The Power of Suggestion: How the Mind Plays Tricks
And staying in such an atmosphere for long throws up another important factor: power of suggestion. You go into the room knowing that it’s said to be haunted, so your brain is ready to expect stuff to happen. You have all heard the stories, watched all the movies, and all your brain is doing is trying to connect what is going on with what you have been fed through the paranormal stories and novels.
Many times during my stay in the asylum, I felt uncertain whether I was actually listening and/or seeing something unusual or if my mind was just spicing things to fill in. Human perception is really a slippery affair, especially under low lighting and high stress. At such a scenario, where there was darkness, solitude, and haunting history, perfect conditions brewed up many possibilities in my mind. A shadow moving out of the corner of my eye, a whisper in the distance—how much of that was real, and how much was my brain creating patterns where none existed?
