My Hawaii ghost storyMy Hawaii ghost story
Kind of long. I originally posted this up on an absinthe forum, and had to explain some shit to people who didn't know about various hawaii-stuff:
I grew up in hawaii. Lots of ghost stories there. One im familiar with is the one about 'night marchers'. Hawaiian ghosts walking in a line to some destination, normally for war. There was a televised show about how this one little boy would always wake up at night sometimes, and walk outside, toward the beach. It freaked his parents out quite a bit of course, but more so because when they caught him doing it, he always looked like he was holding someone's hand.
Later they found out that night marchers were going off to battle on that same path, to the same beach years ago, and they felt that they were walking in a line through the boys room, waking him up, and having him follow them. They moved his bed to the other side of the room, had the house blessed by a kahuna, and it stopped.
Anyway, I went back to visit hawaii in November of 2001. I Have some good friends still living out there.
Now, I do not personally believe in an afterlife in any way period. It seems too.. well... Let's just say, If we were like turtles, laid and forgotten and not raised by parents, I don't think we would need to create an adult 'god' or whatever, or have to think happy thoughts about their being a 'point' to things, and everlasting existence. Belief in an afterlife seems like a blanket to me...
Anyway, My friend Justin and I bought some food, and decided to go up to Volcano national park on the Big Island of Hawaii. (where i am from). He had never been to Thurston's lava tube. It's wired with lights inside, and maybe about 1/2 mile long. Pretty big, but you have to park, and walk about 1,000-2,000 feet on a rough crappy cement path to get there. Unlit, as the park normally closes before dark. They don't close down the park at night, because there are a few hotels up there, mostly for tourists. I used to drive up there at night to look at the stars, and just hang out somewhere quiet, so i knew we could go up there with no problems.
So at about a little after midnight, we arrived, and were driving around looking for this place. I went to the lava tube as a child with my family, so i didn't remember where it was, and the park has no lights past the front gated area. Lots of roads, which lead to parking lots where you can see craters, smoking sulfur pits, and even one which goes down to a road which was covered with a lava flow a while back. That's a real trip, seeing a road suddenly covered with about 2 feet of lava rock. (the road is blocked off before this of course, the flow is still somewhat active close to there), but you are allowed to drive up to almost that point where the road is covered.
Well, we finally found the parking lot to the lava tube. They had a small sign. Now, there were 4 paths to take, 2 going left and 2 right on each side of the parking lot. No signs on any of the paths, so that didn't help. Wasn't a full moon out, but close enough, pretty clear, and bright enough to see.
We didn't bring flashlights, because we forgot to. We figured we didn't need them when we relized this, because i remembered the lava tube as having lights inside it. (Had to during the day, it would be totally dark otherwise). We were making tons of 'menehune' and 'night marcher' jokes. Menehune's are more like children, not ghosts, but we were still joking. It's dark, cold, and quite up there. You can see every damn star in the universe it's so high up. Ok, exaggeration, but that IS close to where the observatories are, one of the most powerful telescope in the world (on land anyway). All of our street lights on the big island are yellow, because it cuts down on the reflected atmospheric glare which would affect this telescope. This makes things even more clear for your eyes alone. It's a real trip all of those stars, nothing else like it, nowhere even comes close.
So we tried a path, and after a while of walking, i figured it wasn't the right path... so we then walked down the other path for a little while... nope! Still not it.
We finally tried one of the paths on the other side. One was going up, one down. I figured it would be the one going down, so we walked for a bit, then finally gave up, decided to drive around again just to make sure the sign we had seen said this was it. So we walk back, and drive around, yes, this was the place. Wish they had put up signs on the paths.
So we parked again, and started walking on the same lower path. This was a pretty rain forest'y' area, lots of trees, vines, and so forth, but the path was upkept well, like i said earlier, the path is like a rough concrete, maybe about 4-5 feet wide at most. Still, there was more than enough moonlight coming in through the trees for us to see. I wouldn't say you could easily see more than 20-25 feet into the trees though, but when the path was straight, you could see far. The path curved a bit, and was somewhat uneven, so I was mostly looking down at the path while I was walking, didn't want to walk off of it, trip on something or anything.
