Infamous Places

Ghost Adventures – The Haunted Museum Live – Halloween Edition

ga-haunted-museum-liveIt’s been nearly a decade since the last live investigation that was wrought with dubious actives and evidence collected, but Zak and the team are back, under more controlled conditions, to investigate his own haunted museum. They will investigate some of the most haunted and cursed items his museum has to offer including, Lilly the Haunted Doll, the Mirror of Bela Lugosi, artifacts from the Demon House, Peggy the Doll, the Dybbuk Box and even a chat with the Zozo Demon.

On hand is a bevy of guests including, Chris Fleming – Paranormal Expert and Medium, Michael and Marti Parry – Medium and Psychic Artist, Patti Negri – Psychic Medium, Darren Evans – Self-styled Demonologist, Gary Galka – Paranormal Inventor and Engineer, and Bryan Ouellette and Sister Mary – Holy Nicholas Catholic Church, with each taking a turn on the catwalk to look as sinister and foreboding as they can muster.

Besides the guests we have seen on past episodes, we get to hear from some of the employees at the museum. Many tell of strange experiences and events that have transpired on guided tours and after hours. Some claim to hear voices and see shadows. Some say they have been scratched, given nose bleeds and even burned.

Mind you, this is Zak’s museum, a place he has spent millions putting together and collecting for. It’s also a place he has total control over. Are we really expecting anything other than Zak to say it’s haunted? That would hurt ticket sales and make him look silly.

Things start off in the Oddities Room and Lilly the Haunted Doll. Lilly is supposedly inhabited by a strong spirit and was so dangerous she was originally sold off from an antiques store to a young girl. Now she resides at the Haunted Museum and to protect onlookers, the evil is contained by a sheet of glass.

We are treated to Zak taking Lilly out and holding her for the first time. While some may gasp in shock and horror at his bravado and tempting fate, nothing else happens and despite the claims and the human hair atop her crown, Lilly proves to be silent like other dolls.

Next up is the Art Gallery where Dakota confronts the evil image and demonic forces contained within a mirror from a home Bela Lugosi used to own. Despite the claims, there is no evidence Lugosi personally used this mirror or practiced the art of scrying. With all the Hollywood gossip, there is no existence of that story.

But the last time this mirror was unveiled, people became weak in the knees and collapsed to the floor like a sack of potatoes. To see if history repeats itself, Zak leaves Dakota alone with the mirror, telling him to stare deeply into the abyss to see if he can make contact with the negative energy trapped inside.

However, is that what really happened? When we return to the room, the mirror is perfectly covered and Dakota is many steps away. It doesn’t look like he paid attention to the mirror at all. Despite this, both Dakota and Zak say things are active, there is energy and they should be somewhere else.

A fun (not) twist to the evening is the addition of Lady Snake, who’s been down in the basement conjuring all day. She won’t say what she’s been up to, or what she let is, but instead acts like a 5 year old who’s peed in the pool and laughs at everyone swimming in it. She keeps repeating, “it’s a candy shop” and giggles.

The battle between light and dark, good and evil is just beginning, as the often jittery and disoriented Patti Negri shows up on the scene. Zak brings these formidable opponents together and what ensues is some of the worst dialog and acting I have ever witnessed.

Moving on to the next cursed item, we have the most dangerous wine cabinet in history, the Dybbuk Box. It supposedly contains pure evil, was once buried in a secret location, then sold on eBay before coming to Zak. We are witness to great angst and personal turmoil as Zak wrestles with himself over whether or not he should open the box.

Zak wants to open the box, but can’t bring himself to do it. Aaron wants to open the box, but doesn’t know why. Lady Snake even taunts Zak to open the box stating it can’t be worse than what she’s already done.

They struggle, they resist, they nearly give in, they regain their sense, they shake their fists in madness and frustration, they storm from the room only to return moments later. In the end, despite all the anticipation, build up, and faux anxiety, Zak decides not to open the box despite the fact he took the glass case off. Good thing a ring of salt protects the world from the wrath of pure evil.

Speaking of pure evil, it’s time to visit the set of Demon House. This is the home where over 200 evil entities were claimed to take up residence. In fact, the house was so haunted Zak made a movie about it, then destroyed the place. Except not all of it. He held a little back to exhibit at his museum.

Tagging along to tell the tale of how dangerous the place is, we have Chris Fleming. With a Spirit Box that barely spits out a word, Chris describes how bad the Demon House was in vague details, except for the 12 foot demon walking around.

Again, the location was so dangerous and most likely had entities attached to the very fabric of the house, that they decided to bring parts of it back and put it in display. But this time, no glass to keep the spirits in check. The stairs and the pure demonic energy are completely exposed and for a small fee, you can cast your gaze upon it.

It’s now time to visit Peggy the Doll, a doll so haunted she can cause nosebleeds just by making eye contact. Several employees describe people getting sick, having car accidents, nose bleeds and even heart attacks because they looked into her eyes. She’s even told people to die when they ask how she’s doing-through a Spirit Box of course. In fact, she is so dangerous she only needs half a sheet of glass to contain the negative energy festering inside her.

Staysha and Shealee, who keep the mascara and eye shadow industry in business, come in to say hello to Peggy. Once again, Zak makes a big todo about taking Peggy out and handling her for the first time.

Both employees handle Peggy, and even stare deeply into her eyes. Even Zak takes a turn, but he’s not bold enough to stare her down. And just when you think demonic voices will emirate from the Spirit Box or the blood will flow, nothing happens and we move on to something else.

And that something else is self-styled demonologist Darren Evans and the Zozo Demon game. Even though Zak has repeatedly said the Ouija board is dangerous and not something he likes or even wants to mess with, we visit the seance room where Jay and Darren plop down in front of a Ouija Board.

