Original subtitles

WILLIAM SHATNER: A man-made lake with a deadly reputation.

A remote mountaintop summit

with a chilling past.

And an eerie hotel

where evil...

is said to reside.

(woman screams)

Did you ever have the feeling

that a dark energy is lurking close by?

Or that you were actually confronted

by an unearthly presence?

Could it be possible

that sinister entities are hiding all around us

at so-called "cursed places,"

lying in wait

to possess our very soul?

If this is true, how can we protect ourselves

when encountering evil?

Well, that is what we'll try and find out.

♪ ♪

Deep within this mountain range lies Lake Lanier.

Millions of people venture to this popular vacation spot

to relax and unwind,

despite the fact that every year,

a shocking number of people drown

within its placid waters.

And many of their bodies

are never seen again.

LISA RUSSELL: If you live anywhere

near Lake Lanier in North Georgia,

you're gonna hear every summer all of the deaths.

There are bad boating accidents.

And when somebody goes overboard,

it's almost impossible to find them before they drown.

BUCK BUCHANAN: Lake Lanier, from the surface, looks clear.

But we hear time and time again

when we respond to these drownings.

People will say that, "He didn't go into the water, come up,

"struggle and drown.

He went in and never came back up."

And this happens time and time again.

This lake seems to take people

in one gulp.

MITCH HOROWITZ: Lake Lanier is 26 miles long,

it has 700 miles of shorefront.

And it's tempting

to attribute the inordinate number of fatalities

to the size of the lake.

But the fact is

there are lakes of commensurate size

in Northern Georgia

that don't have half that number of fatalities or accidents.

So, clearly, there is something about Lake Lanier

that is cause for alarm.

SHATNER: Since the 1950s, it is estimated

that more than 600 people have lost their lives in Lake Lanier.

It is such a staggering number of fatalities

that, for decades,

many have come to believe that these waters may be cursed.

RUSSELL: Even though there's a lot of people around,

there is just some strange vibe about the lake.

I feel it's a majestic body of water,

but you can't deny that there's something odd about Lake Lanier.

BUCHANAN: When you actually get into Lanier,

you get a feeling that you're not alone

when you should be alone.

I don't feel like

someone's reaching out to grab me,

but the water feels thicker than it should.

And what I mean by that is

a lady fell out of a boat, and we actually witnessed it.

And we ran over there and pulled her out of the water

and she was very upset and she said, "I'm so embarrassed."

And I said, "Don't worry.

We see people do this all the time."

And she said, "No, you don't understand.

I'm a lifeguard."

And she said just when she found herself

in that water, it was just like molasses.

So all the things that we see in this lake,

it finally got so bad and scared the locals so much

that we think maybe we're just stuck with a curse

we have to live with.

SHATNER: Could the numerous fatalities

that have taken place at Lake Lanier

be the result of a curse?

It may sound far-fetched to some.

But for decades,

researchers have been examining the possibility

that Lake Lanier could be harboring the power

to inflict harm.

And according to their investigations,

it may have something to do with the history of Lake Lanier.

JACK W. OCKER: Lake Lanier is the largest lake in Georgia.

It's a man-made lake meant to provide water and power

to the surrounding communities.

They actually made it by flooding a valley

that had a town in it-- Oscarville.

So, they had to relocate the people that lived there.

Then they just drowned the entire town under water.

SHATNER: Oscarville wasn't the only town

that was affected by the building of Lake Lanier.

In the 1940s and '50s,

the U.S. government acquired the rights

to more than 56,000 acres of land

in Forsyth, Hall and Dawson counties

to make room for the 38,000-acre lake

and more than 700 miles of shoreline.

This included several small towns,

and the remains of these communities

are still submerged

beneath the surface of Lake Lanier.

BUCHANAN: When they built the lake,

they left tons of structure in the water.

We've got concrete, roads, bridges.

We've got a racetrack under there, we've got

standing timber that stands as high as 40, 60,

70 feet from the bottom.

HOROWITZ: There seems to be a great deal

of debris in the water,

so it's not an ideal place for people

to be swimming or boating or Jet-Skiing or partying.

