Ghost Hunt Canceled at Former Asylum

[Antonin]

nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-ODD-Ghost-Hunt.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) – The Johnson County Board of Supervisors has changed its mind about allowing a paranormal team to look for ghosts at a one-time mental asylum.

Board members last month approved an investigation of the buildings, but decided to vote it down in response to negative feedback, said Board Chairman Rod Sullivan.

He said the board initially did not oppose a request from the Johnson County Historical Society to have a paranormal team conduct a free investigation at the site, which is now a private residential care facility for the mentally ill called Chatham Oaks.

This story makes one wonder if the lunatics are really running the asylum. (This really would make a good Halloween story, but news stories come out when they come out)

 

[deb1]

nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-ODD-Ghost-Hunt.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) – The Johnson County Board of Supervisors has changed its mind about allowing a paranormal team to look for ghosts at a one-time mental asylum.

Board members last month approved an investigation of the buildings, but decided to vote it down in response to negative feedback, said Board Chairman Rod Sullivan.

He said the board initially did not oppose a request from the Johnson County Historical Society to have a paranormal team conduct a free investigation at the site, which is now a private residential care facility for the mentally ill called Chatham Oaks.

This story makes one wonder if the lunatics are really running the asylum. (This really would make a good Halloween story, but news stories come out when they come out)

I don’t understand why it would either be a negative or positive thing to let a paranormal society to investigate the mental asylum. It sounds pretty neutral to me.

If you believe in ghosts then this is interesting to see on tv, if you don’t you just shrug your shoulders or roll your eyes. Either way, most people won’t change their views about the surrounding community of this former mental institute regardless of what this particular society finds.

 

[Antonin]

I don’t understand why it would either be a negative or positive thing to let a paranormal society to investigate the mental asylum. It sounds pretty neutral to me.

If you believe in ghosts then this is interesting to see on tv, if you don’t you just shrug your shoulders or roll your eyes. Either way, most people won’t change their views about the surrounding community of this former mental institute regardless of what this particular society finds.

I’ve seen some of the equipment that some of these paranormal groups use to investigate the presence of ghosts. It looks like something that you’d see in that movie “Ghostbusters”. I do not want to specifically name any names (not yet, at least), but some of the folks who are in leadership positions of these groups seem to mainly want to sell their merchandise. They even claim to possess actual photographs of ghosts. (of course I’ve heard their claim that photos of ghosts made by others are fake) A whole lot of Christian leaders claim that ghosts are an impossibility. Once your soul leaves your body, it is invisible and gone to another place. They claim that people who claim to witness ghosts may really be witnessing demonic tricks. I don’t know. Even though I’m pretty religious, I am open to all sorts of possibilities (I’m skeptical though) I wonder if there is anyone willing to post who actually has seen a ghost.

 

[Mighty_Q]

I don’t understand why it would either be a negative or positive thing to let a paranormal society to investigate the mental asylum. It sounds pretty neutral to me.

There are still residents with varying disabilities (both mental and physical) at this facility. A bunch of kooks running around with “electromagnetic meters” and such could be a very negative thing for these people.

 

[deb1]

There are still residents with varying disabilities (both mental and physical) at this facility. A bunch of kooks running around with “electromagnetic meters” and such could be a very negative thing for these people.

That makes perfect sense to me. For some reason, I thought that the place was abandoned.

 

[Mighty_Q]

… I thought that the place was abandoned.

I figured as such.

 

[deb1]

I’ve seen some of the equipment that some of these paranormal groups use to investigate the presence of ghosts. It looks like something that you’d see in that movie “Ghostbusters”. I do not want to specifically name any names (not yet, at least), but some of the folks who are in leadership positions of these groups seem to mainly want to sell their merchandise. They even claim to possess actual photographs of ghosts. (of course I’ve heard their claim that photos of ghosts made by others are fake) A whole lot of Christian leaders claim that ghosts are an impossibility. Once your soul leaves your body, it is invisible and gone to another place. They claim that people who claim to witness ghosts may really be witnessing demonic tricks. I don’t know. Even though I’m pretty religious, I am open to all sorts of possibilities (I’m skeptical though) I wonder if there is anyone willing to post who actually has seen a ghost.

