February 20, 2025 ā¢ 44 mins
This little light of miiine š¶ In this episode, Ayden shares a story based on the legend of La Luz Mala, a supernatural, luminescent phenomenon originating from Uruguay.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
A girlfriends, It's me Adrian or Aiden. Either way, I
am still your host and you are still listening to Sustill,
the podcast of ouky spooky scary stories centered on paranormal
folklore from Latin American and Hispanic cultures. Welcome back, Thank
you for being here. If this is your first time, welcome,
(00:41):
thank you for joining us, please pull up a seat.
And if you are a returning ghoul back from the dead,
thank you so much for being here. I appreciate it.
Heads up, I did an episode last week. I'm doing
it again this week, trying to keep the momentum going.
This is a video episode for Best Girlfriends on Patreon,
So if you are subscribed to patreon dot com sustal
(01:02):
podcast at the Best school Friend tier, then you have
the opportunity to watch this episode as well as listen
to it. Otherwise, thank you so much for listening. Not
a ton of updates, I will say, folks, things are
in the swing already.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
Listen.
Speaker 1 (01:15):
I've already got people whispering in my ear about summer
and even Halloween events. So, as I've always said, I
feel like it's usually in the spooky season where I'm
really promoting. But I've said, I said it this last
spooky season. I want to be engaged with the community
all year long, so please do not hesitate to reach
out to me. Do not hesitate to pitch Sustal to
(01:38):
somebody or pitch on event to me, regardless of the
time of year. I love being out in the community
and doing things, So again, put it all out there
because you never know what can happen.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
Not a ton of.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
Updates in regard to Sustal, but something just really fun
that I wanted to share Today Today's Sunday, the fifteenth,
I took a class at City Alchemist. If you have
been following me for a while, you may have seen
that I've posted about visiting their shop. I mean ever
since I moved up here, but I and even before then,
I would visit their shop. They're one of my favorite
spots here in Austin. If you've never been, it is
(02:11):
where the witches shop in Austin, Texas. I love being
in their space. They just moved next door to a
bigger space, and so it's really nice. The energy has
always been great, but it's like for me personally, and
I don't know what they would say, but the energy
is it just feels more like free flowing. And again
because it's a bigger space, that makes sense, right. Anyway,
I took a class today. It was a leap yard
(02:33):
the level or an egg cleansing class, and I grew
up getting limp yas with the egg so it just
you know, it was a great class because they did
a tutorial, but they also gave kind of a lecture
on some of the history behind the practice of an
egg cleanse and the symbolism, and it was just really
cool to have that hands on teaching space or experience
(02:56):
with them. So big, big, huge shout out to City
alcol and Alexis and Eric, you all did amazing and yeah,
it was just really fun. It did bring up a
lot of questions for me. I need to call my
mom and say, hey, why do I remember getting so
many leap y'alls growing up? What was happening to me
that maybe I did not keep in store? So who knows,
(03:18):
just some fun developments that happened there. But I do
believe in their first book, Mahya Mahia, which I do
have a copy of and I'll post a picture up
here for Patreon, they go over the practice of egg
cleanses in the book. So if you have been interested
in learning about bouhidio or brushing up or fine tuning
your practice, I highly recommend they have two books, both
(03:40):
of them. But Maha Mahya, I think is a great
kind of introduction into this kind of practice.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
Other than that, make.
Speaker 1 (03:47):
Sure that you follow at Soostal Podcast on every social
media platform for any and all updates on the show.
I've been having a lot of fun on Instagram. You
all may have seen. I've been kind of just going
off on there. So finally, I don't know what it
was clicked in my head where I was like, oh,
this doesn't have to always be about what's going on
with the show. I can also just post really fun,
silly stuff as well, so check that out. I hope
(04:08):
everyone had an amazing, wonderful, cutesy Valentine's Day, a volloween,
a Gulantine's, a Gallantines.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
Whatever you want to call it out.
Speaker 1 (04:18):
Everybody had so much love surround them this week and
of course all year long. Jeff and I I made
a post about it on Instagram. We went to House
of Torment here in Austin. It is a local haunt
and they were doing a I guess Valentines adjacent haunt.
It was called love Bites and it was all about
vampires and I had so much fun there.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
The scare actors were amazing.
Speaker 1 (04:39):
It was my first time visiting House of Torment and
hopefully will not be my last. Y'all get your money's worth.
I think it was a great haunt. I don't want
to go into too many details. I'll just say it
was worth every penny and more and House of Torment
if you're listening, hey, personally invite Ghoul out if you
want to.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
Either way, I will be going back. But hey, what's up?
Loved it? You all killed it? Literally? Do you like
how it was?
Speaker 1 (05:02):
Like? Oh, there's really no updates and I'm just now
giving you everything about my life. Anyway, thanks for being here.
Let's go ahead and jump into today's story, which is
another Jeffrey original. So I had this idea yesterday actually,
on our way back from the Haunted House. I was
just thinking about recording today, and I thought, oh, I know,
I know what Jeff's title is at SUSTO. Now. I
(05:25):
always made the joke before that he's like the unpaid
intern whatever whatever, But I was like, wait, he's my
ghost writer, you get it, like like ghost boo, and
he does some of the writing for Sustal now and
but also like he's writing for me. And that's what
ghostwriters do, like they ghost Listen. If you got it,
you got it, Thank you. If not, don't worry about it.
(05:47):
Just know that today's story was primarily produced and researched
by Jeffrey Doyle. Thank you so much Jeffrey for the
As always, it's a great story. I'm excited to share
it with you. And without further ado, we're going to
get into it. It is the story of La LUs Mala.
(06:18):
Juliandramos had always been a man hungry for power, though
he had little of it. He was not a landowner,
nor a man of wealth, nor anyone the town truly respected.
He worked for the Ibarra, one of the largest cattle
ranchers in Rio Negro, a man known for his cruelty
(06:38):
and greed. Ibarra kept many men like Julian close, men
too poor to refuse him and too proud to question him.
That was when Thomas entered his life. Tomas was a northerner,
a stranger in Rio Negro. He had come looking for work,
desperate to feed his family. Unlike Julian, he was kind, honest, and,
(07:05):
worst of all, unafraid of don Estevan. Julian hated him immediately.
It wasn't just that Domas was a better worker. It
was that he spoke out when Ivara tried to underpay
the men. Domas had argued when Ivara let his overseers
beat a peon half to death, Domas had stepped in,
(07:26):
And when the whispers began that some of the workers
were planning to stand up to Ibarra, Domas's name was
the first to be spoken. Julian didn't care about the
suffering of others, but he cared about his place. He
was not going to let a man like Domas take
it from him. So Huen Ibarra's few faithful men gathered
(07:48):
at a local bar one night, Drunk and angry about
the troublemaker from the north. Julian saw an opportunity leave
him to me. Julian had planned only to scare him.
He waited until Thomas walked home alone, taking the dirt
road that led towards his rented shack in the hills. Julian,
(08:09):
followed by his friend Ramiro, was drunk and eager for
a fight, They confronted Domas near an old tree, the
moonlight glittering through the leaves. Do you think you're better
than us?
Speaker 2 (08:21):
Tomas?
Speaker 1 (08:22):
Julian sneered. Domas, familiar with Julian's ego, stood his ground.
Leave me alone, Julian. But Julian could not be stopped now.
He pushed Domas hard, and Ramidro laughed. Domas pushed back,
and then Julian saw red. He swung first a hard
(08:45):
blow to Domas's jaw. Then Ramiro joined in. The fight
went from taunting to brutal. Julian hadn't meant to kill him,
but rage and the fear of being humiliated clouded his judgment.
When Thomas collapsed to the ground, screaming for help while
coughing blood, something inside Julian snapped. He lifted a rock
(09:10):
and brought it down hard, once twice until there was
no more movement. Ramudo's laughter stopped, and he took a
staggering step backward. Julian's breath was ragged, his hands were
slick with blood, and Tomas was dead. For a moment,
(09:30):
no one spoke. Then Ramudo whispered, what do we do?
Julian wiped his mouth, forcing his voice to be steady.
We bury him because if anyone found out what they
had done, they would both hang for it. They dug
a grave near the river, far enough that the rains
(09:51):
would wash away the evidence. By the time they finished,
dawn was breaking over the horizon. They swore never to
speak of it again, and for a time Houlian convinced
himself it was over and in the past. But the
dead do not forget, and some debts, no matter how
deep you bury them, are never truly gone. Two weeks later,
(10:16):
Ramidro left town. He told no one one night he
was drinking at the bar, and the next morning his
house was empty Without Ramidro. Julian continued to drink alone
in the bar until the night an old man came
running in pale as a corpse.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
I saw it, La LUs Mala, I saw it. The
others laughed. Julian did not.