The fact is it's a dangerous place.

SHATNER: Authorities claim that many people drown

in Lake Lanier because they get caught

in the debris lurking beneath its surface.

But researchers studying the lake believe

this is only part of the story, and that the source

of the dark force drawing people down into its murky depths

is a Native American burial ground

that was submerged by the lake's construction.

Back in 2007, there was a drought,

and the water went way low,

and because of that, they found an area

called the Summerour Mounds, Indian Mounds.

It's considered a sacred area

that belonged to the Native Americans,

the Creeks and the Cherokees.

Lake Lanier was built by the Army Corps of Engineers,

and according to the Army Corps of Engineers,

they removed all the bodies

while they were creating Lake Lanier.

But back when they were building these lakes,

they didn't have ground-penetrating equipment.

So there's a great likelihood that there are bodies

of the Native Americans under the waters of Lake Lanier.

SHATNER: Could the presence

of Native American remains

beneath Lake Lanier have a connection

to the unusual number of accidental deaths there?

Has the Native American belief in the power

of ancestral spirits cursed Lake Lanier?

TOK THOMPSON: Certainly among Native American traditions,

we have a widespread belief in curses,

particularly land-based curses.

And this connects to an overall sort of belief in animism,

that the material world is infused with spiritual aspects.

Now, many Native American traditions have long-standing,

very deep beliefs about how to treat dead bodies,

how not to disturb them, how not to disturb burial sites.

The desecration of those is held in native communities

to bring on a lot of bad spiritual energy.

SHATNER: Is it possible that Lake Lanier is home

to dark spiritual energy?

Perhaps.

But what's most surprising

is that even though this lake may be cursed,

people continue to enter its waters every day.

BUCHANAN: There's world class divers

that will not dive Lake Lanier.

We have 11 to 14 million people a year

that are coming here and taking their chances

in spite of the fact that there has been somewhere

between 600 and 700 drownings on this lake.

I'm not saying that there's a curse,

but I'm saying

there's definitely some bad energy.

And if it's not cursed, maybe it should be.

SHATNER: It's fascinating

that in spite of Lake Lanier's morbid history,

vacationers continue to frolic in its murky waters.

But there's a mountaintop

located more than 5,000 miles away in Russia

that locals simply refuse to visit.

It was the site of a violent massacre

that some believe was the work

of evil forces.

SHATNER: Nine mountaineers

from the Ural Polytechnic Institute

embark on a perilous journey through Russia's Ural Mountains.

Their destination:

a remote mountain peak known as Otorten,

which in the local Mansi language means,

"Don't Go There."

STONEHILL: They went out

on this very strenuous trek or mission

to show that the mountain could be conquered.

As far as we know, they were all experienced.

Igor Dyatlov, who was in charge of the group,

had about seven missions to his name, similar missions.

They were supposed just to study the mountain

to show that they can withstand the incredible cold

in this desolate place and come back.

SHATNER: A few days into their trek,

the hikers move through a mountain pass

with high winds and poor visibility,

causing them to veer miles off course.

Realizing their mistake

and faced with the bitter cold of the coming night,

they choose to stop and camp

on a slope called Kholat Syakhal,

which in Mansi translates to "The Mountain of the Dead."

(wind whistling)

STONEHILL: It's a very a windy area.

When I say windy, the winds are horrible.

And they should not have put the tent on that slope.

They could have done it easily 100 meters away in the forest.

They went against all the knowledge

that experienced trackers should have.

So why would they put it out there?

What drove them? Nobody knows for sure.

SHATNER: Weeks later, when it becomes clear

that the group has failed to return from its expedition,

a military search and rescue operation is launched.

They find the campsite abandoned,

and a tent that has been torn to pieces.

Curiously, the investigators determine

that the tent was cut and ripped open from the inside,

and the hikers appear to have fled in socks or barefoot.

We're dealing with a group of experienced hikers

who escaped their tent in the middle of the night

without any reason

unless something happened to their minds.

SHATNER: In search of the hikers,

the investigators move to the edge of a nearby forest.

