By Pat Dunn
What: "Celebrity Paranormal Project"
Where: VH1 cable channel
When viewed: December 10, 2006
Episode #7: "Cult Commune"
Title Note: This episode was intended as a stand-alone program for Vh1, and has the on-screen title of "The Sussurro Canyon Killer."
Official site link:
http://www.vh1.com/shows/dyn/celebrity_paranormal/110146/episode.jhtml

The seventh episode of VH1's "Celebrity Paranormal Project" is, as a on-screen title tells us, the program's pilot. Filmed "over a year ago" (that is, prior to December, 2005), it was "intended to be a stand-alone special for Vh1" but because of the "profound" effect it had on the participants, it was scrapped as a special and instead "spawned a series." This episode, like most other CPP episodes, carries the advisory that while the locations are real, and "documented to be haunted", the names of places and people in the stories may have been changed to protect privacy; keep this in mind as we continue.

The back story concerns a cult leader, Solomon Mason, who established a commune in the remote Sussurro Canyon of southern California. He supposedly baptized his followers as "children of the night" and led them in devotions to Satan. One night in 1967, after Solomon had sacrificed a young girl named Claire, he committed suicide by carving her initials into his own flesh, and swallowing LSD pills. The commune was broken up soon afterwards, but the ruins of buildings remain, and are said to be haunted by Claire's spirit, as well as that of the cult-leader. (Personal note here: I grew up in southern California, and while I vividly remember the media frenzy surrounding the Charles Manson cult killings, I must confess I've never heard of "Solomon Mason", and a Google search produced no hits linking anyone of this name to any cult or murder. I also could not find any hits on a "Sussurro Canyon", though I did learn that "sussurro" is apparently "whisper" in Italian. Presumably all the names given to us are false ones this time around. A search on "haunted canyons Southern California" did produce one hit on a place said to be haunted by the spirit of a slain 19th-century Mexican bandit, which is interesting, but not applicable here.)

The participants in this episode included:

Jason "Wee Man" Acuna, skateboarder, little person, "professional Jackass", according to VH1's website, said maybe ghosts exist.
Evander Holyfield, heavyweight boxing champion, expressed trust in his Christian faith to keep him safe tonight.
Julio Iglesias, Jr., singer and musician, said he was a little bit interested in the other side, but cautious, too.
Debra Wilson, actress and comedian, was a regular on television satrie program "Mad TV", said she is obsessed with the paranormal.
Nikki Ziering, Playboy model, said she wasn't scared to be there. (To quote Yoda, "You will be!")

The group arrived at the purported cult compound and settled into their Base Camp, one of several run-down shacks dotting an outdoor location near a creek.
They exchanged comments, with Debra Wilson expressing the most interest and excitement in the project. They then learned the back-story from the lap-top computer, and most reacted with disgust to the gory tale.

The first assignment sent Nikki and Jason to The Prayer Room, where Solomon Mason was supposed to have committed suicide after murdering one of his young followers. They left the Base Camp, were told to follow a trail of barrels with arrows painted on them until they found a paved road, then turn right at the barrel with the right-pointing arrow on it, and walk toward a small building. We saw the team in long shots, but throughout this episode night shots were very fuzzy and of poor quality, compared to the rest of the series.
Jason and Nikki walked up to the building and went in under an overhang of the roof, then through strips of a plastic sheet (such as are sometimes seen at construction sites). Along the way, Nikki has been communicating with Base Commander Debra on the radio, primarily concerned with what to do if she should see a ghost. Debra advised her to stay calm and follow the instructions, because they did not know for certain what would happen. Nikki, obviously very reluctant and panicky, obeyed and entered the Prayer Room with Jason. The back-story concerning Solomon's supposed suicide, and his subsequent haunting of this place, was told to them, but before they could be given a task to perform, Nikki began to have difficulty with her breathing and to exhibit a good deal of fear. The camera did show us a (fuzzy) shadow that seemed to move, and then Jason reported Nikki's reaction and said he had to get her out of there. They leave the room and return to Base Camp. Nikki reported to the others that she had felt "ugliness, fear, nausea" and couldn't stay in that place.

The second assignment sent Debra alone to The Cult Children's Dorm Room, where the murdered girl Claire supposedly slept, and where people have reported hearing whispered prayers. Nikki was the Base Commander this time, and directed Debra to go outside and walk to a small wooden cabin. Debra was told to hang up the "ghost catcher" chime, which she did. Debra offered a prayer, then followed Nikki's instructions to take out the music-box and wind it up, then put it in the middle of the room to play. While it was playing, Debra was to " invite spirits to come in and make contact" with her.
Debra waited alone in the dark with the music-box playing, and soon reported she heard "the sound of scratching" and a "breathing noise" (my first thought was, wildlife, perhaps?), and became increasingly nervous, especially as she lost radio contact with Nikki. A quick cut back to the Base Camp showed us that they couldn't hear Debra, either. Back to Debra, who asked if she could leave yet. When no response came, Debra reported that her camera was malfunctioning, and said it meant a ghost was "interfering with it", and she was getting out of there.
Debra hurried back to the Base Camp and told the others she had heard breathing, felt a "presence," and that it "was not a child."

