Zak Bagans

Ghost Adventures – Commanders House – S16E12

ga-commanders-houseThe paranormal investigations continue along the Graveyard of the Pacific, with Fort Stevens and the Commander’s House as the next location. At the Commander’s House, employees claim there is an older woman ready to push people down the stairs and materializes to float above the floor. At Fort Stevens, a mysterious death may have it’s root in something sinister.

Within the house, Zak speaks with Barbara, who has felt a presence. She also claims that while on a narrow and twisting part of the staircase, she felt as though something was trying to push her down the stairs.

Bob adds to the mystery by saying that while working in the basement he felt a tingle and saw a vaporous apparition floating in the space.

While looking over the top floor, Zak and team believe they get “Zak” on the digital recorder and the word “One”. To prove their is an entity, they show off their watches, (which can also get a pulse from a banana) to prove their hearts are racing. Further, they show off Jay who has a red mark as though he has been “slapped.” If you look at the other side of Jay’s face, you will see the same sort of mark which looks to be indicative of windburn, not bitchslapping by an unseen force.

They next head to Fort Steven, and meet with Jeff, where they hear of a murder where a soldier was beaten to death. Zak makes the connection the soldier was killed by a spirit because the military wouldn’t a let murder go unsolved. I believe Zak has a slight misunderstanding of the rules of conduct for 1868.

To add to the spirit angle and the presence of dark energy, they meet with Jennifer who claims she saw an angry male spirit just a few minutes before. She now claims it’s down in the tunnels with Billy and Aaron, who without knowing what Jennifer said, claim they see a man. Alas, said man isn’t captured as evidence.

They split the investigation into two parts. Zak and Aaron will investigate the Commander’s House, while Billy will venture into the tunnels of Fort Stevens.

As we have seen in previous investigations, Zak sees light orbs, which foretell of the dark energy. Zak then heads to the small cubby where he got a voice previously and claims to hear the voice of a little girl. On the Ovilus, the words, “Choose, Near, Please” appear, which Zak takes to mean he needs to pick a stuffed animal. They also claim to get an EVP of “Nanna.”

But things are a little chaotic as Aaron is having both a panic attack and a coughing fit. It appears that while on the stairs, something touched Aaron on the back, and he felt as though it was trying to push him down the stairs. Standing on shaky stairs in the dark might cause that kind of reaction.

After the hysterics are over, they notice a couple of the lights in the room a flickering very faintly. Some might call that bad wiring or perhaps a dimmer switch malfunctioning, but to Zak, this is a manifestation of spirit energy.

Meanwhile, back in the tunnels, Billy is losing his mind. Although nothing has happened, no man has appeared, no spirits have jumped out to try and bludgeon him to death, Billy is terrified. The sounds of noises echoing off the walls has put him on edge. It is an old tunnel with the sound of the water nearby and the rush of the wind. But, Billy’s mind is playing tricks on him and he can barely set up his equipment because he’s freaking out. Even though he does, no evidence from the Fort is captured.

In the main house, Zak decides he will take up the entity on it’s offer and will choose a doll. When he asks what will happen when he does, he gets the word, “Shove.” Not only does this conveniently coincide with Aaron saying he felt pushed, Zak sees more orbs in the room.

Zak then asks what the entity doesn’t like and gets a response of “Everything.” This is followed by more light flickering and what Zak says is a little girl asking “which room” when he asks what’s inside the room.

Although they don’t capture any tangible evidence, Zak claims there is an entity as ancient and deadly as the sea itself.

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Ghost Adventures – Norblad Hostel – S16E11

ga-norblad-hostelContinuing their tour of the Graveyard of the Pacific, our next stop is the Norblad Hostel, where there are claims of demonic attacks. The Hostel used to cater to an unsavory crowd where violence was common. It’s now been turned into a more upscale establishment, but since it connects to the, “Underground”, it’s loaded to the gills with evil.

We hear from Aaron, an ordained minister and tattoo enthusiast, who claims he was attacked by a demonic force. Aaron knows it was a demonic entity because of the nauseating smell. That sort of smell in an unkempt basement full of trash and water damage means a demon lives there. Additionally, he felt pain in his back, like a hand around his spine. Further, the demon caused nightmares and made him wake up in the middle of the night.

