Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum

This weekend our crew headed out to Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum as an impromptu #Zoinks2015 vacation. The town of Weston, nestled in the mountains and forests of West Virginia, is about as charming as any little town that harbors an enormous lunatic asylum deserves to be.

The first surprise was that the asylum wasn't off at some distance from the town. It was literally a couple of blocks from main street. The grounds are lovely, and if you didn't know that it was reported as one of the most haunted places, I'm not sure it would be your first thought. Yes, it's large and imposing, but so are a long list of public buildings you wouldn't think twice about entering.

Arrival 1st Day (9/18/2015)

Entertainingly, we have two "first impressions" of the place. On Friday we arrived 10pm at night for the Rocky Horror Show, so although there's something inherently creepy about rolling up to a haunted building in the dark, it was pretty quickly offset by having flamboyant cast members descend on us. We didn't really know anything about the building, so we had no idea that they led us through one of the "most haunted" sections for the show. For those playing the home game, take a few points off my "psychic sensitivity" score.

The next morning, we rolled back in (video above because the reception wasn't good enough to use Periscope) to do a historic tour at noon and paranormal tour at 4pm. We used the same entrance, and rather than Rocky Horror extras we were greeted by tour guides in nursing uniforms. Can't decide if that increased or decreased the creepiness factor.

Morgue inside the Medical Center

The advantages to the historic tour are that you get to see more of the complex (it's a number of buildings, not just the main building), and different parts of the main building than you see on the paranormal tour. Honestly, many of the most horrific things happened in the Medical Center, so we have to assume that it is at least as good a place to do ghost hunting as the main building. During October, at least, you can do an overnight "Medical/Forensic/Geriatrics Ghost Hunt" (scroll past the regular ghost hunt listings).

Criminally insane in the back yard

There were two buildings that would have been great to go inside
that we only got to see at a distance. One houses the Scare House for Halloween, so obviously you can get in that way. It housed tuberculosis patients in its early years. The other was a long, low building built to house the criminally insane, i.e. the "forensic" patients, which it looks like might be on the special October tour.

Disrepair in the forensic ward, and also site our guide
saw an apparition walking through the nurse's station.

Walking around the main building I had two primary impressions. (1) This building is frickin' huge, and, (2) This is so sad. The huge part is kind of self-evident, but if you like quantifying things, it's 242,000 square feet. It's the second largest hand-cut sandstone building in the world, the first being
The Kremlin. So, like, really big. As for the second thing, it's sad no matter how you come at it. Big history nerd? Sad that the building is in such disrepair. From a simple human perspective, hearing the stories you feel sad for both the patients and the staff. The hospital was almost immediately overpopulated and understaffed. And the paranormal stuff? Those are some bummed out ghosts. Murder victims, suicides, and who knows what else. Our paranormal guide had seen an apparition once that sounded like a really depressed orderly, just shuffling along and staring at the ground.

Now that we've whet our appetites with day tours, the next step is obviously one of the overnight lock-ins. A drawback to the day tours is that you can't bring your ghost hunting equipment, but for the lock-ins they encourage you to bring it. We've got EMF meters burning holes in our pockets, so we will probably be back this Autumn to try them out.

Movie Review: Insidious

I watched Insidious after having heard about it online. This movie is not for the faint of heart, and it's not for people who don't like being scared.

This movie was written by Leigh Whannel and directed by James Wan who, if you recall, were the same magnificent duo that wrote and directed the original Saw movie. The first one. The good one.

Insidious is about a family that moves into a new house. It's a very real environment, and draws you in, and weird things start happening right away. These things are all in the 'minor poltergeist activity' category at first. Books falling off shelves, doors opening. The action ramps up after the oldest son falls into a coma.

The movie plays a game of steady escalation, where you go from seeing things out of the corner of your eyes to jumping when something runs right in front of you. It does make use of jump scares, which I know annoy some people, but they are never the cheap kind of jump scares- the friend jumping out to scare people. You'll feel the jump scare coming and still jump when something happens- I'm not a noisy movie watcher but I screamed a little a couple of times. There are ghosts, a demon, a medium (and a really creepy scene with the medium in a gas mask), and some really heavy moments just full of dread.

