Influenced
As I was sitting there at the card table, something strange started happening to me. I started to feel a strange pull or tugging in my head. It literally felt like someone was threading a string from my left ear, through my brain, and out my right ear. It left a trail of tingling energy as it passed through my head. It was not a comfortable feeling at all. I started to become confused. Maury was talking but I wasn’t hearing her. It was like her voice was coming from far away. At one point she said, “Erin, are you getting anything?” Confused I just said, “I don’t know.” She continued talking.

Then I felt an overwhelming sleepiness come over me, like someone put chloroform over my mouth. I put my head in my hands and dropped off in seconds. I knew as it was happening that this was really bad, but I was powerless to resist. I don’t know how long I was out, but when I came around and lifted my head something was very different and very wrong.

My consciousness was not alone in my body. “I” was shoved up, to the right and to the back of my head. That’s where I was. Inhabiting the rest of my brain/consciousness was someone else. I knew it was the entity I had connected with earlier. I can hardly describe the sensation of being pushed aside in my own body. I was still totally aware and totally present, I just wasn’t alone. I felt like I had 5% of the vessel and the entity had 95%. I now understand what it feels like to be a trance channel, only I wasn’t channeling something particularly pleasant.

Maury was still talking. I looked over at her and could just make out the barest outline of her body, but I could see her eyes in the ambient light of the glow stick. And I started to feel angry and frustrated at Maury. The anger was building up inside me and I had this extremely strong urge to pound my fists on the table and say, “We don’t want you here. Who do you think you are? Why do you keep coming here? This is our domain. Get out!!”

I was surprised at the vehemence of the thought. Then I realized it wasn’t mine. It was his. He wanted to speak and take action and use my body and voice to do it. I knew I was being influenced, but I wasn’t sure what to do. I had to get someone’s attention, to tell them there was something wrong with me and to help me, but I couldn’t speak what I wanted to speak. I wasn’t “allowed” to.

I knew that Maury could help me if I could just signal to her that I was in trouble, but just then she stood up and took Ted and Jamie to the other end of the hall, leaving me at the table, in the dark, with just Dana, Pam and Matty. I was screaming “noooo” inside my head. My only help had just walked away!

I struggled to push the energy out of my head, but he was so strong. I felt like an ant trying to push a Hummer down the street. He wanted to speak and act. I started making strange breathing noises. Sharp intakes of air, and then my breath would get choked off. Matty said, “Erin are you alright?” I managed to squeak out, “He’s pushing me.” I don’t think Matty, Pam, or Dana knew exactly what that meant or what do to. I was so frustrated because I needed help but couldn’t say what I wanted to say. It had taken great effort just to say “He’s pushing me.”

The strong urge to act was still coming, but now he wanted me to stand up and fling the table to the ground. I knew if I did that, it would hit Pam along the way and hurt her. I resisted, but the urge was so powerful. I knew it would feel so good to fling that horrible table away. He wanted to say, “This doesn’t belong here. This is an insult to us and mocks us. Get this out of here!”

I balled my hands into fists and was getting ready to start pounding. The me in the corner of my head was getting scared and frustrated because my friends couldn’t see how hard I was struggling to get their attention. We had gone over this during the mission briefing. The signs were present, but no one on my team could see me well enough to see me struggling. Only Matty was picking it up intuitively.

Then it got worse. I turned towards Dana and felt intense anger at him. The energy inside me was enraged at Dana. The entity wanted me to fling the table up onto Pam and then turn on Dana and attack him. I had visions of myself choking Dana. I was appalled at the thought, but the violent images kept coming. He was upset that Dana wasn’t afraid of him and that Dana wasn’t showing him the proper respect. He wanted to say to Dana, “How dare you come into my domain and disrespect me! I’m in charge here. You’re nothing.” He wanted to make Dana bow before him.

I was in a horrible state. I was sharing my consciousness with a violent psychopath and didn’t have control of my body. I was so afraid of what he was going to make me do. But, I was also afraid of what Dana might do if I attacked him. During the mission briefing he stated that if anyone came at him he would take whatever action necessary to take them out. So I cast my own images of Dana taking “us” down hoping the dark energy would see the futility of attacking Dana. The entity seemed to consider this and came up with a new plan. He wanted me to pick up the mag-lite and whack Dana across the face with it. That is one heavy flashlight, and I knew that in the dark Dana might not have time to react before he was hit.

