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.

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.

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.

G is for Ghosts

What do Charles Dickens and Grant Wilson have in common? Ghost hunting, of course! Dickens was a member of London's "The Ghost Club" and Grant is part of the famous Ghost Hunters duo on SyFy.

Ghost Hunting Kit

Across cultures and history there has been a strong belief that some part of us lives on after we die - our spirit, essence, financial debt - something. While some people claim they can see ghosts, still others of us believe there could be ghosts but are reliant on equipment like cameras, audio recorders, and other sensors in our attempt to pick something up from the afterlife.

It's hard to say, though, where the truth ends and the human love of a good story begins. Who hasn't
spent a long, dark night with friends telling ghost stories to each other? Sometimes we feel a need, or at a desire, to scare the bejeezus out of ourselves and others. We flock to horror movies, keep Stephen King living in style, and pour billions of dollars into Halloween. We WANT to be scared.

But just because we want the thrill of fear doesn't mean that ghosts don't exist. It is harder to discount ghosts when you have either had a haunting experience yourself or know someone who has a detailed and rational account. So, have a story to share?

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. Check out what she's up to by visiting her Sueniverse.

Blog post for the April A to Z blogging challenge. 

Dr. Barry Taff

Are you familiar with the parapsychologist Dr. Barry Taff? If you're reading a website called The Arcane Hour then you probably should be -- so we'll help you out a little here. Yes, he actually has his doctorate in parapsychology. When he was at UCLA he investigated the case that was eventually retold in the movie The Entity (a great and very creepy movie if you haven't seen it). We're also suspicious, even though we can't find anything to prove it, that Dan Aykroyd based quite a bit of the serious parts of the Ghost Busters characters on Taff.


So what has Dr. Barry Taff been up to lately? It looks like he's (sort of) set up a website at barrytaff.net. There isn't much there yet but it does point us to the book that he's released this year: Aliens Above, Ghosts Below.

Dr. Taff is also involved in the American Institute of Parapsychology, which was founded in 1992 as the Center for Paranormal Studies. He is listed as a director and faculty member.

If you have any links for Dr. Taff or his works, feel free to share them with us in the comments.

Extra-sensory Transplant

Watching The Eye on cable. If you could get an eye transplant to see ghosts, would you?

If There's Something Strange in Your Neighborhood

Need a Ghosthunter? Then check out this list from The Shadowlands, organized by state.

The Ghost Hunter Store

In case you are doing some ghost hunting this season, there will be a new Ghosthunter Store to help you stock up on supplies. Opens October 1.

Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum

With the first cool, crisp morning hinting at the oncoming fall we knew one thing. It's Ghost Tour season!

One that we are looking forward to checking out is the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum (also known as Weston State) with their Overnight at the Asylum option.