There is probably no one reading this who has not had a disturbing experience at one time or another involving that most simple and supposedly benign object, a child’s doll.
Ask around at any party where the conversation turns to the supernatural and someone will inevitably pipe up with a creepy story about an encounter with a doll that seemed to have a life and will all its own. Invariably, the doll was the object of fear and loathing in someone’s home until the children were old enough to abandon such things. If they were lucky, the doll was given away – maybe it was passed on to some unfortunate cousin; if they weren’t so lucky, the doll was relegated to storage in the labyrinthine darkness of the attic where it often became to object of even more terror.
Dolls, simple child’s playthings, primitive or highly stylized, have been around for centuries. Every culture seems to create these little imitations of humans and all seem to do so for the same purpose: to provide companionship, entertainment and comfort to our children.
With such innocent and well-intentioned origins, what could possibly bother, or, in some cases even terrify us about these loving childhood companions?
For reasons unknown, dolls seem to attract spirits. More troubling, dolls seem to become easily imbued with the spirit of the child to whom it most closely connected. And there is ample evidence to at least provoke suspicion that some dolls stay connected via this childhood link for years, even generations after their childhood playmate has grown to adulthood or succumbed to early death.
Other dolls are created for the enjoyment of the collector, and although they are never “played with” in the traditional sense they still can become objects of devotion and even obsession. Any avid doll collector will tell you that it can be hard to pass up the opportunity to purchase or obtain a beautiful, desirable doll. These dolls are no less loved and the emotional connection is no less intense; often these collectible dolls are the objects of the most terrifying haunted events.
Author Anne Rice is one collector of such magnificent dolls and they can be seen on display at her Doll Museum in New Orleans. Once the site of the St. Elizabeth’s Orphanage, the building now houses Rice’s vast collection and other artistic works. It is interesting to note, however, that Rice once stated that she moved her doll collection to the centralized museum location because it basically bothered her to have them around her house. Prior to the opening of the museum, when she and husband Stan Rice were making one last walk-through, Rice is quoted as having said she “wouldn’t like to be locked in here all night with all of them [the dolls].” Not only are most of the dolls allegedly haunted, they are now housed in a verifiably haunted location.
Haunted dolls are also extremely popular items at online auction sites such as eBay and bidZ, however, not every doll or toy featured on these sites can be verified as truly being haunted. Granted, some of the more beat up models featured are disturbing in their own right, whether or not they are actually haunted, but it should be obvious to the discerning reader that some dolls are so decidedly bogus you can practically smell it over your broadband connection!
This is not to suggest that the haunted authenticity of every doll or toy presented for sale is to be questioned. Many legitimate paranormal investigators and ghost hunters often place items up for sale that they are willing to part with for the sake of furthering research and study. Others, it is true, are quite obviously victims of hauntings who have unknowingly come by a doll or toy, often through inheritance or estate sale, that has proceeded to haunt and otherwise terrify its new owners. These people genuinely want to get rid of the item and will usually place only a small reserve on it, willing to part with it the moment the auction time is up.
But obviously there are many others who for one reason or another feel it necessary to either bilk individuals out of hard-earned cash or make fools out of paranormal enthusiasts. These are the folks with the long, meandering, “true life” stories of “real hauntings” by the doll and who have to get rid of the dreaded object “at any cost,” so long as it’s high.
They continue to get away with it because, after all, you can’t really PROVE a doll or toy is haunted. Or can you?