by Zak Bagans
A few nights later, we did our investigation at Loftus Hall, and Aaron still wasn’t himself. I thought it was too soon for him to continue investigating, but he is too much of a professional not to go on. We had to let him participate for the sake of the show, but for me it was like being a corner man and telling your fighter that he can’t fight anymore despite his broken hands and nose. His drive won’t allow the injuries to hold him back, but you know that he’s just in for more pain if he continues. At Loftus Hall I was using the structured light sensor camera, and a spirit appeared on Aaron’s head while he was calling out to the devil. The spirit even did things on command while Aaron was in a near-catatonic state. I was torn because it was an incredible paranormal moment, but it was also forcing my friend even deeper into the darkness.
As I’m writing this chapter, we’ve been back from Ireland for only a few weeks, and Aaron’s still not himself. He isn’t losing his mind, but he’s been quiet and secretive, and I don’t know what’s going on with him. We went to Ireland to find answers and debunk myths, but we came back freaked out like never before.
I can’t say for certain that we found the devil himself, but as a scientist in the study of the paranormal, I observed a key element that I can’t explain. I have no answer except to say that it’s a little terrifying. Even if I was an utter skeptic, what I felt and saw is crazy, and I’m worried for Aaron. Maybe he’ll be fine by the time this book comes out. Or maybe it will get worse. I don’t know. I’m definitely concerned. To see what happened to him made me question why I do this a little bit. Some people have experiences with God and want them to last forever.
AND SOME UNFORTUNATE SOULS
HAVE EXPERIENCES WITH SATAN
AND DON’T WANT TO REMEMBER THEM.
35
NATIVE AMERICANS
Some cultures are more in tune with
the spirit world than others.
The paranormal is a fad right now. It’s been booming for years because of movies and TV shows about the supernatural, social media that makes it easy for people who are interested in the paranormal to connect, and even iPhone apps that claim to enable anyone to be a paranormal investigator. Don’t get me wrong; for the most part I’m not complaining. But like anything else, there are pros and cons to this rise in popularity. The paranormal has attracted a huge audience, so it’s inevitable that people will want to get in and exploit it, even if they have no ability or background in the field. I see amateurs who want to get into the field all the time, and they all use the same approach: go high-tech. They think that they have to have suitcases full of cutting-edge technology to do the job. Although I like to use the latest equipment myself, I think there are low-tech strategies that work just as well. As I’ve said before, I believe in local and ancient rituals for getting in touch with the spirit world, and I feel that Native Americans are sadly overlooked when it comes to the search for answers about the afterlife.
Native peoples have been all over North America for more than 10,000 years. Long before European settlers set foot on the continent, indigenous tribes were here living in harmony with the natural environment and developing rituals centered around the sacredness of the Earth. I believe that to this day, Native Americans are more in tune with the Earth’s energies than anyone else. And any paranormal researcher will tell you that there are energies radiating from the Earth, and that those energies likely interact with the afterworld and with the spirits.
We are surrounded by different types of energy. Geomagnetic and electromagnetic energy is everywhere, and some places, like Sedona, Arizona, are vortices of energy that may have healing powers for humans. We in the paranormal community believe that these vortices can even be portals to the other side. When you look at Native American culture, you see people who believe that wind, water, fire, and earth are primary forces emanating from the Creator and participate in rites centered around those forces. Some people find that silly, but not me. I think native peoples identify certain spots as sacred for a reason—they either know or feel something the rest of us don’t.
When you look at some of the most well known and documented haunted sites in the world, they’re frequently earthbound, like the Bell Witch Cave in Tennessee. It’s said that the hauntings there were so powerful, the government tried to decipher what was happening and couldn’t. Andrew Jackson himself studied it and couldn’t explain its strange phenomenon, but here’s the eerie part: The Bell Witch Cave lies beneath a Native American burial ground believed to be thousands of years old. The natives chose this spot because they believed that it was a portal to the other side.
