INTERVIEW: New A&E special finds investigators sleeping over at Pennhurst Asylum
Photo: World’s Biggest Ghost Hunt will go where no paranormal show has gone before. A&E secured access to Pennhurst Asylum, the country’s most haunted abandoned hospital. Once the team of expert ghost hunters arrived on site, they remained for two weeks. Photo courtesy of A&E / Provided by press site with permission.
Pennhurst Asylum in Spring City, Pennsylvania, is reported to be one of the most haunted places in the United States. The facility was in operation from 1908 to 1987, hosting more than 10,000 residents, most of them children. Today, the buildings of the old asylum make up an elaborate Halloween haunt for ticket buyers, but real paranormal investigation still occurs on the property as well.
A&E knows a thing or two about paranormal investigations, and this Halloween they are going to showcase what they found at Pennhurst. On Wednesday, Oct. 30, the TV special World’s Biggest Ghost Hunt: Pennhurst Asylum will air at 8 p.m.
The one-night-only event will display footage of what happened when five investigators decided to head for Pennhurst and spend two weeks within its confines. One of the team members was Ali Horrick.
“I went ahead and applied,” Horrick said about her inclusion in the project. “I found out that there was this great opportunity, and I didn’t know who it was with at first. I applied, and I was selected. And then when I found out it was Pennhurst, I was just absolutely ecstatic.”
Horrick said the two weeks with her fellow investigators were two extremely long weeks. Almost every night she had difficulty sleeping, and that’s understandable given the spooky surroundings and the legendary history of the asylum complex. A&E reports that Pennhurst has had its fair share of things that go bump in the night: full-body apparitions, physical attacks and mysterious noises.
“I think we were all pretty anxious because going in Katie and I didn’t know each other, and I didn’t know the three guys either, neither did she,” Horrick said about her fellow investigators. “So we’ve never worked together. We’ve never investigated together, so that was very interesting to kind of go on an investigation. There’s a lot of trust factors when going into a paranormal investigation.”
The team first met with the gentleman who runs Pennhurst. They were clued in on the unique history of the asylum and some of the more recent paranormal activity.
“Things were getting pretty spooky in there, so they asked paranormal teams to come in and try to find answers why this is happening,” Horrick said. “So going in, we knew we had a mission, and that’s what we were going to accomplish. … I brought a specialty. I am an empath and a sensitive, so going into an investigation, I get a feel for the energy of the place as well as the energy of the people I’m working with along with the energy of the spirits.”
Horrick said she has known of her abilities for quite some time; she has always had a deep connection to anything and anyone she touches. Sometimes she even has dreams about events happening in certain places, she said.
“It’s definitely helped me,” Horrick said. “It gave me a better understanding. Everybody has a gut feeling or an intuition, but I just go a little bit more beyond that. And it’s definitely helped me in terms of relationships with friends and family, loved ones, just all across the board. It helps to be more empathetic toward people as well as get a better understanding of how to address the situation and deflect any type of negativity. It is both a gift and a curse you can say.”
Her first paranormal encounter reportedly came when she was young. It was Christmas Eve, and she had recently returned home with her family. She saw a figure, and this man kept visiting her every single night.
“It’s actually been something that’s followed me my full life at this point,” she said. “I have looked for answers to what he is, and the closest thing that I’ve gotten is that he’s … kind of like a guardian of mine. I always wanted to know why is it that I see him. Do other people see this?”
She added: “These things that I’m seeing, they are real. It’s not in my head. I went first to a scientific approach and then to actually understanding that some things can’t be explained.”
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
World’s Biggest Ghost Hunt: Pennhurst Asylum will air Wednesday, Oct. 30 at 8 p.m. on A&E. Click here for more information.
