Sanctum Paranormal Museum founder Adam Berry
Provincetown’s Paranormal Museum Showcases Ghostly History
by Steve Desroches
As far as the ancient Celts were concerned late October is when the veil between the living and the dead is at its thinnest, which was part of the festival of Samhain, which over centuries morphed into modern-day Halloween. If that is indeed true, then Provincetown is in for an active Halloween, and not just because of the costumed revelers promenading up and down Commercial Street. Provincetown’s historical record is full of tales of the otherworldly and the unexplained, making it a hot spot in the world of paranormal research and enthusiasts. And now there is a brick and mortar home in Provincetown for the supernatural community with the opening of Sanctum Paranormal, a museum that tells a fascinating, haunted history.
Sanctum Paranormal opened on August 1 of this year, the creation of the Outer Cape’s resident ghost expert, Adam Berry, who in 2007 founded the Provincetown Paranormal Research Society with his husband Ben. To date, the museum has welcomed 300 visitors, a number that shocked Berry as it far exceeded his expectations. It goes to show the level of the interest in the subject as well as the enduring star appeal of Berry, who appeared on the SyFy network’s Ghost Hunter Academy and then the hit television series, Kindred Spirits, both reality shows that featured paranormal investigations at some of the country’s most haunted locales.
The museum features artifacts from Berry’s vast private collection. “Every artifact is one of a kind and not a replica,” he says. “They’re very rare.”
Entering Sanctum Paranormal, the front door of which is framed during the Halloween season by strings of orange lights, a giant skeleton with moving eyes, and a disco ball ghost, visitors enter the retail portion and then can pay $20 to visit the museum, which is self-guided via a headset. You press the number on the device according to which exhibit you are looking at and a thorough, informative, and entertaining voice over tells you about the artifact. The museum is a delightful surprise in both its audio and visual components, forgoing any hokeyness for professional and well-done, but also fun. If you are a true believer in the paranormal, you’ll be in heaven with the stories of hauntings, the legacy of generations of ghost hunters like Berry, and finding like-minded people within. If you are a skeptic, the history of humans contemplating what happens after death and whether or not communicating with the dead is possible is truly compelling. Plus, its makes for perfect Halloween fun to believe for just one day.
On display inside the museum, at least on this one spectacularly sunny October day, (the exhibits rotate), there’s a large, silver ghost trumpet used in Victorian-era seances to capture the faint sounds of spirits, two black mourning gowns and a Victorian hair wreath made from the hair of a deceased loved one, a letter dating from the times of the Salem Witch Trials signed by Samuel Pariss, the minister in Salem Village at the time, as well as a first edition of Charles W. Upham’s 1867 book about the witch trials, the first ever to address the topic, or at least the oldest known to exist.
And then there’s the dolls. Lots and lots of dolls, the kind that send a shiver up your back. All the dolls have some sort of haunted story attached, like the one used in exorcisms to transfer demons from a human to the toy, and stories of dolls being blamed for phantasmal mischief in the home.
“The dolls in the case, you don’t want to touch those,” says Berry. “Oooops. I had to touch them to put them in the case. But seriously. Don’t touch them. You don’t want to do that.”
The museum also features artifacts and tells the stories of hoaxes, charlatans, and entertainers who feigned real paranormal power in speaking with the dead. There’s the story of the Fox Sisters, a trio from Rochester, New York, who became national celebrities as they toured the country capitalizing on the Spiritualist movement in the late 1800s at the height of its popularity. They were later exposed as frauds…or were they? In the museum is also a “rapping hand” used by Germain the Wizard, an American magician —and lawyer—who proclaimed he spoke to the dead, live on stage at the turn of the century.
And then there’s a collection of Quija boards. Berry notes that no, you can’t actually talk to the dead via a Quija board. After all, it is highly unlikely that Parker Brothers mass-produced a portal to the other side. Also known as talking boards or spirits boards, they came into fashion in America after the Civil War when traveling mediums used them with grieving families wanting to communicate with a lost soldier. They eventually morphed into an innocent parlor game, depicted in illustrations by Normal Rockwell and popular at Halloween parties in the Roaring Twenties. It wasn’t until the 1973 film, The Exorcist, in which it’s implied that’s how the demon got into the house, that Ouija boards developed a sinister connotation. Berry laughs that some parents won’t let their kids touch the Ouija board available for use in the museum.
“I know the world is messed up, but it’s not because of a Quija board,” laughs Berry. “The world is much scarier than anything in here.”
Sanctum Paranormal is located at 322 Commercial St. and is open Thursday, 2 – 8 p.m., Friday, 12 – 9 p.m., Saturday, 12 – 9 p.m. and Sunday 2 to 7 p.m. now through November 2. Ghost tours are Thursday through Sunday at 7 p.m. with an extra 9 p.m. tour on Halloween night. To book a ghost tour, a séance, tarot or psychic reading, or for more information visit ptownparanormal.com.
