GHOST?!
The other day, I posted an article, just casually mentioning that the residential building that I currently live in is haunted. I feel like that was too vague to leave, and then just carry on like nothing happened. Well, today, I’m going to spill all the ghostly encounters I’ve had since being on Susky’s campus, which is like a whole two experiences but oh well.
To be very clear, I have been very sensitive to paranormal activity (and I’m not talking about the movies) for a while. I remember being in my house when I was younger and seeing ghostly silhouettes of pets that had passed away, such as my mom’s childhood dog standing at the foot of her bed and hearing the tags on her collar jingle, to my best friend and I both seeing a ghostly cat walk through the basement door of my house.
I thought it was relatively normal, considering I binged a lot of paranormal/ghost hunting shows, and had learned about residual hauntings. That was until I went on in life and had other experiences that were definitely not coincidental.
I think I was 11 when my grandfather passed away unexpectedly while he was out of state for work. What was really weird was that I remember the day not feeling quite right, and I also had a coincidental missed call from a New York number that just seemed to make things a little eerier. My dad was on his way home, when he called my mom and I, telling us that he had seen an eagle, dead, lying alongside the road, almost as if it had just fallen mid-flight. My grandfather’s favorite animal was the eagle, and so I began to think it was a sign after I had found out that he had passed away.
A few weeks went by after his passing, and my parents kind of forced me to spend a night, or maybe the weekend (I don’t remember that much), with my grandmother. I hadn’t liked staying there all that much to begin with, but I hated the idea of staying there without my grandfather around. In the middle of the night, probably close to three, I woke up with a weird feeling, opened my eyes facing the attached dining room area, and I swear to all that is great in this world, I saw my grandfather standing in that [motherfuckin] hallway watching my grandmother and I. I blinked to make sure I wasn’t seeing things, and he was gone.
I hadn’t had many experiences at home after that, and thank goodness I didn’t have any ghostly experiences while I was abroad in both Ecuador and Chile. But I did not luck out like this while staying on campus here at Susquehanna.
My first semester here, I saw the Paranormal Club table during the activities fair, and the members had no time to explain the club to me. I was all like “I like ghosts, I can sometimes see ghosts, I want to be a part of this club.” And that was that.
I don’t think during my first year as part of the club that I really experienced anything paranormal – maybe seeing a shadowy figure in Weber Chapel during our haunted house, but that could have been a number of things.
In my sophomore year, I lived in my Greek organization’s house, and I guess that experience made up for all the years I never had a spooky encounter. Everything was fine moving in and during the first week of classes, but then things got a little weird. I was in our downstairs living room one night finishing homework, when I heard someone walking in the upstairs hallway. So, I asked if anyone was home in our group chat because I wanted someone to talk to, or at least have in the room, while I was finishing up, and everyone replied to me that they were out of the house.
A few sisters and I were hanging out in one of their rooms one day, and when sister A left to use the bathroom, I followed her out to go to my room next door which is also across from the bathroom. She came back to the room, asking if any of us had followed her into the bathroom, and all of us said no. She swears that she saw a shadow walk on the outside of the bathroom stall and maybe some shuffling of stuff on the shelves holding our shower supplies, but no one but her went into the bathroom.
After about a month and a half of being in classes, we finally got the house blessed by the Chaplain. The entire time of living that house up to that day, I didn’t like knowing I was alone in the house, or even sleeping in complete darkness, because I felt like I was always being watched while I slept. Then, after we had gotten our house blessed, although very cliche, everything literally felt so much better and lighter.
But now onto the real tea. In SU’s Paranormal Club, there is one major rule everyone must follow: no Ouija boards. Not even the one that is hidden somewhere in the library, and most certainly not the one that your best friend invites you over to play with a bunch of other friends. DO NOT TOUCH IT!
Maybe 10 years ago, two years before the club was founded, a co-founder of the club was invited to use a Ouija board with a group of friends her roommate invited over. She extended the invite to more of her friends – the more the merrier. And that’s where it starts. They talked to a spirit who is known to be in Weber Chapel, and I believe others. She shared with us that she knew it was real because while everyone else in the room was sweating, she was freezing cold, and that’s when she saw a dark shadow figure standing in the corner of the room.
This dark shadow stayed in the corner of the room long after the party was over and it got to the point where she had a friend who practiced Wicca to cleanse the room. While the cleanse was happening, a friend saw the figure of a person in a window in one of the common areas and asked if there was a party happening, but no one was even in that common area. Weird things would still happen, such as lights being turned on and off and desk drawers being opened, but nothing ultimately scary.
Two years ago, one of my best friends lived in the room where the Ouija board night took place, and she confirms that some weird shit went on in the room, and didn’t stop until her and her roommate put a cross above their door.
Now, I live in the same building, luckily on the other end of the hall, but that doesn’t stop me from feeling the weird vibes on the third floor. I sometimes dread walking to the other end of the hall late at night to go to the bathroom, because I’m never prepared to handle seeing some kind of figure in the hallway. Though, I do feel like I’m being watched and followed as I walk back to my room from the bathroom.
As much as I had embraced being paranormally receptive in the past, I am kind of in between on the feelings now as I learn more campus ghost stories, and I wonder if there is a location on this campus that I can go to and not have to worry about the possibility of running into a ghost.