“Not Club Med” Mansfield Training School
There’s nothing like a nice fresh breath of Asbestos in the morning topped off with a side of lead paint particles! Waking up in the morning, grabbing my three coffee cups routine and off to the forgotten. A world of hazard, spirits and fun. This is my journey from the root, of when I started exploring the paranormal. For myself, paranormal investigation was more of a sport. That’s how it was in the beginning. I often compare myself as a fisherman, when he gets a big catch and that’s what I felt like, especially when I capture some strong evidence of entities and anomalies. There’s nothing like getting evidence on film but it really started around 2004 when one of my original partners in paranormal aka “Peter Cerow” at the time and myself decided we wanted to get more into the paranormal. We then ventured out and it was a lot of fun considering the adventure and also we would camp. We had a hell of a lot of fun camping also. Always looking out for bears and equipped with my classical guitar as I play slide blues style. This was a great way to blow off steam. By the way, that picture you took of steam or fog is not a spirit but pareidolia!!! Just kidding! “Wink.”
I believe the first one we did was Mansfield Training School in Mansfield Connecticut. I myself was fascinated by this place and Peter was even more so. We got onto the campus which was enormous and filled with abandoned buildings. The amazing thing about Mansfield is there’s still equipment and things like that inside of the buildings. It was like walking through history or should just consider it a dark past? Literally skeletons in the closet..
“Knight hospital mansfield training School”
Mansfield Training School was one of the many Insane asylums here in CT. We have a lot here in Connecticut and possibly the most out of any state. Weird how Connecticut is so haunted, and it also has tons of asylums…Mansfield though was owned by Dr. Knight. He named a building after himself. Patients back in this time had no voice. It was ridiculously easy to point the finger and claim someone was insane and a danger to the community. They would lock you right up! People with even attention deficit disorder (ADD or ADHD) would be locked down. Knight is a cool last name, but this guy was no Knight in shining armor but instead much more sinister. We can refer to him as The Dark Knight.
I remember walking the halls and there were a few rooms that got taken over by nature. It’s pretty amazing that nature has such an ability. It all starts with birds then following plants such as ferns. In a way it was horrifying but in that note of me seeing the plants it was also beautiful. We found the morgue and mortician lab. The funny thing is our flashlights died and we had to find our way out of there with very little light! There was no reason they should have died. When we got out of the building our lights turned back on by themselves full battery power. What was once a twisted home for the insane was now a community of birds, squirrels, raccoons and maybe a few coyotes.
Ansonia Connecticut
“An example of how nature takes over.”
I would say the most eerie part of the whole building or spirit nest would be the mortician’s lab tucked away into a world of cobwebs that would give any person with asthma trouble breathing, but we ventured in. The smell of what seems to be a magic marker scent came from the formaldehyde bottles. When you really go in, you can see the lab charts and blood samples of the former patients. I’m also guessing that this is where they have conducted their experiments. Injecting people with Polio to try and see if they can cure them afterwards with experimental drugs or sorts and vaccines. They had no voice. This actually happened all around Connecticut and the rest of the country.
Care for some of our finest aged Embalming fluid..? May I top you off?
There was a graveyard, specifically for the patients that have died in a place in Westchester. Rumor has it that the grounds of the cemetery contain radiation from all the electric shock treatment. Now I don’t know how possible that is or if it’s real (the radiation) but it sure is eerie. But the creepiest thing was that these graves only had 3- or 4-digit numbers.
Letchworth Village cemetery is rumored to have radiation due to electric shock treatments.
“The morticians lab in Mansfield Training School”
Also, you may not be afraid of spirits but also don’t be afraid of bats because every summer these buildings are swarmed with them, with a 24-inch wingspan. Most likely they won’t land on you though but they come pretty damn close, literally nose to nose an inch before flying into your space they are smooth and will never even touch you because in flight and before they can even touch you, they fly away. This is because these creatures have echolocation. They literally will fly right at you, stop, and turnaround from a hair away from your face and body. It’s pretty funny when people freak out over that in these places, but the truth is 98% of the time they won’t even touch you.
Another time I saw a spirit run into the wall and vanish. We went to the area to investigate and couldn’t get any evidence. So, we then walked away, and we heard someone running into the leaves towards us, but no one was there. We also had evidence that we believed came from the spirit of Dr. Knight himself.
I thought another fascinating phenomenon was that it was April and the weather was warmer and the ground had thawed out. We decided to take a spin up to Mansfield. When I got to the main building there were sheets of ice on the floor. It was so odd that in the middle of April we would see sheets of ice. I do know that if there’s a major spirit portal present you will feel drops in temperature so in a paranormal aspect that would make sense thru theory. Even if there was no ice at the times we went, you could slip on the snow tiles…Actually these are ceiling tiles that have decayed and due to the dampness of the condition of the building they turned into a slippery, mud like substance, probably even more dangerous than the sheets of ice. These over times have fallen to the floor and mixed with water, so it forms a new hazard, on that note keep in mind the dangers if you go exploring. There are also solvents and lots of chemicals. Call it paranormal research or urban exploring but in a way it’s an extreme sport because of the danger involved. Some people even live in these places as squatters.
“The art room! It’s literally a masterpiece in a way. Awesome location in New York”
We were amateurs and just going on adventures which was a lot of fun. We went another weekend in a different building. This building had a theater and piano. And we were taking photos. When we heard footsteps upstairs and as we got outside, every door in the dorm room was opening and slamming shut by themselves. We were amazed yet again and fascinated by the afterlife there.
