Post by Graveyardbride on Jun 6, 2023 19:29:16 GMT -5
Zak Bagans Discusses Lake Mead, other ‘Hauntings’
A new season of Ghost Adventures kicked off with an investigation of Lake Mead near Las Vegas. Recently, human bones have been discovered in the lake bed because of receding waters, and this led Zak Bagans to dub it the “Lake of Death.”
Bagans saw evil immediately, commenting, “I’ve never understood or even fathom how much darkness and evil is associated with this lake. It wasn’t until last year when the lake started to recede that all these bodies started being discovered … We targeted it for the headline investigation. And the craziest part about this is you’re finding bodies, but we are investigators of spirit hauntings. Is there a side of that here? ... I knew something was happening at this lake.”
Among the bones discovered in the drought-stricken lake were those of a man wearing clothing dating to the mid-70s or early 80s, as well as those of 43-year-old Thomas Erndt, who drowned in 2002 while boating.
Bagans, who previously said he feared “dark water,” admitted he is actually “terrified of water. I had a reoccurring [sic] dream since I was a little kid of drowning. I think I drowned in a previous life,” he told a reporter. “But a part of me likes chaos. I like flirting with danger … I’ve seen and felt things that people will probably never understand or believe. It’s things that I know exist. And I love documenting evidence, even if it puts me in danger.”
Although Bagans never ventured onto Lake Mead himself, during the investigation, he claimed his team heard screams and saw unexplained lights.
The ‘Black Dahlia.’ Bagans also discussed other locations where he and his “investigators” had encountered evil. During the 2016 investigation of the infamous murder of Elizabeth Short, better known as the “Black Dahlia,” he said the team encountered negative energy at the Snowden House (above) located at 5121 Franklin Avenue in Los Angeles, and obtained both audio and visual recordings at the site.
Although there is no irrefutable evidence that Elizabeth Short was ever inside the home or that she was killed there, Bagans claimed he “felt emotions that ignited my body. A lot of spirits are in unrest because their murders aren’t solved,” he explained. “I just remember feeling chills instantly walking into that house. It was very strange. I could never spend a night there – absolutely not. But we documented lots of compelling evidence … I would love to work with any scientists, anybody out there at all who would want to go deeper into this. And that’s the part that gets me – I want to prove this scientifically. I want to prove there is indeed an afterlife after we die. I know that 100 percent. This isn’t just a TV show for me. These are crucial investigations. And these souls who’ve met such horrific demises are lost. Their stories need to be told.”
There have been numerous books, newspaper/magazine articles, movies and television documentaries about the murder of Elizabeth Short, whose naked and mutilated corpse was discovered in a vacant lot on January 15, 1947. The 22-year-old woman had been scrubbed clean, sliced in half at the waist and her mouth had been slashed on either side almost to her ears.
The Cecil Hotel. One might say Bagans attracts demonic activity, however, there’s one place he has no desire to ever revisit: The Cecil Hotel in Los Angeles where the body of 21-year-old Elisa Lam, a Canadian tourist, was found floating in a water cistern on the roof. “When I walked into that building, I felt panic,” Bagans insisted. “It was a nerve-wracking experience to be inside. There’s just something really, really bad in there. You can’t escape that feeling. It just feels like the building is filled with trapped souls.”
River Phoenix. When Bagans was asked if he ever came across a familiar spirit, he revealed a postmortem conversation with River Phoenix (above), the 23-year-old actor who died of an overdose in 1993 outside The Viper Room in West Hollywood. “I remember using an ITC communication device, and his voice came through the device,” Bagans claimed. “We had one of his friends validate his voice, and his friend started crying uncontrollably. We knew without a doubt that that was River. We were also able to compare the waveform from the phonemes in his actual voice to the spirit voice we received, and it was a perfect match. The two voices we received from the ITC device said clearly ‘River Phoenix’ and I get confused,” Bagans continued. “Because he died of a combined drug overdose, I believe he was confused about how he crossed over to the other side. And because of the tears and emotions his friend shed at that moment, she validated to us his voice ... we all then felt an icy cold presence at that same moment. I believe this helped him to move on from this state of confusion to a place of light.”
Ashes and Ouija Boards.* When asked if he had any advice for those hoping to avoid a ghost infestation, Bagans claimed there are two things common to haunted houses: ashes and Ouija boards. “A lot of people like to hold onto the ashes of someone who died,” he said. “I know we want to keep our relatives close to us, but I have found that people who keep those ashes tend to have problems ... I’ve had over a dozen investigations where that tends to be the case. I advise people not to interact with what they feel. Don’t turn your digital recorder on and start engaging in questions … And then you have folks who buy Ouija boards for fun – don’t do that. That’s when it can get very serious. You really don’t know who or what you’re communicating with.”
Sources: Stephanie Nolasco, Fox News, June 6, 2023; Curbed Los Angeles, and The Travel Channel.
*Ouija boards, as most of us know, do not attract spirits. They are, in fact, nothing more than toys, which is the reason they’re sold in the toy sections of department stores. Any "spirit contact" resulting from the use of a Ouija board exists solely in the minds of the individuals using the device.