Speaker 1 (10:40):
He grabbed the old man by the collar, dragging him outside,
where he demanded. The old man's hands shook as he
pointed toward the country side by the river. Hoolian could
not sleep that night and decided he needed to leave
that life behind him once and for all years passed,
(11:02):
Julian changed. He stopped drinking and started to build a
better life for himself. He settled down, married Elena, and
had a daughter, Sophia, his light in the darkness. With
all the joy he now had, Julian had done his
best to forget his past, but the dead do not forget.
(11:24):
It was a peaceful life until the night the light appeared.
Julian had just finished his evening yetba mate when he
stepped outside for a breath of fresh air. The night
was clear, the sky dusted with stars, but something felt wrong.
The air was too still. Even the crickets had gone silent.
(11:45):
That's when he noticed it, a small pale light approaching
his home from just beyond the barn. Julian thought it
could be a lost traveler, but it was no lantern.
It flickered and pulled who like a living thing. Julian frowned.
He tried to forget about his past. He had convinced
(12:08):
himself that the old man who claimed to see La
Lusmla was just drunk and confused. But here he was
seeing a suspicious light. As he stepped forward, the light
moved back, almost as if it knew he was watching
he took another cautious step. The light receded further, keeping
(12:29):
just out of reach. A sudden chill ran through him.
It was trying to lead him back in the direction
of the river. The urge to call out, who's there
rose in his throat, but something deep inside told him
not to. Instead, he turned around and went inside, locking
(12:51):
the door behind him. The next few nights, Julian stared
beyond the barn and saw nothing. He convinced himself again
and it had been a trick of his tired eyes.
Then came the night his daughter fell ill at only
seven years old. Little Sophia was the heart of that
Domo's family, a bright, playful child with a laugh that
(13:14):
could melt the hardest of hearts. But that night, instead
of laughter, their home was filled with screaming. Julian and
Elena rushed into Sophia's room. She sat upright in bed,
her little body trembling, her eyes wide with terror. Papa,
(13:34):
the light it's at my window, Julian froze. Elena, confused,
rushed to comfort their daughter, pressing a cool hand to
her forehead. But Julian turned slowly toward the window, and
there it was the same pale light hovering just outside, watching,
(13:58):
but now it was closer than before. He ran to
the window, yanked the curtains shut, and grabbed his shotgun
from the corner of the room. Without a word, he
stormed outside, heart pounding in his chest. The light was gone,
but the air was thick, heavy, like before a storm.
(14:20):
And then he heard it, a whisper, soft at first.
Speaker 2 (14:25):
Carried by the wind.
Speaker 1 (14:27):
A single unintelligible voice, then another and another surrounding him.
Julian turned wildly, pointing the shotgun into the dark. His
hands were slick with sweat. Show yourself, damn it. Silence.
(14:48):
He took a slow step forward. The barn door creaked
in the wind. A cow let out a soft, uneasy
moan in the distance. Then the light returned, but this
time it was not alone. Two more lights blinked into
existence behind it, then a fourth, a fifth, a dozen,
(15:10):
floating in the darkness surrounding his house. A wave of ice,
cold fear washed over him. His chest felt tight, as
if something unseen was pressing down on him. The shotgun
felt useless in his hands, and then, just as suddenly
as they appeared, they vanished. Julian staggered back inside. Sofia
(15:34):
had fallen into a deep, feverish sleep, her tiny chest
rising and falling in sharp, shallow breaths. Elena sat beside her,
whispering prayers under her breath. Julian said nothing about what
he had seen, but that night he did not sleep.
The next morning, Julian went into town and sought out
(15:58):
the oldest and wisest man he knew, don Ivara, his
former boss, who was now retired. When Julian described the lights,
don Ibada's face grew grave. They are lost souls, spirits
trapped and searching for rest. Julian swallowed hard. He knew
(16:19):
who the lost soul was.
Speaker 2 (16:21):
What does he want?
Speaker 1 (16:23):
Don Ivara studied him for a long time, then, in
a voice just above a whisper, he said, someone here
has a debt with the dead. Julian's blood ran cold.
He returned home before sunset that night. As the candles
flickered inside their house, he gathered his family, holding Sophia close.
(16:47):
The lights returned, but instead of chasing them, Julian did
something different. He knelt in the doorway and with a
shaking voice, began to pray aloud. He asked for forgiveness.
He asked for peace. He asked the wandering souls to
move on. The lights did not move, but the whispering
(17:10):
grew softer. Sophia stirred in her sleep, her fever breaking.
The tension in the air lifted. The lights did not
return to the house. Sophia grew strong and healthy, but
hu Lean withered from the toll his guilt was taking
on his body. He had almost brought a curse to
(17:30):
his family. He eventually turned back to drinking. By the
time Sophia was a teenager, he was a husk of
the man. He used to be a permanent fixture at
the bar, drowning in rum, muttering to himself about lights
that found his home.
Speaker 2 (17:48):
No one believed him.
Speaker 1 (17:50):
They called him a drunk, a madman. Then one stormy night,
he made a mistake. After the storm had passed and
the wind still carried the scent of wet earth and
distant lightning, Julian stumbled out of the dimly lit bar,
his breath heavy with cheap rum. He laughed to himself
(18:12):
as he adjusted his worn out hat, kicking a loose
stone down the empty dirt road. La lous mala ha
I saved my family from it. The town whispered about
La Lusmla attacking his daughter Sophia, warning that those who
saw it were forever cursed. But Julian thought he had
escaped that fate. He staggered toward the open fields, the
(18:36):
cool night air sobering him slightly. The countryside stretched wide,
endless darkness, broken only by the occasional outline of a
lonely tree. He could not tell where he was in town,
but he knew the place felt strangely familiar. Then Julian's
boots sank into the deep soil as he reached a
(18:58):
clearing by the river. This was where he buried the
body of Tomas. He wondered if the bones still lay
beneath the soil, and that's when he saw it. A
small flickering light hovered just above the ground in the distance.
At first, it was no bigger than a candle flame,
(19:18):
wavering gently as if caught in the wind. Julian squinted
his mind raised. Was it La Lusmla again? Maybe it
was just a lantern in the distance. But the longer
he stared, the larger the light became.
Speaker 2 (19:34):
So you've come back for me.
Speaker 1 (19:36):
I've stopped you once in your life and once in
your death, I can stop you again. Thomas Julian's proud, evil,
former self surged forth.
Speaker 2 (19:46):
He thought he buried that.
Speaker 1 (19:47):
Side of himself, but that man was always inside. He
raised his hands and put them together, mocking the prayer
that once saved his family, and took a step forward.
The light stopped moving. The night had gone silent. No crickets,
no wind, nothing. A chill ran through his spine. Then
(20:11):
the light changed. It flared, a deep, blood red, pulsing
like a beating heart. The air thickened, pressing down on
his chest. His drunken bravado faded as he took an
instinctive step back. Suddenly the light surged forward. Who lean
turned to run, but his legs wouldn't move. His body
(20:34):
felt frozen, held by something unseen. The light rushed toward him,
growing impossibly bright until it filled his entire vision. Then
came the whispers, at first soft, then louder, surrounding him,
a hundred voices overlapping, speaking in a language he did
(20:54):
not understand. Then came the screams, the screams of Tomas
letting out his last breaths of life. They were joined
by dozens, possibly hundreds of other screams, piercing, endless wails
of something once human but no longer. The light engulfed him,
and in its center he saw no he said, his
(21:20):
mind refused to comprehend it. His mouth stretched open in
a silent scream as the world collapsed around him. The
villagers found his body just after sunrise, curled into a
fetal position in the exact spot where La Lusmalla had appeared.
His face was twisted in terror, eyes wide open, mouth
(21:44):
frozen mid scream. His skin was cold as stone, and
his hands were bald up so tightly that his nails
had pierced his own palms. No one dared move him
until the priest arrived. He saw something, priest whispered as
he traced a trembling cross over the corpse, something no
(22:05):
man should ever see. Elena and Sophia buried Julian that afternoon.
No one spoke a word. They never knew why La
LUs Mala came for him. That night, as the wind
held through the empty field, a small red light flickered waiting.
(22:25):
Julian was not the only person who was there the
night Tomas died. Ramido may have fled town, but he
still owed a debt. Welcome back, Welf friends, thank you
(22:49):
so much for listening to that story. We're gonna go
ahead and jump right into the sources, and even before that,
right off the bat. This is a story that originates
from Uruguay, and I think it's also seen in Argentina,
but we're going to see that mentioned throughout these sources.
So the first one that we have here is from
It's a website. It ends it's an edu website, but
I want to say this is pronounced.
Speaker 2 (23:10):
Cyble or sable.
Speaker 1 (23:11):
It's cei b a l and it's just a legend
of La lusmala or legend of the bad light, if
you translate it. All direct links are in the Patreon,
but this kind of just gives a really brief overview
of what laalusmala is. So reading from this, it says
there are lights that can be seen in fields and
they can appear green or blue at night. They are
(23:33):
seen as floating above the ground, sometimes described in waving movements,
so that kind of like flickering kind of wave movement,
or simply immobile, so just balls of light, and it
is common to see these lights in cemeteries and fields.
