What exactly is paranormal activity? Dictionary.com’s definition of paranormal is: “Of or relating to the claimed occurrence of an event or perception without scientific explanation, as psychokinesis, extrasensory perception, or other purportedly supernatural phenomena”. A break down of this complicated definition is that an event or occurrence that can not be explained by scientific research. 

We asked fellow students at NAI if they have experienced any paranormal activity.. 

Rose Boley, sophomore

Story 1: Footsteps 

I was at the Old Stone House in Slippery Rock for a Civil War Reenactment Christmas Party. I was downstairs and was the only one in the building when I heard footsteps going back and forth upstairs. Thinking it was my brother, I went upstairs, but only to be disappointed that no one was there. 

Weirded out, I went back downstairs and then heard the hushed voice of a woman. That was my first paranormal happening. 

Story 2: Wink 

I bought a $1 American Girl doll from a random neighbor. Yeah…I was an idiot. I thought it was a cute doll and really enjoyed babying her. 

After I bought her, weird occurrences happened throughout the years. I was looking at her one evening, swearing on my life that she moved. I didn’t think of grabbing my iPod at the time for evidence, but again: I’m stupid.

 I was looking at her and her eye winked at me. Her eyes can close and open and when I sat her UP during the night, her eyes were closed. I set her on my chair another night and I woke up due to some noises. 

Turns out all that noise was her moving, looking at me in my sleep… 

Story 3: Who Is In There?

I was in my room, minding my own business when I heard my brother’s door slam shut. All my family was downstairs, so I knew it couldn’t have been him. I ran to the hallway and watched in horror as my brother’s doorknob was wriggling violently.

 I opened it quickly and no one was there. With a lot of force, the door slammed in my face, my hand still on the knob. It started turning again and I ran into my room. 

This happened in the summer of 2018. I have the video but it was when the activity was calming down and also my android had bad camera quality. 

Story 4: Wake Up

A little after I got the doll, I got creeped out and didn’t want to sleep in my room one night. I slept in my brother’s bed and he slept in mine. Around 3 am, he woke me up saying that we should switch back. Turns out, my door opened on its own as if someone was entering, and then slammed shut. 

This creeped out my brother a ton. 

Story 5: Am I Hallucinating? 

It was a quiet night and I was just drawing in my sketchbook on my desk. Everything was fine until I froze. Something touched the back of my neck, almost as if someone grazed by me.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a silhouette of a little girl, dressed like a girl from the early 1900s, about 3’4”, buckled shoes, stockings, and a bracelet on her wrist. When I turned my head, she was gone. I faced back to my drawing and I saw her in my peripheral vision, standing there, with hollowed-out eyes. 

I jumped and that night I dreamt about her, but I could still not see her face in my dream. 

Story  6: How? 

 For Middle School, we got iPads. I sat mine down on my desk. I heard my mom open my door one night to check on me, but she only opened it a crack and didn’t come in. 

She then closed the door. When I woke up that morning, my iPad was moved to my dresser, and when I opened it, ALL tabs for every application was opened. I had a habit of closing every app before I turned it off…whatever spirit was with me, reeaally wanted to find more about it. 

Story 7: Electronic Malfunctions? 

Siri is honestly possessed and still is. I was home alone one night and it was dead silent. I heard Siri say “That’s nice to know”.

 I spun around and looked at my iPad. You know how when you speak into Siri, your words are shown before her response? Well, it said, “I am in this house”. I was so creeped out and my friend has the picture. 

Another instance where Siri was acting so creepy was 12/9/2019! Well first my password journal went off on its own, and I have the video. It goes off when someone presses the button and says “Please enter your password.”

 I heard that and I said aloud, “There’s a ghost in this house.” And somehow Siri activated again and the question thing said “Yeah.” I have a screenshot. I jumped up and just staring pacing around confused and creeped out. 

Story 8: FaceTime Call 

Easter of 2019, Molly Kigin, Emmaly McClusky and I were video chatting on google hangouts. I had my laptop on my desk and I was sitting in my chair. All was well until one of them pointed out there is an apparition of a person sitting on my bed behind me. 

I leaned in to see my window on the screen, and I gasped as I saw the outline of a figure sitting on my bed, staring at me. At the same time, Emmaly’s WiFi cut out, and Molly’s marker case fell randomly from the middle of her desk to her floor. 

Story 9: Ouija Board 

My friend Molly and I wanted to try to Ouija Board. It was creepy but the scariest part was when the planchette started to move randomly for no reason all over the board, almost as if summoning something. 

Story 10: Should I Call The Cops?

My friend Zena and I were at my house, and we were the only ones there. I was talking to her and then I see her pause. 

“There’s someone behind you….” 

“Pf no there isn’t.” And right when I turned around, I saw a shadow move to the other room. Freaked out, I nearly called the police, but stopped myself and decided to investigate. 

There was no one there. A few hours later, we decided to watch Truth Or Dare. While the movie was at its climax, the lights started flickering violently. 

This has happened before too, only last time the lights flicker and most of the drawers were open. You might say I have a poltergeist, and hey if I have…then there could be a movie or youtube series based off this XD

Story 11: Weird Calls 

Sometimes when I am on FaceTime or calling someone, they will say they heard a female voice speaking or that there’s a ton of static. For example, I was on a call with my friend Nickhil, and when I started to touch my markers on my desk, he immediately said, “Did you just say marker?” keep in mind that we were just calling each other not face time and he was on speaker.

