And Whatever Walks There

Photograph(s) copyright Shaun O’Boyle  

Over the week I watched some shows as well as a couple of movies about abandoned insane asylums.

One  of my favorite shows is called Ghost Adventures where the investigators are running around ” screaming did you see that, did you see that” ( no, and I doubt if they did either, being that most of the action takes place in the dark ) during the course of their investigations.

Anyway.

Ghost Adventures is always a good watch and I enjoyed watching them do their build up  (their interviews with witnesses are great, they just open the mic and go for it ) to the big night when they would be locked down in the haunted asylum– which as I’ve already mentioned was my topic of the week.

But as I watched and- make no mistake- I enjoyed the stories, it did make me feel bad for the ‘ghosts’ who were supposed to haunt these places- because in the story- be it a ghost hunter show, or a movie- is the not so subtle message that if you were mentally ill in life you’re going to be in the after life as well.

I would argue that maybe– if you were to not head down to the morgue in these places to look for ghosts ( I’ve worked in morgues, mostly I might do some cleaning or paperwork- and they are BORING BORING PLACES ) and really thought about it you might realize that you’re in a building where some weird things are happening and all that is actually in the room with you is…

you

and the room itself.

You might come to the conclusion that maybe Shirley Jackson is right- maybe some buildings are not sane and what walks in them doesn’t walk alone-

not now anyway.

Hill House, not sane, stood by itself against its hills, holding darkness within; it had stood so for eighty years and might stand for eighty more. Within, walls continued upright, bricks met neatly, floors were firm, and doors were sensibly shut; silence lay steadily against the wood and stone of Hill House, and whatever walked there, walked alone.”

Abandoned NJ Psychiatric Hospital