Weird Hawaii

The Sound of Children Laughing

2009-06-22T00:23:00.001-10:00

Informant: Female/age unknown/Portuguese ancestry
Location: Lihue, Kaua’i

I used to work in a two-story office building on the bottom floor. It was converted into an optometry office from a pediatric office of a very well – loved doctor that had died. After I started working there, I would hear things coming from the upstairs part of the building.

It sounded like children. It sounded like they were running around upstairs laughing and screaming. I would hear these noises often enough to know it wasn’t my imagination.

One night I was working late, and my husband came in to drop off some dinner for me. The noise started. He said, “It sounds like there’s children playing upstairs…” It was far passed closing time. There’s no way any children would be up there.

Things Will be OK

2009-06-07T18:45:00.002-10:00

Informant: Female/42/Haole
Location: Maui/New England

When I lived on Maui for a few years, I became emotionally close to a coworker. He was a local boy, and I remember him telling me his chicken skin stories about encountering weird happenings growing up on the islands. That said, we're both believers in the unexplainable. After I moved back to the mainland, this friend was killed a year later in a traffic accident in Kahului. I didn't hear the news until a month after he died, when someone emailed me the story from the Maui News. When I read the terrible news, I cried and cried. I was really distressed. This was right before I went to sleep that night.

Later, in the middle of the night, I heard a male voice calling my name. He said, "Jenn!" directly into my right ear. I definitely wasn't dreaming, because the voice woke me up out of a dead sleep. And I'd recognize that voice anywhere - it was that of my friend who had died a month earlier! I opened my eyes and froze. I felt his presence, but couldn't see anything out of the ordinary. I know he was just letting me know he's okay because I was so sad, but it still scared me.

The Rosary

2009-05-31T02:58:00.000-10:00

Informant: Male/31/Filipino ancestry
Location: Koloa, Kauai

Everyone in my family has their own rosary in a different color. My rosary is blue. We switch rooms a lot in my house, so me and my dad decided to switch. When I moved into that room, I hung my rosary over my mirror. Later that night before I was about to go to bed, I noticed that my rosary was gone. I asked everyone if they had seen it or taken it, but they all said they didn’t and that they hadn’t seen it anywhere. Not really suspecting anything strange, I just decided to go to bed.

Later that night I woke up for some reason, and I looked over at the mirror at the end of my bed. I saw my rosary. But it wasn’t on the mirror like I had put it, it was in the mirror. It was open, as if someone was wearing it around their neck. I thought, “Oh, maybe I hung it on the window above me,” so I reached up above my head expecting to feel it, but it wasn’t there. I decided to just go back to sleep.

When I woke up, the rosary wasn’t anywhere to be found. And I still haven’t found it.

The White Lady of Punahou School

2009-04-12T16:04:00.002-10:00

Informant: Male/22/ unknown ancestry
Location: Punahou School, Oahu

My story takes place about 9 years ago on the campus of Punahou School.

I was walking from the gym to the pick-up area after a school dance. At that time there was construction going on and I was just looking around the campus 'cause it was the first time that I was there that late at night (like about 11 or something like that, I don't remember anymore).

In any case, I happened to look towards the construction area and I saw this lady in white just walking through the construction yard. I thought it was strange and stared a little bit longer. However, by this time, I had reached the end of the field and could no longer see the construction area. I just wrote it off as being kinda late and the strobe lights at the dance and such.

The following Monday, I happened to mention what I thought I saw to a professor and he responded that it was just the 'white lady' who walks around campus late at night.
Since that time, I've been on campus late at night multiple times and every once in a while I still do see her.

Pressing in Hale Kahawai

2009-03-29T15:09:00.004-10:00

Informant: Male/20/ Japanese ancestry
Location: Hale Kahawai, UH Manoa, Oahu

I’ve lived in Hale Kahawai for two years in the same room, with the same roommate. One night while I was sleeping, I woke up to find that I couldn’t move. I was conscious, but I couldn’t move my body, and I couldn’t speak no matter how hard I tried. A week later, I woke up to a pressing sensation on my chest. I couldn’t move, I couldn’t see anyone or anything on my chest, but something was pressing me.

