The Haunting of Athens Asylum | Possessions, Torture & Dark History (Ep 227)

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Very spooky. Hello. Round two. Well, Attempt number two. This is two girls, one ghost. Why did I close my eyes? One ghost. I feel like I was praying. We are your ghostesses. God, this must work. That is Corinne. Hello. And I am Sabrina. Let us gather hands. We are gathered here today to appease you, oh wise spirits spirits above us, below us, between us, next to us, in between our toes. Please allow us to record this dang episode. This was supposed to grace your

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ears two weeks ago. June 11th is when it was supposed to come out. But alas, alas, the spirits had other plans. Plans. They're plotting against us. They're plotting against us. destruction. Maybe this episode was supposed to be to be us together. That's maybe. Yes. And maybe they were like, you know, that was a that was a B. You guys could give an A. And and we're going to. Today, right now, together, we'll get gold stars. Can I make us coffee? I know I already cooked. Yeah, sure. record, but I feel like I need a cup of coffee. Make us coffee. Okay. Give me one second. Okay. Corinne just made us coffee. I did. It felt like for above a B, we had to have some coffee. And that rhymed. Mhm. For above a B, you got to get some coffee. Ah, espresso. All right, get ready for some weird [ __ ] This is the first time you've ever heard it, but I've heard it only one time and honestly forgot it all. So, Well, I more meant because we're drinking

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Oh. It's 2:30 and we're drinking more coffee. Yes, we are. We had we we did a a split combo thing this morning with iced coffee and a dirty chai mixed Mhm. between the two of us. It was delicious. It was. And I owe everyone Well, $10. You're going to pay everyone $10. Okay, this is kind of like me making up for No, I don't have enough money to give everybody $10. how long it took for you to respond to that. If everyone could give me $10, that would be excellent. My Venmo is Corinne B. Yeah. Link right here. I'm going to insert some of the photos into the Boston Haunting Part One, which will have come out. But when we're recording this, it will it will My English is not working. Anyway, Mhm. But I I never got to tell people the name of the cat that lives in Marblehead. And his name is Fred, but they call him Snaggletooth Fred. And here are some photos. Fred. And I'll just Cute little gooshy pooshy. I'll just uh link them in link them. I'll put them

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Oh, this is why we needed a coffee. Right now. It's going to be in the video. It was probably also, if you watch in order on YouTube, it was in the Boston one already, but I realized Was it in Boston one? No. Well, I'm going to put them in cuz I'm editing it with Christina. came out last Part one. Oh, you're right. Wow. Okay, but so it's going to be here. Here. Cuz it wasn't No, I think I did send it. Honestly, I don't know. It's going to be in this video, though. I told you to get ready for some weird [ __ ] And everybody started with one sip and it got weird. We already recorded a few episodes, so in my defense, Well, my brain cell wasn't over here. We're podcast drunk. We're raising girls. You know what podcast drunk is? The definition is when you record so many podcasts in a row in one day that you literally lose your mind. Yes. Or you have no mind at all and it's just mush to begin with. It was empty. It was already mush to begin with. Ugh. Someone can send me some mushrooms to make me smarter again. I would like to be brought back to my

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my brain of 2019, please, because things have happened. Your brain was better in 2019? Oh, for sure. The past few years, downhill. Down, down, down. My eyesight, my skin, my brain, my gut, my butt. No, your butt has gotten My hair, You you you grew a real big real big donk booty. Thank you to Cheryl at exhale bar in Boston. Gave me that booty. Booty, booty, booty rocking everywhere. Okay, but boobs. Ghostly boobs are rocking everywhere in this episode. Right. So, we said this in the beginning of Did I We already said this or did I say it in the beginning of the last episode that came out last week? It's all together. We recorded this episode. It was supposed to come out audio, ghosts, hauntings. We're trying again. We're trying again. And I was really excited about this one. And you can bring that same enthusiasm to today. Thank you. You know, I actually in the last two weeks have had major transformation in my life, and so I'm coming at it with a fully different

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perspective. I love this. This is great. Not really. It's more Hey, look. You're you're you're figuring it out, and also you are wearing a sweatshirt, which is in my Saturn return, and because we love green, we, by the time this episode comes out, will have this sweatshirt in this color Yeah. Yes. Because I So, I ordered it for myself and I saw that this color wasn't an option on our store, so I made it myself and then didn't make it an option on the store. So, Corinne, I will make it an option. See, we complete each other. We do. You're like, "Green for me?" I'm like, "How about green for everyone?" Green for you. Green for me, but not money green. Venmo us. Actually, this is a really great segue really quick to tell everyone to donate to our cause. Oh, if we do a Patreon, and we have really cool things on Patreon. Do you know, seriously, let's do like a little business money corner.

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It's business. We do have Patreon. We have updated our tiers, upgraded our tiers, and we continue to add things. And more recently, we started doing campfire stories every Tuesday at 8:00 p.m. for all of the tiers. We also go live every single month for one of the tiers. We have a lot of discounted merch. We have in paranormal news, which is a specialty by weekly bonus episode. And we do a lot of other cool things on there, too. So, you can check out those tiers. And then, in addition to this, as you know, you know, the world, it's kind of tough, and marketing and advertising companies aren't spending that much money, and so you may may have noticed that we don't have that many ads. Uh for the people that have stayed and have supported us, for those sponsors, we What? What is behind us? What do you mean? Oh my god. What? It's a freaking lantern. It was Where did it go? Well, it's not It was blowing in the wind, but it was bopping up ever so slightly. I thought it was someone trying to peek their head over

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the window. Holy [ __ ] What if we No, no, no. It's a lit It's a lantern from decor from Nikita's uh That is what they want you to do. And I have beautiful mehndi on my hands. You do. But anyway, so we have on twogirlsoneghost.com, if you want to support the sponsors who have stayed and supported us, you can head over to our website. There's an an entire page that's called sponsors with all of the discounts and the links to benefit you, too, and and get some get some discounts on some really great brands. Yes. And also, So, we really do have so much fun with Patreon. We're always looking for new ways to connect with you. It's Also, if you get responses from anyone on Patreon, it's us. We respond directly to you. You have You basically have our social security numbers by joining our Patreon. We tell you a lot of things. Yeah. We're starting to do vlogs that we're going to put up on there. Yes. There's And we've got some travel plans. We've been together, and then we're going to be together a lot more soon, so hint, HINT, HINT.