I think that it is good to be skeptical and just view these programs as popcorn entertainment. But I can understand why this mental institute would not want such paranormal hunters.

As far as the existence of ghost, either their existence or non existence doesn’t have any impact on my faith. The whole biblical incident of Saul and Sammuel’s ghost along with the fact that Jesus had to assure his disciples that he wasn’t a ghost, seems to point that there might be nondemonic spirits but of course, I could be reading those verses wrong.

 

[Muzhik]

Greetings! That’s from my neck of the woods, so I’ve got some first-hand information. The building that was going to be investigated is abandoned – they would not have been doing anything in the main facility. The managers of the facility were initially OK with it because the one question everyone asks when they see the building in question is, “Is it haunted?” They were hoping that after the investigation they could tell people, “We had a team check it out, and they couldn’t find any evidence that it’s haunted.” There had been no reports of sightings or any paranormal activity, they just wanted to be able to say, we checked it out, and it isn’t.

Well, the Board of Supervisors got three phone calls criticizing them for their decision. Apparently the people in charge of the facility got many more, because the Board of Supervisors was going to go ahead until the managers changed their mind.

Personally, I hope they can do it in another six months or so after things die down. If nothing else, because the managers of the facility initially wanted them to do it so they could get that question answered once and for all: Is it haunted?

<><

 

[Antonin]

I think that it is good to be skeptical and just view these programs as popcorn entertainment. But I can understand why this mental institute would not want such paranormal hunters.

As far as the existence of ghost, either their existence or non existence doesn’t have any impact on my faith. The whole biblical incident of Saul and Sammuel’s ghost along with the fact that Jesus had to assure his disciples that he wasn’t a ghost, seems to point that there might be nondemonic spirits but of course, I could be reading those verses wrong.

I said that I was religious, however I didn’t specify which religion. As far as Saul seeing Samuel’s ghost, I believe that it was a witch who conjured up Samuel’s ghost for Saul to see. This means something demonic took place. (Especially since this ghost predicted the future. Fortune telling was forbidden by God) As far as the incident where Jesus assured his apostles that they weren’t seeing a ghost, I think that the apostles were scared out of their minds when they saw the resurrected Jesus and didn’t know what to make of it. Like anyone who is terrified because they don’t know what it is they’re seeing they just assume that they’re seeing a ghost. I’m absolutely no expert on witchcraft or religion for that matter. I had a high school girlfriend who claimed to be a witch. That was a long time ago…it’s going on being 45 years ago now. I definitely just want to forget about her…Becoming an expert on religion takes a long, long time. In the mean time, one can have faith. You’ve made some good posts …Intersting ideas

 

[deb1]

I said that I was religious, however I didn’t specify which religion. As far as Saul seeing Samuel’s ghost, I believe that it was a witch who conjured up Samuel’s ghost for Saul to see. This means something demonic took place. (Especially since this ghost predicted the future. Fortune telling was forbidden by God) As far as the incident where Jesus assured his apostles that they weren’t seeing a ghost, I think that the apostles were scared out of their minds when they saw the resurrected Jesus and didn’t know what to make of it. Like anyone who is terrified because they don’t know what it is they’re seeing they just assume that they’re seeing a ghost. I’m absolutely no expert on witchcraft or religion for that matter. I had a high school girlfriend who claimed to be a witch. That was a long time ago…it’s going on being 45 years ago now. I definitely just want to forget about her…Becoming an expert on religion takes a long, long time. In the mean time, one can have faith. You’ve made some good posts …Intersting ideas

Just to clarify. I am not saying that ghosts are real, I am just not saying that they aren’t. In other words, I don’t know either way.

 

[Gisella]

I don’t see why anyone would have a problem with someone looking for ghosts in an abandoned building. They did this on Paranormal State, and it was pretty eye-opening. I don’t see the harm.

 

[The_Barbarian]

I don’t have any problem with them letting these people in. I just think that they should keep them there a while.