Legend-Tripping

Alright. Here we are. Outside the school. At night. Cool.

How do we get in?

“Did you hear that the ghost kidnaps his victims in the art classroom? Apparently, he then uses the bones to make new Tiki masks that lie inside the shelves of the cabinets,” – I hear David loudly proclaim to his friends. “No, it’s the biology classroom, and he hides the skulls inside the stuffed animals,” – Ivan exclaims in protest. “No, it’s the music room, and the ghost uses the bones to make new piano keys,” – I dramatically whisper to Maria. She giggles. But seriously, how do we get in?

As I wait for something to happen, I hand Maria a flashlight and a chocolate bar; might as well have a snack. The moon shines dimly over us, and the wind rustles the leaves of the trees. Finally, Dimitri arrives. Apparently, we were waiting for him, as I am told he has lockpicking experience (the hooligan).

At last, we are inside. I can tell we are near the gym. I nudge Maria: “We should probably first search the art room.” She nods, still chewing on her snack. Our group of six disperses. Finding the classroom was no trouble for us, having walked these halls for several years, but no mysterious squeaks or quakes sound. But not having found the phantom there, Maria and I decide to separate (cause that always ends well in movies).

I move from classroom to classroom, looking for clues, or the ghost, or the bodies – anything would do. As I enter the biology room, I stumble unto a very peculiar scene: Dimitri and David are lying on the desks smoking, and the stuffed moose head on the wall is suddenly sporting a beret and a scarf. “Did you see any ghosts?” – I ask them. “No, but we did see singing gophers,” – David mutters back. I blink. That was a new one. I shut the door, stopping myself from further questioning the teens.

When I move away from the door, I am immediately knocked over by Maria. Forgot there were stairs there… “Did you find anything?” – I ask. “No, but I did walk in on Masha and Ivan doing the horizontal mambo – one moaning about how frightened she was and the other exclaiming that he would protect her. It would have been endearing if it wasn’t so cliché,” – she replied. As if calling it the “horizontal mambo” wasn’t cliché… Still, I shudder at the mental image. Yuck. “What’s left?” -I ask. “The music room.” Damn, that’s near the security desk.

As we tiptoe around the corner, we encounter a very strange scene: the security guard Yuri was flinging about the furniture in his box, as he raged and grunted and searched for something. As we use this situation as a diversion, we hear him mutter something about a remote. Finally, we reach the last rumored location of the ghost. We hear a piano playing. Suspicious, we walk in. There in front of us sat a dark shadow playing the piano. We were dumbfounded.

“Boo!”, someone (who I later recognized as Dimitri) shouts while jumping out of the nearby closet. Automatically, I punch him, while Maria retaliates with a kick. Serves him right, the bastard. As we share a glance with Maria, my phone lights up the darkish room, signaling my brother’s appearance to walk us back home. But as we look back towards the piano, we see that the dark figure had already disappeared. We rush past the guard and reach the entrance we came through. Panting and laughing, tingling from the small rush of fear, we head outside.

In the morning, we hear that another student has gone missing. Strangely, she wasn’t part of our group, and we didn’t see anybody else inside the school yesterday. Maybe we should’ve checked the gym? Oh well, doesn’t matter, she must have just moved away.

Oblivious of the shadow standing in the doorway at the end of the hall, Maria and I walk to class, munching on chocolate and discussing tomorrow’s homework.    

By now, especially if they are unfamiliar with the term ‘legend-tripping’, the reader might be wondering what the two stories above have to do with anything. I am happy to explain that both these tales are basic examples of something called ostension, or legend-tripping.

“Legend-tripping is, in short, a trial of passage that tests adolescents’ bravery by creating an imaginative supernatural threat, then inviting them to defy it” – Bill Ellis

Or, as Wikipedia (I know not the best source) simply puts it: “Legend tripping is a name bestowed by folklorists and anthropologists on an adolescent practice (containing elements of a rite of passage) in which a usually furtive nocturnal pilgrimage is made to a site which is alleged to have been the scene of some tragic, horrific, and possibly supernatural event or haunting.”