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UH MAKE SURE TO LISTEN TO this podcast in the month of July, please. Check back in the next couple weeks. Hint, hint, hint. Hint, hint. I've got chills by our own hinting. Wow. I also like how our winking was not wink, wink. We went Or maybe I made the noise. Did we make it the noise together? I I think I joined in. I feel like it was an aggressive grunt. And that is how we feel. We're aggressively excited about all of the new things coming our way. I also just realized I'm aggressively chewing my gum into the microphone, so I'm so sorry. So sorry. I'm selling it for 20 bucks. Cuz we need the money. Exclusive merch on our Patreon. Put it in a plastic baggie. If you've ever wanted to clone Sabrina, now's your chance to buy some DNA for the the price of $19.99. Are we an infomercial now? Yeah. I feel like we took two sips of coffee and we haven't stopped moving. I know. We're like, There's so so much creaking and that's the sound. What is your butt

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in this coffee? I don't know. It's an espresso. We've been poisoned. Also, did you know lily of the valley is poisonous? Yeah, you told me this. Okay. I just keep thinking about it cuz everybody has it in their wedding bouquets and boutonnieres, and one of the listeners messaged me when I was holding lily of the valley and took a picture of it a few weeks ago, and she was like, "Oh, those are super poisonous." And I looked it up, and it was like, "Don't touch your mouth or eyes or things after touching lily of the valley." And I was like, "I sure as hell didn't know that." Well, you're still here, so I am. as far as we know, in this reality. So, don't ever put any lily of the valley in your coffee, in your coffee, in your mouth, or allow your children to touch it. Just admire it from afar. Yes. Look, but do not touch. So, you might be wondering, are you two okay? Cuz I'm concerned. We're great. We yes. The cow is on the ice. Well, that would be wrong. That would be bad. We don't was off the ice. was not on the ice. If you listen to

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Encounters Once 86, you would know what we're talking about. Check it out. Anyway, this episode, if if someone in the 19 60s heard this or 1860s, let's just go let's go all the way back. bit further. If they heard us talking about our grandpa, but great greats. Their great greats, but well, all the way till more recent great or more recent See? Grandpa Grandpa recently, too, cuz this story takes place through a long spectrum of time. The point is, if anyone heard this, we would probably be sent away. Mhm. I feel like we could be sent away right now, too. I spent how many weeks? 13 weeks in in a You were partially sent away. I sent myself away. You sent yourself before anyone else did, which was a really wonderful choice thing for you to do. Yes, I agree. But unfortunately, back in the day, there wasn't a whole lot of choice. Even when there was, it was not a very good choice.

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So, what follows is a list of patients, their symptoms, and their diagnoses. You keep looking in places and I'm like, you have shifty eyes right now. I'm thinking. About what? Nothing. I thought your brain was mush. It's darkness in there. The thoughts are Look over here. Now, look over there. Now, move your eyes again. That That kind of hurt my little noggin. I'm so sorry. some strong knuckles. Thank you. For moving the grease around. Moisture. little noggin up? Okay. If you're watching on YouTube, that might give you some context to what is happening. Sabrina assaulted me. I'm so sorry. And now she's checking herself in. The cycle continues. Damn, I thought I was trying TO BREAK IT. OKAY. OH, GOD. SO, WHAT FOLLOWS IS A list of patients, their symptoms, and their diagnoses. And please note, these

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are real, but I don't take the They are not serious to me at this moment. This is takes place in the 1800s. Yes, yes. We may We may have thought seriously about these things in the 1800s and thought that they were true. But not now. A 14-year-old girl experiencing seizures, possessed. A man claiming to be the second coming of Jesus Christ, insane. A woman experiences dissipation, is spending wastefully and wasting activity, insane. A man consumed by masturbation, insane. Recommended treatments for all four, torture. Laughing was not the appropriate response. I said it in a I said it in a very strange way. These are real diagnoses and treatments recorded by the medical staff at Athens Asylum in Athens, Ohio, or what was the Athens Asylum. Except they did not call it torture, they called it medical aid, and it was believed to be cutting edge.

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For hysterical women. Yes. And and men, all the above. And this is a story that we have talked about quite a bit in the history of our podcast, in the history of mental institutions, in the mental health field. A lot of mental asylums, which are The word asylum is literally seeking aid, Mhm. ended up being places of torture, horrific treatment, and all together pretty awful livelihoods for a lot of people. Yeah. How sad is that? And I feel like, not to get dark, but I feel like we still see that a lot with people seeking asylum and it's like, you some of the greatest horrors you face is in those moments of either being rejected or falsely being convinced that you will be taken care of and helped. Yeah. There's a lot of elderly in that position. There are also a lot of people who, yeah, aren't able to take care of themselves and are handed over to others and not treated as if they are

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human in the same way that we are. All that to say, this is a story we have heard many times. What occurred at Athens Asylum is not a new revelation to us, to our podcast, to history, but it is true and it has happened and it did happen. And so, it is no wonder that a place like Athens Asylum that operated for as many years as it did is now one of the most haunted places in the world. So, this is the history, the horror, and the haunts of Athens Asylum. It has gone by many, many names over the years and today is known as The Ridges and is part of Ohio University. Yep. We've heard about that. And you covered in an episode. Yes. And don't quiz me on anything. And it's funny because we just did this 2 weeks ago, so you probably should have re-listened to that episode. But for the sake of the story, I'm just going to call it Athens Asylum. And I want to thank Eric, one of our

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Patreon donors and loyalist old members. Also, probably will win the award of MHF, Most Haunted Friend. Oh, we should do an awards We should do an awards ceremony. You know I want to do the awards ceremony. We should also do like a rewards program for our podcast. Like, if you prove that you've listened to however many episodes in a year, you get 20% off of merch. If you call into Campfire Stories from the middle of the woods like 10 times? 10 times? If you If you bring in Most Haunted Friend. If you bring in three new MHFs, Most Haunted Friend. We need to start like, what what do you say? Most Haunted Friend? Most Haunted MHF. But The MHF Awards. No, but we there was a group. Haunted Friend Group, HFG. Was that it? Oh, yes. HFG. And we're going to start merch for that. We

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should. And Most Haunted Friend. And Most Haunted It's going to be We're going to do a couple. We're going to do a lot. I forgot what I was going to say. Oh, bring everyone bring your friends, basically. You know how the triangle works. Hang out. But thank you to Eric for recommending this topic. And then, I, you know, despite having done it, I had this really big realization in probably the last 10 hours of us recording this that I'm glad that I actually get to say this again because people know that I had recently done I mean, I've said this before on the podcast in the end of 2022, beginning of 2023, I did an intensive outpatient trauma treatment. And it has made me in reflection and doing well, like the experience was absolutely amazing. Like, you know, not the trauma that I went through, but the fact that I was able to find a program that was so healing for me and accessible for me is just I think in comparison to this story

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really, really remarkable and makes me really happy for how far the mental health field has come and that I was not going through the things that I was going through and at the lowest point that I was in in a time like this because yeah, I without that treatment, without Tab, called Trauma and Beyond, I don't know where I would be right now. So, I'm very, very grateful. It's a sad reality for so, so many people in the past when we talk about asylums. Even I mean, think about like the witch trials, just anything like that. And it does make me curious what I My hope is that it continues to progress like you were saying, like you're so grateful that you live in this time, but my hope is that in another 100 years, Yeah. people couldn't even imagine being here. Yeah. And also like, I'm fortunate enough to have been able to afford that treatment. It's not cheap, but I do want to say to anyone and everyone, even if you're not struggling, you are loved, you are cared for, we love you, and

