Entering Spooky Hollow
Spooky Hollow is the area of the hotel that used to house the Borax mine workers. I hope it wasn’t called Spooky Hollow when they were living there! Today it is a filthy, rat-infested, broken-down, ruined building full of thick dust, spiders, and remnants of furniture that someone used to comfortably use. It’s the perfect spot for old energy to linger.

Honestly, Matty and I were both a little nervous to enter Spooky Hollow. The entity who “lives” there had already tracked me down in my bedroom and now I was walking right into his domain. I expected to be assaulted immediately. Dana went in first, throwing glow sticks on the ground as beacons so we could find our way out in the dark. Because we were going in with infrared cameras, we were forbidden to use our white flashlights. Maury gave me a red flashlight to use, but it didn’t even come close to casting enough light for my comfort. We put on our dust masks, hoped we didn’t contract Hanta Virus (saw lots of rat droppings) and headed in. Maury had cameras strategically placed at the entrance to the long hallway, and Ted and Jamie were filming us as we walked down the corridor.

I went very slowly, taking it all in, one room at a time. I was loathe to even walk into a single room, preferring to remain in the hallway and just peak in. Dana had no fear whatsoever, and was snapping photos of the rooms as we went. I stayed close to him!

However, I didn’t actually feel any energy assaulting me. In fact, the more I walked up and down the hallway, the better I felt. I didn’t feel a scary energy at all. And I started to wonder if I had been wrong about what attacked me back in June. It probably helped that I was surrounded by 4 men and 2 women, all of whom I knew would watch my back and get me out of there if something bad happened. I started to relax and open myself up so I could make contact and channel anything that was in there.

Encounter
After we had explored several of the rooms, Maury asked me if I was feeling drawn to any particular rooms. I was. There were three rooms in particular where I felt the most conscious energy and emotional residue. So Maury, Jamie, Ted, and I went to those rooms for a conversation and channeling. Dana, Pam, and Matty stayed further back down the hall.

I felt a powerful dark presence instructing me not to follow. I obeyed. –Matty

I tuned out the living and tuned in the dead. Immediately I made contact with the entity who dwelled there. I almost had no awareness of what the others were doing as I was so focused on getting a good connection with this fellow. Maury started asking me what I was seeing. I told her I saw men being dragged down the hallway and brought to this particular guy for punishment. People feared him terribly. He was definitely the head honcho, man in charge of these workers. She told me he went by a certain name that other psychics had picked up and she wanted to see if I could pick up the same name. When I told her the name I was getting, she very excitedly told me I was exactly correct. That was awesome! Maury asked me not to reveal the name publically because she uses it to validate other psychics’ accuracy when they come to investigate. Maury also asked about his unusual ethnicity, which I also received accurately. I also picked up on some specific violent episodes and incidents that happened there. Maury has heard the same exact thing from many other psychics who have investigated Spooky Hollow.

Ted was really impressed by what was happening; I don’t think he’s ever seen a psychic in action. He started interviewing me right there in the pitch dark. He wanted to know how I was hearing and seeing this information when he couldn’t hear or see anything. I explained about clairaudience and clairvoyance which is the psychic ability to receive information through images and auditory communication. They were excited to be filming this whole sequence as they had previously been filming without an intuitive present and weren’t getting much.

I gathered much of this information as well, even though I chose not to actively engage the entity. I can corroborate what Erin received. –Matty

One thing that started happening while I was in communication with this guy is that I actually started reading him and his energy the way I do during my regular intuitive readings I give clients. I started picking up on his distant past, his origins, his childhood, his relationship with his family, his motivation for going to California. Some of what I picked up on was disturbing and I started sympathizing with the entity. I started to feel sorry for him. He didn’t like that one bit. In fact, he got pretty angry. I felt his energy fly to the other end of the hall, and I literally felt like he was blocking our exit. I started walking in that direction, anxious to leave. I reconnected with Matty, Pam, and Dana, and asked Matty how he was doing. He said he was staying closed as he didn’t feel safe opening up in there. That was probably a good move. But he stated to me that he felt the energy had shifted to the front end of the hall and neither of us wanted to walk through it.

That entity totally Scooby-Dooed us. It sneaked around behind us while we investigated another room. –Matty

I called to Dana. “Yo Dana!” “Yep?” he replied. “Could you walk through the doorway there and lead us on out?” “Okay,” he replied nonchalantly and walked confidently out of the hall. Yes I was using Dana like an energy machete to cut a swath through the angry energy. I was almost sure he’d be just fine.

We left Spooky Hollow and went back into the hotel area. I could breathe a lot easier once we were out, both physically and psychically. We went back to our room for another rest. It was close to midnight.

