A teenage Schuler and his friends goad each other into exploring the decrepit halls of an abandoned asylum with a sinister past. After bringing home what he thought was a harmless souvenir, Schuler discovers a violent spirit has followed him home and seems hell bent on exacting revenge. If Schuler stands any chance of escaping unscathed, he must fend off gruesome physical attacks and work to make amends… before it’s too late.
A teenage Schuler and his friends goad each other into exploring the decrepit halls of an abandoned asylum with a sinister past. After bringing home what he thought was a harmless souvenir, Schuler discovers a violent spirit has followed him home and seems hell bent on exacting revenge. If Schuler stands any chance of escaping unscathed, he must fend off gruesome physical attacks and work to make amends… before it’s too late.
For even more haunting stories with Eli Roth, head to discovery+ to stream full episodes of Eli Roth Presents: A Ghost Ruined My Life. Go to discoveryplus.com/ghost to start your 7-day free trial today. Terms apply.
Connect with the Podcast: https://www.travelchannel.com/shows/eli-roth-presents-a-ghost-ruined-my-life
Follow Eli Roth on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/realeliroth/?hl=en
Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/travelchannel/
Learn more about Schuler’s Podcast: https://www.piotparanormal.com/
Find episode transcript here: https://a-ghost-ruined-my-life-with-eli-roth.simplecast.com/episodes/the-asylum
Eli Roth [00:00:03] I'm Eli Roth, and welcome to the first episode of my new podcast series, A Ghost Ruined My Life from Discovery Plus. Today's episode is truly straight out of a horror movie if you think of the scariest, scariest location. There are very few places that are creepier than a haunted, abandoned asylum. I know this because I filmed in the wing of an abandoned mental asylum when I shot Hostel in Prague, and it was absolutely terrifying. I had to sage the place we played music, I brought down consultants to like, ask permission for us to film there. I did not want to upset the ghosts of that place because there were plenty of them. So, every town has a place like this that kids dare each other to go to. In this episode, Schuler Johnson tells us how he and his friends went to an abandoned asylum, wandered through the rotting halls and started antagonizing the ghosts. This is a dare that turned into a curse. Big mistake. Don't antagonize ghosts on a dare. I've done some insane things in my life, but nothing quite like this.
Schuler [00:01:08] What had happened was a rock, pretty good sized little rock lifted up off the ground, literally in front of me no more than five feet away. I watched it levitate by air, invisible air and it flew over. This rock actually was thrown at me by an invisible force that was intense, most definitely intense. So after being hit by the rock, I do scream I looked at the rock, picked it up in my pocket. Like, This is mine. This is cool. You know, this is something to remember, and maybe I can share this with my kids in the future or, you know, friends that haven't been on investigation.
Young Schuler [00:01:46] Guys.
Schuler [00:01:50] The rocks continue. They do not stop, and they started coming, you know, one or two at a time. They started hitting us.
Young Schuler [00:01:58] Go go go go go.
Schuler [00:02:04] This is what you came for. You've proven that the paranormal is real cool, but get yourself back together, and that's when we pretty much figured we are in a little too deep.
Eli Roth [00:02:16] Step into the asylum. Today's episode of my podcast, A Ghost to Ruined My Life and oh my god. This story gets me every time this story truly sounds like the plot of a horror movie. What happened to Shuler is absolutely terrifying and a very, very, very good lesson in why you do not go messing with spirits, especially in abandoned asylums.
Schuler [00:02:42] Even several years later, I don't stop thinking about Central State. I can't help it. It was terrifying, to say the least, it truly, truly was. I'm Schuler Johnson and a ghost ruined my life.
Eli Roth [00:03:00] Cut to 10 years ago and Schuler's 18. This is all going to sound like the setup of a classic horror film. Typical teenager growing up in the American Midwest.
Schuler [00:03:11] So the area that I grew up in was the suburbs, so I lived most of my existence, most of my childhood, my teenage years, not even knowing or even thinking about the paranormal in my own hometown. What I did primarily was just play video games, hang out with friends, go see movies. You know, the cliché American weekends after school
Eli Roth [00:03:33] and then on a dare. Schuler and his friends go out looking for trouble again. This all sounds like the setup for a movie, but we checked it out. It is all real. On the outskirts of Schuler's Town, there's an abandoned complex of dilapidated buildings and for real there is a long abandoned mental asylum with a very dark history and notorious reputation.
Schuler [00:03:56] Central State was a mental institution, opened in eighteen forty eight until its closure in nineteen ninety four. Central State had several buildings up until the point when I visited there is roughly seven or nine buildings still standing. Prior to that, they had almost fifteen, I do believe, and a lot were destroyed in the nineteen seventies, actually. There is a women's ward. There was a men's war. There was a lot of history. It kind of digs into the cliché of a mental institution that's allegedly haunted with a dark past of, you know, satanic rituals, evil doctors, the mad scientist.
Eli Roth [00:04:32] So on a cold November night, Schuler and his friends, Danny and Alex, decide to check it out for themselves.
Alex [00:04:42] Are we sure about this?
Danny [00:04:46] Come on.
Young Schuler [00:04:47] Come on you wuss.
Schuler [00:04:47] Let's go in for a thrill. And I'm a kid just looking for something different. There's a journey and adventure we're in.
Alex [00:04:54] We're going inside?
Young Schuler [00:04:56] Hell, yeah,.
Eli Roth [00:04:59] Getting in is pretty easy. Picture this. The doors are hanging off the hinges, and other teenagers have taken pot shots of the windows. It's creepy and old but Shuler, Danny and Alex don't take it too seriously yet.
Young Schuler [00:05:17] Hello. Anybody home.
Danny [00:05:26] Calling all ghosts come out, come out wherever you are.
Young Schuler [00:05:34] How about we split up, cover more ground.
Danny [00:05:37] You're not scared, are you?
Alex [00:05:38] No.
Schuler [00:05:41] As you walk down the hallways, you can hear that scary, creepy water drip along with the smells that kind of puts in the atmosphere that you're in this creepy Hollywood movie. There's no working lines. There's no electricity. Everything's dilapidated and just decaying around you. It's very, very barbaric. Pipes are all over the place. There's broken glass shards in there. It was pitch black not only to your eyes, but it's pitch black to my being my energy. I didn't understand why. I didn't think too much of it, but you could most definitely feel the change. It's like someone or something entered the same building that you did and they weren't there before. But I'm hearing these sounds, you know, this ambiance, these screams didn't sound like it came from my buddies. And that's when I don't know where I'm not asking questions, but I feel the sensation on my right side shoulder. It's like somebody took their hand and they actually grabbed my shoulder.
Young Schuler [00:06:51] Stop messing with me.
Alex [00:06:53] What are you talking about?
Young Schuler [00:06:54] Nice, try the moaning the hand.
Alex [00:06:57] Wasn't me.
Danny [00:06:57] I swear.
Alex [00:07:01] Maybe we should go.
Danny [00:07:03] Not a chance.
Young Schuler [00:07:08] Let's go. Check it out. You coming?
Schuler [00:07:18] There was over five miles of tunnels underneath central state, and that would take you throughout all the other buildings. Everything's completely silent. There's no sound. There's no life. All life was taken from those that were there. Those that were left there were forgotten. And that's exactly what the tunnels felt like. You were left. And I don't know. There's just this darkness. I can't really go into further detail other than that the fact that you're surrounded by this isolation. And that's exactly what it was in going through the tunnels was like literally stepping back in time living through other people's lives. The more that we found was closed off, we would kind of worry in the sense that we would get lost. What if we get lost? What do we do? How do we get out of here if there's no cell reception? We don't know where an escape ladder is. We're at a dead end. If we have to go back, yeah, we can feel her way through the wall. But how long would that take to find the exit? Would we go down the right way or would we go down a totally different way? You know, it's it was missing, definitely in the back of our minds.
Young Schuler [00:08:17] Hello.
Danny [00:08:26] Come on, tif you're a ghost show yourself!
Schuler [00:08:39] Hold up. Check it out.
Danny [00:08:44] What is it?
Alex [00:08:45] What happened in there?
Young Schuler [00:08:50] Some poor prisoners scratched the hell out of the walls.
Schuler [00:08:57] Central saving most definitely does have a dark past. Patients would be taken into the tunnels, but the really bad patients would be taken into little crevices or secret rooms, and they would be chained to pipes. They would actually take shackles and hammer them to the walls and leave them there.
Eli Roth [00:09:16] What Schuler does next is something he will always regret. He wants to provoke some kind of supernatural response. So he picks up a rock and hurls it into the darkness. We could all tell when we were talking to him that even thinking back to this moment, it's difficult to admit that he did it. And as we were listening to what he was telling us, we all started to get a little freaked out, especially when you hear what happens next.
