Secrets Behind Haunted Dolls

Chapter 1

Dolls have been with us since recorded history. The earliest report of a haunted doll actually goes back to Rameses the 3rd, where his enemies attempted to use wax dolls in his image to bring about his death. It was rumored that the dolls were living and would bring a curse upon anyone who bore their resemblance.

There has always been an eeriness about dolls. A sinister creepiness that has always terrified the young and old with their connection to the supernatural. What is it about dolls that make them so susceptible to Voodoo, Hoodoo, ghosts, haunts, and possession? Are dolls truly vessels for the undead or hosts for demonic spirits to enter into our realm?

The first dolls known to man were the Shabti dolls of ancient Egypt. The ancient Egyptians were firm believers that these Shabti dolls, also known as ‘The Answers,’ was the true workforce in the afterlife. These dolls were found in the tombs of the adult mummies all over Egypt. These first dolls were made around 4,500 years ago out of materials such as stone, wood and faience (a glazed ceramic ware).

'Shabti' dolls were buried inside the mummies for one purpose only; to guide the dead to the afterlife. The spirit realm. So, as you can see, dolls were linked to the supernatural from the get go.

Dolls themselves are actually quite harmless. A wonderful companion for a child or a beautiful decor to accent a room. However, to this day, many people are still very adamant in believing that dolls are evil. This phobia is called Pediophobia, (the fear of dolls.)

The word Pediophobia originates from the word 'Padion' which means 'little child' in Greek and 'Phobos' meaning fear or deep dread. Pediophobiacs are also known to fear little children. Hence, why you have so many cases of child abuse in small children. The Pediophibiac is trying to stomp out the demon within themselves. Sad but unfortunately true. There are actually two supernatural types of dolls.

Those that are empty vessel that entities will come and reside in. And those that are literally created for a particular individual for spell casting or to bring harm to that particular person. Voodoo-hoodoo dolls. Or better known as 'Poppet Dolls.' Poppet Dolls are used for good or evil, depending on the person using the doll by casting spells on a person for love and happiness or bringing harm to them through sticking pens and needles in them, or setting them on fire, breaking their limbs, ect. Can a person truly be affected by spells put on dolls?

Many people believe that the answer to that question is yes. As for me, believer or not, I don't ever want to end up on the receiving side of a 'Poppet Doll' to find out.

Chapter 2

So now we have learned that Shabti Dolls, and Poppet Dolls are all connected to the supernatural through the actions of others and their beliefs in them. But what is the story about your everyday dolls. Dolls that children have been playing with for centuries.

Are they truly vessels for the supernatural? And are the bizarre stories that we have heard over the centuries of dolls being possessed, moving by themselves, hurting others a true fact or just creepy stories brought on by overactive imaginations? And why are 90% of these stories connected to children.? So if these stories are indeed fact, we must ask ourselves, what is it about children that bring these dolls to life.

As children, our minds are open and highly susceptible to the realm around that as adults we can no longer see. A sixth sense, if you will. And because children are connected to this sixth sense, they are a lot more susceptible to bringing entities in.

Most entities when they enter into our world need a vessel to enter into. Hence, how dolls come into place. Once the doll is possessed with this entity, it usually stays. Comfortable in our world. When the child grows older and is no longer in need of the doll, the doll moves to a new owner and depending on the energy from the child or in the home, the entity can cause havoc through the doll. Hence, you have a haunted doll.

Most times an entity will lie dormant for years until the doll is introduced to a high energy individual like a child or if there is a lot of anger in the home. And then look out! Your home and family is now in the possession of a malevolent spirit. And depending on the energy that the entity feeds off of will determine its strength from the dolls just moving around all the way up to a full blown poltergeist.

Once the doll is possessed, then it's next to impossible to get rid of the entity unless you have a lot of knowledge on how the spirit realm exits and how to send these entities back. If you suspect having a haunted doll, please don’t attempt an exorcism on your own. You could enrage the spirit and allow an opening for the spirit to leave the doll and enter into you or another family member depending on if that individual is an open vessel or not. Please seek a professional in the supernatural field that has experience getting rid of entities and sending them back from whence they came. A great example of a haunted doll is the infamous ‘Annabelle Doll.’

Chapter 3

The real Anabelle doll was actually a Raggedy Anne doll. Anabelle first appeared in 1970, a gift for a 24 year old nurse from her mother. Hence, be careful where you pick up used dolls from. The girl and her roommate started noticing right away that every time that they would see Anabelle, she would be in a different possession or the doll would be in a completely different room. The two roommates would question each other but each time they both claimed that they had not moved the doll. The roommates began finding notes written in crayon saying ‘help me.’ At one time, even discovering a red substance on the doll resembling blood.

