Could Your Stuff Be Haunted? Ghostbusting the Creepiest Antiques

October 25th, 2012

You can buy practically anything on the Internet, so why not ghosts? For shipping convenience, the ghosts have attached themselves to objects—often dolls, clowns, and idol figurines, or Ouija boards. But wearables like clothes and jewelry, art like paintings and photographs, as well as household objects like wooden boxes, furniture, and musical instruments seem to be popular places for lost souls to take up residence. Really, if you believe a spirit, or “energy,” can attach itself to an object, then any antique could be haunted.

“You know how you say, ‘Just because it’s old doesn’t mean it’s valuable’? Just because it’s old doesn’t mean it’s haunted.”

The Syfy Channel, known for its supernatural reality TV shows “Ghost Hunters” and “Paranormal Witness,” began to capitalize on the idea of haunted objects—as opposed to haunted places—in June 2011 with “Haunted Collector.” In this show, demonologist John Zaffis investigates items people report as haunted and if he deems them dangerous, he collects them for his Museum of the Paranormal. However, years before this show was a twinkle in Syfy’s eye, a small antique wine cabinet terrified the Internet through the stories of an angry hag spirit that tormented its owners. The current owner of the famous Dibbuk Box assures us he’s finally cracked the mystery of the box and rendered it inactive.

What does such paranormal activity look like? Most people who experience the hauntings say that their antique might make them feel cold or anxious or that the item gives them dreams or images of times past. Others claim to have heard voices from the piece, or that the object gives off a particular smell, or that the item moves on its own. Experts of all stripes agree that these hauntings are “real.” However, they disagree on where the hauntings come from. Are they simply caused by neurons firing in the haunted person’s brain? Or are they caused by supernatural, a.k.a. paranormal, forces?

Top: The paranormal investigator selling this porcelain doll says it contains the spirit of a 9-year-old girl who was hanged as a witch in England, and it has been recorded saying, "not me." Above: The seller who handmade this Ouija from a 150-year-old walnut tree says it holds the tree's spirit.

Top: The paranormal investigator selling this porcelain doll says it contains the spirit of a 9-year-old girl who was hanged as a witch in England, and it has been recorded saying, “not me.” Above: The seller who handmade this Ouija from a 150-year-old walnut tree says it holds the tree’s spirit.

“Ghosts don’t exist—not at all, nothing,” says Michael Shermer, executive director of the Skeptics Society, an organization dedicated to critical thinking about controversial claims, especially those on the fringes of science, such as UFOs, astrology, psychics, and ghosts. “There’s not a shred of evidence for ghosts, haunted houses, or anything haunted. And there’s no scientific evidence that life continues beyond the physical body. Mostly, the claims of hauntings can be explained through natural phenomena, or we just can’t explain anomalous experiences that people have because we weren’t there to record it.”

Scientific researchers have found that the experiences of “sensing a ghost” in a room, like feeling a chill up your spine, can be re-created by stimulating certain parts of the brain, explains Pat Linse, co-founder of the Skeptics Society. Most people have these sensations on occasion, but it’s easy to mock those who claim to be hounded relentlessly by ghosts. Linse says we shouldn’t be so quick to laugh: Those people may have much more serious psychological disturbances going on.

This 1800s hand-tinted print of a child praying was listed as haunted simply because it "looks eerie."

This 1800s hand-tinted print of a child praying was listed as haunted simply because it “looks eerie.”

“When neuroscientists stimulate a person’s temporal lobe, they can create in that person a sensed presence in the room, as well as a feeling of oneness with the Universe, an out-of-body experience, or a near-death experience,” Shermer says. “That’s definitely where it’s happening. Experiences these people have are real, but they’re in the brain, not out in the world.”

Ghost stories vary wildly from culture to culture, Linse explains. In Russia, ghosts called “domovye” take up residence in a home, over a doorway or under the stove, and help the family keep up with their chores. The idea that the dead hang out to redress a grievance is specific to America, stemming from the old-world Jewish “grateful dead” folk tale about wandering souls seeking a proper burial.

“Of course, there are the ‘ghosts of commerce,’ as we call them. If you have an old house and need to make money, you say the house is haunted,” she says. “There are also ‘useful ghosts’ like the gift ghost that haunts a husband until he buys a gift for his wife. That’s a useful ghost if I’ve ever heard of one!

This Alfiero accordion was purchased at an estate sale of a woman who passed away. The seller says, "I swear the thing is haunted. Gives me goosebumps."

This Alfiero accordion was purchased at an estate sale of a woman who passed away. The seller says, “I swear the thing is haunted. Gives me goosebumps.”

“I’ve heard people will claim that your antique is haunted and say, ’Give it to me. I’ll take care of it,’” Linse says. “And some of these things are quite valuable. That’s what they do on TV in ‘Haunted Collector,’ and I can’t believe they get away with it. It’s an old gypsy scam, where they tell you your money is cursed and you should give it over.”

“When I touched the box, I felt as if someone ripped a knife through my gut.”

Even famous spiritual teacher and psychic, Sylvia Browne, who is currently on her 50th anniversary lecture tour, poo-poos the traditional Dickensian idea of ghosts rattling chains. “Honey, it’s not ‘haunted.’ It’s negative energy. Everything has energy. There are no ghosts attached to anything. But I don’t ever doubt there’s energy attached to something. Energy can be very strong. You can even buy new things, like a purse that you carry around a couple weeks, and people bring ’em down to us week after week, and they say, ‘I don’t want it.’”

Karen Frazier, a paranormal investigator in Washington State and a reporter for Paranormal Underground, says she was “ridiculously skeptical” when she started her research. “But my experiences as an investigator changed my mind. Now I do believe that paranormal events happen. I don’t know for sure that you can say they’re ghosts, because we don’t know what a ghost is. I still look at everything with a skeptical eye, because too many people think that anything that goes bump in the night is a ghost—and it’s not. But some objects have some kind of an energy attached to them that manifests as what you would call a ‘haunting.’”

Most antique "spirit photos" have been debunked, but no one can explain this 1936 photograph of the "Brown Lady" of Raynham Hall in England, taken by Captain Provand. Via The Haunted Museum.

Most antique “spirit photos” have been debunked, but no one can explain this 1936 photograph of the “Brown Lady” of Raynham Hall in England, taken by Captain Provand. Via The Haunted Museum.

Paranormal investigators and researchers tend to distinguish between innocuous “hauntings” and what we think of as “ghosts,” Frazier explains.

“There’s no such thing as a curse. That’s just a goofy fortune-teller’s way of getting money.”

“What parapsychologists refer to as a ‘haunting’ is like what you and I would think of as a recording. Residual energy is trapped in whatever object it is, and it replays itself. There’s nothing intelligent about it. It just plays the same thing over and over. Then, sometimes, you can have objects that actually have what people would assume to be a spirit attached to them, which has some intelligence. So that would be like if you were dead and you decided you wanted to hang out with your favorite dress or your favorite chair. I still call it an ‘energy’ because I don’t know that what we experience paranormally is necessarily the ghost of a dead person.”

In addition, some people may be able to “read” objects that are not haunted at all, Frazier says. “That’s actually a form of psychic work that people do called ‘psychometry,’ where you hold an object and you read off of it,” she explains. “A lot of people mistake that for an object being haunted. For example, I used to have an antique piano, a 100 years old or older, in my house. When I would sit down and play it, I would see flashes of the people who had played this piano before me, and where they lived. It’s not necessarily that there’s anything active going on with the piano, but I’m touching that object and somehow I’m reading the energy of that.”

The family in this supposedly haunted 1880s tintype photo album is said to have burned to death in a fire.

The family in this supposedly haunted 1880s tintype photo album is said to have burned to death in a fire.