To build atmosphere and charge the room with electricity, Joshua Warren plugs in the Jacob’s Ladder.

No prizes will be awarded for guessing Darren is able to spell out the word Zozo on the Ouija board. In fact, every board he works with should have the rest of the letters removed to make communication easier. But before Zozo can cause any havoc and devastation, the episode is over and everyone heads outside to enjoy the rest of their Halloween night.

We had conjuring, we had not just one, but two creepy dolls, we had scary wine boxes, we had remnants of the Demon House, we had witch battles, and we even had a visit from Zozo. The only thing we didn’t get was evidence.

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Ghost Adventures – Cape Disappointment – S16E13

ga-north-head-llighthouseThe investigation continues as we make our way to Cape Disappointment at the mouth of the Columbia River and the real Graveyard of the Pacific. Zak is here to investigate the North Head Lighthouse that overlooks Deadman’s Hollow, a colorfully named area of the shore, where some unfortunate sailors were caught after their ship sank. People still claim to see the crew of the vessel.

The lighthouse is of interest because of the death of the first light keepers, Alexander and Mary, who were affected by a dark force. Mary “fell to her death” and mystery surrounds whether that was suicide, murder or accident.

While talking to Barbara, we clearly hear from Mary herself that she stopped taking her medication and wants to get better. She has done wrong in the past, but wants to make amends.

Psychic Wendy says she feels negative energy and that Mary and Alex didn’t get along. She also claims there is something in the forest, something very old, and ties that to a Native American influence. When in doubt, make it about the Native Americans.

At the end of the interview, Wendy claims Alex is in the house. When Aaron checks it out, he gets “you’ll see”, “someone coming” and “need to know” on the recorder. Zak believes these foretell of dangerous events that will unfold.

Zak speaks with Jeff at the Maritime Museum, who shows just a smattering of the ships that have been lost in the area. He also makes reference to the Native Americans and spirits that haunt the area.

As they gather their thoughts, Jay explains there used to be 16000 Chinook Indians in the area, but disease and other behavior have displaced them all.

While they’ve brought up some interesting stories, and there is always a good ghost story be had when a lighthouse is involved, Zak glosses over and ignores key pieces of information.

Mary admits she stopped taking her medicine. What that might be, we never heard. It could be related to a mental disorder or a terminal disease. But, Mary makes the conscious decision to stop taking it. Ignoring free will, this is dark energy at work.

They also make mention of Mary, “trying to do better.” Again, this could mean anything. Given the time period and belief system, she may been punishing herself for saying the wrong thing to a neighbor. She may have been punishing herself for being neglectful of duties around the house. She may have even been berating herself for not having children.

Fact is, these items are taken completely out of content and do not suggest a dark and sinister force at work unless you impose that. Maybe something did go wrong, or perhaps Mary did take her life as an act of desperation regarding an illness she could never defeat. Or perhaps on a terrible night when the wind and rain lashed against the lighthouse she suffered a horrible accident. It doesn’t sound like there was some sort of dark demonic force or ancient tribal retribution at work though.

But that doesn’t stop Zak from saying that Alexander is channeling through him, which causes Zak to throw a meter across the room as they review EVP evidence. Zak then storms out of the room, claiming he is filled with anger and agitation.

Ironically, they claim, “this isn’t like you at all,” when we have clearly seen Zak do this dozens of times. He has a fit, claims something has taken over him, gets mad, threatens the crew and storms out. This is exactly like Zak.

As the investigation starts, we once again see Billy lose his freaking mind because there is equipment failure. As a supposed audio engineer and as someone who has been in this situation more than once, you would think he would be both technically and emotionally capable of handling such glitches.

While chaos ensues and Billy complains, Zak is off in the corner channeling Alexander again. He claims to see Mary and tells her, “Don’t cry, and don’t tell me to calm down. Do you understand, Mary?” “You’re not gonna tell me that.” “Get up.”

Zak then turns on Jay yet again, this time for asking questions about Mary. They are getting too close to the “truth” and the Alexander spirit is trying to silence them.

They then go into the bedroom and capture a stick figure on the SLS camera. Billy gets a blip on the Tri-Field meter when Zak claims the stick figure jumps into Billy. Oddly, Billy is completely unaffected and doesn’t resort to threatening people or throwing things around.

Zak then claims he sees a dark, shadowy figure right as a door starts to swing closed. Or rather just swings as it doesn’t actually close because there probably wasn’t enough of a breeze to finish the job.

Not content with just a stick figure, Zak claims there is a “creature” with a tentacle arm reaching out for Jay. Clearly another desperate attempt to weave in some Cthulhu.

Finishing at the caretaker’s house, they head to the North Head Lighthouse itself to see if they can unravel the mystery of Mary’s murder, which isn’t a murder at all.

Jay brings out an old Zenith radio, which is actually pretty darn neat looking, and spins through the channels as Aaron asks questions. At one point, they tune into a beeping which Zak claims is a residual distress call.

The big “reveal” of the night comes at the end, as Aaron and Jay sit at the top of the light and ask how Mary was killed. They get a faint and staticy, “accident.”

While a lighthouse above “Deadman’s Hollow” on “Cape Disappointment” gives every impression of being haunted and creepy, we clearly have far more legend than evidence or common sense.

It makes for a lonely and engaging ghost story, but there is nothing to suggest anything sinister about this light house, or some vengeful connection to Native America culture, dark energy, or murder by throwing someone off a cliff.

All we have is poor Mary admitting she would like to do better in her life and making a decision to stop taking her medicine. Again, that medicine could have been Heroine, Morphine or some other opiate making her dependent on it. We have a huge amount of conjecture, rumor, speculation and good old fashioned wishful thinking going on here. Zak merely wants Alexander to be guilty of murder and tossing his wife over a cliff.

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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.


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