What they eventually find has defied explanation

for more than 50 years.

STONEHILL: Four of them were discovered initially,

and five of them were found later.

And they all died differently.

Some of the bodies died from exposure and were intact.

Some of them were dressed completely.

Most of them were naked, so to say.

Others had horrible wounds on them.

Their bones were crushed inside their bodies.

Others, their skull was crushed.

One woman lost her tongue and parts of her face.

Others were burned,

like somebody put their feet in the fire

or they put it themselves.

-He's here! -Aah!

STONEHILL: They escaped like some force,

something scared them.

SHATNER: The official causes of death for the hikers claimed

that six had died from hypothermia,

and the other three from fatal injuries caused

by an "unknown compelling force."

But the inquiry was forced to an abrupt end

by the Soviet government,

and the chief investigator refused

to sign off on the final report.

STONEHILL: There were two investigators initially,

and they were told to shut up and close the case,

with the determination that the cause of death

was an invisible force of nature that killed them.

NOORY: In some cases, the fact

that some of them died from the bitter cold--

okay, that makes sense.

They're in a region that's freezing.

But what about the other people?

Fractured skulls, crushed lungs.

There's something weird here.

SHATNER: What was the compelling force

that inflicted such brutal

and grotesque harm on these victims?

While some have speculated

that it could have been an avalanche

or even an attack by Mansi tribes,

there was virtually no evidence to support these claims.

Others point to local legends of some kind of monster--

a creature capable of tearing people apart

with its voice.

STONEHILL: There are descriptions

of Mansi warning people not to go to this mountain,

not to go to this area because the sounds

that come from there can kill you.

The entity that lives

in that mountain emits horrible shrieking sounds...

(eerie, otherworldly screaming)

...that can destroy human beings.

(growling)

SHATNER: Recently, a new theory has surfaced.

One that suggests

this mountain pass may be just as deadly

as the Mansi name for it implies,

not because of some supernatural monster,

but for a surprisingly scientific reason.

(wind whistling)

So, this is a very windy pass in the Ural Mountains.

Uh, in 2014, there was some study that was done

that showed that the wind

kind of whipping through, because of the topography,

caused low-frequency sound, kind of a hum.

(wind whistling, eerie bellowing)

And low-frequency sound can cause the eyeball to vibrate,

can cause people to see shadows out of the corner of their eyes,

especially if you're in an environment

that is desolate,

which is what that was to begin with.

(eerie bellowing)

MICHAEL DENNIN: The dimensions

and the physics of the actual pass

are likely to lead to very low frequencies,

which is exactly what infrasound is.

Infrasound is just referring to any sound

that's below our normal hearing.

But sound itself is just pressure waves

and vibration of the air.

(eerie bellowing)

So your body is still detecting it,

your ears are still reacting to it,

your eardrums are moving,

and that's still generating electrical signals

in your brain.

So there is an impact of the infrasound

that we don't fully understand yet.

TRAVIS TAYLOR: Being exposed to this sound--

it's fatiguing your body.

Any type of fatigue

that's long-term can cause significant psychosis.

In fact, there were several cases

on the Mir space station where the Russian cosmonauts

were exposed to various vibrations,

and it caused them to actually have psychosis.

I have a friend who worked on consoles for Mir,

and he said that once,

one of the cosmonauts actually pulled a knife

on one of the other cosmonauts

because of this type of exposure.

STONEHILL: It's not like a rock falling on somebody's head.

It's happening inside their minds.

An infrasound is a powerful weapon,

and apparently, it's affecting those

who are coming to the mountain.

That's why it is a hypothesis now

that is being explored more and more in Russia

as to the cause of death of the Dyatlov tourists.

I don't subscribe to the theory

that heavy winds created an atmosphere

where these people went nuts.

I think there was something else afoot,

something very evil and strange

that happened to these nine hikers.

And I hope we get the answers to it.

But again, maybe we don't want the answer.

Maybe because it's so hideous and so evil,

we don't want to know it.