We found the tunnel system. The tunnels were used to wheel patients or corpses out underground. It was essential that they did this because other patients would flip out if they saw a dead body being wheeled out. There were a lot of staff that were good and kind but there were a majority that were abusive. We also found a second sub tunnel system with a trapdoor and ladder leading down. This was for utilities. Filled with wires and pipes. A claustrophobic hell, but we ventured through the tunnels. In these tunnels patients also snuck in to smoke cigarettes or hang out with others. In a sense the tunnels were the actual asylum compared to the portal to hell above. A subterranean getaway for patients alike.
Exploring in general, we have also found tunnel systems 10/20 miles from the shore to find wildlife habitat in the tunnels. It has a whole echo system with albino eels and albino catfish. The fish become albino due to the lack of sunlight. 98% of them never even live to see daylight because they are so deep into this world of tunnels. It’s because of no light conditions that they’ve evolved, and their generations of fish are albino. I would not eat these. Also, I’ve seen what I like to refer to as fungi forests in chambers in tunnel systems and often these chambers underground are massive. I was also always fascinated to hear of the urban legend that there’s a gator under NYC tunnel drain systems. Anyway, back on track!
There were patients that bit the staff. They would pull all their teeth, and it was very creepy if you ever see the dental office in there knowing they pulled all their teeth out to prevent them from biting. They would also shave the patient’s heads so they would look less attractive and make the men and women look that way too to prevent relationships. They even tested chemicals, poisons and medications on the patients as well. They would also inject them with diseases and then test medications on them. They were lab rats literally with no say in anything. They had no voice. Kind of reminds me of the movie “Saw” in a scene. A very watered-down version of the movie but you get it.
Another horror was hydrotherapy. they would put the patient in these special bathtubs. Fill it with ice cold water and let them sit in it. Cognitively tried to reprogram their mind, then they would drain the freezing water and put piping burning hot water in the tub thinking “the shocking reaction from freezing to hot would redo their minds”. That was another failure.
Hydrotherapy bathtub.
There was embalming fluid all over the place as well as medical records. The record described the behaviors of the patients. As well as restraining chairs galore. It is rumored that there was a murder on a nurse in one of the buildings also.
It makes me think… I would have to be institutionalized if I said I was psychic back then. That also makes me think of how many of these patients were actually psychic and what they were experiencing was actually real with consequences that they got thrown into these places. Think about that? I will give you a moment…
Yes… And you would be also if you were a witch or an eccentric person of sorts or even dyslexics. Throw em all in! Why were things that way? Was it for business or was their intentions good? If their intentions were good, they definitely still failed. I met someone who used to be a patient, and he said he used to cup his mouth with his hands for the effect of a microphone speaker and say “ chhhht…Staff assist! Staff Assist! Sector 2! Staff assist! chhhht ” and he would make his voice sound like an intercom. The funny thing was the staff started running down the hall thinking there was some emergency.
Oh and wait! The lobotomies. They went overkill with the procedure. They still do lobotomies today, but it’s very mild and only for people with extreme O.C.D. or obsessive-compulsive disorder.
“Myself laying in a body fridge. About to take a nap. Need a blanket.”
Abandoned places in general, especially asylums, are breeding grounds for cult activity. Because of the traumatic past it is believed that there is residual energy and energies that have latched onto objects or the facility itself. Because of this Metapsychical belief, occultists of all types, especially from Necromancy. Necromancy is a broad spectrum from light to heavy. In a way we are all necromancers technically for attempting to talk to our deceased loved ones. Psychic mediums are light forms of necromancy but when it comes to places like this you can bet these are some serious forms of raising the dead and that is a very ,some say, forbidden art of Necromancy. This practice is very common in these types of places. It’s also said that cemeteries are haunted because of this practice. Necromancy is the practice of summoning the dead to predict and tell them knowledge. There are very few people who practice this and many of them need to use a real human skull or bones.
We would go explore and then go back to camp. We had a lot of fun doing this. I always thought it was great to experience different cultures and different towns. My favorite is Vermont and New Hampshire along with Massachusetts (Bridgewater is loaded with haunted stuff). Practically all of New England is a Paranormal investigator’s dream.
I remember waiting in line at the general store in Vermont and there was a police officer in front of me in the line. He smiled and gave me his place in line. I was speechless. I thought “Is this guy serious or being sarcastic?”. He was being kind. Other communities didn’t like people who aren’t from there calling us “Out of towners”. I remember going to one local grocery store. I had spiky black hair kind of like Sid Vicious and I was very punked out with tattoos and all with what I was wearing. As soon as I stepped out of the car I felt like Jessie James from the wild wild west because there was a lady with her car window rolled down and was staring at us. When I went inside the local market all the children were laughing at me. I had fun and got a kick out of it! I can’t blame them. I’m sure there are not many punk rockers coming through there. So ya I’ve been an out of towner kind of treated like some drifter but that’s all part of the experience. Some towns welcome out of towners and others will get to the point that you’re not welcome. Always research where you are going so you are prepared for that.
Mansfield was the beginning of a paranormal adventure that took me to places and I met cool locals that I never knew existed. I always love visiting country diners in the area that we were exploring. The food is so good! I will never forget having a panini with roast beef, Russian dressing and Swiss. We made sure we went to local places in the area after investigating. Country diners make the best signature sandwiches and also breakfast that will blow your mind. There’s always a few gems in the area of New England. But please, before you eat… Wash your hands.
Author
Nicholas R. Grossmann Journalist, Psychic Medium, and Explorer