Zak Bagans

Ghost Adventures – Albion Normal School – S15E09

By Ntsimp - Own work, CC0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=39359417 Halloween may be past, but the Ghost Adventures team are off to Albion, in Southern Idaho, to visit the Albion Normal School, now a Halloween attraction with Satanic overtones. At least according to Zak.

The school opened in 1863 and educated children for 60 years before going through multiples owners until it become abandoned.  Once closed, the property went through several hands before being abandoned. That’s when, according to Zak, the Satanists moved in.

In the 80s, during the "Satanic Panic" where zealots and the uneducated saw Satanic symbols, rituals and themes everywhere, the building was "rumored" to have been the site of rituals.

That aside, they meet with Heather, who explains that an employee sitting at a table suddenly had a grotesque seizure. Heather corrects herself saying it was a seizure or possession. When the same man comes back two years later and has another seizure-demonic influence.

As they start the investigation, they find a very crude pentagram on the wall. It’s amazing how Zak can be so influenced by man made symbols spray painted by mindless vandals. Zak puts his spirit box over it and gets the words, "watch out". When he asks what they need to watch out for, they get a reply of "you’ll be killed". Spooky stuff indeed, almost like he planned it.

Aaron puts his hand on the symbol, because Zak has stated it’s now a portal. Surprise, Aaron has burning in his hands and one is supposedly hotter than the other. The same reaction can be done by slapping your hand.

They next bring in Dallon, who confirms he has had the same feelings. To show his bravado, he touches the symbol and on cue, Jay is outside clutching what looks like a spider bite behind his ear. To show solidarity, Dallon says his ears is causing pain.

For Day 2, they meet with Heather to explain how Jay and Dallon have been marked. Jay has scratches to form X and I, while Dallon has two vertical scratches. Zak makes the revelation they comprise 5 lines and when taken apart and twisted, they can form an upside down pentagram! That is an astonishing leap.

Like so many other investigations, Zak says he feels ill and not himself. As he is lying down, Aaron breaks in and says he heard the gymnasium door slam and a voice call his name. He goes to investigate to find a slew of haunted decorations.

Zak then heads to Comish Hall where he and Billy hear footsteps. Zak refers to this as "a goatman walking around on it’s hooves." This is followed by Billy hearing knocks and thinks something is on the other side of the wall. There probably is, a raccoon.

Fixating on the pentagram, Zak sees there is a "crypt" under the fireplace, where ritualistic remains are buried. Two blips on the device are all he’s needs for confirmation.

Next, it’s the Spirit Sweep device, which looks like an iPad hooked up to a speaker. It could be programmed to make all sorts of noises from the great beyond. But, it’s silent until Zak places it in front of the pentagram, then he gets the sounds of "a male voice performing a ritual or sacrifice".

In the final minutes, they split up, each taking a building. This gives us three stand out moments. One is when Aaron gets molested by one of the utterly creepy Halloween props. The second is the ridiculously cliche act of Zak brandishing a crucifix like some sort of avenger. And finally, when there is a loud bang and instead of standing his ground against evil, which he isn’t afraid of, Zak soils his pants, and runs at a full sprint in the other direction.

Before buying into the Satanic hype, let’s review the evidence.

They get the words, "you’ll be killed" when a device is strategically placed over a poorly drawn pentagram.
Jay and Dallon have scratches that Zak says make a pentagram. Or they could make a tic-tac-toe board.
They hear footsteps and a loud bang in a building loaded with debris.
They find a hole under a fireplace.

And all of this at a haunted Halloween attraction. Clearly there’s no financial gain to this investigation…

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Ghost Adventures – Annabelle’s Curse – S15E08

annabelle The second part of the Museum of Madness Halloween Special involves bringing out what Zak and it’s owner consider to be the most haunted doll in the world – Annabelle. It was originally a gifted for a student who claimed it would shift position on it’s own and write letters asking for help. Later, Ed and Lorraine Warren deem the doll to be haunted. So haunted in fact, it needs to be kept in their special museum in a display case with handy warning signs saying not to touch her. It’s also the subject of at least two movies.

Tony Spera, son-in-law to Lorraine Warren, is the current owner and taking all the care of handling plutonium, brings the doll to the museum. It’s locked in a metal case and needs to have holy water at the ready and prayers said over the case before he can open it. Due to the danger, he doesn’t actually touch the doll, but bathes his hands in the holy water, then uses welding gloves to whisk Annabelle from her case to a display chair.

