"I need to lie down."

Informant: Male/30's/Hawaiian, Native American, Asian, European, Hispanic ancestry 

Location: Lihue, Kauai

It was the Spring of 2007. I was 18 going on 19 that summer, and I was in my first semester at Kauai Community College. I was lying in bed asleep one night, nice and snug in my blankets. It was a cool spring night, nothing out of the ordinary...or so I thought.

I lay in my bed sleeping until I was woken up by a woman’s voice whispering, “I need to lie down.” I thought it was my mom and so I was about to reply, “Yeah, of course.” But for some reason, I was unable to open my mouth. I couldn’t part my lips or anything. All of a sudden I heard the woman’s voice repeatedly saying, “I need to lie down. I need to lie down. I need to lie down.” The woman sounded young, maybe in her 30's. It was even more strange given that the whole time I was hearing her voice it sounded as though she was saying it over a radio frequency. The whole time I heard her voice I was completely unable to move any part of my body. I was unable to move my fingers, my legs, nothing. I wasn’t even able to take deep breaths of air! It was as though someone was on top of me keeping me from making any sort of movement and restricting my breathing!

This strange feeling lasted for what seemed like an eternity, but after what must’ve been a couple of minutes I once again heard the woman’s voice repeatedly saying, “I need to lie down. I need to lie down. I need to lie down.” And just like that, I was able to move and breathe again. The minute I realized I was able to move again I bolted out of my bed, burst into my parent's bedroom, and screamed, “Mom! Dad! The lady was in my room! The lady was in my room!” My parents woke up startled and asked, “What lady?!” My mom thought someone had broken into the house. I said, “No there was a lady in my room and she climbed into bed with me! I couldn’t move or breathe!”

My dad calmed me down and went into the kitchen. He grabbed a small Ziploc bag and filled it with Hawaiian salt and told me to keep it next to my bed. He said it would protect me from spirits. I did just as he instructed me to do. We all returned to bed and at first I was unable to fall back asleep. But after about a half hour I was asleep again. I woke up in the morning wondering if I dreamt it all, but I knew that it really happened. 

I did indeed have a supernatural visitor in the middle of the night.

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A Pressing in Hale Wainani

Informant: Male/22/Mixed ancestry

Location: UH Manoa, Oahu (Hale Wainani)

It was storming and I wanted to go to the beach to see how big the waves were. I walked over the little grassy hill to the beach and saw the giant waves crashing on the shore. I excitedly ran to the shore to get a closer look and realized that something didn't belong. 

There was a little playground on the beach with a little girl sitting on the swings. I could tell that it would start to rain very hard soon, so I went over to see if the little girl was okay. She was facing away from me, but as I got closer, I recognized her to be my friend's little sister. I called out to her, but the wind was so strong that I don't think she could hear me. I finally get to her and I tap her shoulder, but she doesn't turn around. I move in front of her and notice that her head is down and she's crying, so I kneel down in front of her to get down to her level to comfort her. I reach out to touch her shoulder and she grabs my hand and looks up at me. Her eyes are completely black and tears of blood flow down her cheeks.

I wake up.

I'm still a little shaken by the nightmare and I begin to calm down as I realize I'm still in my dorm room. It's a nice night, the moon is out, I'm warm under my blanket, and I'm sleeping comfortably on my side. I try to shift positions and realize that I can't move. I try to roll, kick, anything, and nothing works. At which point I look to my door and notice a black figure resembling a little girl standing in my doorway. My mind immediately thinks back to the nightmare I just had. I try even harder to move. Nothing happens. The shadowy figure slowly makes its way to my bed. It creeps down to the side of my bed and lowers itself so I can't see it over the side of my bed. 

Panic sets in. 

I see two shadowy hands reach over and grab the side of the bed and, slowly, its head rises next until we are eye level with each other. I struggle to kick it away, but I still can't move. I try to yell at it to get away, but I can't make a sound either. It moves closer to me, we're face to face now. I finally manage to wiggle a finger and that seems to set the rest of my body in motion. 

I push away from the shadowy figure and sit up to kick it away, but as I prepare to kick, nothing is there.

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From the Reservoir

Informant: Male/29/Mixed ancestry

Location: Wailua Houselots, Kauai 

This happened about 10 years ago. 

A really close friend of mine was out drinking late one night and on his way home, drove off the road and drowned in the reservoir. A few days later, I experienced what I have come to know as sleep paralysis. 

I woke up in the middle of the night and saw a shadowy figure on top of me. I couldn't breathe and I couldn't move. But because I was aware of what was happening, I just relaxed and it all went away after a few seconds. Thinking nothing of it, I went back to sleep. However, when I woke up the next morning I realized that it wasn't a normal sleep paralysis... 