Setting up in Sunset
Apparently, we weren’t done in Spooky Hollow. Maury had something special planned. Paralleling Spooky Hollow is a long strip called the Sunset Porch. It’s in the same condition as the rooms in Spooky Hollow, but it’s a long narrow strip of wide open area. Maury had set up a card table in this area and she said that she would sometimes have groups sit there and play cards and they would get some good EVP (electronic voice phenomenon).

We were getting some interesting EVP action throughout the night. Periodically Maury would have us stand completely still and quiet and she would ask the spirits to give us signs of their presence. We would then hear strange noises like knocking, banging, wailing, and creaking sounds. When she would ask them to repeat themselves, they would. Maury told us to let her know if it was one of us making the sounds, so if our stomach growled or our shoe squeaked we announced it so she could correlate it later when she listened to the recording.

Although Erin, Maury and Matty heard voices at times I never did. I did however hear other sounds at various times during the night and I believe Dana did also.–Pam

Pam, Matty, and I waited in the hotel room while Dana, Maury, Ted and Jamie set up in the Sunset Room. I was getting more tired and my feet were hurting me from standing so long. I figured we’d do the Sunset Room and call it a night.

The Card Table
When they were ready for us, Maury led us to the card table she had placed in the middle of the long hall. She had chairs placed around the table. The table was covered with signatures and messages from other people who had been down there. We all sat down and she pulled out some items for the spirits to “play with” including a deck of cards and a magnadoodle in case the spirits wanted to write something down.

When questioned Maury admitted that none of the spirits had ever actually used the magnadoodle.–Pam

Then we turned off all the lights. All of them. We were sitting in complete darkness. This didn’t feel good to me at all. I felt like we were in a zombie movie and the light was the only thing keeping the baddies at bay, and turning off the light gave them permission to frenzy feed on us. Maury said we couldn’t use our flashlights because of the cameras. I asked Dana if he happened to have a red glow stick, as red was the only light we could use that wouldn’t interfere with the infrared cameras. Sure enough, he did. He cracked it and threw it down on the table. It wasn’t much, and I still couldn’t see anyone’s face, but it made me feel better to see light so I focused on it.

The red glow stick gave me such a sense of comfort. Just sitting there waiting for something to happen was not a good feeling. Again, the air was extremely thick, even the dust was strange, and I felt somewhat nauseous.–Pam

I picked the worst possible seat. I sat with my back facing the far end of the hall. I immediately regretted this decision. –Matty

Matty, Maury, and I were all feeling encroaching energy coming near us. At one point Maury said to Matty, “We’re getting some play behind you there.” Matty said, “Uh, define play.” It was really funny and we all laughed. After a few minutes though the energy was even thicker around us. It was like sitting in a shark cage and then having someone slowly lower the bars of the cage, and you could feel the sharks circling and getting up the nerve to attack.

And attack they did…

Whole Series:
Amargosa Investigation – Part 1
Amargosa Investigation – Part 2
Amargosa Investigation – Part 3
Amargosa Investigation – Part 4
Amargosa Investigation – Part 5

The Photos

Is this where they put spirits when they’ve been bad?

People come in and hang angels in the rooms. I don’t think it helps much.

The ghosts of Spooky Hollow prefer Pepsi.

Most of the rooms had old decrepit furniture in them.

This is why safety is important. Walking around on this stuff in the dark is dangerous.

Spooky mattress in Spooky Hollow

This must be the work of a poltergeist. No human could stack chairs like that.

Spooks read spooky novels in Spooky Hollow

Do NOT go in there! Whew!

There’s a big what behind me? A shadow?

Dana in Spooky Hollow

The card table.

The Sunset Room

The Opera House
The Opera House was just like I remembered it. Old, beautiful, empty, yet full of energy. Good energy. I was looking forward to getting back into the Opera House. Dana and Maury had set up cameras everywhere, and there was other equipment I never really got a good look at, doing something important I’m sure. Maury gave Matty a digital voice recorder and told him to keep it on him at all times. I put my backpack down and started walking around the Opera House with Matty. Pam sat down in one of the opera chairs, and Dana hovered nearby making sure everyone and everything was okay. He was also taking lots of photos. At one point he was on stage taking photos of the room and his camera sparked and started smoking. We couldn’t figure out why, but Maury had told us that things like that happen often during investigations. Spirits like to mess with equipment and drain batteries. His camera still worked after that so he kept on taking pictures.