On his FAQ at the Museum of the Paranormal, Zaffis agrees that such phenomena are all about energy, but he has a different theory about how the energy got there. “With most of the items in the museum, they have been used in rituals, usually when spells are being cast,” he writes. “Although the items are not ‘possessed,’  … items can hold energy within or around them, and it is usually the result of the energy being sent to the object by an individual.”

Browne, the psychic, says that it’s more likely that an item holds negative energy because something traumatic happened around the object, or someone was killed with the object in their possession. “There’s no such thing as a curse,” Browne says. “That’s just a goofy fortune-teller’s way of getting money.”

However, Browne does believe that you have to be careful when you’re in an antiques store. The key, she says, is to touch things and see if they’re unnaturally cold or if they give off a bad vibe. “I know this woman who bought an antique ring, and when she put it on, she got sick,” Browne says. “She was sick until she took it off. I told her, ‘Just give it away,’ because she was unusually sensitive to its energy.”

The maker of these "demon rings" claims to be a practitioner of black magic who has imbued them with spirits known as "djinns," or genies.

The maker of these “demon rings” claims to be a practitioner of black magic who has imbued them with spirits known as “djinns,” or genies.

But Shermer, the skeptic, says the idea of an antique holding energy, or “recording” an event, is scientifically impossible. “An object cannot record some additional curse or spirit or energy in it unless it actually has like a memory hard drive inside of it,” he says. “But other than that, ‘haunted’ whatever—hats, articles of clothing, watches, or jewelry—can’t carry any such thing.”

Paranormal investigators are well aware of these criticisms from the scientific community. To give their work legitimacy, they often use scientific tools such as electromagnetic field (EMF) meters, thermometers, thermal imaging, motion detectors, cameras, and compasses to try document physical proof of ghosts. On his Paranormal Network blog, noted parapsychologist Loyd Auerbach, however, asserts that these experiences might not be measurable because they are psychic events. His position is strangely similar to the Skeptics Society, except that Auerbach believes paranormal forces can affect your brain.

The seller of this skull-shaped bone netsuke says, "My mother is VERY sensitive to the spirit world and refused to have it in the house."

The seller of this skull-shaped bone netsuke says, “My mother is VERY sensitive to the spirit world and refused to have it in the house.”

“In many reported cases that include ‘cold spots’ or perceived temperature changes, thermometers show no physical temperature change at all,” Auerbach writes. “The ‘cold’ is felt, but more of that cold chill we all sometimes get may be psychological or something we’re picking up psychically.”

Frazier, who cites Auerbach as one of her influences, says that hauntings and ghosts generally don’t have the physical resources needed to speak in an audible voice, like, say, vocal chords. But she and her fellow paranormal researchers are convinced hauntings and ghosts can “speak” by telepathically manipulating recording devices as well as “ghost boxes,” or portable radios modified to continually scan the bands, creating what’s known as an “electronic voice phenomenon,” or EVP.

The original owner of this Masonic sword supposedly took his own life with it in 1893, hence, it has a "haunted history."

The original owner of this Masonic sword supposedly took his own life with it in 1893, hence, it has a “haunted history.”

Working for South Sound Paranormal Research in Washington State, Frazier says most of her clients are not even aware when a haunting is attached to a thing. “When we first met with a particular client, I just had this sense that he had something old and this ghost was attached to it.” After some prodding, the client revealed he had a Masonic sword from his grandfather, who was very proud to be a Freemason. “We were using a ghost box, and this thing started saying ‘opa’ over and over and over. I said to him, ‘Did you call your grandpa opa?’ Well, he did; it’s German for ‘grandpa.’ And then the box started saying the guy’s name. The grandfather probably had these high hopes that his grandson would be a Mason, too.”

“If you were a dick in life, you’re probably going to be the same once you’re dead.”

Frazier’s team has also spent a lot of time investigating objects at the nearby Lewis County Historical Museum, and once came across a Native American basket that twice created an EVP that said, “Please help me,” in a woman’s voice. Frazier believes this is more of a “haunting” or energy recording, than an active, intelligent ghost seeking help in the present.

“Everybody thinks that when you get a recording of a ghost, it’s going to say one of two things, ‘Help me’ or ‘Get out,’” Frazier says. “That’s almost never what we get. And ghosts are a lot rarer that people think they are. People like the idea of ghosts because if it means that something happens to us after we die—and that’s a very comforting thing. So people tend to take things that happen as being a haunting or a ghost when it’s something normal and explainable. Probably five percent of what people think are ghosts may be something paranormal.”

A collector selling Ollie the clown says he appeared to have been beat-up by another clown figure named Fredo.

A collector selling Ollie the clown says he appeared to have been beat-up by another clown figure named Fredo.

For example, dolls, by their nature, both inspire love and give people the heebie-jeebies. That’s because they look like miniature people, with motionless bodies and glassy, lifeless eyes. Because it’s so easy to assign personalities to dolls, puppets, and human figurines—what Shermer calls “agenticity”—there’s a whole cottage industry online of people selling old dolls, from grungy, beat-up plushies to pristine porcelain antiques, as “haunted.”

Over at Etsy, a paranormal investigator who goes by Shoshannah Lameroux at Raven’s Oddities has posted an ad titled “Haunted Doll Amelia is VERY Paranormal active” for $45. In it, she writes, “Lost spirits like to attach themselves to items. I feel that they attach themselves to dolls because it is the closest way they can feel human. Plus, people or children that own dolls treat their dolls like they are sometimes human. They will talk to their dolls OR listen to them, carry them around and adore them.“

Legend says you can't take a photo of Robert the Doll, a toy supposedly cursed with voodoo, without asking its permission. Via Robert the Doll's Facebook page.

Legend says you can’t take a photo of Robert the Doll, a toy supposedly cursed with voodoo, without asking its permission. Via Robert the Doll’s Facebook page.

Perhaps the most famous haunted plaything is Robert the Doll, which was given to Key West painter and author Robert Eugene Otto in 1906 and now lives in a glass box in the Fort East Martello Museum. According to the myth, the doll was jinxed by a Bahamian servant skilled at voodoo. The doll is said to have spoken with children, giggled, run from room to room, knocked down furniture, and even launched murderous attacks against its owners.

“Well, of course, anytime you have a human figure, people are likely to think it holds some kind of invisible force, because of our propensity to believe in the afterlife and that humans carry a soul,” Shermer says. “For example, in voodoo, human-shaped dolls can stand in for real people.”

Outside of Robert, another particularly disturbing haunted-antique story features a chair in North Yorkshire, England, that once belonged to a man named Thomas Busby, who was hanged for murder in 1702. He’s believed to have cursed the chair as he was dragged off the gallows so that anyone who sits in it dies shortly thereafter. Which begs the question of why we feel creeped out by innocent inanimate objects associated with bad people.

This 17th century chair that once belonged to a murderer has been hung up out of reach at the Thirsk Museum in England, as it is believed to put a death jinx on sitters. Photo by John R. Bacon at soapboxcorner.blogspot.com.

This 17th century chair that once belonged to a murderer has been hung up out of reach at the Thirsk Museum in England, as it is believed to put a death jinx on sitters. Photo by John R. Bacon at soapboxcorner.blogspot.com.

“In an experiment done by British cognitive psychologist Bruce M. Hood, he asked subjects if they’d like to wear Hitler’s jacket or Jeffrey Dahmer’s sweater, and they were repulsed by the idea,” Shermer says. “If you ask them why, they feel as if there’s an evilness carried by the article of clothing. But if you ask them if they’d like to wear Mr. Roger’s cardigan sweater, they would. And if you ask, ‘How would you feel?’ they say, ’More moral, upstanding, and good.’ Hood even put Brad Pitt’s shirts up for sale on eBay, one washed and one unwashed. The unwashed version got the higher bid, as if the essence of Brad Pittness were soaked into the shirt.”