And what manner of hideousness is Annabelle? A large Raggedy Ann doll. But, don’t be deceived, this doll has killed a man.

While on a tour of the Warren home, a young man puts a challenge to Annabelle to show off her powers. Driving home, the same man loses control of his motorcycle, crashes into a tree and is killed. This “accident” is attributed to the doll rather than reckless driving, poor road conditions, weather or equipment failure.

As Zak sets up Annabelle so he can introduce himself and talk to her, he notes an orb flies out from her and they get the word, “Listen” on the spirit box. This is followed by “Annabelle” in a male voice.

We then have Billy losing his mind as two stick figures are mapped over Zak, which then proceed to jump back and forth between Zak and the doll.

With this going on, Zak repeatedly says he wants to touch the doll. He needs to touch the doll. He’ll do whatever Tony wants him to do just to pick up the doll. Rather than come to the fore and bring the interaction to a halt, like he’s threatening to do from his little hideaway, he simply keeps telling Zak to resist the urge. The doll is so dangerous and Zak is in such a fragile state that Tony does nothing.

But as Tony says Zak needs to ask for God’s help to resist, the word God appears on the talking EVP device. Then EVP device then displays Grab and Foot, which causes Zak to touch Annabelle on the foot.

To prove the power of Annabelle, when Zak gets home that night, the mileage on his car is 06666. When at lunch the next day, lightning strikes a light pole next to his parked car. This is the “electricity” that his fortune telling machine said as he tried to unplug it. A machine that we learn is completely programmable, so Zak saying it can’t say electricity really isn’t accurate.

And now we should attribute bad weather and lightning storms to Annabelle. I think the meteorological society might disagree with that assessment.

With the doll packed up and taken away, three fans of the show, Alex, Greg and Martin come in to have a look around. They investigate the museum and report back on what they find. Alex and Greg eventually meet up and decide to look into the Lugosi mirror. The mirror seems to have an effect on Greg, while Alex says something is touching her. No surprise Zak spies an orb.

Alex goes to the funeral parlor where Zak displays what he claims are the bones of a real skeleton. As Alex asks who the remains belong to, they get a reply of “David Cook”, who turns out to have died in 1957 and was a member of the Oddfellows.

Because of the response, Zak takes UV images and captures a black mass kneeling before the remains. All of this makes Alex pretty emotional, but she is none the worse for wear as they bring things to a close.

But before they do, Zak is haunted and stalked by a balloon that has escaped from one of the rooms. It’s hovering low, clinging to the rails and moving toward him as though pulled by a child. This he feels is the spirit energy of Annabelle, who he thinks has escaped into his museum.

Another answer would simply be static holding it to the railing, but that is nowhere near as cool an explanation.

Out of all the events we witnessed, I’m not sure which is the more frightening, the bad acting from Bloody Mary, or the bitchy witchy standoff between Lady Snake and Patti Negri. But that fall from Father Sebastian was a total winner.

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Ghost Adventures – Museum of Madness – S15E07

haunted-museum For this year’s Halloween special, Zak brings us the Museum of Madness, which is actually a special that showcases his own haunted museum in Las Vegas. If you recall, the museum and several of it’s items were feature on Deadly Possessions. This includes the cauldron of Ed Gein, the mirror of Bela Lugosi, which Zak says is cursed and his own collection of supposedly haunted dolls.

But Zak isn’t alone. He’s brought in several guests to help him channel the dark energy and even “do a ritual and see what you can summon.” This includes Bloody Mary, Voodoo Queen of New Orleans; Father Sebastian, Vampire and Occultist; Isibella Karnstein, his companion and hostess of Endless Night Vampire Ball; Lady Snake, Psychic Witch; Patti Negri, Psychic Medium and White Witch.

Bloody Mary will head down to the basement with Billy to perform some conjuring. Father Sebastian will gaze into the Lugosi mirror. Lady Snake will work some rituals using the cauldron of Ed Gein and Patti Negri will be placed on other end of the building to test her psychic abilities. Basically, she will rock back and forth, wave her hands and mumble.

The main action focuses on Father Sebastian, who, after staring into the mirror, becomes disoriented and falls down. Zak is in such a panic about his well being and slamming his head onto the floor, that he doesn’t call for medical help. Instead, he makes comment that an orb flies out of Sebastian and once gone, Sebastian can speak and regains himself.