SHATNER: While modern science may offer a possible explanation

as to what caused the terrifying event at the Dyatlov Pass,

for many, the incident can only be described

as an invisible force of evil that lurks on the mountaintop.

And a similar sense of dread surrounds a notorious landmark

in Los Angeles that, for decades, was known...

as the suicide hotel.

SHATNER: Numerous guests staying

at the Cecil Hotel

file complaints about low water pressure.

A maintenance worker is dispatched

to check the water tanks located on the hotel's roof,

where he makes a shocking discovery.

Floating face down

in one of the water tanks is the decomposing body

of 21-year-old hotel guest Elisa Lam.

On the last day of 2012, New Year's Eve,

was the last time she was seen alive.

Elisa Lam was caught by the camera in the elevator.

And then she disappears.

The LAPD-- they released a video of Elisa Lam,

and it's a really bizarre,

bizarre video.

She's seen going in and out of an elevator.

She seems to be interacting

or playing hide-and-seek with someone.

She's frantically, erratically

pushing all the buttons in the elevator.

And then she was found face down

inside a sealed water tank

at the roof of the hotel.

(siren blaring)

SHATNER: After conducting an investigation,

the Los Angeles County Coroner ruled

that Elisa Lam's death was an accident.

But the bizarre circumstances

surrounding her case led some researchers to believe

that something more insidious had taken place,

and that Elisa Lam was actually the latest victim

of a deadly curse that plagues the Cecil Hotel.

Since it first opened in 1924,

an alarming number of people have taken their lives

while staying there, earning it the nickname

"suicide hotel."

HOROWITZ: The Cecil Hotel

is a Beaux Arts structure.

It was built in the style of grand American hotels.

Back in its day, it was quite beautiful,

with columns, marble floors, an expansive lobby,

and it was intended to be a very high-class hotel

for an upwardly-mobile clientele.

BARTLETT: All hotels have deaths in them,

but for some reason, the Cecil Hotel

seems to have far much more than the average number.

When I was doing my research, I found 17 suicides

within the newspaper archives that link to the hotel.

And those are just reported ones.

Now, it doesn't sound like a lot,

but compared to all the other hotels,

I would find maybe one or two, almost without exception.

So, it makes this particular hotel stand out.

EBNER: The Cecil Hotel had only been open a few short years.

And the sheer number of suicides

was already coming to a peak.

W.K. Norton-- he poisoned himself in his room.

And Army medic Sergeant Louis D. Borden--

he surgically slit his own throat

in the hotel room.

The list of unexplained deaths goes on and on and on.

And people were, like, thinking, "Wow.

"Could it be something about the Cecil Hotel

that triggered this kind of insane behavior?"

HOROWITZ: There are certain places

that seem to attract an inordinate amount

of violent activity.

It's very easy for us to talk in terms of coincidence

when we're discussing curses,

but if people hear

that there was an act of violence,

suicide at a certain place,

that seems to spark something in the human imagination,

including in the most negative sense.

Hence, we have the phenomena

of people being attracted to certain spots.

You might use the expression, "I don't like the energy

coming off of that place."

We use it metaphorically, although,

there may be something actual to it.

SHATNER: What is it about certain places,

such as the Cecil Hotel,

that causes people to harm themselves or others?

Could they really be cursed?

Some researchers claim that if there is a dark energy

at the Cecil Hotel,

it may have already existed at this site

long before the hotel was built.

Another interesting aspect of curses

and cursed places particularly is

that there's always a reason of why this became cursed.

So, for example, in L.A.,

this has been a very contentious area

for a long time, ever since the initial colonization.

(gunshot)

So, the local tribe,

the Tongva tribe, suffered greatly.

(yelling)

They were pretty much massacred at the hands

of the Spanish colonists who arrived in this area.

Or later, in 1871,

where they have the Chinatown massacre,

where this was an ethnic-driven violence

perpetrated against the Chinese community in L.A.

that had been established here,

and it was horrific.

The idea is that there's a... a curse

on this area that reflects these atrocities,

and that the curse is not gonna be lifted

as long as those atrocities are not accounted for.

