That most spooky time of year is upon us once again. The chill of autumn air brings about a wave of ghost stories.
You’ve all heard at least one. You’ve probably told one, whether you believed it was true or not. Every place has one, illuminated by its history. In a Mental Floss article about ghost stories in each state, the influences of history were apparent. In Golden North Hotel in Skagway, Alaska, there are stories about the ghost of “Scary Mary.” A woman named Mary and her fiancé, “Klondike Ike,” moved to the hotel during the peak of the Klondike Gold Rush. Ike went off to prospect. Mary locked herself into her room to wait for him. He never returned. Innkeepers broke down the door to find Mary dead in her wedding dress. It is said that her spirit checks the beds at night, to see if her fiancé is cheating on her… Cohasset, Massachusetts has a rocky outcropping known as Minots Ledge. Between 1695 and 1754, its shores caused 80 ships to sink and 400 people to drown. It was such a small area, though, that no one knew how to make a lighthouse there. Finally, in 1850, a granite tower was made. But it did not last long, being destroyed only a year later during a nor’easter. (If you don’t know what those are, you’ll probably experience them first-hand next season!) During the storm, two assistants were left behind to man the lighthouse. The townspeople heard furious bell ringing in the night. By morning, the lighthouse was in ruins. The assistants’ bodies washed up not long after. Fishermen claim that they can still be heard crying for help.
Smith has ghost stories too. College Consensus has ranked it as the most haunted campus in America. Sessions House in particular has a storied history with the paranormal. According to Smith’s official ghost stories website, “The most well-known Smith ghost story by far is that of Sessions House.” That is understandable, considering that Sessions House is one of the oldest buildings in the town of Northampton, built in 1751 by Lieutenant Hunt. During the Revolutionary War, a British general, General John “Gentleman Johnnie” Burgoyne, was captured and imprisoned in Sessions house. He fell in love, though, with one of Lieutenant Hunt’s daughters, Lucy. The couple is said to have had a secret love affair, using a secret staircase. It’s a Halloween tradition for new Sessions residents to search for that secret staircase.
But why do Smithies and people in general tell ghost stories? The BBC ran an article about the psychology of the paranormal. In it, the author, David Robson, explains that “Out-of-body experiences… are now accepted neurological phenomena.” Brain damage can cause anything from the sense that objects are moving without anything moving them to the feeling that someone is stalking you. Even healthy brains, though, can be tricked by visual illusions. He tells the story of a young Italian psychologist seeing an old man in the mirror. Instead of freaking out, however, he investigated. “His later experiments confirmed that the illusion is surprisingly common when you look at your reflection in the half light, perhaps because the brain struggles to construct the contours of your face, so it begins to try to fill in the missing information – even if that leads to the appearance of skulls, old hags or hideous animals.”
There are also social elements to the ghost story, Robson adds. Death is uncontrollable, and that is deeply distressing. Constructing a narrative around death is a way to feel like we have control over it, after all. Life is uncontrollable, too, so it can be comforting to believe in omens.
Of course, if telling and believing in ghost stories is part of the culture, as it is here at Smith, then participating in that tradition helps reinforce the community. Feeling like you are part of a larger history can be fulfilling. Plus, it’s fun to try to scare your friends.
Regardless of whether you think that noise was the old building showing its age or a message from beyond, have a fun Halloween season!