Interior of the Opera House

Dana’s Spooky Camera

Matty detected some distinct presences in one of the chairs so we went to investigate that. I didn’t feel much, but he sat down to play with those energies a little. I started walking around the stage. I walked into the back area of the stage, which I hadn’t done the last time I was there. I definitely felt more going on near the stage area.

The encounter with the spirit in the café left me wanting to make contact with as many spirits as I could because I figured that’s what most spirits wanted. I learned in the opera house that this isn’t necessarily the case for all of them. I picked up on some specific ghosts in the opera house, but learned that many of them simply wanted to be left alone. There were a few notable exceptions, however. –Matty

Maury initiated a conversation with the ghosts in the Opera House, inviting them to come talk to us. The strongest energies I felt were those of children hiding behind the stage area, and that of Tom, the deceased man who used to help Marta out. Tom was extremely protective of the items on the stage and of the Opera House in general. He was anxious for us to leave and even more anxious that we not disturb anything. The kids didn’t seem to want to come out while he was there. I wouldn’t say I spoke back and forth with Tom, rather I received a download of his thoughts and feelings and relayed them to Maury for verification of accuracy.

We eventually coaxed the children into coming out when Maury whipped out some toys for them to play with. My connection with the children became quite strong when I offered to tell them a story. They were so curious. I started conversing with the children. Once they found out I had kids of my own they started asking tons of questions about them. I got a great deal of joy talking to the children. I was giddy with delight. Matty was sitting behind me on the stage while I was talking to the children. We were both “seeing” the same children and describing their clothing the same way. One little boy seemed to be holding a stuffed animal. To me it was yellow, soft, floppy, and furry but I couldn’t make out exactly what animal it was. Matty saw a yellow lion. The little boy had an older sister he clung to. She was definitely in charge. We would revisit the children later.

Interacting with the Children

Pam didn’t look like she was feeling that well. Dana kept checking on her, but she said she was fine. She just didn’t say it like she actually WAS fine so we were suspicious. Dana and I went out the side door and the air that night was perfect. I went back inside and grabbed Pam and told her we should go outside and get some fresh air as it was a little warm and oppressive in the Opera House. I left my walkie talkie in the Opera House because I didn’t think we’d be gone longer than a few minutes. Note to others doing investigations: NEVER leave your walkie talkie behind!

I had no sense of children at all but the air was very dense and oppressive. I felt a bit claustrophobic. At one point we turned out all the lights and I was standing by the wall. Foolishly I was standing very stiff and my knees were locked and I began weaving. A hand steadied my shoulder and I thought it was Dana. I didn’t say anything as we were audio recording. A few seconds later Maury brought the house lights up a bit and I saw Dana standing across the room. There had been nobody near me. At the same time I had a sense of a man standing in the aisle wearing jeans, brown shirt and brown leather vest. I did not “see” anything, I just sensed it. Analytically I could not understand this at all. Immediately after, I felt very nauseous and had to sit down. I was grateful when Erin and Dana made me go outdoors as the clear, pure air was wonderful and even better the stars were so beautiful away from the light pollution of Las Vegas.—Pam

The Backyard
Maury started taking us on a tour outside. Apparently there were actually houses out there that people lived in. I mean, these were really old, crumbling-looking buildings. I couldn’t imagine anyone living in there.

Dana Richardson in the side yard of the Opera House

We also passed by Tom’s old car. And we came around the back of Spooky Hollow. This is around the time I looked up at the night sky and saw a gazillion stars. I was blown away. I’ve never seen that before. I was transfixed by all the stars.

Tom’s Car – Interior

The Mormon House
Maury took us far away from the Opera House to an old house that had apparently been transported in its entirety from one location to another. This was your basic rickety, haunted-looking house. The floorboards had holes, it was creaky, broken down, etc. We walked into the house and I got a strange feeling in the house. It wasn’t negative, but it wasn’t comfortable. I felt like I was being welcomed to stay in the house … like forever. Like the spirits in there wanted our company for eternity. I didn’t like the house. Matty was having a similar issue with it. While Dana, Pam and Maury went traipsing through the house, Matty and I backed out slowly. I yelled out that we were leaving, but I don’t think anyone heard me.

Matty and I left the house and at first we were standing out in front with the flashlight on, waiting for our friends to be done. But the longer I stood there, the more disturbed I was becoming. I felt anxious. I basically said to Matty, “I’m outta here. I’m done with this house. I’m just gonna walk over here.” Before we knew it we had walked almost all the way back to the Opera House.