I was very confused when I found grass all over me. I looked around to try to figure out where the grass came from and noticed a giant puddle of muddy water and grass next to my bed... like water from a reservoir.

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Spirit Alarm Clock

Informant: Female/24/Irish American ancestry

Location: Hilo, Hawaii

My boyfriend is a Hilo local of Hawaiian heritage who works for a security company. He had to go to Kona to start work by 6:00am, so he woke up at 3:00am and left by 3:15am. We live downtown in a huge, very safe building with a lot of empty rooms across from Central fire station, but today for some  reason I locked the door as soon as he walked out. I lay back down and put on my eye mask and headphones on to help me fall back asleep.

As soon as I laid down, I felt that I was not alone. Since they weren't earplugs I could still hear everything, just slightly muffled. I could hear noises like someone was moving around the room, but I tend to sometimes have an over-active mind and didn't want to believe there was a presence with me. Somehow I drifted into a very light sleep. I rolled over onto my side facing the door when all of a sudden something slid into the bed.

It got on top of me perpendicularly and started jumping up and down on top of me crushing in between my ribcage and my hip! Three times this happened before I could speak, I was so startled. I somehow managed to yell, "Get Out of here! Get out of here!" And the pressure disappeared. I just laid still with my eye mask on waiting. I could tell it was still in the bed and it felt like it was caressing the side of my face. As soon as it stopped I lunged towards my phone, ripped off my eye mask and turned on some worship music.

I could see nothing in our tiny studio that looked out of the ordinary. I know that I wasn't dreaming because when I rolled over in bed I woke up. I told my boyfriend what happened and he said that the evening before he had been lockig up the rooms after open house and had been whistling when he felt a chill on his neck. He apologized because he probably called the spirit with his whistling!

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Dad Doesn't Like You

Informant: Female/22/Japanese ancestry

Location: Lihue, Kauai

This happened a really long time ago in May of 1990 when I was 22 and my boyfriend at the time was 25. It happened between 11:00 p.m. and 3:00 a.m.

We were going to bed around 11 p.m. and I went to close the bed room door. But I didn't want to get off the bed so I just put my hands down onto the floor and the rest of my body was still on the bed. I reached for the door which was only a foot away from the bed but I just couldn't find. I was swinging my hand around when all of a sudden I looked toward my left and right at the foot of the doorway I saw wrinkled, pale white feet standing right there! I froze and my eyes started to slowly look up, following up to the shin and knees. I jumped onto the bed and my heart was pounding!

I told my boyfriend that someone was standing by the door! He said" What?" I said, "Someone is standing by the door!" So he go up and took a look around the house but there was no one to be found. I told him that it look liked my dad's legs when I used to massage them when he was dying of cancer. He said, "What, you think your dad is visiting you?" I said "Yes. I do dream about him and he always says to me that he is always here with me!" 

The next morning he woke me up and asked me why, around 3 a.m., I was smothering him with the plastic bag, the one with the huge purple stuffed bunny in it. I said " What? I didn't do that. Why in the world would I do that to you?" He said, "Yes, you did it twice! So I punched that stuffed animal across the room!" I didn't see it across the room, so I looked at the end of the bed and there it was, the purple bunny in the plastic bag on the floor. I just look at him and said, "OH MY GOD, MY DAD DOESN'T LIKE YOU! IT WAS HIM THAT DID THAT TO YOU!"

Even though it was my dad, he did scare me that night! It was a warning from him because we did break up a few months later. Now I am married to the most wonderful man that God could bless me with! Thank you dad, I love you and miss you a lot. Amen.

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Pressing in Hale Kahawai

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.

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Twin Spirits

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.

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More Than a Human Visitor

Informant: Female/24/Japanese-European ancestry

Location: Makiki, Oahu

One sunny afternoon Jane was doing her laundry while her roommate, Sara, took a nap in the next room. The laundry room was next door to their apartment, so on this particular day the door was unlocked. Jane retrieved her clothes from the dryer and went to her room to fold her clothes, but she forgot to lock the door.

Once in her room, she thought she saw something in the hall in the corner of her eye, but when she looked up, nothing was there. After a few minutes she heard Sara talking to herself. She figured Sara was just having another odd dream since she was saying “Hello? Who are you? What is your name little girl?” Jane didn’t pay any attention to it and kept folding. A few minutes later she heard Sara say, “No not on that. Let’s go watch it in the living room on the tv.”

That got Jane’s attention.

