S2 Ep1: The Boy on 2600

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Astonishing Legends Network. The views and opinions expressed by hosts and listeners on the Astonishing Dead Letter office are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of Astonishing Legends Productions, the Astonishing Legends Network, or any affiliated entities or guests. When something unexplainable happens to you, it can make you feel isolated or alone. But trust us, you're not. For over a decade, you've been sending your strange stories to Astonishing Legends, and now it's time for our fellow legenders to hear them too. Join us weekly in Blanket Fortiana as we dig through your intriguing messages to the Astonishing Dead Letter office. Tonight's episode, The Boy on 2600. So, Forrest, you've spent some time in abandoned psychiatric hospitals over the years for fun, right? Indeed. People have heard of the infamous Waverly Sanatorium, and we did our infamous episodes on them, right? Yeah. Yeah, and a lot of people have gone there. One thing that they do have is that, I think they still have it, the yearly Halloween haunted house walkthrough. Yeah. Because we're going to be talking about the presence or the lingering energetic presence of a lot of people moving through there. But it's a very festive time, and I think I was talking to people like, wow, I wonder what the spirit activity is on a night like that. And it's just, we had a laugh because I'm sure the spirits are like, okay, everybody just go home. This is enough. It's way too much. You've got hundreds of people walking through. I enjoy tours of those places myself. I've been to the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum. Oh, yeah. Also very famous. With my son. Yeah, we did a tour there. It was awesome. Not a lockdown, but it was still super fun. Right. It's in West and West Virginia, about two hours southwest of Kecksburg, which is why I was there because I wanted to check out Kecksburg. Yeah. But anyway, tonight's dead letter is about an operating and modern facility. It takes place in a, at the time, discarded wing of it. Oh. I don't know. What do you think it is that makes these places inherently spooky to us? My money is really just on the fear of facing mental health challenges that you can't manage without external resources. Well, yeah. You know, fear of our own mortality, things beyond our control, which we all face, and that loss of control is scary. I would say, though, if you're talking practically being in there, well, one, they're abandoned. So there's always that spooky, not even kind of like the back rooms theory. I know your son was really into it. He was. Yeah. He's over it now. Yeah. I mean, that's not run. Yeah. It's not run down. It's just abandoned, and it feels like you may be the only person on earth. Here, you really feel the people that have gone through there, that that was their lives for a while. And with that come a lot of stories of tragedy, especially in the earlier days, well, even up until the 60s and 70s, where the care, let's say, there weren't as stringent of state and federal controls about the type of care you would receive, and people were either unintentionally or intentionally mistreated with poor care, abused often, because, again, they're discarded folks in a way, and it's sad. But there's a lot of energy there, and you're talking about, yes, people with severe mental health challenges, and there's no other recourse for them, and the pharmaceuticals weren't as good back then. And so you warehouse them. Yeah. And so there's a lot of heightened energy. That is a recipe for something to fill an empty vacuum. Yeah. And that's filled with spirit energy, you could say. Well, tonight, what our listener encounters isn't your standard shadow figure or spectral mist. It's something quite different from most encounters of this type, actually. Yeah, perhaps you could say a glitch in reality. And the most chilling part isn't just seeing it. It's the moment the anomaly stops, turns, and acknowledges you. And it raises the question, are we just watching a recording of past tragedy, or is the tragedy watching us back? When I was 21 years old, I worked security at a hospital that treated psychiatric and addiction issues. I worked the overnight shift, 11 p.m. till 7 a.m., and I did this while going through my paramedic program. It was a good job, a good place to work, and I got to work with some really good people. These three years of my life were chaotic, stressful, and also wonderful. While employed there, I became a paramedic and met the woman who became my wife. Most appropriately for the job, I was able to learn and craft my ability to deal with psych patients and those dealing with chemical dependency issues. This remains one of my strong suits in my proverbial paramedic toolbox. For some background, one of my duties as a security officer was to patrol the hospitals and grounds to assess any risks. As the third shift guy, I was by myself. I would patrol the hallways, stop into the units, and check in with staff to see if anything or anyone had the chance of becoming a problem. This particular hospital, as specialized as it was, was relatively small. It was only two floors. This first floor had three inpatient units, and the second floor had two units. The other side of the hospital was strictly for folks with varying addiction diagnoses. When I started, and this event occurred within my first few months