SHATNER: Is it possible that the dark history

of the Cecil Hotel was caused

by a violent energy permeating the area?

True or not,

the Cecil Hotel nevertheless closed its doors

in 2017 as a result of its sinister reputation.

A lot of people, of course, roll their eyes

at the idea of a curse.

But if you gave a person the option

of spending a night alone

in a place that was rumored to be cursed, like the Cecil,

most of the people who roll their eyes would probably pause,

given such a macabre history.

Was the Cecil Hotel home

to dark forces beyond our comprehension?

Given the numerous deaths on the property,

it certainly seems possible.

But perhaps what's even more frightening

than a cursed location is the possibility

of coming face to face with pure evil,

like in the case of renowned blues musician Robert Johnson,

who, according to legend,

received a deadly gift

from the devil himself.

♪ ♪

SHATNER: This small town,

located within an area known as the Mississippi Delta,

has been called the birthplace of the blues.

FISHOF: Delta blues music

basically started in the early '20s,

and it came from Mississippi.

And it was African American musicians

who sang very soulfully...

(guitar playing)

...very fiercely with their guitars,

with their harmonicas.

And it wasn't usually a whole band.

It was usually an individual person.

SHATNER: Of all the blues musicians to play in Clarksdale

during the 1920s and '30s,

one of the most influential was a guitarist, singer

and songwriter named Robert Johnson.

SYLVESTER HOOVER: Robert Johnson,

before he got really famous,

he would go down on the corner and play his blues music.

But early on in Robert Johnson's career,

he wasn't that good.

And the Delta people would tell Robert Johnson,

"You go to the cemetery and play,

"and you would have a big audience

and nobody would complain how bad you play your music."

(playing guitar slowly)

FISHOF: Robert Johnson, in his early part of his career,

was an okay harmonica player,

not a great guitar player.

He just basically thrown out of places

because he really wasn't considered very good.

ANTHONY SHERROD: He really wasn't good at all,

but he kept on...

wanting to do it,

to show people that he had potential.

SHATNER: When faced with the prospect

of having his musical ambitions thwarted,

according to legend,

Robert Johnson chose to enlist the help of a higher power--

by making a deal

with the Devil.

(insects trilling)

HOOVER: Peoples in the Delta would say,

if you play blues at midnight at the crossroads,

you gonna meet a lot of strange peoples.

And you might meet Satan himself at the crossroad.

And so Robert Johnson went to the crossroad

that Saturday night.

He really went to the crossroads,

gave his guitar to the Devil.

The Devil strummed it a few times and gave it back to him.

And from that moment on, he sold his soul to the Devil

and became an amazing guitar player overnight.

And that's how the legend goes.

He came back maybe two and a half or three hours later.

(playing guitar skillfully)

And so this guy was a different person.

After he left the crossroad,

he was doing stuff that he couldn't do before.

Whatever he did,

he never was the same again.

Honeyboy said he could play so great,

people would come from here and yonder

to hear this guy play his music.

This guy seemed like he had a magnet

after he left the crossroad.

FISHOF: From that point on, he became an amazing guitar player.

It was just a lot different, what any musician could do.

Robert Johnson's legacy will live for many, many years.

You cannot listen to a song from the Beatles,

Eric Clapton,

Led Zeppelin or from the Rolling Stones

without giving credit to Robert Johnson's style

that many of these musicians copied.

And even Keith Richards said

he could play the guitar like three musicians together.

He had that ability.

(playing bluesy guitar)

SHATNER: Today, Robert Johnson is widely considered

to be one of the greatest blues performers of all time.

And his songs are among the most influential recordings

in the history of popular music.

But there are many who point to the lyrics of his songs

as evidence that he really did make a pact with Satan

in order to achieve greatness.

FISHOF: Robert Johnson,

in his music,

refers to the Devil basically by saying,

"I went to the crossroads and fell on my knees."

And he asked the Lord for mercy.

BROCK: If you believe that the Devil is ever-present,

that you can encounter him on the crossroads,

then that's a really critical idea in forming this notion

of the Faustian bargain, the deal with the Devil.