I talked to my neighbor the next morning about what happened, and he told me that he also experienced something strange. He woke up one night to find a Hawaiian man dressed in a malo sitting on his bed. He just rolled over in bed and pretended not to see the man.

I took a look in Glen Grant’s Obake Files book, and found a similar story about choking ghosts in my dorm. The first year that I lived in Kahawai I had a bag of Hawaiian salt, and nothing strange ever happened. When I started my second year there, I didn’t have any Hawaiian salt. Maybe that had something to do with it.

Treasures From The Rock

2009-03-15T14:20:00.001-10:00

Informant: Male/40s/European ancestry
Location: Big Island

“Why would you take that home with you? Are you crazy?”

It might not be the wisest idea to verbally berate your doctor, but at the sight of his slightly-swollen hand, I felt the need to further drive the point home that taking home strange objects found in lava rock is never a good idea.

While on vacation to the Big Island, my doctor and his family decided to visit the volcano. While they were there, he happened to notice a gold ring sitting in a crack in the lava. He decided to take a stick and fish it out, and took it home with him.
“It’s probably just coincidence, “he said as he showed me his now-healing broken hand. But that wasn’t the only unfortunate accident that had befallen him and his family since he had taken the ring home. His daughter, while on a camping trip in the mountains, ended up breaking her leg in a freak accident.

Still, he seems content with the reasoning that it was all just an unfortunate coincidence, but I could sense a bit of wavering in his voice. Nevertheless, on 8/8/08 he decided to go back to the Big Island and return the ring to the spot that it was found. There have been no accidents since then.

But that in itself might be short-lived, since recently he decided to take the tusks from a boar carcass that he found. Maybe the next time I see him, he’ll have a new story to tell.

The Legend of Kaluako’i Akualele

2009-03-09T10:24:00.003-10:00

[This article was written for the Nalo News, a community newspaper published by the Waimanalo Council of Community in the late 1970's. My uncle's mother, Mrs. Julia A.F. Enoka, wrote numerous articles on ancient Hawaiian folklore and myths. This story was written by Tracy Tengan.]

In ancient Molokai, long before the dawn of recorded history, there lived a powerful Kahuna called Maka’u. Maka’u was feared because of her great power, or mana. She lived in the area of Kaluako’i where the trees had evil spirits trapped inside them, causing them to be poisonous only on Moloka’i.

Maka’u’s powers came by her being able to release these spirits by akualele, or fireballs. Those who had the mana and could see these blue and green balls of flame spoke of their great power and destruction. When Maka’u sent one of these akualele, nothing was able to stand against it.
The people of Molokai lived in constant fear of Maka’u and finally pleaded with the rest of the kahunas to unite and battle against her. The kahunas had never united before, but decided that the reign of terror of this one evil kahuna and her evil powers had to end.

Together they travelled to Kaluako’i, to the head of Waiahewahewa Gulch, to the old heiau of Hina at the head of the spring that always was present there. Maka’u saw them coming and took her malama pu’olo (bundle of sticks from which to release her evil spirits) and prepared for battle.

When the kahunas were close enough, Maka’u commanded them to stop. As she took out the most powerful piece of wood, she began to use the chant of complete destruction. The kahunas were fearful, but continued to move forward, and then began to chant “Ho’i no’ai I kou kahu,” and “ho’i no kau me ‘oe,” which means “Go back and destroy your keeper and what you have just given to me, return to you.”

As the brilliant blue akualele was released from the stick, it heard the chant of the kahunas and returned to Maka’u. Maka’u’s eyes grew as the brilliant blue akualele began to veer and return to her. The horror that filled her was clear to all the kahunas. The blast and the blaze of the fireball sent the kahunas tumbling to the ground and the earth shook with the power of the “god’s” anger. As they recovered they saw that the spring that never failed was dried up and completely destroyed, and there was no sign of Maka’u.