The cave at Rathcroghan in Ireland is viewed the same way, and it’s known that the ancient Druids used the area as a ritualistic gathering place and cemetery. I think that older peoples like these were in more tune with the Earth than we are now, and the rituals that have been passed down for thousands of years reveal a little bit of what they knew. We’re not half as deep or spiritual as they were. We have technology and scientists, and I respect them, but I think that ancient peoples knew more than we do today about the forces of the Earth and how they interact with the spirit world.
Nopeming, which means “out in the woods” in the Ojibwa (Chippewa) language, is a sanitarium in Minnesota built on top of mineral springs to which the Ojibwa sent their sick and dying to heal. Now it’s an insanely haunted building with a history of massive death from tuberculosis, but I can’t help but think that the real cause of the paranormal activity there is the residual Indian energy. I spoke with an Ojibwa medicine man, who said that the spirits of his ancestors are all over the site. Another of the most active places I’ve ever been is the David Oman house in California, which is also rumored to have been built on ancient Indian burial grounds.
All of these “coincidences” are amazing to me, and I think we can learn a lot from Native Americans and their relationship with the Earth. They’re largely a private people, but if you get a chance to speak with them, you can learn about a whole different dimension of spirituality. I think our focus on technology and gathering scientific data makes us overlook the low-tech ways of getting in touch with spirits. We may even be losing the true essence of spirituality by relying on gadgets.
NATIVE AMERICANS TURNED TO MOTHER NATURE
LONG AGO FOR ANSWERS TO THE MYSTERIES
OF LIFE. I BELIEVE SHE GAVE THEM SOME.
36
GO TO THE LIGHT
Freeing a spirit is not that easy.
If there’s one criticism I get tired of hearing as a paranormal investigator, it’s this: “You don’t tell spirits to go to the light. You need to tell more spirits to go to the light.” To me, this is more irritating than a pineapple enema.
The people who say this have been programmed by movies and TV shows that portray a false image of a psychic medium directing wayward spirits to move toward a bright white light that they somehow keep missing. I don’t mean this as an attack on psychic mediums, but I keep hearing about mediums who use public forums and blogs to establish the presence of a mysterious light that spirits need to dive into to find peace. They have created this “go to the light” urban legend that the general public believes in and keeps reminding me to follow. People think psychic mediums are experts on freeing trapped spirits by giving them simple directions, which I just don’t buy. It’s not as easy as that.
The “go to the light” phenomenon has sparked a debate among groups within the paranormal community, but ultimately (and let me stress this) what happens when people die is unknown. Only God knows what happens to us in the afterlife, and only He knows whether or not there’s a spotlight that we’re all required to step through. Based on hundreds of investigations and years of research, I have strong beliefs about it, but I could be completely wrong, and I admit that. And so could everyone else. Since it’s nearly impossible to prove anything in this field, everything is a belief or a theory. But at least paranormal investigators like myself collect evidence, postulate theories, and try
to test them through observation, trial, and error. Psychic mediums…not so much.
Don’t get me wrong; I’ve known many psychic mediums, and I trust a few of them, especially Chris Fleming, Debby Constantino, and Michael and Marti Parry, whom I love working with. Real psychic mediums like these have a gift, a sense that I believe the rest of us lack. But not every psychic medium does. A lot of them are faking the funk and exaggerating their abilities. I’m not like that. I don’t see spirits, and I damn sure don’t tell people things like, “Someone whose name starts with the letter P is here in the room with us, and he’s very happy to see you.” That’s either offering false hope or flat-out lying.
I believe that a lot of self-proclaimed psychic mediums do shotgun-blast readings to get a response. They go in front of a group of people and start mentioning letters or numbers and see who responds, knowing that someone will react. It’s the law of averages (or Scamming 101) at work. If you throw out a series of random facts into a crowd, like, “Is there someone here who lost a father who smoked?” of course you will find someone who fits that description. The medium picks out a mark, and then it’s a game of questions to pull the wool over everyone’s eyes. It’s a scam. I saw a clip of “Long Island Medium” Theresa Caputo on Anderson Cooper’s show, where she did a shotgun-blast reading that went very badly. No one was convinced, and even Cooper seemed disappointed. Can you say “karma”?
