There are few places on Earth more depressing than an abandoned asylum. But leave it to the entrepreneurs of the paranormal tourist industry to take that raw, industrial-strength sadness, slap on some discount Halloween decorations, jack up the price tag, and call it a “VIP overnight experience.” That’s how I found myself at Ashwood Institute … Read more
There are many ways to suffer for one’s craft. Some men trek through the Amazon. Some freeze in Antarctic tundra. I, however, took on an assignment far more harrowing: spending the night aboard the HMS Perseverance, a rotting, listing corpse of a ship whose greatest supernatural feat to date is continuing to pass safety inspections … Read more
Ashwell, Massachusetts is the kind of town that smells like autumn year-round and has never quite gotten over the fact that the witch trials happened somewhere else. It’s beautiful, brooding, and deeply committed to the idea that every creaky staircase is a portal to another dimension. Which brings us to the Ashwell Museum of Paranormal … Read more
If you could bottle vague hope, blurry photos, and economic desperation, you’d have Nessie: the most famous aquatic nonentity in modern history. The legend is simple: somewhere in the dark, cold depths of a Scottish lake, an ancient dinosaur-thing lurks — cleverly avoiding all sonar, underwater cameras, and credible witnesses for the better part of … Read more
If you’ve ever felt like you left your body during sleep, you’re not alone — you’re just easily impressed by dreams and gravity. According to the believers, astral projection is the ability to separate your soul (or “energy body,” if you’re allergic to theology) from your physical self and float around like a ghost with … Read more
Astrology is the art of blaming your personal failures on the cosmic movements of balls of gas millions of miles away. It’s the ultimate get-out-of-jail-free card for people who refuse to accept that sometimes, Brenda, you’re just bad at picking men — it has nothing to do with Mercury’s “energy shifts.” At its core, astrology … Read more