Not only did the demon ruin his sleep, it caused Aaron financial trouble, caused his mother to get pneumonia, and flooded his home. Interesting mindset here. Living next to a river and getting flood damage is caused by demonic forces. Like Zozo or the Brownsville Rd demon, when things go wrong, blame something demonic. “Oh nay nay! I’m the victim here! A demonic force is responsible for these events, not my ridiculously poor planning and life choices.”

We then have an encounter with wandering street vagabond, Robin, who appears out of nowhere to say there have been murders in the Underground. How does she know? Because it’s a port town. Duh!

She then talks about Satanic worship, because that’s the sort of thing that happens in tunnels. Duh!

Then, before dropping the microphone and making her big exit, she claims she knows things which would get her killed if she talked about them.

Casting mental health aside, they are desperate to make another connection to Lovecraft. Grasping, they bring up a story where a woman exposes a secret society. She then goes mad from the knowledge and the fact she is being hunted. Well, at least got the “madness” part right.

Even the owner of the Norblad feels the place is haunted because one night, he got a chill on his back.

But, the person who really knows what’s going on is June. She is a Demon Seer, which gives her the ability to see, talk with, understand, and even remove demons. The demon removal portion of her business card is a little lacking since she claims one is still lurking in the corner of the basement.

To prove she has the “sight”, she takes Zak down to the basement, to the corner, where a dark portal somehow manifested and the demon stepped through. Although demons speak in Aramaic, if Zak holds her hand, he will feel and understand this one.

June explains that Zak was meant to come there, meant to understand demons do exist and they are real. They can and will try to hurt you. One cue, Zak gets a jolt and pulls his hand away from June.

Good thing June is a translator for the demonic, as Zak asks questions and June translates the answers. She explains it wants to inflict pain and suffering. And cause financial ruin, because demons are all about the Benjamins.

When finished, June declares she needs to take away the “sight” she gave Zak. No one should be able to see what she sees unless they have what she has. And again on cue, Zak says he feels ill and unsafe. This leads to Zak jumping a car and driving away. Zak certainly runs away from his problems a lot.

But he thinks better of it, returns and has June take away her powers. This involves June placing her hands over Zak’s and standing in silence, for 10 seconds. Her powers are so mystical they defy words.

The investigation starts off with the usual act of cowardice from Zak as he sends Aaron into the basement alone. With Aaron down there, the Ovilus at HQ gives off the words, “Unholy, Sacra Res, Slain.” This basically means the Ovilus spews out words at random from any location whenever it’s on.

Aaron places the microphone near the corner where the demon has been told to stand and gets the sound of a female voice. This is followed by Aaron acting all manner of confused and disoriented. A few minutes later though, he’s perfectly fine and operating the camera as usual.

While investigating, Zak finds a set of stairs that he says are drawing him in. As he gets there, he claims a rock is thrown. This is soon followed by another. Ignore any idea of debris falling from the sheer amount of crap down there.

At the same time, we have a whole series of camera malfunctions. This causes everyone to lose their minds, especially Billy who stomps his feet and acts like a child who’s taken a dump in his pants. He loses his temper at the devices shutting off. Instead of going, “Wow, these devices are turning off because of an unseen force.” It’s “These device are turning off, I’m being mocked so I have to blame someone and kick their ass for it!”

Putting his rage aside, Billy remembers that he needs to feel sick and prove this demonic entity exists by claiming he has back pain. To give further credence, the SLS camera flashes a stick figure on the screen. This is good enough for Zak to say the entity is walking down the stairs to confront them. Although he never actually shows up.

The episode wouldn’t be complete if we didn’t have Zak lashing out at his crew, then blaming the whole thing on the evil entity. It should come as no surprise this coincides with the Talking EVP showing the malevolent words of “Disembodied, Unholy.”

These personal experiences are enough to convince Zak that evil lurks in the “Underground”, even though he admits to never capturing any evidence of said entity.

Now that the episode is over, June can work her magic and get on with the demon removal part of her schtick and save the town. She hasn’t done anything up to this point just to build dramatic tension.

Lovecraft never meant to create a canonical Mythos but rather intended his imaginary pantheon to merely serve as a background element.
At times, Lovecraft even had to remind his readers that his Mythos creations were entirely fictional.