Like I said, this isn’t an attack on psychic mediums, and I’m not saying that all of them are frauds, but there’s a clear dividing line between the real ones and the fake ones. The fake ones always get caught, which is sweet justice, but still tragic for the field. They toy with emotionally traumatized people for profit and give the paranormal community a bad name. Picking out a stranger and opening up old wounds is wrong, especially when they say that they’re making contact with a deceased family member. I don’t think any of their exploits should be covered in the media as miracles or even success stories. There are good PMs and bad PMs, just like there are good PIs and bad PIs. The bad ones need to be called out and exposed, like Sylvia Browne was.
In 2003, Amanda Berry, a 16-year-old girl from Cleveland, went missing. Desperate for answers, Berry’s family turned to Browne in 2004 for a spiritual answer on the Montel Williams show. What did Browne do? She told the family that Amanda was dead, and they gave up hope, even when the FBI said that she could still be alive. Berry’s family believed Browne and cleaned out Amanda’s room to put the memory of their daughter to rest. Then, in 2013, Amanda was found alive in the basement of Ariel Castro, with two other girls he’d held captive for more than ten years. Browne apologized, and the Berry family even forgave her, but in my eyes, Browne did a horrible thing.
When dealing with the relatives of people who have died, PMs shouldn’t say a damn word about whether or not their family members have passed on to the next world, are happy or unhappy, or anything, really. It’s wrong. And anyone who seeks out a medium should be prepared for pain. A bad PM will manipulate you until your wallet runs dry, so I strongly caution anyone thinking of consulting a bad psychic like Sylvia Browne. I do believe that there are gifted PMs, though. You just have to find the right one.
So back to going to the light. Ten times a week people ask me, “How come you never tell the spirits to go to the light?” Because I don’t think it’s true. Spirits are intelligent. You can’t just tell them to go to the light and instantly free them from their painful purgatory and enable them to move on to the next world. You can’t just say, “Go to the light,” and spark an epiphany. The spirits don’t just say, “Oh, you mean after forty years of wandering around this room, all I have to do is walk into that bright light that’s been on this whole time? Damn!” I don’t think that’s how it works.
So instead of telling a spirit to go to the light, I try to connect and communicate. Every spirit has things to say. Spirits need to be heard and know that living people can hear them. That’s how I believe they are freed. They don’t need driving directions. They need to talk.
At Hill View Manor near Pittsburgh, I communicated with a spirit named Alicia. I was using the SB7 spirit box and asked, “What is your name?” She said, “Alicia.” Then she said, “Can I ask you a question?” I said yeah. She said, “Let us…hear.” I knew then that she wasn’t at rest because she wanted someone to hear her voice and feel her pain. When she said the word hear, I could tell that she was crying or in complete sadness. This exchange of intelligent communication with the spirit of Alicia broke my heart, because I could feel her emotions transfer through me. As we shared that moment, only she and I truly understood its meaning for both of us. To this day, this is one of the most special moments I’ve had during intelligent interaction with a spirit.
We talked for a while, and eventually I could feel her move on. I could sense that she’d left the room, and I believe she passed on to another world. Did she go to heaven? I don’t know, but she was definitely gone, and I never told her to walk into a light. As an empath, I felt her emotions connect with mine in a way that no one else could ever comprehend. I wanted to cry, yet I felt something beautiful had happened because she found closure. She just needed someone like me to hear her and share her pain. My energy and that connection are what finally freed her. Talking to spirits is how you release them. Listening to them is how you help them cross over.