The kahunas united in one last ceremony. They formed a circle around the spring and chanted. They begged Hina to forgive the destruction of the old heiau, but pleaded with her to see that the good of the people goes before any one place of worship. Even to this day, the spring is gone, the heiau is still in ruins, but the lesson of Maka’u still remains.

Tengan, Tracy (1979, February). Legends: The Legend of Kaluako'i Akualele. The Nalo News.

Kamapua'a at The Merrie Monarch

2009-03-01T21:54:00.008-10:00

Informant: 14 years old/female

Location: Hilo Hawaiian Hotel, Big Island

For the past 30 years my grandma's hula halau, has been in the Merrie Monarch hula competition in Hilo on the Big Island. One night, my cousin and I went walking around the Hilo Hawaiian Hotel at three or four in the morning. We walked out to the beach and we sat on the dock just talking.

We looked out to the ocean saw this small cat-like figure on the rock wall in Hilo bay. My cousin and I started freaking out. We decided to walk down the road to the gardens at hotel and we looked back and saw a black pig following us. We started to get scared. We go back to the dock and the pig was there again. My cousin and I were wondering what the heck a pig was doing following us.

After this, a young but older lady came up behind us and she started chanting in Hawaiian. Her presence was very warm, but my cousin and I were still scared as ever. I speak fluent Hawaiian; the lady chanting was saying, "Kamapua'a leave these girls alone. You are a pig, and a pig you will be."

My cousin and I looked at the pig and it just disappeared. We turned to the lady and she told us our grandma was looking for us and we should go back upstairs. We got back upstairs and told our grandma about what we saw. She told us that around Merrie Monarch time, Kamapua'a comes around Hilo in search of Pele. Legend says they had a thing going on.

Every year since that incident my grandma has made sure that my cousin and I stay in our rooms. But every Merrie Monarch since that night, my cousin and I go outside to go look at the dock and we see that same lady we saw from 2003, making sure that we are safe. My grandma said it's Kapo, Pele's best friend keeping us safe from harm.

Ancient Religion and the Heiaus

2009-02-22T21:18:00.004-10:00

[This article was written for the Nalo News, a community newspaper published by the Waimanalo Council of Community in the late 1970's. My uncle's mother, Mrs. Julia A.F. Enoka, wrote numerous articles on ancient Hawaiian folklore and myths.]

The Hawaiians had four main gods that they worshiped-- KANE, the creator-god; LONO--the God of Storm, Rain, and Fertility; KU, the God of war and strenuous activities, and KANALOA, the god of Sea and Death. When the Tahitians migrated to Hawaii they brought their worship of Tane (Kane) and Taaroa (Kanaloa). This was the religion in the ancient days, similar to that of the rest of Polynesia.

Heiaus are enclosed areas built of stone where the Hawaiians worshiped their Gods and held religious ceremonies.

On the Island of Hawaii there are two known heiaus built by Pa'ao, a Samoan priest who left Samoa and went adrift on the high seas, finally landing at Puna. He built the heiau Wahaula at Puna and Heiau O Mookini at Upolu Point.

There are six known heiaus in Waimanalo. KEIKIPUIPIU heiau was situated on Quarry Hill, just above Kalaniole Highway directly opposite the Olomana Golf Course. Traces of this heiau were destroyed when W.G. Irwin and the Maunawili Ranch planted pineapples on the hillsides.

The Hawaiians made their adzes and small chisels from the stones at Quarry Hill. Adzes are made from very hard basalt rock and the rocks at Quarry Hill were considered some of the best. (The Hawaiian word for adze is ko'i.)

POHAKUNUI is a small heiau (50' x 90') on the crown of a hill at the base of the Koolau Mountains. The heiau is located on Ekahi Farms on the hill between Kaulukanu and Mahailua Streets. The site is in a fairly good state of preservation.