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there is aid, there are avenues for help, and there are people who want to help you. So, please know that there are resources and there are places that can help you financially if that resource is too expensive. So, I hope you know you're not alone and that there are places that can help you. And if you need resources, we'll link a couple in the show notes. But then also, you can reach out. If you want to know more about Tab specifically, I'm happy to talk about it. Anyway, love mental health nowadays. Glad it was not I'm not existing in this time of the 1800s. Because in the early 19th century America, mental health care was pretty nonexistent. Those in need of care or assistance were often sent to prisons, almshouses, or barely poorly taken care of by their families just because they didn't they weren't equipped. They didn't understand how to take care of the mentally ill. Or it was blamed on your perversions for your mother. Exactly. Freud. Which there

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is some truth to that, but just different types of perversions. Yes. The treatments in these facilities or at home were pretty awful. There was bloodletting, purging, and eventually lobotomies and shock therapy. I almost think bloodletting sounds worse than a lobotomy. I think of like Game of Thrones and stuff and how they just thought bloodletting would heal like any ailment. Mhm. And it's just They're all terrible. But anything odd or medically unknown was pretty much placed into the category of insanity. So, like those examples I gave in the very beginning, this young girl was having seizures because she was epileptic. But because epilepsy was not known or studied, it was then she thought that she was possessed because anything that they didn't know must be something in you know, religion was a is and has always been a really big part of society. And so if it was

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something we didn't understand that looked scary, therefore it must have been a possession of something dark demonic, whatever it may be. Intemperance or a lack of restraint was insanity. Dissipation or wasteful spending and wasteful activities was insanity. In just one year at Athens Asylum, the year 1876 specifically, 81 men and one woman were diagnosed as insane caused by masturbation. 56 men and one woman were deemed insane caused by intemperance or dissipation. I do wonder with the masturbation thing, what their threshold was. Doing it at all? Doing it once a month? I imagine that for the woman it was probably just doing it once. Yeah. And getting caught. For men much of the treatment was doctors giving that to women anyway. Yeah, that's really sad. I don't know if it was the 1800s, but I mean it wasn't consensual treatment if that wasn't like above board that was happening behind closed doors. 51 women

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in 1876 were diagnosed insane after giving birth, which today we know as postpartum and still is a mental illness that is still like just being recognized really and being discussed and treated as it should be in America. Correct. 32 women were diagnosed insane caused by menopause. 29 women were insane because of menstrual derangements. There were also many incorrectly diagnosed patients who had disabilities that also were not understood at the time. Basically, we can all agree it was a very [ __ ] up time. And the treatments were barbaric. Which is very easy to say now looking back at it all, but during the time medical professionals, scientists, people involved in that world thought that they were changing the world. And to some degree, I mean it's hard. It's like to some degree today there there are shock therapy treatments that are extremely helpful and valuable. Which maybe they would not have existed without any type of experimentation in

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it, but at least now they're monitored and it's not just like let's crank up crank up the dial and it's not let's use it on every single person. It's case-by-case scenario. It's not one-size-fits-all. It's And now we have so many different medical devices and sensors and whatnot that you can actually monitor someone's physical response to that and understand how to fix their brain, their body, their heart. Whereas before it was literally just let's electrocute them and see what happens. That's get them to shut up and if they don't cry in the middle of the night anymore, we've healed them. Wait, can I just say Maybe. I was watching a TikTok and there was this woman who was like here's my tip for all of you first-time gardeners. Oh. And I believe it was squash or maybe it was pumpkin. She had planted one of these plants too close to an electric fence on her property that had grown into the fence. And so even if she was trying to pull some of the

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vegetables from further back from the fence like away and into the yard, the electrical current from the fence went through the entire plant and would shock her like like a horse electric fence. So she had to wear rubber gloves to basically That's a thing? Yes. Her vegetables were conduits? Yeah, they shocked her. So be warned. Even your pumpkins can try to kill you. The case of the killer pumpkins. Wow. Thank you. I that I had no idea where you were going with that. Okay. fence, there there you know. Whoa, there you know. There you know. Okay, so Athens County, Ohio, which is where Athens Asylum eventually was built, has a very spooky history and I won't go too too far into it, but there's a lot of spooky spots in Athens, Ohio. But back

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in the day before Athens Asylum was ever built, it is said that there was a family, the Coons family, who was known throughout all of Athens had erected a spirit room in Athens where they would conduct seances. Ugh. Yes. It's so wild to think. I mean I think it's partially our dream to to be brought up in a really family that has some of this stuff happen, but it is really interesting to think of a family just consciously being like this is our room instead of being like oh, we need a home office here and and we need a walk-in food pantry. Like that would be nice. It's like the seance room. room. It's also, you know, during the time of spiritualism there was a lot of shifts in True. society at the time. People trying to deal with death and it was commonplace basically in the 1800s. But that's all to say that Athens, Ohio already has a pretty spooky undertone. The soil is fertilized with spirits before it is The killer pumpkins. The killer pumpkins. That is the lay of the land. Enter

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Athens Asylum. It was built in 1874 and this building is stunning. We'll insert a photo here. It screams drama. Drama. And also beautiful. It also screams prom. Because Prom photos. Uh because high schoolers take prom photos outside of Athens Asylum which I can see why. It's beautiful. It's very Victorian Gothic style. If you ignore everything that happened there, Yes. perfect prom photo. you're not thinking about that. No. You're thinking about where's the after-party? And also let's be real. I think all of us who are here either love ghost stories or history or both and there's a lot of people that are interested in none of that. So we can't just assume that everybody in the town and everyone who goes there does all the research and knows everything about these buildings. Like there's even us just walking down the street. Like the majority of the time we have no idea. I probably post on

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my Instagram story all the time places that horrendous things take place, but I don't know they're haunted. I didn't Google that address as I walked by. I just took a picture of the building. Actually, when I was in Whitehall, New York, I took a picture on the bridge and there's this beautiful home sticking out of the woods and it's famously haunted. I had no idea. Multiple people messaged me and were like that building is haunted. And it's a museum as well. Yes, it's some guy's house turned museum because I had seen it cuz I was tracking where you were going and I had actually clicked on that landmark. Yeah, I'm always don't add me on Find My Friends cuz I will watch you. Not on TikTok but on Find My Friends. when I leave every location. It's just like Sabrina's on the move. Notified. But yeah, so it was built in the high Victorian Gothic style. It's stunning. Towers, the white accents on the windows and like the verandas. It is also built in the Kirkbride plan, which is a pretty common building style for mental institutions. It has staggered bat wing

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floors. For some reason it reminds me of a gingerbread house. It does have that. There's something about the icing. Yeah, something about Victorian buildings are very gingerbread. Yeah. Mhm. Yeah. So Kirkbride plan, it's basically the main building has a central administration building. One wing extends to the right. That one was for women and then to the left was a wing for men and both of them had their own dining halls. So there basically was no cross I almost said contamination. No crossover between men and women. The main building was 853 feet long, 60 feet wide and was set to house 572 patients. That is what Athens Asylum planned for. 572 patients. Which was actually double the amount that the Kirkbride plan was actually intended to house. So already they were planning for overcrowding. Okay, should we do you know the actual do you have the actual number of how many people were there? I will get there. Okay, well let's have let's take