The third assignment sent Evander and Julio to the nearby Creek to explore the site where Solomon was said to baptize his followers. It was rumored to be one of the cult-leader's "places of power", and his presence was said to haunt the creek's bank. Jason, acting as Base Commander, directed the two men to walk along until they could see candles lit on the opposite side of the creek. They were to halt and kneel down where they could see the candles. (Candles? Supposedly left burning unattended in a wilderness area? Yeah, that's the way to "prevent forest fires"...not! I suspect the group wasn't as alone as they thought.) From the burlap sack the team had brought, Jason directed them to remove a naked baby doll and to use it to re-create one of Solomon's baptism rites. He snickered a bit as he told them to say "I accept you as a child of the night," while Evander and Julio merely looked at each other in disbelief. Evander said this was against his faith and refused to take part in the mock Satantic baptism. Julio also said he did not want to do it, so they returned to the Base Camp. Evander stated it was his belief that you should not invite evil to come near you, which is what they had been told to do, so he wouldn't do it.

The fourth assignment had an unusual twist: the computer directed the group to pick twp people to go The Re-Education Cell, where Claire had supposedly been tormented to test her loyalty to Solomon, prior to her murder. After some discussion, Debra volunteered to go, rather to the surprise of the others (and mine, too, as most CPP participants who have been deeply frightened on an assignment refuse another one). The actress declared she was never going to have anything to do with paranormal stuff again, but they had to complete the last two tasks in order to get out of there. She asked Evander if he would go, and he behaved like a gentleman and stepped into the breach.
Again following a trail of barrels to an outside building, the pair entered and walked down a short hallway to a strange room with words painted all over the walls and ceiling. (I could make out the partial phrase "Satan bestow upon us", but not much else). In the center of this room, a pair of shackles hung straight down from the ceiling, so a person sitting under them would need to hold one arm up over his head. The pair were asked which will agree to be shackled. Evander hesitated slightly, and Debra immediately said she would do it. (Again with the volunteering! Weird!) She sat down on the floor and allowed Evander to snap the manacle around one wrist, so that her arm was raised up.
The next instruction was that Evander should step out of the room and leave the building, waiting just outside it. Debra objected with "No way!' and suggested he just wait in the hallway. After discussion with Base Commander Jason, it was decided that they could fulfill the instruction if Evander left and went outside, but then returned right away. Evander did leave the room and made his way outside. Debra reported he was gone, and prayed to herself.
Evander soon returned and unlocked the shackle from Debra's wrist. As they headed back to Base Camp, Debra called for "mercy on the souls that can't get home," and
reported that "such sorrow and sadness are still here." Back at Base Camp, Debra thanked Evander for helping her through that task, which as difficult because she had experienced what the women tortured in the room had felt.

The computer had just instructed the team to discuss which area was "The Heart of the Haunting", that is, "the most paranormally active", when Debra, sitting by herslf on the old couch, began to cry and apparently hyper-ventilate. The others watched her with concern, and Jason advised them to "let her get it out." Evander at one point approached Debra, but didn't seem to know how to react. Soon Debra was pacing round the room, beating herself about the torso and repeating, "Get out of me, you don't own me!" No one interfered with her, and soon Debra seemed to calm down.
She said an "entity" had entered her and had made her feel as they all had felt, and that they could have been spared torment by asking for "mercy", but they had never asked for it. Debra said "this isn't a place where we belong," and declared she was done with the project. The group agreed they didn't want to go back into any of the buildings, and prepared to leave.

The episode ended with on-screen titles which told us that the cast had quit at three a.m. without completing the final assignment and "no one has been back to the site since." Also: "Whether the spirit that possessed Debra Wilson was Solomon, Claire, or someone else, we will never know. The cast refused to be interviewed about their experiences."

There are many reasons to be suspicious about this episode, not the least of which is that the "cult commune" seems like a movie set, and there was an accomplished actress among the group of participants. The fictionalized names used by the producers mean we will probably never be able to find out if such a cult existed in 1967. My opinion is that the entire back-story is fiction.As for my theories about Ms. Wilson's part in this episode, well, she may have
1) known it was a hoax and have been there to deliberately act "possessed" or
2) not known of the hoax, but have worked herself up into a psychological state and truly believed she was nearly possessed by an unknown "entity", or
3) this episode of CPP really does, as the website states, depict the show's closest contact with a ghost. (My biggest problem with the third theory is that if the cult-leader and his victims never existed, then neither do their ghosts.)

Please feel free to comment on this episode. And thank you for reading these reviews!