There is a possible heiau of stone ruins above Kaikaina St. Its size is about 130' x 110', but archeologist were unable to give a detailed inspection of the area due to the heavy growth of underbrush.

There is also an unnamed heiau on the Waimanalo side of Olomana ridge facing the Koolau Range. According to McAllister, the archeologist who researched the site, the heiau consisted of two terraces and was 50' x 130'.

The largest of Waimanalo's heiaus is PUEO, located above the University Experimental Farm on Waikupanaha Road. It is 130' x 150' and is still well-preserved.

There was another heiau in Kaupo Village at Makapuu. The heiau was situated in the present Sea Life Park area. In 1853 there was a small pox epidemic and many Hawaiians moved to Kaupo Village to escape the quarantine. Most of that site was destroyed when the present highway was built.

PUUHONUA heiau is located on a coral hill just a short distance from the main entrance of Bellows Field. This hill was a sacred place of refuge and all who sought safety there had their lives spared. On all of our islands there is a PUUHONUA. Most famous of these sites is our National Park City of Refuge at Honaunau on the Big Island.

Enoka, J. A. F. (1979, February). Old Waimanalo: Ancient religion and the heiaus. The Nalo News, [4(2)], [4].

The Little Green Man

2009-02-15T14:08:00.000-10:00

Informant: Male/26/mixed ancestry
Location: Hanama’ulu, Kauai

When I was about 3 or 4, I was playing in the backyard of my house in Hanama’ulu, where we lived at the time. I remember turning the corner and seeing a little man with dark skin dressed in green near the corner of the house. The minute I looked at him, he disappeared, like he jumped into the ground.
I was terrified. I yelled to my older sister and my mom and told them what I had seen, but they didn’t believe me. But thinking about it now, the little man I saw could have been a Menehune wearing green.

Pele in the Tunnel of Trees

2009-02-08T13:17:00.002-10:00

Informant: Male/40/part Hawaiian ancestry
Location: Tunnel of Trees, Kauai

A friend of mine was driving home to the south side of Kauai to Koloa town one night. In order to get to Koloa one must pass through the "tunnel of trees," one way in one way out. It was about 2 in the morning and he was driving home alone after a party in Lihue. The moon was full that night, but as you enter the tree tunnel there are no street lights, just glimmers of moonlight shining through tree openings flickering like a strobe light. As he entered the tree tunnel, he noticed an old lady dressed in white hitchhiking in the middle of the night. He thought it odd, but just kept driving and stepped on the accelerator to get out of the tunnel as fast as possible. He did not recall the events that took place after this; all he remembers is his car had skidded to the side of the road and stalled. When he looked in his rear view mirror the old lady dressed in white was sitting in his back seat. He did not stick around to ask her how this happened but just ran as fast as he could through the tunnel of trees to get home. He was clearly shaken when retelling the events of this night, but speculates that this person was "Pele."

Pele at Halfway Bridge

2009-02-08T13:14:00.002-10:00

Informant: Male/64/Portuguese-Filipino ancestry
Location: Halfway Bridge, Koloa

My grandfather had a job as a taxi driver on Kauai. One night as he was driving toward the west side, he noticed an old woman in white walking on the side of the road. Since it was his job to drive people where they needed to go, he instinctively pulled over and asked the woman if she needed a ride. She didn’t say anything, but just got into the car, and my grandfather drove off again. After a little while he turned around to ask the old woman where she was heading to, but when he looked in the backseat, she had vanished. He immediately knew that the old woman he picked up had to have been Pele.

Menehune at Marine Camp

2009-02-01T00:36:00.002-10:00

Informant: Male/64/Portuguese-Filipino ancestry
Location: Marine Camp, Kauai

When I was around 7 or 8, me, my brother, my dad and his friend went to Marine Camp to fish. This area at the time was very remote, with no houses around. Even today it’s still a hard place to get to with just a bumpy dirt road. We had planned on staying the night, so after fishing we set up our tents and went to sleep. When we woke up in the morning, we discovered footprints all around the tents. Not just regular footprints, but prints that were only about 4 inches long. They were small, like a toddlers. And there wasn’t just one pair, there were many pairs, like many little people had been running around our tents. My dad’s friend, who was half Hawaiian, said nonchalantly, “Ahhh, that was menehune.”

