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These aren't staged jump scares or reenactments - they're the genuinely terrifying moments caught on camera by professional ghost hunters! Join us as we count down our picks for the most nerve-racking experiences and unsettling evidence from paranormal investigation shows. From flying objects to full-bodied apparitions, these are the encounters that made even seasoned investigators question everything.
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00:00I thought I was a person. There's no one there, dude. There's no path.
00:04Welcome to WatchMojo. And today, we're counting down our picks for the most nerve-wracking
00:10experiences and unsettling evidence captured by professional ghost hunters for our entertainment.
00:15We'll only look at shows that prioritize an investigation as opposed to reenactments
00:20or storytelling, as horrifying as they may be. And I'm like, I stand it over here.
00:26Number 20. The Coat Rack. Ghost Adventures.
00:35Did they chain you to pieces of furniture in here? Speak to us. Tell us something.
00:44What did they used to do to you? Hit. It just said hit. Right now? Yeah. Do you see that, Aaron?
00:51In one of the most startling moments from the team's visit to the abandoned Pennhurst State
00:55School and Hospital in Spring City, Pennsylvania, the investigators prowl the former institution,
01:00once a facility for the developmentally disabled and shuttered amid allegations of abuse and neglect,
01:07when a Coat Rack suddenly flies across the room and strikes lead investigator Zach Bagans in the chest.
01:12That spontaneous, unexplained physical interaction, and the visible reaction on camera makes it feel less
01:29like a staged scare and more like something that genuinely shook the team. For Paranormal Investigation
01:36TV, it's a textbook fright, derelict asylum, violent object movement, direct impact, and total disbelief
01:44on film. Who did that? Right after I asked that question, this camera's audio picked up this response.
01:52Who did that?
01:59Number 19. Meeting Mary Myers. Ghost Hunters.
02:04This is Grant, Kristen, and Daryl on the third floor.
02:12That was weird. Something just walked right in front of us.
02:15Are you serious?
02:17In the abandoned Pumpa, Texas, site of Worley Hospital, the Ghost Hunters team zeroes in on
02:22reports of a tragic past. A young surgical nurse, Mary Lucille Myers, 25, who died by poisoning
02:28herself within the facility's walls in the 1940s. During the investigation,
02:33the crew receives affirmative readings via EMF spikes and motion detector activations according
02:39to their log and instrument readouts. So any of the entities that are here,
02:43if there's a woman here with us, please touch that device again.
02:49Oh. Yeah.
02:51Were you a nurse in this hospital? Did you work as a surgical nurse in this hospital?
02:55Yes.
02:55What makes this moment especially chilling is the layering of physical data in a building with no
03:03electricity running, a named and identifiable spirit, and direct back and forth responses set
03:09on camera, turning a generic haunted hospital trope into a genuinely eerie encounter.
03:14Dude, there's no electricity in here. We shouldn't be getting any EMF.
03:19Mary, did I see you? Was that, were you the person I saw downstairs?
03:26Okay.
03:27Number 18, 141 Lost Souls, Ghost Hunters.
03:32If anybody's out here, show yourself.
03:37Adam and I were investigating the flight deck area and they've seen, you know, shadow figures
03:41and people out of the corner of their eyes. Can you state your name and rank, please?
03:47While patrolling the open flight deck, an area with power shut off and no public access,
03:52two investigators caught on camera what appears to be an atmospheric figure clad in naval dress,
03:58stepping out from the hangar bay and disappearing behind a ladder.
04:01I heard noise over there. Who's that?
04:05The footage, according to the official recap, shows a figure stand up and move.
04:10No reflection or any other means of debunking this figure.
04:14We need someone to check with security and make sure no one was up here on the flight deck.
04:19We'll stop off at the command center and grab the security guy there and dock them.
04:23Seriously, Amy, where did they go?
04:26Need to rewind this.
04:27What elevates this moment?
