ArtRojasDesign

Our next outing for Ghost Asylum takes us to the Old South Pittsburg Hospital with it’s odd tales, scary doctors and perhaps, even scarier residents. The hospital was opened in 1959 with claims of doctors performing questionable experiments on patients, cruel treatment, large shadow figures and perhaps the spirit of the drug addict that took up residence and died in the hospital itself.

As they talk to local residents, they all believe the location is haunted and some think it should just be torn down. One even has a story about an investigator who had internal bleeding after investigating the hospital. I wonder if the she looked at Peggy the Doll before setting out on the investigation?

With the investigation underway, there is a long drawn out "scared" on the recorder, but oddly, it doesn’t seem to line up with the conversation. The team then turns to the flashlight trick again and get blips on the K2 meter.

For the hospital nursery, they bring in "Boo Bear" which is a toy that talks and records environmental readings. Although the nursery doesn’t appear to be a hotbed of activity.

Like their previous episode, they decide to a little reenactment. Brannon feigns a drug overdose and asks for the doctor’s help in saving him. They run around in the dark, yelling and carrying on as though this is supposed to stir up activity. It makes them look pretty damn silly if you ask me. However, they feel they capture a shadow figure and get someone saying, "Quiet" to all their noise.

On night 2, they bring out the Shadow Seeker, a metal tube filled with holes hooked to a propane tank. This is supposed to be some dazzling light and pyrotechnics display to bring out John, the addict from the first floor. How it works the mojo is unclear, but its fire in an enclosed space, so let’s run with it.

They hear lots of banging and feel there is a large shadow lurking around the corners. They hear growls and try to track them down to maintenance closets. On the recorders they feel, "You found me" is captured as they open the door. "I don’t listen to these songs" is also captured while playing the music.

For the most part, what they capture is a lot of bangs and knocks. All right, fair enough, creepy business. But let’s have a quick look around the place. That, "residence," is loaded with junk that vermin would just love and they make the horrible mistake of opening the refrigerator. Although it’s rancid, it proves things were left behind and these would be an enticement to all sorts of animals. Knocks, bangs and scratches would easily be attributed to them. And no, you wouldn’t see them in a maintenance closet or in the dark.

So, are we completely sure there are no animals living in there? Are we just as sure that someone hasn’t taken up to living in the hospital again? It’s easy to say no one would live there, but if it’s the choice between the cold streets and a roof over the head, I’m pretty sure even a creepy place with plenty of places to remain unseen is better than the gutter.

I don’t know if the Shadow Seeker did anything except look neat at the end of the hall. They did capture some voices and there is the pulling on the Chris’ necklace. Hard to say what we have there. Clearly the necklace could be tugging on something else, and the audio has to be enhanced quite a bit. Are those really other worldly voices or voices from another source such as someone talking outside, their own voices being misunderstood, other people messing around in the hospital at the same time, radio station residue, picking up a walkie talkie, etc. The locals visit the place, there is nothing to say they weren’t close enough to be heard, especially when they know an investigation is going on.

As a side note, if you look up the hospital, many people make a Native American connection and make comment about the water source that runs under the property. Like so many other stories, the Native Americans had trouble after being generous with their land and the running water is supposed to increase the energy.

Both are interesting ideas, and we’ve certainly heard them before, but nothing experienced or captured over these two nights was definitive.

Other Articles of Interest:

• Paranormal State S04E03 – Dead Legends
• Ghost Adventures – Yorktown Hospital – S04E21
• Ghost Adventures – Washoe Club and Chollar Mine
• Ghost Adventures – Lechtworth Village – S05E06
• Ghost Asylum – Peoria State Hospital – S03E03
• Ghost Asylum – USS Edson – S03E01
• Ghost Adventures – Point Sur California – S07E03
• Ghost Asylum S01E02 – Kuhn State Hospital
• Ghost Adventures – Virginia City – S05E07
• Ghost Adventures – Lizzie Borden House – S05E05

Imagine my surprise to find out there was a new episode of Ghost Asylum, let alone an entire season had gone by and I missed it. We’ll have circle back around and check those out, but let’s press on with the season opener.

When we last saw the Ghost Asylum gang, they were hard at work building devices to contain spirit energy so it could be measured and studied. They still continue that quest and this time we’re on the USS Edson, a battleship deployed on 6 missions during the Vietnam war.

