Whether you believe in ghosts, demons, or the paranormal at large personally, there are countless people who do. Some people even dedicate their whole lives to seeking out evidence to prove the existence of these paranormal phenomena, like the team behind The Travel Channel’s ‘Ghost Adventures’ series! Originally starting as a full length documentary film, the ‘Ghost Adventures’ show follows a team of Paranormal investigators made up of Zak Bagans, Aaron Goodwin, Jay Wasley, and Billy Tolley as they travel to the world’s most haunted locations to seek out as much proof as they can find. ‘Ghost Adventures’ has been on the air for a full decade now and the team has almost 200 episodes to their credit, so it’s safe to say these guys “ain’t afraid of no ghosts”!
We recently sat down with two of the series stars, Aaron Goodwin and Jay Wasley, at New York Comic Con 2018, to talk about the last decade of their lives making the show and what amazing new things they have coming up for us on the hit series! We’re smack dab in the middle of the Halloween season, so what better time to take a look back at ten years of paranormal investigating with two of the best in the business? Check out our full interview with Aaron Goodwin and Jay Wasley of ‘Ghost Adventures’ below!
ScienceFiction: Diving right in, what can you tell us a bit about the new upcoming ‘Ghost Adventures four-part special?
Jay Wasley: It’s just started!
Aaron Goodwin: Yeah, a four-part miniseries, all in Astoria, Oregon!
JW: It’s called ‘Graveyard of The Pacific’, and it’s called that because it’s a certain area of the country where the Columbia River meets the Pacific Ocean. There’s been thousands and thousands of shipwrecks there, a countless amount of deaths, and it’s such a treacherous part of the water! The history there, the death, it’s just such a perfect location! A lot of it is like being in an H.P. Lovecraft story; It’s foggy, it’s rainy, it’s cliffsides…
AG: And not only that, but it’s the underground! It’s all these hidden old Shanghai tunnels. All of the prohibition stuff!
JW: Yes! Secret tunnels!
AG: And that’s a whole different level! Because you’re above levels seeing all the haunts, then you go underground, and we had so many underground spots that we got to go to! When you’re left alone and there’s no one down there except the guy bringing down cups, because it’s used as a storage unit now, it’s just left alone! So when someone is down there trying to talk and communicate with the spirits down there, it gets out of control!
SF: And with all of that space and ground to cover we can understand why you would need to make it a four-part special!
AG: Oh yeah!
JW: Honestly we could probably do another whole four-part special, there’s so much to do out there!
SF: I believe it! And the ‘Ghost Adventures’ crew also has a whole new “live” Halloween Special coming up?
AG: Yeah, we’re going to have a four-hour live event at Zak’s (Bagans) museum!
SF: So you guys are going to take Zak’s Museum of the Occult, and experiencing everything that’s going on with everything he’s brought in?
AG: Well it’s not just that, because we’ve been experiencing so much just in the time it’s been going! We film there a lot! It just seems like every month or every year it just gets worse, and worse, and worse!
JW: His collection keeps building, he’s bringing in new things. Even now, it’s been open to the public for about a year now and that brings a whole nother level because there are people having personal experiences, there’s tour guides being affected, and it just continues to grow. The experiences continue to get crazier and crazier, so it feels like the perfect time to be able to go back there and dig in and actually investigate!
SF: What’s the craziest thing you’ve experienced at Zak’s museum so far?
AG: I’ve had so many things, but just recently I brought my girlfriend over there and she kind of had some serious stuff happen. To see someone I’m close with go through some of these things that everyone has been going through is just crazy. But it tends to feel like a lot of the spirits around there kind of “know” me, because I’m there, so it’s like “oh I’m uncomfortable but I’m just walking through”, but this time we’re actually going to be communicating and doing all this stuff!
SF: So half of the time it feels like they’re just messing with you because you have a repertoire?
AG: Right! And I don’t usually try to communicate with them. But this time, because we’re trying to communicate with them, I’m scared! I’m so scared of that place.
SF: Well of course, because once you sort of open that box there’s no putting the lid back on it. Once you’ve communicated, how is it going to be from there on?
AG: Exactly! We know Zak, Zak knows us and we’re around, so in a way, it’s like a family! It’s like “oh hey guys, you’re back in Zak’s place? What’s going on?”
SF: Kind of like that weird roommate that doesn’t pay rent?
AG: Yeah!
JW: I think that going into it too for me, I’m pretty fearful. The first time we investigated there, we slept over. We set up a bunch of cots and I got woken up to the bed being dragged out into part of the hallway! So that just keeps replaying in my mind and going back there is just nerve wrecking! I’m always excited and looking forward to different investigations but this one, in particular, I’m actually really nervous about. We have so many guests that are coming in, and we’re going to be doing so many kinds of experiments and different rituals and thing… it’s just going to amp it up even more! Not that it even needs it really, but it’s going to amp it up so much more, and it’s going to be unlike it’s ever been. I’m really nervous, but yet? Excited. I can’t wait!
SF: Which is a totally reasonable way to feel in that situation! Speaking of looking forward to different investigations, what would you say is your favorite location that you’ve ever investigated, if you had to pick just one?
AG: I couldn’t pick one!
JW: There are so many! It’s hard. I think that location-wise, for some reason I loved when we went to Romania. Not even so much the haunted locations, but the country, the countryside, the people. It was just such an amazing experience.
AG: It was beautiful!
JW: So that sticks out as like a place that we’ve been. And even just being able to investigate at Dracula’s Castle was amazing!