04:29A maritime military setting, a documented investigation with power offline,
04:33a seemingly active apparition caught on video and pursued by the team,
04:39and followed by EMF spikes, sudden footsteps on the deck plating,
04:43and a chilling whisper over the recorder.
04:46Go for Amy.
04:48Everybody has accounted for. No one has been on the flight deck.
04:52That's impossible.
04:54We verify with security where they were.
04:57We know where all of our people were.
04:59So at this point, we're scratching our heads.
05:02Number 17.
05:03Who's that in the hallway?
05:05Ghost stalkers.
05:06This looks like a solid human form that reflects light rather than absorbs it.
05:11Therefore, I'm left wondering what or who that was.
05:15On the 2014 investigation by near-death survivors Chad Lindberg and John E.L. Tenney
05:21at the abandoned Old Taylor Memorial Hospital in Hawkinsville, Georgia,
05:24the pair explore what they believe to be a portal to the other side.
05:28During the two nights' stints, one of the standout moments occurs when a fixed camera view
05:33catches a shadowy figure moving deliberately down a corridor, directly toward Lindberg's position.
05:39Despite no visible crew or logical explanation for the motion,
05:43that visual convergence between investigator and alleged apparition,
05:47combined with the team's record of spikes in EMF and temperature drop in a building
05:51long without power, gives the moment a chilling credibility.
05:56Look at that.
05:57Isn't that insane?
05:58It just walks across.
06:00It wasn't you.
06:01I monitored the outside.
06:02There's no one in there.
06:02That's why we're doing it this way.
06:03It's right next to where the portal is.
06:05It's possible that this entity, this being, this creature,
06:09has found an open portal and is using it to enter into our reality from wherever it comes from.
06:16Number 16.
06:18The Knocking Ghost Hunters.
06:21What is knocking?
06:22Listen, listen.
06:26Right behind us.
06:27During TAP's 2006 investigation of the Waverly Hills Sanatorium,
06:31the team recorded one of their clearest instances of alleged spirit communication.
06:37While stationed on a spiral staircase,
06:39investigators began asking direct yes or no questions to whatever presence lingered there.
06:44To their shock, distinct knocks echoed an apparent response.
06:48That's you.
06:49Do it again if you're doing that on purpose.
06:51Did I do it again?
06:53Yes.
06:54Maybe Bernie.
06:56Do it again.
07:01One more time.
07:04The exchange continued for several minutes,
07:07with consistent, intelligently timed replies matching the team's prompts,
07:11including a request for the spirit to knock again that immediately produced a single loud rap.
07:18Are you a woman?
07:21Yes.
07:22Are there more than one of you here?
07:24The interaction captured on multiple cameras and audio recorders stood out for its structure
07:38and clarity, a seeming dialogue through sound in one of America's creepiest landmarks.
07:44I think we're very in tune with Tina's goal of being very compassionate and trying to find out what the spirits here want.
07:50I'm glad we've got some answers.
07:51I know there's more to come, but it's definitely a work in progress.
07:54Are you trapped here?
07:55Number 15, Dark Shadows, Ghost Hunters.
08:00In one of the most replayed moments in paranormal TV history,
08:21Taps investigated the 19th century St. Augustine Lighthouse in Florida,
08:24a sight-long rumored to be haunted by former keepers and the daughters of a construction worker who died during its building.
08:31The team captured footage of a dark human-shaped shadow leaning over the railing at the top of the spiral staircase before darting out of view.
08:39Infrared cameras confirmed no light contamination or heat signature consistent with a living person.
08:58The figure's deliberate movement, combined with the absence of physical explanation,
09:03cemented this as one of Ghost Hunters' most infamous moments.
09:06A seemingly tangible apparition, observing the investigators from the heights of America's oldest lighthouse.
09:13What is that?
09:16There it is.
09:17I saw something look down at us.
09:20Oh my god, did you see it down?
09:22It looked just like it.
09:23Dude, it was just looking right over the railing.