The Haunted Desk

2009-02-01T00:35:00.000-10:00

Informant: Female/62/Portuguese ancestry
Location: Lihue, Kauai

A colleague of mine at the school I taught at was having some problems in her classroom. Not student problems, but mysterious problems. The lights would go on and off on their own, her TV would turn on and off on its own, things like that. She knew that I was Catholic, so she asked me if I could come and bless her classroom.

She didn’t always have these problems. They all started when she got a new teacher’s desk (a hand-me-down) for her classroom. The flickering lights and TV she could handle, but when it started to follow her home, that’s when she got scared.

She picked her kids up after school one day, and noticed that her infant stared at the ceiling of the car laughing the whole ride home, as if being entertained by something. When she got home, stranger things happened. There was a wind chime by the door that rang every time someone came near the door. She heard it ring and asked her older child to check who was there. Nobody was there. It rang again, they checked again, and still nobody was there.

So finally I was asked to bless the classroom. When I walked into the room, it felt very cold and ominous. Just a strange feeling. I said a few prayers, sprinkled some holy water, and that was that. When I told this story to my daughter, she asked me if anything was in the desk. My colleague said when she had gotten it, the only thing in it was an old bible in one of the drawers which she threw away. My daughter was sure that the bible was left there to keep the spirits contained.

Door Stopper

2009-01-25T00:32:00.001-10:00

Informant: Female/24/Korean ancestry
Location: Kaimuki, Oahu

My apartment was on the side of the building that got the best breeze. Because of this, all the doors in the apartment had to be closed carefully. If they were let go, they would slam so hard the hinges would come loose. I had to have a repair man come to fix that problem once with my front door, and was careful not to let the door slam ever since.

The bedroom doors were also subject to severe slamming. I secured my door with a case of blank CD’s most of the time. One day I was sitting at my computer, and I saw out of the corner of my eye my unsecured door start to close. I braced myself for the violent slam, but right before it slammed, the door stopped abruptly, as if someone had grabbed it. Then the door opened slightly, and closed gently.

What freaked me out the most was that it looked like someone had grabbed it right before it slammed, opened it wide enough to walk into the room, and closed it gently behind them. Was it a strange wind vortex phenomenon? I’ll never know. I had never seen it happen before, and I never saw it happen again.

Billowing Curtains

2009-01-25T00:20:00.002-10:00

Informant: Male/25/Portuguese – mixed ancestry
Location: Hilo, Hawaii

One day my cousin, my brother and I were in my room getting ready to go to bed. It was about 12 pm, all the lights were out, and it was completely silent. This was Hilo before all the coqui frogs invaded, so really, it was just about completely silent. Suddenly I get this feeling, like something is watching us. You know that feeling? Like something is just standing there and watching you? All of a sudden the curtains on one of the windows starts flapping in the breeze. But there was no breeze, no sound even. They just started billowing like something was strolling under them to take a look out the window. A few seconds later they fell back down, and I realized….the windows were closed. The door was closed.

How did that happen? Pressure change? Maybe. But no one was awake in the house except us, and there was definitely no opening of doors or anything anywhere. So I said to my brother and cousin, "Hey, did you guys see that?" They were both awake, and had seen it too -- by chance maybe. After a few minutes I got the courage to recheck the windows -- and yep, they were closed. Really though, I’ve never understood how curtains could flap back and forth for a few seconds like there was something under them, even if you take in to account the possibility of pressure change in the house.

Wake Up

2009-01-18T14:17:00.003-10:00

Informant: Female/23/white - Hawaiian ancestry
Location: Kilauea, Kauai

I had an early wake up call in the morning, so the night before I asked my mom if she could wake me up. As I was sleeping, I heard someone whisper in my ear, "Liana, Liana, wake up," and I felt someone shake me, as if trying to shake me awake. I woke up, but nobody was there. Nobody was in my room. I looked at the clock, and it was still the middle of the night.

