The Unexplained World - Manteno State Hospital

AKA: Mental Hospital. AKA: Insane Asylum

Well they say at times you can not tell the patients
from the doctors in mental hospitals. Personally
for me by reading the annual reports (I will mention
what ones to read), it sounds like things where not
right at this place.

Many individuals in search of the paranormal who
wander around the hallways and rooms of the
buildings that are still standing, have stated hearing
voices, crying, screaming etc.. The individual who
took the photos above refuses to go back, for the
fact it was one location that left negative feelings
that would haunt her at night.

As you read some of the facts below, imagine what
it may of been like. People mentally ill roaming the
halls in a daze do to shock treatments, yelling and
screaming all throughout the night, pounding on
doors and walls. Therapy like shock treatments,
lobotomy, fever cabinets and who knows
what else in the healing process of mental illness.

No drugs as we know them today to control the
problems many may have had. Not only did the
patient have to live with what they had and the
so called treatments they where put through,
but also everyone else in the same ward.

I would imagine if you where not totally crazy
going in, you may be when coming out.

Over 8,000 patients at one time with a medical staff
of only 200 plus. And the hospital was not made to
house that many patients. Here is a bit of info from
one of their annual reports:
At the present time we have 27 graduate nurses on
our staff, including the administrative, supervisory,
and general duty nurses, which is 18 less than at the
same time a year ago.

From the Department of Public Health report:
The nursing department was directed by a trained
nurse, who was assisted by a number of supervisors
all of whom were untrained lay persons. The registered
nurses in the administrative plan took their orders from
the lay supervisors, who, in turn, were responsible for contacting the staff physicians, The attendants in this department consisted of lay persons who also were
responsible for nursing care.

Let's not forget one way of helping to heal the mentally ill.

Lobotomy took America and some other countries by storm.
They were performed in a wide scale in the 40s.
Between 1939 and 1951, more than 18,000 lobotomies
were performed in the United States.

Patients Taken Off Record and some of the reasons
in the same time frame as those listed above:
Escaped - 198/yr. - 16/mo.
Paroled - 851/yr. - 71/mo.
Deceased - 462/yr. - 39/mo.
Patients Admitted during the same time frame:
New - 2,239/yr. - 187/mo.
Returns - 348/yr. - 29/mo

They even had their own epidemic of typhoid fever:
In 1939, involving 453 cases and resulting in 60 deaths.

So is there any wonder why individuals who roam
the buildings talk of eerie feelings, hearing voices,
screams, crying and more? Maybe the walls are
talking? Maybe the things done to humans here
have left their emotional mark ?

Many things of a paranormal nature have been
reported to happen at locations of a more normal
environment. I personally feel if any place would
have paranormal activities as we know them and
the possible reasons why, the Manteno Insane
Asylum would have to be a location for a sure
thing.