College and university hauntings have increased lately.

Movies have increased our awareness of the spirit world. Each year, Hollywood produces more ghost- and paranormal-related films that spark interest in this subject.

In addition, every year there are more reasons for ghosts and hauntings at colleges.

Students can help each other by sharing information. If you understand why many hauntings occur, they can seem less frightening.

We don’t update our ghost lists for colleges and universities regularly, because they change so rapidly. In some cases, the “ghost” is a poltergeist and it’s following one student. When she changes dorms, so does the ghost. Updating our lists could be as nightmarish as the students’ experiences. Also, sometimes the experience is partly due to contagion of suggestion. One person convinces others that he’s seen a ghost, and his friends and acquaintances start looking for ghosts. Often, they find them.

Every older college and university has reported a ghost at some time. We’re not saying that every college and university is actually haunted, but whether it’s a prank, hysteria, or real, most colleges report a ghost or a poltergeist at some point.

Hauntings are more commonplace than most people believe. The high level of stress and relevant emotions make colleges a prime target for residual energy hauntings. These are not actually ghosts, but they are hauntings: They manifest energy that remains in a location and can be sensed by later visitors.

Almost every college that reports a haunting offers one of these stories:

• The haunted theater - An “odd feeling” backstage, on stage, or in the auditorium. Sometimes a woman is seen at the door.
• The haunted locker room - Odd noises, odors, someone whistling, or the roar of the crowd outside when the building (or field) is actually empty.
• The haunted dorm - Usually tagged to an urban legend about a suicide, or one area of the dorm is considered “creepy” and weird.
• The haunted bathroom - This is another urban legend, usually involving something gruesome in a mirror.

We don’t mean to trivialize any haunting. Many people genuinely experience something frightening when they report ghosts to us.

Many of these “ghost stories” are true, even when they echo urban legends.

Click on our Tag, “Colleges” to learn more about college ghosts and some of our research at colleges.