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a moment. This is like when you get to guess how many bubble gum balls bubble balls bubble balls things are in that jar. And it can here's a jar. Guess how many items are in here. This is what I'm trying to say. tough thing is that over the like I don't know specifically how many were in there when it opened because over the years it expanded so much that I do have at a point in my story a number from one point of time. Okay. But it was also when there were way more buildings. Okay. But as with most of these stories about mental institutions, overcrowding was like on the list of red flags, overcrowding is like really high up there. You can pretty much guarantee that that it happened everywhere. Yes. I haven't heard of an asylum where it didn't. I agree. When it first opened, it consisted of 141 acres and over the years grew to be 1,000 acres and 78 buildings. It was first named Athens Lunatic Asylum and opened on January 9th, 1874. The very first patients were a 14-year-old girl diagnosed as possessed when she actually had epilepsy

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and a man named Daniel Freeman who believed he was the coming the second coming of Jesus Christ. Mhm. It then went on to house men, women, children, homeless, rejects, unwanted children, rebellious children, disobedient wives. I'm saying disobedient wives in quotations because ah. How dare you say no to your husband? Whoa. Civil War veterans and violent criminals. The hospital went through 10 plus name changes. A lot of them included words that we should never use. Yeah. Ooh. So Athens Asylum is how we shall continue. I have this photo of opening day. It doesn't it kind of remind you of Hogwarts. the Shining. The Shining. got the Hogwarts vibe in the I well I've never I haven't been to the Stanley Hotel, but I guess sort of. But you've seen the photo from the movie, no? From The Shining? Yeah, like the end they Yeah, I'll show you later. Okay. We'll put it side by side here. This child looks like a doll, doesn't Is it a doll? It's a child. Oh, which is

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like why is there a child? It's basically a photo of the staff on the opening day. Mhm. Ooh, look we have got a bent neck lady in the second row. Huh. A few over from the center. or a portrait of a man in front row. Yeah. How beautiful. Now for bachelor parties and bachelorettes we put people's heads on popsicle sticks. And back in the day they did that too, it's just they framed them and brought them with them. But we just don't know who that is. Humans are really just never truly change. We just alter how we do things. So, the 1800s of Athens Asylum marked a decade-long endeavor. There's a fly. In case people are like what is Corinne doing? Is she okay? There's two. Oh, they are. They're really circling. They're mating, I think. Don't mate on us. I caught zero of them, but that thing ran away fast. one right next to me. You know what's creepy about this is that I and I told you this yesterday, but Doctor Sleep,

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which is like the sequel to Shining in the movie he talks about how when people were going to die he saw flies circling their faces before like for days before. And I hate that you're telling me this before I'm getting on a flight. Well, you're not It's only me and they're fruit flies. They were just all over my face. they're all over my face. And it Okay, it's I take it back. Must we both die? Yes, of course, together. Yes. Okay. So, the beginning days of Athens Asylum or years I guess I should say is this decade-long endeavor called Healing Landscape. And so this like actually opened with really really good intentions. It was all about building a healing community with access to the outdoors and fresh air and they built ponds and farms and livestock working fields. They had boats and gardens and it was this very beautiful self-functioning community. That the patients would go spend many day much of their time outside. They would interact and they would almost live a normal life but within the

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confines of this facility. Mhm. Sounds great. But then it became more of a place to keep and house the mentally insane. And then by the early 1900s it became more of a hands-on care and research-based facility. Lots of red flags coming up. If If you didn't get that, I'm going to spell it out. Red flag, red flag, red flag. Yeah, cuz that means they got way more leeway with what sort of practices they were doing cuz in the in the name of research Yep. It's like let's try all these barbaric practices before there was a lot of structure and rules around what you could do and patient safety. Exactly. So, by the 1950s they were housing over 1800 patients and forcing upon them many cruel experimental treatments. We're talking hydrotherapy, electroshock, lobotomies. And then after experiencing one of those, if not all three of those, they

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were allowed art therapy. Oh. After the fact. Well. So At the very least at least they had art therapy. Corinne, just warning to you because last time we recorded this, which no one will see, you did get a little bit faint when I started talking about one of these things. going to lay right here. Honestly, I should because I actually almost fainted. You did. You did. It was true. But now it's not your first time hearing it. Doesn't matter. Hopefully that helps. Okay. So, just to give a little bit You're like not even in frame. Let people watch your reaction. Let's Here, if I slump I won't hit my head cuz there's pillows on the side over here. Okay. So, hydrotherapy I'm just giving like a brief rundown of what things were. Hydrotherapy is they would wrap the patients in sheets so they could not move and they would place them in ice baths for extended periods of time. Some patients would even be there would be an electrical current submit like emitted through the water to treat them.

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So if you own a a hair dryer or any machine of a kind any kind that plugged into the wall you know that they come with a tag that says do not drop in water or do not use near water water because you will die if it falls while you're in the water. You know, the the only time I ever got a 100% on a creative writing essay was in high school. I wrote sophomore year English class, I wrote a story about this woman who witnessed someone like try to save him on the streets of New York City, but he got hit by a car and then later his spirit arrived to her apartment and it like kind of flashes forward and goes into moments of time. But anyway, they fall in love. She can't be with him, he's a ghost. And in the end she slips into her bath, made her decision. Isn't this kind of like Just Like Heaven? I've never seen Just Like Heaven, but apparently a couple years later, I think Grey's Anatomy did that as a storyline. So, Shonda Rhimes. Pay up. Corinne's Venmo.

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$20. It's all you have to give. all she wants. Otherwise, they would do electroshock with brine-soaked electrodes being placed directly on the temple. So, I feel like a lot of people if you've seen Clockwork Orange or any of those types of movies, films, TV shows, it's like the you know, the thick nodules and then Some people hate the word moist. Brine is that for me. So, it would be placed directly on the temple and then they would just shock. They'd turn up the voltage and this is just another place where I want to clarify that today there there are forms of electroshock therapy, but they are very controlled. They are very specifically used after consideration and a lot of thought. And then there were lobotomies Oh, this is the part where I Yeah. It's like why are you getting up now? Cuz that was I was like oh, maybe I forgot. I'm going to put my feet up too so I actually get circulation. Athens Asylum was pretty famous for their lobotomies. It started out as opening patient's skulls and opening their

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neural passages midway through the brain. It killed a lot of patients that they did this to and those who did survive had some pretty awful side effects. Terrible memory issues, decline of quality of life. And if that wasn't a warning doctors continued to do this and actually they were like uh it's just taking too much time. How can we make this quicker? So, they invented This is where Corinne is going to I'm going to be fine this time. Last time I actually almost fainted. This time I'm fine. I'm prepared. You can continue. It's It doesn't make it any less gross. Yeah. They developed the metal ice pick instrument called a leucotomy. Keep in mind, there's no anesthesia for this. So, before using this tool, ice pick basically, the patients were knocked out with electroshock therapy. I pray that. Yeah, but they were shocked. But this is so effed up. They're shocked to an extent that they pass out and then they insert this tool

