This: I have a couple favorite podcasts I listen to. One is "Supernatural with Ashley Flowers" and another is "Scared to Death". The episodes on both of these podcasts this week were very freaky.
On "Supernatural", Ashley discussed the phenomenon of children remembering past lives. She talked about one extreme situation that occurred in India in which an 8 year old girl remembered a recent past life with complete accuracy. She even got to see the man who had been her husband in that past life. Even though they tried to "trick" her a few times, she could not be fooled by someone claiming a different identity. She knew who each of the people, relatives, friends, child, etc., from the past life she could remember were. It's an amazing story. There have been other children who can remember past lives, and my older daughter is one of them. When she was very little and she would get corrected by me, she would tell me she liked her other mother better. I'd ask her, what other mother? And she'd say, "the one with the dark hair". Typically these memories will fade as the child gets older. Today, my daughter can remember remembering a past life, but that's about it. She remembers a big house and a dalmation dog and a mother with dark hair. Kind of freaky stuff.
On "Scared to Death", one of the stories is about the "Wendigo". I admit the story freaked me out a bit, and it is really hard to freak me out. The wendigo is a mythological creature or evil spirit from the folklore of the First Nations Algonquin tribes based in the northern forests of Novia Scotia, the East Coast of Canada, and Great Lakes Region of Canada and the United States. It is described as a monster with some characteristics of a human or as a spirit who has possessed a human being and made them become monstrous. Its influence is said to invoke acts of murder, insatiable greed, cannibalism and the cultural taboos against such behaviors. Reports of the appearance of the wendigo talk about a very tall, emaciated humanoid creature, with the head and antlers of a stag and large claws at the ends of it's very long arms. It smells of decay and decomposition.
One legend states that a Wendigo is created whenever a human resorts to cannibalism to survive. In the past, this occurred more often when Indians and settlers found themselves stranded in the bitter snows and ice of the north woods. Another legend says that humans who displayed extreme greed, gluttony, and excess might also be possessed by a Wendigo, then having the unconsolable desire and need to eat and devour anybody it came into contact with, even those he loved when he was human.
The reason the story of the Wendigo is so freaky to me has to do with personal experience. No, I didn't see or encounter a Wendigo. I don't think, anyway. However, my ghost hunting team, GHOULSASS, and I went to a cemetery one evening in Palo, Iowa. It was by far the scariest hunt we ever went on as a team in my own opinion. This particular cemetery has a legend regarding the steps that lead up to it. During the day, there are only 12 steps, but at night, after the sun goes down, there are 13. We were there during the day and at night, and yes, counted 12 during the day, and 13 at night. But that's not the freaky part of this investigation. There is a trail there that winds through the woods. It's quite beautiful during the day. However, at night, it's an entirely different story. Some of our team went through the woods that night. The first time, we heard something very loud that sounded like it jumped from a tree and landed on the trail in front of us. The imagination tends to get the best of you at night when you're on a trail in the woods by a cemetery. We did not stick around to see what it was, but instead, we ran out of the woods. As soon as we were out of the woods, I made the observation that we had to go in again. At that point we heard coyotes howling in the distance. What an eerie sound. So, after a short break, we went back in. We got a bit farther this time before something once again made a crashing sound in front of us on the trail and sounded like something big jumping from a tree onto the trail. And again, we ran out of the woods. You can find video of this on our you tube channel. Just search "GHOULSASS Palo Cemetery" and you should be able to find it.
During the Covid-19 lockdown and quarantine period, we haven't been able to do any ghost hunts because we are practicing social distancing. Two of us thought it would be fun to go back to that cemetery and do a facebook live investigation. Of course, we would go back on the trail in the woods. We planned this before I heard the episode about the Wendigo, and now I'm paranoid that it could be a Wendigo on the trail. Of course, that's ridiculous as if it was a Wendigo, it would have eaten us already. Still, the Wendigo is not something I'd want to encounter on a dark night in the woods. That's freaky.
Today I'm going to leave you with a picture of what the Wendigo is supposed to look like to haunt your nightmares. If you want to hear more about the two stories I mentioned above, listen to the podcasts, "Supernatural With Ashley Flowers" and "Scared to Death". Stay freaky.
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