This promise of their souls

in exchange for something else from Satan.

This is key to the fear of the Devil.

That Satan could be so knowing,

so ubiquitous, so powerful

that he could know your secret wants

and he could offer something to you

and you might be willing to take it,

depending on your circumstance.

SHATNER: Did Robert Johnson sell his soul to the Devil?

It's a question that is hard to answer.

But the mysterious circumstances surrounding his death in 1938

have helped perpetuate the myth.

FISHOF: Robert Johnson's death is basically a mystery.

Many say that

he met up with a jealous husband

after flirting with his wife,

and the husband gave him a bottle of whiskey

that was filled with poison.

There's many other theories of how he passed away.

But many people say he just died

and maybe it was time for the Devil to take his soul.

HOOVER: That mystery, it throws a monkey wrench in it,

and some people gonna believe this,

some people gonna believe that.

Ain't nobody know the full story of this guy,

because that's the way he portrayed himself,

you know? Seeing...

And that's just the way it is.

The mystery of the crossroad.

♪ ♪

SHATNER: Is the tale of Robert Johnson

meeting the Devil at the crossroads

merely a piece of intriguing folklore?

Or does the story suggest

that evil is lurking nearby?

Perhaps some clues can be found

by examining a harrowing condition that is referred to

as demonic possession.

SHATNER: Father Michael Maginot,

the pastor of St. Stephen Martyr Catholic Church,

meets with Latoya Ammons in her home.

But this is not a common pastoral house call.

Because Father Mike, as he is known by his parishioners,

is also an exorcist,

and he has been asked to rid this home

of a demon.

Latoya moved into this particular house in Gary

in November of 2011.

She was the mother of three children.

And once the family moved in,

they were noticing all kinds of phenomena

happening in the house.

Flies were swarming in the middle of winter.

They would hear noises through the house.

(creaking)

Footsteps coming up the stairs from the basement.

They would see shadow figures

pacing back and forth in the living room

and turn on the light

and see muddy footprints left on the floor.

Her children, uh,

were also exhibiting some really odd behavior.

One of the boys was seen talking to an imaginary friend

that resided somewhere within the house.

And reports also suggest that the daughter

was seen levitating several feet above her bed at night.

MAGINOT: And so Latoya was convinced

something beyond explanation was happening to her family.

But no one would really believe her.

During that time,

the children-- they were getting sick.

And then child protective services were getting reports

that they were missing a lot of school.

So they actually were investigating Latoya.

-(crying) -She was saying

that it was demonic possession.

And so they were giving her psychiatric examinations.

But they couldn't find any psychological illness with her.

SHATNER: Not only did the authorities fail to find

any trace of mental illness in Latoya's behavior

or any inconsistencies in her story,

they also witnessed an event involving her son

that made them realize that something

really was happening to this family.

Something unexplained.

During the family's psychiatric evaluations,

the youngest child

began rolling eyes in the back of his head,

growling.

And then the case worker

as well as several members of hospital staff

witnessed the boy walk backwards up a wall.

MAGINOT: When they witnessed the boy walk up the wall backwards,

yeah, they were believers.

They knew there was no explanation for that.

And so I got called to investigate this case

by the hospital chaplain.

And I went to visit Latoya.

It was a four-hour interview.

And it was in the midst of that

that I placed the crucifix on her forehead,

and she began to convulse.

Then I took it off, and she stopped convulsing.

And that's one of the main things

that fits the signs of demonic possession.

After considering the evidence, I was convinced

that the only way to get rid of it

was a church-sanctioned exorcism.

And so, I reported that to the bishop,

and he gave permission.

An exorcism is a ritual, a spiritual battle.

And so, you need to somehow upset the demon.

One of the instruments

that I would use would be a blessed crucifix

to put on the person's forehead.

A second thing is sprinkling holy water.

There are three sections of the rite

where you're addressing the demon,

and a second place where you're addressing God.

And you can do it in English

or else you could also do it in Latin.

In Latoya's case,

when we were addressing a demon in Latin,

Latoya would be convulsing,

but when we were addressing God, she would stop convulsing.