I might kind of trip up a little bit here
with these sources, because a lot of these are originally
in Spanish and then they're roughly translated to English. But
(23:54):
this continues that in Uruguay, this is what is popularly
known as lalusmala. Legends say that these luminescences are souls
in pain who are wandering on the earth for having
suffered a violent death and are demanding justice. There is
also a belief among the countrymen that when a bad
light chases a person or appears to a person, it
(24:14):
is a bad omen for death. Much like many things
that we see here on Suso. It's usually like there's
omens or even if it's like a spirit or a monster.
If you hear them or if you see them in
certain contexts, then it means that they're an omen for
bad news or even death. This continues according to popular belief.
It is also said that the greener the light, like
the greener of the tone of the light, the more
(24:35):
evil it is, or the more severe of.
Speaker 2 (24:37):
An omen it is.
Speaker 1 (24:39):
Tradition teaches that when someone encounters a la lusmla that
firearms do not work. Guns do not work, so as
was included in the story that although Julian had his
shotgun when he went out to chase the light and
he was confronted with multiple lights, the gun just felt
useless because, according to legend, firearms are uselessly against us.
(25:00):
How do you shoot light? Right? But also I would
kind of suspend my kind of like grip on reality
for some of these things, because what is effective is
if someone bites down on the I'm assuming they mean
like the handle of a knife. So you say a
prayer and you bite down on the knife, and I
guess you just hold it in your mouth as you
(25:21):
make your escape. This says one of the locations that
it's reported that people have seen the loos mala is
Sierra de las Animas. It says it's a range in
uru Way.
Speaker 2 (25:30):
And this is just like a really.
Speaker 1 (25:32):
Really nice mountainous kind of open green like kind of valley.
It looks like from pictures that I'm seeing here, it
looks really nice. And Google is telling me that it
is about a fourteen hour flight from here, so I mean,
it looks nice enough to visit to me, But this
is kind of one of those places where it's seen.
I do want to say though, that this is kind
of reminding me of a willow the wisp or willow wisp.
(25:54):
It says here in folklore, a willow the wisp or
a willow wisp or ignis fatuous Latin for foolish flame
is an atmospheric ghost light seen by travelers at night,
especially over bogs, swamps or marshes. And I want to
say this phrase willow wisp is more popular in European cultures.
Speaker 2 (26:15):
It says.
Speaker 1 (26:16):
The phenomenon is known yet in the United Kingdom by
a variety of names, including jack O Lantern, Fire's lantern,
and hinky punk. That's cute, hinky punk, and is said
to mislead and or guide travelers by resembling a flickering
lamp or lantern. Equivalents of the willow of the wisp
appear in European folklore by various names again Ignos fatuous, few,
(26:37):
foyete ir Licht, or ear wish in Germany. I'm probably
butchering those European names, but again this says that in folklore,
willow the wisps are typically attributed as ghosts, fairies, or
elemental spirits meant to reveal a path or direction. These
wisps are portrayed as dancing or flowing in a static
form until noticed or followed, in which case they visually
(26:57):
fade or disappear. Modern science explain the light aspect as
natural phenomena such as bioluminescence or chem iluminescence caused by
the oxidation of phosphine, dephosphane and methane produced by organic decay.
I'm a scientist, babe. Basically this is saying, and this
comes up in one of the other sources that we
(27:17):
have here, that this can also be a naturally occurring phenomena.
The conditions, I think typically.
Speaker 2 (27:24):
Have to be perfect.
Speaker 1 (27:25):
You know. It's one of those things where you see
like a halo of a rainbow around the sun. You know,
the conditions have to be just right for you to
see something like that. And it seems like when people
see this kind of real life again, bioluminescence or chemiluminescence,
it's you know, light that's produced by naturally occurring instances.
This idea of it being produced by organic decay. It's
(27:46):
going to come up one of the other links. Let's
see if it's this next one here. I'm not sure
it'll come up. We're going to go through either way
and then I'll reference it again. But this next one
that I have here, this is from Doldo Uruy dot
Nex and this is Legends and Superstitions La luis mala.
This says, here's it's the first sentence I knew it
(28:07):
was coming up. It says when an animal or plant
decomposes on the ground or is buried very close to
the surface, it often occurs that it emits nitrogen and
gas shaped phosphorus. Again, this is translated from Spanish. This
bacterial decomposition looks green or fluorescent blue at night and
as if loosening above the ground, or I read it
in Spanish too, it's as if like it's floating right
(28:29):
above the ground, sometimes describing waving movements again that kind
of flickering like a flame movement or like a lantern.
And sometimes it's emobile, it's just kind of static in
one spot. It is common to see these lights at
again cemeteries and fields and Uruguay, it's popularly known as
la lusmla. And this is kind of repeating everything from
that first source that we had here. But again I
(28:50):
thought it was really interesting that this is again it's
a naturally occurring thing, and it's it's interesting that there's
this like supernatural element to something decaying, to the idea
of death. You know, it's like a direct result of death.
If I don't know, if if you can follow my
thought process, So because something died, this naturally occurring phenomena
(29:11):
happens that people interpret as supernatural or paranormal. I just
think it's really cool, and I think it'd be really
cool to see this in person, knowing that it is
what it is.
Speaker 2 (29:21):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (29:21):
I just wonder if scientists, if there are any scientists
out there, biologists, chemists, forensic scientists, if there is a
way to recreate this phenomena, let me know, I would
love to see it, or maybe someone has already done
it and it's online.
Speaker 2 (29:36):
I think it'd be really cool.
Speaker 1 (29:37):
I mean, because we know how it can happen, So
I'm like, can y'all just recreate it so we can
see what it looks like. But I'm thinking it would
look like the light would look like when you see
that like bioluminescent algae. You know, we've all kind of
seen those videos of waves crashing or people running their
fingers through the water and it lights up at night
because of that kind of bioluminescent those biluminescent organisms in
(29:58):
the water. I'm assuming it's that same kind of glowing effect.
The next source that we have here is from Journey
Latin America dot com. This is just it's an entry
that says Halloween inspired Latin America's spookiest myths. So there's
a list of something things that we've covered here. Eltraco
is here from Chile, Chupacabra is here, Elthio from Bolivia's here,
(30:22):
and then of course LUs Mala Argentina and Uruguay. This
says LUs Mala, one of the most prolific myths in
Argentine and Uruguayan history, dates back to the period when
indigenous tribes still thrived in these two countries. Literally translated
as evil light, the phenomenon takes the form of will
of the wisp again as we mentioned, or atmospheric ghost
(30:44):
lights which dance vividly on barren landscape. Legend has it
that the light is a soul broken out of the
celestial sphere, crying in pain. So again this sort of
like quote out of order soul that is seeking justice
or possibly revenge for an untimely or violent death. Right,
this continues. This light is thought to emanate deadly gases,
(31:06):
a product of decomposed bones. Okay, this is the next
part of this that I was excited to get into
because in the story, you know, even after Julian's death,
his body was just kind of left there like rigid cold.
You know, it killed him. He died, right, So these
gases can kill whatever these willow wisps.
Speaker 2 (31:21):
Are made of, or they emanate it.
Speaker 1 (31:23):
This gas is deadly, right, But this idea, it says
a product of decomposed bones, and it's gonna mention it,
I think, if not in this source, in the next one.
But this says according to the Gauchos who traditionally dominate
these barren planes, this loos Mala appears during the driest
times of year, as with many mythical stories involving a
brilliant light. The myth suggests that men have been tempted
(31:44):
to venture towards the source of the light, only to
find broken pottery remnants containing human remains. However, it is
worth noting that when the bright, sparkling light appears at
the foot of a hill, it is thought to point
to buried treasure, which only the bravest can uncover that mine.
I'm going to look through my notes on my phone
because I want to say I jotted something now that
my mom was telling me that I think y'all would
(32:05):
find really interesting that Now thinking of this, it reminds me,
and I'm pretty sure you all will remember some of
you have sent this to me before, if I've ever
looked into it. And I think after seeing this, I
want to dedicate an episode to it. But it's those
what are they called. I need y'all to leave a comment,
either on Spotify or on social media or something. There
is a tree, there's these specific trees and it incorporates
(32:26):
this like a flame that is near the foot of
the tree, and there's like treasure or something. Just if
y'all know what trees I'm talking about, please let me know.
Speaker 2 (32:34):
Remind me.
Speaker 1 (32:34):
Although I know you've sent it in before, okay, but
that's it for that. So I want to see if
it'll say in this next source that idea of that
like treasure or whatever it is.
Speaker 2 (32:43):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (32:44):
This next source is from wikifandom Mitohia dot fandom dot com.
