Haunted Insane Asylum Stories

Many ghost hunters claim to find paranormal activity in haunted insane asylums. If intense emotions foster spirit activity, it stands to reason that many former insane asylums could be haunted. Here are a few locations that are known for ghost activity and unexplained phenomena.

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Asylums

What are insane asylums? Before the advent of modern psychiatric drugs, mentally ill people were housed in asylums. These institutions often housed hundreds of patients ranging from people with mild mental illness to full-blown psychotics. Alcoholics, derelicts, homeless people, Civil War veterans suffering post-traumatic stress disorder and even the elderly were left in the care of psychiatric institutions. These so-called insane asylums were often huge buildings with hundreds of wards and treatment rooms. Many were humane places offering the most advanced care of the time, but some developed sinister reputations for cruelty and treatments that would now be deemed barbaric.

At the turn of the 20th century, the notion of warehousing patients in big institutions began to fall by the wayside with a new approach of housing patients in family groups or cottage-style living coming into vogue. By the 1970s, many patients’ rights advocates believed that the mentally ill could live in the community, and with the huge surge of newer, more effective psychiatric drugs, many of the old insane asylums shut their doors for good.

Today, former asylums have been converted into other uses or stand empty, waiting for the wrecking ball, or an entrepreneurial person to buy them and convert them to other uses. Many paranormal investigators feel that these former insane asylums are hotbeds of paranormal activity. So many people, many emotionally disturbed, suffered and died within their walls. Some investigators believe that such intense energy leaves specific imprints on a location. Decide for yourself whether or not reports about the two supposedly haunted insane asylums described below are on the level.

Reportedly Haunted Insane Asylums

Two haunted insane asylums in particular stand out in terms of intense paranormal activity or friendliness to ghost hunting groups. If you’re curious about what it’s like inside a haunted insane asylum, check out one of the following places known for paranormal activity.

The Ridges, Ohio

Once known as the Athens Asylum for the Insane, The Ridges stands today as one of the few massive hospitals converted to new use. The sprawling complex once housed over 500 patients. Many practices now deemed cruel or barbaric, such as lobotomies, were performed at The Ridges. The hospital also housed notorious and criminally insane patients, such as serial rapist Billy Mulligan. Today, Ohio University has converted the main building into a museum and offices, while the other buildings that made up The Ridges have long since been demolished.

Paranormal activity at this haunted insane asylum centers on the death of one patient, a woman named Margaret Schilling. In December 1978, hospital workers found her corpse in abandoned Ward 20. The room was locked from the inside, and Margaret’s body was nude. She had been dead for several weeks. Death was ruled an accident, with the prevailing theory that Margaret locked herself into the room to hide from nurses.

A number of questions about her death remain a mystery to this day, such as:

• Why didn't she call for help?
• If she called for help, why wasn't she heard?
• Why was she nude?
• Why was her clothing folded neatly by her side?

The cause of death was ruled as exposure since the portion of the hospital where she was found was unheated and unused.

Once her body was removed, workers cleaned the room, but the ghostly outline of her corpse returned. Stronger cleaning solvents were used on the cement floor, but the outline always returns. Forgotten Ohio has an original, undistorted photograph of the infamous stain.

Orbs, strange odors and disembodied whispers also abound in the former halls of The Ridges. As Ohio University geology professors go quietly about their work in the newly converted offices of the former Ridges, are the spirits of former patients watching from the shadows?

Northampton State Hospital, Massachusetts

It was the hospital called "Hell" by patients’ families. The lumbering brick edifice called Northampton State Hospital warehoused mental patients for almost 200 years until it was finally closed in the late 1980s. Although preservation societies lobbied to save the old buildings, demolition is nearly complete. The developers plan to build a housing community on the site.

Paranormal activity at the site consists mostly of sounds, possibly a residual haunting from the lengthy history of the hospital. Visitors hear footsteps, doors opening and closing and whispers. Sometimes visitors hear the squeak of wheels as if someone is pushing a wheelchair or a gurney through the old halls. One wonders if paranormal activity will continue as it has on so many other sites where buildings have been demolished, but spirits remain.

The television show Scariest Places on Earth featured the Northampton State Hospital. The investigating family reported hearing the telltale footsteps and odd noises.

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