus, most Minecraft players belong to Gen Z and grew up with the game. This demographic was in their early teens when the Herobrine legend first originated and gained traction. This young age group is significantly more likely to believe a story about the paranormal, allowing the legend to take off and maintain relevance.

Ghost Car Alarm

Nationality: United States
Age: 22
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: 4/5/23
Primary Language: English

Text:

My informant, from Fresno California, recounts a paranormal experience.

“So here’s my ghost story. So. Last January, so January of 2022, my grandfather’s wife, so I guess my step-grandmother, died pretty suddenly. And that summer, we went to go visit him at his house, right? And we were there. And then all these little weird things started happening. Like, my grandfather gave me this pair of sunglasses that had been his wife’s and I put them down in a very obvious location but when I went to go back for them, they weren’t there. So I was like ‘Oh my god, is she hiding them from me?’ and then my mom was looking for them, and she was like ‘You know, if you don’t want her to have the sunglasses, that’s fine, but can you just show me where they are?’ and then she turned around and they were right there!

Another thing, is we were just sitting in the house and my step-grandmother had this car she liked to drive, and it hadn’t been used in a while, and all the sudden, the car alarm just started going off out of nowhere! And apparently that’s like a thing, like my mom said when her grandmother died, (she told me this story way before this happened) randomly the car alarm would go off in the grandmother’s car and people were brought over to look at the situation but could never figure out what was wrong with the car.”

Context:

“It’s like a thing I guess, like if you believe in ghosts, that ghosts will tamper with electricity and things like that to communicate because they’re limited. 

“I think it’s possible it was her ghost. I mean, I don’t know if I really believe in ghosts, but enough people have had enough supernatural experiences that I think it’s something to entertain. I guess it just means that she’s still around. She was there, or her spirit was there.”

Interpretation:

I found it interesting that both the informant and her mother had experienced the phenomena involving their grandmother’s car alarms going off as a form of haunting, adding a generational element to the paranormal encounter. The informant’s tone indicated that the spirit or force was not dangerous or malevolent. She emphasizes that the experience just means that maybe the spirit of her grandmother is still around. This implies a belief in a soul that can exist outside of the body, and perhaps in an afterlife, although the informant did specify that she did not necessarily believe in ghosts (but is open to entertaining the idea).

Chinese Sleep Paralysis Apparitions

Nationality: Chinese
Occupation: Barber
Performance Date: 4/28/22
Primary Language: English
Language: Chinese

This is a story that I heard from a barber when discussing folklore origins. S is a middle aged Chinese woman who used to live in China before immigrating to the United States.

C: My sister used to have pretty bad sleep paralysis when she was little. She got scissor lock, right, so she can’t move, sleep paralysis. She said that she couldn’t see, er, in her head I think she said there was a small girl running around her bed trying to give her an apple.

Me: Huh, an apple?

C: Yeah, like trying to give her an apple. I think her bed was in the center of the room so the girl would run around her bed and try to hand it to her. Another time, my sister used to have a lot of sleep paralysis, and she could only move her eyes. And she said during that time, in like a dark corner, she could see, you know in cartoons like the bad guy when they go Ha Ha Ha (menacingly)? She would see a shadowy figure and she would hear him laughing. After the first few times, I think she got used to it though. Thankfully, I’ve never gotten scissor lock before.

Me: Wow, that is so scaryyy. Ahh. This is kind of weird but do you know if someone has ever died in your house or on the land around you?

C: No, sorry I never heard anything like that before.

Me: All good, I was just wondering. Thank you for your story!

Even though I have heard and read many stories about sleep paralysis demons, I have never heard of an apparition of a little girl with an apple. The contrast between a somewhat innocent-seeming girl and a laughing dark figure is very interesting, though what is more intriguing is that someone could get used to the sleep paralysis demons and the feeling of not being able to move your body while mentally awake. Since Asian countries are more open to the spirits and ancestors than in many western countries, people in these Asian countries are less likely to be frightened by the apparitions and instead see them as some spirits who simply want some company or have some fun.