The Chilling Secrets of Pilgrim Psychiatric Center - Inside This Abandoned Asylum!

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  • Опубликовано: 20 янв 2025

Комментарии • 100

  • @robertkees6048
    @robertkees6048 2 года назад +57

    When I was a kid in the seventies, my family with our church would go to PS once a month or every few, and bring refreshments for the pt's there. It was always a creepy place, and the look of it just added to that feeling as a little kid. I remember feeling sad for these people, which is why we went there, to give them attention and let them know we see them. Creepy or not I was always glad that we could help them even if just a small amount.

    • @ErikKSwanson
      @ErikKSwanson  2 года назад +8

      That is really nice. Thanks for sharing.

    • @BVonBuescher
      @BVonBuescher 2 года назад +2

      It’s almost hard to believe that, two infamous escapees originated from this god aweful place. Especially considering one of them had just received a lobotomy !
      The first was a candidate for the President of the United States in 2016. God bless her soul unfortunately, she still thinks she won. It’s clear she refuses help to this day. There are sightings on daytime TV shows. Legend has it you can hear her cackle from miles away.
      The second escapee fled from the table from which he was having his lobotomy. it is sad. Initially he was lobotomize due to his propensity to sniff hair. Prior to his escape, he had impregnated a trans man, who worked as an orderly. (Later this trans-man would give birth to Hunter.) The escapee would become the 46th president of United States by some cruel twist of fate . It would later be revealed that the phrase: ‘ come on man” possessed a very unique frequency

    • @commonsense571
      @commonsense571 11 месяцев назад

      Bless you for your kindness ❤

  • @RobVollat
    @RobVollat 2 года назад +17

    They would perform lobotomies in UNDER 3 MINUTES and "BY FEEL", by beating an icepick under the eye socket and into the frontal cortex. This part of your brain regulates emotion, among other duties. They would blindly "carve out space" inside the brain. They thought this would cause the brain to rewire itself... Oddly enough, they did it to a 7 year old child, and their brain DID re-wire itself because it was still developing. Weird science of the past is often haunting!

  • @TingTingalingy
    @TingTingalingy 2 года назад +8

    Your videos are so good and tell the stories so well. Your editing makes these videos a joy to watch

    • @ErikKSwanson
      @ErikKSwanson  2 года назад

      Thanks!

    • @charredolive
      @charredolive 2 года назад +1

      Is your name in reference to elder scrolls stealth archers 😂

    • @TingTingalingy
      @TingTingalingy 2 года назад +1

      @@charredolive shhh... 😉

  • @livcater1729
    @livcater1729 Год назад +10

    My great grandfather was a patient there. He passed in 1964 and was buried on the grounds on hospital only know as a number. My cousins found his grave and gave him a plaque to finally give him his name back.