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Ghost Adventures – Astoria Underground – S16E10

ga-astoria-undergroundI’m a little behind on the uptake, but Zak and team are back with investigations along the Graveyard of the Pacific. This will include several locations along the Columbia River in Oregon. The first stop is the Astoria Underground, which is a series of maze-like tunnels that were build to replace the wooden stilt-like structures that kept the town above the rising water levels. In 1922, the town caught fire causing massive damage because of the wood supports. Now the tunnels are a dumping ground for debris and detritus.

Right from the start, Zak refers to the tunnels as, “That’s where the secrets are kept,” and “Dark and oppressive forces that linger in the underground.” To prove his point, he speaks with Ross, an investigator who claims he captured something on camera. He chased a dark mass into the underground and his proof of it’s presence is the sound of knocking.

Zak then relates the story of Bunko Kelly, a man who kidnapped people and sold them into slavery, also known as the act of “Shanghaiing.” This fuels the dark energy of the past.

To get a glimpse of that dark energy, they meet with Diana, who shows them into the tunnels from an access point in her shop. She is quick to say, “I know someone died here. It’s what I feel.” While some would have a few choice words for her zoned out behavior, Zak says the tunnels are affecting her.

We then have a series of bizarre and rather nonsensical connections between Astoria, HP Lovecraft and Diabolus Rex of the Church of Satan.

Zak tries to contact Grant Cogswell, who filmed “Cthulhu” in the area a decade earlier. When the connection won’t establish itself, Zak chalks it up to a paranormal influence. The story is a little hard to follow as Grant claims there was a curse over making the film which ultimately bankrupted him, ruined his career and forced him to live in Mexico for a decade. The subpar rating had nothing to do with the situation.

It also put him in contact with Diablous Rex, who liked the idea of the story and Lovecraft and wanted to invest in the film. These connections feed the dark energy. If that sort of random connection were valid, wherever Stephen King sits, is the most haunted place in the universe. It’s hard to understand what point Zak was making here.

Zak then claims he and his crew are working under a similar curse when Dakota and Bacon get stuck in an elevator at the hotel.

With all that behind them, it’s time to start the investigation from two points. Zak and Jay enter the tunnels from the Liberty Theater, where Ross claims he saw a dark figure. Aaron and Billy enter from the butcher shop where zoned out Diana claims murders took place because she can feel it.

At the beginning, Zak hears bangs and says something rushed at him. Luckily there are two dust particles to support his claim.

In a long, echoing chamber, Aaron and Billy hear talking. As Aaron is on edge, a bug zips passed his head and he nearly soils his pants. This is followed by a bang. A bang in a corridor filled with crap of every description. Even Billy thinks it’s a piece of wood that fell over.

As Zak explores further, he finds a set of stairs. Like in so many other episodes, he becomes confused and disoriented, saying there is a force surrounding him. He grabs the Ovilus device and gets the words, “Mad, Ashes, Up” which refers to the fire and the city burning to ashes up above them.

On the other size, Aaron again feels something against him, which he thinks is a rat. Once more, they are thrilled to find dust particles circling about to coincide with the event. Ironically, Jay and Aaron admit, “It’s not that there’s something paranormal, it’s the feeling you get from being there.”

Zak brings out his digital recorder and somehow hears the words, “fight me” as a response. He then claims to capture a bloodcurdling scream, which sounds so very much like a crow. When asks, “What did that scream mean?” He gets a response of “Release, Known, Empath.”  Since Zak now claims he’s an empath, the spirit is looking to him for release. Or it was a crow.

In adding yet another half-baked experiment to their bag of tricks, Billy pulls out his phone and Bluetooth speaker. He’s going to use Aaron’s phone to call his phone and play it over the speaker. With all this exciting wireless and EMF activity, it’s a conduit for spirit energy and they can contact the spirit world.

It clearly works as they pick up what they claim is a girl’s voice and someone saying, “We can talk back.”

Because of this staggering evidence and the fact Jay fell in a hole while wandering around in the dark, Zak is convinced they have documented enough evidence to validate the dark shadow figure.

