I am Haunted: Living Life Through the Dead (24 page)

FUN FACT:
E
LECTROMAGNETISM IS ONE OF THE FOUR FUNDAMENTAL FORCES IN THE UNIVERSE
. T
HE OTHERS ARE GRAVITY, THE STRONG NUCLEAR FORCE, AND THE WEAK NUCLEAR FORCE.

We remove the antennas from our spirit boxes to eliminate the possibility of radio interference or noise contamination (critics seem to ignore that a lot). By doing so, we can let the device sweep with little to no chance of picking up any radio stations. The SB7 scans radio frequencies at such a high rate of speed—it can cover the entire radio spectrum in less than two seconds—that it’s impossible to hear a coherent voice on one single frequency. There’s a slim probability that a single syllable could come through, but it’s virtually impossible for the spirit box to pick up multisyllabic words or phrases. And when the word or phrase that comes through is an intelligent answer to a direct question, you just can’t chalk it up as radio interference. You can listen to nothing but white noise for hours with a spirit box without hearing a single blip of a DJ, music, or talk radio, even in the biggest metropolitan areas and next to powerful radio towers. This creates a contamination-free audio forum for nearby spirits to be heard.

Throughout the hundreds of investigations I’ve done, the rituals I’ve participated in, and the contacts I’ve made with the spirit world, the spirit box has been my favorite tool. I’ve put it through dozens of tests to prove to skeptics and myself that it legitimately captures spirit voices. I even hooked up two SB7 spirit boxes to two separate computer software programs so I could analyze the waveforms, and then swept a room at the Black Swan Inn. Both boxes were synchronized to sweep the same frequencies at the same time. Then I asked, “What was the lady’s daughter’s name?” The answer “Madison” came through one spirit box, which I could see on the waveform.

Why is that significant? Because if it was a random radio wave, then both boxes would have caught it, and it would have been visible on both waveforms. But since it was audible (and visible) on only one box, then the chances that it was a radio signal were exactly zero. Also, since it was the correct answer to the question I’d asked, that indicated intelligence, and I believe it was a great piece of paranormal evidence. I also used this device in the Perryville battlefield house, where I got the first and last name of a Civil War soldier, which was validated by the museum director as a casualty of the battle.

During a different investigation in Savannah, Georgia, we conducted a 90-minute spirit box session. Savannah is a large city with hundreds of radio stations, and during the entire hour and a half, we didn’t get one single piece of contamination (or paranormal evidence, for that matter). If the spirit box was susceptible to outside interference, as skeptics say, they would have picked up something—anything—during that session, but it was completely quiet. The bottom line is this: It works and I believe in it.

Now back to Brendan Schaub. We brought him into the basement of the mansion, turned on a spirit box, and started asking questions, but nothing was coming through. It was quiet. Then I asked, “What happened to a girl down here?” and suddenly everything changed. “She was raped,” a man’s voice said, clear as any voice I’ve ever heard. I’d never seen a bad-ass heavyweight UFC fighter jump without his legs moving. It was like a cat sitting on a ledge that had a shoe thrown at it. After that, we got four more intelligent answers related to this rape that we shared with the Denver police department. They even gave us permission to excavate the property to search for bodies, but the jury is still out on that one. I’m a paranormal investigator, not a paranormal excavator.

To put a cherry on this sundae, I asked the spirits what the name of the guy sitting next to me was, and a female spirit clearly said, “Brendan.” It was awesome.

So the benefit of having guest investigators is that they bring a new energy to the room that spirits sometimes react to. Also, they’re usually skeptics, so to see them react so positively to an event helps our credibility and shows our openness to bringing in outsiders. We’ve never had anything to hide and never will. We are not magicians or frauds or snake oil salesmen. We’re credible investigators and are open to bringing outsiders in to prove that. And Brendan was a valuable addition to our team because he prepared himself properly and acted professionally. That’s not always the case, though. Some guest investigators are…interesting.

In 2012, we investigated Frank Sinatra’s private suite at the Riviera Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, which is said to be haunted. Sinatra’s parties were legendary, so we thought that if we threw a little party with musicians and women and even some of Frank’s old friends, it would awaken the spirits there, maybe even Old Blue Eyes himself. So we invited someone Frank knew and partied with: Vince Neil, the lead singer of Motley Crüe.

We got a lot of bad press for Vince’s appearance on the show because he was drinking during the investigation and showed up accompanied by several women. In his defense, it was meant to be this way. Sinatra was no teetotaler. He drank—a lot—so we wanted to create an atmosphere that he would have been comfortable in; we needed a party atmosphere with booze, women, and rock stars. We even brought in his old piano player and had him play some of Frank’s favorite songs.

