Formidable Facades: When a Building "Looks" Haunted

You know you have heard it, and more than likely you have not been able to stop yourself from thinking it: "That place has to be haunted." No ifs, ands or buts about it. Formidable facades can overwhelm some who are interested in "looking for ghosts". Massive entrances and buildings that take up seven or eight football fields (or more) can indeed spark the "it must be haunted" thought in many peoples minds. But do not be fooled by appearances, just because a place "looks" haunted doesn't mean that it is.

Abandoned hospitals, TB wards, mental institutions/insane asylums, prisons, etc. all intrigue paranormal investigators. All investigators have a certain love of building and land history; be it mild, moderate or severe. If bad things happened somewhere then there is a chance that the theory of imprinting may have taken place. There is also the chance that a spirit has lost its way and can't leave for one reason or another. But are they all haunted and would it be fair to lump them together and say that they all are? Unfortunately no. Sad as it is from the paranormal investigator standpoint, not every location is haunted.

One of the most important things we as paranormal investigators can do is to stay objective. Sure, reports of activity may have us jumping up and down to go check out a place, but just because one person says a place is haunted doesn't mean that another would. As anyone in the "ghost" field can tell you, one person can be seemingly affected while a group of others have nothing to report. Be it that the person is more sensitive than the others or what have you, there is just no telling until you can experience it yourself. Then again, isn't that what we are all doing this for? We all want to experience the full body apparition coming up and shaking our hand while at the same time we all know how rare that reportedly happens.

Another thing to keep in mind, especially with prisons, is that when the mammoth ones were built they were meant to intimidate and look strong and capable. Prisons wanted prisoners scared when they entered. They wanted them to feel dwarfed by the sheer size (and often location) of the building. Hospitals and institutions wanted families to feel confident that such a large building could obviously handle one lonely patient. Often times other patients were kept in another area of the building, hidden from view of new arrivals.

Keeping such things in mind can help your group conduct investigations in such massive places with a bit less " it must be" and a little more "it might not be" attitude. If you are proven that it is indeed haunted, then all the better. Walking away from a place satisfied is at least ten times better than walking away from a place disappointed anyway.