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Ghost Adventures – Kays Hollow – S16E09

ga-kays-hollowFor their next paranormal excursion, Zak and team head to Kaysville, Utah to visit Kay’s Hollow, where cult leader Krishna Venta set up shop in 1951. But his zealot ways didn’t last long as he was murdered by members of his congregation. Many years later, most likely a random act of destruction, the stone cross erected to him in the woods was blasted apart and is now a ruin. However, Zak claims the cross has ultimate negative power because there have been two deaths on the property and since graffiti of pentagrams have been painted, it’s now a place for suicides and Satanic rituals. In fact, it’s a “central hub of evil.”

The power of the cross is confirmed when Goth Girl Bennet, who has visited the area nearly twenty times, describes her first experience where unseen voices guided her to a hidden path and had conversations with people that couldn’t be seen. Her body was taken over by a female spirit who was intent on “giving her over” to a male spirit. Even though it takes a toll on everybody, she keeps coming back for more.

This story is confirmed by vampire look-alike, Vincent, who says he saw the whole thing. He too has been to the Hollow multiple times and has many stories to convey. One “legend” states the area is overseen by “dog men.” Another legend states if you lie on the ruined cross while the moon is full your skin will burn.

He takes up the challenge, lays on the rock, then claims he got 3 burns in the shape of an upside cross. It’s a good thing he made sure he didn’t lay down on any stray branches or oddly contoured surfaces or someone might believe the legend was true.

On their way back to the car, they just happen to find a bag tucked away, in the scrub, out of sight, near the cross. When they open this chance finding, it has animal bones and berries inside, which Jay immediately says is an offering and has to bury again, complete with ritual.

They then talk to a resident who freely admits that her son saw glowing red eyes in the forest, that she has heard growling in the woods, that her daughter saw a figure poke itself out from behind a tree and that chickens were slaughtered and left in a circle. But have no fear, none of this has given her cause for concern and she still lives in the same place.

As the investigation starts, Zak hears a “crashing sound” in the woods using his parabolic microphone. Since animals don’t live in the woods, the source of this noise must be both paranormal and demonic. Zak follows this up with claims of an invisible entity pushing past them. Aaron then adds he saw red eyes. Billy jumps in saying he saw the shadow figure as well. Too bad not a single piece of it was captured even though they saw it, “with their own eyes.”

Making their way to the ruined cross, they get all sorts of unexplained heat signatures. They seem to have forgotten the idea that rocks hold heat and will have hot spots under a thermal imager.

When they get near the cross, it’s Billy’s turn to zone out and become disoriented. Zak immediately says they are next to the hanging tree, even though they can’t see anything. As an afterthought, Zak adds that he felt the energy surrounding Billy as he was coming up the path. Too bad he didn’t tell that to Billy beforehand.

Then, as though compelled, Zak jumps onto the cross, much to the shock of all concerned. As expected, he begins to zone out and claims to have visions. He’s now channeling Venta.

While on the rock, he gets a spirit voice with the word, “Remembering”. When he gets down, no more spirit voices. The fact there are no voices is more proof of a controlling entity.

Continuing to investigate the area, Billy goes into a trance and claims there is an invisible force that won’t let him pass. The entity tries to take him over, but a few stern words keeps it at bay and he’s able to continue.

Another sign of devil worship makes it’s appearance as a bone is tied up in a tree. At the same time they hear unexplained sounds, which sound exactly like a dog, coming from the woods. This coincides with the location of the iron gate that Bennet passed through when she was possessed. To add to the mystique, Billy claims the air is filled with the smell of rotting flesh.

Zak then unveils an extremely perplexing experiment. He’s going to call Billy’s phone, which is on the cross and connected to a BlueTooth speaker. This will create a conduit for entities to speak to him. And it works, he gets static. Phones never has static except when under the influence of something paranormal.

Then, as they are leaving, they get what they claim is an unexplained squealing sound. It’s a sound that comes across remarkably like ducks, but to Zak, this is some sort of demonic sacrifice.

Even with this lack of tangible evidence, Zak claims this is an insanely dangerous area. it’s amazing how easy it is to conjure the devil and open a portal to Hell. Apparently all you have to do is go out into the woods, lay down some poorly scrawled graffiti, then knock on the door and the devil will answer.

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