Your Netflix isn’t the only thing experiencing Stranger Things this Halloween. Crack open the candy wrappers and get ready for this ghost story that fills the very halls you walk in every day. Surprised?
The haunted tales that surround Tohill Theater in Bunce Hall have been floating around campus since at least 2004, according to students. And if you haven’t heard, don’t let this ghostly spook scare you too much. However, real or not, students and faculty members have been reporting unusual behavior throughout Bunce from objects moving to shadows and figures appearing for years.
These inexplicable claims stirred up enough popularity to attract a paranormal investigation team, South Jersey Ghost Research, to check out Bunce Hall. In 2007 after studying the building, the group found evidence that supports the hypothesis of Bunce Hall indeed being haunted. Investigation devices including electronic voice phenomena (EVP) and images on an infrared motion sensor proved the paranormal activities claimed were valid.
According to the South Jersey Ghost Research group, there is a theory that suggests spirits of the dead return to places they enjoyed in life. This causes many hauntings to center around theaters and classrooms, giving an explanation for the inhuman events happening here. Investigations pinned two specific spirits; a male spirit roaming near the theater entrance and a female spirit moving throughout the theatre. Motion sensors detected repeated unseen movement just beyond the last row of seats, and cameras showed a total of 127 positive photos over the three visits.
Many Rowan students claim the woman spirit belongs to Elizabeth Tohill, an old dramatic arts teacher whose name the theater is named after. An SJGR investigator asked “Why are you here?” while searching for spirits and an EVP recording documented a voice responding bluntly, “Get out.”
However, these investigations haven’t scared Steven Jr, a 5-year-old Rowan Preschool student and son of two Rowan employees, from conducting a few of his own. This Little Owl put his new ghost hunting equipment to use in hopes of hearing from some spirits this Halloween.
Steven Jr. felt a bit uneasy when his EMF detector lit up to the third light. “Holy moly, there’s a ghost,” he exclaimed.
He even used a voice recorder to ask the ghosts questions and listen back for any responses, however, Steven Jr. did not get the same results South Jersey Ghost Research group did. Although our youngest ghost hunter did not report any findings of ghosts, people still feel eerie walking through Bunce, especially at night.
So take a stroll this Halloween around Bunce to see if you find any detectings of spirits. Maybe you’ll experience some stranger things than of those in the past…
Story by:
Vanessa Vause, junior public relations major and advertising minor
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