of working at this hospital, the other unit on the second floor was empty and under construction. The hospital decided to turn that empty unit into an outpatient clinic for minors. This unit, called 2600, had once been a geriatric wing and was then converted to an adolescent wing. For a while, this kept younger and older children separated. Whether for budgetary or census reasons, the children were combined into one unit, leaving 2600 empty. This empty wing was kept locked when workers were not present, so a part of my rounds was to check 2600 for break-ins, and even things such as fires or roof leaks. I did this once a shift, as there was never anything to report, except for that one night. As per my routine, I entered 2600 through the main door. After securing the secondary knob lock, I pulled it shut and stood in the large front room. This was called the milieu room, a French word meaning a person's social environment. The large room contained the nurse's desk, the doors to the medication room, the seclusion room, the unit kitchen, and about 20 seats and a television. Directly across from the main door was a long and expansive hallway that stretched straight all the way to the end. Off this hallway were all the patient rooms, about 30 rooms as my memory recalls. Each room had two beds, a bathroom, and safe furniture secured to the ground and walls. Immediately as I entered, the room felt cold. It was winter, and the empty unit was kept cooler than the occupied units, but it was far colder than I was used to. I wondered if a window had started to be replaced and the worker left, not having finished the job. I then began to wonder if a patient had broken a window from the outdoor courtyard below with a rock or something. I would have to investigate. I walked by the windows and found no evidence of problems. I moved on to check the three other rooms around the milieu and still found nothing out of the ordinary. The big room itself was normal for its current status. Ladders and toolboxes scattered about. Some of the inset lighting fixtures were open, perhaps needing new bulbs or ballasts. Drop cloths and paint cans and various other items for repair and upgrade finished off the room. This was all normal. The hallway was next. I walked to the opening of the hallway and looked down the dark length of nothing. It was not completely dark on a normal night. The red exit sign would glow gently at the end of the hallway, near the locked door that led to the stairwell, down to 1600. These stairs were my normal route. Check the big room, walk the hallway, go down the stairs to 1600, and go about the rest of my business. This night, however, the hallway was lighter than usual. About halfway down the hall was a blue glow. Odd for sure, but I figured that a room door had been left open and some work light was left on. I intended to turn it off before leaving. I took a few steps down the hall, making it to about the second room's door. Then I stopped in my tracks. The blue glow was not coming from an open door. I could plainly see that all the doors were closed. The door itself was glowing blue. Not a reflection from across the hall, but the door itself. Before I could take one more step forward, the blue glow grew brighter. From the glowing door emerged an odd shape. It was about the size and shape of a person, as if walking from out of a closed door and facing toward the door across the hall. The disconcerting shape stopped in the middle of the hall. As I stared, bewildered, and honestly terrified, I could see it was transparent. The shape wasn't ethereal or ghostly in the traditional sense, but rather looked like heat shimmer, as if it were emanating from a sun-baked asphalt road on a hot, cloudless day. I also noted that the door across the hall also began to glow faintly blue. I felt, as much as saw, the thing turn its head to stare at me. One never knows how one will react in a situation like this. I have always believed in ghosts, for as long as I can think back on it. When I was very young, my family moved into my mother's childhood home, which we bought from my grandfather after the death of my grandmother, and my uncle had gotten married and moved out. On one of the first nights in our new house, I woke up in the middle of the night after hearing the noise of a floor creak outside my second-story room. Not scared, but curious, my nine-year-old self smelled my late grandmother's perfume. This experience was not frightening, quite the opposite. I remember feeling a tremendous sense of peace and ease. She was just checking on me. It was a wonderful connection between a loving grandmother and a grandson who missed her very much. As I found out the next morning, my mother had a similar experience that night, too. My grandmother would go on to visit every so often. I was aware of ghosts, but had never experienced anything like this hospital ghost. I raised my hand out toward it in a stop gesture. I'm not here for you, I told it. My heart raced. I could feel my hands shaking. But I fought very hard to remain calm and show no fear. The spirit continued to stare at me. It felt like we stayed there for a very long time, frozen in a weird standoff. But in reality, it couldn't have been more than a minute. Then the spirit continued to move toward the other door. As it did so, the blue glow from the first door faded, and the other door glowed brighter as the spirit approached it. When the spirit reached the