You have to remember that everyone thinks we should be a certain way as paranormal investigators. They’re judgmental. Everyone has a preconceived notion of how we should act both in front of the camera and behind it. But spirits are intelligent. They’re like us, but without bodies; they don’t live in the material world anymore. So if you wanted to hang out with Sinatra or the people he hung out with back in the day, then would you go barging around his place with a bunch of gadgets, or would you show up with the things he liked and act the way he did?

Vince caught a lot of crap for drinking during the investigation and seeming drunk. (Aaron, Nick, and I did not drink anything, nor have we ever had alcohol during an investigation.) The alcohol factor was a challenge for me, because things were happening that were beyond my control. We always strive to be professional and responsible, and I knew this episode might not come across that way, but when I asked what hotel we were in, a woman’s voice on the spirit box said, “Riviera.” We also captured visual anomalies and EMF spikes. So did it work? I think it did, but nothing prepared me for when I broke off from the party with Vince and his girlfriend, Rain, and went to a different floor of the hotel.

At first we let Vince and Rain go off by themselves while we watched from the nerve center. While Vince was walking down the hallway, he was drawn to a particular room, and I remember thinking, “Wow, is Vince a sensitive?” He lost his daughter at a young age, so maybe that emotional event made him more spiritual or more in tune with the spirit world. Whatever it was, something drew him to this particular room. A few moments before, we’d caught a chilling voice on the spirit box, so there was paranormal energy in the air.

By this point, Vince was more focused than he’d been at the party, so I joined him, and we went into the room that drew him in. As we entered, something went through both of us at the same time. It was like a spirit saw us coming in and decided to get out, but since we were in the doorway it had to go through us as well. Or maybe it was a spirit rushing over to hug us, for all I know. I can tell you that it was powerful. After the initial rush, I was overcome by sadness, and Vince collapsed on the ground.

A lot of people criticized Vince for that and said that he was drunk, but he absolutely was not. He was reacting to the spirit in the room, and I can verify that I felt it, too. Moments later, Vince complained that his left shoulder and arm were numb, which made me worry that he was having a heart attack. But my fears turned to amazement when I remembered that the coroner had told us several people had died of heart attacks on this floor of the hotel. So was Vince feeling the residual energy from one of those heart attacks? Possibly.

EITHER WAY, IT WAS A GREAT INVESTIGATION,
AND HE WAS A VALUABLE GUEST WHOM
I’M PROUD TO HAVE MET.

A unique feature film that I was proud to be a part of.

Devin Lawrence is like a brother to me. He’s been an editor on
Ghost Adventures
for five years now, so I trust him. He edits the lockdown portions of our shows with me, so we basically see each other and work together all the time, because
GA
never stops. When we get home from a lockdown, Billy Tolley spends twelve to fourteen hours a day for four solid days watching all of our X-camera footage and listening to all of our audio and EVP sessions. In those four days, Billy finds unexplainable things that we build our edits around, and that’s where Devin comes in. Devin comes to Vegas, and he and I get to work in the editing studio in my house. If we don’t get any evidence, then we build the edit around how we conducted the investigation and all the innovative ways we tried to capture something. We’ve got it down to a science.

It didn’t take me long to realize how talented Devin is as a filmmaker, and I saw long ago that he had more to offer than editing our lockdown footage. His edits are always 100 percent credible and authentic, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. What you see on
GA
is real, and so is the evidence we capture. There is no fabrication of any kind, because people like Devin make sure that we maintain strict standards.

One day I learned that Devin is also a screenwriter and has written many scripts. In September 2013, he told me that he had written a feature film script called
Sympathy, Said the Shark
and asked me to come aboard as an executive producer. I was very busy with
GA,
so I kept putting him off, much as I didn’t want to. But since he’s like family to me and I recognize his talent, I knew that this film would be something special. While TV is more my forte, I’ve always wanted to get into feature films, and I knew that if I got involved in Devin’s project, it would be something we would both be proud of, and it would be a lot of fun.

I put down the majority investment, set up the production company, and did all the coordination to make his script a reality, but holy crap was it an insane process. Screenplays involve a lot more work than I anticipated—locations, sets, props, equipment, wardrobe, people, screenings, you name it. Devin had a director of photography picked out and had hired producers Casey Morris and Matt Mourgides, so the project was actually in pre-production when I came on board (thankfully). I went to LA and took on the task of casting with Devin, Casey, and Matt.

Casting was a lot of fun for me because I got to read from the script with the actors and help choose who would land each part. Believe it or not, we turned down Jim Belushi’s son, Robert, and one of the stars of the TV show
Dexter.
These decisions led to some heated debates between Devin and me, but it all turned out for the best when we chose Dominic Bogart to play Church, Melinda Cohen to play Lara, and Lea Coco to play Justin. After going through the script, deciding on a visual look for the film, and talking with Devin about the innovative way he planned to film the whole thing, it was really fun to cast those people for those roles.