“LUNATIC ASYLUM APPARITIONS AND MENTAL HOSPITAL HORRORS” #WeirdDarkness

Weird Darkness: Stories of the Paranormal, True Crime, Legends, Lore, Mysterious, Macabre, Unsolved

Mental institutions have a way of leaving their mark—whether it’s through the haunting tales of abandoned asylums, the horrifying experiences shared by patients and staff, or the disturbing reality of 19th-century facilities that turned human suffering into a spectacle.
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IN THIS EPISODE: Mental Institutions, psychiatric hospitals, lunatic asylums… whatever you want to call them, they can do good work if given the right resources and staff, helping patients to live through or possibly even overcome mental health crises. But even in the more well-funded locations, nightmares still occur according to both staff and patients. And even when those institutions are abandoned and left to rot, many refuse to release the tormented souls who have somehow found themselves entrapped there in the afterlife. We’ll look at haunted asylums, we’ll hear some horrifying true stories from both patients and workers about what happens inside asylums that are still in operation, and we’ll learn about the horrifying reality of mental asylums in the 19th century acting almost like amusement parks for paying visitors.
CHAPTERS & TIME STAMPS (All Times Approximate)…
00:00:00.000 = Disclaimer and Lead-In
00:02:09.497 = Show Open
00:03:56.527 = Madness in the Trans Allegheny Lunatic Asylum
00:17:24.295 = The Buffalo State Asylum
00:24:30.981 = Athens Asylum
00:35:07.964 = Haunted Asylums
00:45:40.412 = Psych Ward Horror Stories
01:15:16.355 = Seeing The Sights at the Psych Ward
01:24:07.805 = Show Close
SOURCES AND RESOURCES FROM THE EPISODE…
Episode Page at WeirdDarkness.com: https://weirddarkness.com/AsylumGhosts
“Madness In The Trans Allegheny Lunatic Asylum” by Katie Serena for All That’s Interesting: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/3k8t8far and Kathy Weiser-Alexander for Legends of America:https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/mryb2uv3
“Athens Asylum for the Insane” by Kathy Weiser-Alexander for Legends of America: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/mvx5kr9z
“The Buffalo State Asylum” posted at The Scare Chamber: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/2a5jacp3
“Haunted Asylums” by Christopher Myers for Ranker: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/bdt42kwa
“Psych Ward Horror Stories” by Duke Harton: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/2a4avdvz and Isadora Teich: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/57t2z279 for Ranker
“Seeing the Sights at the Psych Ward” by Christy Box for Ranker: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/mr3bn87b
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Originally aired: January 08, 2024
TRANSCRIPT: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/ypfdbvmn