The entry is titled of course Luis Mala or bed
Light again. This was a source that was originally the
Spanish translated to English, but it says here Luis mala
is also called fatuous fire. Double bluff, manding bluff, or
Andy's bluff is one of the most famous myths of
(33:04):
folklore in again Argentina and Uruguay. Again it's talking about
the light here though it has a detail, and it's
mentioned in the story too that the light could also
be red or white, and in some other sources there's
like a varying kind of there's a spectrum of colors
that this light can be from, like blues to greens,
and now we have reds and whites. And then earlier
(33:25):
sources right said that the greener the light is, the
more kind of evil or a sinister or the more
severe of an omen it is. And I want to
say here they say that red is that kind of
color too, So red and green Christmas Santa rearranged letters Satan.
Speaker 2 (33:43):
It's a sign anyway. Sorry, this continues.
Speaker 1 (33:46):
Legend says that the light it can be still, it
can move at great speed. They're often feared again because
it is a soul in sorrow. It's a deceased person
who didn't This one says they received no Christian burial.
So now we know that this light la Lusmala is
the soul of someone. It's a disturbed soul. And there
are many reasons, and I'm sure it's not limited to
(34:08):
these reasons.
Speaker 2 (34:08):
But the ones who've seen.
Speaker 1 (34:09):
So far is they didn't receive a Christian burial or
a proper burial, and those things are not mutually exclusive.
It was someone who died violently or suddenly, or maybe
they're seeking justice or a combination of any and all
of those things.
Speaker 2 (34:24):
Right.
Speaker 1 (34:25):
This says again, if someone encounters the light, firearms are useless,
So don't bring guns to a light fight. Bring a knife,
right because it also says to bite on the handle
of the knife.
Speaker 2 (34:35):
The one thing that I wanted.
Speaker 1 (34:36):
To see here that I want to talk about here. Okay,
So this says that usually no one digs where the
light comes out of. So if it's floating above one
spot on the ground that you can dig there, there
might possibly be something, but people are kind of wary
because it can also be dangerous. So this says that
a few who have seen the light and they've dug
in those areas, they've found metal objects, pieces of indigenous pottery.
(35:00):
Sometimes they say that there's deadly gas. So if there's
like a container or something, or even maybe it's just
like a pocket of gas underground, and like if you
dig into it, that gas, you know, it'll come out
and hit you in the face and it could kill you. Right,
So people advise against either against doing that, or if
you're going to do it, you know, cover your mouth
or hold your breath until like you know, everything's all
(35:20):
clear and you've gone away, Like I guess you got
to just move fast, right, so you don't breathe in
potentially dangerous gases that are trapped underground. This also continues.
A white light that appears at the foot of the
hill is good and where it is hovering above. You
need to put like a dagger or a marker or
something on the ground there, and that you can go
there the next morning during the daytime, and that you
(35:43):
can find gold and silver treasure. Right. And it says
from red light that you should flee or pray the
rosary because it's said to be a bad light and
a temptation from the devil. So again we see this
these two different again, the spectrum of light and good
and evil so blues and white lights are typically kind
of safe or they're just there, right, and then the
(36:05):
red and green lights are the evil ones, the dangerous ones.
And I wouldn't okay, I wouldn't even know where to google.
But it reminds me of an experiment that I did
in high school, which was many years ago, where over
the Bunsen burners are teacher how to burn like different chemicals,
and each chemical produced a different color. And I'm pretty
(36:26):
sure I can remember there was a red, there was
a blue, there was a green, and I don't know
what white light would be that would look different than
the regular flame. But now I'm curious which chemicals caused
each color, you know, and for each of those chemicals,
what is their level of danger to people? Chemistry teachers,
if you're out there. I wish I was better when
(36:48):
I was in chemistry, that I paid closer attention, But
I don't know. I wonder if there's a connection there, right,
because now we're going into science right where people are
saying that it's dangerous to dig in these spots because
there could be pockets of gas trapped if that gas
is producing a flame in different colors like or depending
on which kind of gas it is, right? And like,
what is what colors produce white and blue that are
(37:10):
not as dangerous as the gases that produce the colors
green and red.
Speaker 2 (37:14):
I don't know if you followed any of that. I
really hope you did.
Speaker 1 (37:18):
And we're gonna have to run the Soustos science class
and see what happens. Have to run some experiments. This continues.
It says it is now accepted that the myth has
its origin in the real phenomena of fatuous fire, which
is you know what we just went over. It's like
a naturally occurring phenomenon. It's a quote biogas again, we
saw it was bioluminescent or chemi luminescent. So biologically luminescent
(37:39):
or chemically luminescent. I think I'm saying that right. I
think I'm a scientist. You guys, maybe I will run
my own experiment again. It mentions that that decomposition and
oxidization of bacteria. Whoa, you guys, my brain is so
big anyway, that that natural decomposition can so some times
(38:00):
produced this luminessence. You see, this is what happens when
I read fancy three dollar words, is that what they
call it.
Speaker 2 (38:07):
Though that's three dollar word. Has anybody heard that phrase?
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (38:10):
You see, I have my good moments where I sound
really smart, and then I have other moments where I
sound not so really smart. Anyway, this is what I
wanted to talk about here. This part is It says
it may also be the result of the reflection of
the moonlight and the bones of dead cows, like when
you see it in a field. So I tried looking
this up and I didn't see anything about cowbones being
(38:31):
more reflective than any other bones. I think it's just
because you know, in a field there, what do you
think when you see a field cows? Right, If a
cow has died out there and their bones are there,
it's going to be this probably white bone in a
patch of either dark dirt or grass. So in the
full moon, the light will bounce off of that, right,
because it's white. That's just how that works. So maybe
that's what it's talking about. But the reason I was
(38:52):
interested in talking about this is because it says that
some people may interpret the loose mala as a thing
that eats also because then when they go to this
spot where they saw this glowing they find these bones,
and that's kind of what this the rest of the
source is saying, is like, oh, we saw something glowing
in the spot last night, and so we came to
(39:14):
check it out today. The sun is out right, and
there's a pile of cowbones. So there that light that
was here, it was a thing that ate versus the
light that they saw was the bones themselves, just reflecting
the moonlight off of them. If that makes any sense too.
It makes sense to me where I'm like, oh, yeah,
I could see someone maybe kind of making up a
story in their head, right a when in reality again,
(39:34):
it was just the moonlight hitting the bones and then
they make up a scary story around it, which we love. Right.
And then the last thing here, it's a YouTube video.
I I might just throw it here in the Patreon video,
but if you also want to look it up, if
you go to YouTube and you search the video La
Luce malaretos, it's like it's a one minute video. And honestly,
(39:59):
like fifty seconds of this video are just title and
exit credits for some reason, and you can tell this
is like a homemade video. Is published in two thousand
and seven from de la Patio de la patillo what's
that Caliucci song? And it says in Escumento exclusivo de
coronica tva istoria de la LUs Mala. And to me,
(40:22):
it looks like someone made their version of like a mockumentary,
like a scary Like it's a scene from a scary
video where they're encountering lalus Mala.
Speaker 2 (40:32):
Right, it's I.
Speaker 1 (40:32):
Mean again, go watch it laalus Mala vea on YouTube.
And the first like opening credit, it's like a red
background with white letters and it says momento. It's really dramatic,
but you can tell someone was like, oh, let's let's
pretend like we encountered laalus Mala. I don't know, it
was just fun. Welcome back, girl friends. Thank you so
(41:05):
much for sticking around for today's episode. It was my
pleasure and I hope that you enjoyed it. As always,
if you would like to hear your story on a
Letters from the Beyond episode, please feel free to visit
sustal podcast dot com or linktr dot e slash Sustal
podcast and there is a link on both of those
(41:26):
pages to submit your own story. It is an official
Letters from the Beyond form where you can also drop
in multimedia. So if you have photos, video, audio recording,
send all of that in fill out the little form
and it'll come directly to me and it'll end up
either on a Letters from the Beyond episode or on
the social media pages which are at sustal podcast on
(41:49):
every platform where you can follow for any and all
updates and just kind of general fun spooky stuff.
Speaker 2 (41:55):
If you enjoy today's episode, please.
Speaker 1 (41:58):
Make sure to leave a far star rating and or
positive review wherever you are listening. It is the easiest
way to support the show by doing that by liking, subscribing,
sharing it with your network of goals, and saying, hey,
check out this podcast. I really think you'd like it,
because I love it. If you do that, I don't
know if you knew this. If you do that, you
get seven years of good luck, like and each time
(42:20):
you do it, it just keeps adding on, So I
don't know.
Speaker 2 (42:23):
It's up to you. I would never turn down good
luck you guys. And if you would like to.
