I had a supernatural experience

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I thought maybe this would be the place to discuss it. If anyone is interested.

I am not religious, I have no opinions on paranormal or supernatural phenomenon, and I don't pretend to know what happened to me.

I was on a historical tour at an asylum/mental health facility. Both of my parents had been committed for drug addiction in the facility in the early 1970s. My father, who died in the late 1970s, had shock treatments there. I went on the tour because my mother is so mentally unwell that it is impossible to ask her about anything that's ever happened to her. And obviously I can't ask my dad. I just wanted to see where they had been. And it was also a beautiful old building.

I had a number of physical reactions in different rooms. No one else on the tour seemed to feel what I was feeling. When I asked the tour guide what some of the rooms had been, she lied to me a couple of times and then asked me what did I think the room was. I didn't answer her, but when I looked it all up later, it turned out that some of the rooms where I had feelings also had histories of terrible things happening in those rooms.

It has been a bit difficult to unpack in my mind afterward. It seems as though people who experience these types of things "believe" in the things and whatnot. I am not prepared to say that me having some physical feeling means that I understand what caused the feeling. But it freaked me out.

Interesting.

And scary.

But its good that you paid attention to your vibes, and did research, rather than just ignore it.

Dont know whether it was really supernatural or not. But it might be some animal instinct telling you to keep exploring things in order to get some kind of closure with your parents, or something like that.

I am reminded of a certain author commenting on his novel-turned-movie. He said you can take the supernatural aspects literally, or you can take them as "symbolic of the character's inner issues. And thats what I think that 'ghosts' really are. Emotional issues. Unfinished business". The book was "the Shinning" and the Author was Stephen King.

So despite (or because) its scary maybe keep on researching.

Think of it as a strong sense of empathy, whether you want to call it supernatural or not.

Autistic people are sponges for empathy.

The energy in those rooms would still be there because energy never dies.

Some places just give off bad vibes or negative energy.
I had a similar experience and never told anyone for years.When I did , I discovered my cousin had the same experience in the exact same place.

Most likely psychological; not likely supernatural.

This doesn’t sound supernatural. You were in an asylum and you had a feeling that bad things had happened there. That’s just a logical conclusion.

To the OP

Does the asylum/institution have a history of poltergeists or supernatural experiences?

^ I am sure many of the residents saw strange things and heard strange voices -- that is why they were there, right?.  After all, it was an asylum/mental health facility.  This is not surprising.  Nor is it surprising that a daughter of such inmates would imagine she sees / hears / feels something weird just from knowing how traumatic such places can be for the people who lived and worked there.

Could it be possible that a person who has a connection to the institution might be more able to "tune in" to the correct frequency (liking dialling an AM dial on a UHF radio) because they are sensitive to anticipating the presence of "something"

I had one minor strange experience when I was in Malaysia some 30 years ago. It was 2am in the morning and I was sitting with a friend (he was an African foreign PhD student) in a university campus study room drinking coffee. We both noticed creepy noises outside (the campus was situated on grounds that was near the jungle). I randomly asked him about spirits in Africa and he warned me not to talk about such subjects at 2am in the morning as they attract local spirits to come,

I laughed and told him he was superstitious. Just at that moment, completely out of the blue a giant coconut beetle (the biggest I have ever seen) the size of my fist flew into the room and sat on the window right in front of us. I remarked, how the heck did such a giant creature just fly into a enclosed room that was technically sealed by glass doors? He looked at me and said "I told you" if you talk about spirits, they will find you:". He claimed the beetle was a vehicle for a spirit who was attracted to us talking because this is the time. admittedly it was creepy and it was the middle of the night,

I realised later his belief system aligned with western folklore about something called the witching hour or devil's hour is a time of night that is associated with supernatural events, whereby witches, demons and ghosts are most likely to be present. Interestingly a lot of people claim to experience ghosts and alien abductions at this time of night (2am-3am)

Could it be more likely that people let their imaginations get away from them?