09:26Number 14, A Less Than Warm Welcome, Ghost Adventures.
09:32After that time, dude, it was almost like Satan's hands himself, bro.
09:36That's what it feels like.
09:37It feels like I was touched by Satan.
09:40I can't…
09:41I can't explain it, dude.
09:47While investigating Dublin's notorious Hellfire Club,
09:50an 18th-century hunting lodge long linked to satanic rites and occult gatherings,
09:55the Ghost Adventures crew experienced one of their most unnerving encounters abroad.
09:59Deep inside the crumbling stone structure, Aaron Goodwin suddenly recoiled, claiming to
10:05feel what he described as a claw drag across his back near a chamber once used for Black
10:10Mass rituals.
10:11It's not a job anymore, it's a way of life.
10:18So let's just keep trucking with life, man, because there's nothing we can do about it.
10:23After the team hastily exited the premises, their recorders captured a chilling, disembodied
10:28female voice whispering,
10:29no, as if warning them not to return.
10:33The voice arrived unprompted, and its timing, right after Aaron's attack, turned the segment
10:38into one of the specials, The Finding Scares.
10:41A direct, almost conversational refusal from something unseen in Ireland's most infamous
10:46den of the dam.
10:48I know this sounds crazy, but could this be the Banshee?
10:51The female spirit who, when heard, tells you you're going to die?
10:55And who Aaron coincidentally heard a few nights ago also scream no?
11:00We were outside just chilling, and all of a sudden we heard this.
11:03No!
11:04Number 13.
11:06Ghosts of Masada.
11:08Destination Truth.
11:09Can you give us a sign of your presence?
11:14Is there anybody here?
11:16Do you hear that?
11:23Is this how it fits that?
11:24Yeah, it does.
11:25In this investigation of the ancient fortress of Masada in Israel, the team led by Josh Gates
11:31claims to have captured what appears to be a full-bodied, spectral figure on camera.
11:36According to the episode, while the crew surveyed the ruins after dark, one of their infrared
11:41cameras recorded what looked like a human silhouette seemingly projecting from the cliff face and
11:46moving across a rampart with no visible operator or light source.
11:50Hold on, hold on.
11:53Whatever it was, it's like I saw it for a second and then it's almost just like it was like smoke,
11:58like it just vanished.
11:59The figure holds posture, arms loosely at sides, and then vanishes into thin air.
12:04The production emphasizes how the environment had been secured and no extras or crew were
12:09present in the shot zone.
12:10Positioning the capture as one of the rarest, most shocking, see-it-on-video moments in the
12:15genre's history.
12:16I think this is the old bathhouse.
12:19Let's go look in here.
12:24I think I can still get a massage.
12:26I certainly hope so.
12:28Number 12.
12:29A bone-chilling scream.
12:32Destination fear.
12:33What is up with audible voices here?
12:35Did you hear any of it, Chelsea?
12:36This happened by close to my room.
12:38So I look back and I'm like, why is Tanner over here?
12:41I was like, come on!
12:44That was a scream!
12:45On a remote, abandoned resort-turned-sanitarium in West Virginia, the investigative team ventures
12:51into its decaying corridors as dusk deepens.
12:55The building, once a luxury retreat before years of medical use and eventual abandonment,
13:01already carries an oppressive mood of neglect and tragedy.
13:04Mid-investigation, after steady ambient sounds and low-level instrumentation readings, a sudden,
13:10high-pitched human scream pierces the darkness, unaccompanied by any visible source.
13:16You guys, what is going on?
13:18There's a Native American burial ground.
13:21There has been slave labor here.
13:23This is a horrible place.
13:25Everything in my gut and instincts is telling me to get out.
13:27You should just get out of here.
13:29Okay.
13:30Lord, please protect me.
13:31Go grab me, man.
13:32Lord, please protect me.
13:33The investigators quickly retreat, abandoning the area as the scream echoes off stone walls
13:38and empty rooms.
