Read Online I am Haunted: Living Life Through the Dead by Zak Bagans, Kelly Crigger - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Zak Bagans, Kelly Crigger
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most of us take for granted, but people like this boy yearn for. A life shouldn’t be spent lying in a hospital bed waiting for the icy fingers of death to drag you into the unknown. Kids are supposed to play and have fun. As I write this, I’m at a hotel, and outside my room I can hear kids playing in the pool. That’s how life should be for them.
The boy’s smile stays with me to this day, but it scarred me, too. So when Kevin asked me to visit another dying teen, I was apprehensive. Would I end up inviting another terminally ill kid into my life and make another meaningful connection only to have him taken away in an instant? Maybe, but what else was I going to do—pretend it doesn’t happen? Wish the cancer away?
Kevin asked me to meet the 15-year-old boy at Randy Couture’s gym in Las Vegas one afternoon. When I got there, a few mixed martial arts fighters were teaching the boy to grapple and do some MMA moves. Kevin introduced me to him, and once again it didn’t take an expert to see how sick he was. The cancer was doing its work, but the boy was lively and enjoying himself around all the fighters. I took off my socks and sat down on the mat next to him, and we talked about the spirit world and my life as a paranormal investigator. He asked a lot of questions, and I soon found myself in a real conversation about life and death with someone who would soon know much more about it than I do.
Suddenly he turned to me and said, “I’m learning how to fight so when I die I can beat the shit out of the demons that gave me this disease.” It was one of the most powerful moments of my life. I’ve stood toe-to-toe with demons, but seeing a sickly teenager look death in the eye like that sucked the wind right out of me. He went back to training with the fighters while I stood there watching in stunned silence. I couldn’t move, couldn’t talk, couldn’t do anything but admire his bravery. One of the reasons I’ve always loved MMA is the incredible courage it takes to get into a cage and fight. This boy’s body was his cage, and he was slugging it out with cancer. That takes guts, but unfortunately that wasn’t enough to beat the disease. A few weeks later he passed away, and again it hit me hard.
I believe everything happens for a reason, but I don’t know how to interpret moments like these. I fear death, I really do. Maybe it’s partly because of these encounters with people who are about to cross over at such a young age. We have so much to live for in this physical world that I want to stay here and enjoy it for as long as possible. And I don’t mean that in a materialistic way. It’s not the houses, cars, or belongings that make life wonderful; it’s the forests, the canyons, the oceans, and all the nooks and crannies and mysteries in between that make it so special. I fear the thought of no longer being able to feel. Maybe that’s the reason I was guided to help Kevin: to teach me how precious life is and to make me stronger.
IF THAT’S TRUE,
THEN MY ARMOR IS SOLID.
8
L OCKDOWN D AY
What do we do?
“What do you do on lockdown day?”
I get this question all the time, so here’s the deal.
Lockdown day is usually day three on location of a
Ghost Adventures
shoot. The first two days we knock out all the research, tech setup, background shots, B-roll footage, interviews, re-creations of events, and adventure sequences, where we do something risky to enhance the investigation. I like to find something that connects to the story of the location, like take a boat ride to the sites of shipwrecks off the coast of Point Sur, ride along with cops to see human trafficking prevention in action, or rappel into an abandoned mineshaft (I will never do that again). It’s one of the things we do to distinguish ourselves from everyone else.
The third day is lockdown day, and it’s always a special day for me. I usually contact Billy and Jay (who start their day at the ass-crack of dawn) to see what’s
The boy’s smile stays with me to this day, but it scarred me, too. So when Kevin asked me to visit another dying teen, I was apprehensive. Would I end up inviting another terminally ill kid into my life and make another meaningful connection only to have him taken away in an instant? Maybe, but what else was I going to do—pretend it doesn’t happen? Wish the cancer away?
Kevin asked me to meet the 15-year-old boy at Randy Couture’s gym in Las Vegas one afternoon. When I got there, a few mixed martial arts fighters were teaching the boy to grapple and do some MMA moves. Kevin introduced me to him, and once again it didn’t take an expert to see how sick he was. The cancer was doing its work, but the boy was lively and enjoying himself around all the fighters. I took off my socks and sat down on the mat next to him, and we talked about the spirit world and my life as a paranormal investigator. He asked a lot of questions, and I soon found myself in a real conversation about life and death with someone who would soon know much more about it than I do.
Suddenly he turned to me and said, “I’m learning how to fight so when I die I can beat the shit out of the demons that gave me this disease.” It was one of the most powerful moments of my life. I’ve stood toe-to-toe with demons, but seeing a sickly teenager look death in the eye like that sucked the wind right out of me. He went back to training with the fighters while I stood there watching in stunned silence. I couldn’t move, couldn’t talk, couldn’t do anything but admire his bravery. One of the reasons I’ve always loved MMA is the incredible courage it takes to get into a cage and fight. This boy’s body was his cage, and he was slugging it out with cancer. That takes guts, but unfortunately that wasn’t enough to beat the disease. A few weeks later he passed away, and again it hit me hard.
I believe everything happens for a reason, but I don’t know how to interpret moments like these. I fear death, I really do. Maybe it’s partly because of these encounters with people who are about to cross over at such a young age. We have so much to live for in this physical world that I want to stay here and enjoy it for as long as possible. And I don’t mean that in a materialistic way. It’s not the houses, cars, or belongings that make life wonderful; it’s the forests, the canyons, the oceans, and all the nooks and crannies and mysteries in between that make it so special. I fear the thought of no longer being able to feel. Maybe that’s the reason I was guided to help Kevin: to teach me how precious life is and to make me stronger.
IF THAT’S TRUE,
THEN MY ARMOR IS SOLID.
8
L OCKDOWN D AY
What do we do?
“What do you do on lockdown day?”
I get this question all the time, so here’s the deal.
Lockdown day is usually day three on location of a
Ghost Adventures
shoot. The first two days we knock out all the research, tech setup, background shots, B-roll footage, interviews, re-creations of events, and adventure sequences, where we do something risky to enhance the investigation. I like to find something that connects to the story of the location, like take a boat ride to the sites of shipwrecks off the coast of Point Sur, ride along with cops to see human trafficking prevention in action, or rappel into an abandoned mineshaft (I will never do that again). It’s one of the things we do to distinguish ourselves from everyone else.
The third day is lockdown day, and it’s always a special day for me. I usually contact Billy and Jay (who start their day at the ass-crack of dawn) to see what’s
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