The term "supernatural" is kind of funny because by definition it sort of means things that do not exist.  If something exists, it is part of the natural world, in that it can interact with particles via the rules of physics.  If ghosts exist, for example, they cannot so much disobey the laws of physics, because scientists would simply adjust the rules of physics to match what they observed in the ghosts.  The most striking example of this are cryptid animals like Nessie or Bigfoot.  In a way they sort of count as supernatural, merely by the fact that they do not exist.  If they were ever discovered, they would be boring old natural animals.  In the sea, the division is even clearer, we can imagine a cryptid enthusiast asking a scientist, "Do you believe in sea monsters?", and the scientist replying "Oh sure, there are plenty: great white shark, orca, giant squid, et cetera".  Here the cryptid enthusiast would become frustrated and say "No, I mean like Leviathan or Kraken".  The scientist might ask, "Is that not just a Sperm Whale and Giant Squid?".  Frustration increasing, the cryptid enthusiast says "No, I mean things that do not exist."  Here our poor scientist is left to contend with the true meaning of the question: "Do you believe in things that do not exist?".

So, to say, "I believe in supernatural things" is to say, "I believe in things that are not real".  In the same way, to say, "I had a supernatural experience" is to say, "I experienced something that was not real".

Or, "I imagined something."

Same thing.

I should point out that in the copious amount of posts I do on WP on the topic of the supernatural (or more precisely the paranormal) I'm always careful to not believe. What I do is keep an open mind. Half the fun is exploring the realm of possibilities.

If I were presented with valid evidence of the supernatural, I would believe it. Until that happens, I don't. Being willing to accept sufficient proof IS being openminded.

Carl Sagan:

I believe in balancing open-mindedness with healthy doses of skepticism and rationality.

As far as the original topic goes, many people are going to find walking through such places creepy and will have any number of physical and emotional sensations because of the history, especially personal history, involved. I think that's perfectly understandable and relatable.

I've known many people who've had what they thought were paranormal experiences - most often demons because of the belief system I was raised in. There was never any proof and the experiences could always be explained by other things - imagination, faulty electric system, windy day, mental illness, etc. Also, people who already believe in the supernatural are more likely to have such experiences. They often think that normal, everyday human experiences (like flickering lights or emotional states) have a supernatural cause. Confirmation bias. I've certainly been there back when I was a believer.

Also, years ago, I had some bizarre experiences which some would attribute to a supernatural cause without further reflection. I went to a psychiatrist and the problem resolved over time. (I'm not saying the OP needs to go to a psychiatrist. It was just appropriate for my situation.) My point is that even if one has experiences it doesn't automatically mean that the person will believe or will be a believer permanently. I don't trust my own subjective experience on matters like this, not that I've experienced anything remotely unusual in years.

Last edited by TwilightPrincess on 23 May 2023, 7:13 am, edited 2 times in total.

Hmmm, I was under the impression you believe in the existence of the Christian God? If so, isn't God supernatural? Or are you a pantheist?

Last edited by Mona Pereth on 23 May 2023, 10:14 am, edited 1 time in total.

Sometimes the brain picks up on patterns that we don't completely pick up on.

I remember visiting an old mansion which had a headquarters for the servants. When I entered, I apologised. The room was empty. I apologised to absolutely no one. Then I wondered - why on Earth did I do that? I hadn't intended to apologise. There was a heavy feeling which seemed to hang over the room. It felt like I'd just walked into a room where everyone was grieving. My presence felt rude and insensitive. Intrusive. Yet no one was there, so that didn't make any sense. Then I realised. It's because of the atmosphere. How the ceiling curved down and the cold stone seemed to suck the heat out of the room leaving an empty feeling. Very little natural light. It was a cramped space. The servants couldn't have been happy living in such conditions. My brain wanted me to leave because it was a bad space to live and didn't want me to stick around. It wouldn't have been healthy.

The very moment I entered the mansion I had a thought - No one was happy here. I considered for a moment why I thought that and it made a great deal of sense. Whilst I entered the mansion with no concept of the history behind it, I soon picked up on the furniture. It was expensive but it lacked coherence. The furniture was garish, it was seemingly placed there for the sole purpose of flaunting wealth. No care was given to the placement, it didn't feel like a family home that had been lived in. Everything felt distant. Lacking in character to a disturbing degree. Sure enough, I learnt that the former residents were miserable. Family fights. They mostly lived in their other properties and mostly kept this one to show off to their neighbours. Numerous suicides in the property.

