The Conjuring type Movie

Zak Bagans is used to being affected by spirits.

As the founder of Travel Channel’s highest-rated series, Ghost Adventures, Bagans and his team — including Aaron Goodwin, Billy Tolley and Jay Wasley — have investigated haunted locations throughout the world. But after spending time at the 300-year-old Rhode Island home of the Perron family, whose experiences inspired the horror film The Conjuring, Bagans became physically ill.

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“This house made me sick, and I did not recover from this investigation for about three weeks,” Bagans, 42, tells PEOPLE. “It took everything out of me. My body wasn’t functioning right. My balance. This place is haunted by something I believe is very ancient.”

Over the years, the Perron family experienced poltergeist activity, suffered physical attacks and dealt with what they believed to be possession. In 1971, they sought help from renowned paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren, who came to the house and confronted a spirit they deemed the most malicious they had ever encountered.

“As an investigator, this is the ultimate place to go because of the history,” says Bagans, whose cameras were the first allowed into the home in 15 years. “Being able to get inside of the house and back inside of this case, reopen these files, learn some things that people don’t know about this investigation, was just an absolute thrill.”

Over their multiple-day investigation, Bagans and his team experienced “some really incredible things,” he adds. “When we were using infrared binoculars, we captured this black mass blocking the light and the window of the house.”

The evidence they collected was enough to convince Bagans that the current owners should be extremely cautious. “I fear for the family that lives there if it progresses,” he says. “I know it’s a thrill to buy the house and live there, but they need to be very aware of what they could potentially be dealing with.”

Ghost Adventures: Curse of the Harrisville Farmhouse airs Thursday at 9 p.m. ET on Travel Channel.

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This article originally appeared on People.com