I went upstairs to my parents room to see if my mom had tried to wake me. I walked in and she was still sleeping, and I said, "Mom, did you just come downstairs to wake me up?"

She didn't.

A Faceless Woman at St. Joseph High?

2009-01-06T08:53:00.002-10:00

Informant: Male/40/Portuguese ancestry

Location: St. Joseph High School, Big Island

This was a story that the upperclassmen would tell the incoming freshman each year at St. Joseph High School.

The story goes that during 70's, two girls were in the restroom getting ready for school to start. While they were applying their makeup, there was a woman in the restroom with them, brushing her hair over her face. The girls just assumed that the woman was one of the sisters. After the girls were done with their makeup, one of them turned to the woman to ask to borrow her brush. The woman turned to them, revealing her missing face.

Twin Spirits

2008-12-21T00:43:00.004-10:00

Informant: Male/24/Filipino-Irish-Hawaiian ancestry
Location: Waialua, Oahu

Back in the 11th grade, my girlfriend at the time slept over. She noticed that when I sleep, I don’t sleep very soundly, on account of insomnia. Well one night, we slept at a cabin in Waialua on the north shore of Oahu as a summer retreat with family. My girlfriend noticed that I was silently sleeping... a little too silently.

I was having a nightmare about drowning. I was dreaming that I was being thrashed around under the water. My girlfriend said that she turned on the light and saw that I was soaked in my own sweat and I wasn’t breathing. In my dream I was with this lady in white...her white see through body grabbed my hands and then pulled me above the surface of the water. In that instant I woke up, my vision fuzzy and the feeling like someone was lying on my chest. After about 3-5 seconds that pressure went away, my vision became clear and I immediately sat up and took a huge gasp of air, still perspiring like crazy.

I looked over my girlfriend’s shoulder and I swear to god...I saw the back end of an apparition walk through the wall. But the apparition was all black; the one in my nightmare was white. The white one felt non-threatening, but the black one felt malicious.

Come to find out later that in the 1940’s a lady killed her own twin sister and then herself on that very property.

Ghoul School

2008-11-23T19:04:00.005-10:00

Informant: Male/20/Mixed ancestry
Location: Hilo High School, Big Island

Every school has its collection of ghost stories. Hilo High School is no different. Every fall, seniors are trying their best to scare the freshmen with tales about suicides in the bathrooms, nightmarcher trails that lead through the gym, and moving desks in the classrooms.

When I was a freshman, I dismissed many of the stories the upperclassmen told me as, "lame attempts to humiliate harmless 14 year olds." Many of the stories seemed cliche or just too ridiculous to be true.

Then one night, a group of friends and myself decided to go and knock on the door of the chorus building for a good laugh.

We all were in band and we had just finished playing a concert in the auditorium. There wasn't school the next day, so we had decided that we'd all hang around and explore the school. We all heard the ghost stories, so we thought it would be funny to go and see if any of them were true. The first thing we decided was to knock on the door of the chorus building.

The chorus building is a small one room building behind of the gym. At that time, our English teacher had told us stories about how sometimes late at night she'd be grading our assignments and the chairs would be thrown across the room or she would hear knocking in one of the closets. She also told us about how she found a giant wooden cross under the building a couple of years before that year.

So we marched up to the chorus building and gathered at the base of the stairs. We were all laughing and having a good time up until that point. Then we decided that one of us should knock on the door. After a series of jun ken po (rock, paper, scissors) it was decided that I would be the one to knock on the door.

I went up to the door and quickly knocked on it and then quickly ran back down the stairs. We all laughed at how we were scaring ourselves.

And then the door violently knocked back. It was as if something had thrown a door at the desk. We could hear things crashing inside of the classroom. It was if someone had unleashed a raging bull into that building.

