Last night I had a group of friends over and someone brought up a belief in paranormal activity. My wife tends to believe in certain aspects of that while I remain skeptical of much of this.

Gloria, one of our dinner companions, asked a great question: “What’s the strangest thing you believe in? Like the most out there kind of thing that would make others say hmmmm, I’m not sure I can believe that.”

After reading the book, The Rite: The Making of a Modern Exorcist, I have come to believe that exorcism and possession is real. So I talked about the findings in that book. Another talked about haunted houses.

What might it be for you? Surely there are lots of things we can’t explain, but what universals might have sprung from your own experiences?

A quick spooky story that has been told in Fordham circles. The old Rose Hill library now serves as the home for the Curran Center for American Catholic Studies and the Theology department. When I was an undergrad it was still the University’s main library though. The legend was that the place was haunted by a kindly old Jesuit who was a philosophy professor. One night a young freshman was writing in the North Stacks for a Philosophy paper and a Jesuit walked in and asked him what he was studying. The student admitted that he was struggling with the subject and the kind old Jesuit pitched in to help him finish his paper.

The following week the young man was called into the professor’s office and accused of plagiarism. “You couldn’t have written this paper, these ideas are a bit antiquated but brilliant.” the professor said.

The student admitted that an older Jesuit helped him but that all the ideas were his own.

When he revealed the Jesuit’s name, the professor told him it was impossible that he could have helped him because he had been dead for over 50 years!

So is this the story of a ghost or a crafty student trying to weasel his way out of an assignment?

Who knows? What might you think?