She put her clothes down and was about to go into Sara’s room when Sara appeared in the hall with a nine year old girl carrying a DVD. She was guiding the girl into the living room and asked Jane why she let the little girl into the apartment. Jane couldn’t believe the little girl was there and said she didn’t let her in. Just as Sara got the little girl to the living room, the girl lost interest and walked out of the apartment without a word. Sara followed her into the hall and saw a woman calling for her. They assumed the woman was the child’s mother. She apologized for the girl barging in like she did.

They shut the door and started to talk about what happened. Neither one could believe it. Apparently when the girl walked into Sara’s room, she went straight for her computer to play a DVD. It was odd because it seemed like the girl knew exactly where to go in an apartment she had never been in. She never said a word to Sara either. They decided to forget the incident and write it off as a bazaar day.

Six months went by, and the building went up for sale. Jane and Sara had to move out. They needed a break from packing and cleaning, so they went to a friend’s house to relax. Somehow the conversation was focused on ghost stories before everyone was about to leave. By the end of the conversation no one wanted to go home alone, and Jane and Sara were glad they had each other.

On the drive home, Sara asked Jane if she ever felt weird in their apartment. Jane asked her what she meant. Sara said that she felt a bad presence in the apartment. She started to notice it around the time the little girl appeared in our apartment. When she was in the bathroom in the morning, she often didn’t want to wash her face because she didn’t want to close her eyes. Or when she was in the shower at night she didn’t want to close her eyes, and sometimes felt like someone was on the other side of the curtain. The shower curtain that they had was opaque so she could tell no one was there, but she felt like someone…someone bad…was in the bathroom with her.

Jane just stared at her in shock and Sara tried to convince her that she wasn’t crazy, and went on to tell her that when her sister visited a few months after they had moved in, her sister had the same experience, and said that she didn’t feel comfortable in the apartment. After a few moments, Jane told Sara that she knew exactly what she was talking about and felt the same things. Jane however thought it was because it was her first time living on her own, and the times that she felt those things, Sara wasn’t at home. So Jane shrugged the bad feelings off as just being afraid of being alone at night.

By this time the two roommates were close to their apartment, but neither one wanted to go back at this point. So Jane kept on driving. Sara continued to tell her that she felt a really bad feeling in her room. She often felt a presence in her closet, a female presence. She even admitted that one night when Jane was away for the weekend, she was so afraid of sleeping in her room that she slept in Jane’s bed. She felt safe in Jane’s room. Jane told Sara that many times she would pick up the mail or have something she wanted to leave for Sara and went to put it in her room, but always felt like she shouldn’t be in there. It was just an eerie bad feeling. Jane shrugged if off thinking it was because it was Sara’s room and she just didn’t want to be invading her privacy. But Sara told her that was how she felt nearly every day stepping into her own room.

Sara said that every now and then when she woke up in the morning, she would feel a pressing on her chest and she wouldn’t be able to move, get up, or say anything. Eventually she found out that if she swore out loud or even in her mind, it would go away. And sure enough, every time she did that when she felt pressed, it would almost instantly stop. The two girls agreed that they felt the bad feelings only in the bathroom, Sara’s room, and the path that led between it.

It was really late and Jane was too tired to drive anymore, so the two roommates went home and did their best to forget what happened. They couldn’t believe that they each felt this way for months but never talked about it until that night. But they were sure glad that they would be moving in a few weeks.

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Believing

Informant: Female/23/Chinese, Hawaiian ancestry

Location: Chaminade University, Oahu

I had never put much faith in ghosts, haunts, poltergeists or other floaty white transparent beings. I believed in God and while he did have spiritual phenomena, many of the scary tales bobbing around were just that; scary tales to keep children in line, or to impress, or to make your loved one's skin crawl and want to jump into your arms. They were good to listen to and occasionally gave me nightmares, but I never started looking over my shoulder for them or keeping my ears pricked for strange bumps in the night. If there were any, those were usually my neighbors having sex or the people above me stomping on the floor, somehow believing that this would oil the afore mentioned neighbors bedsprings or pad their headboard.

I wish we had headboards to bang in our dorm rooms in college; that way we would have been able to tell without knocking that we shouldn't interrupt. I wish that night that I had someone to sleep with and to reassure me that what happened was a dream, that I had my eyes closed the whole time and I was muttering crazy things. But as it was, I was alone and exposed.

How do I know it wasn't a dream? Because you don't dream about trying to go back to sleep. And I swear as I felt the pressure settle on my chest, I saw the blankets and covers flatten. It was as if someone had just settled down and sat on my chest, but slowly increased how much weight they were putting on me.

