August 13th, 2025
Indiana State Sanatorim By Morgan Brady with Team Brady Pack
The Indiana State Sanatorium has a long history. Now it is one of Indiana’s most popular and well-known sites for paranormal activity. Sixteen of us from The Scare Factor decided to brave an overnight investigation, and our time did not disappoint.
Indiana State Sanatorium was first known as a Tuberculosis hospital. This spot was purchased to help contain the crisis in the depths of the tuberculosis epidemic. In 1907, the Indiana government began its search to find 500 acres for TB containment and research, and in 1908, the site in Rockville, now known as the Indiana State Sanatorium, was sold. In the next century, the site was used first as a TB hospital until 1968, and then in 1976 it opened as a psychiatric unit and Nursing home until 2011, when it was forced to shut its doors due to malpractice and wrongful death lawsuits. They left behind hospital documents, equipment, patients’ belongings, food trays, and more.
Since then, whispers of Indiana State Sanatorium’s long-lost patients and who knows what else are rumored to be roaming the halls. The new owners, Gregg and Caroll, purchased the property in December 2020 and started offering tours to the public.
It is said that over 4000 deaths have been reported to have occurred between TB, suicides, murders, and even more. Many paranormal groups have investigated this property, and from my research, every single group has encountered some paranormal activity.
The Scare Factor decided to take our investigation and use it differently. We agreed that the spirits at The Indiana State Sanatorium have been investigated enough. We walked in already believing that we would encounter various presences and decided it was time for the other worldly spirits to have some fun.
We had to take a tour before we decided to play our game. We learned more of the history of the property, and we took a tour as a group. We first took a tour of the power plant. We viewed the laundry room where there have been sightings of shadow figures. Walking into the building, I was shocked by how worn down it was. There were still clothes in the washing machines from when the patients and workers were forced to leave in 2011. We walked upstairs to see how the patients’ suitcases, clothes, and more belongings were piled into a single room, so high that there was no floor we could walk on or see. It was the first time during the visit when I felt this intense heaviness that is hard to put into words. So many people, patients, and employees were forced to leave a place that was supposed to help them, and many patients could not take all their belongings with them.
Next, we toured the Administration building. Walking into the building, it felt empty, but heavy. As we separated and traveled through the building, we came across old VHS videos of Independent Study Activities. Some examples of those were Redefining Treatment Outcomes in Schizophrenia, Understanding Diabetes in Psychiatric Patients, Long-Term Management of Bipolar Disorder, Preventing Relapse in Schizophrenia, Exploring Bipolar Depression, and many more. One of our investigators reported seeing a woman on the top floor, and after going to the top floor, watched as the apparition ran to a corner room. After walking to the room, he felt as if the woman had jumped from the top floor window. Another investigator, not knowing the previous investigator’s experience, stated that they felt a female presence in that same corner room and that someone had jumped from that window as well.
The next part of the property that we toured was the nursing home. Many of the investigators felt a heavy, uncomfortable, and slightly eerie feeling walking through the nursing home. Some of the beds were still made. Linens were still stocked in the linen rooms, books were still left on the tables, and the logbook was still present at the Nurses’ station. The dining hall still had trays left. The building was stable, but falling apart. Old records could be read. The entire Nursing Hall was uncomfortably haunting.
On the way to the next building, we walked through underground tunnels and then out to our next destination. The next building we toured was Adams Hall. I don’t believe that any of us truly enjoyed touring this building. This five-story building was the heaviest, most emotional, and many investigators felt a dangerous presence while exploring this building. As we moved up each floor, some of us began feeling woozy, achy. Some of us started experiencing headaches. Some of us felt short of breath. Most of us just felt severe intensity. From the fifth floor, there is access to the roof. We observed some remarkable rocks on the roof, but none of us forgot the seriousness and intensity of what was under our feet. After all, it had been reported that at least three people had jumped from that very roof, 2 of whom lost their lives.
We toured the mansion and a few other houses that were on the property after that. All of which made us feel like we were being watched and followed.
After a short dinner break and watching the sun go down, it was game time.
Our game went a little like this. We split up into four different teams. Tyler hid easter eggs of four specific colors in four different buildings. The Admin building, The Nursing Hall, Adams Hall, and The Tunnels. Each team had to find their designated colored eggs in each building, in the pitch black, with potential more than just the four people on each team playing along. One unexpected “kick” was that one of our teams was instructed to scare the other players. If a team found the four eggs of their color, they were then instructed to find a golden egg. Altogether, there were five eggs available for each team in each building. Points were given for each egg found. For the team scaring everyone else, points were given for getting audible reactions from the investigators who were trying to find the eggs.
We had 1 hour each building for our spooktacular Easter Egg Hunt. In complete darkness, and every building, energy that was not ours was for sure felt. The team I was a part of, the most fearless team (in my opinion), started our journey in The Nursing Hall. There were four hallways joining in the center where the nurses’ station was. Our task was incredibly “simple”. We had to split up. Each individual had to take a hall and walk to the end of the hallway on their own to find the egg hidden in one of the rooms in that hallway. I’m not going to lie, it was terrifying. The entire hallway felt as if someone were following right behind me. I tried to gain an advantage and have the spirits guide me, but I wasn’t so lucky. All of my teammates found their egg, and it was up to me to see the last one. It is impossible to describe in words the intensity of trying to find a hidden easter egg in one of the most haunted places I have ever experienced. I didn’t see my egg in the Nursing Hall, and the hour was up. Despite the team’s frantic efforts, it was time to move on.