That may have something to do with sweat stains and Brad’s sexy smell. In fact, whether people feel positive or negative about an antique often has to do with olfactory stimulation. An object may be doused with lovely, flowery perfumes, or have a scent that brings up a memory, or give off a foul, rotten odor.

The seller of this handmade tied-leather figure claims it is a Haitian voodoo doll meant to repel evil. Supposedly its body holds graveyard dirt, too.

The seller of this handmade tied-leather figure claims it is a Haitian voodoo doll meant to repel evil. Supposedly its body holds graveyard dirt, too.

“There may be evolutionary reasons for the idea that an essence may be carried by a smell,” Shermer says. “For example, repulsive smells typically are associated with disease-carrying substances that should be avoided, and that’s probably why we evolved emotions like disgust or nausea at things like that. But good smells, the smell of your lover’s shirt that you carry with you or the smell of a perfume or cologne that reminds you of your loved one, bring a flood of positive memories and good feelings. So imparting objects with a spiritual entity is just a small step beyond that.”

The Pittock Mansion in Portland, Oregon, provokes these sort of uplifting feelings in Frazier. “That place is just glorious,” she says. “You walk in, and you feel so good. It’s beautiful. It’s comfortable. You get this rush of amazing energy. People say it’s haunted, and it probably is, but in a positive way. You can tell that the people there were very, very happy.”

But when it comes to ghost stories, Frazier says, people tend to focus on the negative paranormal experiences and legends because they’re frightening.

This 1891 bronze funerary figurine of a sleeping child is said to have come from a mausoleum haunted by the apparition of a little boy who drowned.

This 1891 bronze funerary figurine of a sleeping child is said to have come from a mausoleum haunted by the apparition of a little boy who drowned.

“Even though there might be comfort in the idea that ghosts exist, encounters with the paranormal are overwhelmingly scary to people because it’s The Unknown,” Frazier says. “People tend to interpret it as being negative because they don’t understand it. If you were a dick in life, you’re probably going to be the same once you’re dead, but we probably have less to fear from the dead than we do from the living.”

Frazier says that, thanks to her work, she’s had several ghost-like energies follow her home, and most of them have turned out to be harmless. Once, the spirit of a child killed in an avalanche followed her home, and remains there still. She and her family have found a way to coexist with the kid, whom Frazier believes moves things and makes noises to get her attention, but means no harm. When he’s rolling around a desk chair upstairs, Frazier will simply yell, “Knock it off!”

This, to Frazier, is evidence that so-called ghosts can go anywhere they please. “I don’t believe a spirit of a dead human can get stuck in an object,” Frazier says. “Just like we have free will in our living bodies, I believe that when our souls leave our body, they have free will, too.”

Perhaps the scariest haunted antique documented, the Dibbuk Box has been closed up in a 24-carat gold-lined ark and buried. The wine cabinet-turned-Jewish prayer box is believed to hold a menacing spirit.

Perhaps the scariest haunted antique documented, the Dibbuk Box has been closed up in a 24-carat gold-lined ark and buried. The wine cabinet-turned-Jewish prayer box is believed to hold a menacing spirit.

Perhaps the scariest ghost story to emerge in the past decade is the tale of the Dibbuk Box. This story first appeared on eBay in 2003, when an Oregon antiques dealer and furniture refinisher named Kevin Mannis put a small wine cabinet and its contents up for auction. It contained two U.S. wheat pennies, from 1925 and 1928; two bound locks of hair, one blond and one brunet; a dried rosebud; a granite slab engraved with gilt Hebrew letters spelling “Shalom”; a golden wine cup; and a black cast-iron candle holder with tentacle-like feet. The back of the box has a Jewish prayer carved into it in Hebrew.

“When I would sit down and play my piano, I would see people who had played it before me.”

Mannis claimed that he purchased the wooden box at an estate sale as a gift for his mother. The owner’s granddaughter called it the “dibbuk box,” which belonged to a 103-year-old Holocaust survivor. At the time, Mannis did not know that in Jewish mythology, a “dibbuk” or “dybbuk” is a malevolent “walk-in” spirit of a dead person, which is believed to possess a living person until it accomplishes its goal.

Shortly after Mannis dropped the box off at his workshop, his shopkeeper called him, terrified, saying someone was downstairs, cursing and shattering light bulbs. Mannis found the damage, but no intruder. When he gave the box to his mother, she suffered a stroke and insisted he take the cabinet back. Everyone in his family who encountered the cabinet had a similar dream, of an old hag who beat them, and each would wake up in the morning with bruises. They all reported smelling jasmine flowers or cat urine around the box. Mannis experienced perpetual bad luck, like identity theft and losing his store’s lease, and started catching a shadowy figure in his peripheral vision.

This 1800s graphite drawing was found hidden behind a painting. The sellers say they purchased the painting when they were out picking and got creeped out. "We never wanted to leave a house so fast."

This 1800s graphite drawing was found hidden behind a painting. The sellers say they purchased the painting when they were out picking and got creeped out. “We never wanted to leave a house so fast.”

The winning bidder, at the price of $140, was Iosif Nietzke, a student in Kirksville, Missouri, who re-posted the wine box on eBay just a few months after he purchased it. On the auction, Nietzke reported that he’d suffered sleep disturbances, eye irritation, and car trouble, and in his home, light bulbs kept burning out and hoards of insects would congregate. He, too, saw a shadow figure and smelled similar odors. Worse, the 20-something’s hair started to fall out.

“Anytime you have a human figure, people are likely to think it holds some kind of invisible force.”

Jason Haxton, the director of a nearby medical museum, heard the story through Nietzke’s roommate and became intrigued by the Dibbuk Box. A scholar and lecturer, Haxton had spent decades collecting and studying religious or spiritual artifacts from cultures all over the world, including Mayan and Egyptian deities. He wasn’t particularly afraid of the Dibbuk Box, as he had never had trouble from a single idol or juju in his collection. His museum, too, is filled with creepy things, like human skulls, preserved dead babies, and dissected body parts—which also have never haunted him. He purchased the Dibbuk Box for $280 in February of 2004.

“I just wanted to see it, to fulfill my knowledge base on strange spiritual items,” Haxton tells me over the phone. “I ended up buying it for someone who then didn’t want it. And then I got sick. I thought, ‘I better figure out what this thing is.’ I thought maybe it was contaminated with a biohazard, or human remains material that molds. I’m always looking for the scientific explanation. In this case, I couldn’t find one.”

This life-size headstone statue of a girl named Inez in Chicago's Graceland Cemetery is shrouded in mystery. Children visiting the cemetery report playing with a little girl in 1800s clothing, and night watchmen claim the statue disappears in lightning.

This life-size headstone statue of a girl named Inez in Chicago’s Graceland Cemetery is shrouded in mystery. Children visiting the cemetery report playing with a little girl in 1800s clothing, and night watchmen claim the statue disappears in lightning.

Thankfully, Haxton heard from experts of all sorts—from rabbis and Kabbalah students to scientists, Wiccans, and demonologists—offering to help him solve the mystery of the box. In fact, so many people were calling and emailing him to ask him about the Dibbuk Box, Haxton posted a web site to address questions about it. He also had Hollywood calling, because horror director Sam Raimi had caught wind of the Dibbuk Box, and wanted to make a film about it. The eventual film, the box-office hit “The Possession,” released in August of last year, took pieces of every owner’s experience of the cabinet and created a new story about a little girl who gets obsessed with the box and possessed by the dibbuk.

The items in the box, the pennies, the hair, the candle, the wine cup, etc., are all items that are traditionally used to open a connection to God. Haxton believes the Dibbuk Box was actually used by its original owner as a box to pray to and get an answer to her life’s question: What caused the Holocaust that killed her parents, her siblings, her first husband, and their children?

After establishing a new life in the United States postwar, the woman had instructed her own children and grandchildren to never open the box, and requested that the box be buried with her. Haxton doesn’t believe the energy attached to the box is evil, but because its owner’s wish was not honored, the box made trouble for anyone who got in the way of its goal to answer this question.

