Free Dark World: Into the Shadows with the Lead Investigator of the Ghost Adventures Crew by Kelly Crigger, Zak Bagans

animal with our own telekinetic energy. In this case, it’s the owner’s love for his or her pet that keeps its spirit alive, not the inherent nature of the animal itself. The fact that the vast majority of animal ghosts are those of beloved family pets could be an important clue that this might be the case.
    I believe there are animal hauntings, but they are very infrequent and difficult to pinpoint. Animals make sounds that are easily confused with everyday sounds and it’s pretty hard to have any intelligent conversation with Fluffy or Spot. While investigating the Ancient Ram Inn in England, I was told that two cats were frequently seen in the building—a large, mangy cat upstairs and a black one that had been seen roaming the main lounge. Throughout that investigation I kept hoping I would feel one of them rub against my leg or capture purring on my digital recorder, but it never happened.
    I’ve never seen an apparition of an animal, but twice I’ve captured some compelling audio that suggests a dog haunting. At La Purisima Mission my digital recorder captured what sounds like a dog whining. At the Edinburgh Vaults I again captured more whining sounds, which corresponded to what many witnesses said about a dog that still roams the catacombs.
    I’ve captured many growls on recording devices, but these are different. Growling is associated more with demonic entities than animals and is often accompanied by dark, evil energy that lurks in the crevices of the afterlife.
As cheesy as it sounds, I want to believe the paranormal world was portrayed accurately in the movie Ghost . I want to believe spirits of the dead roam the Earth with unfinished business looking for someone who can hear or see them, and once they find that person, they latch on. I believe there are wandering spirits who are waiting to find someone to tell their story to or who are hiding from the afterlife out of fear of what might happen to them when they cross over.
That’s something I want people to know. Many spirits were either ripped from life or never lived long enough to become bitter or disillusioned by the world. They just want to feel companionship or to know that someone can hear them. And in the end, don’t we all?

can’t imagine the deep sadness of being discarded and abandoned in a mental institution. I don’t want to envision the maddening confusion of being trapped in an empty building where your only companionship is the occasional prodding paranormal investigator like me. The pain and depression of living and dying in the unforgiving sterility of a hospital bed that deprives the human spirit of its very life energy is a loneliness I never want to know. I imagine it’s like being buried alive and screaming out, hoping someone on the surface hears you. It’s these situations that make paranormal investigation difficult, because it becomes almost impossible to separate your own emotions from the pain and turmoil these spirits went through before they passed on. It also adds to our own confusion of wondering if we’re in the presence of the spirit of a mentally insane criminal or just a confused and harmless individual.
    There is a big difference between people who died suddenly and those who died knowing how desperate their situation was. The spirits who knew the end was near usually have clarity about their surroundings and know the eventuality of their lives, so they can move on. But the ones who passed suddenly can harbor a burning passion for closure or forgiveness for what happened to their physical body. You might think angry or evil spirits are the most difficult to encounter, but in fact it’s the ones who either can’t figure out how to cross over or the ones who still hold on to a soul-crushing sadness that are the hardest with which to interact. The angry and evil ones come at me from a known place of hate, so I know how to deal with them. The sad and confused spirits aren’t sure what they want and usually need