    • @ErikKSwanson
      @ErikKSwanson  Год назад +1

      Oh wow. That’s great they were able to find it

    • @willietherescue8627
      @willietherescue8627 6 месяцев назад

      I’m so sorry, that’s so sad!💔

  • @combatgirl38
    @combatgirl38 2 года назад +24

    Electroshock "therapy" is still being used. My best friend of 26 years "opted" for it on 2 occasions that I can recall. It was "suggested" to her during her several detainments after attempting suicide-which she did on schedule every Spring. She was diagnosed as manic depressive bi polar with borderline personality disorder. She'd taken 8 different meds during the day and then another set before bed-including Lithium, Geodon and Klonopin. Sarah Duval was her name and I'd ask her to clarify more on the modern use of shock therapy but she died a few years ago by climbing to the 15th floor fire escape and jumping to her death in the parking lot of her apartment building below.
    Jumping or even Discussing the act was not ever part of her MO. See, that Spring she felt her mania approaching as it always did but this time she felt paranoid about the new mailing system they'd put her on for all her meds. So to advocate for herself she called her mental health provider and asked that they *Not* send her a full 30 day supply of her Klonopin because she didn't trust herself with the entirety of the amount. Instead, she asked if they could please send it out weekly until this feeling passed. Her doctor said No. Because of this my friend died for the cost of 3 postage stamps.
    See, Sarah's attempts of choice were to cut her wrists then call an ambulance, and then more recently she'd made several attempts on her life by taking all of certain meds while drunk, hoping to die while she was blacked out. Thankfully during those attempts she'd gotten in her car and driven to the liquor store for more beer and was pulled over by police. It was during detainment that she'd informed the cop of what she had done and they rushed her to the hospital, after which she was placed in mental health care for a few months. She told me that after any shock therapy she would come to not knowing who She was. And even though she'd learned who everyone was in the weeks she'd been there, she'd still take several More weeks after treatment to remember names and faces of doctors and patients she'd previously been familiar with. To quote my friend, "Feeling like my brains had been fried then scrambled was better than being dead from suicide." I asked if it helped in any way but she never could point out anything that had been improved.
    What I believe happened to my friend in the moments that led up to her shockingly out of character suicide ""success"" is that she'd been fighting with her new boyfriend and relapsed into drinking and blacked out. In that time she took too many Klonopin for the reasons she'd predicted but thought she was dreaming as she climbed the old metal fire escape on the outer wall of her apartment building and proceeded up 15 flights. The only solace I can take out of this is that if this is true, she likely wasn't afraid and didn't feel anything in the end.
    Her doctors should be sued for negligence. ODing had become her method of choice for at Least 10 years. They had NO reason to doubt her concerns. They are responsible, but because our system is built for the rich, her family can not afford to fight against their extensive team of lawyers to prove Gross Negligence.
    *Our Mental Health System Is Just As Broken Today As It Was Back Then.* The only difference is that instead of the abuse being saturated in over crowded situations like this, it's spread out so that they can get away with things like my friend's tragedy and actions like dumping people on Skid Row or Kensington and no one gets held responsible.
    *Of the animals, humans are Not the most civilized.*

    • @janeeyre5909
      @janeeyre5909 2 года назад +4

      I agree with you, system not set up so individuals can benefit equally. I believe that if Sarah’s Provider had agreed to cater to her individualized needs it would have helped her feel that much more in control and confident that they were in agreement with her. Thank You for telling this story about Sarah, so important to preserve her struggle by passing it on to us all. Very sorry for your loss.

    • @andrewwilsing6533
      @andrewwilsing6533 2 года назад +4

      Thank you for sharing. Wow. :(

    • @massagebroad
      @massagebroad 2 года назад +2

      You tell this story so clearly it's as if I can picture it.

    • @joystratton4658
      @joystratton4658 Год назад

      It works wonders@ i was shocked the were still doing it at kitby forensic

    • @bdpage2023
      @bdpage2023 8 месяцев назад

      Funny you should mention human civilization. Idk if you believe in Bigfoot but it's been said that aliens consider them superior to us bc they take care of their own. Cool perspective.

  • @saulchapnick1566
    @saulchapnick1566 2 года назад +8

    I went to Social Work school (SUNY Stony Brook) nearby in the 70s. The stories the student interns bought back were horrific. Sadly, mental health care in the United States are still primitive.

  • @youngnurse9994
    @youngnurse9994 2 года назад +11

    I used to work at Byberry State Hospital in Northeast Philly.
    I only worked there I think 4 days before I quit !!!
    I couldn't take the things I seen !
    😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭
    Yearsssss ago , they closed it down and just let 80 % of the patients out on the street !!!
    It was a mess !!!
    SMH

    • @ErikKSwanson
      @ErikKSwanson  2 года назад +3

      I can only imagine how horrible it must have been

  • @jaydedjen110
    @jaydedjen110 9 дней назад

    I live on Long Island. I've never personally been to Pilgrim State but I've passed by it once... I felt some serious chills even though we passed it in the DAYTIME. I can't imagine being STUCK IN THERE.

