We Investigated The Haunted Pennhurst Asylum, Here's What Happened

The spirits of tortured patients are said to linger within the facility's walls.

On this episode of Buzzfeed Unsolved Supernatural, Ryan and Shane visited Pennhurst State School and Hospital.

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Pennhurst State School and Hospital was established in 1903.

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The facility had good intentions, hoping to be a place that provided educational, custodial, and industrial needs to the feeble-minded and epileptic.

It didn’t take long for Pennhurst to encounter some serious issues.

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The buildings were overcrowded via a wave of people who had differing needs than those the facility was created for, such as the mentally ill, or the blind.

Sometimes parents abandoned their mentally disabled children there.

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The facility was underfunded, and understaffed, lacking enough personnel and money to fulfill all of the various patients’ needs.

These issues led to horrid results.

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Some neglected patients who were desperate for attention would intentionally injure themselves, or smear themselves in their own feces.

More concerning was the patients’ treatment from overworked staff.

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When some patients were disorderly, they were drugged or chained to their beds. Other patients were left alone for such lengthy stretches that they had regressions, losing their ability to communicate or desire to live.

The inhumane conditions and awful treatment that led to patients suffering and dying there are blamed for Pennhurst’s current hauntings.

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Ryan and Shane tried multiple methods to communicate with sprits, from laser grids and motion lights, to dowsing rods, and a spirit box.

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However, as cool as the laser grids looked, they didn't garner any ghoulish activity.

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Pennhurst is currently open to the public as a haunted attraction.

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While Shane remained unconvinced, Ryan left believing many spirits remain trapped within the facility’s walls, but whether or not Pennhurst State School and Hospital is definitively haunted remains unsolved.