Why We Are Drawn to Ghostly Haunts
As I reflect on the time in the asylum, I often ponder why, as a race of human beings, we are so drawn to ghostly haunts. Why do people flog into haunted, deserted asylums, hospitals, and other places of tragedy? Is it solely the excitement of fear, the adrenaline rush accompanying entry into the unknown? Or is there something deeper—an innate desire to connect with the past, to explore the darker corners of human experience?
I feel that haunted places, for most of us, represent that special dance between fear and curiosity. They expose us to the deepest levels of our fears-at death, suffering, and not knowing-while allowing us the opportunity to take part in a story bigger than ourselves. Perhaps this is why haunted locations are not so much frightening places but journeys into another world, where rules no longer apply, and anything can be possible.
There is, indeed, a feeling of connection in going to places with such rich and troubled histories. We find ourselves intrigued by the stories of people before us, especially when those stories are filled with mystery and tragedy. As I walked through the asylum, I couldn’t help but feel a surreal kind of empathy toward the people who had lived there. I was not just studying a building but entering the lives of those patients and employees who had called this asylum home. Some of these stories, though long forgotten by most, still lived in the crumbling walls that surrounded me.
