Photo by Madelaine Brown
Written by Steven Mynott
A new semester means new ghost stories. This is Part Three of our ongoing series. If you have not seen them already, check out Part One and Part Two. If you have had a paranormal experience on campus, we would love to hear from you! Let us know by filling out this form.
Shrieking in the night
Stairway in front of Islands Cafe from South Quad
Photo by Madelaine Brown
Our first story comes from Gabriel Gennan, a third-year physics major.
Late on a Monday night in May 2024, he was studying for finals after having recently gone through a breakup. Starting to feel overwhelmed, he decided he needed to go out for a late-night walk in order to clear his mind and get some fresh air. After doing his regular loop around campus, he found himself sitting on the steps outside of Islands Cafe at around 2 or 3 a.m.
He was deep in thought, thinking about life, looking out over South Quad, when all of the sudden he heard a shrill genderless voice shrieking his name, “Gabe, stop!” it said from his left.
Startled, he stood up. “Who said that? Who said my name?” he thought to himself.
Then he heard the voice again, “Stop it!” coming from the same direction, from towards the old hospital bowling alley.
He walked towards the voice, and asked aloud, “Hey, who was that? Speak up.” Then he just stood there, baffled. It sounded like the voice was coming from nearby, yet there was no one around.
Grennan had trouble sleeping for the rest of that night. He just lay in bed, trying to piece together what he experienced. He even took notes in order to document what he heard. The events of that night changed his beliefs. He still believes in God, he still prays, he still does fellowship with like-minded people; but he never believed in ghosts until that night. Here is how he put it, “Now that I hear that, there’s more, probably some more spiritual factors that come into play into our daily lives without us even noticing it.”
After that experience, Grannan says that he has felt more on-edge on campus. He is more cautious about going out at night. Now he warns people to be on the lookout because you never know what is out there.
The man from 1936
Back side of Islands Cafe from Camarillo Street
Photo by Madelaine Brown
Our next story comes from Irma Hersel, a resident of the neighborhood next to CI.
She and her husband were out for a walk early one morning around the year 2018. They had just moved in and wanted to explore the area. At the time, they did not know much about the University nor the mental hospital that was here before.
They were passing by Islands Cafe on Camarillo Street when they saw a tall man in a white long-sleeve shirt and light colored pants. When they stopped to talk to him, he mentioned that he used to work at the hospital when it first opened.
At this point in the story, it should be pointed out that Camarillo State Mental Hospital opened in 1936, meaning that someone who worked there when it first opened would have been at least 100 years old in 2018.
Unaware of this history at the time, Hersel and her husband did not notice anything was off. They casually chatted with him for a few minutes until he walked off in the opposite direction. But when they turned around, he was gone. The spookiest part, she said, was how quickly he disappeared, never to be seen again. No one else was around at the time.
Hersel could not say exactly who he might have been. Perhaps he was a doctor, or someone in mid-management at the hospital. They just happened to be in the right place at the right time for him to strike up a conversation with them.
If there really are spirits here at CI, Hersel does not believe they wish anyone harm. She and her husband love living here and they feel that the spirits are just a reminder that all of us are part of a larger story.
Cold shoulder
Men’s restroom near the Commuter Lounge
Photo by Steven Mynott
Next, we have Angel Vargas, a third-year psychology major. It happened earlier this month.
He was working on some homework in the Commuter Lounge in Bell Tower when he got up to use the restroom in the Counseling and Psychological Services hallway. The restroom seemed normal and everything was fine at first.
Then, out of nowhere, he started feeling unusually cold, like, really cold. “That’s weird,” he thought. “Why did it just get cold out of nowhere?” First, he felt it throughout his entire body, but at some point the coldness seemed to concentrate around his shoulder. It was almost as if something was touching his shoulder.
He tried not to think much of it. He tried not to react or make any acknowledgement. Maybe, if he did not acknowledge it, he thought, it might leave him alone. But he said something felt ominous about what was happening, like something was not quite right. It felt like a spiritual presence to him, but he could not make sense of what it was. Maybe it was just his imagination playing tricks on him, or maybe something was messing with him.
Then, suddenly, he was struck by an intense headache.
He wanted to continue studying in the commuter lounge, but the headache was just too much. He decided that maybe if he moved to a different section of Bell Tower, he would be able to concentrate, but that was not the case. His headache just kept getting more and more intense. He wanted to keep studying, he said, but “No, I guess I just can’t study. I guess I’m going to have to, maybe, I just need a break or I’m just too tired or something.”
But the moment he left Bell Tower, all of his symptoms disappeared. He had never experienced anything like that before. It was the confirmation he needed in order to know that something otherworldly was at play, especially considering the history of Camarillo State Mental Hospital and the knowledge that Bell Tower was one of the original buildings.
As a psychology major, Vargas likes learning about the history of the mental hospital. He said that he already had an idea of what he was getting himself into when he transferred to CI, but he did not expect to have an experience of his own. He likes being a student at a haunted university.
The shampoo incident
Shower in Anacapa dorm room
Photo by Madelaine Brown
For our final story, Daniel Lyons, a 2024 business major graduate, wrote to us with this story from his roommate in their Anacapa dorm.
“This happened in 2023 to my roommate when we lived in Anacapa—Building B, top-floor corner room. It was winter break, when campus is basically shut down for the week. I was home with my family, and so were our other two roommates. The only one on campus in the dorm was my roommate—the one I share a bathroom with—because there wasn’t much going on at home and he came back early.
“If you know the Anacapa layout, you know the setup: four bedrooms, two bathrooms. That day, around 2 p.m., he was completely alone in the dorm, sitting in his room playing video games while on FaceTime with a friend. He had his bedroom door open, and the bathroom door open too.
“While he was mid-game, he suddenly heard a loud bang from the bathroom directly behind him—like something hard hitting the shower floor. He paused the game and walked over, still on FaceTime. When he looked into the shower, all he saw was our shampoo bottle knocked over on the shower floor.
“At first, it didn’t seem that crazy. Maybe something shifted, maybe it fell, whatever. But then he remembered: that bottle wasn’t supposed to be in the shower. We kept it on the sink.
“And if you’ve seen those bathrooms, you know the sink isn’t right next to the shower. It’s a few feet away—about 4–5 feet—and the toilet sits between them. So the idea that it ‘just fell’ into the shower didn’t make sense. Still, he wasn’t 100% sure he remembered correctly, so he tried to laugh it off. On FaceTime he even showed his friend like, ‘Dude, what the heck our shampoo bottle just flew into the shower.’
“He picked it up and, this time, he made sure he put it back on the sink—far from the shower. Then he went back to his game.
“About 15 seconds later, after he sat down and started playing again, he heard the exact same loud bang—the same sound of plastic smacking the shower floor.
“He stood up, walked back into the bathroom, and there it was again: the same shampoo bottle, sitting on the shower floor.
“What made it even creepier is the type of bottle it was. It was the Trader Joe’s shampoo bottle—the one with the bottom that flares out and gets wider and boxier. It’s not a bottle that tips easily, especially not when it’s basically full. So the idea that it fell over from ‘wind’ or some tiny vibration already felt unlikely… but the idea that it moved from the sink to the shower twice, within seconds, while he was alone? Pretty weird.”
Lyons said that he does believe CI is haunted, but he does not believe the spirits mean to harm anyone on campus. They never made him feel uncomfortable attending the school. This was not the first time that he and his roommates had unexplained activity in their dorm room. “It’s kind of cool to have attended a ‘haunted university,’” he said. “It’s cool because it always sparks the topic of ghost stories which I find interesting.”