Insidious was, for me, like riding a roller coaster of scares. I was frightened and wanted to stack up in line to do it again.

The Little Light

We've kept a flashlight under the table in our bedroom for a long time. It's one of those monster-sized lights for emergencies and on the top of it is a smaller second light. It had been under that table a long time without incident and then one night we realized the little light was on, casting a pale wash of blue light up the wall in that corner. Slightly creepy but not a big deal and we turned it off. The next night it was on again. And the next. At this point we teased each other that our oldest cat, who had passed away that month at the age of 18, was turning it on. As she wasn't usually allowed in the bedroom we thought she would consider it good fun to spend some of her afterlife in there. The light stopped turning on and things were back to normal. 

Some time later our second oldest cat passed away (also 18 by then) and within a few days the light was on. The Rational Human Reaction kicked in at that point. Perhaps it had been on more than we realized and we just hadn't noticed it. Perhaps something had changed and we were bumping the table somehow and not realizing it. Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps. We discovered it turned on a few more times over the next two weeks and then, again, the light stopped turning on. We laughed nervously to ourselves and blamed it on the deceased kitties. But then things were back to normal.

Last week a third kitty passed away, one who came to us in her old age and didn't have an 18 year history with us. Last night the little light was on again.

Creepy Pasta and You

If you haven't searched the internet for creepy stories, you may not have heard of Creepy Pasta. A brief primer on Creepy Pasta: the term is a bastardization for the word copy and paste (which is often called copy pasta) and refers to, generally, anonymous stories that are shared through copy and paste methods.

Those of you who have trawled for Creepy Pasta know that it is largely hit or miss. Some of them are really creepy and stay in your head for a while. Fortunately, the popular ones tend to be the good ones (as these are the ones people want to share).

The eerie thing about Creepy Pasta is the unsettling feeling like some of it is real. Some of them are urban legends, modified, and it's easy to pick those out. Others, though, make you wonder: Is this a good attempt to scare, or a genuine cry for help?

Cowboys and Aliens?

If you haven't had a chance to see the new movie Cowboys and Aliens yet it is an intriguing excursion into the idea of aliens coming to the 19th century Old West of America. The concept of course makes you begin to wonder, "Were there alien sightings then?"According to Unexplained Mysteries and MSNBC the answer is yes.

"About 6 o'clock this morning the early risers of Aurora (Texas) were astonished at the sudden appearance of the airship which has been sailing throughout the country. It was traveling due north and sailed over the public square and when it reached the northern part of town it collided with the tower of Judge Proctor's windmill and went to pieces with a terrific explosion, scattering debris over several acres of ground." Dallas Morning News on April 19, 1897

More via Unexplained Mysteries: Were there UFO Sightings in the Old West?

The Mothman

Driving through West Virginia this weekend I was reminded of the Mothman, mostly because once you hit a local gift shop there is always a stack of books about the legend. We first encountered the legend in the 2002 Richard Gere/Laura Linney movie "The Mothman Prophesies." It's odd that we hadn't heard of it before since we spend a good deal of time in West Virginia, but mostly on the east side and the Mothman incidents were on the west side. If you aren't familiar with the legend, it is about a large, winged creature with red eyes that was seen by multiple witnesses around Point Pleasant, West Virginia back in the 60s for about a year before a significant bridge collapse that killed 46 people. Some theorize that the Mothman came to warn the town of the impending danger.

But I told you all that in order to tell you this: my husband invited the Mothman over to our house. Well, alright, that's not exactly how it went but that's how it worked out. A couple of years ago while driving through West Virginia to a conference we were heading through the West Virginia Parkway and saw the sign for Point Pleasant. My husband pointed it out, we laughed and chatted about the Mothman legend, and that was that. I thought.

After the conference we arrived home late on a dreary, drizzly night. We brought in our bags and tossed them on the bed. Shortly after we arrived I heard something fall in the shower. No big deal, I thought. Sometimes just a little shifting and things fall. Then things fell off the shelf in the closet, at the other end of the master bedroom. It had added up to odd at this point but hardly traumatizing so we shook it off. Then the house plunged into darkness as the power shut off. This had all happened within about ten minutes. Alright, I thought, it's raining so... maybe the power lines got wet... or something. This is when my husband turned to me and said, "Honey, I have to tell you something."