All of us were terrified. We ran to our cars and just drove off, with no plan other than just getting as far away from the chorus building as possible.

We all met up later that night after everybody had calmed down. We all came to the agreement that nobody could have been in that classroom. All of the lights inside of the classroom had been off and showed no sign of anybody being there prior to when I knocked on the door. That Monday, we asked our English teacher if she had been there that night grading papers. She laughed at us and told us that she was never on the school on Friday nights. We asked her if her classroom had been a mess when she came in that morning. She looked at us suspiciously, but told us that her classroom was the way she left it before on Friday afternoon.

So what had made all those noises and banging?

Anniversary Vision

2008-11-15T12:36:00.003-10:00

Informant: Female/72/Portuguese ancestry
Location: Aiea, Oahu

About 10 years ago, my daughter got into a really bad car accident. Because of that, she can't remember things like dates, birthdays and anniversaries.

The other day we were saying the Divine Mercy Chaplet (we are Catholic), when my daughter said to me "Mom, I just saw grandma and grandpa."

My parents died many years ago. What she meant was, she saw a vision of them. She said that grandpa was sitting in the rocking chair he always sat in, and grandma was sitting on his lap, and they were both smiling at her. Then the vision was over.

I started crying. She asked me, "Mom, why are you crying?" and I said "I don't think you realize this, but today is the anniversary of your grandma's death."

Grandpa's Sign

2008-11-06T14:04:00.006-10:00

Informant: Male/24/Filipino ancestry
Location: Koloa, Kauai

We got word that my grandpa had passed away, so my entire family went back to the Philippines for his funeral. Since I had business on Kauai, they let me stay back for the full 10 days that they would be gone. While they were in the Philippines they waited for some sort of sign from my grandpa, but it never came.

That whole time I was alone though, I felt creeped out. Not a scary feeling, but just a feeling like there was someone in the house with me, when I knew that wasn't possible at all. Then one day I stopped to talk to my neighbor, who asked me how my grandpa was.

"Oh, he passed away," I informed him. He seemed surprised, but not as surprised as I was by what he said next.

"What? But I just saw him this morning drinking coffee in the yard and playing with the cats."

My family never got a sign from my grandpa in the Philippines because he was too busy watching over me while I was alone.

Ghostly Priest

2008-10-30T02:24:00.004-10:00

Informant: Female/24/Korean ancestry
Location: Paris, France/Kauai

When I was in high school, I got to go to Europe with the school band as an Ambassador of Music from Hawaii. My sister, as a graduation present, got to go with me as a chaperone. These were the days before everyone had a digital camera. I mean, they existed, but you had to be damn rich to afford one.

Anyway, after we returned to the states we developed our gazillion rolls of film. When we got them back, my sister discovered this picture from her Paris roll. It was streaky and over exposed, so she completely disregarded it. But when I looked at it, I immediately saw a figure. To me, it looks like a priest with his head bowed and his hands folded in prayer. I can see his head, his features, and his vestments.

I asked my sister where she took the picture, and coincidentally enough she said "I think this was at the Notre Dame cathedral."

The Ghost of Aircraft 75

2008-10-24T15:01:00.003-10:00

Informant: Male/39/Japanese-German-Scott ancestry
Location: Oahu, Maui

I used to work for an airline (that shall not be named) in the 50th state. We had Douglas DC-8's, DC-9's, Lockheed L1011's and DeHavilland DHC-7's (so you can pretty much gather what airline it was.) Anyway, we had a Dash 7 known as aircraft #75 - and it was well known within the airline that it was "haunted"!

The story has been told for years within the airline and some of the names have changed - but for those who were working at the time of the "incidents" - we knew exactly who was affected and how the real story went. I was one of the few who know exactly what happened.

