Paranormal Activity Suffolk Style

     With Halloween just a few weeks away, now is the time for the annual release of a new Paranormal Activity sequel. The movies themselves are a complete dramatizing of ghostly experiences within a family, but the concept that the paranormal may exist is widely confirmed. Suffolk students who participated in a poll about their ghostly beliefs show that there is a strong and popular belief that the paranormal do exist. While movies such as the Paranormal Activity series exaggerate “real” accounts of ghostly experiences, even our own students here at Suffolk admit that they have experienced their own close encounters.

      Suffolk Students were asked to participate in a survey to understand the general belief or disbelief in the existence of ghosts or paranormal within our own community. 88% responded that they do in fact belief in the existence of paranormal. About 40% even reported experiencing some sort of paranormal activity in their lives. The acknowledgement that ghosts or spirits exist is at a high prevalence for our community.

     "It's really creepy when it happens," a senior here at Suffolk, Angela Rawling, admitted. "I don't know if I believe in ghosts, but I've definitely experienced some things I couldn't really explain."

     It seems that these “real” paranormal movies haven’t completely turned people away from believing in life beyond the grave. The faith that students have in paranormal activity may prove to be heightened after living in Boston, which has its share of ghostly stories. The Kings Chapel Graveyard, located right in the Suffolk area on Tremont St., is even one of Boston’s most haunted area’s according to ghostsandgravestones.com. One of the most infamous tales of the graveyard’s ghostly inhabitants is the story of Captain Kidd.

Captain Kidd was a highly respected colonial governor in the 1700’s who combated piracy along the coast of the new lands. However, the motherland England suspected Kidd of turning to piracy himself, stashing treasure at a hidden location in Boston. The ‘treasure’ was never found but the English hanged Kidd anyway and his body was sent back to Boston to be buried. It is said that if you go to the graveyard past midnight, tap on a gravestone three times and ask “ Captain Kidd, Captain Kidd, for what were you hanged?” his ghost will reply with an eerie, “Nothing.”

      While poorly directed horror movies may deter belief of the paranormal, personal experiences like ones you could face by visiting the Kings Chapel Graveyard keep the faith alive. Who knows, maybe you’ll see a fellow student trying to conjure the spirits in the graveyard one eerie night this month. Just make sure they don’t follow you home; the RA’s wouldn’t really appreciate having to perform exorcisms in the residence halls this fall.

Follow us on twitter @SU_VoiceArts for your chance to win a prize pack for or tickets to check out Paranormal Activity 4, in theaters Oct 19.