This terrified me. The entity now had a plan of surprise attack that would seriously hurt Dana. I was very upset. I started to really push at the entity and try to eject him from my body. But the violent urges were super strong. I knew I needed help. I was surrounded by people who could help me and no one knew I was in trouble.

This was a basic failure point in our plan. If a large part of protecting each other depended upon us seeing each other….the dark was so thick and enveloping. It reminded me of the dense barometric pressure right before a tornado (I grew up in Kansas). As a child we would go into my grandfather’s cellar and wait for the storm to pass. At one point while sitting there I told Matty that I did not want to go down the hall where Maury and the guys were. I said I didn’t know why but my senses were just screaming to me not to go there. I took hold of Matty’s hand and felt him relax somewhat.–Pam

Finally Matty reached out and took my hand in the dark. I can’t tell you how grateful I was. That contact loosened the dark energy’s hold on me a little. Matty said, “You alright there, Erin?” I was able to say, “No, not really. I’m having trouble.” Matty cracked a joke. I don’t even remember what it was, but I started laughing, and in that instant, the entity fled. Instantly, just gone. I felt like I had been released from a paralyzing state. I took a deep breath, and filled myself with white light energy and asked the angels for protection.

Erin laughed when Matty said that he had been holding my hand in a death-grip for over 5 minutes. I should have realized that something was going on with Erin because she was so quiet but I thought she was just tired!–Pam

Then I said, “Let’s get up and go to Maury.” I wanted to be near her if something went down again, and I wanted to tell her what had just happened to me. Matty said, “Are you crazy? You wanna go down there?” I said, “Yeah, come on, let’s get up and walk.” I didn’t want to succumb again. I did not let go of Matty’s hand. We walked to where Maury was talking and being interviewed by Ted and Jamie. I didn’t want to interrupt them because she was in the middle of a story. I started to feel like myself again and felt much better. At one point I started picking up a strong smell… of soap. Believe me, there was no soap down there. Quite the opposite. I told Maury I was smelling soap. She got excited and said that other psychics also smelled soap in that spot.

I suggested we get going. I wanted to get out of Spooky Hollow pronto. At this point I still hadn’t told anyone what happened to me.

I asked Dana to lead us out. And I took up a position behind him. I’ll tell you this… if Dana knew how badly I wanted to brain him with my flashlight, he wouldn’t have been walking in front of me.

Maid’s Quarters
Maury wanted to show us the old maids’ quarters. I really just wanted to be done. I was so freaked out by what had happened to me and just wanted to process it and talk to Maury about it. But we were already there, it was quick, and we decided to just walk through the rooms quickly. The energy in there was different. I could feel presences but they were skittish and didn’t want us around. They weren’t violent or angry, just timid and submissive and wanted to be left alone.

I purposely didn’t try to make contact directly with any of them as I didn’t want to open myself up. I was done. It was 2:15am, and I was desperate for sleep. We all signed release forms to be in the documentary that Ted and Jamie were filming, and I believe they are showcasing their movie in the next couple of months and then releasing it on DVD.

Spending the night
Dana decided he was going to jet home and sleep in his own bed and then get up and go to his Search and Rescue training. I was a little concerned about Matty sleeping in the very haunted Room 20, but Matty was okay with it, so Dana packed his gear and headed home. It was probably safer for him to be away from me anyway.

The spirits I encountered in my room did not check out with the one who supposedly hangs out in the room most of the time. I ended up with a couple playful ladies rather than a grumpy male spirit. Yay! -Matty

Pam and I headed to our room, got ready for bed, and hit the sack hard. Dana had left us the walkie talkies so if Matty had a problem he could call for help. But no one died or got possessed and the beds were really quite comfy. We woke at 7am, had a quick breakfast in the café, and got the heck out of Amargosa! I was happy to be headed home.

The Aftermath
I wanted to talk to Maury about what had happened to me so I sent her an email when I got home but she was out of town for most of the week. Finally when we talked and I explained to her what happened in the Sunset Room she helped me understand the whole experience. There had been movement at the end of the hall, and that got Maury, Ted, and Jamie out of their seats to investigate. She said she felt lured away, which is how it looked to me. Right at the moment I needed her most, she got up and walked away. There’s no doubt in my mind that had she been sitting there throughout my ordeal she would have figured it out. Matty, Pam and Dana had never seen such a thing before and in the dark had no chance to see me struggling. The entity timed his move very well.

