Spring break is a time for KELOLAND students to take a lengthy breather from the books and rigors of college life. But one South Dakota State University student is hoping spring break will also put some distance between herself and an unwanted house guest. It's a roommate she claims is a ghost! You decide whether a psychic and a snapshot back up her ghost stories.
SDSU sophomore Karis DeHaai says her brushes with the paranormal began in September when things started going bump in the night at her Brookings apartment house. "All of a sudden, there was like a punch underneath the foot of my bed, on the right side of my bed. I didn't get out of my bed to see what it was though."
Then there was the time she was going upstairs to retrieve a cell phone from her bedroom. "I saw a big white light run into my room, I started shaking and crying and I came back down to my roommate and she obviously knew that something happened by we didn't know what it was."
Some of DeHaai's housemates have also been spooked along the staircase. "One night, another roommate felt something pushing against her when she was going down the stairs, it almost made her fall down the stairs."
A picture taken during Hobo Days shows a pink orb hovering over DeHaai. Some people believe orbs aren't photographic flukes, but rather signs of spirits. Such strange happenings inside the house could be written-off as simply imaginations running wild. But DeHaai says it's not in her head. She's convinced it's a haunting. "I can't stay here on the weekends by myself, I get too scared. One weekend I tried to, and I heard a conversation between a guy and a girl and no one was here, so about ten o'clock at night I packed my stuff and left."
DeHaai says her grades have suffered amid the spookiness. She plans to move out of the house at the end of the school year, but is fearful of more frightening encounters in the meantime. "I want him to go away so I can be at school at ease and feel safe here."
Enter Sioux Falls psychic Donna O'Dea, who claims she can hear voices from the other side. "It's the way you hear in a dream. How do you hear in a dream? That's how I hear it."
Within minutes, DeHaai's ghost was apparently giving O'Dea an earful. "It's a female, she's blonde, she passed away about your age, she loved her coin collection."
Skeptics say psychics rely upon tricks of the trade rather than any supernatural talents to connect with the spirit world. It's a process called "fishing" when the psychic uses vague references or common names that can result in as many "misses" as "hits."
"There's a Mary? A Mary?"
"I can't think of any Marys."
But O'Dea defends her paranormal pursuits. "I say think what you want to think. The ghost doesn't care. I don't really care either."
O'Dea told DeHaai that this coin collecting spirit should go away if DeHaai puts out a penny jar to appease the apparition. DeHaai says that's a small price to pay for peace of mind. This ghostbusting session has DeHaai hoping to spend the rest of the semester specter-free.
We'll keep you updated whether the ghost is gone for good. DeHaai and her roommates live off-campus. But according to tradition, there's a ghost named "George" hanging out on-campus, inside Doner Auditorium.
http://www.keloland.com/News/EyeonKELOL ... Id=0,67479
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