I'm the only one there that knew the Latin,

and... and I found that kind of amazing.

A demonic entity will fight

for the territory that they have gained,

but then, eventually, it starts to lessen.

With Latoya, finally, she fell asleep,

and that was kind of an indication that it left.

Once she got cleared, um,

then the children were also fine after that, as well.

SHATNER: What saved Latoya Ammons and her children

from their deep physical and emotional torment?

Was it really the spiritual power

of the ritual that Father Michael performed?

Or was it the psychological or psychosomatic effect

that simply performing a ritual

had on Latoya and her family?

Latoya's case is really interesting

because it's a case that actually made national news.

Herself and her children were exhibiting symptoms

that could not be explained rationally

by modern medical science.

But in the end, after all of their attempts,

it was the exorcism itself

that actually produced the positive effect.

We have evidence of exorcism rituals

dating back 3,000 years ago in ancient Babylon.

(groaning)

To those that say that exorcism

shouldn't exist in modern society,

they really need to appreciate just how successful

exorcism can be as a ritual,

how it's able to help people.

ARIEL BAR TZADOK: Exorcisms are not just performed by one religion or another.

They're performed by all the different religions.

It happens everywhere,

because we're dealing with a commonality of human souls.

We recognize that the nature of a possession

is an earthbound soul

which is unable to or afraid to move forward

in its spiritual progression.

And we perform rituals,

because the nature of ritual

is being an expression

of inner psychological ideas and beliefs.

And therefore, as such,

exorcisms become required practice.

(screaming)

SHATNER: Can the ancient practice of exorcism

actually purge demonic entities from the human body,

as cultures around the world have believed for centuries?

It's an intriguing possibility.

But some people argue that the best way to fight evil

is not by performing rituals

but rather by harnessing

the cleansing power of fire.

SHATNER: Members of a church group set two houses on fire

and burn them to the ground.

The blaze is intended to purge the village of evil spirits

believed to have been responsible

for the recent deaths of 20 people.

These houses were older houses,

but they had been traditionally associated

with magical practices

and the reports of witchcraft being practiced.

WHITEHEAD: And as they burnt the places down to the ground,

some of the villagers reported seeing a demon

come out of the ashes.

And they've reported all kinds of really creepy things

that happened once they tried to burn down those houses.

So the question is, were they successful

in getting rid of evil in that place?

Or did they actually just aggravate it more

by burning those houses to the ground?

THOMPSON: Fire is a very common means of spiritual purification.

And so many different traditions

incorporate fire in some sense,

very often for its destructive properties

and yet, at the same time, cleansing properties.

When we're talking about places

that seem to have negativity to them,

many cultures have rituals--

whether it's burning

or other types of ways

that you can affect the energy of the place.

It's all about what the intention is,

which changes the flow of energy.

I've had a lot of people on my radio show

who have apparently cleansed haunted houses

and haunted areas.

They talk about putting sage

around the perimeter of the house

and things like that

that chase away the evil spirits.

But by and large, I'm not sure that works.

I think once a place is haunted,

it's gonna haunt.

It's gonna do what it does.

DAVID ONO: I think there are energies in life that we don't understand.

Either created through our own minds

and our own physical energy

or perhaps the physical energy of a place.

There are places where people have died

either violently or tragically,

and that creates this dark energy.

There might be some negative spirits,

some ghosts.

And that force that's happening within it

could also affect people.

DAVE SPINKS: I've been to some of the most evil and nasty locations

you could imagine.

And I've seen people's lives ruined

by these negative, evil forces.

And in my opinion, some of these locations

are stained forever

with the blood and the energy of these tragic events,

these murders,

these suicides.

And to me, that can never go away.

♪ ♪

So what do you think?

Do dark forces actually exist?

Or are supposed evil encounters

simply fabrications of our human imagination?

Well, the truth is that it's hard to scientifically prove

whether or not malevolent entities are, in fact, real.

Which is why, in all likelihood,

people will continue to both fear and fight

against evil forces that remain unseen and...

...unexplained.

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