Ostension has a specific structure that most of those who practice it follow:

• 👻 The telling of the legend. This step lights the fire of fear and anticipation before the actual trip, it is the moment when the group decides to visit the place and/or reenact a ritual – the moment the adrenaline starts pumping through the veins.
• 🕯️ The actual trip: the drive in the car to the rumored haunted location, the walk through the woods, the anticipation growing stronger as the destination draws nears.
• 🦇 The moment of trespass: the climbing over the fence, the lockpicking of the door and the adrenaline in the blood bursting free. The people then begin to relax somewhat as the worst is over – they didn’t get caught…yet. It is that yet that makes the fear linger, that doesn’t let the adrenaline escape completely.
• 🏚️ Summoning ritual: They walk to their destination and perform the needed forbidden action that will draw the monster to them.
• 😨 Some idiot, and there almost always is one, will attempt to jump-scare the rest of the group, never expecting the very likely retaliation of his co-trippers.
• 🧟‍♀️ The uneasy laughter, the jokes aimed at the most terrified of the group, the resulting snuggling of old or newborn couples, the stealing or leaving of a souvenir, the light vandalism in the form of breaking furniture or windows, or graffiti left on the walls, the whispered additional facts or tales about the legend or location.
• 😱 The realization that they need to get back home
• 💀 Once again the growing fear of getting caught, the anticipation of one last attack by the monster lurking in the dark.
• 🧛 The possible chase by the police as they are discovered and the escape
• 🕸️ The discussion of their experience, the triumphant grins, the now easy laughter ringing through the air as they feel dawn approach, the after-glow they feel as they lay in their beds replaying the night’s adventure.
• 🎃 And, finally, the reunion in the morning. 

But though the above structure is mostly universal, legend-tripping can appear in different forms and follow a variety of scripts. However, they all center around a single idea – the bare bone of ostension:

“The extreme variability of these legends itself suggests that the trip, not the legend, is the most important thing in tradition” – B. Ellis.

“…although the legend trip is indeed often a jumble of narratives, actions, and emotions, these are not arbitrary but are specific and relevant to the players. The legend trip is part only of adolescent subculture, although the Black Angel is known by all age groups. The trip is one of the few events that belongs to adolescents, without adult supervision and even awareness. During the trip, they explore the rules of the fast-approaching, real, adult world through the rules of their game, a game of which adults may be dimly but aware. The experience is an act of resistance to adult rules; the young people in effect write the script for the play.” – Elizabeth S. Bird

Legend-tripping can take place in various locations (some of which have already been mentioned): schools, forests, haunted houses…

“Places with a reputation for being haunted draw visitors who may tell ghost stories before, during, and after their pilgrimages. Cemeteries and haunted houses are among the most frequent destinations, especially for adolescent visitors…Ghost stories also arise in connection with high-risk occupations…miners…flight attendants, firefighters, and others who have died in the course of their work may become the central characters of stories, often warning others to avoid potentially fatal situations. While some ghost stories focus on helpful acts and others on malevolent behavior, certain narratives present revenants that simply want to do some of the same things they did while living.” – Elizabeth Tucker

But did you know that there also exist more modern ways to legend-trip? For example, TV shows like “Most Haunted” or “Ghost Adventures” through the use of camera(s) that follow the cast take the viewer with them on their journey, instead of the crew just describing the trip after the fact. Similar tactics are employed in movies like “The Blair Witch Project” – they are shot as documentaries with handheld cameras, and though sometimes nauseating, they are brilliant examples of mass-media ostension.

The most recent form of legend tripping though is through the internet or through a computer screen. This is a result of a natural evolution of the “trip,” that began with real-life trips (with and without drugs), that then moved to book trips, then to radio/movie/tv trips, and, finally, to video/computer/internet game trips. The next steps will probably be legend-tripping through virtual reality chambers, and then through holograms. An example of a newly evolved form of legend-tripping are the wonderfully spooky games that involve the character Slender(man).

“Slender: The Eight Pages” is a game that centers around the main character (the player) being chased by Slender Man through the dark woods as he tries to collect the eight pages scattered around various landmarks. No one knows to whom these pages belong to, but they are rumored to be drawn by the child victims of Slender, and that they hold the key to his demise. Of course, this is cannot be one hundred percent true, as, even if you successfully collect the pages, the game just ends, or, in other versions, Slender kills you anyway. Some may argue that that is the whole point of the game – that, when you successfully gather the hidden pages, when you complete the mission, you get to escape the forest. Not the “you” in the game, but the “you” on the other side of the computer screen. One can even say, that, even if Slender catches you, in the end, your “soul” escapes him, the vessel being the only thing that dies.