13:39The roar of fear, captured in silence and captured on camera, becomes the turning point.
13:45Not just evidence of presence, but a moment of the unknown forcing the crew back to the
13:51safe zone.
13:51I'll get my laptop.
13:53What was that?
13:55Everyone just calm down.
13:56Just calm down.
13:57It's behind us.
13:58It's still following us.
14:00Leave that camera.
14:02Oh my god, you guys.
14:03Dude, we all were here all together.
14:06That's the craziest thing I've heard.
14:07Number 11, The Brick, Ghost Adventures.
14:11Are you filming this?
14:12Yes, Kyle.
14:13Did you hear that?
14:14I'm capturing right now.
14:14I'm filming.
14:19It's coming from back here, bro.
14:21Hold on.
14:22Hold on.
14:23Okay, we hear you.
14:24In perhaps the most cited piece of physical evidence footage from Ghost Adventures, the
14:29investigators at the Goldfield Hotel in Goldfield, Nevada, contend that a single brick levitated
14:35off the floor with no visible human cause, curved through the air and slammed into a wall, triggering
14:42an immediate panicked reaction from lead investigator Zach Bagans.
14:45Is that you making all the noise?
14:48Holy!
14:49Holy!
14:49Oh my god!
14:50Holy!
14:52Stop!
14:54Stop!
14:56You dick!
14:57Go!
14:57This incident stands out for several reasons.
15:01One, the sheer force and trajectory of the brick defied ordinary explanation.
15:06And two, the team's visceral response added a raw authenticity.
15:11The episode's follow-up disclosed that they could not definitively rule out a natural cause
15:16after review.
15:17This makes the flying brick moment both iconic and contested.
15:22Whether fully paranormal or not, it remains a signature scare in the series.
15:27Please help me.
15:31Hey, Nick!
15:34Come on!
15:35Number 10.
15:36Walking Full Body Apparition.
15:39Ghosts of Morgan City.
15:40This team of investigators set out to solve the unexplained phenomena occurring in Morgan
15:46City, Louisiana.
15:48In the third episode, the trio responds to reports of strange activity at Idlewild Plantation.
15:54It has everything, between rituals and a floating blue shirt.
15:59A blue shirt was just floating with no hands, no head, no legs.
16:04With the building supposedly empty, Investigator Ben is completely caught off guard as he reviews
16:11electronic voice phenomenon EVP footage.
16:14The camera reveals a full-bodied, semi-transparent apparition crossing the hallway.
16:20Such evidence is so rare, it may easily be contested.
16:23But the crew determined the figure possibly belonged to a nurse from the early 1900s.
16:28With the pieces coming together, the wandering apparition becomes even more chilling.
16:34You can literally see through it, dude.
16:36You can see the background as it walks through right there on the bottom.
16:40Number 9.
16:41Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum.
16:44Destination Fear.
16:46Led by paranormal aficionado Dakota Layden, the team faces several distressing situations
16:52at the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum.
16:54Though not a singular moment, the crew stumbles into a few consecutive ones that keep even the
17:00most iron-willed viewer on their toes.
17:02The tension builds as Tanner and Dakota survey each floor.
17:06Eventually, they're startled by the unmistakable sound of a door creaking to a close.
17:19Following the sound, Tanner spots a cold mass on his thermal camera,
17:23alerting the pair that they're not alone.
17:26What was that?
17:27What?
17:28What?
17:28Dude, I just saw a black mass.
17:30A black mass?
17:31Dude, it was like, I don't even know.
17:32It was just like a black circle.
17:33On your thermal or on your night before?
17:35On my thermal.
17:35On the thermal.
17:36That means it's freezing cold.
17:38What's worse, Alex gets a disturbing call from Tanner.
17:41Except Tanner doesn't have his phone.
17:45What?
17:46Tanner?
17:50What is that?
17:50The team scrambles to find the prank caller to no avail,
17:54leaving viewers tantalized and terrified about what lurks in the asylum's halls.
