The paranormal is an interesting concept. Is it a hoax that people pull off to get views online, or is there really something out in the unknown that we are too blind to see? Here are some paranormal stories from students at Dos Pueblos.

Cheyenne Sesma: Harold the Ghost

Sophomore Cheyenne Sesma 100% believes that the paranormal exists. She has had many personal experiences with it along with her friends and family.

When her great grandmother passed away in 2017, she and her family moved in with her great grandpa here in Santa Barbara. When they first moved in, the paranormal experiences didn’t necessarily start right away. But eventually, Chey began to witness a shadowy figure around the house; she could visibly see that there was a person standing in front of her.

She would see this figure every single night, feeling the shadow’s eyes piercing through her. It would stare at her while she was sleeping.

“Deep down I knew that this spirit was connected to my great grandfather somehow, since he was not the nicest person, just a depressing old man,” Chey said.

Cheyenne’s family is religious. In their minds, they thought it was death itself following their great grandfather, that he was “manifesting bad energy.” Chey was the only one that could see this shadow person constantly. Almost every day she would see it in the corner of her room, just standing there and watching her every move.

“Then after a while, the figure would just turn around and walk out the room, disappearing into the hallway,” she said.

Every time she would tell her mother, she would never believe her. On the other hand, her father was the opposite. Her father has had multiple paranormal encounters himself and had told Chey and her mom that he would hear people talking inside the house, or even his wife calling him from down the hall. But when he would go and check, there was nobody to be seen.

One day, her mother went into her bedroom to get her laundry. While heading down the hallway, she could see someone or something peeking from behind the wall and staring at her grandfather in his room. Even though she was shocked, she decided to continue to walk down the hall, thinking it was just her eyes playing tricks on her. But then the figure turned around and noticed that her mother could see her, and it just vanished out of thin air. After that, Chey’s mother believed everything Chey had said.

“I’ve never had any paranormal experiences before moving in with my grandfather. But even to this day, I still see ghosts and spirits, but never the same one as before,” Chey said.

Amethyst Heilke: The Two Ghosts

Freshman Amethyst Heilke has seen ghosts most of his life, for as long as he can remember. Ever since he was little, he would see shadow-like figures standing around him or just walking past. Currently there are two ghosts that Amethyst constantly sees when he’s at home. One mostly hangs out in his bedroom and the other in his garage.

Like Chey’s story, the ghost in Amethyst’s room watches him as he sleeps or goes to bed. It also likes to mess around with his heater every now and then.

He knows for a fact that the ghost in his room does not mean any harm. The figure in his garage doesn’t give him a bad feeling, however he still doesn’t trust it since he does not know what it wants.

“I’ve decided to just keep him away from the rest of the house,” he said.

These two entities are not the only things Amethyst sees. Sometimes if he is out somewhere public he’ll see something, not in the corner of his eye, but as if a shadow-like figure is just minding its business and roaming around.

“Sometimes when the ghost in my room is turning my heater on and off, I’m able to communicate with it and tell them to keep it on, and they listen to me,” he said.

Ivan Campos: The Whisper

I myself have had many experiences with the paranormal ever since I was a little kid. From seeing shadow-figures, all the way to being physically touched by an unknown entity. I’ll tell one of my favorite stories.

My great grandfather died back in 2016. I was around 8 years old, so at the time I didn’t really understand what was going on. A few months after he died, I started to witness a shadow-figure around the house. Before this, I could still see other figures, but this one looked different and the energy it gave off was familiar.

One night, almost three years after my great grandfather’s death, I was looking through some old photos of my family and found this one image of when my great grandfather was about to head to war. It was a much younger version of him and his wife at the time. It was interesting to see, until later that night with the same figure in my room. I looked at him for a while and I started to notice a face starting to form in the figure standing in front of me.

After studying his features, it hit me that the man in front of me was my great grandfather. But it wasn’t how I remembered him, it wasn’t some old man that was in a wheelchair, it was him in a younger form. It startled me at first, but then it was calming, having someone who used to adore me when I was young. It was amazing to realize that he was watching over me all this time.

Around 2am, when I decided to head to bed, I rolled over to face away from the now-identified figure in my room. Ten minutes later, nearly drifting off to bed, I had a feeling that my great grandfather was closer than before, but I decided to ignore it.

But then I started to feel a hand resting onto my shoulder. It was light, it was cold, even. Not too long after, I felt cold breathing on the back of my neck. At first I panicked, not knowing what to think nor what to feel about this particular situation. Then I heard a quiet, yet clear, whisper into my ear. “Goodnight, I love you,” the voice said. I didn’t know what to think, so I laid there, not moving, not thinking. I responded with, “Thank you, you too.”

Like I said in the beginning of this article, is the paranormal an actual thing that exists, or is it all just an act? I’ve claimed reasons for why I believe and so have others. But the question is: Do you believe?