 I said no and another time my friend heard another voice say “hello” 

“Do you have a sister?”
“No.” 

“You sure?” 

“Yeah, why?”

“I just heard a girl say hello.” 

Addie Medsger, Sophomore 

My friend recently told me that he and his friend were in a cemetery and decided to do a “ritual”. He later said that they went back to his friend’s house to spend the night. He woke up around 4 in the morning holding candles. 

His friend proceeded to tell him that while he was asleep, he started to say words sounding like gibberish and his eyes were rolled back. The crazy part was he did not remember anything after he woke up with the candles in his hands!😟 

 Aideen Scanga, Freshman

 One morning (about 5:25) I went downstairs to grab my laundry, and I swear on my life that I saw the silhouette of a very tall woman with long legs and a hunched back standing outside my door. She was craning her neck in an inhuman manner, bending it in a semicircle to look at me. When I came back down ten minutes later, she was gone.

 Luke Steenson, freshman (unavailable for picture)

One time I was home alone and sleeping when all of a sudden I woke up to Siri talking on my phone. It was weird, but I figured it was a glitch. 20 minutes later I woke up again to Siri talking. The sentence she was responding to was “What that found for us”, the answer was Thursday, July 4th, 1776, it was freaky as heck but once again I passed it up as a glitch. 

Once more I woke up to Siri and she was responding with my full name and she said here is the info for my name. After that, I went to my parents’ room and slept there for the night. I still have doubts as to whether it was a glitch or not.

Molly Kigin, sophomore

So, I was at a party with my church group. It was nothing big, only a few of us, so the person in charge decided to drive us all home. We were sitting in the car, waiting to leave, while the person in charge and one of the older girls in the group were talking. 

Everyone else was sitting on their phones, but mine was at 2%. I decided to look out the window instead. What I saw out there was…very reminiscent of a horror movie, and very cliche. It was a girl, in an 1800’s style dress, black shoes, long black hair, and super pale and glowing.

In her hand was a teddy bear. I was so terrified that I looked back at my dying phone so I wouldn’t have to look at the girl. A few nights later, I was trying to go to bed, but I couldn’t sleep. I looked outside of my covers and saw the same little girl in my room, standing right across my bed. So yeah. Demons exist.

These are anonymous stories that are definitely worth reading.

Story 1:

My radio used to work just well, other than the fact that when I used a station for a long time, it would go static and be hard to access until I listened to a different station for a long time. During Winter Break, my radio kept going haywire as far as static was concerned. Hours later, when I turned it on again, it became incredibly staticky over a period of around 20 minutes or so, and I touched the antenna to check if it was bent. 

Suddenly the radio became clear and I could hear the music perfectly. Upon this discovery, I tried to lean objects against the antenna in an attempt to hear the music, but I soon realized through trial and error… that it only responded to my flesh. Needless to say, I freaked out, stared dumbfoundedly for a while, then screamed and turned off the radio as quickly as possible.

Story 2:

My mom, during college, was living in an apartment with her best friend that they believed was haunted. On a few instances, they would come home to find crayon/wax all over the walls, but there were no children living in the home. At 7 PM (I don’t remember what days), they would also hear a coo-coo clock ringing.

But they didn’t have one, and none of the neighbors, above or below, or on either side had one. They were the only ones that heard it. Another very distinct time, my mom had fallen asleep on the couch. When she had woken up, there was a figure of a woman, sitting on the couch, at the end of her feet.

These all happened while she was living in the apartment. Supposedly, she says.

Story 3:

Once, I had a seemingly “haunted” foil balloon that flew to the ceiling and stayed there for five months, then came down one day and would float everywhere randomly and stalk us around the house. (For example, on one occasion it followed me into my bedroom, circled the bed, then went into my parents’ room, and then down the stairs).

‘Twas strange times.

And then once a dumpling randomly leaped off my sister’s plate during dinner but that’s that.

Story 4:

My house has been haunted after the death of my neighbor’s nasty border collie, Robby. His mom is anti-vax, and kinda (or really) weird. She would stand outside with Robby and watch my dog attack the front windows trying to scare them away. 

My dog knew that there was a bad vibe with them. After Robby died, my dog would bark outside and into our basement when there was no one there. We believe our neighbor used her essential oils and rituals to raise her dog into the phantom realm, a place where spirits can cross over into the real world.

Story 5: 

Gettysburg College served as a field hospital for both sides during the Civil War and, as a result, has a storied history of hauntings. The most terrifying of those stories dates back to the early 20th century. Two college employees entered an elevator, pushed the button to their desired floor, and waited.

But, the elevator malfunctioned, taking them to the basement. When the elevator doors opened, the woman saw a bloodied Civil war operating room. With doctors working feverishly to save injured and dying soldiers. As a doctor moved to them the elevator started to move to another floor. The two employees, accompanied by a security guard, returned to the basement minutes later to find- nothing. 

Also just a detail this paragraph leaves out is that the ppl there we covered in blood and the doctor who walked towards them stopped did the “come here” thing with his finger before the doors immediately shut.