Maury also confirmed that what he wanted me to say to her was the same thing, practically word for word, that she’d heard before from other psychics. She also wasn’t surprised by the guy’s desire for me to attack Dana. He apparently doesn’t like it when alpha males are down there, unafraid of him. He wants people to be afraid, and he wants respect. Dana gave him neither. He didn’t have a problem with Matty or Pam as they were neutral to him and had a healthy respect for him. She also confirmed that choking was his preferred method of torment.

Since returning from Amargosa, I’ve been visited by the guy a couple of times. Pam’s been dreaming about Spooky Hollow, and I have woken one time to find him standing over my bed for a good 5 seconds. That scared me so badly I was awake for 2.5 hours trying to shake off the energy and adrenaline. I have since taken the appropriate steps to cleanse my energy, close off my connection to him, and before bed every night the angels are put on guard. I also make sure I’m in a high vibrational state before bed and that has helped considerably.

Overall, Maury was impressed by the accuracy of the information I received during our investigation. She’s invited me to go on other investigations with her, and I’d love to. She also liked having Dana there. He was the perfect counterpoint to the intuitive part of our investigation. The combination of Maury’s expertise and equipment, along with my psychic abilities, and Dana’s no-fear, skeptical side make a good and balanced combination.

What We Learned and Tips for Investigating
If you’re doing an investigation in the middle of the night, stop when you get tired. Or find a safe place to nap for a bit and keep going.

Keep an eye on each other. If you’re in the dark, it’s especially important.

If your group splits up, make sure you have walkie talkies on you at all times. And no one goes anywhere alone.

To properly handle and restrain someone who is influenced or possessed, grab them around the arms in a bear hug, and have someone else lift their legs. Then take them to the ground and wait for your psychic security leader to help remove the influence.

Bring someone along for comic relief. Matty’s humor kept our vibration high and saved Dana from getting a mag-lite to the face, which in turn saved me from having all my ribs broken in retaliation.

Stay hydrated and well fed. We ate dinner at 5pm and by midnight there were a lot of stomachs growling.

I don’t recommend sleeping in the same place you investigate unless it seems very very safe.

Your team should consist of someone who is very intuitive, someone who is scientific and can work the equipment, and someone who is not open and isn’t affected by non-corporeal energies. Do not bring hardcore skeptics if you want to do an intuitive investigation because they will blunt your ability to tune in.

Make sure you have someone on the team who knows how to handle influenced or possessed people. If I had been unable to get free, Maury would have taken me outside, we would have formed a circle, and used our combined energy to cast love at me and raise my vibration, so I could eject the entity. You want to gently restrain the person so they can’t hurt themselves or anyone on the team. And everyone must be present so the entity doesn’t jump to another host.

Don’t let your guard down.

If you’re intuitive and you start feeling an overwhelming energy, it’s okay to pull back and shut down.

Be safe if you’re in broken, run-down areas. Make sure you have people on your team who can handle physical problems like lifting someone out of a hole by a rope, handling first aid issues, and using safety equipment.

Try to have the appropriate equipment like EMF, digital recorders, infrared cameras, etc. If you only bring a psychic and no equipment, you may miss apparitions and voices that are only picked up by EVP and infrared cameras. Likewise, you should always bring at least one intuitive on an investigation because if you only have equipment you may be filming in the wrong spots, and a psychic can pinpoint areas of high activity fast.

In Summary
Despite being influenced by a deceased psychopath, I really enjoyed the Amargosa investigation. It was an intense experience that taught me a lot. I would definitely go out on other investigations. Amargosa is a hot spot and one of the 10 most haunted hotels in America. If you’re looking for a challenge, check it out. Just don’t mention my name.

Video:
We did a little video taping with a Flip camera, periodically, as we had time.

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

Photos

Sitting at the card table in the Sunset Room

Getting settled in Sunset

Lots of dust in this room.

I’ll show you my orbs if you show me yours.

Seriously, would a dustbuster really hurt the place so much?

Maid’s Quarters. Probably wouldn’t hire them to clean for me.

Maury out on the porch with us telling us we can switch rooms in the middle of the night if bad things happen.

The Scooby Gang
Dana, Matty, Erin, and Pam

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