My mind whirled. I had heard of these. Most describe this kind of experience as a brush with the sitting ghost, an old woman with scraggly gray hair that slowly tries to crush the breath out of you but never succeeds. I also heard of these beings as demons with tails, similar to succubae. (Although, whoever would be seduced by a being like this must be a freak who's into asphyxiation).

My eyes rolled to the side and saw my roommate sleeping peacefully in her own bed, I tried to yell to tell her to help me, but nothing came out. In fact the weight pressure quickened, almost as if the being on me was incensed by my mouth uselessly moving. I felt the thing get heavier and heavier and I went from having a hard time breathing, to having difficulty taking in any air at all. I looked down at my own body and saw nothing but an indentation.

It became painful and I started to see purple and green spots dancing in front of my eyes. I remembered a conversation a long time ago that I must have faith that God would keep me from these creatures; that I should pray and then laugh. Malevolent spirits supposedly hate being laughed at.

I gathered my remaining energy and breath and started praying for His protection. A surge of confidence rushed through me and I said aloud, "Begone evil spirit. I am not frightened; I am a child of God." A small laugh of contempt for this poor creature that had nothing better to do pressed through my lips. I pushed my shoulder, chest and stomach upwards, trying to turn on my side and upset the ghost's balance.

Sure enough I felt a weight start sliding off my body. As it did so I heard an old woman's low cackle before the heaviness completely lifted. It was a little chilling, but the knowledge that such a ghost had never killed anyone and that I had the protection of the Lord made me secure. I also knew that if it ever happened again I knew exactly what to do.

Of course I still stared at the upper frame of my door shaken by my experience. Who knew that those ghouls were real? I held fast to my newfound confidence, but still could not manage to sleep.

This is probably why I mostly sleep on my side today, to make it harder for any spirits to balance on my body and make it harder for them to obstruct my breathing.

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The Hole in the bedroom

Informant: Female/23/Korean ancestry

Location: Kaimuki, Oahu

I have a friend that can see spirits. I know what you’re thinking, but just go with it. Since the strange goings-ons in my apartment had graduated to actual physical displeasure, I decided to enlist his help in figuring out what the hell was going on.

First let me give you a little more background. Ever since the shadow man, my spare bedroom had turned into this creepy room that nobody wanted to go into. Every time my friends came over, they always steered clear from that room. It’s nothing we really talked about, just something we all mutually concurred on. That room was creepy.

Case in point: a friend of mine came over. He had only been in my apartment living room before briefly, for about 5 minutes. He never saw the rest of my apartment. But he walked into my apartment and immediately turned the corner into the hallway. I thought he had to use the bathroom, but I didn’t hear the door close so I followed him. I found him standing in the middle of that spare bedroom. He turned around, rubbing his arms, and said “This is a creepy room,” to which I said “Funny you should mention that…”

Back to the psychic friend. He asked me to draw him a map of my apartment labeling just the windows and the doors. So the crude picture I drew him (that didn’t showcase my spectacular artistic ability at all, I might add) looked something along the lines of this:

He looked at the picture for a little while, and started pointing out where my furniture and everything was (keep in mind he's never seen my apartment in his life, not even in pictures). He located my couch, and he also located my computer desk (“I feel a strong electrical disturbance here. Is this where you have a computer or something?”). Then he looked at the spare bedroom and said “There’s a hole here.” A hole? What did he mean?

“There’s a hole here where spirits can come in and out of. There is a man in your apartment who walks the line between malicious and harmless. He walks a path from your spare bedroom, into your bedroom, and into your bathroom.” This would explain why I felt like someone was looking over my shoulder sometimes. And it definitely explains why nobody liked going in that room.

My friend suggested moving my bed further away from the door to stop him from pressing me (it had happened about 3 times). I seemed to be in his way or something. But luckily not too long after that I moved out of that apartment. Not because it was haunted or anything, but because someone purchased it. I often wonder if the new tenants ever experience anything out of the ordinary.

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A Wrinkled Hand

Informant: Female/50’s/Filipino ancestry

Location: Lihue, Kauai

Back in 1982 when my mother was 32, she lived by herself in a motel in Niumalu. One night at around 3 am, she awoke to someone holding down her left hand and pressing their other hand against her mouth. She couldn’t see anyone since it was so dark, but she could feel the skin of the hand. Judging by the size of the hand she guessed it was the hand of an old woman. She then started to pray and the sensation let off.

Niumalu is close to the historical Menehune Fishpond. It's a very ancient place where many Hawaiians used to live.

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From the Doorway

Informant: Female/23/Korean ancestry

Location: Kaimuki, Oahu

My apartment was never the same after the shadow man experience. Every now and then, it would feel like someone was standing behind me, looking over my shoulder. Or I would hear a knock at the door, but nobody would be there when I looked out of the peephole. I could deal with those things, but there were some things that I couldn’t deal with in a logical way.

