Museums that will Scare you Silly

Why do we want to be scared? Frank Farley, PhD psychologist at Temple University says that "People are intensely curious about the 'dark side,' and trying to make sense of it. They're interested in the unusual and the bizarre because they don't understand it and it's so different from our everyday lives." The reasons we want to feel fear are similar to the reasons we want to visit museums. We are intensely curious about their contents, causing us to question and try to make sense of their origins. So why not fuse our desire to be scared and learn about the past together? Here are a couple of the scariest museums across the world:

1. The Mutter Museum: the most local on the list is the Mutter Museum, located in South Philadelphia. It's famous for it's collection of skulls and dead, preserved specimens, including the tallest skeleton on display in North America and a 5 foot-long human colon. The museum also holds entrails of some famous names, including President Grover Cleveland's malignant tumor and a 10 pound growth removed from John Wilkes Booth, Abraham Lincoln's assassin.

2. Seodaemun Prison History Museum: located in Seoul, Korea, this prison-turned-museum is a must-see for thrill seekers visiting Korea. Built in 1910, it was used to house Korean prisoners that the Japanese would torture and experiment on. Visitors can see rooms such as the “corpse removal exit” where the bodies of prisoners were smuggled out, and the execution building. The most bone chilling aspect of the museum, called the “Place of Experience”, gives museum visitors the chance to watch animatronic mannequins perform the same torture rituals that were performed on the prisoners decades ago-in the same room that they were performed.

3. Catacombs of Palermo: not originally intended to become a museum, the catacombs have done just that, and have been nicknamed the "museum of death". In the basement of the Capuchin Monastery in Palermo, Italy, visitors can view the actual corpses of monks and local members of the community... in the same clothing and state that they were buried in. The most recent bodies are from the 1920s, and are so well preserved that they look like they are sleeping. Maybe they are!

These are just a few of the frightening museums you can visit around the world. For more information on these museums and others, visit http://listverse.com/2010/06/21/top-10-museums-that-will-scare-you-silly/ .