I felt that the spirits within believed strongly that the house belonged in its original location. Their displeasure with the present situation left them seeking any kind of company they could find, maybe even for all eternity. I’m sure they would have loved to have had us for dinner. Possibly with some sweet potatoes and asparagus. –Matty

After a little while the rest of the gang came looking for us and Dana said, “Where’s your walkie talkie?” I sheepishly had to report that I’d left it back at the Opera House. He admonished me and said, “Don’t go anywhere without your talkie. Couldn’t find you. Didn’t know where you were. Zero good.” After that I kept my walkie talkie in my pocket at all times.

The Mormon House

Helping the Children Into the Light
We went back to the Opera House and Maury asked me if I wanted to help her help the children cross over into the light. That sounded like a great idea. We coaxed the children out and spent several minutes talking to them about why going into the light and crossing over was a good idea. What was great was that as Maury was talking to them, I was able to hear their concerns and protests clairaudiently, so I was relaying their information to Maury, who was then able to converse with them and answer their questions about the light. We were making great progress. The little boy definitely wanted to cross over, but his big sister told him no. She seemed to be under the idea that they were supposed to remain there for their parent to pick them up. We explained that their parents were probably already crossed over and waiting for them in the light, but she didn’t want to leave. We made a deal with the children that they would cross over with Marta Beckett when she passed. Marta is the dancer who is the lifeblood of Amargosa, performing in the Opera House for many years. She is now too infirm to perform. We eventually had to pull our energy back from the children, but I hope they will feel safe crossing over when Marta’s time comes.

I took the role of passive participant in the incredibly emotional conversation. I had tears streaming down my face by the end. Good thing the room was dark and no one could see. Oh, wait, people are reading this right now? Doh. –Matty

Again I had absolutely no sense of the children but the Opera House felt completely different to me when we went back inside. It just felt like an empty auditorium. I no longer felt claustrophobic and the air did not seem thick. -Pam

Our respectful behavior in the opera house the first time around provided Tom some peace of mind. He allowed us a more peaceful presence when we reentered. –Matty

Taking a break
We’d spent about 2 hours or so in the Opera House and the backyard area. It was time to break down the set up and move the equipment to Spooky Hollow. Dana and Maury got to work on that, while Pam, Matty, and I went back to our rooms to get some food. Ghost hunting makes you hungry!

We chowed down on the snacks I’d brought and debriefed a little on what had happened so far. Eventually Dana joined us and partook in some snackage. He also let us know there’d probably be a slight delay as Maury had run into some friends and was chatting with them outside on the porch. After a while, we went out to see what was happening. I hadn’t napped that day and I knew I was going to be heading into Spooky Hollow around the time I’d normally be fast asleep. I didn’t think any delay was a good idea.

Meeting Ted and Jamie
Maury was talking to two fellows outside named Ted and Jamie. They were on the scene filming a documentary about ghosts in Death Valley Junction. They were getting ready to head into Spooky Hollow around the same time we were so we decided to join forces and all go together. Maury gave one of them an infrared camera so he could follow us and film instead of us setting up stationary cameras. Dana, Maury, Ted, and Jamie went to Spooky Hollow to set up. Pam, Matty and I rested in the chairs outside the hotel in the cool night air and prepared to meet our fate. I was glad there were some other men-folk going to Spooky Hollow with us. Just in case…

Whole Series:
Amargosa Investigation – Part 1
Amargosa Investigation – Part 2
Amargosa Investigation – Part 3
Amargosa Investigation – Part 4
Amargosa Investigation – Part 5

Extra Photos

Maury with Jamie and Ted, the film makers

Walking around and exploring the Opera House

Communicating with the children

Smiling at the kids’ energy

There is no Dana, only Zu’ul

Stay for dinner at the Mormon House

Exterior of Tom’s Car

Typical Building at Amargosa

We now continue with Part 2 of the Paranormal Investigation of the Amargosa Hotel. Read Part One if you haven’t already.

Gearing up
We were planning to do the investigation on Friday, October 8, 2010. We were originally going to get rooms at another hotel so we wouldn’t have to sleep at Amargosa when we were done with our investigation, but the way things turned out, we decided to just stay at Amargosa. Matty and Pam were not happy about this, and I wasn’t feeling too great about it either, but I figured we’d be safe enough as many people sleep there throughout the year with no problems. We considered having Dana stay awake all night to protect us and patrol between rooms to make sure no one went kittywompus in the middle of the night. We were taking all kinds of precautions. You can never be too prepared!

I got together with Dana ahead of time to go over items we’d need for our little adventure. He was way ahead of me though. He’d already thought of flashlights, walkie talkies, glow sticks, dust masks, door stops, Leatherman tool, gloves, cameras, extra batteries, rope, headlamps, first aid kit and more. And of course we knew to bring snacks and water.