It had felt very different to another mansion I had visited - one which had been known for throwing the most extravagant parties. That space had featured beautifully detailed ceilings, it let natural light stream through several high windows and the servant rooms were much nicer. Everything about the place seemed to scream eccentric rich party animal.

However, not all old places have a particular energy about them. I remember visiting an old dungeon. No feelings there. I think it was because it had been modernised. There were screens on the walls and wall projections of actors telling visitors about the prisoners who used to live there.

It wasn't like a different medieval prison I went to which was much more disturbing. Very little had seemingly changed, there were still devices of pure human cruelty on display. I saw faded writing on the walls of prison cells and what looked like claw marks. Certainly the descent into insanity was quite clear.

Personally I don't believe in the supernatural. However, I don't see history as a linear path. I think we're always going to see echoes, traces of the past overlapping with each other in a rather chaotic fashion. One time I was stood in a town centre where a man was playing Paint it, Black by The Rolling Stones on an antique piano. Near him was a roman statue. I looked at the crowd and I thought about the clothes people were wearing. How so much had happened in that space throughout history. Which made me think about how different stages of history and the present were coexisting in a way. We were stood on old ruins which had since taken on a new life. The old architecture blended ever so effortlessly in with the modern buildings. I found it quite fascinating.

---

Yeah, It's Not Necessarily That It's Supernatural

Yet It's True As Theoretical Physicist Richard Feynman
Once Said, "I think nature's imagination Is so much
greater than man's, she's never going to let us relax;"

And Interesting to Note Only, 4.7 Percent, By Wiki Resources of Course, of Nobel laureates
Identified in the Physics Category, Report They Are Atheists, Agnostics, And 'Free Thinkers'

As Verily Many Come to Realize The Limitations That Science Has in 'All Fields' to Measure Reality.

And Yes, While Feynman Identified As Atheist, Raised in a Jewish Family; He Was Yes, Opposed

Most to Orthodoxy And Rigid Thinking That Literal Interpretations of Reality, Religion Brings...

Not Surprising Engineers Are Noted As a Demographic High in Literal Religious Interpretations

too as Engineering

Yes Surely Abides

By Rigid Structures too;

Indeed, In Part, We Become the Reality

We Feed Ourselves in Our Environments

Continually Changing too; Some Environments

Expanding More of Our Potential Human Intelligences

for Greater Views of Reality From Form to Essence; And

Others Very
Rigid, Literal,

And Black And White in Word Thinking too;

Depending on the Environments i've Been in my Life,

My Social Empathic Spiritual Artistic More Right Hemisphere Mind

Leaning Processes of Filtering And Doing Reality Have Been Enhanced

Or Withered Away Trapped in Screens of Financial Management and Information Technology;

In Fact, i Did the 'AQ Scan' Before and After; Scoring 28 When i Worked With People Before i Worked

On Screens for 5 Years; And 45 After That For Extreme Systemizing Intelligence As Opposed to Social

Empathic Intelligences, Including the Emotional Colors of Life For Real, All Natural Spiritual Living Brings;

When i Turned 20, Studying to Be A Psychologist in School We Visited An Asylum too; i Was So overwhelmed

With Empathic Feelings of Darkness All Around me; i Knew at that Point i Wasn't Gonna Make it in That Field at all.

i've Learned to Better Regulate my Emotions and Integrate my Senses Now; For it is True, Poverty of Understanding

Intuitively

Through

the Wisdom
of Experience

For What Makes Us

Tick Within And Relate

With the Environment At Hand,

Is A Greatest Poverty of All; Truly
Limiting What We May Want to Do In Life.

The Issues are, There are No Black And White

'Engineering Instruction Books' to Fully Gain This Kind of Inner Wisdom

And Will to Change And Adapt Newer Intelligences to Balance Our Lives Overall...