Sebastian says he saw white shapes mingling in the mirror and that he was trying to draw out the energy. This is followed up by both Isibella and Dakota (the camera man) having scratches on their neck. These of course were caused by paranormal means.

To be cool and brave, Zak stands before the mirror to demand the entity show itself. He then turns away and nearly falls down himself, saying the face in the mirror wasn’t his.

At this point, Zak is running from room to room, whipped into a frenzy by the events going on. Down in the basement Bloody Mary is playing with a cursed doll, and demanding the doll get a tea set. Lady Snake is wandering in circles around the cauldron and Patti Negri, as expected, is rocking back and forth like she normally does, speaking in two word sentences and acting like everything is coming apart around her.

We’ve also lost Jay. After working with Lady Snake, he’s wandered off to sit in a prone position as though in some sort of trance.

To follow up on the cauldron, Zak brings Patti to meet Lady Snake over the Ed Gein cauldron. This leads to the bitchy witchy standoff, where Lady Snake channels the evil presence of Ed Gein and says she wants to toss Patti into the pot.

Down in the basement, where Bloody Mary is playing with dolls, the Ovilus picks up Norman, Mad, Puncture and Help. Zak gets Norman on another device and feels the spirits must be talking because two devices simply can’t say the same word twice.

Feeling that Bloody Mary has developed an attachment to the doll, Zak whisks it away and puts it back in the class display case. But, to try and have her final say, the Ovilus gets, Contrition,  Surprise and Devil. Additionally, Devil came through on the device when he placed a spirit box over the cauldron.

All of this activity confirms to Zak that dark energy swirls around his museum and that it’s most haunted museum in the world. Since he owns the place, would you expect him to say anything else?

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Ghost Adventures – Hauntings of Vicksburg – Champion Hill Battlefield – Part 4

hill-of-death For the next installment of the Vicksburg grand tour, Zak and team visit the Champion Hill Battlefield where Grant and Pemberton squared off in 1863. Thousands of men lost their lives in savage fighting. The land is now in the hands on Sid Champion V, and Zak can feel the darkness and weeps for the land.

Zak uncovers three stories of pure evil. Al, a friend, saw a mist moving up the hill. Mike, another friend, felt something cold on his shoulder. Sid has the most frightening tale of them all and takes the crew to The Hill of Death, where evil came across as a wet blanket of emotion.

Those are the tales of evil? A mist, getting the cold shoulder and feeling some emotions? You think, “pure evil” would present itself in a guise of something a touch more sinister.

They start off the investigation by firing a Civil War cannon, which nearly makes Aaron soil his pants with excitement. From there, Bill Chappell sets up what is in essence a laser microphone. In the midst of a rain storm, Zak seems to do some “conjuring” when he commands the men to “Rise out of this ground”. They feel the beam is being broken and get the words, “I feel dead.” For once, I actually hear something in the static and it’s sounds a lot more like, “what’s up guys,” as though they tuned into a walkie talkie.

To try and cover more ground, Aaron and Billy head in one direction, while Zak and Jay head another. Zak and Jay mistakenly find Aaron and Billy on the thermal, then believe they’re being stalked by a light anomaly. The light appears and disappears as though it were flying behind the clouds. But, now that Zak has a prompt, it’s time for him to zone out like we’ve seen so many times before and comments about images of bodies in hell.

This is shortly followed by two gunshots. Zak believes these are coming from the soldiers since it’s illegal to shoot guns at night. Zak hasn’t been out in the woods after dark much has he?

After that scare, they regroup and go to the Hill of Death. Just for fun, Zak brings along an 8mm camera.

As Zak commands the entities to show themselves, they get a gust of wind from the storm. Further, they get the word, “Vicksburg” when asking what city they need to take.

Much excitement comes when a branch breaks in the dark. Despite misidentifying animals in the past, since they don’t see one, it must be paranormal.

Finally, they go to where Sid met evil and find a broken bone of some sort in the back of their buggy. Because they don’t know where it came from, it too must be paranormal. It couldn’t have been there and they didn’t see it. Nor could it have been kicked up with all the crap driving Zak was doing.

And so Zak concludes the area is soaked in paranormal energy and that they have tracked down evil.

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