  • @patrickbyrne2643
    @patrickbyrne2643 2 года назад +4

    I remember going to visit my grandma, who was an inmate at Pilgram State,during the 1960's thru 70's. It was a terrible thing.

    • @ErikKSwanson
      @ErikKSwanson  2 года назад +1

      I bet

    • @WendyAllen-df5yg
      @WendyAllen-df5yg Год назад

      We're the patients called inmates?

    • @gearshift9579
      @gearshift9579 Год назад

      @@WendyAllen-df5ygnot necessarily. But at this time, the only option for these people was to be kept in this psych ward, as “inmates”

  • @robsimpson3402
    @robsimpson3402 2 года назад +5

    Really good videos, hope to see more

  • @thekoolaidd3732
    @thekoolaidd3732 2 года назад +2

    Love you work sir keep making more

  • @lemmyspeaks
    @lemmyspeaks Год назад +2

    I go urban exploring there all the time with my wife, I actually am a former patient, I was there from 2007 to the beginning of 2009 I was a kid with really bad depression(long story behind that)
    Anyway, I’m 23 now and I always go to take pictures of the walls and distress in the buildings. It’s a gold mine for graphic design and photoshop

    • @ErikKSwanson
      @ErikKSwanson  Год назад

      I haven’t been back there in years. If I’m ever in the area I’ll have to schedule a stop

    • @lemmyspeaks
      @lemmyspeaks Год назад +1

      @@ErikKSwanson you know there are two boats flipped over in the woods, we found the most random of crap dumped there. And the last time we were there was dec 3 this year

  • @jb894
    @jb894 2 года назад +7

    you have a tremendous voice for documentary narration.

  • @popbob3664
    @popbob3664 Год назад +1

    My dad used to work near this area. If you know that there was a commercial space for a lot of companies in Edgewood, you would know that usually to get to these companies is to pass by this hospital. My dad has probably passed through the abandoned buildings countless times but I'm glad I found out what actually happened in these buildings. So sad to hear the amount of suffering that went on behind those menacing walls

    • @ErikKSwanson
      @ErikKSwanson  Год назад

      A childhood friend's mom worked there back in the day, and quit after a short time because she didn't want to be around the terrible things that were happening

    • @the1andonlyjoseph819
      @the1andonlyjoseph819 8 месяцев назад

      real ones know the tunnels that connect edgewood to the abandoned and (possibly active😉) buildings. dont ask how i know😉😉😉😉😉

  • @VictoriasAngels
    @VictoriasAngels Год назад +1

    I went there in person a long time ago, it was breathtaking.

  • @Ghostdog4
    @Ghostdog4 2 года назад +4

    Snake Pit! Place must of been haunted A F. Your courage earns a subscriber

  • @mykol404
    @mykol404 2 года назад +2

    There is was a similar hospital a few blocks from my current home, the Dixmont State Hospital in Pittsburgh, PA.
    Probably a similar number of lobotomies performed, and alot of other experiments.

  • @BeckyIntheKitchen
    @BeckyIntheKitchen 2 года назад +1

    Very interesting! I visited the old asylum in Weston, West Virginia.

  • @mab790
    @mab790 4 месяца назад

    My grandmother was admitted there in 1950. She never left.

  • @batvette
    @batvette 2 года назад +2

    I was a patient there, and my lobotomy was completely successful.

  • @karenedwards746
    @karenedwards746 8 месяцев назад

    I was a live in caregiver for 2 old women whose mom was there in 1935 and died there. She was 36 yrs old and Dottie was 5 when she died.

  • @meganluke444
    @meganluke444 5 месяцев назад

    1955: Peak population at Pilgrim= 15,500 patients. My father worked there at the time.

  • @zosowon
    @zosowon Год назад +1

    you have a very cool voice like Robert Stack you should be paid to produce a show, thanks for shedding light on these things Mr. Swanson.

