Paranormal experiences haunt students’ memories
Clairvoyance: ten years of spirit sensing
Taryn Schweissinger, junior, claims that she can tell where there is a spirit around her. “It’s hard to explain, but it’s a sense that you would know is real,” she says. According to Schweissinger, some people in her family also have the same ability to experience the presence of paranormal activity. Schweissinger had her most memorable paranormal experience when she was young, around five or six years old. She says that one night, something interrupted her sleep. When she opened her eyes, she saw a man who looked to be in his 20s wearing a red shirt with a blue baseball cap. Throughout the last ten years, this man keeps appearing throughout her household.
Prank gone wrong makes horror films reality
Jackie Holt, sophomore, had an unpleasant paranormal experience about four years ago in a small town called Bridgeport, located in Northern California. In this town, there is a building called the Bridgeport inn that was established in 1877 and is allegedly haunted. Downstairs, is a small restaurant and upstairs, there are a few hotel rooms and an attic.
Holt went up into the attic with a few other people she was camping with to test how haunted the site really was. Attempting to pull a harmless prank, her family friend Michael Puetz was switching the light on and off to scare the kids. Once Puetz turned the light back on, they all noticed blood dripping from his arm. Three deep scratches had appeared once the lights were back on. “No one was near him, and no one touched him,” Holt said.
A post ritual surprise
Ryan Dewayne Melton, senior, says he offers energy to spirits through rituals.
On one occasion, Melton was entering his home after completing a ritual, when he experienced something rather unexpected. “It was completely dark, but I could see across to the living room … I saw a very tall man, about six-and-a-half-foot, wearing Western clothing, just step in and pass by.” Melton ran over, thinking there was an intruder. But when he looked again, “no one was in there.” This experience made him believe that he was helping the spirits by giving them energy.
Melton says he has had many other experiences with spirits because of his rituals, with this experience being the most prominent. When asked about these “rituals” entail, he declined to give details.
Friends with an ex-human: the spirit guide
Tony Kael*, junior, says that she can communicate with her spirit guide, which she says is an entity that acts as a guide or protector to a human being. For centuries, stories of spirit guides and humans calling on their help have been passed down from generation to generation. According to these legends, every human has their own spirit guide as well as the means to contact them.
Spirit guides are known to have once been living, with Kael’s guide being an ex-human called Richard.
“Halfway through the process of discovering my spirit guide, I got kind of skeptical,” says Kael. To prove that her spirit guide was real, she asked him to tell her long distance friend what her favorite dinosaur was. Kael gave her spirit guide three choices of dinosaurs to relay to her friend, one of them being a stegosaur. The next morning when she woke up, Kael texted her friend, who replied with “I had some weird dreams last night about dinosaurs”. Kael sat in shock before confirming that, in fact, her friend had dreamt of a stegosaurus.
Kael now often communicates with her spirit guide through a technique called “automatic writing,” in which one produces written words without consciously writing; Kael believes the written words are what her spirit guide wants to say to her. She views her guide as her lifelong friend and mentor.
Skeptical students question paranormal based on science
Due to the lack of scientific evidence regarding whether or not ghosts exist, 27% of americans do not believe in paranormal encounters, according to a Gallup poll.
Several research experiments have been conducted to determine the factuality of the supernatural. Despite the surplus of Halloween revelations, no one has found actual evidence outside of personal encounters; as such, the scientific community has never confirmed the existence of ghosts.With this knowledge, students like Blake Angelastro, junior, are strictly opposed to people who claim to have experienced the paranormal.
“I admit science has not disproved (paranormal experiences) yet. But it does not mean that there is a supernatural correlation with the unknown,” Angelastro said. Paranormal skeptics like him are not swayed by supernatural “revelations”.
“The majority of people who claim to have paranormal experiences are not who I would call credible,” Cody Ruoss, senior, said. “I have a very logic and reason-based mindset and I will not trust (accounts of the supernatural) at all until someone like Albert Einstein or Newton validates them.”
