In this episode, we are looking at spirits, dark beings and mental health facilities. I have lots of stories and observations to share on this topic as I worked as a paranormal tour guide for 18 months back before covid was a thing. This facility opened in around 1840 and was fully operational through to the year 2000 when it was closed and was a bit of a spirit hub, as I called it, many resident spirits from the location and from around the premises and also a few of the darker variety of energetic presence.
#67 Spirits haunting abandoned medical facilities… Why?
Many of the spirits are present there because they are still at work as you will soon hear, or some know nothing else and like being with their mates going about their daily lives and enjoying each other’s company and also like interacting with the living people who visit the site on a regular basis. Others choose to stay out of fear of the unknown… not knowing what the Afterlife is or even how to get there.
The entities at the darker end of the scale are purely there to feed on the low vibrational pools of emotional imprints present throughout the site which have constantly built up since the place was built.
One of my most memorable encounters was with a spirit man, a spirit man who was more than happy to talk about his life and what he went through at that location.
I have called this fascinating experience: Meeting Adam the convict spirit
I spent a lot of time at a local haunted site outside Hobart, the capital city here in Tasmania. His voice came to me loud and clear through a paranormal investigation device called a spirit box. A spirit box is a small rectangular hand-held radio used to hear paranormal anomalies, usually voices saying single or sometimes multiple words. Spirit boxes use the white noise as the communication outlet and you have to get used to listening intently through the white noise coming through the speaker to pick up on the spirit’s words. Some spirits can communicate easily through the white noise and others don’t like the device. I have witnessed many many variety of personalities from excited giggling kids, adult spirits wanting to say hello right through to the angry type who swear at you using the worst words possible.
I like to use my spirit box with the frequency running backwards so I know I am not picking up living people randomly talking through radio stations.
Adam, the convict man cottoned on to the fact that he could speak through the white noise and be heard clearly. And when I heard his voice, one afternoon, I was astounded. He sounded like he was standing in the room right next to me. Adam was very chatty and often brought mates with him and I could hear them having a conversation in the background, which was kind of funny. I felt like I was eavesdropping.
Adam was open to answering questions about his life at the abandoned site outside Hobart. He didn’t know how long he had been there but he referred to the residents as inmates so that told me he was there from convict times. He said he was an inmate but had a job to keep him busy and also out of mischief. We discussed his life there, his job, the food, his mates and what they got up to and how cold and uncomfortable it was in his sleeping quarters.
He said he would wheel people in wheely chairs, as he called them to different locations on the site. He said the food was ok, you could live on it, and the bread was hard and old most days but the vegetables were his favourite.
He and his mates spent a lot of time outside working, any job they were told to do such as doing small building repairs, cutting wood and repairing footpaths and weeding the gardens. But on cold wet days, they shared a large room where they could play games, arm wrestling and playing a type of marbles with stones they found outside.
I would talk with Adam at the site with another lady (living, that is) before we started tours and she was astounded by how clearly he spoke through the spirit box. Often spirits would speak very softly or mumble or sound like they were off in the distance, but Adam was loud and clear.
He would also come and talk with me at my house sometimes and one day I had my spirit box out in my kitchen and before I had the chance to ask if he was available for a chat, a very bossy female voice said ‘He’s working!’ I was a little shocked… was this a spirit staff member at the site annoyed at me for keeping him away from his work? He didn’t come that day, maybe he couldn’t or simply didn’t want to… Fair enough I thought, we had spoken a lot and I suppose he may have been bored or had work to do or his spirit mates were giving him a ribbing for talking with the living woman who asked too many questions.
Where Adam chose to stay in spirit form there are many spirits – children residents, adult residents, staff members such as nurses, doctors and watch out for the Matrons. They are as strict in death as they were in life.
Back in Episode 31, I shared an experience about Josh, the spirit boy… he resided at that location and stayed because he knew nothing else. He seemed quite happy there and he liked to go for rides in cars. If you want to hear that funny story, check out episode 31.
Let’s look at Josh’s antic while living in spirit at the old mental health facility. He is quite a character.
I have called this experience: The Hugger
Josh found me through a paranormal investigation experiment called the Estes method created by Karl Pfiefferwho had the idea come to him while conducting a paranormal investigation at the Stanley Hotel in Colorado in 2016.
I hadn’t done this experiment before and was quite keen as the paranormal addict in me piqued my interest in trying all different ways to connect with the spirit community at that location. So, there I sat with a bunch of other people in a dark room, my ears covered with noise-cancelling headphones just like the 6 others and we all waited to see what would happen. My headphones were connected to a spirit box, so I could hear the white noise that spirits can sometimes communicate through as I mentioned earlier. The sound was constant and a bit loud but I could manage it for the 10-minute session.