Speaker 1 (42:27):
Monetarily support Sustal in exchange for some perks and benefits,
For example, you could get this episode early and ad free,
and depending on your tier, you could even get a
video version of this episode. Then you can do so
by visiting patroon dot com, slash Sustal podcast, and this
episode's patrons. Huge shout out to you all, Eliza, Sadie, Rachel,
(42:47):
Alejandra Luther, April d Josette, Sam, Mandy, Jules Louri, Genie,
Desiree A Ashes, Nedesa, Rachel Ashusena, Marlene, Chata, Laney, desire Ci, Cynthia,
Carla Archer, Bricaddo, Sera, Vanessa, Mariza, Nieves, Monica Iris and
(43:08):
Volatile Void.
Speaker 2 (43:09):
Thank you all so so much for your support.
Speaker 1 (43:11):
It means everything to me. It makes my heart grow
two sizes too big. I look forward to you talking
to you on the next episode. Until then, thank you
so much for your support. Thank you again to Jeffrey,
my ghost writer, for producing today's story. I will talk
to you in the next one and until then, Notthas
Wustas Bye s
A girlfriends, It's me Adrian or Aiden. Either way, I
am still your host and you are still listening to Sustill,
the podcast of ouky spooky scary stories centered on paranormal
folklore from Latin American and Hispanic cultures. Welcome back, Thank
you for being here. If this is your first time, welcome,
(00:41):
thank you for joining us, please pull up a seat.
And if you are a returning ghoul back from the dead,
thank you so much for being here. I appreciate it.
Heads up, I did an episode last week. I'm doing
it again this week, trying to keep the momentum going.
This is a video episode for Best Girlfriends on Patreon,
So if you are subscribed to patreon dot com sustal
(01:02):
podcast at the Best school Friend tier, then you have
the opportunity to watch this episode as well as listen
to it. Otherwise, thank you so much for listening. Not
a ton of updates, I will say, folks, things are
in the swing already.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
Listen.
Speaker 1 (01:15):
I've already got people whispering in my ear about summer
and even Halloween events. So, as I've always said, I
feel like it's usually in the spooky season where I'm
really promoting. But I've said, I said it this last
spooky season. I want to be engaged with the community
all year long, so please do not hesitate to reach
out to me. Do not hesitate to pitch Sustal to
(01:38):
somebody or pitch on event to me, regardless of the
time of year. I love being out in the community
and doing things, So again, put it all out there
because you never know what can happen.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
Not a ton of.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
Updates in regard to Sustal, but something just really fun
that I wanted to share Today Today's Sunday, the fifteenth,
I took a class at City Alchemist. If you have
been following me for a while, you may have seen
that I've posted about visiting their shop. I mean ever
since I moved up here, but I and even before then,
I would visit their shop. They're one of my favorite
spots here in Austin. If you've never been, it is
(02:11):
where the witches shop in Austin, Texas. I love being
in their space. They just moved next door to a
bigger space, and so it's really nice. The energy has
always been great, but it's like for me personally, and
I don't know what they would say, but the energy
is it just feels more like free flowing. And again
because it's a bigger space, that makes sense, right. Anyway,
I took a class today. It was a leap yard
(02:33):
the level or an egg cleansing class, and I grew
up getting limp yas with the egg so it just
you know, it was a great class because they did
a tutorial, but they also gave kind of a lecture
on some of the history behind the practice of an
egg cleanse and the symbolism, and it was just really
cool to have that hands on teaching space or experience
(02:56):
with them. So big, big, huge shout out to City
alcol and Alexis and Eric, you all did amazing and yeah,
it was just really fun. It did bring up a
lot of questions for me. I need to call my
mom and say, hey, why do I remember getting so
many leap y'alls growing up? What was happening to me
that maybe I did not keep in store? So who knows,
(03:18):
just some fun developments that happened there. But I do
believe in their first book, Mahya Mahia, which I do
have a copy of and I'll post a picture up
here for Patreon, they go over the practice of egg
cleanses in the book. So if you have been interested
in learning about bouhidio or brushing up or fine tuning
your practice, I highly recommend they have two books, both
(03:40):
of them. But Maha Mahya, I think is a great
kind of introduction into this kind of practice.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
Other than that, make.
Speaker 1 (03:47):
Sure that you follow at Soostal Podcast on every social
media platform for any and all updates on the show.
I've been having a lot of fun on Instagram. You
all may have seen. I've been kind of just going
off on there. So finally, I don't know what it
was clicked in my head where I was like, oh,
this doesn't have to always be about what's going on
with the show. I can also just post really fun,
silly stuff as well, so check that out. I hope
(04:08):
everyone had an amazing, wonderful, cutesy Valentine's Day, a volloween,
a Gulantine's, a Gallantines.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
Whatever you want to call it out.
Speaker 1 (04:18):
Everybody had so much love surround them this week and
of course all year long. Jeff and I I made
a post about it on Instagram. We went to House
of Torment here in Austin. It is a local haunt
and they were doing a I guess Valentines adjacent haunt.
It was called love Bites and it was all about
vampires and I had so much fun there.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
The scare actors were amazing.
Speaker 1 (04:39):
It was my first time visiting House of Torment and
hopefully will not be my last. Y'all get your money's worth.
I think it was a great haunt. I don't want
to go into too many details. I'll just say it
was worth every penny and more and House of Torment
if you're listening, hey, personally invite Ghoul out if you
want to.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
Either way, I will be going back. But hey, what's up?
Loved it? You all killed it? Literally? Do you like
how it was?
Speaker 1 (05:02):
Like? Oh, there's really no updates and I'm just now
giving you everything about my life. Anyway, thanks for being here.
Let's go ahead and jump into today's story, which is
another Jeffrey original. So I had this idea yesterday actually,
on our way back from the Haunted House. I was
just thinking about recording today, and I thought, oh, I know,
I know what Jeff's title is at SUSTO. Now. I
(05:25):
always made the joke before that he's like the unpaid
intern whatever whatever, But I was like, wait, he's my
ghost writer, you get it, like like ghost boo, and
he does some of the writing for Sustal now and
but also like he's writing for me. And that's what
ghostwriters do, like they ghost Listen. If you got it,
you got it, Thank you. If not, don't worry about it.
(05:47):
Just know that today's story was primarily produced and researched
by Jeffrey Doyle. Thank you so much Jeffrey for the
As always, it's a great story. I'm excited to share
it with you. And without further ado, we're going to
get into it. It is the story of La LUs Mala.
(06:18):
Juliandramos had always been a man hungry for power, though
he had little of it. He was not a landowner,
nor a man of wealth, nor anyone the town truly respected.
He worked for the Ibarra, one of the largest cattle
ranchers in Rio Negro, a man known for his cruelty
(06:38):
and greed. Ibarra kept many men like Julian close, men
too poor to refuse him and too proud to question him.
That was when Thomas entered his life. Tomas was a northerner,
a stranger in Rio Negro. He had come looking for work,
desperate to feed his family. Unlike Julian, he was kind, honest, and,
(07:05):
worst of all, unafraid of don Estevan. Julian hated him immediately.
It wasn't just that Domas was a better worker. It
was that he spoke out when Ivara tried to underpay
the men. Domas had argued when Ivara let his overseers
beat a peon half to death, Domas had stepped in,
(07:26):
And when the whispers began that some of the workers
were planning to stand up to Ibarra, Domas's name was
the first to be spoken. Julian didn't care about the
suffering of others, but he cared about his place. He
was not going to let a man like Domas take
it from him. So Huen Ibarra's few faithful men gathered
(07:48):
at a local bar one night, Drunk and angry about
the troublemaker from the north. Julian saw an opportunity leave
him to me. Julian had planned only to scare him.
He waited until Thomas walked home alone, taking the dirt
road that led towards his rented shack in the hills. Julian,
(08:09):
followed by his friend Ramiro, was drunk and eager for
a fight, They confronted Domas near an old tree, the
moonlight glittering through the leaves. Do you think you're better
than us?
Speaker 2 (08:21):
Tomas?
Speaker 1 (08:22):
Julian sneered. Domas, familiar with Julian's ego, stood his ground.
Leave me alone, Julian. But Julian could not be stopped now.
He pushed Domas hard, and Ramidro laughed. Domas pushed back,
and then Julian saw red. He swung first a hard
(08:45):
blow to Domas's jaw. Then Ramiro joined in. The fight
went from taunting to brutal. Julian hadn't meant to kill him,
but rage and the fear of being humiliated clouded his judgment.
When Thomas collapsed to the ground, screaming for help while
coughing blood, something inside Julian snapped. He lifted a rock
(09:10):
and brought it down hard, once twice until there was
no more movement. Ramudo's laughter stopped, and he took a
staggering step backward. Julian's breath was ragged, his hands were
slick with blood, and Tomas was dead. For a moment,
(09:30):
no one spoke. Then Ramudo whispered, what do we do?
Julian wiped his mouth, forcing his voice to be steady.