I don’t know about you, but that would be my cue to get rid of the doll. However, the roommates decided to perform a seance instead. During the seance, the roommates learned that Annabelle used to belong to a little girl named Anna Belle Higgins, who died at age seven, Anna Higgins lived in a house on the property where the apartment building sets now.

During the seance, Annabelle told the girls that she just wanted to be loved so the girls invited her to stay in the doll. Wrong! Number one, if you have a spirit lingering around, a seance will bring it into the physical realm through your energy allowing it to become very strong. And inviting a malevolent spirit to stay not only brings the evil into your realm but could possibly open the door for the spirit to possess one of your family members or friends living in the home.

Child or not, these spirits are evil and they want to consume your entire being. After the seance, things became much worse for the girls so they had a male friend sleep over one night out of fear of being alone with the doll. Their male friend claims that while he was sleeping on the sofa, Annabelle crawled up on top of him and started to strangle him. He jumped up throwing the doll across the room running into one of the girls’ bedroom. As the girl jumped up in terror and turned on the light, she noticed blood on the back of her friends shirt. At that moment, the roommate came flying into the room to see what all the commotion was about. She noticed that her roommate had lifted the shirt of their friend and that he had claw marks across his back. Their male friend left that night and did not return again.

The girls called the Warrens whom were famous for their work in the supernatural at the time. Lorraine was said to have psychic abilities that enabled to allow her to communicate with these spirits. When the Warrens arrived at the resident of these two roommates, it was rumored that Lorraine could feel the presence of the malevolent spirit before entering the apartment.

Annabelle was removed and taken to a safe room in the Warren’s house where she still remains today. So was this the case of a 7 year old haunting a doll by little Anna Belle or was the doll truly possessed by a demonic spirit?

Chapter 4

There are several stories just like the Anabelle story throughout history so it is a little difficult playing each one off as 'someone's over active imagination.'

Even Hollywood has had its fun with demonic dolls. Hence; the infamous ‘Chucky.’ A slashing, gashing doll that was possessed by Charles Lee ‘Chucky’ Ray; a serial killer executed. The story goes that once Charles Ray was able to possess the 'Chuck Good Guy Doll,' he was able to continue his killing until he could find a human host to possess.

But, can dolls actually kill people? And if the answer is yes, depending on the spirit or demon that possesses the doll, than that can be a very disturbing scenario. Enough to want to get rid of all the dolls in your home and splash some Holy Water around. And although most people think that 'Chucky' was a fictional character that Hollywood dreamt up, but in reality, the character of 'Chucky' was actually based off a true haunted doll named Robert.Chapter 5

Robert is exhibited at the East Martello Museum in Key West Florida. However, the museum hasn't always been his home. Robert once belonged to a painter and author by the name of Robert Eugene Otto. Hence, where Robert the doll got his name. Robert was given to Robert (Gene) when he was 4 years old in 1904.

It was rumored that young Robert Gene was given the doll as a gift of retaliation from a wrong doing by a girl of the Bohemian descendant. Robert has a very unusual look compared to other dolls. Outside of his sailor outfit that was worn by young Robert, Robert is a life sized doll made of fabric stuffed with straw. History puts 'Robert the Doll' at the top of their list for most haunted dolls. For nearly 115 years, Robert has haunted the young and old from his black button creepy eyes following you around, to his freakishly giggling laugh, to reeking havoc on a life if disrespected. And you have to admit, the holes in his face ad to the whole aura of total creepville.

The legend of how 'Robert the Doll' became possessed was due to a maid that worked for the Otto family A young girl of Bohemian descent, enabled the doll with Voodoo magic and gifted it to young Robert as a retaliation of wrongdoing from the Otto family against her. Why do they always pick on the children?

I guess the best way to get back at an adult is through their children. Anyway, young Robert fell in love with the doll from the start and took him everywhere he went, including dressing him in his own clothes; the sailor suit. The obsession that young Robert took on with his doll, while at first was quite innocent turned into a unfortunate mask of undoings. Young Robert started talking to and treating his doll as if he were a live person. He even built his doll his own room in the attic.

Soon after the arrival of Robert the Doll, strange things started happening in the Otto household. Objects started moving on their own and young Robert would be blamed for these mishaps around the house. Young Robert would declare his innocence each time saying that it was Robert the Doll. Hence, causing many problems with young Robert and his mother, even bringing accusations that young Robert could possibly be going insane.