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into the back of their eyelid and use a mallet to tap it into the brain and then saw it back and forth severing the neural receptors. I hope no one's driving while they listen to this. I feel like we gave them plenty of warning based on my reaction. God, it's so awful. If If you're watching on YouTube, there there'll be a photo of what What? A a a video of me performing the operation on Me? patient Corinne. No, just of the device. It's a drawing. Okay. It is said that this method was used to quote-unquote soothe up to 20 patients a day. And then there was also questionable psychotropic They're also questionable drugs like LSD and acid used on patients. And a lot of patients died at the hands of the hospital staff and were then buried on property grounds marked only by numbered stones. So sad when that happens, especially cuz they know who those people are. It's not like they're recovering all of these

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dead bodies from a war and there's no way to identify them. They know who they are. And it Yeah, it's heartbreaking. And because they did not record their names and their records were not well kept these graves it it has taken a lot of work and I'm going to give a shout-out to the National Alliance on Mental Illness organization who has spent a lot of time at mental institutions and graveyards of mental hospitals trying to identify and properly document and identify the graves of people at facilities like this. Snaps for them. Because of that, today there are 1,930 recorded graves of men, women, and children at Athens Asylum. At the time there were no names on the team tombstones, just numbers. The state of Ohio and NAMI, National Alliance on Mental Illness, has done a lot of work on restoring these grave sites and families and with the help of families

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have taken to marking their loved ones' graves. There because of all the turnover and this land belonging to the hospital and then to the state and then to Ohio University, there was a lot of vandalism. There is it's very likely that a lot of gravestones that were numbered and marked were destroyed and so there are there's a high chance that a lot of graves are unmarked and therefore names are not known. Or bodies are not known. Mhm. on the land. I did find actually a directory for the Athens Psychiatric Hospital and it is 763 pages long, but it has the names, patient numbers, birth and death dates, and as much history as is possibly known. Wow. Which will So many places don't have that. Well, it didn't. This is This was done by by this program, yeah. So, but if you're interested, uh cuz you know, we're not going to read 763 pages, but at least I'm really glad, like you said, that this exists. Mhm. Um so, if anyone's interested,

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they've done a lot of work to try to find information about these people. By the 1950s, more modern psychiatric medicine became available, and Wow, again, evolution of medical aid, a lot of these drugs were given to patients, again, turning them more catatonic and numbing them, rather than actually helping them. It was very skillful. I picked it up with my toes. toesies. By 1972, the very last patients who had died at the asylum were buried, and by 1981, there were only 300 patients at Athens Asylum. Finally, eventually, the land was decommissioned. All the remaining patients were sent to other hospitals, and the land was then given to Ohio University, and by 1993, Athens Asylum was officially closed. It's I feel myself being so torn during so many of the stories that involve buildings where businesses were, because part of me is like, yes, great,

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reuse what we have, don't continue to like build and expand and take over and be like little parasitic humans that we are. So, I'm glad that these buildings get new lives, but at the same time, I'm like, oh, the darkness that happened here, and then we're like, bring in the college kids. Yeah. Or turn it into a wedding venue. Those seem to be the two things that happen. It is tough, cuz it's like, yeah, there are pros and cons to, you know, reusing those bottle those bottles. What? Reduce, reuse, recycle. There are pros and cons, is basically what I'm saying. But, Ohio University has since remodeled and repurposed the buildings. The main hall is now called Lynn Hall and houses the music, geology, and biotech offices, and also has the Kennedy Museum of Art. There are offices, classrooms, museums, housing, and etc. It is now called the Athens Ridges, which I think that's what you covered. Or you covered Ohio University. Ohio University. If you have the buildings, so the Ridges was in it. Yes. Almost all of the buildings have been

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renovated, because when they moved in, like, a lot of the buildings were pretty poor. There's like, you know, lead in the paint, but there was one building, cottage It was cottage B. It was one of the seven cottages used for patients with tuberculosis when the uh the hospital was in operation, or the asylum. Mhm. And when they went into this particular cottage, they found that the walls and ceiling were packed with asbestos, which is so not even ironic, it's just so sad to think about this building was used for people with tuberculosis, and the living environment and living conditions of these patients actually exponentially like harmed them exponentially. Yeah. Yeah. It's like, oh, you're having trouble with your lungs? Let me make sure that you can't breathe 24/7. Yeah. A lot of the other cottages were renovated and now are used on the campus. It may have closed its door to new patients, but there are plenty of patients that still roam the land today,

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because Athens Asylum {slash} Ridges today is perhaps the most haunted place, if not most haunted place, it is definitely the most haunted asylums, one of, in America. So, there are two very well-known stories of patients that are that had been held at Athens Asylum. One, the first one, embodies They both They're both horrifying. They embody the horror of what occurred at Athens Asylum. Mhm. But, the first one. In 1977, Billy Milligan was sent to Athens Asylum after committing several felonies, including armed robbery and several rapes on the Ohio State campus. His attorney was able to claim that Billy had multiple personalities, and that his other personalities were responsible for the crimes. Oh. So, it's basically the Jekyll and Hyde argument. And kind of I was thinking the movie Split, cuz that's way more recent. Psychologists diagnosed him with multiple personality disorder and

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claimed that he had suffered from it from early childhood. He was sent to state hospitals, Athens being one of them, and was determined to have had 11 personalities. He was acquitted for those crimes Oh. because of his Oh, you're What? You moved the screen. Oh, sorry. I was like, what is happening? My toe was just playing with the cord. Just want to make sure people don't think I need a fidget spinner in my hand, or else my toes start wandering looking for something. coffee sweats. He was then Put YOUR TOES DOWN. HE WAS THEN acquitted for his crimes, which means he got away with these crimes. He was a very Billy Milligan's case was the very first case where multiple personality disorder was used as a defense and actually successfully worked. Wow. Milligan spent 10 years of his life in mental institutions, and then was discharged and died at a nursing home. So, not to discredit any mental illness, but when it comes to raping and harming

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others, despite the mental illness, there should be repercussions longer than a couple years in a mental facility. Cuz you should be able to be receiving the treatment you need for your mental illness, while also having accountability for your for your actions. Yes. Mhm. Agreed. Just 1 year later, after Billy Milligan's case, came a very, very tragic death that has literally left a stain on Athens Asylum. This is a story of Margaret Schilling. Margaret was a patient of Athens Asylum, but on December 1st of 1978, she disappeared. People looked for her. There was a search of some kind. I don't know how extensive it was. Did people Maybe you don't know this, but people who were there, did they have access to being outside? I don't think.