We bury him because if anyone found out what they
had done, they would both hang for it. They dug
a grave near the river, far enough that the rains
(09:51):
would wash away the evidence. By the time they finished,
dawn was breaking over the horizon. They swore never to
speak of it again, and for a time Houlian convinced
himself it was over and in the past. But the
dead do not forget, and some debts, no matter how
deep you bury them, are never truly gone. Two weeks later,
(10:16):
Ramidro left town. He told no one one night he
was drinking at the bar, and the next morning his
house was empty Without Ramidro. Julian continued to drink alone
in the bar until the night an old man came
running in pale as a corpse.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
I saw it, La LUs Mala, I saw it. The
others laughed. Julian did not.
Speaker 1 (10:40):
He grabbed the old man by the collar, dragging him outside,
where he demanded. The old man's hands shook as he
pointed toward the country side by the river. Hoolian could
not sleep that night and decided he needed to leave
that life behind him once and for all years passed,
(11:02):
Julian changed. He stopped drinking and started to build a
better life for himself. He settled down, married Elena, and
had a daughter, Sophia, his light in the darkness. With
all the joy he now had, Julian had done his
best to forget his past, but the dead do not forget.
(11:24):
It was a peaceful life until the night the light appeared.
Julian had just finished his evening yetba mate when he
stepped outside for a breath of fresh air. The night
was clear, the sky dusted with stars, but something felt wrong.
The air was too still. Even the crickets had gone silent.
(11:45):
That's when he noticed it, a small pale light approaching
his home from just beyond the barn. Julian thought it
could be a lost traveler, but it was no lantern.
It flickered and pulled who like a living thing. Julian frowned.
He tried to forget about his past. He had convinced
(12:08):
himself that the old man who claimed to see La
Lusmla was just drunk and confused. But here he was
seeing a suspicious light. As he stepped forward, the light
moved back, almost as if it knew he was watching
he took another cautious step. The light receded further, keeping
(12:29):
just out of reach. A sudden chill ran through him.
It was trying to lead him back in the direction
of the river. The urge to call out, who's there
rose in his throat, but something deep inside told him
not to. Instead, he turned around and went inside, locking
(12:51):
the door behind him. The next few nights, Julian stared
beyond the barn and saw nothing. He convinced himself again
and it had been a trick of his tired eyes.
Then came the night his daughter fell ill at only
seven years old. Little Sophia was the heart of that
Domo's family, a bright, playful child with a laugh that
(13:14):
could melt the hardest of hearts. But that night, instead
of laughter, their home was filled with screaming. Julian and
Elena rushed into Sophia's room. She sat upright in bed,
her little body trembling, her eyes wide with terror. Papa,
(13:34):
the light it's at my window, Julian froze. Elena, confused,
rushed to comfort their daughter, pressing a cool hand to
her forehead. But Julian turned slowly toward the window, and
there it was the same pale light hovering just outside, watching,
(13:58):
but now it was closer than before. He ran to
the window, yanked the curtains shut, and grabbed his shotgun
from the corner of the room. Without a word, he
stormed outside, heart pounding in his chest. The light was gone,
but the air was thick, heavy, like before a storm.
(14:20):
And then he heard it, a whisper, soft at first.
Speaker 2 (14:25):
Carried by the wind.
Speaker 1 (14:27):
A single unintelligible voice, then another and another surrounding him.
Julian turned wildly, pointing the shotgun into the dark. His
hands were slick with sweat. Show yourself, damn it. Silence.
(14:48):
He took a slow step forward. The barn door creaked
in the wind. A cow let out a soft, uneasy
moan in the distance. Then the light returned, but this
time it was not alone. Two more lights blinked into
existence behind it, then a fourth, a fifth, a dozen,
(15:10):
floating in the darkness surrounding his house. A wave of ice,
cold fear washed over him. His chest felt tight, as
if something unseen was pressing down on him. The shotgun
felt useless in his hands, and then, just as suddenly
as they appeared, they vanished. Julian staggered back inside. Sofia
(15:34):
had fallen into a deep, feverish sleep, her tiny chest
rising and falling in sharp, shallow breaths. Elena sat beside her,
whispering prayers under her breath. Julian said nothing about what
he had seen, but that night he did not sleep.
The next morning, Julian went into town and sought out
(15:58):
the oldest and wisest man he knew, don Ivara, his
former boss, who was now retired. When Julian described the lights,
don Ibada's face grew grave. They are lost souls, spirits
trapped and searching for rest. Julian swallowed hard. He knew
(16:19):
who the lost soul was.
Speaker 2 (16:21):
What does he want?
Speaker 1 (16:23):
Don Ivara studied him for a long time, then, in
a voice just above a whisper, he said, someone here
has a debt with the dead. Julian's blood ran cold.
He returned home before sunset that night. As the candles
flickered inside their house, he gathered his family, holding Sophia close.
(16:47):
The lights returned, but instead of chasing them, Julian did
something different. He knelt in the doorway and with a
shaking voice, began to pray aloud. He asked for forgiveness.
He asked for peace. He asked the wandering souls to
move on. The lights did not move, but the whispering
(17:10):
grew softer. Sophia stirred in her sleep, her fever breaking.
The tension in the air lifted. The lights did not
return to the house. Sophia grew strong and healthy, but
hu Lean withered from the toll his guilt was taking
on his body. He had almost brought a curse to
(17:30):
his family. He eventually turned back to drinking. By the
time Sophia was a teenager, he was a husk of
the man. He used to be a permanent fixture at
the bar, drowning in rum, muttering to himself about lights
that found his home.
Speaker 2 (17:48):
No one believed him.
Speaker 1 (17:50):
They called him a drunk, a madman. Then one stormy night,
he made a mistake. After the storm had passed and
the wind still carried the scent of wet earth and
distant lightning, Julian stumbled out of the dimly lit bar,
his breath heavy with cheap rum. He laughed to himself
(18:12):
as he adjusted his worn out hat, kicking a loose
stone down the empty dirt road. La lous mala ha
I saved my family from it. The town whispered about
La Lusmla attacking his daughter Sophia, warning that those who
saw it were forever cursed. But Julian thought he had
escaped that fate. He staggered toward the open fields, the
(18:36):
cool night air sobering him slightly. The countryside stretched wide,
endless darkness, broken only by the occasional outline of a
lonely tree. He could not tell where he was in town,
but he knew the place felt strangely familiar. Then Julian's
boots sank into the deep soil as he reached a
(18:58):
clearing by the river. This was where he buried the
body of Tomas. He wondered if the bones still lay
beneath the soil, and that's when he saw it. A
small flickering light hovered just above the ground in the distance.
At first, it was no bigger than a candle flame,
(19:18):
wavering gently as if caught in the wind. Julian squinted
his mind raised. Was it La Lusmla again? Maybe it
was just a lantern in the distance. But the longer
he stared, the larger the light became.
Speaker 2 (19:34):
So you've come back for me.
Speaker 1 (19:36):
I've stopped you once in your life and once in
your death, I can stop you again. Thomas Julian's proud, evil,
former self surged forth.
Speaker 2 (19:46):
He thought he buried that.
Speaker 1 (19:47):
Side of himself, but that man was always inside. He
raised his hands and put them together, mocking the prayer
that once saved his family, and took a step forward.
The light stopped moving. The night had gone silent. No crickets,
no wind, nothing. A chill ran through his spine. Then
(20:11):
the light changed. It flared, a deep, blood red, pulsing
like a beating heart. The air thickened, pressing down on
his chest. His drunken bravado faded as he took an
instinctive step back. Suddenly the light surged forward. Who lean
turned to run, but his legs wouldn't move. His body
(20:34):
felt frozen, held by something unseen. The light rushed toward him,
growing impossibly bright until it filled his entire vision. Then
came the whispers, at first soft, then louder, surrounding him,
a hundred voices overlapping, speaking in a language he did
(20:54):
not understand. Then came the screams, the screams of Tomas
letting out his last breaths of life. They were joined
by dozens, possibly hundreds of other screams, piercing, endless wails
of something once human but no longer. The light engulfed him,
and in its center he saw no he said, his
(21:20):
mind refused to comprehend it. His mouth stretched open in
a silent scream as the world collapsed around him. The
villagers found his body just after sunrise, curled into a
fetal position in the exact spot where La Lusmalla had appeared.
His face was twisted in terror, eyes wide open, mouth
(21:44):
frozen mid scream. His skin was cold as stone, and
his hands were bald up so tightly that his nails
had pierced his own palms. No one dared move him
until the priest arrived. He saw something, priest whispered as
he traced a trembling cross over the corpse, something no
(22:05):
man should ever see. Elena and Sophia buried Julian that afternoon.
No one spoke a word. They never knew why La
LUs Mala came for him. That night, as the wind
held through the empty field, a small red light flickered waiting.
(22:25):
Julian was not the only person who was there the
night Tomas died. Ramido may have fled town, but he
still owed a debt. Welcome back, Welf friends, thank you
(22:49):
so much for listening to that story. We're gonna go
ahead and jump right into the sources, and even before that,
right off the bat. This is a story that originates
from Uruguay, and I think it's also seen in Argentina,
but we're going to see that mentioned throughout these sources.