Think about it in terms of real life. If you’re in a state of depression or pain, what helps you move on from that state? Talking it out. Sitting down with a psychologist, psychiatrist, friend, teammate, or whomever is therapy. People go to a support group to talk to other people about their problems because that’s where the healing happens. We all have the gift of being able to heal people by talking to them, listening to their problems, and helping them get through them. People who care get on the same emotional wavelength with those who are suffering. People always say, “I’m on the same wavelength as this person,” or, “I really made a connection with that person,” during times of very good or very bad emotions. There’s a reason for that. It’s because people connect with other people.
That night at Hill View Manor, I was on the same emotional wavelength as Alicia. I could feel her sadness and was nearly in tears when we connected. That’s how I helped her move on. She didn’t move on because I said, “Hey, Alicia, go to the light.” If it was that easy, we’d all walk around all day saying it. We’d all be healers, and the spirits would be like, “Cool…did it. Later.” Then everyone could do this job, and trust me…
IT’S JUST NOT THAT EASY.
37
HATERS
People love to win, but hate a winner.
We’ve all seen them: people who just can’t stand to see other people succeed. It doesn’t matter if you’re a great actor accepting an Oscar or a great janitor accepting a Mopster, if you’re good at what you do and get recognized for it, someone will hate you. After years of dealing with that kind of contempt, all I can say is, don’t feed the trolls.
I’ve worked very hard to get where I am. I struggled for many years and had to keep my chin up when so many people told me that I had no future. I went through a lot of bad stuff before I finally found what I was passionate about and built a brand around it. Ghost Adventures connected me to a lot of people who are like me—obsessed with knowing more about the paranormal and helping those who have had unexplainable experiences cope with them. I’m not about to step aside from all that just because someone hates me. If you think I’m that weak, then you’ve seriously misjudged me.
When Ghost Adventures became a success, a lot of bad people tried to take my achievements away from me. They took notice of me and the size of my fan base and tried to bring me down. They were haters, bullies, and trolls with black hearts and no ethics. And a lot of people tried to get at the things I worked hard to earn while doing something I am passionate about. It really made jaded about people, I admit it.
Old acquaintances (notice I didn’t say friends) tried to get thing
s like money or fame, or wanted to use my fan base to promote every single thing they did, and got mad when I didn’t provide them. I’ve worked hard for my success. Why do I owe them anything? Why do they try to take the things I’ve earned? I love my job for many reasons, but one big reason is that when I’m filming on location, I am free from society and the distasteful things that come with it. I get to get away and block out everything. I go to my island.
When I’m not filming GA, I’m at home living in the here and now, but it seems that the more successful my shows, albums, movies, and books are, the more people try to get at me and use me for my money. And they don’t just try to steal what I have, but also what I’ve made. Copycat shows and books have popped up everywhere. I learned very quickly that the more creative you are, the more protective you have to be of your work.
Even within the paranormal community, there are haters who attack us. Their TV show failed after one season because they weren’t passionate or knowledgeable enough to carry it, so they start shit with me, my crew, and our fans in order to feel important again. It’s pathetic. They spread hate toward us when in reality they’re unhappy with their own lives. We don’t usually return the bashing, but sometimes I can’t help myself. I say enough is enough (especially when the haters attack the fans) and return the barb. But in the end, all the squabbling really does is give the field a bad name. Paranormal investigation will never be taken seriously as a science if we play reindeer games. We’re professionals, not actors hired to play them. We leave that to the other paranormal shows.
Everyone has a different reason for hating. Maybe someone got beaten to the punch by someone else in the same field. Maybe someone else was being considered for a role on a paranormal show when I came along and took it. Maybe they don’t like my hair or the way I speak. Maybe they don’t believe in ghosts and want to tear me down because I do. Maybe they are just plain jealous. You may not like what I do. You may not like me personally. You may not like the color black, and that’s fine. I don’t like clowns and avoid them at all costs, but I don’t ridicule people who dress up as clowns and try to make kids smile at birthday parties and circuses. Everyone has their own reason for doing what they do; it’s a personal thing that is part of them.