One day my boyfriend (at the time) sister came for the day. She had the key to get into the apartment for that day and was coming back in the afternoon. I decided to take a nap. I fell asleep on my bed in the middle of the afternoon, probably around 2pm. I woke up because I thought I heard the sound of the door open, and keys jingling. I thought, “She’s back, I better get up!” But for some reason, I couldn’t move. But I was able to see the doorway, and it looked like she was peeking through the doorway at me. I could just see a head.

I thought, “Oh my goodness, how embarrassing! I have to get up!” But I couldn’t move. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t move. It felt like all my muscles were dead; like they were suffocating, if that makes any sense. The whole time I struggled to move, someone was looking at me from the doorway.

Finally I decided that I should just stop trying to fight it. The moment I did, I was able to move. I got up, went into the living room expecting her to be there, but she wasn’t. Nobody was there.

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Pressing Ghost at the Police Station

Informant: Male/63/ mixed ancestry

Location: Hanalei, Kauai

I'm a retired cop. But when I was still on the force, I heard of stories about a particular substation on the island. It was located on the North Shore in a normal place, nothing iffy about it. But at least three people that I know of had experienced weird things there.

I think this has been going on for about three or four years now. But in the early morning hours, the midnight watch, guys would fall asleep at their desk. Then they would wake up to a pressing sensation on their chest. It would feel like someone sitting on them, or even choking them. This happened to several police officers that I know personally. Not all officers that were assigned there had experienced it, and I don't know if it's still happening now.

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Static in the Doorway

Informant: Male/20/mixed ancestry

Location: Mililani, Oahu

When I was eight years old, I lived in an older section of Mililani. I had a rather paranormally uneventful life until one night.

I woke up in the middle of the night for no apparent reason covered in sweat and filled with a sense of fear and dread. I looked over at my doorway and saw a very tall, white static-like figure filling the doorway looking at me. I couldn't move and I didn't know what to do. For a moment my paralysis ceased and I was able to throw my blankets over my head. I said, "Go away, go away. Please go away." I stayed that way until I feel asleep again.

Ever since then, I've never slept with my door open.

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Sleep Paralysis, or a Pressing Ghost?

Informant: Male/22/Hawaiian-Filipino ancestry

Location: Kahala, Oahu

This actually happened to me a week ago and I'm still trying to make sense of it.

Ever since I was a kid I'd get what most people refer to as "sleep paralysis," along with hearing loud ringing sound that always wakes me up but leaves me helpless for minutes. What usually happens is, I'll be in deep sleep and in the middle of a dream when all of a sudden the ringing sound screeches in my head and I'm awake but unable to move any part of my body. I usually say prayers until it goes away and try to convince myself that it was just a dream.

Anyway, a little over a week ago I slept over at my girlfriend's house in Kahala. While sleeping, I had another "sleep paralysis" episode, but this time I felt the presence of someone next to me, as if someone walked into the room and stopped beside me. Despite the fact that I was unable to move my body, I was just able to open my left eye ever so slightly. I was glad I had some control of my body but I was hoping I wouldn't see anything.

What I saw still haunts me.

I saw a skinny black figure that looked almost like TV static in the sense that it didn't look solid. It was there just for a moment then it backed away and was gone. The craziest thing is that I swear I heard it hit my girlfriend's plastic shelf as it left my range of vision. As soon as it left I was able to get up and was in shock. I didn't even wake up my girlfriend to tell her. I spent over half an hour trying to convince myself that it was just a dream, but I know it happened and I know it's not my imagination.

I'm seriously considering therapy or at least getting my girlfriend's house blessed.

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The Sitting Ghost

Informant: Female/48/Japanese Ancestry
Location: Manoa, Oahu

My mother used to live in an apartment next to a cemetery while she was attending the University of Hawaii at Manoa. One night she woke up for no reason and rolled over in bed. The air in her room was super muggy and thick. Something just didn't seem right. When she looked, a sudden depression was made in the bed that looked like someone came and sat down on the bed next to her. A little spooked, but too groggy to care she rolled over and went back to sleep.

A short time later she awoke struggling for breath, when whatever it was that was sitting down next to her rolled onto her. It was as thought someone was sitting on her chest, preventing her from breathing. It felt like she was under a "ton of bricks." She fought back, trying to move whatever was on her chest, but with no success. She finally managed to gasp for some air and with it said, "In the name of Jesus Christ, I rebuke you!"

Suddenly, the weight lifted and the presence left her room. The air became crisp and cool. The presence never returned.

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