Harry H. Laughlin's biographer described him as "among the most racist and anti-Semitic of early 20th-century eugenicists." Via Eugenics Archive.

Harry H. Laughlin’s biographer described him as “among the most racist and anti-Semitic of early 20th-century eugenicists.” Via Eugenics Archive.

Haxton thinks he may have found the answer, which he published last year as the book, The Dibbuk Box. Haxton discovered that in 1910, an American named Harry H. Laughlin, working as a breeder at a Kirksville, Missouri, farm, was inspired by the idea of creating a pure race of people in the United States. Laughlin moved to the East Coast and began working with the U.S. government to create forced sterilization and other eugenics policies. It’s a matter of record that Laughlin and his laws directly influenced the Nazi Germany Reichstag and Adolf Hitler’s own concept of eugenics.

“I couldn’t figure out why this damn thing was in our town,” Haxton says. “Nobody knew the story until I started researching and found out why. It turns out that a person here in this town, who worked at a farm culling the livestock to get the best breeds, went into American human eugenics and became the director of immigration and naturalization. Harry Laughlin stopped the flow of Jews coming into the country in the ’20s. He set up laws where you could be sterilized if you were deaf, an orphan, a rape victim, or considered not as bright as others.

“In the ’30s, Hitler looked to America and said, ‘Oh, they’re becoming a pure nation. We’re going to incorporate these laws, too.’ When we saw what Hitler did, we withdrew these laws, but we did ’em first. The Dibbuk Box answered her prayer, because the question in her prayer was why did the Holocaust happen. The obvious answer is Hitler. But who influenced Hitler? That would be an American from Kirksville, who mentored Hitler. He didn’t just write the laws. He went over to Germany to help to enact the laws.”

Haxton says that he believes the Dibbuk Box is quiet now because it has fulfilled its purpose. He feels that the box landed in Kirksville so the long-forgotten story of Laughlin’s role in the Holocaust would be unearthed. Thanks to Haxton’s book, that lost piece of history is getting widespread exposure.

Now that the Dibbuk Box is calm, Haxton won’t disclose its location because he doesn’t want anyone else praying their wishes into it. At the suggestion of spiritual advisors, it’s been locked in a wooden ark lined with 24-carat gold and buried.

“When I first touched the box the day it arrived, it felt as if someone took a knife and was just ripping it up through my gut,” Haxton says. “It was excruciating pain. The next day, I woke up with bloody eyes. When I finally put the box away, I did a cleansing with basil and sea salt and smudging with sage. That same feeling came back into my gut, again of being stabbed and ripped. But the difference was, all this clear mucus came out of me, handfuls of it. If you’re into the paranormal, you say, ‘Well, it’s ectoplasm.’ This stuff had never been in me before, and it’s never been since. And then the pain went away, and it’s never been back. So no it wasn’t a little entity crawling around on its hands, but it was as if there was something in me from the day I touched it, until I put it away and did the cleansing.”

The seller dreamed this jack-in-the-box said to her, "I stand around a one-foot high; Don't fool with me or you might die; Where I come from, no one knows; But wherever I go, more fear grows; Treat me well and you will see; What old Jack can do for thee."

The seller dreamed this jack-in-the-box said to her, “I stand around a one-foot high; Don’t fool with me or you might die; Where I come from, no one knows; But wherever I go, more fear grows; Treat me well and you will see; What old Jack can do for thee.”

Every single co-writer he signed up to help him with the book got freaked out, Haxton says, and the final author felt as though the dibbuk followed him home and wreaked havoc. Before the book, the short-version story of the Dibbuk Box has been told many times, in the L.A. Times and Forward magazine and on TV programs like Syfy’s “Paranormal Witness,” as well as an Australian podcast called Mysterious Universe. Many of those podcast listeners in particular report that even hearing the name has caused them grief.

“One guy said he crashed a $100,000 NASA computer,” Haxton says. “One guy said a turkey crashed through the window of a car and basically scratched the hell out of him. Another guy cut off his thumb.”

Frazier calls the Dibbuk Box an anomaly in the paranormal world, but having spoken with Haxton several times, she’s convinced there’s something to it. But she doesn’t buy that the box has haunted people through the Internet, through news articles, or through images.

“We might be creating events surrounding it and interpreting them in certain ways because of the legend,” she says. “The legend might actually be making some of the events as much as anything else. It’s hard to separate which came first.”

While Frazier has no desire to see the actual Dibbuk Box, she’s not afraid to speak its name. In fact, Haxton sent her his copy of the Dibbuk Box, which he built for Raimi’s crew, for a lecture she was preparing to give. “I have the replica in my house right now,” she says. “It’s all good.

“Some random things have happened like since we’ve had the fake Dibbuk Box, which we call ‘the Psibbuk Box,’ at the house,” Frazier continues. “My son’s iPhone broke. My washing machine broke. Well, our washing machine is eight years old, it’s a front-load, and those things break easily. My son had his iPhone for three or four years; it’s probably about time for it to break. But if I wanted to, I could say, ‘Hey, it’s the Psibbuk Box doing those things,’ and it would be easy for me to believe that.”

Shermer attributes such claims linking misfortunes to ghosts to something known as “confirmation bias.”

“Certain people are hugely preconditioned or ‘primed’ to believe in these things,” he says. “Any evidence that vaguely resembles their idea of a haunting then gets counted as a hit. Anything that counters it is just ignored and does not get counted as a miss. Let’s say you already believe in ghosts, and you wake up at 3 in the morning and hear some weird noises. Or you look outside, and there’s strange shadows or lights. If you’re a scientist and do not believe in ghosts, you’re likely to just write it off and roll over and go back to sleep. If you’re a believer, you’re likely to be spooked, chalk that up to some kind of supernatural, paranormal phenomenon, and then let it feed into your imagination.”

The seller of the wood-framed metal picture asserts that it is from the 1400s and associated with unspecified "paranormal activity."

The seller of the wood-framed metal picture asserts that it is from the 1400s and associated with unspecified “paranormal activity.”

Frazier agrees saying that confirmation bias must be taken into account in all paranormal investigations.

“You have to involve a little critical thinking. All of the shows on television right now are killing critical thinking. We have clients who have us come to their house, and they’re just absolutely sure that the place is haunted. Then we investigate and find nothing. When we ask, ‘Well, how often do you watch the paranormal shows on TV?’ and the answer is almost always, ‘I watch all of them.’ You know how you say, ‘Just because it’s old doesn’t mean it’s valuable’? Just because it’s old doesn’t mean it’s haunted.”

So the question becomes, what do you do when you’re absolutely convinced—after taking all this into account—you own an old thing that is, in fact, haunted? Well, if you’re the Haunted Collector John Zaffis, you perform binding rituals. Others do cleansing and protecting rituals involving sage and sea salt. According to Zaffis’ web site, he’s calmed down the spiritual activity on most of the things in his museum, which includes some very creepy dolls, clowns, and idols, as well as a military jacket, a robe, a sword, an elk skull, a grandfather clock, and a school desk.

John Zaffis' Paranormal Museum includes Simon the ventriloquist dummy, a ritual robe, and a sword associated with dreams of menacing black-hooded figures.

John Zaffis’ Paranormal Museum includes Simon the ventriloquist dummy, a ritual robe, and a sword associated with dreams of menacing black-hooded figures.

“The reason that most items are not destroyed is because this action can hold severe repercussions,” Zaffis’s website states. “It can be dangerous for an individual to destroy an item used in practicing because the spirit attached to that object will often gravitate towards the individual who destroys it. … Yes, there have been some items which carry with it such a strong spirit that a cleansing ritual will not be effective. When John comes across such an artifact, it is often disposed of by burying it in the ground or throwing it into a body of water.”