I don't know about you, but the last place an individual would want to end up was an insane asylum during the early 1900's. Young Robert would be lost forever in a torturous environment with only death as a release. Eventually, his parents believed young Robert due to the fact that many people throughout the Otto household were noticing objects moving around on their own and would hear strange footsteps coming down the stairs but would never see anyone there.

Young Robert eventually grew up, moved away to Chicago and married. Later returning to his childhood home with his new bride, he noticed that 'Robert the Doll' was still sitting in the top floor turret room where young Robert had left him, taking up a permanent possession in a chair facing out of an upstairs window patiently waiting for the return of Young Robert. People walking along the street would claim that they would see Robert the Doll walking around up there.

After Robert Otto died in 1974, Robert the Doll changed hands one other time by Myrtle Reuter, whom kept Robert the Doll for 20 years, claiming that she never had any haunting experiences with doll. So, was the spirit that possessed 'Robert the Doll' truly just a voodoo curse brought on by the maid to cause havoc for the Otto family or was it a spirit that young Robert brought into the doll from his own energy? Either way, upon the death of Robert Otto, also brought the death of the spirit or curse that plagued 'Robert the Doll.' The doll found his final home at the Fort East Martello Museum where he still gets visitors today hoping to see Robert moving around. Honestly, if I was going to keep a haunted doll around, it would be Robert. He's just too cute and he was quite harmless. A very playful and fun spirit. A spirit we could all use a little bit more of in our lives.

Chapter 6

Which brings me to my next story. The ‘Letta’ Doll. Letta is a 200 year old gypsy doll, give or take a couple of years, that was found buried underneath an abandoned home in New South Wales, Australia by Kerry Walton from Brisbane, Australia when doing renovations. Not only is the doll carved from wood with real human hair but the uncanny resemblance to his new owner Kerry is quite disturbing on its own.

When Kerry took the doll home, he started noticing that objects would move around and pictures would fall off of the walls. And when 'Letta' was taken around the farm animals animals, they would start freaking out for no apparent reason. The dolls name ‘Letta’ is short for ‘Letta Me Go.’ Was this the odd humor of an old man or was Kerry given the name ‘Letta Me Go’ from the doll ‘Letta’ himself?

With the doll being carved out of wood with real human hair it makes you wonder if a soul is trapped in ‘Letta’ under a curse from a gypsy and the soul is begging to let him go. Hence, the name 'Letta Me Go.' And since 'Lette' is a gypsy doll, it could very well be possible.

Gypsies were known for their intense, eerie superstitions and their mysterious lives. To this day, we still don’t know where gypsies actually came from or the mystery that surrounds them. We just know that they were responsible for tarot cards, werewolf legends, the ability to read palms and to talk to the dead through their crystal balls. In other words, the mystery that surrounds the gypsy people is just as dark and mysterious as the mystery that surrounds haunted dolls. Many people think that the gypsies were the original Egyptians. Who's to say. All I know is that if a gypsy put a curse on 'Letta,' only a gypsy can release 'Letta.' And if 'Letta' was found buried beneath the house, there is a good chance that ‘Letta was buried on that land years before the house was built.

So, is ‘Letta’ truly a cursed soul by gypsies trapped in a doll buried alive for eternity or is ‘Letta’ just an old doll haunted by ghosts of the past. Only ‘Letta’ can give us that answer. This would be one seance that I would attend.Chapter 7

The doll, however, that disturbs me the most is ‘Okiku,’ a Japanese doll whose hair continually grows. And not only does her hair continuously grow but it is human hair. The doll's hair has been tested by professionals which have absolutely no explanation of how this phenomenon is occurring. Only to say that it is supernatural.

The doll was purchased in 1918 for a little girl named Okiku whom died a year later from a severe flu. In memory of Okiku, the doll was set up as a shrine in the Manunge Temple where people noticed that the dolls hair was growing when they came to visit the doll, something that had not happened prior to the girls death.

To this day, every 6 months or so, they still have to cut the dolls hair because it starts growing too long. Many believed that the little girls spirit had moved into the doll. And if it is the spirit of this child then why didn’t she move on and why is she trapped within this doll?

And sadder yet, is her soul being tormented, trapped between the spirit realm and the natural realm? In the natural realm, human hair growing from the head of a doll is not possible; but in the spiritual realm, anything is possible. A realm in which we still have no understanding of how it truly works.

And with the Japanese culture being thousands of years old, they are infamous for their supernatural beliefs. Ask any local of Japan if they believe in curses, ghosts, demons, the undead and they will say yes without any hesitation.