Our team’s next location was Adam’s Hall. Earlier, I described this building as the heaviest and potentially most dangerous. It didn’t help that when the easter eggs were being hidden, the person hiding the eggs heard a scatter of footsteps, and felt as if he were being rushed by one or more presences that he couldn’t see. So we went into the building. The eggs were placed one on each floor. This time we didn’t have to search alone, but our team decided to split up into pairs. The energy here was different from the nursing hall. It was for sure heavier, and I felt physical symptoms in this building. A tight chest, a head heaviness that is impossible to describe, and emotionally drained. However, I didn’t feel any danger, just a deep sadness. As we moved up each floor, the feelings were more intense. On the second floor, 2 of our teammates felt like someone was playing with our hair. I was touched on the shoulder. Later, when we talked, we realized these occurrences had happened in the same spot.
The Adams Hall was the old psychiatric unit. The fifth floor was the aggressive men’s hall, and the heaviness on the fifth floor is genuinely unlike anything I have ever experienced in my life. Lucky for me, I didn’t have to go to the fifth floor during the easter egg hunt. Our team found the four eggs on the first four floors. We were then instructed that the golden egg was on the fifth floor. Our teammate braved the task at hand and headed up to the fifth floor to begin the search. Unfortunately, he did not find the golden egg. Time ran out, and it was time to move on.
Our team’s third location was The Tunnels. Walking through the tunnels at night in the pitch black was much different from walking through them with the dim light of day. We went up and down the tunnels for most of the time allotted in search of our eggs. There were so many pipes, and when we weren’t paying enough attention to our surroundings, our heads were in danger of being hit by the pipes. They came out of nowhere. Our team found the eggs we needed, and we sent a teammate to find the golden egg. To our surprise, he found it within the time limit. Finally, we were able to complete the task of finding all of our eggs in one spot. The tunnels were refreshing compared to Adam’s Hall. We didn’t experience very much paranormal activity in our time there.
After round 3, all of the teams were gathered. It was well past witching hour at this point, and we all could feel it. Most of us had some paranormal experience to tell, whether it was being touched, our hair played with, suspicious sounds, or unexplained occurrences. Most of us were drained of energy, some of us were hella spooked, and I think all of us were just plain tired. Although we felt bad for Tyler, since he worked so hard to hide all of the eggs, we all took a vote and decided it was time to quit. So we packed up, added all of our total points for the eggs we did find, and called it a night. The team responsible for scaring everyone “won” the night.
I woke up the next morning pretty early and decided I couldn’t get enough. I wanted more. I felt a strong pull to Adam’s Hall and decided I wanted to brave a solo investigation on my own. I threw on my headphones and took off to the haunted psychiatric unit. I was incredibly nervous, but something inside me knew I had to go back, and I wasn’t disappointed.
Going back into those doors, I decided to pull out my phone and record the experience. It made me feel not so alone, and I wanted proof if anything did occur. I roamed the first floor getting warmed up, and after a few questions, I started to get some intelligent responses through knocks. When I asked if anyone was there, there were several knocks throughout the building. I had to discern a lot, though, because it was raining a little, and with the building being pretty torn, there were a lot of water leaks, causing drips of water to hit items on every floor. I began adjusting to that quickly and figured out when the spirits were communicating and when they weren’t.
I walked up to the second floor, and that’s when I started getting pretty spooked myself. This is the floor I felt brushed up against, and other team members felt their hair being played with before. I had goosebumps throughout the entire walk on the second floor. Through knocks and question asking, it truly felt as if there was a spirit stuck in a schizophrenic state in one of the end rooms on that floor. The amount of sadness and confusion I could feel was intense and heartbreaking.
After the second floor, I decided to go up to the fifth floor. This is the floor team members felt drained, experienced physical pain, and felt an aggressive presence. This was my experience as well. I didn’t have a lot of time to experience this floor before, so I spent most of my time investigating it. Walking down the fifth floor, I started experiencing a few physical symptoms. My lungs and throat felt like they were closing off and tightening up. It felt like my voice wasn’t being heard, and breathing alone was a struggle. There was intense pressure in my head, and I verbally had to tell a presence to “back up”, making it clear that I wasn’t to be harmed in that way. Emotionally, I began to cry; the emotional turmoil from an unknown presence was unlike anything I had ever experienced before. It was difficult spending time on that floor, and even though it felt aggressive at first, after a bit of time, and letting the presence(s) there know they weren’t alone, the aggressive weight lifted a little bit. All that was left was a particular anguish or despair that I really can’t put into words.
I walked up to the roof, and immediately the pressure lifted, my lungs expanded, and my throat opened up. I could breathe again, and the sadness was a lot easier to deal with. After searching for more rocks for a while, I decided it was time to go back and share my experience with the team, and go over the walk-through video that I took to see if there was anything there.
The findings were incredible, truly. One of the other investigators said they physically walked in the building to yell for me, and there was no answer. Neither in my video nor in real life did I hear anyone yelling my name. It was like I entered into some alternative reality or something of that sort. On the video, as I was walking into the second floor, there was a low growl. I was super excited and completely in disbelief when I heard it. I heard nothing when I was standing in the spot. Very creepy to say the least. I often wonder if that was the aggressive presence that a few of us felt in that building, growling at me. There was a dog bark on the video that wasn’t heard in real life either. There was no doubt that there was presence of presence at Indiana State Sanatorium. I let the spirits know that I will revisit them, and honestly, I am seriously looking forward to it.
View the video here: https://www.facebook.com/share/r/1Ch4TTw1nK
View our daytime walkthrough here: