“I purchased an oil lamp that I was told was over a hundred years old. According to the seller, it came from a chapel that had been demolished in New Jersey.
For the first ten years, something strange happened in my home—only during the month of October.
Every October, without fail, the house would become active. Doors would open on their own. I would hear loud birds late at night. There was even the constant sound of what seemed like a plane circling above the house between 2:00 and 4:00 a.m. On top of that, there were voices—quiet, but unmistakable.
Then, on November 1st… everything would stop.
This pattern continued for a decade.
But after ten years, the activity escalated—and it no longer stayed confined to October. It became constant.
That’s when I called in a paranormal investigation team.
For context, my home was built in 1955, on land that had once been part of an old cotton plantation. The team came in expecting a typical case, but what they encountered disturbed them so much that they refused to return unless a demonologist accompanied them.
Before leaving, they captured an EVP recording and advised me to try communicating with whatever was in the house.
So I did.
What I heard still haunts me.
The voices claimed that the oil lamp came from the chapel of the Overbrook Asylum—and that 96 spirits from the asylum were now inside my home.
They also warned me about something they called “The Sandman.”
They said he wasn’t a ghost… but a demon.
As the activity grew more intense and frightening, I contacted another group—Spring Paranormal.
Their investigation uncovered something even more disturbing.
They claimed that six former employees of the asylum had died during a failed exorcism inside the chapel on October 31, 1972. These weren’t just random victims—the spirits gave full names and identities.
One of them was a psychiatrist named Toby, whom patients had nicknamed “The Fireman.” He had been responsible for administering electroshock therapy. According to the accounts, Toby became possessed by a high-ranking fallen angel.
The Sandman, who had been the superintendent and psychiatrist over the criminally insane ward, was said to have worked alongside this entity. He had performed countless lobotomies—and, according to the spirits, carried out executions on over 15,000 patients.
During the exorcism, something went horribly wrong.
The fallen angel—and what the spirits referred to as “The Terrible 10,” a group of ten entities including the fallen angel and its “family”—became bound to the oil lamp.
Five of the six employees were killed.
The only survivor was a security guard, who was also the illegitimate son of the asylum’s priest. He had assisted in the exorcism and, according to the story, practiced magic. Fearing blame and consequences, he used what he knew to bind the entities to the lamp… and then took his own life.
What followed was a massive cover-up.
All six employees were buried beneath the chapel in a hidden underground graveyard.
One of the spirits, a nurse named Florene—head of the adolescent ward—was especially angry. She claimed that five of the six employees had worked in that ward and had been discarded in a mass grave.
But it didn’t end there.
The fallen angel had attached itself to all six of them, preventing them from crossing over. Alongside them, 90 former patients were also trapped—held hostage, as the voices described it, by legions of demons.
All of them were begging for help.
All… except the Sandman.
According to the others, he refused to move on. They said he had become something else entirely—something demonic—and was now working with the fallen angel instead of against it.
The experience took a toll on everyone involved.
Two members of the Spring Paranormal team reported being followed home and experiencing intense disturbances afterward.
Experts familiar with Overbrook Asylum later confirmed that the oil lamp did, in fact, come from the chapel—but they refused to verify anything else.
Even now, the activity hasn’t completely stopped.
The entities—whatever they are—appear nightly, demanding that “The Terrible 10” be freed from the lamp.
Eventually, I had the lamp removed from my home and placed into storage.
But sometimes… I wonder if that really changed anything.” -Gary R.