Well, after walking for maybe 5-6 mins, I rounded a corner, and all of a sudden, about 15 feet ahead there was this dark shape in the middle of the path. It took me a second to register it. At first, i thought, 'woah, a tree stump? doesn't make sense, coming up through the concrete...' Then i stopped, and looked up at it.
It was this shape, someone standing there, wearing a black cloak pulled over their head, but not really over their face much. It was dark, so i couldn't make out any facial features. It was a little less wide then me, but it looked a bit taller.
My friend stopped behind me too. I thought, 'oh, someone else is going here at night too'. Then quickly i realized it wasn't moving, just standing there looking at us... ALSO without a flashlight. I was going to say, 'Hi' but didn't, because I realized that it was too weird. I thought we were about to be mugged or something for a second, why else would someone be right there on the path, standing still, looking at us, and also not have a flashlight? (This whole thought process thing must have taken about 20-30 seconds max). I just stood there looking at it for a while, then noticed that the feet, well, this black shroud didn't touch the ground, it was about 2-3' off the ground. Not much, but enough to see the road behind it a bit, and see that it wasn't standing on the ground.
That was too much. Without turning around, I said to my friend, 'What the fuck is that!?' He replied, 'I don't know, let's get out of here', peeking over my shoulder at this thing.
I kept looking at it's face, because it was shady and dark, but had this slight shine to what could be a chin, or part of a face. Different lighting on it. I kept looking at it, up and down, noticing the fact that it seemed to be floating, and trying to see if it moved or if i could make out it's face. For a second i thought it was coming closer, but I realized it wasn't. It kept looking at us, directly at us.
'Chris, let's get out of here, I want to get the fuck out of here!' Justin said.
Now like I said earlier, this was really creeping me out, but i have no belief in any afterlife, so I really wasn't about to just walk away. Instead, I started to walk forward, and after closing about half the distance, Leaving my friend behind me, I realized what it was.
A giant palm leaf had died, and was bent, still hanging on the tree, exactly in the middle of the path. It was still attached, so it was hanging a few inches off of the ground. I laughed, but I still felt wired. We both were. The head part didn't look like it had anything connected to it, I still don't know how the lighting made it look so damn much like a person. It was a perfect silhouette of a person, and was very 3 dimensional.
You had to have been there, it was just a trick of the light, and everything, but damn, it was so real it was sobering. It's like every ghost story you have ever heard in your life come true... Just the fact that this thing looked like it was wearing a black cloak (The silhouette of the leaf) seemed odd to me, almost well... stupid. Part of the reason why I couldn't stop looking at it.
Im glad I didn't go back and split like my friend wanted to, because this would have plagued me for the rest of my life. Sadly, I think I saw the end to every ghost story ever told, by actually confronting what we saw. Your mind filling things in, and going awry, when it was just a simple thing, which with a flashlight, or good lighting would quickly let you see what it is.
We did turn back anyway, and hung out at the car for a bit, then tried the top path, and it of course led us right to the lava tube, in about half the distance we had walked to find the 'ghost'. So we ate our food, and made more jokes before we left...
Never told that to anyone before, so I figured I would share. : )
Sorry for the grammer and spelling, Im no writer.
(,
Tue 28 Oct 2003, 19:54,
archived)
Kind of long. I originally posted this up on an absinthe forum, and had to explain some shit to people who didn't know about various hawaii-stuff:
I grew up in hawaii. Lots of ghost stories there. One im familiar with is the one about 'night marchers'. Hawaiian ghosts walking in a line to some destination, normally for war. There was a televised show about how this one little boy would always wake up at night sometimes, and walk outside, toward the beach. It freaked his parents out quite a bit of course, but more so because when they caught him doing it, he always looked like he was holding someone's hand.
Later they found out that night marchers were going off to battle on that same path, to the same beach years ago, and they felt that they were walking in a line through the boys room, waking him up, and having him follow them. They moved his bed to the other side of the room, had the house blessed by a kahuna, and it stopped.