door, it vanished through it. All at the same time, the blue glows faded completely like a switch had been flipped off. And the temperature changed. The unusual cold immediately evacuated, leaving the normal, expected room temperature. It felt, however, like a heat wave, drawing a light film of sweat to my body. Admittedly, I may not be able to blame the sweat on the temperature. I had just seen a ghost. I left through the front door. I locked up the secondary knob lock and walked away. I went directly back to the security office, choosing to ignore that hour's rounds, and sat down heavily in the security office chair. I spent the next few hours thinking and reflecting. I never went back into 2600 by myself while it was under construction. Even after the unit rehab was completed, I couldn't help but think of that night in my experience. When the first shift guy came in the next morning, he also happened to be the supervisor, I told him flat out I would never step foot into 2600 again. He rolled his eyes and asked, Let me guess. You saw a ghost. I freaked out, hearing someone say it out loud and so dismissively at that. Then I started yelling at him. You knew about this? Why didn't you tell me? You should let your guards know this. Everybody knows, he told me. He didn't believe it. He had never seen it. But there were stories, apparently. And he just thought it was nonsense. He was a very smart, qualified man. But this confirmed that non-believers will rarely change their opinion. One cannot see what they are not open to. Over the next few shifts, I was able to gently bring up my story to some of the other night shift employees at the hospital. They confirmed that I wasn't alone or crazy. And they would know. Here's the story behind it all. Years before I started, when 2600 was the adolescent unit, a 17-year-old kid was brought in by the police department from his high school. He was to be evaluated for depression and possible new-onset psychosis. There was no security scam process at the time. The boy was brought to the unit to be evaluated by the on-duty nurse. He sat still, looking down and saying nothing, as the staff tried to talk to him and gauge where he was at mentally. After 10 minutes of flat effect and not engaging, the boy asked to go to the bathroom. The staff obliged and advised that he should use the one in his room, the same room that was first glowing blue when I met him, and change into the issued hospital gown and pants. The boy was in the bathroom for some time, enough for them to get concerned and walk down to check on him. That was when they heard the gunshot. The staff rushed in and found him. The boy had sat on the closed-seat toilet, removed the gun from God knows where, put the gun to his head, and pulled the trigger. Unfortunately, he missed the kill spot. He instead shot the bullet through his head and put himself into a coma for seven years. At the end, he was on a ventilator and had never done more than flutter his eyes. The broken-hearted family waited seven years to allow an EEG to test for brain activity. The test results proved the boy was brain dead and had no chance of coming back. The family authorized termination of the vent and allowed the boy to finally pass on. This apparently did not go as planned. The hospital staff, unaware that the boy was finally off life support, were reported to begin experiencing paranormal occurrences the very same night he died. The family called the hospital to let them know he was gone a few days later. A few of the staff who were still there from back when this happened attended the boy's funeral. Over the following years until I showed up, various employees experienced different things on 2600 until it closed. While I tried to research the event on the down-low, I learned that the lights had flickered, some small objects were lost and or moved, and most reported a general sense of unease while on the unit. No one I spoke to reported an experience quite like mine. I am not sure why he chose me to appear as he did. This experience was the springboard on which my curiosity, my imagination, and my attraction to the paranormal were launched from. The boy on 2600 would not be my last paranormal encounter. My career in EMS and the medical field in general gave me ample opportunity to have more experiences. Then again, I am open to and aware of that world. Maybe that's why I see ghosts when others only see happenstance. I can't blame them for being who they are no more than I can change who I am and my beliefs. I saw the boy on 2600, and in some ways, he is still with me. The veil between the living and the dead is thinner than this commercial break. At CVS, it matters that we're not just in your community, but that we're part of it. It matters that we're here for you when you need us, day or night, and we want everyone to feel welcomed and rewarded. It matters that CVS is here to fill your prescriptions and here to fill your craving for a tasty and, yeah, healthy snack. At CVS, we're proud to serve your community because we believe where you get your medicine matters. So visit us at cvs.com or just come by our store. We can't wait to meet you. Store hours vary by location. Back to exploring the unexplained. Just as a story alone, just as a piece of entertainment, it's pretty good. Yeah. And it also points to what we were talking about before reading the story, that sadly, that emotional energy that may linger and imprints very heavily