What he had to tell me was that after seeing the sign for Point Pleasant he had started thinking it would be really cool to look up on one of those mountains and see the Mothman. In his own mind he began inviting the Mothman to show himself. And then, on the return trip, had taunted the Mothman for not showing himself. Since this is a man who has encountered ghosts and fae and not particularly enjoyed it, I thought this showed a tremendous lack of wisdom on his part.


We tried resetting the power, no dice. We looked out to see that neighbors on all sides still had power. Hmm. We called the power company and the poor dude had to come out in all that rain to get it going again. Having taken care of the practical, I then focused on the spiritual and began praying and sending out divine light. If we did get the Mothman's attention we didn't have it for long. But definitely be careful who you invite over to your house.

The Dark Figure

More true ghost stories.

One night a young man awoke to the sound of mumbling. Opening his eyes he could see a dark figure at the foot of the bed, leaning over him and speaking in some strange language. Although it seemed foreboding he couldn't stop himself from asking, "What?" The figure paused and then started speaking again. The young man sensed that if he focused he might be able to understand the language but that would be A Very Bad Thing. He buried himself under the covers and prayed.

The next morning he told his friend from across the street about the event and the other young man scoffed. The figure came back for two more nights, and on the third night the young man called out, "Go bother my friend! He doesn't believe in you!" The next morning he met his friend who said, "The weirdest thing happened last night. I woke up to hear something, maybe a squirrel, running around above my room counterclockwise three times. What's weird is that it sounded like it was in the attic, not on the roof, but then it shouldn't have been able to get out onto the eaves and I definitely heard scratching out there."

The friend continued to hear strange noises until he moved out after high school.

Sue London is a writer, blogger, and doodlist who has two ghosts hanging out in her house. She thinks she picked them up at Disney's Haunted Mansion. Her "True Stories" are either personal or related to her by friends and family members over the years. Check out what she's up to by visiting her Sueniverse.

R is for Reptilians

We live in the so called 'enlightened' era. It's the 21st century now and we are just a few short steps away from putting a man on Mars. We're looking at travelling to other stars or, at the very least, at finding better and clearer ways ways to look at them so it may come as a surprise to some of you to learn that, in this 'enlightened' age, there remains a contingent of the human population who actually believe that our planet is infested with alien creatures known as reptilians

According to David Icke, the creator of the reptilian legend, these reptilians came to us from the constellation of 'Draco'. It is not said exactly which star in this system they originated from nor how they came to spontaneously exist as a unified race over such a gargantuan area but it is told that, at some point, they took up residence in a series of tunnels beneath the surface of the earth and have been manipulating mankind since the dawn of civilisation under the auspices of an organisation named the 'Babylonian Brotherhood'. Exactly why and how the reptilians have gone about doing this is unclear. Presumably the reptilians wish to enslave us or perhaps were provide them with a self perpetuating source of tasty snacks. Whatever their motivations the reptilians have pursued them by occupying all the positions of power in our world through interbreeding with humans and, occasionally, eating kittens.

Reptilians conveniently combine all the traits that are so compellingly repulsive in popular mythology. They include elements of the perenially popular dragon and vampire myths and are apparently able to change their shape at will, adding to their fascination and mystique as well as explaining why none of you will have seen anything on CNN about the Earth being invaded by 'lizard people'. They are also conveniently inter-dimensional creatures and capable of deflecting any awkward technical questions by invoking this power which makes them remarkable well suited to politics.

Pundits of the reptilian conspiracy to enslave mankind claim that reptilians have permeated almost every aspect of human society and culture by parasitically inhabiting the forms of a variety of influential people ranging in importance and influence from Queen Elizabeth II to Kris Kristofferson. This may come as a shock to those of you who have seen the movie 'Convoy', I for one will never be able to watch it again without wondering if 'Rubber Duck' was some kind of obscure code-word for the commencement of the Babylonian Brotherhoods' undoubtedly nefarious yet entirely obscure designs for the future of our world.

Jimmy Blonde is a science fiction writer with an understandable interest in UFOs. The only problem is we're never quite sure when he's kidding. He also wonders where all the rum's gone...