Anyway, I went back to visit hawaii in November of 2001. I Have some good friends still living out there.
Now, I do not personally believe in an afterlife in any way period. It seems too.. well... Let's just say, If we were like turtles, laid and forgotten and not raised by parents, I don't think we would need to create an adult 'god' or whatever, or have to think happy thoughts about their being a 'point' to things, and everlasting existence. Belief in an afterlife seems like a blanket to me...
Anyway, My friend Justin and I bought some food, and decided to go up to Volcano national park on the Big Island of Hawaii. (where i am from). He had never been to Thurston's lava tube. It's wired with lights inside, and maybe about 1/2 mile long. Pretty big, but you have to park, and walk about 1,000-2,000 feet on a rough crappy cement path to get there. Unlit, as the park normally closes before dark. They don't close down the park at night, because there are a few hotels up there, mostly for tourists. I used to drive up there at night to look at the stars, and just hang out somewhere quiet, so i knew we could go up there with no problems.
So at about a little after midnight, we arrived, and were driving around looking for this place. I went to the lava tube as a child with my family, so i didn't remember where it was, and the park has no lights past the front gated area. Lots of roads, which lead to parking lots where you can see craters, smoking sulfur pits, and even one which goes down to a road which was covered with a lava flow a while back. That's a real trip, seeing a road suddenly covered with about 2 feet of lava rock. (the road is blocked off before this of course, the flow is still somewhat active close to there), but you are allowed to drive up to almost that point where the road is covered.
Well, we finally found the parking lot to the lava tube. They had a small sign. Now, there were 4 paths to take, 2 going left and 2 right on each side of the parking lot. No signs on any of the paths, so that didn't help. Wasn't a full moon out, but close enough, pretty clear, and bright enough to see.
We didn't bring flashlights, because we forgot to. We figured we didn't need them when we relized this, because i remembered the lava tube as having lights inside it. (Had to during the day, it would be totally dark otherwise). We were making tons of 'menehune' and 'night marcher' jokes. Menehune's are more like children, not ghosts, but we were still joking. It's dark, cold, and quite up there. You can see every damn star in the universe it's so high up. Ok, exaggeration, but that IS close to where the observatories are, one of the most powerful telescope in the world (on land anyway). All of our street lights on the big island are yellow, because it cuts down on the reflected atmospheric glare which would affect this telescope. This makes things even more clear for your eyes alone. It's a real trip all of those stars, nothing else like it, nowhere even comes close.
So we tried a path, and after a while of walking, i figured it wasn't the right path... so we then walked down the other path for a little while... nope! Still not it.
We finally tried one of the paths on the other side. One was going up, one down. I figured it would be the one going down, so we walked for a bit, then finally gave up, decided to drive around again just to make sure the sign we had seen said this was it. So we walk back, and drive around, yes, this was the place. Wish they had put up signs on the paths.
So we parked again, and started walking on the same lower path. This was a pretty rain forest'y' area, lots of trees, vines, and so forth, but the path was upkept well, like i said earlier, the path is like a rough concrete, maybe about 4-5 feet wide at most. Still, there was more than enough moonlight coming in through the trees for us to see. I wouldn't say you could easily see more than 20-25 feet into the trees though, but when the path was straight, you could see far. The path curved a bit, and was somewhat uneven, so I was mostly looking down at the path while I was walking, didn't want to walk off of it, trip on something or anything.
Well, after walking for maybe 5-6 mins, I rounded a corner, and all of a sudden, about 15 feet ahead there was this dark shape in the middle of the path. It took me a second to register it. At first, i thought, 'woah, a tree stump? doesn't make sense, coming up through the concrete...' Then i stopped, and looked up at it.
It was this shape, someone standing there, wearing a black cloak pulled over their head, but not really over their face much. It was dark, so i couldn't make out any facial features. It was a little less wide then me, but it looked a bit taller.
