Personal Narrative
Perhaps the most interesting aspect of this project was uncovering the occult in the very library I was doing archival research in. The stories I heard of the haunted first floor sub-basement at Manhattan College creates a very personal touch to the archival research I did. While the project primarily focued on the very clear ways that the occult touches on cultural anxieties, another important aspect of spirtual study is the non-falsifiability of its study and documentation. It is currently impossible to prove or disprove the existence of ghosts, despite this clear cut example of its alleged occurance in our own library. The stories I heard ranged from books falling off shelves to actual ghost sightings (one librarian in particular said that she saw six ghosts at one time). Even the librarians who said they hadn't personally seen ghosts were quick to argue defend the stories of those who had.
In student dicusssions, this rhetoric was largely the same. Many said they didn't believe in ghosts but were still conviced that the basement was haunted. Aesthetically, one could see why they would thinking this as the basement is poorly lit and has very thin walls, further adding to our mythos of a haunted library. In an academic analysis of the occult, it's important to understand how closely we still hold onto our belief in the occult is real even in cases where we clearly know it's not. The occult, both historically and culturally, holds an important place in western society as we move towards a more tolerant understanding of the unknown and all the implications that come with embrace ideas we don't fully understand.