Of Course Some Religions Attempt to Put Life in Black And White Terms Like Recite

Romans 10:9 And Get A Welfare Ticket to Heaven After Death; Yet That Doesn't

Do Much

For Now;

All That truly Exists;

Other than Perhaps

A 'Sugar Pill' For Some folks

To Reduce Their Fears of Death
And Sadly Living More Fully Now too...

My Wife Doesn't Have 3 Degrees Like me;

Yet Her Social Empathic Abilities Are Built in
And Nourished By Wisdom of Experience From DarK Thru

LiGHT

of the
Reality of Life;

Back When i Had Type Two Trigeminal
Neuralgia, The Worst Pain Known to Humankind
From Wake to Sleep for 66 Months That No Drug Would Touch;

Both Identified as the Suicide Disease and A Worse Torture Than
Real Crucifixion; Again During All Waking Hours for 66 Months, Mostly

Shut-in my Bedroom, i Put A Metal Chain off my Home Gym into A Bicycle

Basket in the Spring of 2010; Already Surviving 2 Years, the Endless Suicide Disease
Then And A Synergy in Life Threat of 18 Other Mostly Chronic to Acute Work Related

Disorders, Cumulated Over a Span of 11 Years At Work Before That; Yes i Picked

Out A Tree, Deep in the Forest off A Road my Wife Never Named, Hoping my Life

Might Have Some

Purpose Then for
Vultures Feeding

on me and No One
Else Ever Finding
What Remained of me;

As True There Are Some
Experiences in Life Where

Death is Heaven and Life is Truly
Hell Every Second, A Thousand Years
THere without even a Memory of a Feeling
of a Smile Forever Now Then; No Reference Point out of Hell at all...

So Interestingly, the Next Morning my Wife Awoke and Said She Had

The Strangest Dream; She Named That Road She never Named Before
to me and Said that She and Her Deceased Granny Were Hanging

Christmas

Ornaments

on A Tree By that Named Road...

Then She Had no Idea She Saved my
Life; i Realized i didn't Know Nearly as

Much About Reality as i Thought i Knew Before;

Yet She Possessed at Kind of Intelligence i couldn't fathom then...

And A Reality That Messaged me, i Better God Damned Sure Stay in Hell For Real...

So i Did, Although i Did Leave that Metal Chain in that Basket Until July of 2013

When the Pain Finally Went away; It Wasn't Until Then That i told my Wife About the

Other Real

Part of Her Dream... Nah,

Don't Tell me A Dude Rose

From the Dead Literally Just

Cause Someone Wrote it in a Book

Thousands of Years Ago; And Tell

Me my Wife's Reality isn't Real;

Don't Even Try it; As She

Has Seen Hell for

Real and So Have i;

And Yes i Still Live in Heaven
Now and it is Every Bit as Real A HeLL ON EartH too...

What Science Can't Measure is the Great Within For Real...

IT Ain't Got A Clue For What's Possible Still Wearing Diapers;

Nope Not even

in Kindergarten

Yet of What

Intelligences

Are Truly Available

For Those Both With

the Nature and Nurture True to DO IT NOW...

After Getting Out of Hell Finding Free Verse
Poetry Connecting Words Back to Emotions

Really Rising From The Numb Living Dead Then;

Starting to Public Dance Opening Myself up to A World
of Colors With All the Nuances Real Heaven Brings; i Scored

An 11 on the AQ Scan By Simon Baron Cohen; And Remain

in the Other Part of Existence Yet Keeping the Systemizing

Intelligences too; i Integrated Myself And in Doing So

The Sum is
Most Definitely
More Than Only the Parts of Before;

In Fact, Other than Special Interests;
The Professionals, All 4 Who Diagnosed
me With Autism Said i Basically Remedied
The Most Severe Limitations i Had Before;

Indeed, One Called
it A Real Miracle;

As There Was NO
PROGNOSIS FOR

RECOVERY;

i CaLL iT Not
Giving Up And
Finding Out What
Works Best for me, Period.

---

I am not sure the OP flagged this as being overwhelming for them to cope with. But certainly if it would help them see from a different perspective then there is no harm getting a professional to talk to them.