Maury told us to wear close-toed shoes, long pants, and to bring a sweatshirt in case it got cold at night. And we had extra clothing for our overnight excursion.

Mission briefing
The night before our adventure I assembled my team for a mission briefing so we could discuss our plans and what to do if the worst happened and someone was being influenced or possessed by something at Amargosa. Maury and I had discussed this at length and I wanted to make sure my team knew what to do. Here briefly is what I explained to them.

First, there’s a difference between influence and possession. If you are possessed your consciousness is completely pushed aside and you have no awareness of what you are doing. When you “wake up” you have no memory of your actions. If you are influenced you are still aware of everything that is happening to you but are pushed aside, and you have a strong desire to say and do what the entity is telling you to do. It’s like the other consciousness takes the driver’s seat and you are relegated to the backseat, watching, and trying to get control back.

Signs of influence or possession include angry outbursts, violent attack, walking backwards, sobbing, inability to focus, confusion, dizziness, altered personality, altered eyes, and the like. Signs of psychic attack include feeling super tired, sick to your stomach, drained, fearful, and anxiety/panic.

The member of our team least likely to be influenced or possessed was Dana, which I was counting on since he had the best chance of physically restraining someone who did become influenced or possessed. We all knew that if Dana became influenced that it would take all of us to restrain him. So one of the reasons I chose Dana to be on the team was because of his muscle. I knew he could single-handedly restrain any one of us. I told Dana that if anyone became possessed to gently restrain them until Maury could help the person push out the influence. I believe Dana’s response was, “If any of you come at me, you’ll get an uppercut to the chops and I will lay you out.” Nervous laughter ensued, and I said, “No, seriously, you can’t beat us up because when we come back it’s us who will be injured, not the entity.” He said, “Look if someone is attacking me, I’m going to react, and my natural reaction is going to be a gut shot or a punch to the face. I suggest you don’t get possessed and attack me.” Okay, moving on then…

Driving out
At 3pm on Friday, October 8, my team assembled at my house for the 1.5 hour drive up to Amargosa. Dana decided to take his own car because he had to be at his Search and Rescue training by 9am the next morning to fastrope off some towers. I was concerned he wouldn’t get enough sleep since I knew the Amargosa investigation could easily go until 3 or 4 in the morning. But Dana assured us he’d be alright. I had him take his own car in case he needed to bail while we were sleeping. So Dana and Matty piled into Dana’s BMW sports car while Pam and I got into my Honda CRV. Once we got on the freeway Dana took off like a rocket and Pam and I didn’t catch up for a very long time.

Once we got rolling I phoned Maury to let her know we were on our way. She told me not to go to the Amargosa directly but instead to stop at Longstreet Hotel and Casino, about 7 miles before Amargosa, so she could give us her own mission briefing. I tried calling Dana to let him know of the change in plans but the loud music, police radar, and road noise in his car must have drowned out my call. Eventually when they stopped to buy snacks, urinate, and put more rocket fuel in Dana’s Batmobile, I was able to explain the situation to them. We all made it to Longstreet without incident by 4:30pm.

Meeting at Longstreet
The first thing the boys did when they got to Longstreet was go take photos of the big fake cow. Then they found a real cow and Dana made friends with it. We went inside and decided to grab some dinner at the café there. This place was pretty deserted, but the food was good. We had a nice meal and then Maury arrived.

I introduced Maury to the team. Then she pulled out some waivers for us to sign basically saying we wouldn’t sue the Amargosa if we died (or got possessed) while on the property. She also warned us about the scorpions, black widows, snakes, bats and rats on the property and down in Spooky Hollow (the old dusty, disgusting, filthy area where the energetic baddie dwells). Suddenly I was more afraid of spiders than getting possessed. She told us not to touch the walls in the dark or we could find our hand covered with black widows. We also didn’t want to come in too much contact with the rat droppings as Hanta Virus isn’t something I particularly wanted to contract. Thank goodness Dana told me to get dust masks, the heavy duty ones. He and Matty had shemaghs (giant bandanas) and Pam and I had the dust masks.

Maury also needed to get to know my team so she would know if any of them became “altered” while we were out there. She told us we’d settle in, set up, and start investigating around 8:30. She also told us most of the paranormal activity there happens after dark between 11pm and 4am. We were excited and raring to go.

At 6:30pm Dana gave the bull a final pet goodbye and we drove the 7 miles to Amargosa, pumped and ready to rock.

