Five haunted objects to conjure nightmares

If you are anything like me you will have a fascination with haunted objects. It is certainly not unknown for entities to attach themselves to objects of various kinds. In this post, I will be examining 5 well known cases of haunted objects.

1) The Crone

The first item we will look at is known as the Crone. This item was found by two hikers trekking through the Catskill Mountains. It was found sitting inside a cave. The crone is a crudely carved object with six nails driven into its eyes and a noose has been placed around its neck. One can only speculate as to the purpose of this object. It would seem likely that there was some ritual intent to its creation. The object may well have been used to curse someone.

Rather than leave this somewhat unsettling object alone, the hikers decided to take it home. For the next week, they began to experience a range of paranomal activity. This began with knocks, and unexplained shadows darting around and progressed to muddy footprints appearing and the ever present stench of stagnant pond water throughout the house. Eventually, these events culminated with a sighting of a crouching emaciated apparition with glowing eyes.

This was all too much for the owners of the crone and so they gave it to Greg Newkirk and Dana Matthews of the Travelling Museum of the Paranormal and Occult (http://paramuseum.com/projects/the-crone-of-the-catskills/). This haunted object can be seen by the public but there is a strict no touching policy due to the potential danger to anyone coming in close contact with it.

2) The Dybbuk Box

Fans of Paranormal Witness will be familiar with the story of the Dybbuk Box. This item was a small Jewish wine cabinet that was acquired from an estate sale by an antique dealer. The granddaughter of the original owner of this box told the purchaser that the grandmother had kept the box hidden and that a malicious entity known as a Dybbuk was locked within the box. The purchaser was told never to unlock the box.

The box was taken back to the buyer's antique store, where it was immediately placed within a basement workshop. The purchaser intended to refinish it and give it to his mother as a gift. After leaving the box within the basement the purchaser went out to run some errands, leaving a young female shop assistant in charge of the store. Half an hour later he received a panicked call from the shop assistant telling him that someone was in the basement smashing things. The shop assistant had gone down to investigate and had been locked in the basement with the invisible entity that was breaking things. Rushing back to his shop, he unlocked the basement and was met by an unmistakable odor of cat urine. The shop assistant fled the store and never returned. The breaking glass was due to every single light bulb and fluorescent tube in the basement being smashed.

Despite the events that had occurred, the buyer had not associated them with the Dybbuk box. He eventually gave the box to his mother who promptly had a stroke. When she was well enough to talk she told him she hated the gift and blamed it for the stroke. The box was then given to three or four other people. None kept it long. The box was associated with unpleasant odors and the doors had a habit of swinging open even after they were securely closed. A couple who eventually bought the box later returned it to the store with a note saying it had a "bad darkness".

The buyer then decided that since no one else wanted the box he would keep it himself. He ended up being plagued with nightmares. Night after night he would have the same dream, he would be out walking with somebody he knew and then at one point he would turn to face the person and they would be replaced by something evil. The person would then transform into a hideous hag who would proceed to beat him up. He would then wake the next morning covered in bruises.

It was only when talking to family members who the buyer had previously given the box, that everyone realized that they had all been having identical nightmares when in possession of the box. It was then that the buyer made the connection between the box and what had been happening to him. This prompted him to make the decision to rid himself of the box by selling it on eBay. The original eBay auction can be seen here (https://web.archive.org/web/20051105000557/www.andrew.cmu.edu/user/rubyc/eBay_dibbuk.htm).

The Dybbuk Box was sold several times and was eventually purchased by Zak Bagans of Ghost Adventures fame to be displayed in his Haunted Museum in Las Vegas.

3) The Anguished Man painting

British man Sean Robinson inherited this horrific looking painting from his grandmother. She had kept it locked in her attic for a quarter of a century believing it to be supremely evil. The painting was said to have been created by an artist who mixed his own blood with the paint used for the painting. The artist committed suicide shortly after completing this work. Sean's grandmother claimed that whenever the painting was displayed she would hear voices and crying and would see the shadowy figure of a man within her house.

When Sean inherited the painting he began to experience similar activity. Sean and his family heard crying, saw a shadow man and his wife even felt an unseen presence stroking her hair. Sean set up a video camera in an attempt to capture some of this phenomena. Some of this footage can be seen in the video below. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRQSWgYNqvI)

Frightened by this activity Sean has since kept this painting locked away in his basement. He has indicated that he is not interested in selling the painting.

4) Annabelle the Doll

Of all the haunted objects, Annabelle the doll is perhaps the best known. This large Raggedy Anne style doll was bought in a thrift store in 1970 by a woman for her daughter who was away in college. The daughter loved the doll and kept it in her apartment. Almost immediately, the daughter and her roommate began to notice strange activity related to the doll. The doll would often move around the apartment by itself. They also began finding notes written in a childish scrawl on small pieces of parchment paper. This was particularly strange given that they kept no parchment paper in their apartment. In a bid to get to the bottom of the dolls strange behavior the girls visited a psychic. There they were informed that the spirit of a murdered child named Annabelle was inhabiting the doll. Annabelle told the girls through the psychic that she liked them and wanted to stay with them. The girls readily agreed.

Granting Annabelle permission to stay with them would seem to have been a mistake as the paranormal activity in their apartment increased dramatically. This culminated in the boyfriend of one of the girls being physically attacked by the doll leaving him with vicious scratches on his face and torso.

It was at this point that the girls contacted famed paranormal researchers, Ed and Lorraine Warren. The Warren's investigated the case and determined that the doll was actually inhabited by a demonic entity rather than the spirit of a child. They believed that this entity wanted to possess one of the girls. To prevent any further danger to the girls the Warren's removed Annabelle and placed her in a consecrated cabinet in their Occult Museum. Annabelle remains there to this very day.

5) The Hands Resist Him painting

In 1972 Bill Stoneham created the famously creepy painting "The Hands Resist Him". The inspiration for this painting came from a poem his wife wrote called "Hands Resist Him" and a photo of the artist at 5 years of age. The painting was bought and changed hands several times before it seemingly disappeared for a couple of decades. In 2000 the painting resurfaced on eBay with a host of claims of strange paranormal activity. The sellers wrote that at first, they thought the painting was really good art, but then they noted that the painting would seemingly come to life and terrorize the family. They claimed that not only would the figures in the painting move around but sometimes they would actually leave the painting entirely and come into the room at nighttime. The painting eventually sold to a Michigan gallery owner named Kim Smith for $1025. The painting is currently kept in storage with no claims of continuing phenomena associated with it.

When the Smith purchased the painting he spoke to Bill Stoneham who was surprised to hear of the paranormal claims surrounding the artwork. Stoneham did say that two people who had originally displayed and reviewed the painting had both died within a year of doing so. Coincidence, or something more sinister, you decide!