Doors slamming shut with no one in sight, orange orbs pictured on dusty film, footsteps echoing in a vacant hall — we have all heard ghost stories, but some students have claimed to have lived through them.
Melissa Victoria St. Clair, a senior majoring in media and entertainment studies, believes she has encountered spirits. St. Clair said she remembers playing hide-and-seek with twin boys when she was around 4 years old.
“At the time I assumed they were children whose parents were friends with my parents and I just continued to be a simple kid and play hide-and-seek with my friends,” St. Clair said. “The twins would always find me when I hid, but I never once found them when it was their turn to hide.”
St. Clair said that the two boys would be mean to her and pull her hair, which she did not think much about at the time. When she and her family moved, she never saw the two boys again.
When she was 12 years old, St. Clair said she asked her mother about what became of her childhood friends. Her mother, however, said she did not know who St. Clair was talking about and that she did not have friends over until she was in first grade.
“My mother and I still believe to this day I was playing with the spirits of children who may have been trapped in that house,” St. Clair said.
Junior criminal justice major Zane Markle also shared his own paranormal experience.
Markle said he and his family had just moved into a new house around the time he began high school. Within a month of living there, Markle said the family began to notice a strange light that would move from room-to-room and attract the attention of their dog, who would sometimes bark at it.
After two months of living in the new home, Markle said he woke up one night to find himself in a strange position. Markle explained that he was lying on his back with his arms pointing outward and his ankles touching as if he were on a cross. In addition to the odd position, Markle said that his covers had been “rolled up and stuffed” in the opposite corner of his room.
“Ever since, I haven’t been able to sleep any other way than on my back,” Markle said.
While some supernatural experiences will always remain a mystery, others have logical explanations, especially ones that happen while a person is sleeping.
KSU student Alanna Reuben said that she believes many paranormal encounters that occur in bed are actually a product of sleep paralysis.
“I don’t know if I believe in the paranormal,” Reuben said. “But I think the science behind certain ghost sightings are super cool.”
Sydney Paylor, a sophomore business marketing major, frequently experiences sleep paralysis and said that some of the things she hears and sees during an episode could definitely be perceived as paranormal. Paylor said that while she has seen a dark figure in her room before, the most terrifying experience she has had was when she heard “screeching birds” flying above her head while she was unable to move or open her eyes.
“It’s like there’s a pressure on you,” Paylor said. “Sometimes it literally feels like someone is sitting on my chest and holding me down.”
Whether one believes a paranormal experience is born of spirits, sleep paralysis, both or neither, there is no denying that the experience can be terrifying.
“I’ve always remembered that time,” Paylor said. “I swear it was so real and scary.”