That is what makes the spiritual realm so dangerous and why it must be treated with the utmost respect. In other words, don’t go playing around with what you don’t know. You might not like what you find, or should I say you might not like what finds you.

Chapter 8

And then of course, you have the ‘Island of the Dolls’ located on the corals of Mexico City. This island has hundreds of mutilated dolls hanging from it's trees. The story goes that an islander by the name of Don Julian Santana left his wife and child and moved to the island on Teshuilo Lake in the famous Mexico Xochimilco canals to live out the rest of his days in recluse.

One day in the year 1950, Don was walking along side the water and discovered the body of a drowned girl. Laying along side of her was a doll so Don hung the girls doll from a tree in remembrance of her. Claiming that he would hear crying coming from the doll, he became obsessed with doll believing that it was the spirit of the girl that he had found. He started hanging dolls everywhere to keep her company. Becoming abscessed with these dolls. Claims started being made that people would see these dolls moving and would hear sounds of children screaming and crying coming from the island. In 2001, investigators discovered the body of Don Julian in the same spot that the drowned girl had been found 50 years earlier. He was found drowned.

Was the demise of Don Julian Santana the results of a freakish, coincidental experience or did the spirits of the dolls send Don to his grave the same way that he had found the girl 50 years prior?

No offense, but one haunted doll already sends shivers down my spine. I can't imagine an entire island of hundreds of haunted dolls. Simply would not happen. Do I think the spirits that inhabit these dolls on ‘Island of the Dolls’ killed Don Julian? Put it this way, if you put enough empty vessels around you, don’t be surprised if one day they find you face down in the water.Chapter 9

So, as you can see, most dolls that are involved in hauntings, poltergeists or possessions are connected to a child in one shape or form. But what about the dolls that are bought brand new. No children are involved but seem to take on a life of their own. These cases are rare but do exist. This reinforces the theory that dolls are empty vessels and depending on the energy of you home can be susceptible to what I call roaming entities looking for a host.

So if you buy a doll new and it starts taking on the characteristics of a haunted doll or a possessed doll through movement and other signs, then chances are that you had a pre -existing ghost or demon in the house that found a way into the physical realm through the new doll in order to torment your family. Most haunted houses will lay dormant for years, usually because the homeowner is a non believer or the family members are closed (not in tune to the spiritual realm.) Five senses only. But if you bring an individual into the home with a sixth sense, usually a child, then bazaar things will start happening in the home through this new doll.

Most of them are quite harmless, but some of them can be very dangerous causing great torment and havoc to a family. And many cases they will pick a single family member to show themselves in order to separate that member. So if a family member comes to you with crazy stories about their doll, please believe them even if you haven't had any haunting experiences in the home prior to the new doll . The good news is that we live in an age of great technology, so if you think that there is activity going on with your new doll just install some cameras around the rooms where the doll is most active.

You can pick up these cameras for as little as $10 each in any spy shop. Note: dolls have the most activity in children's rooms or family rooms such as the kitchen, the family room, or a playroom. Target these rooms first with your cameras. Place the doll in the room in an upright position. Preferably sitting up in a chair. The higher the energy the better. Remember that entities are not stupid. Treat them with respect, they are going to know that the energy of the house has changed; that you are now aware of their presence. So it could be a few days or even a few weeks before your cameras pick up any activity. So don't give up. You will know something within 14 days or so. If you record movement, remove the doll from your home immediately. Don’t play with it or think that it is cool that you recorded movement.

Remove the doll from your home! Remember that these entities are very intelligent. They know when an energy has changed and they will grow strength from it. They will use that energy to start harming you and your family. When you are removing the doll from the home it is very important that you don’t say anything about getting rid of the doll. Remember that these are intelligent beings that you are dealing with and if it gets wind that you are trying to get rid of it, the malevolent spirit will try and detach itself from the doll and attach itself to something else in your home. If there is a child involved just tell your child that you and the doll are going for a nice walk.

Once you take possession of the doll far enough away from your home. Tie a rock or brick around its neck for enough weight to ensure it will sink, then toss it quickly into deep water or bury it at least two feet into the ground. Both makes the spirit temporarily powerless until you are able to put some distance between you and the doll.

Don’t worry about hurting your child's feelings. Take them for pizza and they will soon forget. You are saving that child in the long run. And whatever you do, do not take the doll into your yard and attempt to burn it. It will only release an angry spirit onto your family. After you properly dispose of the doll and the entity returns then you have a real problem. It is a demon, not a malevolent spirit and you need to seek help from the church.

Good luck and remember, if you hear a bump in the night, check your dolls first!

The End