AG: I think going underground where Halloween started was pretty awesome.
JW: Oh yeah!
AG: Most people have a negative experience with that, but I had a really positive experience. I still have the mud in my house from that! I just kept my boots and put them in a bag like “got it!” and it just sits in my house. It’s amazing, there are just so many good spots It’s amazing.
SF: Do you get to do a lot of other travel stuff while out in the world for investigations? Like touristy things?
AG: We usually just sit in the hotel and chill.
JW: Our schedules are so tight for these, so we get in there and get right to business. I mean maybe once in a while we can venture out a little bit, and I like to try to experience a little bit, but the schedule is just so tight so we don’t usually get to do much of it.
AG: I think you and I usually just sit in the hotel most of the time. Just sort of chilling until it’s time to go!
JW: And it’s so draining too sometimes. It’s not just filming and stuff, it’s an emotional and spiritual drain. So sometimes if I get half a day to just sit and relax in a hotel room, I’m going to do just that.
SF: So in the last ten years now of investigating,-what’s the scariest experience you’ve had? The most intense moment?
AG: They’re all different. When I got thrown 25 feet kind of blew my mind.
JW: Goatman’s Bridge!
AG: But they’re all their own thing. It’s all a little scary. Even the minor ones can be so scary in my brain compared to the most intense ones.
JW: Remember that hospital room?
AG: Yeah I don’t like thinking about that.
JW: Not to bring it up…
AG: Hey thanks, man!
JW: But for you, I think of that one. I just remember the looks you had.
AG: Well I connected with that spirit.
JW: I think for me my scariest moment was in Arizona. I was in a crawl space and I felt something grab my legs and actually drag me backwards. It was not something I could just jump up and run away from, because I’m in a crawlspace! So that sticks out as one of the many intense moments for me.
SF: If you could pick one place to go back to that you haven’t had a chance to go back to yet, which location do you want to go back to and investigate further?
JW: Part of me kind of wants to go back to Goatman’s bridge, because I think as a location there was just so much craziness that happened there. Part of me wants to go back because I feel more needs to be done there, you know? Kind of figure out what’s really going on there and dive even deeper into it. That could be a whole miniseries! So that’s a place that, not that I necessarily want to go back because it was terrifying, but I think it would be a pretty amazing place to go back and investigate more.
AG: I’d want to go back to Bobby Mackey’s alone!
SF: Alone?
AG: That was a great experience! At first, I thought it was bad, but I realized later that it was kind of a good thing to have happen. Mackey’s kind of formed a lot to help me be stronger, so I’d want to go back alone and give appreciation.
SF: Sort of on the opposite end of the coin, what’s the one location you would never for your life return to?
AG: I would return to anywhere you want me to!
JW: I think I would too! Even ones that were rough or bad, it’s a new day, it’s new energy, it’s a new time. You never know what’s going to happen.
AG: I gave my life up to this world, so bring it!
JW: We’re this deep into it, so there’s no turning back!
SF: As investigators, what would you say is your favorite piece of equipment to use while investigating?
AG: Myself! The equipment just really validates what I’m feeling and what I’ve felt, so my own body.
JW: I would agree, trusting your body, learning your own signs and when you feel you’re picking up on something, and then you pull out the equipment to back it up. I think that’s when things really take off, so I’d say use yourself first!
SF: In your opinion, what’s the best piece of evidence you’ve pulled in during your ten years of investigating?
AG: There are so many!
JW: Some of the stuff that sticks in my mind is… do you remember the one time we were in the Goldfield Hotel and the rock flew and hit Zak in the foot? Seeing that happen? I was in the nerve center, but seeing that rock go flying like that blew my mind and it’s probably still one of the most mind-blowing pieces of evidence. I remember we got an SLS band once in Arizona where the prison, the old inmates had a band, and they would play. So we were walking around with the SLS and all of these figures appear on it and you can see what looks like a guy playing guitar and a guy drumming and another guy walks out and starts dancing, so that was a pretty wild one!
AG: I try not to remember all of them, or watch it because it’s just watching a nightmare I went through! It’s like watching a bad home video. It’s kind of like watching your parents scream and fight, you don’t want to watch that!
SF: That makes sense! And for our last question, not to get too grim with it, but after all of your ‘Ghost Adventures’ around the world encountering spirits, at the end of your own days, where would you like to settle down and haunt if you were going to haunt somewhere?
AG: Oh, I leave my blood all over the earth so that when I die I go all over. That’s a fact! My DNA, blood, and hair are buried in spots all over the earth, so I can go back to all of it.
SF: So you’ll just be omnipresent?
AG: Yeah!
JW: I think I would like to be able to travel as a spirit. I think a lot of them can, and I’d like to be able to visit family members and friends and scare them a little bit and then kind of move on. Maybe find some kind of weird… well for me it would probably be some kind of mountaintop of Buddhist temple or something, and just go chill out for a couple of lifetimes!
‘Ghost Adventures’ airs on The Travel Channel (and is also available for streaming on Hulu for those of you looking to catch up!), so be sure to check your local listings for regular episode air times! Also be sure to tune in on Halloween for their all-new 4-hour live special investigation of Zak Bagan’s paranormal museum! You can also keep up with Aaron and Jay more directly via Instagram (Aaron / Jay) and Twitter (Aaron / Jay). Stay tuned to ScienceFiction.com for all the latest info on ‘Ghost Adventures’!