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I don't think unless it was like monitored. Okay. Her body was discovered 42 days later, on January 12th, 1979, in a locked and long-abandoned ward. Doctors claimed she had died of heart failure, but I have a whole lot of questions to present to you. First of all, how did she wind up inside a locked room? Mhm. Not locked from the inside, but locked from the outside. Two, and this is the most glaring question, and one that you would not have been able to ask, because I didn't give this information to you until right now. When she was found, she was discovered naked, and her clothing was folded neatly beside her. So, how is that? Why? Three, how was it that she just so happened to wander off, die of heart failure in one of the very few rooms that was abandoned and no longer in use in the building? Yeah. Suspicious. Because it's one thing she could have,

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you know, wandered off Mhm. and had a heart attack, but the fact the the coincidence and the chances the likelihood of her actually doing so in a hidden, secret, unused room that then is locked from the outside, it's just It does feel like there's a lot of nefarious activity that would have to involve someone who worked at the hospital, but to play devil's advocate for just a moment, I do wonder if what their access to the outside looked like, and if it was something where, you know, it's like the classic like prison escapes, too, where people do observe what's around them for prolonged periods of time, and I do wonder if perhaps she made some deal, whether it was with someone who worked at the hospital, or just a deal with a made a plan to escape with someone else, like another patient, and perhaps that patient didn't have the full understanding of what they were doing Like, maybe she was supposed to be hidden away there, and that was the plan,

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and they locked her in, and there was nothing she could do at that point. But, it is odd like that. Why would she take her clothes off, fold them neatly next to her, and then right there fall and have a heart attack? That is That is very strange. That doesn't really make sense. It doesn't. So, unfortunately, despite our suspicions, and her death was ruled a result of natural causes, of a heart attack. Mhm. It does make me wonder how many others had gone missing, or their deaths were recorded as something when they actually were perhaps a cover-up of something. I also wonder, too, because I know that with I know that with insurance companies and life insurance policies and whatnot, if someone dies, depending on what their what's ruled as their death, it involves what happens to the plan after. And so, not necessarily completely applicable to this, but I do wonder if there was something with the hospital and the police and the autopsy and all of this, where the death had to be recorded as something like a heart attack,

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to ensure that they still got their funding, or they still got something. I don't know. Basically, corruption to keep them out of trouble. Either way, it's effed up. Yes. But, this is where the stain comes in. When Margaret's body was removed, there was a stain left behind, which is pretty expected. She Her body had been there for 42 days. So, with decay, bloating, natural human decomposition, that makes sense. I do wonder how they didn't smell her. Another question. Well, I mean, it's a long-abandoned ward, maybe. I don't know. Regardless. Yeah. So, her body had been decaying. Cleaning crews cleaned the room and they came back a day later and they were like, "Huh, that's strange. We cleaned this up yesterday." The stain was back. So, they cleaned it again. And the next day, that stain was back. No matter how many times they cleaned it, no matter how they tried to clean it, this stain continued to return. To this day, that stain remains. They

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continued to try to clean it and no matter what, regardless, the stain returns. So, Margaret, people theorize Margaret is making sure people do not forget what happened to her. It's not only her stain on the land, but her spirit is also there. Wow. She has been seen staring down from windows. And this is also when it comes to ghost stories, it's hard to know like, "Oh, it's 100% Margaret." There are a lot a lot There were 763 pages almost 2,000 patients recorded to be buried on this ground. So, it could be a number of spirits. That could be, but the stain definitely does. yes. Yes. That's absolutely attributed to her. And it does remind me of two things. One, the bleeding house that we covered with One Strange Thing. And then also, when we did our live show in New Brunswick, the person who owns the Stress Factory had a story to tell about his dad. a bleeding stain of his own in Cape Cod

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that's attributed to his dad's spirit. And like, no matter how many times they paint it It keeps coming back. Yeah. That brings up so many questions like, is it a glitch? Is it just the spirit continuing to leave their mark? Or is it just like this exact moment continuously happening over and over throughout time cuz it was so powerful? I do not know. But they have seen who they believe were that has been accredited to Margaret's spirit staring down from windows. She's been seen running as if attempting to escape. She's been wandering the building at at night. Again, could be various spirits. Other former patients are also said to remain in the buildings. There are reports from visitors seeing strange figures standing in empty wings of the former hospital, hearing disembodied voices, squeaking gurneys, seeing strange lights, and hearing screams echoing from the walls. There's also a rumor that patients were shackled in the basement during the time of the asylum

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operating. I don't know if that's true, but to this day people report hearing like chains and screaming from the basement. There are also shadows in the cemetery. And most people agree that the spirits are the result of patients who were so poorly treated. And then there's also And I say this only because it's something that I saw in my research, but I don't necessarily believe it. There's a legend of witches. Apparently, there's a set of gravestones that like form a circle and a legend was formed that witches would meet and perform rituals in that circle. It does kind of feel a little bit like Hocus Pocus to me where it's like, "Oh, this this land is super haunted. Let's throw in another legend that happens." Scaring everyone with this like one thing. And also, satanic panic. Exactly. Yeah. Yes. Unfortunately or fortunately, actually, not many investigators paranormal investigators have been able to explore the buildings because no overnights are allowed. It's not open for like ghost tours. No trespassing is really allowed overnight. You There's

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security on property that would kick you out if you were, you know, vandalizing or breaking in. Well, apparently, there was an old ward that was abandoned that university hadn't changed into like something else. People were trespassing so much that eventually they were like, "We're tearing down this building because like it's just we have no idea what to do with it yet and we can't continue to have people Yes. There is a man, P.J. Rogers, who posted this on the Haunted Athens, Ohio website. He said he was in Athens in 1999 checking out the campus college for their oldest son and stopped to eat at a restaurant down below in the front of the building. As they left to go to the car, they decided to walk closer to the building and strolled around it. As they approached, they thought they saw a disheveled middle-aged woman in a window on the second floor looking down at us. They had a very eerie feeling and didn't find out the history of the building until much later, but they believe now that they had seen a spirit looking down at them. Everyone agrees that there is a very

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oppressive feeling at the building. Mhm. Um it makes it hard to breathe in certain places. I can imagine. of disembodied screams. One nurse who apparently had worked in the electroshock therapy ward during its operation claimed that sometimes during treatments, she didn't know if she was hearing living patients or deceased patients. god. That is horrifying. So, it's quite literally it's more than a stain. It's like the pain just echoes throughout this entire place. Yeah. Yeah. It's really really sad. There are some people who have recorded EVPs. There's a group called Ohio Exploration and they I don't know if they did like an overnight or what they did or how they got in there, if it was allowed or not, but they did record some EVPs and I'll post a link if people want to listen to them. I don't know if we have the rights to play them. So, if people want to listen to them, we'll include a link. Today, there are walking tours every third Sunday of the month and they add

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more in the month of October, but it is not a paranormal tour. It is a very much like a historical walk-through this beautiful campus and it is very much a functioning working building owned by Ohio State University. And we also will put the digital archives cuz there is like there were I kind of want to show you. Let's see. Okay. There So, there's like a link for hospital accidents archive and it has like actual imagery of documents from Athens State Hospital. Oh. Like this one is from February 19th, 1911 from Ward 17 and it says a patient, which their name is redacted, very much disturbed, secluded for 12 hours, shows no resistance. And then there's This reminds me of Remember one of the one of our listeners sent to our PO box old documents. old documents. Yeah. From I I don't know if they were technically trespassing Yeah. or what. No, I think I think the place

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had shut down and and someone they knew was on the team removing items and Oh, was it? I you know, I could be making that up. Okay. Somehow we have documents. There's like a bunch about like food fights. This one caused bruise around right eye caused by blow from another patient. Tyrum. And then there was one that was like, "Won't eat, refusing to eat." And like because of that was Sad. Yeah, sent into seclusion. Jeez. But there are a lot of documents like that um in the digital archive of I think Ohio State University has them about Athens Asylum specifically, but there is a lot if you want to continue to read. Sad. That is the history, horror, and haunts of Athens Asylum. Wow. That was excellent. That was It's like you've never heard it before. I've never heard And you know what? My brain really did feel like I was hearing it for the first time. I'm very glad.