Some of the activity includes shadows, disembodied voices, tools moving and plenty of knocking sounds. Besides the usual casualties and chaos that would be associated with a real battleship during a time of war, there are two strange deaths. Paul, a caretaker for the ship, died of a heart attack while a sailor locked himself in a hold and suffocated to death.

As the team does a baseline sweep, they note high EMF reading from all the electricity still pumping through the ship. That alone would explain plenty of feelings people have about this place. Instead of acknowledging it as a primary cause, they simply ignore it and say they need to rely on their other senses. It’s always best to toss out a logical explanation or at least one that is tangible and stick with the paranormal angle.

Things start off in the infirmary where it’s claimed the surgical tools move. In the war room, they feel something walk between them. There are lots of knocks and tapping sounds as well as the spider web feeling across the face.

Another location Chris checks out, is the hold where the man committed suicide. While he says there is a presence, there is no evidence of any activity. That is, until the last second where he asks if the entity wants him to leave and the proximity meter goes off.

In the mess hall, we see the old flashlight trick. As they ask if the sailors don’t want to interact with regular civilians, the light mysteriously flickers. But in order to get in their good graces, they stage a fire drill. This leads to knocks and taps which they take as positive responses. They also believe they capture the answer, "not that long", when asked how long it took to die in the hold and there is a shadow figure in the video.

For Day 2, they bring out of the Cryogenic Cloak, which is a sweet name for mixing dry ice and water on a rack to produce fog. It’s their goal to use this fog, along with both digital and analog photography and recordings to capture a spirit.

They work with more trigger objects including firing the ships gun. From there, its time drive the entities down to the ice machine. What they feel they capture is a picture of Paul. The other evidence includes a voice captured on the analog tape.

Putting the high EMF readings aside, we have bangs and pops from a gigantic metal ship sitting in the water at night. That really doesn’t sound like paranormal activity. The flashlight gag just need to be discounted immediately. And capturing images in swirling fog seems a little ridiculous as well.

The USS Edson has seen plenty of action, that’s for sure, and perhaps there is more to the story, but pops and clanks from a giant metal container and odd feelings are not evidence of the paranormal.

Other Articles of Interest:

• Ghost Adventures – USS Hornet – S04E08
• Ghost Lab – Episode 5 – Nottoway, Louisiana /Metro Club, Chicago
• Deep South Paranormal – Dead on the Bayou – S01E06 – Season Finale
• Ghost Asylum S01E01
• Ghost Adventures – The Queen Mary – S10E01
• Ghost Adventures – Bannack Ghost Town – S09E04
• Ghost Adventures – Point Sur California – S07E03
• Ghost Adventures – The Pioneer Saloon – S08E01
• Ghost Hunters International – San Lucas Island – S02E12
• Paranormal State S04E06 – Dark Practice

So here we are at the Season Finale of Ghost Asylum and for their send off, they head to Old Cannon Hospital in North Carolina. We have another hospital with some sketchy deeds in it’s past. While most of this will be chalked up to rumor and maybe a little legend there is an incident of a patient holding a doctor and some nurses hostage, the hospital supposedly had a history of housing violent patients and the Chief of Police thinks the place is demonic. People claim to hear screams and whispers and one investigator they spoke with said she felt something on her chest while she was investigating. Like their other locations, there is a lot of rumor and a lot talk from the locals. A hospital like this is certainly where violent patients would end up and it wouldn’t be too hard to image a patient lashing out at the staff. But I have to say, rather unusual for the police to say it’s downright demonic.

The team starts off with the daylight sweep and gets hits on their Mel Meter when asking if the patient was violent. They also discover a lot of medical records and x-rays with patient names. When the place shut down they didn’t take much care about cleaning it up. They also get some responses outside of room 426 and they feel the basement where a door from a refrigerator was stolen is also a hot spot.

For the first night they think they hear a female voice calling to them and they get Mel Meter hits down near the OR. They also believe they see a shadow figure at the end of the hallway blocking out their lasers.

Back up near room 426 they hear bangs and bumps and feel something is thrown at them. The Gauss meter starts to go off when they ask if this energy wants to hurt them. Not sure if that blip means yes or no in this instance. But back down in the basement they get some K2 hits at the stolen refrigerator door.

