Top Seven Most Popular Urban Legends which are still being told.

7 most popular urban legendsStill being told

Whether it’s an unsolved mystery, a popular misconception, or sometimes just a big hoax urban legends are an inevitable part of any culture. Usually, they are handed down by word of mouth from generation to generation and many times have their origin in some vaguely twisted version of a real story. Regardless of their veracity, however, these are the 7 most famous urban legends still being told. So hold your breath and let’s have a ride on it.

7. BLOODY MARY

Bloody Mary is a folklore legend consisting of a ghost; phantom or spirit conjured to reveal the future. She is said to appear in a mirror when her name is called three times. The Bloody Mary apparition may be benign or malevolent, depending on historical variations of the legend. The Bloody Mary appearances are mostly "witnessed" in group participation play.

Historically, the ritual encouraged young women to walk up a flight of stairs backward while holding a candle and a hand mirror, in a darkened house. As they gazed into the mirror, they were supposed to be able to catch a view of their future husband's face. There was, however, a chance that they would see a skull (or the face of the Grim Reaper) instead, indicating that they were destined to die before they would have the chance to marry.

In the ritual of today, Bloody Mary allegedly appears to individuals or groups who ritualistically invoke her name in the act of catoptromancy. This is done by repeatedly chanting her name in a mirror placed in a dimly-lit or candle-lit room. The Bloody Mary apparition allegedly appears as a corpse, a witch or ghost; can be friendly or evil, and is sometimes "seen" covered in blood. The lore surrounding the ritual states that participants may endure the apparition screaming at them, cursing them, strangling them, stealing their soul, drinking their blood or scratching their eyes out, The modern legend of Hanako-san in Japan strongly parallels the Bloody Mary mythology.

 6. THE DISSOLVING TOOTH

There are numerous urban legends involving Coca-Cola. In fact, there is so many that these legends all now have their own category known as “Folklore.” The most popular are that if you were to leave a tooth in a cup of coke overnight by morning, the tooth would be entirely dissolved. Like most of the other legends involving the favorite drink, this is totally untrue

Although a soft drink wouldn’t be good for a tooth for an extended period of time, it won’t simply disappear. Expert says this myth actually started in 1950 when Cornell University professor CLIVE McDAY told a congressional committee that Coca-Cola would dissolve a tooth in several days. He was trying to raise awareness about the health issue of soft drinks. Non-alcoholic beverages like Coca-Cola contain phosphoric, citric and carbonic acid. There is actually more phosphoric acid in orange juice than this soft drink. While tooth enamel will weaken and there will be damage, the tooth won’t just dissolve in a soft drink after a couple days.

5. THE HOOK

The Hook is an urban legend or Scary story, also known as the HOOKMAN, about a boyfriend and girlfriend who park in a deserted lovers land.

This legend tells the story of a young boy and girl who drive off  Into the woods only to hear on the radio that a convicted killer with a hook for one of his arms has just escaped from a nearby mental facility. The boy only locks the car door and insists they stay, but the girl wants to leave. The boy than reluctantly takes off and when they return home, depending on the version of the story, there is a bloody hook hanging on the outside handle of the car door.

4. BABYSITTER AND THE MAN UPSTAIRS

The baby sitter story is the scary story and an urban legend that dates back to the 1960s about a teenage girl babysitting 3 children who receive creepy telephone calls from a man who continually asks her to check the children.

Eventually, the girl becomes worried and calls the police, who tell her they will trace the next call. After he calls again, the police call back, telling her that the call is coming from inside the house and to get out now. She goes outside, and the police meet her. They explain that the calls were coming from inside the house, and he was calling her after killing the children.

3.  AREN’T YOU GLAD YOU DIDN’T TURN ON THE LIGHT?

I heard about a girl who went back to her dorm room late one night to get her books before heading to her boyfriend's room for the evening. She entered but did not turn on the light, knowing that her roommate was sleeping. She stumbled around the chamber in the dark for several minutes, gathering books, clothes, toothbrush, etc. before finally leaving.

The next day, she came back to her room to find it surrounded by police. They asked if she lived there and she said yes. They took her into her room, and there, written in blood on the wall, were the words "Aren't you glad you didn't turn on the light?" Her roommate was being murdered while she was getting her things.

2. THE RUSSIAN SLEEP EXPERIMENT

"The Russian Sleep Experiment" is an example of creepypasta, an Internet nickname for frightening images and fictional horror stories that circulate virally online. The oldest version I've found was posted to the Creepy pasta Wiki on August 10, 2010, by a user calling him- or herself "Orange Soda." The original author is listed as unknown.

Not long after the end of World War II, Russian researchers conducted an experiment in which five prison inmates were confined in a sealed chamber and exposed to a potent stimulant gas to test the effects of long-term sleep deprivation on human subjects. The inmates had been promised their freedom if they could stay awake for 30 days straight. What could possibly go wrong? However, there is no such evidence proving this experiment to be true…,

    1. THE CLOWN STATUE

This urban legend tells the story of a girl babysitting for a family when she calls the parents to ask if she can cover up a disturbing clown statue in the corner of the living room. The dad tells her very seriously to grab the kids, go next door, and call 911 without any further explanation.

 Once she is next door and the police are on their way she calls the father back who then explains that they don’t have a clown statue. Furthermore, the kids had been complaining about a clown watching them in their sleep but the parents had written it off as nightmares.

In most versions of the story the clown turns out to be a midget who had been living in their house for some time undetected. When the babysitter came over he didn’t have time to escape so he just froze in the corner.