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Very glad to hear that. I feel like the last time we recorded it was so much longer because I resaid the same things 100 times, so. I was way more concise. Perfect. You got a It was last time it was a B and it's an A+ today. And I stripped. I'm getting hot and sweaty. It really is hot. It is just interesting hearing all of that about the past and then now knowing that there's so many college kids and probably the majority of paranormal activity that happens like here moving forward Black cat again. Can I go say hi? But here moving forward is just probably seen by 20-year-olds. Okay. I have two stories for us from Ohio University. This is exactly what you're saying, that a lot of students you know, just experience things. Actually, okay. All right. The first one is from Kate. Hello, Two Girls One Ghost. Hi. I've just started listening to your podcast at work and I want to tell you my experience with what me and my

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roommate at the time called our quote French ghost. Ooh. Ooh. Ooh. Ooh. Ooh. I don't know any of the words I said. I'm just repeating what I hear. So, a little background on my freshman year dorm. I lived in Washington Hall with my roommate at the time. There are a few ghost stories that are particular to Ohio University. There are five graveyards around the university and the city of Athens and when connected, they form a pentagram over Wilson Hall, a residence hall on West Green that has had its fair share of activity. During fall semester, she was away a lot, the roommate, for marching band. So, I spent several nights and days alone. No big deal. The first month went by without any activity, but as October rolled around, while marching band was in full swing, I came home to my first of many experiences.

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Yep. The first experience happened while I was alone one afternoon. I was laying in bed. I had the bottom bunk watching TV and while the bricks of the dorm aren't exactly soundproof, it is never so bad that you can hear everything that comes from the hallway. Anyway, I was watching TV when to my left, the wall adjoining the hallway outside of my room, I heard what sounded like a garden rake being dragged inside the bricks down the length of my bed. What? The sound was absolutely horrible, worse than nails on a chalkboard. It was like dragging, high-pitched whine of multiple prongs just dragged on painted bricks and it came from inside of the brick. I tried to recreate this with a friend as a way to sort of debunk it, but the sound never was the same. When it actually happened, it was loud and it sounded like it was happening right next to my ear. But when I recreated it, the sound was muted and more of an echo. There was no comparison between the two. Along with the raking noise, me and my roommate both heard on multiple occasions what sounded like a heavy ball

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being rolled on the floor above us. According to the ghost stories from Washington Hall specifically, a basketball team visited Ohio University and stayed in the Washington Hall. Which you covered. Yes, which I thought you had covered. Which But apparently I did. Common confusion. I think it's because we did unintentionally a sports-themed episode when we were both researching and I had done baseball and you did basketball, so that's why I think that was a different story, but you It was. It was, but I think I attribute basketball now with you. With me. Oh, thank you. Yes. I attribute most things with you. It's like how do you know you're in love? You see things that are small and you think of them every day. Oh my gosh. Our anniversary is coming up. It is. On their way home, there was an accident and nobody survived. It was said that the team now haunts Washington Hall's attic and plays with basketballs by rolling them along the floor and running up and down the hall.

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Fast forward later, my roommate was at class from around 8:00 a.m. to sometime in the late afternoon. Her schedule didn't give her time to come back to the dorm between, so I know that this was not her. I came back to our room after my morning that bleeds into the early afternoon and when I got home, one of my framed pictures was off of the wall. It was laying face up 10 ft away from my bed and at this point we had taken our beds down from being bunks and mine was against the wall facing the outside. Hers was adjacent to mine, so neither bed was on the wall where the raking noise was heard. If it had simply fallen off of the wall, it would have landed on my bed face down most likely. But instead, it was laying several feet away face up. It looked like it had jumped off of the wall and completely missed my bed. It freaked me out so much that I called my roommate and asked her if she'd done it or just something to explain this. Mhm. I put the picture back up on the wall. It was hung up by command tape and made sure to check it for the next few days. Probably about 3 days later, I came home to find other

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pictures of mine as well as a large poster of my roommates on the floor in the same way as the previous. I hate your decor. Redecorating, throwing it off the wall. Interesting though that it seems to only have changed after they changed the layout of their beds, so perhaps this ghost was way more fond of the bunk bed layout. Huh. And now the new thing is like there's too much room, there's too much wall decor, not into it. Yeah. Who knows? It was several feet away from where it was on the wall and all of them were face up. Again, I asked my roommate if she did something or had something to do with it and she continued to say she had nothing to do with this. So, onto the reason why we nicknamed our ghostly roommate French ghost. One Friday night in October, me and my roommates were in our room and we decided to watch Nightmare Before Christmas on my Xbox 360. We turned it on and it played for about 45 minutes before we both paused it and started listening to the movie more directly. At some point in the 45 minutes when we were watching, the

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language switched to French. When the movie started, it was 100% on English, but at some point it switched over to French, but neither of us were listening close enough to pick up on it. I could chalk this up to a glitch in the movies or the Xbox, but with everything else that happened previously in the semester, I just couldn't pass it off as nothing. After our experience with the movie switching languages, nothing else happened to either of us or at least that we noticed. Mhm. The activity went quiet and we finished off freshman year without any more visits from our third roommate. But if you're interested in researching Ohio University's hauntings, definitely check out which I think we did all of these if not Yeah. the majority of them on the episode, The Ridges, formerly Athens Asylum and The Stain Mhm. Wilson Hall on West Green, the five graveyards around Athens, Ohio and Strouds Run. There are several others, but those four are the main sites for the paranormal. Have a spooky day, Kate. I am so fascinated cuz it's like did this ghost just get so

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satisfied with the viewing of the 45 minutes of this movie that the spirit was like, I can move on. Maybe this spirit had watched only the last half of the movie and so desperately needed to watch it like 20 minutes that it had missed and it was just waiting. Just waiting Waiting to fill in the gaps of this movie and it finally got to it and it was like, okay. I'm done. I'm done. I can rest. Wasn't Nightmare Before Christmas, too? Yeah. That does have like a very spooky je ne sais quoi to it that the spirit ceased haunting. Yes, and it feels so artistic, right? And so the Tim Burton ghost was just like, "Ooh, what is this masterpiece?" Yeah. Timmy Burton Timmy B. Timmy B. Moved on. I mean, hey. At least it was like, yes, it's spooky and it's creepy and hauntings in general are just not the most delightful unless you are asking for it in your BFFs and

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it's like or loved one who's come to visit you. But it is so fascinating. Like what did this spirit want and and why did it just move on? Or do you think if their taste in movie is what scared the spirit away? Mhm. Perhaps the spirit was like there, it was hanging out, it was having a great time redecorate or maybe a frustrating time because there was so much redecorating. And then watched the movie and was like, "These girls are freaks. What is this movie?" Then was like, "I'm just going to go right across the hall." And then the next I'm haunting. I'm moving out, at least for the semester. I don't know. Okay, I have one more short story. This is from Claire. Hello ladies, my name is Claire and I want to say that this has taken me a while to write. I pretty much just started and still have some binging to do, but a while back you did an episode about schools that were haunted and of course you did the school that I went to. I currently just graduated from Ohio University during this pandemic. Okay, who cares? It's ghost time. We care. Woohoo! I lived in the same apartment complex / room for 2 years. My very

