Hayden Hall Is Haunted And The Ghosts Inspired Amazing Books

One night midway through my freshman year, my roommates were convinced there was a ghost in our Hayden Hall dorm room. Believing in the power of the Internet, I sought more information about a potential history of NYU ghosts and googled, “ghost Hayden Hall NYU.” The power of the Internet pulled through and took me to Meg Cabot’s website.

Having been a particularly bookish young adult, I knew exactly who Meg Cabot was — she was the woman who gave Mia Thermopolis a story in the books that later became the iconic “Princess Diaries” movies. She also wrote the “All American Girl” and the “Mediator” series, and has a career that boasts more than 75 novels. Basically she’s a rockstar.

What I found on her website was this — a very ghostly story from her time having worked as the assistant manager (what’s now known as an RHAD) at Hayden. The basic premise of the story is that a resident came to Cabot and reported waking to the sensation of a man’s weight on top of her. When she opened her eyes she saw a man. The student described him to Cabot and said he then disappeared. Explaining that her family has a history of psychic abilities, she asked if anyone had ever died in her room. Cabot, imagining residual effects of a horrifying date rape situation, assault, or early onset schizophrenia, sent the resident to health services (as any responsible RHAD would) and had someone check the student’s room to make sure it hadn’t been broken into.

But the really exciting part of the story is this: A counselor called Cabot after meeting with the student and told her that she had accurately described, down to what the man had been wearing, a suicide victim who had lived in her room 25 years before.

I caught up with Cabot (via email, as she’s currently on a book tour) last week to learn more about this story, which I’m absolutely convinced happened on my freshman year floor. Here’s our conversation:

NYU Local: Were you skeptical about the reality of ghosts before this student? Did the call from the counselor confirm a belief in ghosts? Where do you stand on ghosts today?

Meg Cabot: When the head of Mental Health called and assured me the resident was fine and that he did in fact remember a student fitting the description she gave having died in Hayden Hall twenty years earlier, when it was a law school dorm, I was shocked. It never once occurred to me that she might actually have encountered a ghost!

I didn’t believe in ghosts before this resident, or people who could see ghosts, and I’m not sure I do now. What I do believe is that we need to have open minds. What are ghosts, exactly, and why do some people see them, and others don’t?

Since that incident, I discovered something else. There’s a condition known as hypnogogic/hypnopompic hallucinations from which many of us have or will suffer at some time in our life, especially during stressful periods (such as illness, finals, when we’ve just moved, or broken up with or lost a loved one).

When we’re just exiting or entering REM sleep, we can wake in a confused state, and hallucinate that we’re seeing or experiencing something that isn’t there. This hallucination can feel very, very real. Most people who’ve experienced this describe witnessing a person in their room who disappears only when the light is turned on, feeling an intense pressure on their chest, or even hearing voices or smelling scents that don’t exist.

These hallucinations aren’t at all indicative of mental illness or brain dysfunction, and happen to nearly everyone at some time or another, especially during periods when we aren’t getting enough sleep. That’s why they’re often mistaken for “paranormal” experiences, especially when they happen in a strange or new building, or at times when a death has occurred.

I’m not saying this to spoil anyone’s fun in the belief in ghosts, but only to point out that we got a lot of reports of “ghosts” in Hayden Hall, especially around final exam time, when people weren’t getting a lot of sleep, and stress was running high!

I myself even experienced a sighting, but not in the building — it was the night after a suicide by defenestration of one of our residents (this was before the installation of window guards). I woke in my apartment and was certain I saw the resident standing by my bed, asking me to help him. I told him I couldn’t, because he was already dead, and that I wished he’d come to see us before he’d died. When I turned on the light, he disappeared.

Was this really the resident? Or was it a hypnopompic hallucination brought on by the stress of having spent that day helping the resident’s poor roommates pack up his belongings, them give them to his grief stricken parents? Did that first resident in Hayden really see the dead boy from the law school, or was that a waking hallucination brought on by the stress of living on her own for the first time, and dealing with finals?

But how then did she know that someone had died in her room so many years earlier? Was it because NYU residence halls are so old and house such transient populations? Isn’t it likely that, at some time or other, someone has died in every room?

But then how did she describe him so well that even the head of NYU Mental Health Services recognized him? We’ll probably never know! That’s why all I believe is that it pays to keep an open mind.

But from what I understand, the most haunted residence hall on campus is Brittany! So keep Hayden out of this!

Were any of your students nervous about the ghost? Did any of them try to get rid of him in any way by cleansing their rooms with sage or any other ghost-scaring tactics?

I never heard of any of them trying a cleansing ritual. I would hope they didn’t… he seemed friendly.

No resident ever knew about the ghost in that particular room because I never told anyone about it (other than my supervisors) and to my knowledge neither did the resident. That would have been a violation of her right to privacy.

I never had any request from any student not to be placed in a room because they heard it was haunted. The rooms in Hayden were too popular for that kind of nonsense, and I never heard of an NYU student being afraid of a ghost.

One resident did shock me, though, when he mentioned that his aunt in California had had a dream that a resident had died in his room over the summer. This shocked me because it was true! But there was NO WAY he or his aunt could have known this. It was a transient resident (back when NYU rented rooms to non-students for short term stays) who had overdosed, and no one had known about it except myself, the building director, and a few Protection officers. His aunt truly had to have been psychic… But the resident never once complained that his room was haunted!

What other unique experiences did you or your residents have with the ghost? Did the original student who came to speak with you have any other communication or experiences with him?

No. She seemed satisfied knowing she’d been right in what she thought she’d seen.

I will tell you one spooky thing: Students who later moved on to that floor (not necessarily the same room) did report slamming doors and drawers that would be closed, then, when they turned around, suddenly open — but no one was standing near them. We ordered new locks and dressers/desks for them, but the same thing would happen.

We suspected it was a prank by the suite mates since no such activity was ever reported in that room before or after. But it could also have been one particularly perceptive resident, attracting the attentions of the lonely law student ghost (it was always female residents who reported these activities). We will never know.

I, of course, knew about the ghost, but I didn’t tell them, even when they insisted it was paranormal activity. They never saw him, so I figured he didn’t want them to know. And once again, this was during finals, and it ceased right after they were over.

You also mention in the blog post that Hayden Hall and the psychic student served as some inspiration for the Heather Wells series and the Mediator. With the Heather Wells books, you say Hayden served as the inspiration for “the death dorm.” Was your ghostly experience the sole thing inspired the fictional nickname or were there other deathly experiences at NYU that inspired the name as well? Were any of your other books inspired by experiences at NYU?

The Heather Wells series is somewhat based on my experiences working in Hayden Hall, but on the premise that every semester in one particular residence hall, a murder occurs. There were no murders of any kind whatsoever the entire time I worked at NYU . . . though I will admit I wanted to commit some when I saw how a few of the freshmen left their rooms after they moved out.

The Mediator series is about a girl who can see and speak to ghosts, and helps them pass on (it was first published in 2000, way before The Ghost Whisperer). Whether or not it was inspired by that resident who first encountered the lonely law student, I will not say! But she might have had something to do with it.

Speaking of your other books, I have to ask — How’s Mia Thermopolis doing? She’s truly an icon for my generation. Thank you for giving her a story!

You’re so welcome! Mia’s fine. You can read all about her as an adult in Royal Wedding, which came out this past summer!
Portions of this interview have been edited and condensed for clarity.