Schuler [00:09:41] What had happened was a rock, pretty good size little rock, you know, it lifted up off the ground, literally in front of me no more than five feet away. I watched it levitate by air, invisible air, and it flew over to me. This rock actually was thrown at me by an invisible car that was intense, most definitely intense. So after being hit by The Rock, I do scream. I looked at the rock, picked it up, put it in my pocket like, this is mine and this is cool. You know, this is something to remember, and maybe I can share this with my kids in the future or, you know, friends that haven't been on investigation.
Young Schuler [00:10:20] Guys.
Schuler [00:10:23] The rocks continued, they did not stop and they started coming, you know, one or two at a time. They started hitting us.
Young Schuler [00:10:30] Go, go, go, go, go.
Schuler [00:10:38] This is what you came for and you're proving that the paranormal is real. get yourself back together. That's when we pretty much figured we are in a little too deep. And now they're hitting me in the face, they're hitting me in the chest. My buddies are getting hit. So that's when we pretty much figured we are in a little too deep.
Young Schuler [00:10:57] There's a door. Come on. Come on.
Schuler [00:11:10] We made our bad decision, a really bad mistake. This thing can throw more objects, not just rocks, not just, I guess, glass, you know, glass was being thrown at this point in time as well. But metals, it really did change my mindset that this thing is potentially fatal. It can hurt us.
Eli Roth [00:11:29] Schuler and his friends are terrified at this point. They race around looking for an exit, but every door shuts in their faces, so they're driven deeper into the maze of the asylums, endless corridors and tunnels. It's as if the spirits in the building are trying to draw them in and trap them there. No lights, no electricity, and no one knows they're there.
Young Schuler [00:11:50] C'mon.
Alex [00:11:58] Ok now what
Young Schuler [00:11:59] Get out of here that's what. This way.
Schuler [00:12:03] Tere is something down there with us. It's not me playing games, it's not them playing games. The more we reacted in a negative, fearful way, the more it gained power.
Alex [00:12:12] This is a bad idea I never should have let you guys talk me-.
Danny [00:12:15] Then why did you come?
Eli Roth [00:12:15] I didn't know we were going to -.
Young Schuler [00:12:16] Guys enough. Let's go this way. This way.
Danny [00:12:26] Oh, no, no, no, no, no.
Schuler [00:12:30] There was no way of us getting out. We were pretty much stuck. There was something real there and it was very angry, very, very angry. You know, it's like you ask for trouble. Here I am. Here I am.
Eli Roth [00:12:42] Schuler tells us that by some miracle, they find a way out.
Young Schuler [00:12:47] Come on. Let's go. Through here. We're right back where we started.
Alex [00:12:59] Now, let's get the hell out of here.
Alex [00:13:13] Did you see that?
Danny [00:13:14] I almost had my head taken off!
Young Schuler [00:13:15] Guys, guys. I think we're safe now.
Danny [00:13:19] That was.
Young Schuler [00:13:19] Yeah.
Eli Roth [00:13:21] But this interaction isn't over yet. It's only just beginning. Look, these guys have opened the door. They should have left shut.
Young Schuler [00:13:30] This woman in white and literally comes into view like smoke. She has a full white gown. She has a face, but no details. She had no emotion. She had no characteristic. She was just there like that. That's just it's unreal. We just survive this, we just survive something new, something crazy. But little did we know there was a much larger plan, a much larger agenda.
Eli Roth [00:14:00] We'll be right back after a short break.
Schuler [00:14:15] It's one thing to provoke, it's another thing to even challenge, but it's especially bad when you offer your energy and whatever this thing was, it was negative and it accepted my offer. That's terrifying.
Eli Roth [00:14:27] Schuler and his friends escaped the asylum, and now he's home safe. Or so he thinks.
Schuler's Dad [00:14:34] Schuler, what happened to your eye?
Young Schuler [00:14:38] uhh... Nothing. Goodnight.
Eli Roth [00:14:42] Schuler obviously isn't telling his parents about what just happened. He'd like to forget the whole night, but someone won't let him. The woman in white asylum white because now she's there in his house.
