Whistling to call ghosts at Spouting Horn, Kauai; a cousin held down
A caller who says they are originally from Hawaii and are listening to the show on 105.1 in Las Vegas describes a night in the early 1970s on Kauai. The caller and four others drove to Spouting Horn, whistled to call ghosts, and played a prank on a cousin by driving off and leaving him. The caller reports seeing the cousin crouching. When they returned, they heard Hawaiian chanting with no instruments. They found the cousin crying, and the caller’s brother could not lift him. The cousin later said something held him down. The host cuts the call off for time. The caller adds that their grandmother saw a spirit behind the cousin and that he still wears something she gave him.
This clip comes from the source recording. AI chose where it starts and ends, so it may start or end a little early or late. The word-for-word transcript is not published. You can hear the source recording on the Internet Archive (file “Ghost to Ghost 1999.mp3”, starting at 31:51). Is this you, or someone you know? Ask for a correction or removal.
The story as told
The caller says they are originally from Hawaii and are listening on 105.1 in Las Vegas. They say the events happened when they were a teenager in the early 1970s while visiting family on the island of Kauai. They say five of them (cousins, their brother, and one friend) were cruising the island in a car one evening. They had grown up hearing that you never whistle at night because [quote withheld] and they decided to go and call the ghosts. They drove to Spouting Horn, which the caller describes as a blowhole in the lava rock at the end of a dead-end street surrounded by cane fields. They whistled and called to the ghost “like a dog.” The caller says they then played a prank on one cousin, a small, skinny boy who liked to scare people. They offered him a quarter to walk to a big old tree by the cane field and come back, then drove off laughing when he disappeared. Looking back, the caller says they saw the cousin crouching while in a standing position.
At the bottom of the hill, the caller says, the driver cousin, addressed as [name withheld], behaved strangely. The driver laughed in a strange voice and refused to drive back: [quote withheld] and [quote withheld] Only after the caller’s brother, the oldest in the car, threatened to put the driver out did the driver agree. Driving back with the lights and radio off, the group heard Hawaiian chanting-style music with no instruments. They found the cousin sitting at the end of the road, crying. The caller says their brother could not lift him, and that once in the car he could not answer them. Following what their parents used to say, they swore (and, the caller says, urinated) to free him. The cousin later told them that he sat down, tried to get up as the car drove off, and that something held him down. The caller adds that their grandmother, who [quote withheld] said the next day that she saw the spirit behind him. The caller says the cousin still wears something she gave him. The call ends when the host cuts in for time.
Reported events, in order
- 0:15
The caller says they are originally from Hawaii and are listening to the show on 105.1 in Las Vegas.
- 0:26
They say it happened when they were a teenager in the early 1970s while visiting family on Kauai.
- 0:53
They say five of them (cousins, their brother, and one friend) were cruising the island in a car that evening.
- 1:15
They say they decided to go and call the ghosts, whistling at night, which they had been told you never do in Hawaii.
- 1:27
They drove to Spouting Horn, described as a blowhole in the lava rock at the end of a dead-end street with cane fields around.
- 1:50
They say they stood at the very end whistling and calling the ghost, like calling a dog.
- 2:09
They say they decided to play a joke on one cousin, a small skinny boy who liked to scare people.
- 2:30
They offered the cousin a quarter to walk to a big old tree by the cane field and come back.
- 2:41
They drove off laughing after the cousin walked away and they could not see him.
- 2:52
The caller says they looked back and saw the cousin crouching while in a standing position.
- 3:34
At the bottom of the hill, the driver cousin, [name withheld], acted strangely, laughed in a strange voice, and refused to drive back.
- 3:46
On the third request, the driver again spoke in a strange voice: [quote withheld]
- 3:57
The caller’s brother, the oldest in the car, threatened to put the driver out and drive up himself. The driver then agreed.
- 4:09
Driving back up, they turned the lights off and shut the radio down to creep up on the cousin.
- 4:18
At the corner or ledge, with the windows down, they heard Hawaiian chanting-style music with no instruments.
- 4:36
They found the cousin sitting at the end, crying. The group said the joke was over and wanted to leave.
- 4:53
The caller’s brother, described as a football star in Hawaii at the time, tried to lift the cousin and could not.
- 4:59
Once the cousin was in the car, he could not talk to them. They swore and, per what their parents used to say, urinated to free him before driving down the hill.
- 5:26
The cousin said he walked halfway across the road, sat down, and that something held him down as he tried to get up toward the car.
- 5:41
The caller says they saw the spirit behind him, and that their grandmother said the next day she had seen the spirit behind the cousin.
- 5:51
The caller says the spirit is still haunting the cousin, who has to wear something the grandmother gave him.
Claims
Each claim is labeled as something the person telling the story noticed (observation), what they made of it (interpretation), something others told them (hearsay), or something the host said (host statement).
- observation· 1:50
The group went to the end of the road at Spouting Horn and whistled and called to ghosts, something the caller says they were told never to do at night.
- observation· 2:52
Looking back from the departing car, the caller saw the cousin crouching while in a standing position.
- observation· 3:38
The driver cousin, addressed as [name withheld], laughed in a strange voice and refused to drive back for the cousin.
- observation· 4:18
Driving back to the spot, they heard Hawaiian chanting-style music with no instruments.
- observation· 4:56
The cousin, described as small and skinny, could not be lifted.
- observation· 5:08
The cousin could not talk to them in the car, and they swore and urinated to free him.
- hearsay· 5:26
The cousin later said that as he tried to get up and go to the car, something held him down.
- interpretation· 5:41
The caller says they saw the spirit.