Arriving at Amargosa
It was a little strange for me to pull up to the Amargosa Hotel. The last time I was there was with a big old film crew and a van full of paranormal investigators from Arkansas, and it was during the day. This time it was dusk, I was with my own crew, and I was in charge of where we went and when. Totally different experience. We checked in at the hotel and were given two keys. Room 8 and Room 20. I knew intuitively that I didn’t want to stay in Room 20 so I nabbed 8 for me and Pam and left the boys with Room 20. I found out later this was a good choice on my part.

Then Maury took us to the café and told us to stock up on food since the café closed at 8pm and we’d be there all night. We got some sodas, but we had just eaten so didn’t order any food for ourselves. I had bags full of snacks for later so I wasn’t worried.

Amargosa Cafe

Settling In and Setting Up
We went to our rooms to settle in and change into our clothing for the investigation. The rooms were okay but definitely not fancy. The beds looked clean though. The bathrooms left a little something to be desired and still sported plumbing from the early 40′s. Dana came into our room with his huge backpack filled with supplies. I put on a small backpack so I could carry my own water, flashlight, snacks, camera, cough drops, dust mask, and chapstick.

Maury and I ran back to the café to pick up her food while the rest of the gang settled in to their rooms. She suddenly began to feel quite nauseous and uncomfortable, which apparently indicates a strong spiritual presence. I felt a noticeable energy there as well, and managed to make contact with a female spirit who desperately sought acknowledgment. That momentary connection proved sufficient, as Maury soon felt better. –Matty

Dana gave me one of the walkie talkies and I tucked it into my jacket pocket along with a Flip video camera. We were all set. But we couldn’t get started just yet. Maury grabbed Dana and took him down to the Opera House to set up. I didn’t realize there was so much involved but they had to lay power cables, set up cameras, and the rest of Maury’s equipment. It took a little while.

Room 3
While we were waiting for Dana and Maury to be ready, Matty and decided to start investigating a room in the hotel. Maury had told us that as long as a room door was open, we could go in and investigate. The doors that were closed had other guests in them. I remembered from my previous investigation that Room 3 was purportedly active, so I grabbed Matty and we went to Room 3 while Pam stayed behind. We walked in and both of us immediately felt another energy or presence in there. It felt like walking through thick soup. Like the air was just thicker in some areas. But we could both feel a presence within that energy. I think I said something like, “Is somebody in here?” and all of a sudden we heard a doorknob rattling. I looked and I saw the doorknob on a door that led to the outside of the hotel start rattling. Matty saw the doorknob to the adjacent room start rattling. We both stood there for a moment, adrenaline pumping, just staring at these doorknobs. I waited for someone to walk through but they just kept rattling. Finally I got so scared I actually shoved Matty aside and ran out of the room. Matty followed soon after. We ran back to Pam in room 8 and collapsed onto the bed laughing hysterically.

This was the epitome of nervous, hysterical laughter. Neither Matty nor Erin were very coherent and this was my first indication that indeed it was going to be a very… long… night! —Pam

Erin did her best Usain Bolt impression in fleeing that room. She’s a team player. –Matty

I am not saying that what happened was in any way paranormal. It could have been two people standing behind two different doors that happened to start rattling them at the same time we sauntered in from the hall. It would be a hell of a coincidence, but it’s possible that’s what happened. If we were thinking clearly, we would have gone and investigated whether there were humans rattling the doorknobs or whether it was someone non-corporeal. But by the time we told Pam our story and were thinking about investigating, Dana and Maury were ready for us.

The real adventure was about to begin!

Whole Series:
Amargosa Investigation – Part 1
Amargosa Investigation – Part 2
Amargosa Investigation – Part 3
Amargosa Investigation – Part 4
Amargosa Investigation – Part 5

Amargosa Hotel Hallway

Amargosa Hotel Hallway

What follows is the entire story of our investigation, broken down into a 5 part series that will post Monday through Friday this week. On the last day I’ll post the video log of our adventure.

Meeting Maury
In early 2010, I received a call from a woman named Maury Mootz who told me she was a paranormal investigator and paranormal coordinator for the Amargosa Hotel. She had found me on the internet because I had been out to Amargosa before when the Criss Angel show asked me to walk around the Amargosa and be filmed for their episode entitled Celebrity Séance. She wanted to talk to me about my experiences out there. We chatted for a bit on the phone and decided to get together to talk about it.

We met at Starbucks in June 2010 for a chat about what I experienced there. Maury was very familiar with the history of Amargosa and had been out there doing investigations with various groups for a while, so when I mentioned some of the spirits that I encountered out there, she was able to confirm my accuracy for me. I mentioned that I’d love to take my own team out there and do a proper investigation because when I went for the Criss Angel show we didn’t get to spend much time in any one place, nor did we have time to do a proper investigation. Instead we were walked quickly through the hotel, spending no more than 5-10 minutes in any one room. It wasn’t enough time to make a lot of contact with the energies there. Plus, at the time I filmed for them, I was a very new and inexperienced medium. I’ve been curious about how things would go now that I’m more experienced.

