In an interview with my close friend and roommate, I asked if she had any ghost stories that she would be willing to share. For some short background information, she grew up in East Los Angeles in a Latino religious family. Her story is as follows:

In the back of my Aunts home, there’s a room there, which is often used as a guest room. And a lot of the time, family members would go when they visit to sleep over there, and that room was known to, like, have some kind of ghost or spirit in there. So, it’s happened a lot of times where people who go and stay there, they wake up and see a lady in a white gown, and they just see her there. A lot of people don’t know who it is. And people have experienced dreaming with family members in that room for some reason. I don’t really think there’s like a spirit in there. And even for many years, there’s a man who lived there that was renting out the room, and he would even talk about things that he would experience, like the lights would turn off randomly, or just random coincidences that would happen, that weren’t just coincidences. And I’m not sure, but they feel like it might have something to do with across the street, there was a an abandoned hospital, and for some reason that abandoned hospital, there was a lot of like, weird stuff that happened there, so they kind of feel like maybe it has something to do with that.

I then asked if she believed the story to be true or an odd coincidence. She replied:

I feel like I wouldn’t believe that it was a coincidence if it would have only happened to one person, I wouldn’t have put this much thought into it. But I think because so many people have experienced this and like, they go in and feel something there, I don’t know, I can’t say, because I haven’t experienced it myself. But I think just because it’s been more than like, one person who has experienced the same thing, I think it is true. 

I continued by asking if the story had a lasting impact on them, since they seemed to truly believe what was happening had supernatural reasoning. She replied:

Yeah, I think it did have a long lasting impact. I think it’s something that they still talk about a lot, but I think they don’t put too much attention to it. Because I feel like, when it comes to ghosts and stuff like that, at least in my opinion, I feel like when you pay attention to those things, it kind of feeds off of that. Yeah, so I think the more thought you put to it, the more you attract that energy.

Finally, I asked if she believed religion to play a role in their belief of ghosts. She replied:

Speaking for myself, I think because I’m a believer in God, I try not to put my energy into that. Yeah, I do think they exist, but I think I feel like there’s a greater power that protects me, that’s my God. So, like, I don’t fear it. And I feel like if I were to fear it, then that’s when I give it my energy. Because I don’t give my energy, I haven’t experienced that and they go to my family. I don’t know where their faith is, so I don’t know how that plays a role in their experiences, but I can only speak for myself. 

Since I am not a firm believer in ghosts, I feel as though it could have been coincidental noises combined with their preconceived notions about the hospital that was across the house that made them believe they were having an interaction with ghosts.