18:00What happened?
18:01Dude, I have no freaking clue.
18:03Where's your phone?
18:04Downstairs.
18:05Number 8.
18:07Jumping Sauce Pan
18:08Help, my house is haunted.
18:10When it comes to hauntings in the household, this UK trio are master investigators.
18:16While responding to paranormal claims related to an unassuming cottage,
18:20the team sits down with a miniature cast iron stove set that has reportedly been moving on its own.
18:26To their surprise, one of the tiny pans jumps up, touching Jane's palm.
18:32Is there something attached to this object?
18:35Jump.
18:35Did that move or was it your hand?
18:37I didn't touch it.
18:38Some fans speculate whether this one is authentic,
18:42but the crew makes a point of allaying questions by showing multiple angles and attempting to replicate the instance.
18:49Though they don't get another response by the alleged spirit,
18:52the jump scare was definitely creepy.
18:55It looks like it jumped.
18:56It jumps.
18:56It jumps.
18:57You see it jump.
18:58Number 7.
19:00Woman in Black, The Haunted Hunts.
19:02In the second season premiere of this UK paranormal series,
19:06the investigators begin their multi-episode exploration of the famously haunted city of Chester.
19:12After learning about potential ghost sightings at the Chester Rose,
19:16the team set up camp in hopes of spotting one.
19:18Though doubtful of seeing an actual ghost, Danny readies a full-spectrum camera.
19:23And yet, as a perfect primer for what the city has to offer,
19:27he captures a photo of a mysterious woman in a black dress.
19:31Knowing the streets were empty and the photos preceding and following this shot did not achieve the same results,
19:37it's possible he found an unsuspecting apparition out in the open.
19:41Even ghosts need to get out sometimes.
19:44Is that going to get you?
19:46Number 6.
19:47Flying Knife.
19:49Most Haunted.
19:50In the first of this three-part episodic feature,
19:53Yvette Fielding takes her team to the historic stand-in hall.
19:56Most Haunted builds the tension from the very start,
19:59with possible communications and temperature shifts hinting at constant activity in the building.
20:05I'd like to get out of this room, because we've got things falling around.
20:08Immediately following a potential sighting that leaves the team uneasy and anxious to find the intruder,
20:14they're startled, as a large knife seems to be thrown from the wall.
20:17That was right by the ladders.
20:19That sounded like it's coming from in front of me.
20:21While we don't see the knife fly unassisted on camera,
20:25we do witness the before and after.
20:27It leaves the team visibly shaken,
20:29which makes this moment that much more unnerving.
20:32Look at that! I knew it! I saw it! I said, look what's behind you!
20:37Well, the fly's there as well.
20:38There is!
20:39You stuck around it!
20:41Number 5.
20:42Slithering Mass.
20:44Paranormal Lockdown.
20:4564 hours deep in their stay at the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum,
20:50Nick, Katrina, and Rob are seemingly joined by a shadowy companion.
20:55While investigating the fourth floor,
20:56Rob describes a crawling mass creeping against the wall in the distance.
21:01What?
21:02I thought I saw something move across that back wall.
21:04Luckily for him, and the rest of us,
21:07he managed to capture the dark figure on camera.
21:09Here, so watch again.
21:11So here we are.
21:13And it's right here that I noticed that it's moving.
21:15It's sliding right across, right to left.
21:18It's unclear what exactly the entity is,
21:21but it does seem to be moving.
21:23As if that wasn't enough to send shivers up our spines,
21:26there's also the knowledge that they'd felt a presence with them beforehand.
21:31And Katrina, our cameraman Rob, and I
21:33are all experiencing a growing paranormal presence
21:36concentrated on the fourth floor.
21:38Number 4.
21:39Frank Falls.
21:40Ghost Hunters.
21:41When it comes to paranormal investigations,
21:44Ghost Hunters is one of the most recognizable shows in the genre.
