Kiana Wright
Opinions Editor
In this spooky month of October, we dress up in costumes, we watch horror films and we listen to ghost stories. But in the midst of all of this, do we actually believe any of this is real? How can we believe in paranormal activity or the “unexplained” in this day and age where faking things is just an easy click on Photoshop? How can we believe people’s stories if we weren’t there?
Personally, I’ve had unexplained things happen to my family, my close friends and myself. It leads me to believe that there is no other explanation than paranormal entities and things existing whether you believe it or not.
When I was little, I slept on the first floor while the rest of my family slept on the second. I had night terrors all the time, and I would wake up screaming. I knew what it was like to dream, and while it was really hard and scary at the time, I knew it wasn’t real. I felt uncomfortable in my room at times; feeling like someone was looking at me from a distance, even though no one was there. At one point, I think my dad saw how scared I was and (maybe he just did this for my sake) he went into my room and said, “Leave her alone! This is our house.” It’s kind of funny to think about now, but at the time, I felt like it worked somehow. I felt better, and slowly the night terrors went away. I’ve always tried to communicate with spirits by doing childish things, “Show me you’re there, turn the kitchen light off or something!” Nothing happened when I wanted it to. But that didn’t mean strange things didn’t happen… There’s been names called, pictures taken of people who aren’t there, and stuff misplaced in my house. It’s almost as if when you least expect it, or really do not want to be scared, something strange happens.
One night, my mom was in bed watching TV (a paranormal show of course) and she heard footsteps coming up the stairs. She kind of brushed it off because she thought it was my brother or me. But then no one showed up, and the sound went on. The footsteps traveled up the stairs, around the corner to my parent’s room, and then to the edge of her bed. She turned down the volume of the TV to hear whispers of people faintly talking on my dad’s side of the bed (where he was dead asleep). At this point, my mom was freaking out because, like anyone, she loves all that scary stuff except when it’s happening to us. The footsteps started back up again — it went from the end of their bed to right beside where she was laying. Silence. Then in a blink of an eye, her radio turned on full blast. Her radio-alarm is right next to her bed, and is very difficult to use. She didn’t have an alarm for that time, and especially not one set for the radio setting. My mom instantly turned on something “fluffy” to watch, and decided not to tell me about this or anything else that happened to her until she felt I was old enough to shrug it off.
Paranormal encounters can be upsetting and terrifying. There are many demonic things portrayed in films like the Insidious series, Sinister, and the Conjuring. It’s really hair-raising because some of these movies are based on true stories. I’ve seen shows where people tell their real life experiences of what happened to them. Sometimes they are even scarier than movies, because the experience was so real, and you can see it on their faces. They went through something, and it changed them. I definitely believe that demons exist, and that people have the power to invite them into their lives. Some people would say, “Well if you believe in the Devil, then what about god? Why can people not summon him?”
I’m not someone that holds faith close to them, but like many, I believe that someone or something above us is their watching us. I think that a demonic action is noticed more than something godly. Blessings and paranormal things from a good source happen too, but sometimes we don’t hear about it as much.
In middle school, my friend Isabel was really into paranormal stuff. When I asked her why she said that, she explained that a few years back she had an experience. Isabel was young girl going to her friend’s house to have a sleep over. That night, she went to bed and then woke up at 2:33 — she looked at the clock before grabbing water and going back into bed. She looked up, and in the doorway, she saw an old woman. She explained to me that the woman looked like she was just checking up on her friend. In a way it was comforting and she wasn’t frightened at all. Isabel thought it was someone that lived there, maybe a grandparent. She then went to bed. In the morning, Isabel asked her friend if the grandmother she had seen was her mother’s or father’s mother. Her friend, confused, reassured her that no one else lived in the house or was awake at that time. A minute later, the phone rang — the friend’s mother proceeded to pick it up. Her friendly smile turned upside down and was soaked by tears fiercely running down her face. Her mother had died at 2:33AM.
Unexplained paranormal activity is scary when it personally happens to you. My mother and I watch all the scary ghost story shows, all the medium shows and all the new scary movies. We love it. It’s so interesting to see what other people have experienced, good and bad. It’s hard not to believe people that are mentally scarred from these paranormal encounters they had. When mediums come in and tell people about their visions, its astonishing. How could these people with these powers be faking something that is so personal? What Theresa Caputo on Long Island Medium says to people makes them emotional. There is no way of mistaking this for a sham; the things she brings up about people’s family, friends, husbands and wives are so detailed and unique — things that someone could never find out about on Facebook or online searching.
How can we choose not to believe something that is all around us? We live in a universe that is made up of 75% of dark energy and dark matter which we still do not understand. There is too much evidence and encounters to turn a cold shoulder to the idea of ghosts and an afterlife. I think that more studies should look into this subject, because most of us have someone passed on that we still think about everyday. And in the end, we will be standing right next to them — whether it be in Heaven or right next to where you’re sitting now…
Kiana Wright can be contacted at kwright@kscequinox.com
