With Halloween right around the corner, there’s no better time than now to get into the spooky spirit! That being said, have you ever considered that IU’s campus might be haunted? Maybe you’ve heard a couple stories, or maybe you think you’ve seen something late at night that wasn’t quite normal. With IU’s long history here in Bloomington, it makes sense that there might be ghosts lurking around, maybe even following you. If you consider yourself a non-believer, that might change soon enough.
Take a spooky peek:
Have you ever heard the scary tale of the Woman in Black who haunts East Third Street? Or have you heard the gruesome story of the Hatchet Man? Or maybe the doctor that haunts the Career Development Center, or the ghosts that live in Read Hall? While these might be some of the more infamous ghosts on campus, they are not the only ones. Maybe just the fact that Jim Jones—the infamous cult leader who led hundred of followers to their death via poison-laced Kool-Aid—lived in Collins in the late ‘40s is enough to scare you.
If you want to know more about the ghosts of campus, I advise you to get ready for the Campus Ghost Walk put on by the Folklore and Ethnomusicology Student Association tonight at 7:30 p.m. Here, you can walk around campus while learning about different haunts and spooks. Plus, tickets are only $3! It’s an event you shouldn’t miss.
Another option is signing up for a folklore class through the Department of Folklore and Ethnomusicology where you can deepen your understanding of myths, folklore, and maybe even ghosts. Some options available to students are Introduction to Folklore and The Supernatural & Folklore. If these don’t sound interesting, check out the Folklore course offerings for Spring 2018.
If you’re a bookworm, there are several books published on ghosts and the supernatural here in Indiana, one of them being Indiana Folklore: A Reader, edited by IU’s Linda Dégh and published in 1980.
If you choose to do a little research online, or even do some research on campus, be advised: the ghosts might see you coming before you see them!
English Major, Class of 2018, Naperville, IL
Hi! I'm Emilie and I'm a senior majoring in English and minoring in Spanish at IU! I've always had a passion for reading and writing, and combined with my love for IU, I look forward to sharing ideas, content, stories, whatever it may be, with everyone else. In my free time I'm usually listening to music or playing piano, cooking, exploring as much as I can, and reading the work of other bloggers and writers.