21:48Their episodes are regularly stocked full of gut-wrenching moments,
21:51but few are quite as harrowing as Frank's fall in the first season.
21:56While the team is investigating temperature shifts in the armory's catwalk,
22:05the sound man is thrust onto his back from an invisible force.
22:09Something just went right through me.
22:11He describes the sensations behind the traumatizing act,
22:14from a sudden coldness to an overwhelming rush of fear.
22:17What'd you feel when you...
22:18I got cold.
22:21And then something just right from the floor.
22:24The team just came up.
22:25He just took me up and snapped my head back.
22:28He just took me off.
22:29It's one thing to see something spooky in the distance,
22:32but it's another to be physically affected by it.
22:36Okay.
22:37Boom.
22:37Damn, he's down.
22:38Number 3.
22:40Wandering Shadow.
22:41Most Haunted.
22:42While investigating the Wentworth Woodhouse Stables in Rotherham,
22:46Carl and Stuart embark on a chase in the main building corridors.
22:50After an endless pursuit of the person behind a rattling door,
22:54fallen chair, and other unexplained noises,
22:57Carl hears clear footsteps in the adjacent hallway.
23:02The two attempt to spot their tormentor
23:06when a shocked Stuart notices a shadow fleeing down the stairs.
23:10What's that?
23:12There.
23:12I can't, Carl, I can see it there.
23:16Go for it, go.
23:17Hello?
23:18I'm not behind you.
23:19I'm not behind you.
23:19Hello?
23:20Get your toes.
23:21Hello?
23:22They run after the figure,
23:24but to their horror,
23:25no one's there.
23:26While the vanishing entity is scary enough,
23:29it's the chase that really creates the heart-racing atmosphere
23:32that leaves everyone, audience included,
23:35uneasy about what lurks in those halls.
23:38Beep fruit around this room.
23:39There's a dead end.
23:40What the hell?
23:41I thought it would be one of our team.
23:44It can't be, because they're all over there, Carl.
23:47Number 2.
23:48Shattered Glass.
23:50Ghost Hunters.
23:51The Stanley Hotel is most famous for having inspired the Overlook Hotel
23:55in Stephen King's The Shining,
23:57but it also happens to be home to numerous claims of paranormal activity.
24:02Ghost Hunters' Jason was no exception to this during his overnight stay in room 401.
24:07In the early hours of the morning,
24:09Jason woke to the unmistakable sound of his closet door opening.
24:12Even more frightening,
24:20the glass at his bedside table shattered.
24:23After ruling out temperature shifts and a tangible force,
24:26the team can only assume something supernatural chipped the glass.
24:30The hair-raising encounters don't stop there,
24:39leaving viewers distressed as the hotel lives up to its horrifying reputation.
24:44Before we continue, be sure to subscribe to our channel and ring the bell to get notified
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25:00The historic site of Old Alton Bridge, sometimes known as Goatman's Bridge,
25:12was originally part of a Halloween special.
25:14A favorite among paranormal investigators,
25:17the bridge and its surrounding area is notorious for supernatural sightings and attacks.
25:22It's a bad idea to be up there.
25:25It's not safe outside right now.
25:27It's also home to the disturbing local legend revolving around the titular Goatman.
25:32Already anxious about the location,
25:34Investigator Aaron is inexplicably thrown roughly 20 feet and left disoriented.
25:45Aaron's bone-chilling account of this experience is pretty unsettling on its own.
25:49But the atmospheric noise and spooky editing creates a particularly frightening moment.
25:57The other crew members are also confronted by strange phenomena,
26:03making this episode not only memorable, but one that haunts them and fans to this day.
26:09I'm looking in here, and something came at me and hit me, and I literally,
26:15and I just, and you know, I was just, hey, I'm gonna go look over here.
26:18I wasn't even rolling.
26:19What came at you?
26:19I don't know.
26:20Which paranormal encounter makes your skin crawl?
26:24Let us know in the comments below.
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