My friend stopped behind me too. I thought, 'oh, someone else is going here at night too'. Then quickly i realized it wasn't moving, just standing there looking at us... ALSO without a flashlight. I was going to say, 'Hi' but didn't, because I realized that it was too weird. I thought we were about to be mugged or something for a second, why else would someone be right there on the path, standing still, looking at us, and also not have a flashlight? (This whole thought process thing must have taken about 20-30 seconds max). I just stood there looking at it for a while, then noticed that the feet, well, this black shroud didn't touch the ground, it was about 2-3' off the ground. Not much, but enough to see the road behind it a bit, and see that it wasn't standing on the ground.
That was too much. Without turning around, I said to my friend, 'What the fuck is that!?' He replied, 'I don't know, let's get out of here', peeking over my shoulder at this thing.
I kept looking at it's face, because it was shady and dark, but had this slight shine to what could be a chin, or part of a face. Different lighting on it. I kept looking at it, up and down, noticing the fact that it seemed to be floating, and trying to see if it moved or if i could make out it's face. For a second i thought it was coming closer, but I realized it wasn't. It kept looking at us, directly at us.
'Chris, let's get out of here, I want to get the fuck out of here!' Justin said.
Now like I said earlier, this was really creeping me out, but i have no belief in any afterlife, so I really wasn't about to just walk away. Instead, I started to walk forward, and after closing about half the distance, Leaving my friend behind me, I realized what it was.
A giant palm leaf had died, and was bent, still hanging on the tree, exactly in the middle of the path. It was still attached, so it was hanging a few inches off of the ground. I laughed, but I still felt wired. We both were. The head part didn't look like it had anything connected to it, I still don't know how the lighting made it look so damn much like a person. It was a perfect silhouette of a person, and was very 3 dimensional.
You had to have been there, it was just a trick of the light, and everything, but damn, it was so real it was sobering. It's like every ghost story you have ever heard in your life come true... Just the fact that this thing looked like it was wearing a black cloak (The silhouette of the leaf) seemed odd to me, almost well... stupid. Part of the reason why I couldn't stop looking at it.
Im glad I didn't go back and split like my friend wanted to, because this would have plagued me for the rest of my life. Sadly, I think I saw the end to every ghost story ever told, by actually confronting what we saw. Your mind filling things in, and going awry, when it was just a simple thing, which with a flashlight, or good lighting would quickly let you see what it is.
We did turn back anyway, and hung out at the car for a bit, then tried the top path, and it of course led us right to the lava tube, in about half the distance we had walked to find the 'ghost'. So we ate our food, and made more jokes before we left...
Never told that to anyone before, so I figured I would share. : )
Sorry for the grammer and spelling, Im no writer.
garden ghostMy Mum took this photo of me in the garden last summer. When she had the film developed there appears to be what looks like a little boy standing behind me. I was on my own when the photo was taken and it's not a photoshop.
(,
Tue 28 Oct 2003, 20:34,
archived)
That's my boywondered where I put him
(
Jacksonville Missed me fuckin Candles,
Tue 28 Oct 2003, 21:00,
archived)
I assume thenthat you were wondering who the man was in the front of shot. All is solved and well again with the world. let's have a cake.
(
dotmund .co.uk,
Tue 28 Oct 2003, 21:09,
archived)
I would be freaked outbut I'm too fascinated by your garden. Woo.
( dotmund .co.uk,
Tue 28 Oct 2003, 21:06,
archived)
when I was about 11..I was tryinbg out a new camera my dad had got me. We were in the garden, my dad is a bit of a photography nut and had this really nice camera he'd go in the 60s, and was showing me about lighting and stuff, etc in the garden.
Anyway, i had this idea of us both taking a photo at the same time, of eachother. My dads film got developed first, and it didnt click for a while that there was something odd about synchronised photo of him. err, of him. holding camera, talking photo. on his cameras film. said camera being in shot. HOW?? it should have been of me
(,
Sat 1 Nov 2003, 17:34,
archived)
Anyway, i had this idea of us both taking a photo at the same time, of eachother. My dads film got developed first, and it didnt click for a while that there was something odd about synchronised photo of him. err, of him. holding camera, talking photo. on his cameras film. said camera being in shot. HOW?? it should have been of me