Schuler [00:14:54] She appeared into my view. Everything went down. I couldn't hear anything. I felt like everything around me also slowed down. The only thing that was moving at a normal pace were the tree leaves and the woman in white. Everything else was slow and honestly felt like I was sucked into a vortex and I didn't have control. I couldn't move, I couldn't pick myself up. I couldn't really think other than what I see before me is all I can have in my mind. And then over the next couple of nights, especially a couple of weeks, you know, going into this whole entire month of being traumatized, these screams were happening. If this sound, the scream is Winterson, which is what I'm calling it. It sounded much different than my breathing. It wasn't this raspy, you know, low sounding audio. It was absolutely bone chilling. For the fact that I was actually living in that experience and this thing was happening. It kept getting louder and it kept getting more aggressive. I just I can't explain. There was something real there, and it was very angry, very, very angry. You know, it made me not feel safe in my own home. Every day I feel sick to my stomach. Every night I have some type of vivid nightmare that I can't escape.
Ghost [00:16:18] Give it. Give it back to me.
Eli Roth [00:16:22] Schuler has dreams of the woman in white. More specifically, nightmares. He tells us she starts to make contact with him, literally. She begins to touch him and wound him.
Young Schuler [00:16:36] *Grunting*
Schuler [00:16:38] I can feel the bones. I can feel the palms. I could actually feel even a sensation of electrical current. And that's one of the only times I've actually physically been touched. But it's just it's out of this world. It eventually got to the point where I woke up feeling like I needed to vomit. I feel sick to my stomach. I had a dollar coin size black welt and bruise on my wrist is still to this day. I have a scar. Actually, it's a red scar where I got it. I most definitely feel like this was was a message from Central State. Whatever this thing was, it was a messenger. I opened the door for the messenger. I asked for it and I was receiving. There's a lot of information on central state. I mean, it dates back from eighteen forty eight. It especially had a lot of history from the Forties up until the 90s. In '94, it closed. They would do lobotomies. There were tragedies. There were dark things that happened. I thought maybe the woman in white was a patient at central state. It could have been like most situations. There were people that needed a little help, but they were there for the wrong thing. She could have been neglected. She could have been abused.
Eli Roth [00:17:48] This background information for me just makes the whole story that much more real and terrifying. We know Schuler disturbed the vengeful spirit, but remember he didn't do it by himself. He reaches out to his friends that were with him on that fateful night.
Young Schuler [00:18:03] Hello?
Young Schuler [00:18:04] Alex, why haven't you answered any of my calls?
Alex [00:18:06] Because I don't want to talk about something that never happened.
Young Schuler [00:18:09] But it did happen. You were freaking out.
Alex [00:18:12] I don't want to talk about it.
Young Schuler [00:18:13] But.
Eli Roth [00:18:15] His friends refused to speak to him about it, and he's afraid to confide in his family. But one thing is certain the spirit from the hospital is tormenting him and he needs to understand why so he can stop it before it's too late.
Schuler [00:18:32] I was actually living in that experience. And this thing was happening. This thing was attacking me. It just keeps building and building and building. I've lived several years in this room in this home, and none of this has happened before. I wanted it to stop.
Eli Roth [00:18:48] But it only gets worse. Weeks pass, the evil spirit grows stronger. And then one night.
Schuler [00:18:56] What happens is there's this invisible force, I'm in my bed, but I'm looking at myself from the top of the ceiling and I'm looking down at myself being dragged out of my man, but my flips up in the air. I'm being dragged out, slammed against the wall, slammed against the ceiling in the floor, and it drags me out to the hallway and continues to slam against the hull walls, the ceilings. It has dragged me throughout my home. Everything looks real. I'm taken out of my body. It was like literally my soul was sucked out of my body, but I felt completely lost. I felt like a patient at central state. I felt abandoned. I felt hopeless. I'm starting to lose my mind.
Eli Roth [00:19:36] Schuler feels the torment may never end. He's desperate.
Schuler [00:19:40] So that's where my my mind focused back to what could have started this. Where's the origin? And that's where I think about the portugais attacks, you know, roughly a month prior. And I think about the Rock. This rock actually was thrown at me by an invisible force I looked at the rock, picked it up, put it in my pocket. I'm like, this is mine. This is cool. Taking just a rock home? You know, some random rock, it's not like that rock was there from, you know, 18 50 and somebody owned it and carved their name intuitive as far as I know, just a simple rock. So I put one and one together and figure out what I need to do. I have to return to the Rock. And I started hoping that I can apologize for my provocation, make amends. It was terrifying, to say the least. I mean, it is pure fear, but I had this this overpowering mindset that if I don't do this, this won't end. I'm going to feel sick for the rest of my life. It could get worse. Knowing what was there that didn't make it any easier to want to go into that building to return everything.
