'Ghost Adventures: Quarantine' Finale: Bagans opens the infamous Dybbuk box and all hell breaks loose
The foursome continued their investigation of the unexplained phenomenon in Zak Bagans' Las Vegas-based 'Haunted Museum. As the world is reeling with effects of the coronavirus pandemic and stays confined to their homes as per the state's prevention guidelines, the team of paranormal investigators from 'Ghost Adventures' quarantine themselves in one of the most haunted buildings they have ever stepped foot in. Equipped with masks, gloves, filming and investigative equipment, Bagans, Aaron Goodwin, Jay Wasley, and Billy Tolley aim to find out if the fear stirred by the pandemic outbreak fuels the paranormal activity inside the museum.
The four-part special 'Ghost Adventures: Quarantine', covered various supernatural happenings in particular exhibits, where museum-goers had encounters prior to the lockdown that forced the museum to close its door to the public. In the final episode, Bagans and the team proceed to the last step of their investigation - opening the infamous, mystery-ridden Dybbuk Box.
Dybbuk Box
On a full moon night, Bagans and the team decide to take on the unopened mystery that is the 'Dybbuk Box'. It is believed to be a container for pure evil in the form of a restless, malicious possessive spirit from Jewish mythology, called the Dybbuk which seems to have the power to control thoughts and emotions. The Dybbuk Box is said to be one of the most dangerous haunted objects in the world. The team has tried to open the Dybbuk box before, but they weren't able to do it as things started spiraling out of their control, which Bagans believe was its way of trying to stop them from opening it.
The Dybbuk is sometimes believed to attach itself to a part of a deceased person's soul, helping them accomplish unfinished goals from the after-life. The Dybbuk box was originally a wine box, owned by a Holocaust survivor, Havaleh, who escaped from Poland. He purchased the box from Spain, before moving to the US. In 2001, the box was purchased by Kevin Mannis at an estate sale. However, when he later tried to return it to the family, they refused to take it back claiming there was a Dybbuk living inside it. According to Mannis, the box holds two 1920s pennies, a lock of blonde hair and brown hair each bound with cord, a small statue engraved with the Hebrew word 'Shalom', a small wine goblet, a dried rosebud and a single candelabra with four curved legs.
Mannis intended to give the box to his mother as a present on her birthday, but as soon as she received it from him, she suffered a stroke. After Mannis, the box was owned by Jason Haxton who kept it buried in a special military box, underground. He had started suffering some sudden health problems like breaking out in hives, coughing up blood, and strange welts across his body. He approached Rabbis, who helped him seal the box and he kept it hidden in a secret location until he decided to donate it to Bagans.
History of the Dybbuk box
Bagans shared testimonials from eyewitnesses, comprising both patrons and the staff of the museum who reported seeing a black-cloaked figure roam the hallways surrounding the room that houses the Dybbuk box. Their reactions were disturbing, implying that they had been terribly traumatized by what they had seen.
In a video conference with Mannis, Bagans described a bone-chilling experience he had previously had whilst attempting to open the box in an episode of 'Ghost Adventures' featuring rapper, Post Malone. According to Mannis, the original owner, Havaleh and others had summoned an entity that was pure evil. They believed from then on that they had unleashed all of the evils throughout the 20th century - World War II; Korean War; Khmer Rouge; a nuclear explosion in Bhopal, India that blinded 20,000 people. When she tried to rectify her mistake, Havaleh only managed to trap that evil, rip it apart into 10 components of evil, boxed each of them in different Dybbuk boxes, and sent them to the edges of the world, explained Mannis.
Bagans owns two of the ten Dybbuk boxes, the second of which wasn't public knowledge until now. Mannis told him that the ten boxes align with the 'Tree of Life' concept from Kabbalah, which forms the basis for Jewish mysticism. Mannis has received six of the other boxes, but the whereabouts of the other last two remain unknown. He said he feared the day these boxes would be brought together and opened, unleashing evil into the world. The risk of opening the two boxes together is death.
Investigation
Bagans discussed his new findings with the rest of the team, cautioning them of what could happen if things go wrong. They planned to carry out their investigations over the course of two nights, the first documenting the events leading up to the opening of the box, They decided to open the box, the second night. Goodman went into the room that holds the Dybbuk box, to take some readings of electro-magnetic energy and gauge any unusual spikes. Bagans also installed a thermal camera, an infra-red timelapse camera, and a full spectrum video scope around the Dybbuk Box and a couple of motion-activated night-vision cameras in the hallways where the black-cloaked figure has been seen. However, as soon as Bagans and Goodwin lifted the Plexiglass off of the Dybbuk box, both of them felt an unusual pain shoot up their back. The EMF meter readings spiked to high numbers. Bagans called the Dybbuk Box, the 'real Pandora's Box'. As soon as he left the room, a range of emotions hits him and he collapsed on the stairs.
The cameras in the Dybbuk Box Chamber captured a strange anomaly like a puff of smoke come out of the box. But what's strange is that the still image from the video capture shows a pair of eyes in the smoky apparition, resembling a fiend from an illustration in 19th-century literature. Bagans was sure they had captured visual evidence of the Dybbuk. They set up a hyper parabolic microphone to record any unexplained audio during the opening of the Dybbuk Box. As soon as he opened the Dybbuk box, Bagans monitored EMF readings which had spiked, in comparison to when it was closed. He believed that something powerful had been released and soon heard a loud bang sound.
Bagans then removed the Dybbuk box and walked around the museum with it, while Tolley went around investigating and trying to communicate with the spirit that was possibly unleashed from the box. Bagans said he felt like he was in a trance, while Goodman suddenly fell unconscious after touching the box.