I am Haunted: Living Life Through the Dead by Zak Bagans, Kelly Crigger Read Free Book Online Page B

powers. I was a ghost with the ability to move things. I was at a bar and made a glass slide into my hand like a parlor trick. The next thing I knew, a giant satanic creature with hooves and backward antlers was standing in front of me. Then he had control of me. I was frozen as he opened his mouth and mine opened at the same time, against my will. Smoke came out of his mouth that I was inhaling, and then suddenly I woke up. I was shaken, but I got over it.
    Fast-forward a few months. I hadn’t told anyone about that dream, and out of the blue I got a text from Chris Fleming, a psychic medium and friend. He’d heard that I bought the Demon House and wanted me to be careful because there was a satanic creature with hooves and backward horns in the house that was aware of me. I was chilled like never before. How could he have known? “I just know,” he told me. He’s done things like this in the past and is always spot on, so I heeded his advice when I finally set foot in that place.
    In addition to my connection to the dead, I’m gifted with the ability to connect with the living on a deeper level. I am an empath, meaning that I can feel the emotions of others near me. From a young age I’ve had a hypersensitivity to others’ emotions. I know it sounds silly, but I can be at home watching a talk show featuring a man telling a story about his son who was killed in a car accident, and the next thing you know I have tears running down my face. I don’t feel just a little emotion; I feel strong emotion and a real connection to the person telling the story, much more than the average person sitting on their couch eating potato chips would. This is just who I am. Long ago I realized that my emotions are finely tuned instruments that can tap into and synchronize with others. I can feel what other people feel at the same intensity and at the same time, especially sadness and happiness.
    Emotion
is a very important word to me. Being an empath is what helped me cross over into paranormal investigation. My hypersensitivity is a valuable skill during an investigation because spirits run the gamut of emotions, from anger to pain to sadness and confusion. This is why I took so much criticism in the early days of
Ghost Adventures.
I get it even now sometimes, like when I was emotional at Preston Castle or laughing uncontrollably at the Stanley Hotel or feeling enraged at Poveglia, Italy. I do what an empath does, and this is why my body is an important instrument during an investigation. I can sense when spirits are around me, and I can feel their emotions and energy. Sometimes it is draining and takes its toll, but it’s opened me up personally. I get deeper connections and better evidence—voices, communication, orbs—because I can connect with the spirits.
    How is an empath different from a psychic medium? A true medium has the ability to communicate with, and sometimes see, the dead through his or her mind. The medium makes a physical and literal connection that ends up in words being spoken though the medium. I can’t do this. I just feel the spirits’ emotions and try to connect that way.
    There are times when I don’t want to be an empath, but shutting it off is hard to do. There are times when it’s embarrassing because the stereotype of an empath is a weak, sensitive person, and that’s not me. There are things I’ll fight for and issues I’ll stand my ground on. So when I’m around a group of people and I get a sudden surge of sadness from a spirit and feel like crying, I have to fight it off. It’s not easy, and it takes training. Lots of it.
    The GAC gets criticized and even ridiculed sometimes because people don’t realize what we’re going through and can’t see any paranormal activity, even though we clearly feel it. Just because there’s no video or audio evidence of a spirit in a room doesn’t mean that we’re alone. Nick and Aaron are both sensitives. We can feel things that technology doesn’t