into the environment here. And that's extreme depression, violence, and just a sad ending that keeps on going into the afterlife. I think another thing that adds an interesting level to this is the fact that Kevin is a paramedic student. So he's got training in dealing with psych patients. I actually have a very close friend that's got similar training. Yeah. A friend of yours as well. In fact, he hosted the very first episode. He co-hosted the very first episode of Astonishing Legends just by a fluke. That's right. Well, I think in this case... That's what he does now. Yeah, yeah. Not a paramedic, but he's a nurse, an RN trained to deal with psych patients. Yeah. But I guess what I was going to say is this trains you to have a calm demeanor and not to overreact in a panicky situation. Yes. But, you know, by the same token, Kevin seemed like it's like, okay, what am I seeing here? He's, you know, he's standing there wide-eyed and trying to figure it out. And also, this is just a very different kind of manifestation from one that I've heard of before, especially with the objects in the real world glowing a certain color. Well, I have a few comments about that. But it's interesting that you say that because our friend, yeah, he's a pretty calm demeanor. And a great sense of humor. I think you need both of those things in dealing with this. Because it's funny you say that. I have a very fond uncle of mine who's, geez, well, he's retired now, but he'd been a psychiatric nurse 30, 40 years, something like that, you know, at one of the larger hospitals. And he also has a very calm, very gentle demeanor, very soothing. And you need that. But I remember, this is decades ago, but I was, you know, we were talking about his job, what it was like, because he didn't really share too many of the stories, of course. But it seems like I'm calm, but it wears on you. In that, that kind of energy, what he was getting is that kind of energy can affect you. Like, so what we're talking about this environment here, it's not just necessarily ghosts, but the psychic energy, if you will, of these patients where everything can be cranked up to 11. And we're talking the depression, the sadness, the anger, the anxiety, all these things, the heightened emotions just for the living can have a negative effect. And so here, what's sad to me is that this poor young guy didn't even get to receive any treatment. It was so, you know, just getting there. And yeah, it was like back then you didn't think to frisk people. And so, you know, it starts off that way, but getting to your description of what makes this story a little bit different as far as a sighting is just the visual aspect of it. And I love the descriptors here. Yeah, you're talking about the door itself, some kind of energy, spiritual energy, turning that door luminescent and that it's actually, it seems like it's giving off light and this blue light. And then the description of the heat shimmer, which is commonly called heat haze or some will call it an inferior mirage. And so people know, like when you see a hot pavement, you look out from the distance and it could look like water even down the road and the ripples of the pavement or you'll see that waviness. That's curious to me and that's what he's seeing. I have some other very close friends who have seen ghosts and one of them is a very close relative who described it as that typical blue-gray misty quality. Right. To it with just this blob of, but a defined human shape. And that's fascinating. But here we have this shimmering effect, which is, that's going to say, different than the, you know, we often talk about the cloaking predator thing where it's kind of mirror-like, but also kind of shimmery and like it's bending the light a little bit that you're seeing here. But what it reminds me of is that I remember, I believe it was a psychic medium who was, somebody asked them like, well, if we could see the ghosts, they look like this. Like, what do you think that they see when they look at us? The living. Right. And I always remember the description was that, well, imagine being underwater, you know, in a swimming pool and you're looking up and somebody, you know, is standing at the edge of the pool how that's kind of wavy like that. She said, that's kind of the impression that I get from their vantage point, the ghosts. Oh, interesting. And they see us and they can see somewhat clearly, but we're distorted and wavy. Right. Or like if the sun is shining down into the water and that we all have that very specific experience. That's what Kevin talks about here, the shimmering. Yeah. Like, almost like a heat, like what you see, you know, related to Fata Morgana. Yeah. Or if you're driving on the, and I always say the desert southwest, but if you're out in the, if you've driven across the Four Corners region or Monument Valley, you see this on the road, that shimmering, which we've talked about ad nauseum in other dead letters as well. But the shimmer, there's something so interesting about that and intriguing about it. The other thing that I wanted to do was look into like the significance of the blue light related to this. And we've talked about this in the past because people talk about orbs and specifically, you know, yes, when we started the show, I was anti-orb and now I'm Mr. Pro-orb. No, I'm anti-orb. You're an anti-orb. And I think, by the way, I still think when still photos 90% of the time, it's dust or something