It certainly seems odd that someone would steal such a large door, but I seriously doubt it was demonic forces. Yes Your Honor, the devil made me take that door! And to say he was a law biding citizen so evil forces are at work is a bit much. There are plenty of examples of evil people blending into society until the mask finally cracks.

After going over the evidence of the night before, the team feels they’re up against a Siren Spirit, one that acts one way to lure men in and then attacks. Bit of a leap based on what we have, but ok, we’ll see where this goes.

Based on the evidence the trap of the night is the Infrasound Infinity Mirror Trap. Basically they will use aluminum plates to direct the signal a cell phone puts out so they can drive the spirits into an infinity mirror where it will get confused and get trapped. Sounds like a neat idea at a funhouse, but is this sort of thing really supposed to capture spirit energy? It has a tinge of legitimacy, but on the whole is dubious at best. But have no fear, the best is yet to come.

As they start using the infrasound and directing it, they hear the sound of a female voice. To them it’s the siren call. The K2 meter and the Gauss meter begin to blip and light up. Soon, it’s a frenzy of noise and lights with lots of yelling for good measure.

And then Brannon snaps. Things have been building up as Brannon kicks in doors and stomps all over the place. In a fit of rage and hysteria he yells at the spirit energy to come out and show themselves and works himself to the point of screaming at the top of his lungs. What some would call acting and an attempt to boost ratings in the hopes of  a second season others would call near demonic possession and being controlled by outside forces.

"He’s never done that!" and "I’ve never seem him like this" they all say as Brannon stares blankly into the darkness. They need to get him out because the dark energy is starting to take over. But there is more to come as Brannon rushes out of the hospital and into the darkness with the rest of the team trying to keep up.

After having his moment alone he then attacks the camera crew saying he doesn’t want the footage of him getting out. The rest of the team dive in, separate him and drag him away.

My goodness, what do we have going on here? Is this really unforeseen evil spirits making their way into one of the investigators? Is this some sort of condition rearing it’s ugly head? Is this a grasp at ratings?

It’s really hard to believe in this one especially since we’ve seen Zak from Ghost Adventures do the same damn thing many times. He gets all belligerent and starts to pick on his own crewmates. Who knows what this is, but I’m not willing to jump on the coattails of demonic possession.

Back at Ghost Asylum HQ, they review the evidence and hear more of the mysterious female voice. They also capture what they feel is a face peeking out from behind a door. And finally there is a voice they interpret as saying, "cut the noise out", in regards to their infrasound experiment.

So there it is, the final and dramatic season finale to Ghost Asylum. What did you think? Are we going to see this come back for a second run?

I will say that even though some of the stories and claims are more the stuff of legend than anything else, they still took us to some very interesting locations, most of which were completely new. They have some good techniques such as the daytime sweep and investigating over multiple days.

Their traps, while confusing, are at least an interesting idea. At least it’s not the parabot of Ghost Adventures fame from a few years ago. I give them A for effort in that regard. Like so many other shows their findings are a bit shaky and their conclusions are a bit of a leap. Not a bad series, but I don’t know if this last episode helped or hurt them.

Next week is a new show called Ghost Stalkers, so we’ll have to tune in and see what that’s all about.

Other Articles of Interest:

• Ghost Asylum S01E02 – Kuhn State Hospital
• Ghost Asylum – Peoria State Hospital – S03E03
• Ghost Asylum – Old Crow Distillery
• Paranormal Cops – Stirring Up The Dead – S01E03
• Ghost Asylum – Old South Pittsburg Hospital – S03E02
• Ghost Asylum – St Vincent’s Mental Asylum – S01E04
• Ghost Asylum S01E01
• Paranormal Challenge – Western Virginia Penitentiary – S01E05
• Ghost Adventures – Virginia City – S05E07
• Paranormal Challenge Ohio State Reformatory S01E03

For this outing we head out to Missouri, to visit the Ironton Asylum. It should come as no surprise that this medical facility suffered from the problems of overcrowding, violent patients, lack of funding and the talk of unorthodox medical experiments. However, we don’t have documentation that proves it. What we do have is the word of local residence who throw out the blanket statement that bad things happened there. It’s really hard to dispute those claims, but it should come with some solid evidence.