W is for Wicca

Wicca is a religion that was developed towards the middle of last century in England, right around when a big spirtualism/medium revival was happening. The word itself came into common usage in the 1960's. While there may be ideas and rituals that date from far previously, the religion itself is relatively young.

There are many many different ways to be Wiccan, there are several different main traditions (which is like a denomination) and of course many covens have their very own tradition. Gardnerian and Alexandrian are two of the very first and are sometimes both referred to as British Traditional Wicca, they both are the two original branches of Wicca. In addition to these there are, of course, many many more traditions.

Wicca is one of those things where the only rule is that there are no rules- there aren't many overreaching Wiccan beliefs, rituals, or teachings. There is the Wiccan Rede, which varies in wording but generally goes something like: If it harm none, do what you will. The interpretation of this can vary from person to person, coven to coven, Tradition to Tradition.

Most Traditions worship both a god and a goddess- sometimes personified by a diety from some ancient pantheon or other, sometimes just the aspects of God and Goddess. There are some Traditions and Covens who put emphasis on one over the other (generally the goddess, as Wicca tends towards women). It's generally a religion about nature and balance.

There are no strict religious texts for Wiccans to follow, there are plenty of directions to go. While there are covens to join, there are also plenty of solo practitioners. It's a modular type of religion that many people can interpret to their own comfort and sensibilities, and it's become a more accepted religion as time goes on.

S is for Slender Man

Slender Man resembles an extremely (inhumanly) tall and thin 'man' who appears to be wearing a suit. Sometimes he appears to have an excessive number of arms, although this varies from sighting to sighting. According to legend (more on this later) he generally targets children, and makes them disappear. He's not opposed to attacking adults and will sometimes leaving their corpses hanging in trees, devoid of internal organs.

He is also, completely, a product of the internet. It's possible to read the very first post Slender Man ever appeared in, and the thread through which his legend grew. MarbleHornets (which I recommend if you really like getting the pants scared off of you) was born in the same thread.

But setting aside all the terrifying fiction, what makes Slender Man really fascinating is that since his inception there are people who have been claiming to see him. Some people believe that this is just people scaring themselves silly, which is possible. However, there are some people who believe that Slender Man may have been willed into being. That enough fear and work and creative energy has gone into him that he actually now exists.

There is definitely something to the Slender Man, he taps into some primal fear that effects nearly everyone. The imagery and stories that go around about him are creepy and dark and scary, and they rarely end well. There's something impressive about an image so powerful that even though he's provably invented, people still claims he's real, and to have seen him.




Photos are courtesy of Victor Surge, who can be found on his Deviant Art with many more Slender Man photos. He may or may not be working on a book about Slender Man.

O is for Ouija

The Ouija Board (also known as a Spirit Board or Talking Board) has it's roots in spirit writing, when the medium and spiritual craze heated up in the late 19th and early 20th century. The planchette originally had two rolling casters and a pencil for a tip, which could be used to inscribe messages by the dead (or a crafty medium). The messages were too long and laborious to write, and sometimes were difficult to read. In other words, they were a crowd killer, and soon the practice of using the planchette this way was dropped in favor of the medium directly channeling the spirit in question.

While there were a few complicated dial based contraptions for contacting the spirits, they were expensive and over-engineered. When someone had the admittedly brilliant idea to put the alphabet on the board and have the planchette point to the letter in question, it was an idea that was both marketable and accessible. While it was generally accepted that anybody could make their own alphabet board, planchettes of all varieties were sold to anybody willing to buy.

You can make your own Ouija board, using a large sheet of paper with the alphabet written on it (adding common phrases for politeness and ease). A glass tumbler of the correct size will work as a planchette, so long as it can be touched by all parties involved and slides easily across the surface of the paper. Parchment or wax paper have very little drag and can be found in most kitchens.

The Ouija board mechanics are simple- everyone places a finger on the planchette, and they ask an agreed upon question. Some groups will do incantations or other exercises first in order to prevent any nasty activity or the wrong entity from 'coming through' on the Ouija board, but mostly people dive right into it. Someone is generally the secretary, and records the questions and the responses, remaining only an observer. Sometimes nothing happens, but there are some hair raising stories about what happens when the spirits get really motivated to answer.

Be careful, though, you never know who might want to talk!