Well, I suppose it's been a little while since we've last shared an investigation with you all, and I sure hate keeping you all waiting. After all, most of you have probably been constantly refreshing your browser pages in anticipation of an update, right O.O ? As some of you may be aware, the Boo Boys are located in Southeast Alaska and are completely landlocked. Because of this, sometimes it can be a little difficult finding a good lead unless there's travel involved. Bearing that in mind, we decided that we need to take this blog in a different direction and diversify the content that we are sharing with our lovely readers so that you actually stick around. Sure, we still want to share investigations when we actually have a case, but what the heck do we do with all of the down time in between? I'm not Martha Stewart, and you aren't here for recipes or cutesy posts about Alaskan wildlife. You're here for the spooks, the creeps, and the heebie-jeebies! I'm not going to keep you all waiting, so if we can't go to where the ghosts are, we'll bring the ghosts to us! So welcome, one and all, to the first installment of our weekly Paranormal Packages blog series!
The Premise
Ok, I'll be the first to admit that maybe sometimes I can be pretty gullible. If one of my friends was to tell me, with all seriousness that some scientist somewhere in the South Pacific Islands taught a dolphin how to play the drum solo from "In the Air Tonight" by Phil Collins, odds are I'd believe them. However, this isn't a series about musically inclined marine mammals and when it comes to ghosts and the paranormal, I'm a little more skeptical. When someone tells me that they have a haunted doll for the low price of $99.99 plus shipping, this definitely raises an eyebrow. I mean seriously, have you looked for haunted dolls for sale before? (Probably not) Just try going to Etsy or Ebay and searching "Haunted Dolls." There is a huge market for these things on the internet and many sellers list 20 or more! How the flip do they get all of them? Is there a haunted Goodwill that they go shopping at? Do they run a foster home for ghosts? What is going on!? Most of these sellers have glowing reviews too, with 4 or 5-star rating averages, so obviously they must be legitimate, right?...
In this series, we are going to be purchasing one doll or allegedly haunted item every month and will be performing tests and sharing weekly updates to determine the legitimacy of whether or not one of these dolls is actually haunted. Now let me clarify so that I don't get sued or something: I am not determining the legitimacy of the seller, only the product that they are offering. Take that as you will, but suffice it to say, if I buy a haunted item from someone and can't verify that it is haunted, then I am not going to be buying from them again. Additionally, I am not going to buy from one of these faceless factories that constantly pop out haunted dolls on a daily or weekly basis. I am only buying from people who have a reputation or an online presence, have an actual face to a name, and have some credibility as a paranormal investigator or collector. With that out of the way, let's get right into our first case: The Sister Doll.
This piece was purchased from Synister Four Winds, a store on ETSY that has a five-star rating and is ran by a mother and daughter who are members of a paranormal investigation team based in Maine. The pair have a museum of haunted objects that have been procured during their investigations, as well as a YouTube channel on which they live stream and showcase their collection of haunted items. Some of their haunted listings can be somewhat pricy, ranging anywhere from $50 to $3,000! I'm sure you can already guess that I definitely did not pay $3,000 for something that a stranger on the internet has said is haunted, and instead purchased one of their least expensive pieces. I opted for somewhat of a gamble, as all details of the object I was purchasing were not revealed until its delivery. Though I was skeptical about spending money on something I didn't even get to see before buying, I was filled with anticipation. The shop seemed legitimate, and I was eager to know what would be in the package. Would it be an old and torn up raggedy Ann or maybe a dusty, disheveled porcelain doll? What was I to expect?
The Unboxing
Upon receiving the doll in the mail, I was somewhat hesitant to open it. Not because I was afraid of it, but because I feared that whatever was in the box would not live up to the horrifyingly imaginative image and expectations that my mind had already conjured up. It was reminiscent of Schrodinger's cat in the sense that as long as the box remained unopened, there would be some terrifying, nightmare-inducing doll inside that was 100% haunted. Regardless of my trepidation, I knew what had to be done.
Upon opening the box, I was met with a file folder containing some background on the doll that I had purchased. There was a sheet inside with some interview questions that the shop owner had asked the doll and a case file that included the original owner's testimony, along with some additional information regarding observations and testing performed by the seller. The case file reads as follows (with some spelling corrections by yours truly):
The sister doll
Case# 009844
Donated Object
"A porcelain doll that belonged to my sister, Kelly. It had always creeped me out, even more so after my sister's sudden passing. I had been keeping the doll in the living room, next to a pile of belongings I had yet to go through. The doll had been a Christmas gift one year from our grandmother. Both of us had gotten a porcelain Christmas doll that year. Sadly, I never took care of mine and it ended up broken and lost over the years. I found the doll while cleaning out my sister's belongings. I was happy as it brought back memories of Christmas and the time we had shared together. For some reason though, when I looked at the doll, I felt cold and as if the air had been sucked out of my lungs. It was hard for me to look at it for long periods of time. I started having what people in the paranormal field refer to as 'Hag Syndrome', or sleep paralysis as it is more commonly referred. This is when I feared that the energy I dealt with did not love me as my sister would. The doll was visited by something and I was not sure what. I began seeing shadows out of the corners of my eyes and always walking around me at night while I tried to sleep. I always got the feeling like there was more than one being in the room with me. The sleep issues continued. Not every night, but once in a while I would have another dream. This time, my sister came to me in a dream. She was trying to talk to me, but I could not hear anything but the sound of a heart beating. She would look sad, like she was asking for help, but there was nothing I could do to help her. I never was a dreamer before, so I was so confused as to why this was happening. I had not yet connected it with the doll I kept with my sister's belongings. I had creepy feelings from the doll, but why would it have anything to do with the dreams or sleep paralysis? After explaining the dreams to my boyfriend on top of the random sounds and scratching heard around the doll, we finally put it together. Something had followed the doll to my home."
The seller also states in the case file that after receiving the doll from the previous owner, they isolated it for testing before introducing it into the museum with the rest of their collection. They claim that during testing, they witnessed phenomenon such as black masses moving in their bedroom and feelings of being watched. They state that physical contact with the doll helps to ilicit a response from a female entity that is believed to be attached to the doll, however there is a darker and more sinister energy latched onto it, as well. They believe that this malevolent entity may be keeping the female spirit from communicating. Throughout the course of their testing, they encountered many strange events, such as footsteps, whispers, knocks, scratching, shadows, vivid dreams, and sleep paralysis. It was concluded that the two beings that have attached themselves to the doll were more than likely human, and that there may be some traumatic history keeping them bound to the doll.
Upon unwrapping, holding, and viewing the doll, it did not live up to the Lovecraftian horror that I imagined in my head, nor did I think that it would. It did give me somewhat strange vibes, but I was not afraid or worried. I was hopeful that maybe, just maybe we would capture some evidence of the paranormal from this object, and so we began our investigation phase.
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