My wife asked me about where we were going this summer, and a co-worker of hers asked-slash-insisted that we go to Zak Bagans’ The Haunted Museum. I said we weren’t because I thought the name was stupid. In my initial planning of our Vegas summer trip, Taking A Gamble in Las Vegas, New Mexico, Haunted Museum sounded like a carnival ride, and I was not spending that kind of money on some third-rate attraction.
After some insistence from Charlene, I decided to actually look at the attraction and learned that it was not some kiddish circus money-grab, but a legitimate museum of all things haunted. After reading a bit about it, and because my beloved wife was so wanting to see this place, I added it to our itinerary.
Charlene and I have mixed feelings when it comes to ghosts. Neither one of us believes in ghosts, and yet we have many ghost stories. Most of them originate with the place we are currently living in, and some come from where Charlene lived before moving here with me.
For Charlene’s ghostly encounters, these are more on the intense side. The ghost she sees is one that lives in our closet. It looks very much like The Nun from the horror series of the same name. Charlene has a sense that it is less than friendly toward her. The ghost peers through the opening if the closet doors are not closed all the way. It stares at Charlene, and she is very much affected by this apparition. Closing the door all the way has kept this ghost in its place. The weird thing, that really is weird, like weird in a weirdly way, is that our neighbour who shares the wall with us and whose closet is a mirror of ours also claims that there is something weird in their closet.
Weird.
Charlene’s ghost seems to resent Charlene. My ghost seems to want me, maybe even romantically. Whenever Charlene is not in bed, I will roll over and expect to see my wife. I am presented with someone or something who closely resembles my wife. The only noticeable difference is the shape of the nose. Whenever Charlene would return to the bedroom, the ghostly woman would immediately disappear. The sheets would drop, the bed would shift from the removed weight of the ghost and other creepy (but equally fascinating) things.
I have posted for years on my personal Facebook account about these encounters. Some of them are benign, and others are just terrifying. And yet, with all our own stories and experiences, visiting other haunted places, and seeing many ghost movies and stories, we still doubted the existence of ghosts. But one unexpected event happened, and I began to really wonder if ghosts were real. I posted this on my Facebook a month ago.
We just finished our Vegas trip, and we did have an extensive tour of Zak Bagans’ Haunted Museum. We did the RIP tour, which allowed us access to the entire museum, and we were presented with stories of various haunted artifacts. Many of them have stories of tragedy attached to them. Some even cause various levels of disaster to those who possess or even see these haunted relics. The tour guide would even give dire warnings about viewing a certain item and would allow those less courageous to detour around the spirit-filled item.
I rather enjoyed the tour. Unfortunately, photos were not allowed. On one hand, this is a good thing because there are so many photo-worthy moments in this museum. It is loaded with interesting-looking tools, dolls, church relics, demon-filled books and all of that. Somehow, Zak Bagans has been able to collect these artifacts from around the world and document their stories. We would see videos of others who viewed the same object fainting or becoming sick. Even Zak (through a video on a TV) would tell of his unpleasant experiences and has even refused to handle some items after acquiring them.
As we toured, I became less convinced that any of these items were, in fact, possessed. Many of them look cool and interesting, and it is possible that the stories attached to them are honestly believed to be true. Some in our tour group struggled with being in the same room as certain objects. I came in as an honest explorer. Is this real? Are what we are seeing truly possessed somehow? I would leave an open mind and do my best to actively engage with whatever was in front of me. I would stare into the eyes of a doll; I refused to greet a particularly powerful object in hopes of stirring something up; I gazed into mirrors that should not be gazed upon, and I did everything to get some sort of reaction.
Nothing happened.
If Zak Bagans’ Haunted Museum is indeed full of possessed relics, then all of this psychic energy in one place should make it impossible to even enter the building. There should even be visible manifestations from any passer-by because all the artifacts are drawing strength from each other. I liken it to an unstable battery. One battery isn’t going to do much, but gathering a whole bunch of them in one building should make it obvious that something is going on inside.
I did not get any of that.
I left feeling convinced that demonic possession, ghosts, and other otherworldly creatures simply do not exist. If they did, this would have been the place to see it in the flesh (sort of speak).
And yet again I am reminded of that Facebook post from last month. Where are my ghosts? What happened to them? If saging got rid of them, then they must have really been real.
UGH!
I am still undecided on the existence of all of this.
- Check out this map for the location of Zak Bagans’ Haunted Museum and all the other places we have visited.
- The tour is interesting and has a lot to look at. We did the RIP tour, which is quite expensive.
- Photos are only allowed in the waiting area, not during the tour, although you can rent a camera that only takes ten photos.
- Limited parking on site.
- I do not know who Zak Bagans is, and this lack of knowledge did not impact the tour in any negative fashion.
- Go with an open mind.
