Tag Archives: Spirit

The Quran-Reading Jinn

Nationality: American
Age: 18
Occupation: Student

Informant Information:

Age: 18
Date of Performance: 4/01/2025
Language: English
Nationality: American
Occupation: University Student
Primary Language: English
Residence: Los Angeles, California

Legend Text:
“Aight so lemme tell you this story I heard from a Sheikh, right? He was talkin’ about this boy who went to some Islamic boarding school. Real quiet dude—didn’t really vibe with nobody. Like, he’d just be sittin’ by himself all the time, barely said a word to anybody. Never played, never joked, nothin’. Just… there.

But here’s where it gets weird. At night, the other boys start hearin’ this scratchin’—like real scratchin’, on the walls, the floor, soundin’ like somethin’ tryna claw its way through or somethin’. And it wasn’t no small sound either—loud enough to wake ‘em up. So they all freak out, runnin’ to the teachers all panicked like, “Yo! There’s somethin’ in the room!” But every time the teachers came, it was just silence. Nothin’ there. No marks, no animals, nothin’.

Now guess who never woke up? That boy. Slept through all of it like a baby. No tossing, no turning—just peaceful as ever, like he ain’t hear nothin’. And that’s when folks started whisperin’—sayin’ maybe he was possessed or some jinn was up in him. But like, they couldn’t prove nothin’, so it was just rumors.

Then one night, one of the teachers starts recitin’ Quran out loud, tryna bless the room or calm folks down or whatever. And boom—the quiet kid just sits up outta nowhere and starts recitin’ too. But the crazy part? He was killin’ it. Like, word-for-word, smooth, no stumbles. Dude was recitin’ like he’d been doin’ it his whole life, maybe even better than the teacher. Everybody just froze. Like, how you doin’ that with no practice, barely even talkin’ during the day?

So now everybody really trippin’. Cuz now they don’t know—is he just mad gifted? Like, maybe God really blessed him with that kind of talent? Or is it somethin’ else? Cuz the way he spoke, man… it ain’t sound regular. It ain’t sound human. Gave folks goosebumps. After that, nobody really knew what to think. Was it a miracle? Or was it the jinn speakin’ through him?”

Context:
The informant is Muslim and heard this story during Ramadan, a spiritually heightened time when discussions of the supernatural are common in Muslim households. She believed it was told to create awe, fear, and moral reflection.

Analysis:
This legend explores the mysterious boundaries between divine giftedness and supernatural interference. The Jinn here is not malevolent in the traditional sense but instead creates confusion around spiritual authenticity. It highlights the complex role Jinns play in Muslim culture—not just as spirits of fear but as beings capable of deep religious knowledge. The setting in a Quranic school emphasizes the sacred nature of the space and the high stakes of interpreting spiritual phenomena.

Blue the Glue Ghost

Nationality: American
Age: 18
Occupation: University Student

Informant Information:

Age: 18
Date of Performance: 3/25/2025
Language: English
Nationality: American
Occupation: University Student
Primary Language: English
Residence: Hayward, California

Text:

“Once upon a time, there was a ghost named Blue who would steal people’s shoes. Every time he did, he left a trail of glue behind. The police followed these sticky clues from house to house and apartment to apartment until, after three weeks of shoe thefts, they finally found Blue. When they caught him, he was released back into the spirit world. And that was the end of Blue.”

Context:

The informant recalled that her mother used to tell her this tale before bed. It served as a form of childhood entertainment and likely helped ease the transition into sleep with its mysterious yet harmless narrative. She believes her mother created the story herself, indicating a form of generational oral creativity.

Analysis:

“Blue the Glue Ghost” functions as a bedtime folktale with mild suspense and whimsical absurdity. It demonstrates the creativity of parental storytelling and the way minor mischief (stealing shoes) is framed through a playful ghost figure. The use of rhyme and alliteration (Blue/glue/clue) adds charm and memorability, making it ideal for oral transmission. Though it lacks the typical “moral” of traditional tales, it emphasizes curiosity and resolution, which keeps children engaged.

Conversations with Spirits during Dreams (Memorate)

Text 

Collector: “Have you ever been contacted by a spirit?” 

Informant: “With loved ones that I have lost, I have had experiences with them partially in the physical world and a lot in the metaphysical slash dream world. When our Nana died, I started having dreams about her and they felt immensely real. I’ll still have some every now and again. I’ve had experiences with my father’s grandfather who passed away. Immediately after he passed away, he came to me in a dream and told me things about myself, gifts that I had, and I felt like he was very at peace with his death. I only experienced him once, same with my great-grandmother. Two days prior to her physical death.” 

Collector: “What made this experience feel different than other dreams, your normal dreams?” 

Informant: “In these dreams, I felt paralyzed like another force was holding on to me. Almost like my soul was in a different place and then needed time to get back to my body. I found myself lying in bed. I heard the sound of static like a television channel. It grew louder. I grew more uneasy. My body felt celestial is the best way to put it.” 

Context

The Informant is a 26-year-old man. He’s had several spiritual interactions through intense dreams and episodes of sleep paralysis. Each interaction was with a deceased family member after or nearly before their time of passing. The Informant expressed he could have full-length conversations with the dead through this medium. 