    • @ErikKSwanson
      @ErikKSwanson  Год назад +1

      Thank you for watching. I’m glad you’re enjoying my videos

  • @stinkbugsoup2236
    @stinkbugsoup2236 Год назад +1

    how could they tear it down?? it bothers me when companies by these places not to preserve the history, but to demolish it and turn it into some atrocious looking town or something

    • @WendyAllen-df5yg
      @WendyAllen-df5yg Год назад

      You are right

    • @RichardZabielski-ql9ss
      @RichardZabielski-ql9ss 5 месяцев назад

      It's an attrocity anyway. There are enough of these standing on long Island. No need for so much useless space

  • @rbastien78
    @rbastien78 Год назад +1

    My advise is to go with a buddy if your going at night. This location is riddled in anomalies though subtle in the beginning I can only surmise that pairing up may provide better comfort when faced with the areas immense solitude.

    • @cloutnutzzz4936
      @cloutnutzzz4936 6 месяцев назад

      do not go at night with a buddy got stopped by cops after 5 mins and almost got criminally charged😂

  • @chloekit4861
    @chloekit4861 2 года назад +5

    I think my great great grandmother was lobotomized here back in the 40’s and was never the same she became violent she was an immigrant from Italy

    • @ErikKSwanson
      @ErikKSwanson  2 года назад +2

      That is terrible. It's astonishing to learn what was done in places like that

  • @keisharaumati-isaacs1025
    @keisharaumati-isaacs1025 2 года назад +5

    Wow this was evil wicked! Poor patients, may Jehovah keep them in his memory arohanui from Aotearoa New Zealand xo

  • @dt5072
    @dt5072 2 года назад

    I like your fast editing style

  • @nickd2296
    @nickd2296 Год назад

    Wow, I live on Long Island and I didn't even know about this horrible place.

  • @petervandeplanck62
    @petervandeplanck62 6 месяцев назад

    The place was self sufficient they made all there foods there grew there own vegetables everything its huge that place

  • @petervandeplanck62
    @petervandeplanck62 6 месяцев назад

    I grew up in Brentwood i lived right off suffolk ave and used to play handball at ps all the time the place is very creepy alot of people were murdered and buried in the back feilds were all the generator shacks are and the railroad that passed through there

  • @allen-rp3gm
    @allen-rp3gm Год назад

    In the mid 80's I lived near PS and one night I walked around the grounds with a video-camera. The sounds coming from the buildings was horrible. No, I no longer have that recording.

  • @jimwhite6225
    @jimwhite6225 Год назад +2

    I used to climb a tree and could see the copper roofs. Deer park!

  • @recesorrecesor8924
    @recesorrecesor8924 2 года назад +5

    These buildings are an old Tartarian empire repurposed buildings for barbaric treatments like lobotomy and electroshock. You dont really believe that in those times they would build such a fantastic castle like buildings for psychiatric reasons

    • @Rct3master44
      @Rct3master44 5 месяцев назад

      Didn't know the advanced Tartarian empire had such ugly building design. Place is an eyesore even to this day!

    • @recesorrecesor8924
      @recesorrecesor8924 5 месяцев назад

      @@Rct3master44 My eyes hurt reading your crap, dont worry there is a place for guys like you but no crying allowed there, bye bye little clown

  • @imaagamer7011
    @imaagamer7011 2 года назад +1

    still hospital is very close to benrtwood state park so i would pass the abandon buildings so many times on my way to play soccer

  • @GreekGypsy
    @GreekGypsy 2 года назад +3

    My friend worked there years ago.

    • @ErikKSwanson
      @ErikKSwanson  2 года назад +4

      I imagine it was a horrible experience

  • @davidr1050
    @davidr1050 Год назад

    too many people get treated on an outpatient basis.. They are trusted to take their meds and are unsupervised.. That's why there has been such an increase in bad things since the 80s.. Not to mention that everything is getting worse..