or lens flare or whatever. But I also have seen orbs that defy normal physics that are not dust. And I've also seen them be super prominent when something strange happens in our reality. So that, I've seen that. I've seen it on video. It's unexplainable. But the other thing I know is that when we had on Colm Kelleher and George Knapp talking about Skinwalkers at the Pentagon, which was our first show of 2023, I think. I can't remember. It was January show, I remember. But whenever that show came on and they came on, one of the things that was in Skinwalkers at the Pentagon was follow-up information that indicated that people who had contact with red orbs had suffered long-lasting physical effects and in some cases very severe ones. Right. And do you remember one of the anecdotes from the book because they were specifically talking about negative health effects? Like, wouldn't that be cool? Like, well, not really. Somebody was driving along and saw this orb catch up to the car or was coming perpendicular, go through the car, through them, and out the other side. Passed through their shoulder. And that was a red one. Yeah. And that led to long, you know, they tried to follow privacy and I don't think it was necessarily HIPAA, but just be restrictive about the fine details there. But there was an implication that it caused significant problems, possibly even cancer. Yeah. When this red orb passed through this person. So, that is interesting because when I was looking up, you know, the colors, and I, you know, I don't have this memorized. A lot of paranormal researchers and podcasters probably do, but red and orange color is often associated with lower vibrations of anger or malevolent entities, which is in that case what that would be. And that's been reported by these guys and skinwalkers at the Pentagon, which for me, yes, I'm a big believer in the stuff that George Knapp says and Colin Kelleher. Those guys, I mean, if you go back to our Skinwalker series, I believe in the research that they're doing and what they're writing about. So, I take that as more gospel as I do just an average anecdote. Yeah. But I guess with blue or white light, that's associated with higher vibrations. And in spiritism or theosophy, which we've talked about a lot on the show, blue often signifies apparently a spirit that is benevolent, calm, or seeking communication. Oh. Which also suggests that the entity has retained some kind of human intelligence and is not just a mindless sludge or elemental. Right. So. Interesting. These are notes that you found through doing a little bit of digging here, right? Doing a little bit of digging. And people also talk about, there's also mention of it in folklore. I mean, we've talked about corpse candles and willow the wisps over the years in Welsh and British folklore. A corpse candle is a small blue ball of red light that appears to herald a death or mark the route of a funeral procession that it will take. Seeing a blue light hovering near a specific room or door, as in our story here, creates a direct link to the death lore. It marks the location as a crossing over point. Oh, there you go. So that's the interesting thing when you look back at the story and you think about this young man taking his own life and maybe this is a reenactment of his soul leaving the room. But the other, yeah, right? But here's the other thing that's fascinating is that it seems to interact with Kevin. It seems to look at Kevin. So then the two questions I would have is do we have an interactive sentient spirit here if you believe any of this at all? Do we have that? Or is it possible that when it's a crisis apparition and when this person's soul left his body this is a playback of it and when he stepped through that door all those years ago he actually just happened to look in the same direction that Kevin was standing? Yeah, I thought about that. That's an interesting concept where it's like it's not really looking at you but you perceive it that way. Well, I also believe in this concept I've heard psychic mediums talk about this as well where you have different levels of vibrational existence I guess or frequency and I've become you with your orbs me with frequency frequency and vibration and particles and this all being you were just kind of hedging at it but this is all part of science we don't understand yet Right. There's there's a supernatural element which is the unseen aspect of it or spiritual I guess and then there's the other part which is some type of physics we don't quite understand yet but also incorporating some physics we do understand or approaching it and we're now talking about thought energy and again manifestation vibration harmonics and invisible forces like spooky action at a distance quantum entanglement and and now we're starting to to get onto that also consciousness studies and experiments so but getting back to something you said about the colors that's fascinating because again it seems pretty not cliche but just like maybe obvious in a way in the fact that well I had an ex-girlfriend of mine who is still a very good friend she had a condition known as synesthesia where when she heard or played music because she could play music depending on the type of music she would see bursts of color or color or soft swatches of color you could say like kind of misty and I said well what what is it like depending on the music she said well if it's if it's really pleasing music like