If you’ve ever watched the American documentary series Ghost Adventures on the Travel Channel then you’ll know who I’m talking about when I mention Zak Bagans. Zak Bagans is famous for his curiosity about the paranormal and has frequently appeared on Ghost Adventures, but was he in the military in his younger years?
Zak Bagans was not in the military. As a graduate of the Motion Pictures Institute of Michigan, Bagans makes a living as a filmmaker and television personality on his hit series Ghost Adventures which appeared on our screens back in 2008 and has filmed at least 19 seasons since then.
If you’re interested in learning more about Bagans’ life, including where his curiosity for the paranormal springs from then this article was written for you. Read more below to find your answers.
What is Ghost Adventures?
For those of you who don’t know of or haven’t watched Ghost Adventures you’re probably feeling a bit clueless at this stage, so I’ll fill you in on what it’s all about.
Ghost Adventures is a docu-series that’s streamed on the Travel Channel predominantly on Thursdays in the afternoons. If you’ve watched the 2007 horror film Paranormal Activity, then it’s quite similar to that in many ways (just with less dramatization).
The series follows Zak and the crew as they locate individuals in and around Nevada who believe they have experienced paranormal activity in their house. Once they’ve located people to film, these individuals are then interviewed about their experiences and the crew sets up cameras with night vision so anything that’s “paranormal” can be tracked down immediately once it’s captured on camera.
Originally, Ghost Adventures was only intended to be a singular investigative film but it turned into a whole series in the end.
Why does Zak believe in the paranormal?
For someone to be involved in the production of a whole extensive series following accounts of paranormal phenomena, you’d be safe to assume that one might need to believe in the paranormal beforehand. This is the case for Zak Bagans.
One experience changed his life forever. Before this happened, believe it or not, Zak was skeptical about the paranormal. Here’s how one event proved life-changing for Zak.
During 2003, around five years before the production of Ghost Adventures, Zak was residing in an apartment block situated in Michigan. Zak claims that each night at three in the morning, he was woken by the eerie sound of a woman calling out his name.
This kept happening for many nights, until the sixth night where he felt someone on his back meaning he couldn’t move for a good few minutes.
After this, Zak left his apartment for a few days and upon his return he was faced with a maintenance man who told him the story of a woman who lived in the block – the same woman who took her life at three in the morning. And this is what led Zak to become a true believer in the paranormal.
In a 2017 interview with Kiko Miyasato from the Las Vegas Magazine, Zak mentioned “I always knew I liked ghosts and had the curiosity for them and a warmness for them. And now it’s developed full time. It’s not just a career, it’s my life, my passion; it’s what I love to do. And, I think people can see that…It’s fun going on investigations, and helping people—it’s an adventure.”
Is it just a job or something more?
By this point, you might wonder if investigating the paranormal is just a job to Zak, or if it’s something more. Here’s the answer he provided in a 2012 interview with Nick Groff from Patch: “It’s not our job actually, that’s not why we do this. We do this for our own sake. We were doing this before the TV show so it’s very important to understand that.”