- hearsay· 5:51
The grandmother said she saw the spirit behind the cousin and gave him something to wear. The caller says the spirit is still haunting him.
- host statement· 5:38
The host states that this explains why they could not lift the cousin.
Scores, with reasons
An AI model gave these scores using a fixed set of scoring rules (scoring-v1). They are editorial judgments and rough guides, not the odds that anything paranormal happened. How scoring works.
A specific firsthand story with a named location, a stated era, and a clear sequence. But the central claim (something holding the cousin down) reaches the caller secondhand, the call is cut off before the story finishes, and no ordinary explanations are considered.
Evidence for and against
- Concrete setting: [quote withheld] and [quote withheld]
- Stated era and role: [quote withheld]
- The caller separates their own observation from the cousin’s later account: [quote withheld]
- The key physical claim comes from the cousin, not the caller: [quote withheld]
- No natural explanation is weighed at any point.
- The call is cut off, and one line is garbled: [quote withheld]
- It is unclear whether the cousin who was the target of the prank was counted among the five in the car.
- “the crotch” is likely a transcription error. The intended word cannot be recovered from the transcript.
- 0:26
- 1:27
- 5:26
- 5:41
What the model inferred (not said on air): My component judgments: a firsthand witness was present in the car (high source proximity), with good specificity of place and sequence. Internal consistency is only moderate because of the rushed and partly garbled telling. The score is low on alternative explanations and on calibration because the caller moves from what was seen to [quote withheld] without qualification.
There is only the caller’s word plus claimed eyewitnesses who do not speak on air. Specifics that could be checked (Spouting Horn, Kauai, the early 1970s, a cousin named [name withheld]) are given, but nothing is verified, and no physical evidence is claimed.
Evidence for and against
- Specifics that could be checked in principle: “Spouting Horn,” Kauai, “early 70s.”
- Other witnesses are claimed: [quote withheld]
- No photograph, recording, document, or mark is mentioned.
- No other witness speaks on air; the brother and cousins are only reported.
- The grandmother’s statement is offered as hearsay: [quote withheld]
- It is not stated whether any of the people involved could be found or asked.
- The caller’s own claimed view of “the spirit” is not described in any way that could be checked.
- 0:53
- 5:51
What the model inferred (not said on air): This falls in the 11–25 range because of the place and era that could be checked and the claimed second witnesses. Nothing was examined or confirmed, so it sits near the lower end of that range.
The story builds on darkness, a forbidden act, a prank that leaves a boy alone, an unexplained crouch, chanting with no instruments, and a crying cousin who cannot be lifted or spoken to. It ends unresolved, with the spirit said to be still affecting him.
Evidence for and against
- Being left alone and physical helplessness: [quote withheld]
- Eerie sound: [quote withheld] with “no instruments.”
- An ominous ending: [quote withheld]
- Much of the story is told as a teenage prank and includes light touches such as calling the ghost “like a dog.”
- No injury or threat to the caller is reported.
- The caller’s own sighting of “the spirit” is not described, so what it looked like cannot be judged.
- 4:18
- 4:36
- 5:51
What the model inferred (not said on air): My rating weighs the helplessness and the unresolved ending heavily. I lowered it for the prank framing and the lack of any direct threat or injury.
A familiar pattern, young people daring each other to summon ghosts followed by a prank that backfires, carries distinctive details: the Hawaiian rule against night whistling, chanting with no instruments heard at the site, a cousin said to be physically held down and unliftable, and a protective object from a grandmother.
Evidence for and against
- A local rule used as the reason for the outing: [quote withheld]
- An unusual combination: being unable to lift a small person, [quote withheld]
- A final object: [quote withheld] gave him.
- A prank, ghost-summoning, and a person left alone at night are common ghost-story structures.
- The ending depends on a relative’s interpretation, a recurring device.
- The published originality score is a provisional blend with a novelty score compared with the rest of the archive, which is weighted lightly during the pilot. This score is largely the judgment based on content.
- 1:15
- 4:56
What the model inferred (not said on air): First-pass originality score of 60 (familiar pattern plus several uncommon details). With a pilot-size archive, the published value stays close to this, so the final figure would land near 60.
Scoring confidence 0.60 · analysis confidence 0.65 · checked against outside sources: no · evidence available: The caller’s firsthand story as a participant in the car; Claimed but silent witnesses: brother, cousins, one friend; Claimed secondhand story of the cousin who was the target of the prank; Claimed reading by the grandmother the following day; No photographs, recordings, documents, or physical traces mentioned. The originality score blends the model's score (60) with how rare the story's details are across the archive. This method is still provisional.
Ordinary explanations to consider
These are possibilities only. None is a finding about what happened.
- The cousin’s distress, crouching, silence, and tears may come from being deliberately left alone at night in a dark, unfamiliar spot by the group’s own prank. · The caller says [quote withheld] and that they drove off while he was out of sight.
- A frightened or limp person can be very hard to lift, and the caller notes they were themselves afraid at that point. · [quote withheld] and [quote withheld]
- The chanting with no instruments might have had an ordinary distant source (a nearby gathering, a radio, or sound carrying at night over open country) rather than no source at all. · The caller says they had just shut their own car radio down and heard the chanting at the corner or ledge.
What stands out
The story combines a folk rule (never whistle at night) with a staged prank that the caller says backfired on the group. The abandoned cousin is found crying and allegedly unliftable, the driver speaks in a strange voice, and chanting with no instruments is heard. A strange final detail is that the cousin later had to wear an object given by the grandmother, though the object itself is not described.
Related stories
Matched by shared recurring details, categories, and wording.