On our way home from the pastors & spouses retreat, we made a little detour. One of the locals at the resort suggested that we check out the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum in our free time. We thought he was joking at first. Surprisingly, none of us pastor types are tuned in to the ghost-hunting craze. But the guy was totally serious. We opted for the bike ride yesterday, but the seed was planted. It only took a word of suggestion before Dan turned off the interstate highway and we were on our way to the tiny town of Weston, WV.
We rolled up on the Asylum and were amazed. The place is huge. It’s supposed to be the largest hand-cut stone masonry building in North America, and second in the world only to the Kremlin. At one time the place housed 2400 residents. The TALA closed in 1994, bringing economic collapse to the town, and opening the doors to ghost hunters in the wave of paranormal tv shows.
To be perfectly honest, I have no desire to hang out in places like that. I don’t like being scared; I don’t watch creepy movies. I don’t dig the paranormal. There’s something unsettling about the whole scenario. I don’t believe in ghosts per se, but I totally believe in the supernatural. I miss the days when Scooby and Shaggy would unmask the Creeper to discover that it’s old Mr. Dithers, and then they’d head off to eat pizza.
But this asylum is supposed to be haunted by the souls of the hundreds of insane residents who died on the property. For a mere $40 you can take a 2-hour tour to examine the place yourself. $100 gets you 8 hours. They’re bringing in a team of Paranormal Celebrities (really?) and charging $200 for a seat in the audience. I believe that it’s even possible for a person to spend the night in the dark, gothic asylum.
No thanks. I’ll be at home, probably watching Idol.
What about you? Would you go on a ghost-hunt? Would you spend the night in a place that’s supposed to be haunted?
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