classical music or even something like the carpenters something like that where it's just very pleasing and melodic it was the colors were blues and greens and it was very soothing if it was like kind of angry music and I would imagine like your death metal genres and things like that where it was just kind of thrashing which I sometimes enjoy but she said she would see oranges and reds and those were kind of irritating it brought on feelings of like irritation and agitation and those colors would be associated with yeah the more sharp reds and oranges and so I don't know if that's just kind of a cliche but the other thing I was going to mention is another one of my favorite stories from bringing this up a lot Jim Harreld's campfire really early on maybe it's now over 10 years ago maybe I heard this story but a woman sitting on her couch looking up and near the light fixture she starts to see what I remember being described as like a bluish illuminating pool of mercury and it was shimmering out like a liquid that was coming out from the ceiling at a point maybe the light fixture but just spreading over the ceiling like it was clinging to it like a tool video like you well yeah that was a reference to a band for people who are too young well they're still relevant which were awesome those videos were amazing and I believe they directed them themselves oh really yes well Sarah is a big fad our editor but looking it'd be like looking at mercury spreading out on a flat service but upside down but it being I remember it being blue and glowing and I think it said oh maybe is that the thing where she heard in her mind's ear oh what a mirror we are which matches up with another story I love of the entity coming down the stairs at a crisp a big house where the family had rented for the holidays and they were all sleeping there and oh my love what a mirror image we are and I believe that's the connection I made with this other story where she had heard that or was a thought in her head and again this is apropos because it's talking about the mirror image what they see on the other side of what we're seeing so getting back to what this entity saw in the hallway and turning its head like I think maybe it did see him which is not often usual I think sometimes things are an echo Brad Steiger I think talking about growing up in an old converted where his family grew up in a home which was an old like a pony express stop or stagecoach stop and him seeing ghosts of the old west he said what was unusual about that is that they would interact with him as a kid like they would talk to him I think so in this case though I think there's also a yearning to be understood perhaps some regret in the way things ended for this this person and a yearning to find that life energy that is no longer attainable and so there's that connection but I also love how Kevin here said I'm not here for you and he put his hand out it's like don't enter me don't pass through me we're gonna keep it here at a friendly level but don't worry I'm not here to disturb you I'm not I'm not here to sequester you in any way which I think you know again I'm extrapolating I'm making a supposition here that when this young person arrived at the facility it's like that was also the turn of like oh here it goes here's my next journey I'm gonna be here for years just incarcerated against I don't wanna be here I don't feel good I don't you know this is not the way I want this to turn out and also the pause of time that they're in the bathroom thinking this through and it's just awful you know just them pondering like well I got this gun you know do I wanna be here cause I know it's coming and it's not gonna be good you know so you have all that weighing there plus all the energy of all the other people that have wandered through the hospital over the years yeah yeah and it's like we always talk about these crossroads in this case figurative and literal you know hotels lay lines highways old trails places that people have come and stayed and places especially places that people have been forced to stay at like a sanitarium or an asylum or a jail those kinds of places always seem to have some kind of residual energy and here's another observation I'd like to make you know the further we get into this business of dead letter offices and astonishing legends the more and more I become fascinated with the folklore aspects of these stories and wish I had studied folklore more in college or something maybe someday I'll get to go back and do that because it would be fun to do now with all of these stories that we have under our belts and I'm always very flattered when folklorists and professors reach out to us and ask if they can mention some of our shows in their classes it's very flattering well we know a couple of course yes yes we do and here's my point when I first read this dead letter my initial impression was well the backstory is very folkloric it's very just you know the boy showed up he had a weapon they didn't know and then he you know in the coma and all of this kind of stuff and you think that is a lot sounds like folklore stories passed down oral history maybe there's no connection between that and what Kevin experienced because sometimes that is the case and we know stories like that too where you've been where the person goes to the haunted plantation and here's the whole story about how the ghost was a slave that passed away and it's like turned