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By Jen Sexton
Unexplained footsteps in the middle of the night. Residents of Devereux Hall are used to the stories of ghosts on the blocked-off fifth floor and strange happenings throughout the building. Over the summer, freshman Rachel Woodly stayed on the second floor of Devereux Hall. "Once I woke up in the middle of the night because I felt like someone was watching me. I sat up and saw a person standing at the foot of my bed. He was wearing a black robe with the hood up. I rubbed my eyes and he vanished." Looking back she said, "I wasn't afraid. He just stood there watching me, but he never actually tried to hurt me or anything. He just stood there, like he's been watching me for awhile. And I was wearing my contacts, so I think it was real." Three students said they saw a shadowy figure Thursday through a window on the closed-off fifth floor of Devereux Hall. They asked not to have their last names used to avoid questions. Junior Dillon, came back to his room late at night and saw the same figure. He ran inside and told two of his friends, freshmen Matt and Brian. They rushed out into the courtyard and saw the apparition for themselves. Matt said, "It was very dark on the floor, but we could still see a shadowy figure. It looked as if it wore a black-hooded robe, like a friar's robe, only bluish-black. It was just...there, and then it was gone. I wasn't really scared or anything like that," he said. "It was just kinda freaky." The Rev. Alphonsus Trabold, O.F.M., a retired professor of theology, shed some light on the subject of ghosts. He said, "Ordinarily a ghost refers to a dead person who is earthbound, but this is not always what an apparition is. Maybe what the person is seeing is energy that is left behind from a person who has died, like a psychological imprint. These sightings may also come from the witness' own psychological condition." He added, "Then, there is the kind of phenomena where you have physical things happening, such as moving objects, unexplained sounds, or malfunction of equipment. These are referred to as poltergeists. Many things credited to poltergeists could actually be due to a person venting telekinetic energy or other energies (such as stress), most commonly around the age of puberty. He said, "A haunting will always be in one place, whereas a poltergeist will follow the human individual, causing unexplained phenomena as it goes." Some believe a spirit stays earthbound as part of some kind of punishment, perhaps as repentance for something the person did while alive. Others think these spirits have unfinished business, Father Alphonsus said. He said he personally believes in "positive spirit presences," which are loved ones watching over those they cared about who are still alive. Even if it's a real apparition of a dead person, Father Alphonsus said he does not think even real apparitions are dangerous. He said, "There should be no actual fear of harm from ghosts. If a human is earthbound, it could only happen with God's permission." Father Alphonsus has been here over 40 years and said, "Every year there are some persons who believe they have experienced seeing a ghost or some other experience of a haunting." He said, "You need to check these claims very thoroughly and take certain things into account, such as how many people witnessed it, power of suggestion, circumstances, emotional problems, and stress." He said the sightings in Devereux Hall could possibly be attributed to a misconstrued shadow or the power of suggestion. Ghost stories from the fifth floor of Devereux Hall have circulated around campus for years. Father Alphonsus said, "The closing off of fifth Dev is due to it being a fire hazard. It was done for insurance purposes, nothing more." Perhaps these ghost stories caused students to "see" this person in black through the power of suggestion. Then again, maybe there are some ghosts that aren't quite ready to leave campus. |