No one wants to believe this is it. It makes for a dreary existence to think that when we die everything that we are
is gone for good. It's downright scary to think that all of your dreams, all of your accrued knowledge, every experience,
and your personality could be deleted in a flash. Religions have cashed in on this fear with the promise of an afterlife.
It really takes the edge off of mortality. I think the same could be said for the belief in ghosts. If ghosts exist, there
is more than just this life. As grounded as I like to think I am I do believe in them. I don't generally place my faith in
a bunch of mumbo jumbo, I need concrete proof. I have had two experiences that have left me with a reasonable belief that
ghosts do exist.
The Roommate
When I was in college, I lived
in a big old house off campus with a few other people. One off my roommates was a female that didn't quite fit in with the
rest of us. We partied constantly and obnoxiously and she was never really comfortable with that situation. On Halloween night
we had a costume keg blow-out that she chose to skip. After midnight one of her friends called the house and said she had
fallen off of a roof and was in the hospital. We went immediately to visit her, thinking it was a minor thing. The first person
I saw at the hospital was a priest that had been called in to deliver last rights. The gravity of the situation sunk in and
she died a short time later.
It turned out she went to an alternate party and ended up on a three
story roof. Somehow she had fallen off and landed on a fence. There was speculation that she had taken drugs, possibly acid,
and had lost touch with reality. She also had this really creepy boyfriend that was with her that night. Before her death
I caught this dude standing in the dark in the middle of our living room. He was a weirdo and the only witness to her death.
My friends and I think it's entirely possible he pushed her from the roof. To my knowledge no investigation ever took place.
About
a week after my roommate's death, I met a girl at the bar. She didn't know anything about my roommate and it wasn't something
I was talking about at the time. It was still a very traumatic thing and I dealt with it by burying it. The girl from the
bar came home with me and spent the night. The next morning my date asked me about the girl in the doorway. I didn't know
what she was talking about. She went on to explain that she had woken up and saw a girl standing in the doorway just staring
at us. She described the girl's appearance and it fit my dead roommate down to the last detail. It sent chills throughout
my body.
My date had never met my roommate and had zero knowledge of her death. There was nobody
else in the house that could have remotely been mistaken for the roommate. Even weirder was I had a lock on my door that I
never failed to engage, especially when I had a lady over. When you live in a party house, you don't want to pass out where
others have access to you. I asked my other roommates if they had any sleep over guests, but the answer was no. It was a slow
night where everyone went to bed early and alone. There was no doubt in my mind that my date had seen the ghost of my roommate.
The
whole thing was so believable because I hadn't actually seen it myself. The mind can play tricks after a traumatic event.
Perception isn't always reality. But this was experienced by a neutral observer with no knowledge or motive. I never told
my date what was going on. I dismissed her story because I didn't want to freak her out. I was hopeful she would spend the
night again some time and wanted her to feel comfortable at my house.