out that person never existed historically they could not ever find you know that sort of thing so there's just like okay there's the folklore and then there's the encounter and sometimes those are two completely different unrelated things that's what I thought about this story too but one of the things that Kevin points out is there were people working here when he was there that had gone to the funeral that's right so that is a direct connection to the story itself and like all folklore and all stories of this type there may have been some exaggeration or some details lost but he was sharing space with other living people who experienced the funeral of this person and possibly cross paths with the actual person as well yeah and you're right and so you have that another aspect of the story is the really drawn out little seven years of being in this liminal state yes neither alive nor dead you're just kind of in that you know where does your consciousness go can you go in and out of it I think you're trapped and yeah you're right you feel there you go you feel trapped you have this silver cord attaching you perhaps from your higher self to your you know your astral self to the physical body can you travel what are you seeing just laying there and being a prisoner and that's another sad aspect of the story is that I I get it's just speculation on my part of course but just I think this person not wanting to have to be in that facility for all these years with no end date and then ironically they end up as a prisoner of sorts in this other state and you know it's like what you're talking about though just just the state of being so you have that I guess the person being there or their consciousness you hear a lot about this too that sometimes people come out of a comb and they say like oh I heard everything I heard all the bad stuff you said about me you know or wishing I I was dead and again that's another horrible aspect of it but what also ghost hunters look for as what I said at the beginning is some kind of historical anchor which you're just talking about is that people know the story so it wasn't just fabricated and you're right you look at these other stories about you know when you go to a haunted place often if it's there's a famous resident or they think a ghost look I know these are set up for entertainment but they'll sometimes be a plaque as I was saying about the Randolph infirmary there that they'll have a little story about who stayed in that room mostly and whose spirit they think inhabits it and that with the balloons that was another young girl and that's why they leave toys and balloons in there that's also very near I think where the flowers appeared mysteriously and in this case it's like okay well we don't really know because that would have been 1914 or whatever it was you know too long ago nobody's left alive here it's a pretty recent story so you want that confirmation and again that there's context to it and there's relevance and again it's a pretty good haunting it's a pretty good encounter I gotta say pretty dramatic rooted in an actual story and an actual person that can that part can be confirmed Kevin thank you so much for writing this all out and sending it in to us and sharing it with our listeners it's really a fascinating dead letter and we appreciate you being a long time listener and the additional note that you sent us that was just for us thank you so much for that folks if you have a dead letter that you'd like to hear on the show please send it in via email to deadletteroffice at astonishing legends.com the astonishing dead letter office is hosted by Scott Philbrook and Forrest Burgess and is executive produced by Tess Feifel the show is edited and mixed by Sarah Voorhees Wendel at VW Sound the theme is based on the astonishing legends theme by Judson Crane at Founder Music arranged by Alan Carissia who composes all the other music in the show Tommy Beaver Design created the logo the announcer is John Bolton that's me stories are lightly edited for length content and readability but otherwise presented as they're sent to us we're always looking for more dead letters so if you have a story of your own you'd like to share email it to deadletteroffice at astonishing legends.com please include how you would like to be credited first name only first name last initial anonymous a 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technology there will come a point when it will mature right yeah my cell phone is a mature technology at this point how far are we from that point with quantum by 2029 we'll build the first fault tolerant quantum computer that is one that can run a very very large large problem to learn how ibm is building the future of computing visit ibm.com slash quantum at cvs it matters that we're not just in your community but that we're part of it it matters that we're here for you when you need us day or night and we want everyone to feel welcomed and rewarded it matters that cvs is here to fill your prescriptions and here to fill your craving for a tasty and yeah healthy snack at cvs we're proud to serve your community because we believe where you get your medicine matters so visit us at cvs.com or just come by our store we can't wait to meet you store hours vary by location all right quick quiz for the hiring managers out there what's worse being understaffed or being poorly staffed well 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