Another person in the room would call out questions to the spirits present and see if any of the people wearing headphones could respond with relevant answers. Well, it worked instantly, myself and another lady were getting answers coming thick and fast. We were faced away from the question asker and had our eyes blindfolded so we couldn’t see if our responses were accurate or not.
As I was sitting there saying everything I heard, I saw a boy, a teenage boy from what I could gauge from his kind of misty far far-off appearance. I quietly looked at him as he knew I could see him in my mind, or third eye if you want to look at it that way, so he came closer. His face was smiling, this big big smile from ear to ear. I started asking him questions in my mind and he would show me visuals or I would get feelings as answers:
I asked questions like:
What’s your name? Josh, he answered and I saw the word JOSH in my mind.
‘Nice to meet you Josh, how old are you… do you know?’, I thought. This he didn’t know as he had been at the facility since he was a baby, which he showed me by swinging his arms as if he was cuddling a baby and then shrugged his shoulders.
The facility had been home for many people, those with diagnosed mental health issues but also those whose families didn’t understand their behaviours, even husbands who had devious intent to do away with their wives by telling doctors that they were deranged and needed care when they actually didn’t. Some people, even children like Josh who were different – either by their looks or behaviours were homed there because their families didn’t know how to cope or were embarrassed by them. Society wasn’t kind in the 1800’s!
Josh has Down syndrome from what I could see relating his facial features and body language and similar actions of children with Down syndrome I had seen through a job I had in schools over the years. Since Josh showed his face to me, I would see him on tours. He was so friendly and would hug our paranormal investigation tour guests… great big bear hugs, I called them and they would freak some people out! He would sneak up behind people, usually the ladies and give great big cuddles and people could feel his presence not knowing what or who it was until I explained that Josh didn’t know personal boundaries and showed affection with his hugs. People relaxed after that and were fascinated by the feeling of spirit’s presence near their bodies.
Josh has a girlfriend, and you are thinking, how does she know that?… well he came to me on tour one night, out of nowhere and I saw him with a girl about his age. They were holding hands and swinging their arms… so innocent, just beautiful to see! I am happy Josh has a friend to spend time with. On another tour one night, I was with guests exploring the upstairs of the Nurse’s Quarters, and I suddenly felt something or someone touching my forehead making little circles in the area of my third eye. Imagine the centre space between your eyebrows and then go up about an inch.. that is the spot.
There was the sensation and slight pressure of a finger going round and round in slow circular motion circles. It lasted for around 30 seconds and then stopped and I did wonder if the spirit could see energy or colour or feel a different vibration emanating from that spot on my forehead. Maybe that was how this young lady friend of Josh’s said ‘hello’…
I don’t go to that location now but I still from time to time think about Josh and his huge smile and hope he is still dishing out those great big bear hugs.
Now to look at another type of energy being present at that particular site… Was this an entity of a darker kind? Listen and make up your own mind.
I have called this experience: The Growler
At the same location, there were many buildings in which we conducted tours and there was a strong presence who used to move around the buildings and hide in dark rooms and corners. Staff on the tours and sometimes guests would hear distinct animal or specifically dog-like growling in dark places in the buildings. Guests would come running out of rooms with fear on their faces and need reassurance that they were safe. Staff would be preparing for tours and checking the rooms and sometimes feel the hairs stand up on their arms and necks and the sudden body shivers when in the presence of the growling entities in the dark spaces.
Spirits and dark energy beings don’t usually growl from my experience so I knew it was more likely an elemental or nature being as they walked amongst us too. They are everywhere! And they have different behaviours to shock and keep us away!
This growling being could be the entity who lived behind the stairs in an old two story building at that location… I shared his story back in episode 4. He was a fascinating and interesting character, who took quite a liking to me and he used to wander about on the site, sometimes dropping stinks, and we think he may have scratched one disrespectful tour guest to pull her into line in that building, he was one tough cookie. If you want to hear about what he got up to, check out episode 4.
The growler could have also been another elemental being seeking solitude, trying to find a place to hide or sleep or bunk down while travelling elsewhere or was it multiple elementals on the site or even a growling type of dark entity I haven’t come across before feeding of the large pools of emotional imprints which would have riddled all the buildings on that site, entities can read our minds and know people are generally scared of animals that growl so could use this tactic to keep us away. I guess I will never know!
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I look forward to sharing this spooky space again with you next week,
And remember, life is perfectly paranormal.