Analysis

I found it interesting that the Informant’s spiritual interactions took place during vivid dreams. This reminded me of the article, “Ghostly Possession and Real Estate: The Dead in Contemporary Estonian Folklore” when the author Ülo Valk explains that, “visual and auditory experiences with spirits can also occur in dreamlike states.” (Valk 34) In this dream space, both parties could say their peace. These encounters also happened near the Spirit’s time of death. This could be interpreted as the Spirit “finishing business” with loved ones before moving on to the afterlife. Valk also notes that spiritual interactions commonly occur in transition periods where there are feelings of, “disorientation, uncertainty, discontinuity, [and] unrootedness.” (Valk 35) Those emotions are common during grief. For the Informant, these spiritual conversations helped both parties to emotionally move forward and find peace in their respective realms. 

A Nat’s Malevolent Dream

Nationality: Burmese

Primary Language: Burmese

Other Language(s): English

Age: 19

Occupation: Student

Residence: Baltimore, WA

Performance Date: 03/19/2024

Y.Y. has been my friend since Kindergarten, and is also a Burmese person who is originally from Yangon, Myanmar. He recounts the time P, his grandma told him a horror story about Burmese spirits. Their relationship is very close knit, as his grandma would regularly tell him Burmese legends and superstitions that she has learned about. 

“In Pyi Oo Lwin, there are a lot of cave pagodas and this one family went on a vacation there. They visited a cave pagoda one morning during their trip and later that night, their son had a dream. In the dream, he was in the exact same cave pagoda they were at earlier that day. In caves like these, there are usually ponds that are created since water would drop and seep through from the top of the caves due to humidity. There was a pond in that cave pagoda and it just so happens that there was a lot of treasure in that pond. Somehow, he ended up in the cave in real life the next day, to search for the treasure in the pond. Days later they found his corpse floating with chains tied around his body on top of the pond. P. Told me that sometimes Nats (god-like spirits) try to seduce people into the areas that they are chained to, because they are finding a replacement. Nats are usually found in sacred places like those ponds and they attract humans using dreams and hallucinations so they can leave the place once a replacement has been found. I interpret the story my grandma told me as a way for her to make me respect or at least fear the Nat. This is because my family usually doesn’t believe in spirits like the Nat but she does, so she says that although we don’t have to worship them, at the very least we should respect and acknowledge them when we visit pagodas so they don’t harm us. 

I personally found this story really terrifying, and interpret it as an unrealistic legend made to incite fear in us. I think these stories usually have a motive that is trying to push a certain narrative or lesson on to us. For this story, I think it teaches us to not wander off and be greedy. Since P. told Y.Y. this when he was quite young, it might be her way of protecting and warning him from danger whenever they visit sacred places like temples. In Myanmar, it is very important that we are respectful when we visit sacred places like pagodas and temples. We would have to be dressed a certain way, and not do much else other than pray and walk around there. This type of story makes sure people are not doing anything that can be considered greedy or sinful, when they are at sacred places.

Nat Sain Legend

Nationality: Burmese

Primary Language: Burmese

Other Language(s): English, Chinese

Age: 19

Occupation: Student

Residence: Hanover, N.H

Performance Date: 03/17/2024

P.P has been my friend since middle school and is also a Burmese person who is originally from Yangon, Myanmar. When I asked her of any legends, myths or tales she knows of, she recounts a known legend about people who died really unfortunate deaths becoming spirits. Her housekeeper told her this story since she is from the rural areas of Myanmar where a lot of these myths are considered true. Back home, it was common for most households to have housekeepers and so the relationships between housekeepers and the children of the house was usually one that was really familial and close knit. 

“Nat Sain are spirits who, before they died, were good and kind people but were killed off in really unfortunate ways. Because of this, Nat Sain are known to be full of vengeance and malicious intent. In this one story, the village is trying to build a bridge but the bridge keeps tumbling and falling apart no matter how hard they try to repair it. The people of the town believed in mythical spirits so they thought that if they found someone that matched a certain requirement for a specific birthday, age, day of the week they were born, then they should sacrifice that person so that the bridge can work. There is this woman who had a husband that worked on the construction site near the bridge. She always brought him food everyday and was friendly to everyone and fed them her food as well. One day she started to converse with someone near the bridge and they started asking her questions about her birthday and realized that she matched all the sacrifice’s requirements perfectly. The next day, people captured her, wrapped her in a sleeping mat, and dug a hole where the bridge’s support is supposed to be, and buried her alive. They end up building a bridge on top of it. My housekeeper said this was a myth for a real bridge in her village so people would always worship or say prayers for that Nat Sain whenever they cross the bridge so that they can cross it safely. Honestly I think my housekeeper was just trying to scare me and tell me an entertaining bedtime story before I went to bed for her own entertainment ahaha. I still think it’s a real story but, I don’t think there’s another meaning behind the story other than just focusing on the Nat Sain’s background. Maybe the legend’s intent was to make sure people respect the spirits since they have their own history and can be dangerous to others if people come to their area/sacred place.”

After hearing this story, I was pretty terrified to say the least. I interpret this legend as a spiritual tale in Buddhism or Burmese folklore, that was used to scare people with the purpose of spiritual or religious reinforcement. These stories are scary yet believable enough to ensure people don’t stray away from religion since it implies that there are many mythical figures out there that could harm you if you are sinful. I think this story mainly serves to explain why the bridge didn’t work previously. By creating a story, it provided answers while making sure people prayed and was careful when crossing the bridge.