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

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.

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!

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

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.

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.

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.

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.*

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

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

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

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

Really good videos, hope to see more

you have a tremendous voice for documentary narration.

Love you work sir keep making more

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

Visible from the parkways.

My friend worked there years ago.

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

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

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

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..

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

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

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

the people who run the system are terribly cruel

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

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

I like your fast editing style

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

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.

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

"Patients"?! You mean victims.

What the hell!!

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.

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

Neat

Hahahaha

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

The American healthcare system in a nutshell.

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