I will also say that Ghost Asylum needs to ditch the stupid theatrics while telling their story. Come on, this is an old asylum, it really doesn’t need those sorts of gimmicks. It’s a run down, scary building, you don’t need those cut scenes. Let the story and the evidence speak for itself. And you wonder why people mock and laugh at this sort of thing?

The investigation kicks off the daylight sweep with blips on the K2 meter. They also go to talk with some of the local paranormal investigators who claim to have spoken with someone named "Bonnie". One says she was hit in the head by some unseen force. It couldn’t have been something falling from this obvious wreck of a building. Bonnie is supposedly tied to a murder that took place inside the asylum. There is talk patients lashed out at a nurse and killed up to 3 people before being subdued. That sort of thing should be in the records somewhere, but again, no documentation. Not disputing the claims because that sort of thing has happened in places like this, but it would be nice to see it confirmed rather than just being the stuff of legend.

As they move around the building they feel they stumble on the presence of a little girl. This is based on the readings being low to the ground. Ok, I guess we can go with that. This energy follows them around and leads them into a dead end where Doogie feels something grabs him in the face.

In another part of the building, Chris and Chasey use the old flashlight trick to try and communicate. I thought we’d seen the last of this with all the shenanigans of the Ghost Hunters, but I guess this trick is making a comeback. Unscrewing the light and asking spirit energy to touch it doesn’t seem all that valid. You can say it responds on command, I say loose connection.

Another piece of evidence is Porter and Doogie reacting to what they say is a large shadow crossing the room. As they stare into a room, they both lean back as though something is coming at them. Yet again, not caught on camera. When are people going to put a camera mounted in front of them so it follows everything they see. I’m getting tired of all these reactions but nothing that shows what it was. It’s a simple fix and cameras are cheap. Put a damn GoPro on your hat or helmet and let’s see what’s going on!

The trap for the night is the EMF Tetrahedron Trap. As they all keep saying, it’s a pyramid with a Tesla coil that provides energy to all the plates that cover it. The idea is to charge the area and funnel the energy to the containment crystal on the top. It seems like a neat idea and is certainly putting out energy to charge the spirits, if such a thing is possible, but is a crystal really going to contain a spirit? Yes, we know they hold energy and get used in lots of different things from watches to computers, but is this really feasible? In a totally abstract sense it sounds like it could work, but I’m not on board with this idea actually working. Anyway, it was a Tesla coil and that alone makes it pretty cool. Plus it was built in mere minutes.

With trigger objects in hand they head out for the second part and use the flashlights again to try and play with some child spirit they found. They have flashlights and meters on the stairs and the game is to turn the lights on and off while running up and down. It looks amusing, but it’s those flashlights again. I’m always going to find that to be a suspect measure of any sort of activity.

The Pyramid trap is pushing out some energy and they get some bangs and noises, but nothing really seems to materialize. Of course, this building looks like it’s going to fall down so there will be plenty of bumps, bangs, pops and things falling from the ceiling. However, in the end, nothing seems to finds it’s way into the trap. The crystal doesn’t show any signs of energy so alas, no ghost captured this time.

They do get words being spoken on the Ovilus, but none of it seems to make sense. We get one hit related to blade so we jump right to the conclusion this has something to do with the mysterious Bonnie and her being cut with a scalpel. There we go making those leaps again.

So, another interesting location, even if we don’t have the supporting evidence of all the procedures, murders and poor treatment they claim went on. There is no history on what really happened there, nor is there anything solid on why it was closed down. The claims are coming from local residents, but nothing is coming from records or former employees. You have to take these stories with a grain of salt. Hospital care was terrible during this time period, but if you’re going to throw out stories, back them up with something. Overall, I think this place is the stuff of legend. It was a hospital, the building is creepy and people like to tell stories. I don’t think we have a lot more than that.

Other Articles of Interest:

• Ghost Asylum – Missouri State Penitentiary – S03E04
• Ghost Asylum S01E02 – Kuhn State Hospital
• Ghost Asylum – St Vincent’s Mental Asylum – S01E04
• Ghost Asylum – Old Cannon Hospital – S01E06
• Ghost Asylum S01E01
• Ghost Asylum – Hayswood Infirmary – S01E03
• Ghost Adventures – Heritage Junction – S09E06
• Ghost Adventures – Tooele Hospital – S04E26
• Ghost Adventures – Return to Tombstone – S10E09
• Looks like ghost hunting is becoming big business