Young Schuler [00:20:51] Our father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name thy kingdom, come thy will be done.
Eli Roth [00:20:58] Keep in mind, this is not a movie. Schuler's a regular teenager facing an extraordinary ordeal. There's no explanation for how to handle this, and he can't talk to his friends or family.
Schuler [00:21:11] I prayed out loud. I prayed over my friends, their families, my family, our homes, anything that we have that we're attached to physically, spiritually and throughout the entire visit to return all these items. And that's what I did. I prayed. To this day, I feel whatever that thing was from Central State was not human. I truly believe it was a demon. It had one intention and that was to make my life a living hell. Eventually, over time, everything stopped too no more vivid nightmares, no more scratches, nothing like that. It seemed to work.
Eli Roth [00:21:50] Thankfully, Schuller's experience opened a connection to the other side that persists to this day.
Schuler [00:21:58] I feel like there's some type of magnetic connection I have to the spirit world ever since I've opened that door. My energy has intertwined with that other side and I'm a little more sensitive to it. I can understand it. I can feel it.
Eli Roth [00:22:14] Schuler recently became engaged. He and his fiancee moved to Florida, hoping to escape the paranormal activity. It hasn't worked.
Schuler [00:22:24] We would be in one of our offices and it would feel like there's somebody watching us. My fiance, I proclaim that she's seen a apparition in our new home as well. A little misty apparition with legs scurrying into the bathroom. Things start escalating to the point of where I'm not feeling safe in my own home so that right there is our diffuser lamp, that's our primary weapon, if you will, to kind of combat the supernatural things that we believe are currently in this home. And as you can see, we're using sage oil that's kind of like the same thing with the sage stick. These are our mineral rocks and our crystals. So with our mineral rocks and our crystals, this is supposed to induce positive energy into our home. My fiancee, she's not as into the paranormal as I am, so I respect that and I also want to protect that too. I don't want to take her into an environment that's toxic, an environment that's going to be dangerous or something that I experienced from Central State. So today, what I do primarily is podcasting. We like to reach out to individuals and vice versa. They reach out to us and we like to help these people and also share stories with these people. When I had my issues in 2011, I didn't feel alone. You know, I wanted to find answers, but I got myself into some hot water and I was kind of left out to dry. So with my podcast, that's kind of my whole. My goal, that's my intention, is to bring people together and try to make a band of answers and resolutions after everything has been said and done with central state. It's really opened me to the whole spiritual connection thing accepting, believing that there is good and evil, negative, positive, demonic, angelic. And prior to all these experiences, I wasn't necessarily a God believer. You can believe whatever you want, you can follow whatever path you want, but when it comes down to it, there is good. There is evil. You can see it in the physical world. I feel the importance of my story is to help other people not make the same mistake that I did. I can't put it any more complex than that
Eli Roth [00:24:27] On Schuler's podcast, he and his fiance say help people cope who are having paranormal experiences while continuing to deal with occurrences in their own home.
Schuler [00:24:36] I appreciate you guys coming out, listening to my stories, give me the opportunity to share this because after all the years, I've kind of had this tied in. I've had the podcast to share, but you guys coming in, you know, it's refreshing to kind of touch base. So I hope you learned at least one thing from everything I've shared. You know, be be alert, be mindful where you're going next time because you don't know the history. Maybe unless you do a little digging.
Eli Roth [00:24:57] Definitely good advice. Look, I think curiosity in life is a great thing, but sometimes curiosity crosses over into stupidity. And if you ever feel you're right at that line, you might want to play it safe, especially when it comes to a haunted asylum. If you want to hear more real, terrifying stories like this, go to Discovery Plus and check out my TV series. Eli Roth presents a Ghost Ruined My Life. And check us out at Travel Channel Dot Com Slash a Ghost Ruined My Life to learn more about the podcast TV show and what we're up to. A Ghost Ruined My Life with Eli Roth is produced by Cream Productions for Discovery Plus. For Discovery Plus, our executive producer is Marissa Lucy for Cream Productions our executive producers are Eli Roth, Johnny Kalangis, Kate Harrison and David Brady. See you on the other side.