As a spiritual teacher, Browne believes this is silliness. She believes it’s perfectly safe to burn or even trash a haunted object. She says you don’t need to call Zaffis or bury it. In fact, she says, doing so gives the object (or the negative energy) more power than it warrants, more power than God, in whom she has the most faith.

“Oh, just throw it in the dumpster,” Browne says. “People who say you have to bury an object and not burn it make such a big deal out of it. But I don’t believe that. They’re giving that thing more power than themselves, and that’s not good. I’d just put a white line around it and burn it to release it to the power of God and to disperse the negative energy.”

A seller in Florida says this box, which comes with a handmade doll and a gold ring, creates dreams of a woman in white. Starting at $50, it has no bids.

A seller in Florida says this box, which comes with a handmade doll and a gold ring, creates dreams of a woman in white. Starting at $50, it has no bids.

Frazier, too, is also fine with burning things, but generally, she doesn’t endorse destroying haunted objects.

“If you have an object you truly believe is haunted, first of all, I would contact a paranormal team—a reputable one—and have them come do an investigation,” she says. “Then, after they’ve done investigation, you need to evaluate how you feel about having this object in your house. If you want to sell a haunted object, I strongly recommend that you don’t foist it off on some poor, unsuspecting sap, that you fully disclose and give them the option of whether they want that object or not. But I don’t think you need to destroy these things, especially if it’s a gorgeous antique. Why would you destroy that?”

For an excellent history of ghost-hunting in the United States, check out Troy Taylor’s Haunted Museum web site.

47 comments so far

  1. Jason Himmler Says:

    Stupid people still believe in ghosts? I guess you cant cure stupid.

  2. Captain Obvious Says:

    None of those things are haunted. Nothing is haunted. There are no ghosts.

  3. paul Says:

    Where do I get my copy of the manual? The one you guys are using to state with authority that “stupid people… believe in ghosts” and that “nothing is haunted?” Because I never got mine, and I’m sure it would shed some light on a bunch of other stuff people say don’t exist, like evolution, mountain gorillas, and ball lightning.

  4. kdub Says:

    This reminds me of that episode of Rob & Big when Rob becomes convinced that a large wooden cat is causing a rat epidemic in his house and takes it outside for some landscapers to throw in their woodchipper.

  5. Kansasboy Says:

    Experience a ghost then talk, little boy.

  6. JLennongrrl Says:

    I’ve got something in my house that may make him question his beliefs. My husband was a skeptic too until this thing came in.

  7. madinpursuit Says:

    Duh. NOBODY has more haunted crap than we do. But this article is being melodramatic talking about demons and shit. The ghosts in old stuff simply want to be taken out of the closet and appreciated. Loved. Played with. And dusted. Otherwise they get lonely. Maybe that’s when the mischief starts — I wouldn’t know. Jim and I tend carefully to our ghosts as guests in our home. So I guess you could say we are never lonely. ;)

  8. Sandy Takacs Says:

    Having lived in a haunted house for 14 years, I know there is paranormal, I and each member of my family have experienced it. But its’ not scary, its fascinating!!

  9. Michelle Says:

    Having owned an antique shop with a lot of documented paranormal activity I can attest to the fact that spirit energy can attach itself to inanimate objects. We had a chaise lounge that when sat upon you would get scratched and an audible voice would say “Don’t sit on my bed.” This isn’t great for business so one day I sat on the piece and told the “person” that the chaise no longer belonged to her and that the scratching had to stop. She needed to find another item in the store or had to move on. From that point forward no one was scratched when they sat on the lounge chair. I could go on and on about items from the shop and now in my home. We use a sage smudge on everything that is brought in. Before opening the shop, spirit activity was the furthest thing from my mind but that all quickly changed especially when we were able to document the goings on.

  10. Neil Says:

    Michael Shermer is NO authority on the paranormal. No cynical, closed-minded, pseudo-skeptic deserves to be taken seriously. Objective, open-minded skepticism is mandatory in investigating paranormal claims. An open mind is essential. But leave out the idiots who’re hermetically sealed in their egotistical cynicism like Michael Shermer and the manic James Randi who present themselves as know-it-all’s.

    On the other side there are, unfortunately, numerous psychic frauds out there. Most notably is Sylvia Brown(e). Sylvia Brown(e) has proven herself invalid more times than I care to even count. from her consistently inaccurate “predictions” to the false advise she’s given desperate people over the years, deplorable customer service ratings, being a convicted felon, charged with extortion, etc…. Sylvia is NOT psychic. She researches old material from other authors and rewrites it in her own style. That is why Sylvia Brown(e’s) books all “play the same tune.” Sylvia is a tremendous discredit to the psychic community and has mired the credibility in authentic psychics.

    Yes, paranormal activity exists. Haunted dwellings exist. Energy can attach itself to objects, etc. There’s a wealth of credible scientific evidence to support these paranormal claims. The skeptics don’t like it of course. Their livelihoods depend on their “debunking” to sell their publications to a fringe of hardcore atheist subscribers, and making their appearances at various venues to dispense their long drawn out boring lectures on skepticism and “debunking.”

    As long as the media continues to bring awareness of the prospects of paranormal activity, and more people are comfortable to discuss their experiences, the skeptics are going to find themselves more and more dejected.

    There are more people in this world who’re sane, that have experienced authentic paranormal experiences, that cannot be explained as natural occurrences, than most people realize.

  11. Sunny Says:

    Thanks for the info… I have seen and heard spirits all of my life. I can’t even believe that everyone has not at least once experienced anything. Sometimes fear alone will block it completely out – maybe that is why some people just havent had the priviledge of the experience. Honestly, it never ceases to amaze me. I should write a book, I am certain it would be a best seller. I guess I was just lucky and inherited the gift from my family ;) For example… I have found money for others that their relatives had hidden and never told anyone about after their passing. I never charged anyone for these things because I feel it is a gift from GOD. The amazement on their faces is payment enough when they see what I can do. As far as for the spirits.. just respect them – because someday we ALL will be one~

  12. Dan B Says:

    Far better than ‘ the poke ‘ in making me laugh.
    Some of these comments are hilarious.
    ‘this psychic is a fraud..’ well paint me blue and call me Papa, really?
    What gave that away? The claim she has magic powers to read minds? Or talk to ghosts?

    Anyone claiming to be psychic is a fraud, hence no one being able to ever, not once , anywhere been able to show this ability in a scientifically controlled environmen.

    There are no ghosts, there are no psychics, there are no monsters under your bed.
    Anyone claiming otherwise is either lying or is mentally ill.

    We are far too far down the evolutionary road to believe this nonsenseor put up with its unbased prolification any longer.

  13. nancy iannitelli Says:

    I enjoyed all the comments and opinions. Everyone is entitled to one. It’s a mystery isn’t just like looking up into the sky and thinking we are the only ones in this vast Universe and by the way are their skeptics out there that want to disprove that. Where does the galaxy of stars end? What is beyond the end? Thinking of that is mind boggling…a little existing energy from life force almost seems a given when there are so many other paranormal mind bod=ggling things to try and solve or disprove. My mind is open to anything can happen!!! Provers disprove the skeptics but skeptics can not prove the reality of what has been experienced by many.