In the summer of 1992, a flight from Kapalua West Maui was flown by aircraft #75 to HNL. During the flight, there was an old woman, who was in her late 80's to early 90's. She was a very nice lady who loved to chat with the flight attendants (there were two on board) and with whomever would listen to her. She just so happened to be sitting in the last row, nearest the entry door at the aft left hand side of the plane. After landing into HNL and after all (well, most) of the passengers exited the plane, the flight attendants noticed that the old woman was still sitting in her seat, seemingly asleep. Unfortunately, she passed away during the flight and I guess no one really noticed.

Some months later, a good friend of mine - let's call him "John" -was performing his pre-flight (overnight check) on aircraft 75. It was almost lunch time, so he had powered down the aircraft: disarmed the emergency lights, disconnected the external power and turned off the battery. After the aircraft was completely cold and dark, he proceeded towards the rear of the plane to exit. He noticed that there was someone sitting in the last row of the plane near the exit. So he yelled out thinking that it was one of us messing with him or waiting for him to go to lunch. The figure stood up and walked out the exit - and in the light from the outside ramp he noticed that it was an old woman!

He ran out of the airplane thinking that it was a passenger who got on the wrong aircraft or something, but when he got outside she was gone! He closed the door and got on his ramp tractor to get to the cafeteria, but not before glancing at the cockpit and noticing that there were lights on! John then re-opened the door, walked to the flight deck and noticed that the battery was on. He knew that it was turned off previously, but somehow it had flicked itself on!

Later at lunch he told us about what had happened, and we all laughed! "Someone's screwin' with ya," we told him, but none of us admitted to any wrong doing. He asked if any of us would come with him to help finish his pre-flight, but we couldn't. I was working on an APU change on a DC-9 and our other friends had their own pre-flights to take care of.

After lunch, John continued his pre-flight. Just as he was finishing his external check, someone tapped him on the shoulder and whispered "excuse me." He turned around - and NO ONE WAS THERE! He freaked out and ran to my airplane which was a good 100 yards away. John told me what had happened and I came over to aircraft 75 with him. Nothing happened again that night - but John was very well shaken.

I have heard from a few different Flight Attendants that they have had similar "experiences": tapping on the shoulder and whispers of "excuse me". I guess it had gotten bad enough that the higher-ups decided to bring in a Hawaiian Priest to "bless" the aircraft, but disturbances continued to happen, especially to my friend John. Apparently the "Ghost of Aircraft 75" really was attracted to him, because he would get tapped and whispered to even if he was on another aircraft! He had gotten so rattled he quit and moved to Reno, CA where he became employed with an airline that operated MD-80's and got bought out by American Airlines.

The DHC-7's had since been retired from the fleet of the airline that shall not be named, but I wonder if the ghost continues to try to strike up conversations with anyone who works on aircraft 75.

The Eyes in the Closet

2008-09-11T22:49:00.006-10:00

Informant: Male/19 years old/mixed ancestry
Location: Hilo High School, Big Island

During my junior year of high school, my English teacher was pretty weird. She was a hippy-for lack of a better word- and would often describe having "weird psychic feelings" to the class.

So one day, we are all sitting in class doing our work when the teacher suddenly stands up and says, "Someone is watching me in that closet."

Everybody laughs, thinking this is another one of her not-so-psychic episodes, but the teacher is dead serious.

"I'm not kidding guys, I feel like there is something in that closet, watching us and wanting to cause harm," she continues.

So everybody is pretty nervous now. We know that our teacher is pretty crazy: she walks everywhere barefoot and thinks she has psychic intuitions, yet there was no denying the fear in her voice. Something was scaring our teacher, and that was scaring us.

And so of course, of all people, I'm asked to open the closet.

I open the closet, and there is nobody in there. But, somebody had drawn a big pair of eyes with a sharpie on the back wall of the closet. The eyes were very menacing, and it just didn't seem right that someone would draw eyes in a closet that was locked a majority of class time. Honestly, it was very creepy and it gave me chicken skin.

Maybe it was all an elaborate hoax that our teacher played on us; an attempt to freak us out after all those times we made fun of her. But after that, that closet always bothered me. I always felt as if someone was watching me from that closet. Other people also complained about similar feelings of being watched from the closet.