Giving Up The Ghost
As we start the new year, it’s time to bring in the new and toss out the old. With that in mind, I’ve decided this will be my last post on the site. While I’ve had a lot of fun I’m no longer interested in sitting through this over exaggerated paranormal drivel.
I never expected shows like Ghost Hunters, Paranormal State, Ghost Adventures, Paranormal Lockdown, Ghost This, Paranormal That, Haunted Whatever, to actually collect evidence of the paranormal or spirit world. It was about the locations and stories and history. And in the beginning they proved those old pipes were responsible for the noises you heard.
Then it all changed, became commercial and turned into nothing but staged demonic encounters with unseen dark energy and running in the other direction every time there is a bump from a dark mass just outside camera shot. Or, if not in the midst of some demonic attachment, it’s turning everyday events such as toys falling over from gravity, flying bugs and insects, floating dust particles and car headlights into paranormal happens of epic and sinister proportions.
All of this “evidence” is all detected and captured by hacked up Xbox components, rigged up iPads, half-baked blinky light devices, temperature probes that are reading who knows what, thermal cameras that record their own reflections, pucks that burp and fart voices from the great beyond and EVP tools that spit out hundreds of random words so they’ll eventually get something right.
Thank you all for tuning in and I hope you enjoyed at least one article.
All the best to you and have a spooktacular New Year!
Other Articles of Interest:
Ghost Adventures – Dumas Brothel – S13E10
Zak and team are in Montana to visit the Dumas Brothel, a location with a sinister presence. It’s claimed that evil resides in the basement and is responsible for pushing people, poking them and flat out knocking them to the floor, if the owner is to be believed. There are even reports of men being touched in the privates.
The owner, Michael, who looks to be either over or under medicated, has a whole slew of stories to tell about the place, that is, when you can get him to stand still long enough. He claims to have seen a hostile older man in the basement. No explanation for why he’s hostile or why he doesn’t like Michael, he just doesn’t. Michael also claims several men have run screaming from the building only to throw up in the street. We also have the classic story of the prostitute in love, her lover who dies in a mining accident and never comes back for, so she kills herself. I’m pretty sure every Western town they’ve visited has this same story. It’s either that, or the woman in white.
What is the cause of all this unrest? No one knows for sure, but according to Ginnie, Michael’s friend, it’s because of someone called "The Judge" and he doesn’t like anyone. Mind you, this isn’t based on any evidence or records, it’s what Ginnie believes. She claims to see and feel the judge all the time. And she’s just as jittery and confused as Michael. But Zak says this is due to possession and an attempt by the spirits to control their consciousness.
As they tour the brothel and discuss the presence of a woman Michael felt at the top of the stairs, Zak gets a red mark on his neck. Turns out this has nothing to do with a woman and is in fact the judge, again according to Ginnie. When asked why the judge doesn’t like him, they get an EVP of "I just don’t." This has to be the work of the paranormal, because it’s impossible to make your own neck red.
To start off the investigation, Zak brings in actresses to play the role of prostitutes in the brothel. He sends them to different rooms and tells the spirits they can do whatever they want. A few minutes later, McKinley, who’s in the basement hears footsteps. This is followed by the sound of a little girl and the words, "I found ya" and "I’m Otto."
In one of the upper rooms, Kaitlin is zoning out and they see yet another light anomaly. Zak rushes to her aid and brings the hacked up Kinect motion sensor also known as the SLS camera. He captures a stick figure touching Kaitlin who says she is extremely cold. When then get a temperature reading of 62 in that area, up from the still cold temperature of 67.
After the ladies leave the house, Zak says two more light anomalies go shooting into him. Billy keeps claiming he’s losing time and ends up in places with no idea how he got there. They repeatedly say they have cold energy and a static feeling all over their bodies. The Rem Pods they previously set out start going off at random.
Next, they bring out the paranormal puck and get the following:
Who is up here – Debbie
What do you miss – paper, value
How did you die – found
Billy claims this is the prostitute that killed herself. That’s pretty incorrect as the plaque in the room says the woman who killed herself was Eleanor. Billy is trying to make wild connections and is clearly missing the mark.
Billy also claims there is an ice cold wall of energy, too bad he forgot to actually take the temperature. Maybe this is another ice cold temperature change of 5 degrees.
Meanwhile, we have another example of Zak going into a stupor then claiming he has no idea what happened. He claims to be in a spiritual fog and he wandered off from Billy and Aaron for reasons he can’t explain. They find him slumped in a chair with claims of missing time. With this happening, the Rem Pods upstairs are going off, including one above the room Zak is tripping balls in. This proves an entity is at work.
For the finale, we have a loud bang that can be heard throughout the brothel.
Zak is quite convinced the spirits of the brothel are channeling through Ginnie and Michael and they’re being controlled. I’m going to have to disagree with that assessment. I think Michael and Ginnie have a few issues to sort out. And let’s not forget, Michael is in financial distress over the building, so nothing like a good old fashioned haunting to scare up some business.
Additionally, if you pay attention to some of the footage, parts of that building are a wreck. And based on the age, who knows what chemicals and other materials are in there. Check the environment to see what contaminants are floating around before you go and blame everything on the paranormal.