  14. TE Says:

    I find it interesting how forcefully some people claim that ghosts do not exist and that everyone who believes in them is stupid or mentally ill. I’m not a paranormal researcher or ghost hunter, but in simply living my normal life, I have heard SO many stories from people who have seen ghosts or experienced scientifically inexplicable happenings (e.g. like the example in the article – everyone getting scratched when sitting on an antique chaise chair). I have heard many people tell me they were total skeptics, atheists, etc. – “until that event.” I also find the very elementary scientific theoretical model (inside/outside) totally laughable: this idea that “it” is “in” the brain. Obviously if ghosts and such exist, we are talking about energy fields and a different kind of matter that interacts with our bodies and affects our bodies in particular ways. Obviously the neuroscientific stimulators are not the equivalent of whatever ghosts are made of. LOL. If living people see, experience, and sustain physical alterations as the result of interactions with the so-called “paranormal,” then one may deduce, scientifically, that there is not a complete separation between the normal/paranormal or natural/supernatural. The absolute only model science has when they maintain these boundaries is that of mental illness: that only people who are experiencing some temporary abnormality will experience things that don’t exist, be it a presence, hallucination, or what not. However, I know that all of the people I have talked to about these things are not mentally ill. In addition, any scientist knows that this methodology is suspect, at best. The binary between natural/supernatural is anti-scientific from the start. It’s just that the only theory available within a natural framework is that of illness and delusion. However, a real scientific approach would simply focus on individual neuroscience. They would try to find the theories (ghosts and supernatural concerns notwithstanding) that explain the sensations, sightings, etc. that are dubbed supernatural. They would then simply theorize all of the inner-body reasons (brain chemicals, poisoning, etc.) for the manifestations they *theorize* are simply produced in the brain. They would then look at the theory, all of the available evidence, and then construct probabilities as to whether the reported experience falls outside the bounds of the theory and its evidential parameters. Those people aren’t scientists – they’re religious zealots.

  15. Fred Says:

    Why do so many people think or believe that ghosts are bad and evil, so if one of your reletives dies, then you are pr. automatic changing your view of that person and now they are only evil from then on……(just a simpel thought)

  16. Tania Says:

    Hi i have a question,
    My grandparents come over from England a long time ago, and brought with them a few things like artifacts, when they both passed away a few years ago i now have in my possession a few of these items, since i brought them into my home there has been some really bad stuff happening, i lost my job, i am now financially in trouble and my marriage is almost at breaking point. My question is is there any possibility that these items have a bad entity attached to them because i cannot figure out why all this stuff is happening to me. PLEASE HELP.

  17. lena Says:

    Indeed, something obviously brought us to this web page. Inanimate objects can be haunted with paranormal activity attached to them. Especially if they were used to contact, worship or divine. We can agree, being human, mortal, and lacking instinct, and born not to know (without knowledge), that to be able to divine the future, is a supernatural feat. I for have belief in God, even though I cannot see, hear or touch the Father. Therefore, I can certainly entertain the thought of haunted objects. However, I do not have faith that humans, after death are the spirits doing the haunting. I believe they are evil spirits attaching themselves to inanimate objects and living people, to fool mankind and make the word of our Father, in Jesus Christ a lie. All such objects should be burned and destroyed. Never to be used of found by any one.

    Sincerely,

    Marlena

  18. Asma Says:

    Ghosts do exists. All the religious books also give evidence. Being a Muslim i strongly believe in ghosts as there is a chapter of surah Jinn ( the ghosts)in the The Noble Holy Quran.but I do think other religious books also state the existence of ghosts.

  19. joshy Says:

    I am as skeptical as they get & something communicated to me mentally. My wife’s grandma noticed I had an interest in antique photos. So she pulled out a photo album from 1865 Minnesota. She saw how amazed I was by it said she didn’t know what to do with it so she gave it to me. I kept explaining to my wife how we could find out it’s worth at an auction house & she didn’t seem thrilled. Then around 2:00 am I heard my wife hissing in her sleep like a snake. It sounded like something was using her as a communication device. When I touched her arm a thought was transmitted to me. It said assertively, “Get that album out of your suitcase now or bad things will happen.” I did exactly what it commanded. Unfortunately, it woke my wife. So after I explained why I was shuffling through my suitcase, she told me she heard a voice say “thank you.” Take it as you want, but that gave me chills. When they command you to do something reasonable do as they wish.

  20. dave Says:

    spirits are able to attach themselves to anything they want or whom they want. I myself have even been physically attacked by a spirit had hand marks around my neck,hard to explain when you happen to wake up in the middle of the night with them after feeling like you were being choked. I have also seen a spirit that was living in my house with like ruby red glowing eyes that had a very dark body in broad daylight in my kitchen. so i dont know why all the people saying they dont exist. If that was true then would god exist or demons? Also energy is never destroyed it has to go somewhere

  21. Tom Says:

    Most people are unaware of the fact that scientific studies in the paranormal, psychics and the afterlife have been investigated for over 150 years. Highly credible, open-minded, skeptical researchers have produced objective, repeatable evidence yielding to the validity to the paranormal.

    There is more evidence to support the validity of the afterlife and the paranormal than there is that can attempt to disprove it. No materialist, no skeptic, no academic, no reductionist, and no scientist has EVER been successful at conclusively dismissing the afterlife and the paranormal as not being real.

    One of the best controlled studies done with psychics was performed by Dr. Gary Schwartz. Dr. Schwartz is a Harvard educated neurologist and psychologist. He was a professor of both neurology and psychology. In the 1990’s, Dr. Schwartz performed a lengthy study at UC Arizona testing various psychics.

    In conclusion the results of the testing proved positive and amazed Dr. Schwartz with astounding clarity proving a true psychics ability.

    Dr. Schwartz describes himself as an agnostic. He’s open-minded spiritually and that is what’s important. I describe myself the same way.

    Sadly Dr. Schawartz was criticized by the pseudo skeptical community with their usual name calling and flat out defamatory remarks after the study was released in print. Even NBC’s Dateline ran a dishonest and defamatory piece on Dr. Schwartz. Dr. Schwartz demanded an apology from NBC.

    Who actually puts any stock into those tabloid journalism level “newsmagazine” programs? It’s merely sensationalism and bias views from the producers. So what NBC did by trying to discredit Dr. Schwartz has no worth whatsoever.

    Closed-minded skeptics are not true skeptics. They are cynics. These pseudo skeptics have a “reputation” to protect amongst their small fringe of followers, and they have a very profitable business to protect as well as being pseudo skeptics.

    This is especially true of the two most notorious celebrity pseudo skeptics: James Randi and Michael Shermer. Both of these men gross huge salaries annually from media appearances and form the “anonymous” contributions that they receive.

    So, it’s only natural that these pseudo skeptics will never concede to accepting the paranormal as being valid. Their livelihoods and “reputations” would be crushed if they did.

    People who “put their faith” into these radical pseudo-skeptics are traveling a lumpy, bumpy short line railroad. The same applies to anyone involved in a radical fundamentalists church with harsh, closed-minded doctrines that are closely followed.

    I prefer to think outside of the box and go against the grain to an extent. Nothing in life is etched in stone. From the wonderment of our own personal experiences, to the brilliant works of underdog scientists and researchers we will find an ever evolving and expanding brilliance in the afterlife/paranormal studies to illuminate our souls.

  22. MarcusW Says:

    Fortunately we nowadays know if we are informed that there’s a lot of the reality our brain can’t perceive. Technology we have can tell us this. There’s light and sound-waves that the brain doesn’t report to the mind. Another thing is that the brain is bombarded with information constantly but “can” only normally process only a fraction. And this fraction is very much up to the type of the person. So we may in a way choose what we experience and see as a reality. A materialistic person doesn’t want to find out what there might be behind his back! It’s good and well if all there is, rests well and firm on the tip of his noose. As I see it there’s no need to disturb him in his slumber!