So the first one that we have here is from
It's a website. It ends it's an edu website, but
I want to say this is pronounced.
Speaker 2 (23:10):
Cyble or sable.
Speaker 1 (23:11):
It's cei b a l and it's just a legend
of La lusmala or legend of the bad light, if
you translate it. All direct links are in the Patreon,
but this kind of just gives a really brief overview
of what laalusmala is. So reading from this, it says
there are lights that can be seen in fields and
they can appear green or blue at night. They are
(23:33):
seen as floating above the ground, sometimes described in waving movements,
so that kind of like flickering kind of wave movement,
or simply immobile, so just balls of light, and it
is common to see these lights in cemeteries and fields.
I might kind of trip up a little bit here
with these sources, because a lot of these are originally
in Spanish and then they're roughly translated to English. But
(23:54):
this continues that in Uruguay, this is what is popularly
known as lalusmala. Legends say that these luminescences are souls
in pain who are wandering on the earth for having
suffered a violent death and are demanding justice. There is
also a belief among the countrymen that when a bad
light chases a person or appears to a person, it
(24:14):
is a bad omen for death. Much like many things
that we see here on Suso. It's usually like there's
omens or even if it's like a spirit or a monster.
If you hear them or if you see them in
certain contexts, then it means that they're an omen for
bad news or even death. This continues according to popular belief.
It is also said that the greener the light, like
the greener of the tone of the light, the more
(24:35):
evil it is, or the more severe of.
Speaker 2 (24:37):
An omen it is.
Speaker 1 (24:39):
Tradition teaches that when someone encounters a la lusmla that
firearms do not work. Guns do not work, so as
was included in the story that although Julian had his
shotgun when he went out to chase the light and
he was confronted with multiple lights, the gun just felt
useless because, according to legend, firearms are uselessly against us.
(25:00):
How do you shoot light? Right? But also I would
kind of suspend my kind of like grip on reality
for some of these things, because what is effective is
if someone bites down on the I'm assuming they mean
like the handle of a knife. So you say a
prayer and you bite down on the knife, and I
guess you just hold it in your mouth as you
(25:21):
make your escape. This says one of the locations that
it's reported that people have seen the loos mala is
Sierra de las Animas. It says it's a range in
uru Way.
Speaker 2 (25:30):
And this is just like a really.
Speaker 1 (25:32):
Really nice mountainous kind of open green like kind of valley.
It looks like from pictures that I'm seeing here, it
looks really nice. And Google is telling me that it
is about a fourteen hour flight from here, so I mean,
it looks nice enough to visit to me, But this
is kind of one of those places where it's seen.
I do want to say though, that this is kind
of reminding me of a willow the wisp or willow wisp.
(25:54):
It says here in folklore, a willow the wisp or
a willow wisp or ignis fatuous Latin for foolish flame
is an atmospheric ghost light seen by travelers at night,
especially over bogs, swamps or marshes. And I want to
say this phrase willow wisp is more popular in European cultures.
Speaker 2 (26:15):
It says.
Speaker 1 (26:16):
The phenomenon is known yet in the United Kingdom by
a variety of names, including jack O Lantern, Fire's lantern,
and hinky punk. That's cute, hinky punk, and is said
to mislead and or guide travelers by resembling a flickering
lamp or lantern. Equivalents of the willow of the wisp
appear in European folklore by various names again Ignos fatuous, few,
(26:37):
foyete ir Licht, or ear wish in Germany. I'm probably
butchering those European names, but again this says that in folklore,
willow the wisps are typically attributed as ghosts, fairies, or
elemental spirits meant to reveal a path or direction. These
wisps are portrayed as dancing or flowing in a static
form until noticed or followed, in which case they visually
(26:57):
fade or disappear. Modern science explain the light aspect as
natural phenomena such as bioluminescence or chem iluminescence caused by
the oxidation of phosphine, dephosphane and methane produced by organic decay.
I'm a scientist, babe. Basically this is saying, and this
comes up in one of the other sources that we
(27:17):
have here, that this can also be a naturally occurring phenomena.
The conditions, I think typically.
Speaker 2 (27:24):
Have to be perfect.
Speaker 1 (27:25):
You know. It's one of those things where you see
like a halo of a rainbow around the sun. You know,
the conditions have to be just right for you to
see something like that. And it seems like when people
see this kind of real life again, bioluminescence or chemiluminescence,
it's you know, light that's produced by naturally occurring instances.
This idea of it being produced by organic decay. It's
(27:46):
going to come up one of the other links. Let's
see if it's this next one here. I'm not sure
it'll come up. We're going to go through either way
and then I'll reference it again. But this next one
that I have here, this is from Doldo Uruy dot
Nex and this is Legends and Superstitions La luis mala.
This says, here's it's the first sentence I knew it
(28:07):
was coming up. It says when an animal or plant
decomposes on the ground or is buried very close to
the surface, it often occurs that it emits nitrogen and
gas shaped phosphorus. Again, this is translated from Spanish. This
bacterial decomposition looks green or fluorescent blue at night and
as if loosening above the ground, or I read it
in Spanish too, it's as if like it's floating right
(28:29):
above the ground, sometimes describing waving movements again that kind
of flickering like a flame movement or like a lantern.
And sometimes it's emobile, it's just kind of static in
one spot. It is common to see these lights at
again cemeteries and fields and Uruguay, it's popularly known as
la lusmla. And this is kind of repeating everything from
that first source that we had here. But again I
(28:50):
thought it was really interesting that this is again it's
a naturally occurring thing, and it's it's interesting that there's
this like supernatural element to something decaying, to the idea
of death. You know, it's like a direct result of death.
If I don't know, if if you can follow my
thought process, So because something died, this naturally occurring phenomena
(29:11):
happens that people interpret as supernatural or paranormal. I just
think it's really cool, and I think it'd be really
cool to see this in person, knowing that it is
what it is.
Speaker 2 (29:21):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (29:21):
I just wonder if scientists, if there are any scientists
out there, biologists, chemists, forensic scientists, if there is a
way to recreate this phenomena, let me know, I would
love to see it, or maybe someone has already done
it and it's online.
Speaker 2 (29:36):
I think it'd be really cool.
Speaker 1 (29:37):
I mean, because we know how it can happen, So
I'm like, can y'all just recreate it so we can
see what it looks like. But I'm thinking it would
look like the light would look like when you see
that like bioluminescent algae. You know, we've all kind of
seen those videos of waves crashing or people running their
fingers through the water and it lights up at night
because of that kind of bioluminescent those biluminescent organisms in
(29:58):
the water. I'm assuming it's that same kind of glowing effect.
The next source that we have here is from Journey
Latin America dot com. This is just it's an entry
that says Halloween inspired Latin America's spookiest myths. So there's
a list of something things that we've covered here. Eltraco
is here from Chile, Chupacabra is here, Elthio from Bolivia's here,
(30:22):
and then of course LUs Mala Argentina and Uruguay. This
says LUs Mala, one of the most prolific myths in
Argentine and Uruguayan history, dates back to the period when
indigenous tribes still thrived in these two countries. Literally translated
as evil light, the phenomenon takes the form of will
of the wisp again as we mentioned, or atmospheric ghost
(30:44):
lights which dance vividly on barren landscape. Legend has it
that the light is a soul broken out of the
celestial sphere, crying in pain. So again this sort of
like quote out of order soul that is seeking justice
or possibly revenge for an untimely or violent death. Right,
this continues. This light is thought to emanate deadly gases,
(31:06):
a product of decomposed bones. Okay, this is the next
part of this that I was excited to get into
because in the story, you know, even after Julian's death,
his body was just kind of left there like rigid cold.
You know, it killed him. He died, right, So these
gases can kill whatever these willow wisps.
Speaker 2 (31:21):
Are made of, or they emanate it.
Speaker 1 (31:23):
This gas is deadly, right, But this idea, it says
a product of decomposed bones, and it's gonna mention it,
I think, if not in this source, in the next one.
But this says according to the Gauchos who traditionally dominate
these barren planes, this loos Mala appears during the driest
times of year, as with many mythical stories involving a
brilliant light. The myth suggests that men have been tempted
(31:44):
to venture towards the source of the light, only to
find broken pottery remnants containing human remains. However, it is
worth noting that when the bright, sparkling light appears at
the foot of a hill, it is thought to point
to buried treasure, which only the bravest can uncover that mine.
I'm going to look through my notes on my phone
because I want to say I jotted something now that
my mom was telling me that I think y'all would
(32:05):
find really interesting that Now thinking of this, it reminds me,
and I'm pretty sure you all will remember some of
you have sent this to me before, if I've ever
looked into it. And I think after seeing this, I
want to dedicate an episode to it. But it's those
what are they called. I need y'all to leave a comment,
either on Spotify or on social media or something. There
is a tree, there's these specific trees and it incorporates
(32:26):
this like a flame that is near the foot of
the tree, and there's like treasure or something. Just if
y'all know what trees I'm talking about, please let me know.