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first night staying in my room is when I experienced sleep paralysis for the very first time. I woke up in the middle of the night to see a dark shadow man standing in my doorway. Not too dark though because I could see it was wearing a suit. I couldn't move my body at the time. I could only move my eyes. So I peeked over from the side and I was hyperventilating. No, no, no. Yeah. We don't blame you. We would, too. I felt as if I was underwater with how much I couldn't breathe and I was terrified. Then all of a sudden, he comes closer. No. I could feel him tapping on my shoulder repeatedly. No. All I could do was just stare at him. Then I woke up. Which it was morning now and I was like, "Whoa, that was a creepy dream." So I told my roommates. Fast forward a week or two later, one of my roommate's boyfriends stayed for the weekend. One morning, my roommate comes running out of her bedroom and bangs on my door and tells her boyfriend to come in here. He then tells me that he saw the exact same man staring at him last

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night. I remember getting chills all over my body and I was almost in tears. I said, "I'm out of this place." But then I was thinking, I wonder if he was poking me to snap me out of it because he knew that maybe I was scared. Mhm. Also to mention, the land of the apartment complex used to be a church, so obviously there were a lot of funerals. Spirits probably just hung around. Even our neighbors experienced their desks being flipped, things being rearranged. Maybe they were maybe the these two people were neighbors. I only experienced sleep paralysis and seeing this man when I stayed at my apartment. You mentioned The Ridges in that episode, too. You said that to this day, people perform rituals in the basement. My freshman year, my friend and I went up there and started walking around and I remember hearing music. And as I got closer, it was 100% this satanic music. So I hauled my ass out of there. The second I heard that on the episode, I was like, "Oh, this all makes sense."

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We did try to break in. But the second we tried to walk in, a ghost or I'm sorry, a basically a ghost. A gust of air came at us and our phones died out of nowhere. So we were like, "Yeah, maybe another time." Or maybe never. Or maybe never. There is even a graveyard in the middle of the woods that you can go visit and see all of the tombstones of the patients from The Ridges only by number. Ohio University is very haunted. Many people experience things. So many creepy stories from this town. But hey, we do have 18 bars on one street, so that's a plus. Thank you for reading this long email and stay classy, witches. Claire. I like how Claire was like, "This long email." And I was like, "I have a short one." Yeah. I also it's interesting cuz in the same like couple sentences, Claire says, "We heard this creepy satanic music, hauled my ass out of there and then we also tried to break in, but then then a cold gust of air just said, 'Maybe another time.'" Like three sentences that are all like

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contradictory and also like, "Hey, don't go. Don't go. Maybe not." It's Claire continuing to go and then something paranormal or spooky happening and Claire saying, "I'll try again next time." And then the next time something happening again and Claire's like, "Okay, maybe next time." But it's like you're getting what you're asking for, right? Because I I can't imagine what you're looking for if you're trying to break in and go at night other than something spooky and something spooky sure has surely has come. It does make me sad that there are people like if if they are doing satanic rituals or playing satanic music down there because these poor spirits have been through enough. Yeah. They went through enough in their living days. Can they at least get some peace in the afterlife? Yeah. And like I think about Waverly Hills Asylum for example. There was a lot of horrendous I mean physically they were going through so much terrible elements like tuberculosis and stuff and dying and then like there was some stuff with the medical staff what not happening. And

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then this freaking like demonic creature the creeper comes in and is like terrorizing the spirits who already have been terrorized by humans. Right. Like just can't we just let them be? Get some get some peace. It does I do wonder about this man though who was either part of part of the paralysis. I wonder if we've talked about this before if perhaps certain spirits unknowingly trigger sleep paralysis with their presence. And if this man noticed that he did this and that Claire was really frightened, if he came over in an attempt to like she was saying to to wake her up and that there was no ill intent because it's not like he might just be there but it almost seems like he's actively there. I did it again. Right? Yeah. Because it's like the the roommate's boyfriend also saw this man but it's not like he was crawling up the wall and he was or whispering weird things or like getting closer. He wasn't doing all of the scary things that we've

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heard things and creatures do in sleep paralysis. I mean he did get closer. stared and it is it's creepy. It is creepy. But maybe you know, some people think I'm creepy and I don't mean to be. Yeah, I do. I love being creepy. No, but yeah, I mean it's an accidental creepiness. It also makes me wonder what if he will we've heard emails before about people feeling like maybe they were in some glitch where it wasn't a spirit and it was like this the person that they saw was actively living their life in a different yeah. and seeing a ghost and they thought they saw a ghost but what if it was more than that? What if Claire what if he was he was in a suit? What if he was a doctor or someone who worked Oh. there and he wasn't seeing Claire as Claire but he was actually seeing another patient who was accidentally like channeling Claire in that moment cuz they laid in the same bed in the same place basically like freaky. and she Claire was looking but and so

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that patient because Claire was staring very still that patient ended up like she was You got to watch Doctor Sleep. I think you'd really like it. Okay. It'll well also to to the first part of that theory of let's just say that this is someone from a different timeline who lives in that house or place. He comes home from work. He's in his suit and he sees a young girl sleeping in his bed. That would be complete like very confusing. Like I would poke them be like excuse me. And that person's not saying anything to you. They're completely still and staring at you so you stop and stare because you're like Yeah, what the heck are you doing? to suss out what's happening, right? Like you can't just immediately go over. Like what is this person? Is there danger? Like listen for other people in the house and then when you realize they're kind of in this stuck spot you slowly make your way over and talk like Yeah. Miss, are you okay? What's going on? Claire? Claire, you're haunted. Y'all are haunted. Claire and Kate, super haunted. from? Ohio. Remember I did I did some like

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awful Texan accent or like Southern accent for an Ohio I don't remember. accent when we did our live shows or it was like a Kentucky I know. My dad my dad was hunting there. It's okay. Geography's not our expertise. No, no, I definitely know that nobody I mean we're friends with Jerry and Sierra. We know that there's no Southern accents there. It's just fun to do one. for anywhere for anywhere Yes. I'm from Paris, France. And I love my croissants. My baguette from my morning Keep going. Keep going. And the the I go to the cafeteria in the morning and I get my coffee beans in a little mini cup. It's real strong. And they're mean to me there.

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But it's okay because I live in Paris, France. And I was born here. I was born here. This here accent born here. I fell on my bike in Amsterdam. And I conclude this episode with if anyone heard this back in the 1800s Immediately to the asylum. possessed possessed And we are possessed with a great time and ghost stories. So thank you for joining us. Yeah. If you have any paranormal experiences, if you've been to the ridges or went Ohio University or if you have any ghost stories, paranormal, supernatural, weird, creepy stories at all, please email them to us at two girls one ghost podcast@gmail.com.

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You can rate and review us on iTunes. Follow us on other things. Thank you to Christina for editing our podcast. And then Venmo us. And we will see you on the other side. other side other side very spooky