  23. savonarolla noel nanalivho mankhwala Says:

    On matters like this is wise to have a good sense and knowledge to make a good judgement. For most its easier said than proved to say paranormals are not a fact. For insitance in Malawi a Road Constracting Company was clearing trees in zomba Mt forest to put a road better than the old road. Workers were able to cut several trees for a day. Still working hard cutting huge trees making their way through the forest,as everyday ,oneday they cut down several trees and went to there shelters for the night. The following morning they went to their work place, in witness of everyone there everything was alright except one tree was up and naturally healthy, well they had cut it down the previous day,why and how was it upright and healthy. Persistently so many attempts were tried without making a difference they even tried to cut the tree and transport the tree to a distant location and still the result was the same. The tree is still standing fenced,the road went around it. Many have experienced the presence of paranormal with companions ,some even in large groups. So if you say a person is mentally ill if he or she experience presence of paranormal,and you can scientifically prove it,how can you explain agroup of people. My point is as people we evented science as our special tool to uderstand how well to build and also to destroy ,to lead and also to mislead. Paranormal they don’t use science,they don’t need it. If I was in your shoes as someone who thinks and manifests that the paranormal are not a fact and are not real,before anything I would ask myself if I have travelled to the right places or examined specimen from honest complaintant.This is because the earth is so big,and and all its places have had different events. My advice to you who think because you have known science and its technology you can rule out the presence of paranormals you are doing on yourself a mental destruction and the same applies to the growing generation who will grasp this misconcept. People are going to suffer thinking they are mentally ill when they are confronted,come across or possess some item with presence of a paranormal or paranomals. Yours sincerely, Savonarola Noel Nanalivho Mankhwala.

  24. Gina Says:

    It’s funny, after reading all these comments, I find that I’m not so different. I never really believed in spirits, ghosts, etc. but after moving into our house 6 years ago, I became a believer. We have a three bedroom house. One is a guest room, one if our room and then in the back corner we have a office. We…..here we go. I have a vintage business so I am always on the computer check the value of items and sometimes into the wee morning. I know we have no raccoons, or any critters that might live in our very small, normal attic, which in newer homes is barely enough for someone to craw into. There had been many nights, sitting quietly doing my work when I hear very light foot steps above my head, in my office. So I let it go, don’t say anything to my husband for a while, thinking he might ask me not to work so hard or stay up so late, as thinking that I’m hearing things because I’m tired. Until one night he was playing poker in the office, on the computer and all of a sudden came to me in the kitchen and told me that he had heard the same thing. Of course, this was about 1:00 am and that’s when I would normally hear that noise. But then……he started working days at a time, out of town on constructions jobs and then I would start hearing, very quiet, mumbling types of conversations, after laying down in bed, trying to go to sleep, and these were between and young woman, girl and a man (sounded older) talking in the kitchen……hummm. You couldn’t make out what they were saying but you could hear the difference in the tones. More like an argument, but not violent. Make a long story short, I told my daughter what was going on, being a Christian, she told me to have our friend who is a preacher, come and bless the house and chase them away. Well, we didn’t listen to her. Then weird things started happening. I would put something safely away in the china cabinet, and when I went back months later it was gone. For example the casserole dish would be gone but the carrier would still be there. Or another example, I would have a pair of glasses in the office, a pair in the guest bathroom, a pair in the living room, and maybe a pair in the kitchen the next day I would only be able to find two pair. Days later I would find one in the guest room and a pair in the garage. Strange? So now I do believe in ghosts, spirits, etc. because after I yelled at them to go away and not return………they haven’t. Now you tell me there are no such things as spirits or ghosts. By the way, I did ask the man who took care of this home before we got it, if anyone had died in or around the house, and he said no. We’ve now been there for six years and peacefully for about three.

  25. Emmabee Says:

    1 thing they did get right through all the stupid ramblings of skeptics… is spirits can communicate telepathicly, i’ve had a spirit contact me in the mansion at Mount Stewart in Rothsay, i asked if it was haunted and it was my first time there, i sensed someone just glide across the top of the landing on the great stairway, we were standing between the chairs and the entrance to the chapal, there is a spirit of a man there who is dressed in a mlitary uniform, now i didn’t check anything online nor have i even be able to find anything online of the history of it, the main website doesn’t tell you the history of it ether so i couldn’t of possibly just lookeed online for you skeptics lol, the tour guides hold all the info of the place, you have to go there to be told of all the history. Anyway i asked if it was haunted and they told me of a story of one of the earls nieces coming back from the beach that used to be there and she heared foot steps in the hall way but nobody was there so, this spirit didn’t use words he just used facial expressions and nods and sent some other things to me telepathicly, he said he likes the places too and he is watching over the place and the people there :) so it’s not fake.

    People treat spirits as if it’s a whole other type of lifeform unconnected to the human soul but even in science Albert Einstine said energy cannot be destroyed and WE are energy, our spirits are, ask yourselves: how can we function without a soul? how can all the cells and the electric pulses run to and from our brain to our blood, organs, hair, stomach, skin etc… without some other energy force keeping it alive?, i think it’s a really mundane view to think when we die we don’t exist after, yet many skeptics stil believe in the afterlife but then don’t even think how we could possibly be tranfered from 1 plane of existence to the next… lol, people are so confused about their beliefs i tell you… you can’t believe in the afterlife then say our souls aren’t spirits… such a contradictory belief… I’ve had so many other experiences, like the painting in a shrine in turkey, meant to heal earache (as the tour guide said), i had earache at the time so i touched it, soon after my earache was completely gone lol coicidence? i think not… there must be something on it that is a natural cure to earache.

  26. Haunted Jewelry Says:

    That is really interesting.

  27. Nick Says:

    I understand you not wanting to believe something until you have experienced it yourself. Like aliens I haven’t seen one not sure if they are real, but millions of people who have see something are not stupid! I and most members of my family have experienced hauntings (ghost) images recorded in time etc nothing malicious, in the house we grew up in, side note it wasn’t an old house but near the old pioneer villages! We are not all stupid or crazy… lol go to England and tell me there are no such things as ghost

  28. Emma Sanford Says:

    My mom today pointed out that my fairy porcelain doll looks creepy now I think it is creepy is it haunted?

  29. Don Christopher Says:

    I never beveled in the paranormal till it happened to me, My father passed away several years ago he was living in a home for people with beginning signs of Alzheimer. when he died him and I were not on good terms, he was upset with me because he felt I was responsible that he was in that home. After he died I inherited his old grandfather clock. the clock was in bad shape so I kept it in the shop outside my home. 2 years ago on October I repaired the clock and put it in my living room and that is when strange things started happening. The lights in my home, that I have lived in for 9 yrs, started going on and off, things that I know where i put them would disappear only later to show up in the same spot. the clock will not keep proper time, it is always 15min behind. you can set the time and 1 min later it will be 15min behind again. my wife and I have been having a string of bad luck like we have never had before, job losses, things constantly breaking in the house or cars. And 3 yrs ago I had to have a physical for a job and was told i was in good health but last year on October 15 I had a heart attack that almost killed me. this year, October 20th, I was just told I have colon cancer, lucky for me it was caught early. needless to say that clock is now in a storage unit far from my home

  30. Kendra Says:

    My Mom has a Pinochio collection- many are antiques. One day my sister went outside to leave and realized that she had forgotten something. So as she came into the house she heard a Pinochio laughing. She was not scared. Just surprised. So about a year goes by and I went to get some water in the kitchen. As I walked towards the hallway I heard this little voice say -Water!! I walked to the case and looked at them. But nothing else happened. Then about 6 months later I walked by the case and the same little voice said- HEY!! I have had many encounters with spirits and maybe a demon or two. Yes, paranormal is very real. I don’t think everyone has the gift of sixth sense. Hence the doubters.

  31. Nora Says:

    Haunted objects exspeshually dolls make for a good story . But thats all they are a STORY! sorry bit of a sceptic :)

  32. Norma I Says:

    When my daughter was little she was often visited by a person dressed up as a knight at night in her bedroom. He never spoke or harmed her in any way. It was not until she was older that she told us he visited her often where he walked in dressed up and then left. Could the spirit of a childless man that died in the home have inhabited a statue we had? Also, when I was pregnant with her I dreamed a man begged me to give him my baby. He disappeared when I informed him to “begone”. Could a spirit have been lonely for children? The previous owner of the house told us she and her husband were unable to have children and this man died in the house.