Maury invited me to bring a team to Amargosa with her and do a more in-depth investigation. I was super excited! The only problem was that we’d have to wait until the weather cooled down. Death Valley temperatures can reach the 120′s and higher in the summer, so we targeted October as a good month to give it a go.

Deciding to Go
The only thing holding me back a little was some trepidation about encountering the one negative energy I had initially detected at Amargosa 4 years prior. I didn’t know a whole lot about him, but I knew he was a low vibrational being who had done some horrible things while he was alive. As a pretty high vibrational person, I wasn’t sure I wanted to open up to such an energy. When I discussed my plan to investigate the Amargosa with some other intuitive friends of mine, they all thought I was crazy to open myself up to communicating with an energy that foul. But I really wanted the opportunity to try my hand again so I pushed aside my fears and decided it would be fun, interesting, and safe.

On June 18, however, I was visited in the middle of the night by the entity at Amargosa and spent 20 minutes fighting with it astrally as it tried to pull me out of my body for what nefarious purpose I can only imagine. I was very upset to have encountered him as I had thought he was confined to Amargosa. I called Maury to discuss what happened and was shocked to discover she had been attacked on the same night as me. She also confirmed that he can travel when there is an energetic connection, which we had apparently established. I didn’t like the idea that he “knew” about me and knew I was coming to see him. But I wasn’t deterred in my plans and decided we were going in.

I met with Maury again in September 2010 to start making plans. I asked her again if she felt it was safe for me to go out to Amargosa and engage with the energies there. She said, “A few months ago I would have said yes. Now I’m not so sure.” She proceeded to tell me about an experience she had where she was taken over and influenced by the entity at Amargosa. In all her time there that had never happened to her before. She also said the activity there was picking up and other psychics were having some pretty horrible and intense experiences and leaving in the middle of the night. I was nervous, but still determined. I decided I knew enough psychic self defense to prevent anything like that from happening to me. I was wrong, as you will soon find out.

Assembling my team
I thought long and hard about what kind of people I wanted to take with me on the investigation. Maury is a psychic and also an investigator, but she decided that during my investigation she would not open herself up and instead stay very grounded so she could make sure the rest of us were psychically safe. Maury was in charge of our investigation and our psychic security. She had all the cameras, EMFs, audio recorders, and other paraphernalia we’d need to properly conduct an investigation.

I was going to be the primary intuitive on the investigation, ready and willing to open myself up to communicate and interact with the energies at the hotel and try to channel as much information as I could for Maury to confirm. As a medium, I’ve interacted with many deceased energies and I knew exactly how to open myself up.

I also wanted to bring someone who was not open, someone who was a skeptic and not easily influenced by paranormal energy. I needed an alpha male, someone who could easily stand against the Amargosa entity and not cower. And I needed a physically strong person with tactical experience to handle our physical security. I immediately thought of my friend, Dana Richardson, who is all of these things. I told him what I had planned, told him he’d be skulking around a haunted hotel in the middle of the night and making sure none of us were injured, possessed, or killed and he was in before I finished asking him. He’s a good friend.

I also asked my friend, Pam Shinkle, to come with me for moral support and back up. Pam has a really strong energy (she’s sort of an alpha female) and she can be super intimidating when she needs to be. I knew her friendship, loyalty, and support would come in handy if anything happened to me. She is a super smart woman as well, and I trusted her to keep an eye on me if bad things went down. She also agreed immediately to go out there and support me.

I asked two other guy friends to come along. One was a super skeptic with a really scientific mind, but he lived in another state and couldn’t get the time off work. The other guy was involved in emergency management and was also somewhat intuitive and I thought he’d be great to have around in case of emergency, but he was also out of town and couldn’t come with us. I wanted one more person to go with me but had run out of obvious options. And I wanted a back-up intuitive who could help confirm what I was picking up. I didn’t want to rely on Maury as she had decided to stay closed.

As the day approached I still didn’t have another intuitive who I felt comfortable bringing with me. It’s not safe to bring just anyone and tell them to open up. They need experience with psychic self defense and controlling and managing their intuition in order to safely engage with energies this strong.