However, a while back there were news articles that described a disturbing event concerning this character. Two 12-13-year-old girls murdered their friend to become so-called proxies of Slender Man – a legend-trip gone very wrong for various reasons, including (obviously) confusing reality with fiction. This is an unfortunate event – but not the first, nor the last. (Scarily, it is not the first time people have killed for a fictional character.) 

A simple truth is that, while legend-tripping may often offer a cathartic and learning experience to a practitioner (in whatever form it may be), most of the time it involves more risk than initially anticipated or even acknowledged.

“It is easy to see how groups of teens could become so intensely involved that they would feel challenged not only to deface or vandalize tombs but even to open graves and remove bones as “souvenirs” of their bravery. This aspect of legend-tripping provokes – and should provoke – the most anxiety. Ritual visits to graveyards regularly lead to illegal acts. Official concern over such activities is justified: active legend-tripping can have a devastating effect on an old historically valuable site. All the sites named in these traditions, British and American, have suffered repeated smashing and toppling.”

“So to call graveyard visits “just” play is as naive as to assert that participants are seriously practicing witchcraft or satanism. A realistic view of such activities must acknowledge their psychological benefits, affirming the importance of adult everyday norms even as they invert them. It should recognize that these activities are universal, practically unavoidable elements in adolescent life. But it must also concede that these rites walk the fringes of genuine antisocial behavior, and that, when play becomes reality, the results may damage both the sites visited and the teens who visit. In visiting the forbidden forest, Harry Potter learns that there are sometimes good reasons to violate rules set up by adults. But he also learns (as do many legend-trippers) that there are dangers out there in the world, as well as responsibility to be taken for choosing to defy them.” – B. Ellis

Vandalism and desecration  – are not the only dangers of legend-tripping, as they only indirectly (if he/she gets caught) affect the legend-tripper himself. For example, a real and serious danger is a building or a mine collapsing on the trespasser(s) during the act, as most ostension locations are old and/or undermaintained. This can result in injuries or even accidents resulting in death. So, one must be very careful and avoid exploring such places. Simply, don’t do it.

However, since I know this warning might not be enough for some readers, I, as a responsible human being, have a few suggestions for trippers if their mind is stubbornly set on this experience:

1. Please, take at least two other people with you on this trip. At least, two out of your group must be sober at all times.
2. Bring water, several flashlights (with extra newly bought batteries), blankets, food (like energy bars), a lighter, rope, a map, and a med-kit.
3. Dress accordingly (at night it can get very cold).
4. Please, let at least one of your friends (that is not coming with you) know where you are heading.
5. Charge your phones and don’t use any apps (like the camera or flashlight) unless absolutely necessary.
6. If your “friends” are peer-pressuring you to do something you don’t want to do – don’t do it, follow your instincts – they are there to keep you alive.
7. And, finally, be smart about your actions: don’t do drugs, don’t drink, don’t disperse in different directions, and don’t be d*cks.

As the hour of All Hallow’s Eve draws near, I find that there can never be enough scary stories told around this time. SO, I leave you, my dear readers, with one last tale. I’ll leave it to you to decide (using the knowledge you obtained from this post) if legend-tripping is involved or, if not, if it is legendary enough to inspire (if it hasn’t already) legend-trippers to embark on a journey in search of the truth. 

-L.L.L.

Works Referenced:

Bird, S. Elizabeth. “Playing with Fear: Interpreting the Adolescent Legend Trip.” Western Folklore, vol. 53, no. 3, 1994.

Ellis, Bill. Lucifer Ascending: The Occult in Folklore and Popular Culture. Lexington, University Press of Kentucky, 2015.

Tucker, Elizabeth. “Ghost Stories.” American Folklore: An Encyclopedia, edited by Jan Harold Brunvand, New York, Garland Publishing, 1996.

Joyce Carol Oates “Trespassing”, New York Times, Oct 8, 1995. p. SM83