  33. Fern Says:

    I was a skeptic for years until my own experiences after my mother passed, then my dad. Lights going on for no reason, nobody in the room. Cabinet doors opening up in front of me by themselves and a shaving kit flew across the room by itself in front of me. Trust me I am not making this up. There are spirits that haven’t passed over. Since then I have lived in several haunted homes. One in Virginia where a woman died in the home only owning it 3 months. She loved this house and didn’t want to leave therefore as I started to renovate my clock fell off the wall not damaging anything or breaking, again bedroom light would go on by itself so I would turn it off and it would go on again. That happened half a dozen times. My electric fireplace would go on by itself when I would talk to my bf…only him…I would turn it off and it would go on again. That became the joke. I am caregiver to my uncle and he heard footsteps at the foot of his bed but nobody was there and he saw a shadow in the corner of his room then disappear. I recently purchased a 1842 Austrian black powder engineers rifle used in the civil war by the confederate soldier. I am a yankee so he apparently isn’t happy about that and has been making noises like the cat but the cat is outside. I have woken up to my lip being tugged and objects just disappear into thin air. No joke…..so being a former skeptic and then experiencing this and then some I am now a full blown believer in the spirit world. I understand people that don’t believe and you won’t until you experience things yourself.

  34. Cindy Lou Says:

    I have been plagued with issues of various sorts, especially with furniture. For that my best solution was to offer the item as a haunted item on Craigslist. Obligingly a blurry image inexplicably came out on my photo of that one which was a rocking chair. I have also sold or donated things right away now that I am more experienced in recognizing this.

    In one rented house where I was working out of town I had a demon, haunted pantry, cold bedroom, various creepy spaces, feelings of isolation and loneliness I don’t usually have, and tremendous non-random knocks and noises. At one point it got so crazy I left for a week.

    I called the local paranormal group, the Christians, and the Wiccans plus I consulted a Christian I knew back home. She suggested taking the demon-infested file box to another part of the property, which I had movers do – they put it in a building used as a garage. The local Christians did not call back. The Wiccans at first pooh poohed it but did come out with several people and did a cleansing that helped a lot. It was lovely being able to sit in the bedroom without being completely bundled up in blankets, and the knocking that was following me around stopped. A nun I worked with said the previous tenant was, “Entirely capable of calling up a poltergeist,” but she didn’t offer or suggest any help. The paranormal people then came out with some equipment and tried to stir things up to get a reading, which I was very upset about.

    That was just one place in another city and I am having some problems again. If anyone can direct me to bona fide professional help in the Cleveland, Ohio area I am interested.

  35. Minda Says:

    plz help i think i have objects in my house that might be hunted some really wired stuff has happened since I got this stuff from another home and it is starting to get really bad and don’t know what to do. We really have not looked to much in to it until early this morning when a mirror feel off a wall in one of my rooms that has been on that wall for like a mounth. I have no money to work with I just started to rent this is the first time I ever lived at my own house. And I have no idea what to do me and my husband are freaking out a little.. minda and Dylan

  36. Otaku Hiyoko Says:

    Recently, I’ve found some paranormal activity in my Tamagotchi. Help?

  37. MANUEL BELTRAN Says:

    Scared shitless in So Ca. Wife has collected primitive items , some of which are over 100 years old. These are old (in my opinion) pioneer items such as A wooden club that was used to soften meat. Old pie boxes, wooden spoons, butter churns ,dolls etc. She see’s them as decorative but refuses to get them out of the home.

    CHECK THIS OUT:

    HER MOTHER DIES, FATHER DIES WITHIN ONE YEAR OF EACH OTHER. HER SON COMMITTED SUICIDE. HER OTHER SON IS IN JAIL. OUR 7 YEAR LOVING CAT JUST DISAPPEARED FROM THE HOME DUE TO REASONS UNKNOWN. WEIRD CREAKING NOISES IN HOME

    HER DEPRESSION HAS ESCALATED. WEIRD DREAMS OF DEATH, CAPTIVITY PLAGUE US BOTH.

    TRIED EVERYTHING TO MAKE HER SEE THE LIGHT. NO LUCK. ANY SUGGESTIONS?

  38. Tim Says:

    It’s TRUE!
    I have experienced it! I have had REAL experiences!
    Items?
    A Chippendale wing Chair!
    A 200 year old mantal clock!
    A Mirror!
    A wore out shaving kit with wore out cufflinks in it at Goodwill!
    A set of antique China!
    A kitchen table from Goodwill!
    Among other items! I so am so careful what I bring in Because you don’t want these things in your home!?
    I have turned down nice cheap priced pieces Because I felt the BAD VIBE from them! Word of caution if an item isn’t selling even at a give away price and it’s very appealing LOOK OUT?!

  39. Larry L Pyatt Says:

    I am 60, I have experienced visitations my entire life, from 4 years old. No I’m not psychotic. I raised a family, none of my children has had any experiences. I have also experienced a haunted organ my mother purchased.

  40. frank costello Says:

    i recently moved into and old house in san leon texas my girlfriend and i had found some old coins that seem to have pictures all over them we also was doing some yard work and came across some old looking pennies that have them as well could this be goast money some of the dates we cant see but some of the coins have multible dates all over them very strange we toreout some of our kitchen wall andfound all kinds of faces and carvins in the sheetrock as well as the insulation there were dolls and animals dragons wizzards everythi g behind the wall was

  41. Nightmare-Rex Says:

    yes i think so, and not just antiuque items….. i got USBs i store my irreplaceble files on, mods i make .sp files that cannot get on net. I decided to store them in a zipblockbag, inside of a metalic bubble bag, in hopes that the bubble bag will protect from EMP.
    s s this bag seems to protect from another, more destructive force. if i decide to use my USBs and i forget to oput the zibblock into the silver bag, they will litterly vanish. and by vanish i mean i go thugh a box, dump the contents, USBs gone, not to be found, days later they will be int he box that they were not in before. i do not suffer this problem when i acualy rremember to place them in the silver bag.

  42. Olivia Ava Says:

    plz, help I think I have objects in my house that might be hunted some really weird stuff has happened since I got this stuff from another home and it is starting to get really bad, and don’t know what to do.

  43. Webbminecraftpro Says:

    Might be fake or not. Buy it then y’all see

  44. Angelica Says:

    They are just freaking people out this website is just click bait so yeah.

  45. alex Says:

    I have been renovating my house for a year and inside a wall i found a stained glass box that says prayers backwords, and some kinda of cloth in it, i since bought every ghost detecter gaget i could find and have many scary recordings Im trying to find out if i should put it back in side wall or should i have to bless house ,lots of weird things happening since it was found,mostly entire house power trips off or on randomly, and recordings are screaming help, and keeps saying secret, theres two voices, and its a 150 year old home. any advice would be great,nobody will help me with this

  46. Debra Says:

    Hi , I inherited a metal frame picture of some relatives/grandparents. Not sure whom they are. But know they are family members. Since bringing in home, things been happening. For instance tv turning to different channels. Grandgirl said she heard and saw kitchen cupboard move. Just odd things. Maybe coincidence maybe? Sincerely. Debra

  47. Vixxy Says:

    I think what shocks me is people that believe humans have souls and cannot believe that ghosts exist, I think honestly if we look at science and the miraculous things that happen that paranormal is a part of science and not so paranormal. We know that energy doesn’t go completely away but that it changes or gets absorbed by something else so when we die it’s highly believable that some of us could decide to stick around the mortal plane of existence especially if the person was afraid that there is no other place beyond death or believed they were going to hell. As far as esp goes and etc…it’s not a stretch to believe all people could be capable of such things on a certain level considering our brains within our own bodies work similar to a radio where we both broadcast process and receive. I believe in ghosts but I believe that science will eventually be able to explain it all. Maybe some are mentally ill but not all that have experienced “paranormal “ events have mental illness


Leave a Comment or Ask a Question

If you want to identify an item, try posting it in our Show & Tell gallery.