I was talking to my friend, Matty Blumenthal, who is strongly intuitive but largely untrained. He was one of the people telling me I was nuts to go out there given what had already happened to me. Then I found out he was going to be in town around the time we were doing our investigation and I invited him to come. Logically this was the wrong move entirely. Matty knew little of psychic self defense and it was wrong of me to ask him, but intuitively I was getting a strong urge to bring him along. I wasn’t sure why my guides were so insistent that I bring him, but I trusted them. Bringing Matty along turned out to be a really smart move. That one decision probably saved two lives.

Erin and I had discussed her Amargosa adventures during the few months leading up to the trip. I had concluded based on what she had told me that only a truly insane person would go out of his or her way to get involved in this situation. I told her this no less than 1,418 times. As I consider myself reasonably crazy, and eager to make the transition to full-blown straitjacket lunacy, I made sure to seize the opportunity when she invited me to tag along. Like her, I knew my going was an Eiffel Tower-sized mistake from any sort of objective standpoint. I also shared her intuitive sense that my choice to participate would somehow turn out to be a good move, and I really wanted to test myself intuitively. Little did I know what I was in for. — Matty

Whole Series:
Amargosa Investigation – Part 1
Amargosa Investigation – Part 2
Amargosa Investigation – Part 3
Amargosa Investigation – Part 4
Amargosa Investigation – Part 5

The Team

Dana Richardson, Pam Shinkle, and Erin Pavlina

Matty Blumenthal

Answer:  Yes, a good psychic has the ability to tune in on someone anytime, anywhere, for any reason, just as a psychologist can probably spot and identify psychopathic behavior or someone who is really depressed.  However, an ethical psychic, or one who serves the light, would not do such a thing without your express permission.  An unethical psychic, or one who serves the dark, would not seek permission, instead violating your privacy to serve their own needs or whims.

When I was first discovering my abilities I have to admit that I started reading everyone I came in contact with.  I wouldn’t always tell them what I was picking up, but it was like having an open line to the ether around me all the time.  Sometimes I couldn’t help it because people would broadcast the urgent things on their minds, and since my receiver was open it would just hit me.  It was during the Criss Angel shoot that I realized that not everyone wanted me butting into their business, and I started to realize that with great power comes great responsibility.  During the long drive out to the Amargosa hotel I remember picking up all kinds of information from one of the crew members.  Silly me, I just started talking about the fight he was having with his girlfriend and he looked at me like I was eavesdropping on a private conversation.  I saw him squirming and realized that maybe he didn’t want to discuss it in a car full of people.  I piped down. 

There was another time where I was doing readings in a room full of people and a deceased person came through wanting desperately to apologize to someone in the room for being an abusive person.  When I told her I had her deceased husband coming through she got up and walked out and told me in no uncertain terms that she didn’t want to hear anything he had to say to her.  I learned in short order not to tune in to someone without their permission.  Life was much better after that.

Empathy, however, is something I can’t turn off.  I can tell when someone is upset, bored, angry, etc.  That’s my normal human talent.  But I don’t tune in and get guidance from their spirit guides unless I’m doing a reading for them or they ask me to (as in the case of friends or family).  I’ve also learned that I don’t want to know everyone’s “stuff” because I’ve got my own issues to work out without taking on the problems of others.

Now about the mind reading… I want to put this in bold.  Psychics are not mind readers!  I don’t know what you had for lunch.  I don’t know that you’re thinking about cheating on your wife.  I don’t know what number between 1 and 10 you are thinking of.  It just doesn’t work that way.  If it did, I’d have a great Vegas act.  Or I could really clean up at poker!  However, a psychic can read whether you are feeling depressed, or guilty, or whether you’re bluffing at poker.  I may not know what cards you’re holding, but I can get a sense of how confident you are about your hand.  So if you’re sitting next to me someday at a party you don’t have to worry.  If you’re sitting next to a psychic darkworker, then I’d move seats.

Is there a way to protect yourself from being read?  Yes, there is.  First, you can tell your spirit guides and everyone else in your spirit posse not to talk to strangers without your permission.  Secondly, you can shield your energy from others using psychic self defense techniques.  Literally imagine a wall or shield between you and the psychic.  Push out with your thoughts or energy and say, “Keep your probe to yourself!”  When I read for people who are skeptics I often get static because there’s a part of their energy that is saying, “Don’t look at me.  You can’t see me.  I’m blocking you” in order to validate their belief about psychics.  I’ve also had experiences where I can’t read someone’s emotions, energy, or anything because they themselves are very dissociated from their own emotions and minds.  It’s like Troi trying to read Data.  I get nothing.

So don’t worry too much.  Most psychics don’t want to pick up on everyone’s deep dark secrets all day.  It’s tiring and not nearly as exciting as it might sound.  Now who’s up for a game of poker with me?