  • @matthewfuchs7641
    @matthewfuchs7641 Год назад +1

    Visible from the parkways.

  • @blackarmor111
    @blackarmor111 Год назад

    I live close to this place , The Air is Cold in the rooms

  • @laoch5658
    @laoch5658 2 года назад +5

    the people who run the system are terribly cruel

    • @RobVollat
      @RobVollat 2 года назад

      They would perform lobotomies in UNDER 3 MINUTES and "BY FEEL", by beating an icepick under the eye socket and into the frontal cortex. This part of your brain regulates emotion, among other duties. They would blindly "carve out space" inside the brain. They thought this would cause the brain to rewire itself... Oddly enough, they did it to a 7 year old child, and their brain DID re-wire itself because it was still developing. Weird science of the past is often haunting!

  • @rbastien78
    @rbastien78 Год назад

    This location is very dark during nightfall. Youll need to focus aft save for headlights. Farmers field is the only reference point should you get lost around the expressways exits. You cant miss it. Also alot of highway construction to date.The several no trespassing signs are clear in front of the main bldg. And are telling.There was a vastness there which to me seemed interesting enough to say the least. Did notice several motorists...passing by I guess. I wont disclose the time of travel I went as its not important. But let's just say I wouldn't do it in the wee hrs. Didn't notice the authorities but did not stay as to attract unwanted attention. God knows I did not want trouble. Not an area for drivers whom are feint of heart because the go around if you get lost around farmers field isn't gps friendly. And can wind for a descent stretch as these are rural roads. I'd been curious about the site so I went back a second time just to validate my initial stymied approach. Unto which those moss laden roads brought back a pallor memory. Again I wanted to be sure the car would not strand me. Incidentally it didn't happen as that would play out my worst nightmare.

  • @sythmc8600
    @sythmc8600 2 года назад

    I'll bet this facility is haunted. God knows the pain inflicted.

  • @AndrewGBernhardt
    @AndrewGBernhardt 2 года назад +5

    "Patients"?! You mean victims.

  • @chloekit4861
    @chloekit4861 2 года назад +1

    Exit off the LIE my friends and I would go there at night until we saw a ghost sitting on top of one of those little houses and we never went back

  • @Millymollymandy121
    @Millymollymandy121 2 года назад +1

    What the hell!!

  • @mylespop
    @mylespop 2 года назад +1

    Neat

  • @cromdaleblvd4677
    @cromdaleblvd4677 Год назад

    Jon Levi brought me here!!! i dont give a fack which psychos were in there... my question is who built this building!!!!!!!

  • @Lakridza67
    @Lakridza67 2 месяца назад

    REOPEN THE PSYCHIATRIC FACILITIES FOR PEOPLE IN CRISIS! Stop the political apathy. No one says we have to revisit lobotomies 🤦🏼‍♀️

  • @dominikz.1376
    @dominikz.1376 2 года назад +1

    Hahahaha

  • @johnarthur620
    @johnarthur620 2 года назад +3

    The American healthcare system in a nutshell.

    • @ErikKSwanson
      @ErikKSwanson  2 года назад +3

      How much is the co-pay on a lobotomy?

    • @danger3_255
      @danger3_255 2 года назад +1

      @@ErikKSwanson perfect

  • @panicfarm9874
    @panicfarm9874 2 года назад +1

    Bro in regards to your other homeless videos, can you please stop showing actual destinations or even near locations? You could definitely have the same impact with your videos without jeopardising these peoples locations

    • @ErikKSwanson
      @ErikKSwanson  2 года назад +5

      I appreciate your concern, and would not jeopardize someone's location. My videos from the tunnel were filmed around 2007, and only made public now - years after the tunnel was cleared out. That section of tunnel is now in use by Amtrak, and the police do routine sweeps. No one lives there anymore, or could go undetected

    • @panicfarm9874
      @panicfarm9874 2 года назад +2

      @@ErikKSwanson oh ok not to worry then. Thanks for your content