Butte men buy historic Dumas Brothel
Other Articles of Interest:
- Ghost Lab – Episode 4 – Chicago/Texas
- Ghost Adventures – Hotel Leger – S16E05
- Ghost Adventures – Mackay Mansion – S13E02
- Ghost Adventures – Silent Movie Theater – S14E05
- Ghost Hunters International – Argentina/Australia S02E08
- Ghost Adventures – Leslies Family Tree Restaurant – S12E07
- Ghost Adventures – Heritage Junction – S09E06
- Ghost Adventures – Hauntings of Vicksburg – Demons and Dolls – Part 2
- Ghost Adventures – Return to the Riviera – S12E04
- Ghost Adventures – Texas Horror Hotel – S10E11
Expedition Unknown – Genghis Khan’s Tomb – S02E02
For our next exciting expedition, Josh heads out to Mongolia in search of the tomb of Genghis Khan and one of the first things we learn is that his name should be more properly written as Chinggis Khaan. To be honest, I was unaware that Khaan had gone out of his way to make his burial place a secret. Sort of seems like if you take the time to conquer such a vast empire, you might want to have a few monuments to point out how badass you are.
There are quite a few stories about Khaan’s death that state he wanted to be buried in an unmarked grave and anyone who saw the funeral procession was to be killed. Stories even go so far as to say that a river was diverted to cover the burial spot. For someone who lived such a grand life, Chinggis wanted his deeds to live on rather himself as a person. Or perhaps, he didn’t want enemies digging up and desecrating his remains as an act of revenge.
But as we move into Ulaanbatar, it’s pretty obvious that Chinggis is worshipped and revered at nearly god like levels. His image and name are everywhere – statues, monuments, bars, vodka. Khaan is attributed with uniting the nomadic tribes, establishing trade routes and offering people complete religious freedom. Even if his methods were a bit rough, it was more than what a lot of people had before him.
Josh arrives in time for the Festival of the Three Games which includes Archery, Wrestling and Horseback riding, the 3 things Chinggis instilled in all his warriors. It should come as no surprise that Josh is going to give the wrestling a try although he spends more time in the dirt than anywhere else. At least the guy takes it easy on him and doesn’t outright pull his arm out of the socket.
After the festival and while visiting the massive 130 foot tall statue of Khaan outside the city, Josh is told of an archeological dig in search of the tomb. He heads out across the muddy plains to Karakoram, the former capital city that Khaan established and is said to be where the funeral procession started. Josh helps to excavate the site where they find some skeletal remains. Ominous stuff to be sure.
But this isn’t the only site where they think Khaan might be buried. There is another on the Burkhan Khaldun mountain that shows what could be three temples. However, it’s not a place you can just walk into and start digging. It’s actually considered to be a holy mountain referred to as the Forbidden Zone and there is no access without permission from the tribe that guards the gate. This tribe believes they are acting on orders from Chinggis himself to keep the location of his burial place secret. Oddly, the protectors of this area don’t say it’s actually the burial site and quite frankly, they don’t want to know. They believe that Khaan’s resting site should remain a secret and not become common knowledge.
With that, Josh and the team have to ask for permission to even be allowed on the mountain, but the gatekeeper isn’t sure of their intentions and says he will ponder the matter. Perhaps it was for dramatic effect, or perhaps he just wanted some new drinking buddies, but as the sun goes down, the gatekeeper invites Josh and crew in for a drink and before the night is over, they’re all good buddies and Josh gets permissions to press on.
In the morning, the gatekeeper says he will need to accompany them to the mountain to make sure they don’t get up to any funny business. No digging or excavating is allowed. To be blunt, they can look, but not touch. The tribesmen are very serious that nothing is to be disturbed.
Turns out the survey photos were correct and they discover stone bricks from a wall and ceramic tile from a roof. These are certainly older than the time of Khaan, but it does lead to some other discoveries. Josh finds multiple spear heads in the base and roots of a tree. These are warrior spears, but they appear to be from the wrong time period as well. But the question remains, there are no other temples in the area so why was one built here? What is the significance of this mountain and this location? Does this location have something to do with Khaan and a temple built on it? Or was the temple built first and they are applying the worship of Khaan after the fact?
With the weather turning bad, they manage to get a chopper to come in so they can take high resolution photographs of the mountain. Not sure why they didn’t call up the services of the chopper earlier, but, they scan the mountain several times and there is some sort of man-made bump at the top. They aren’t allowed to land, even if the weather did allow it, so some photos is the best they can do. There aren’t defining characteristics so this bump could literally be anything and so the mystery continues.
Is Josh and these teams of researchers within arms reach of Khaan’s tomb? Or are the stories true and it’s actually under a river or in some other completely nondescript location where nobody would think to look? And if the researchers are close, what happens if they actually find something? The men of the tribe seem like they would take some rather drastic strides to keep that information from getting out. Dare I say, finding Khaan’s tomb might result in a throat cutting.
Khaan certainly took steps to disappear after his death and with all the stories and deliberate attempts to keep the location secret, perhaps even misdirection, it looks like the final resting place of Chinggis Khaan will remain a secret for quite some time to come.
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