Speaker 2 (32:34):
Remind me.
Speaker 1 (32:34):
Although I know you've sent it in before, okay, but
that's it for that. So I want to see if
it'll say in this next source that idea of that
like treasure or whatever it is.
Speaker 2 (32:43):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (32:44):
This next source is from wikifandom Mitohia dot fandom dot com.
The entry is titled of course Luis Mala or bed
Light again. This was a source that was originally the
Spanish translated to English, but it says here Luis mala
is also called fatuous fire. Double bluff, manding bluff, or
Andy's bluff is one of the most famous myths of
(33:04):
folklore in again Argentina and Uruguay. Again it's talking about
the light here though it has a detail, and it's
mentioned in the story too that the light could also
be red or white, and in some other sources there's
like a varying kind of there's a spectrum of colors
that this light can be from, like blues to greens,
and now we have reds and whites. And then earlier
(33:25):
sources right said that the greener the light is, the
more kind of evil or a sinister or the more
severe of an omen it is. And I want to
say here they say that red is that kind of
color too, So red and green Christmas Santa rearranged letters Satan.
Speaker 2 (33:43):
It's a sign anyway. Sorry, this continues.
Speaker 1 (33:46):
Legend says that the light it can be still, it
can move at great speed. They're often feared again because
it is a soul in sorrow. It's a deceased person
who didn't This one says they received no Christian burial.
So now we know that this light la Lusmala is
the soul of someone. It's a disturbed soul. And there
are many reasons, and I'm sure it's not limited to
(34:08):
these reasons.
Speaker 2 (34:08):
But the ones who've seen.
Speaker 1 (34:09):
So far is they didn't receive a Christian burial or
a proper burial, and those things are not mutually exclusive.
It was someone who died violently or suddenly, or maybe
they're seeking justice or a combination of any and all
of those things.
Speaker 2 (34:24):
Right.
Speaker 1 (34:25):
This says again, if someone encounters the light, firearms are useless,
So don't bring guns to a light fight. Bring a knife,
right because it also says to bite on the handle
of the knife.
Speaker 2 (34:35):
The one thing that I wanted.
Speaker 1 (34:36):
To see here that I want to talk about here. Okay,
So this says that usually no one digs where the
light comes out of. So if it's floating above one
spot on the ground that you can dig there, there
might possibly be something, but people are kind of wary
because it can also be dangerous. So this says that
a few who have seen the light and they've dug
in those areas, they've found metal objects, pieces of indigenous pottery.
(35:00):
Sometimes they say that there's deadly gas. So if there's
like a container or something, or even maybe it's just
like a pocket of gas underground, and like if you
dig into it, that gas, you know, it'll come out
and hit you in the face and it could kill you. Right,
So people advise against either against doing that, or if
you're going to do it, you know, cover your mouth
or hold your breath until like you know, everything's all
(35:20):
clear and you've gone away, Like I guess you got
to just move fast, right, so you don't breathe in
potentially dangerous gases that are trapped underground. This also continues.
A white light that appears at the foot of the
hill is good and where it is hovering above. You
need to put like a dagger or a marker or
something on the ground there, and that you can go
there the next morning during the daytime, and that you
(35:43):
can find gold and silver treasure. Right. And it says
from red light that you should flee or pray the
rosary because it's said to be a bad light and
a temptation from the devil. So again we see this
these two different again, the spectrum of light and good
and evil so blues and white lights are typically kind
of safe or they're just there, right, and then the
(36:05):
red and green lights are the evil ones, the dangerous ones.
And I wouldn't okay, I wouldn't even know where to google.
But it reminds me of an experiment that I did
in high school, which was many years ago, where over
the Bunsen burners are teacher how to burn like different chemicals,
and each chemical produced a different color. And I'm pretty
(36:26):
sure I can remember there was a red, there was
a blue, there was a green, and I don't know
what white light would be that would look different than
the regular flame. But now I'm curious which chemicals caused
each color, you know, and for each of those chemicals,
what is their level of danger to people? Chemistry teachers,
if you're out there. I wish I was better when
(36:48):
I was in chemistry, that I paid closer attention, But
I don't know. I wonder if there's a connection there, right,
because now we're going into science right where people are
saying that it's dangerous to dig in these spots because
there could be pockets of gas trapped if that gas
is producing a flame in different colors like or depending
on which kind of gas it is, right? And like,
what is what colors produce white and blue that are
(37:10):
not as dangerous as the gases that produce the colors
green and red.
Speaker 2 (37:14):
I don't know if you followed any of that. I
really hope you did.
Speaker 1 (37:18):
And we're gonna have to run the Soustos science class
and see what happens. Have to run some experiments. This continues.
It says it is now accepted that the myth has
its origin in the real phenomena of fatuous fire, which
is you know what we just went over. It's like
a naturally occurring phenomenon. It's a quote biogas again, we
saw it was bioluminescent or chemi luminescent. So biologically luminescent
(37:39):
or chemically luminescent. I think I'm saying that right. I
think I'm a scientist. You guys, maybe I will run
my own experiment again. It mentions that that decomposition and
oxidization of bacteria. Whoa, you guys, my brain is so
big anyway, that that natural decomposition can so some times
(38:00):
produced this luminessence. You see, this is what happens when
I read fancy three dollar words, is that what they
call it.
Speaker 2 (38:07):
Though that's three dollar word. Has anybody heard that phrase?
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (38:10):
You see, I have my good moments where I sound
really smart, and then I have other moments where I
sound not so really smart. Anyway, this is what I
wanted to talk about here. This part is It says
it may also be the result of the reflection of
the moonlight and the bones of dead cows, like when
you see it in a field. So I tried looking
this up and I didn't see anything about cowbones being
(38:31):
more reflective than any other bones. I think it's just
because you know, in a field there, what do you
think when you see a field cows? Right, If a
cow has died out there and their bones are there,
it's going to be this probably white bone in a
patch of either dark dirt or grass. So in the
full moon, the light will bounce off of that, right,
because it's white. That's just how that works. So maybe
that's what it's talking about. But the reason I was
(38:52):
interested in talking about this is because it says that
some people may interpret the loose mala as a thing
that eats also because then when they go to this
spot where they saw this glowing they find these bones,
and that's kind of what this the rest of the
source is saying, is like, oh, we saw something glowing
in the spot last night, and so we came to
(39:14):
check it out today. The sun is out right, and
there's a pile of cowbones. So there that light that
was here, it was a thing that ate versus the
light that they saw was the bones themselves, just reflecting
the moonlight off of them. If that makes any sense too.
It makes sense to me where I'm like, oh, yeah,
I could see someone maybe kind of making up a
story in their head, right a when in reality again,
(39:34):
it was just the moonlight hitting the bones and then
they make up a scary story around it, which we love. Right.
And then the last thing here, it's a YouTube video.
I I might just throw it here in the Patreon video,
but if you also want to look it up, if
you go to YouTube and you search the video La
Luce malaretos, it's like it's a one minute video. And honestly,
(39:59):
like fifty seconds of this video are just title and
exit credits for some reason, and you can tell this
is like a homemade video. Is published in two thousand
and seven from de la Patio de la patillo what's
that Caliucci song? And it says in Escumento exclusivo de
coronica tva istoria de la LUs Mala. And to me,
(40:22):
it looks like someone made their version of like a mockumentary,
like a scary Like it's a scene from a scary
video where they're encountering lalus Mala.
Speaker 2 (40:32):
Right, it's I.
Speaker 1 (40:32):
Mean again, go watch it laalus Mala vea on YouTube.
And the first like opening credit, it's like a red
background with white letters and it says momento. It's really dramatic,
but you can tell someone was like, oh, let's let's
pretend like we encountered laalus Mala. I don't know, it
was just fun. Welcome back, girl friends. Thank you so
(41:05):
much for sticking around for today's episode. It was my
pleasure and I hope that you enjoyed it. As always,
if you would like to hear your story on a
Letters from the Beyond episode, please feel free to visit
sustal podcast dot com or linktr dot e slash Sustal
podcast and there is a link on both of those
(41:26):
pages to submit your own story. It is an official
Letters from the Beyond form where you can also drop
in multimedia. So if you have photos, video, audio recording,
send all of that in fill out the little form
and it'll come directly to me and it'll end up
either on a Letters from the Beyond episode or on
the social media pages which are at sustal podcast on
(41:49):
every platform where you can follow for any and all
updates and just kind of general fun spooky stuff.
Speaker 2 (41:55):
If you enjoy today's episode, please.
Speaker 1 (41:58):
Make sure to leave a far star rating and or
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(42:20):
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Speaker 2 (42:23):
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Speaker 1 (42:27):
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Wustas Bye s
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On Purpose with Jay Shetty
Iām Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and Iām so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood youāre able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and lifeās ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them weāve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I donāt take it for granted ā click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I canāt wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!