There are numerous kinds of dolls grabbing the attention of both children and adults. Some just like them, others play with them or just collect them. There are some people that take it a bit further and dive down the rabbit hole of dolls being haunted. Popular, alleged haunted dolls like Annabelle or Robert stoke the ever increasing fires of belief of evil and hauntings as purported by popular social media sites, ghost TV shows, paranormal museums and certain cultural practices such as voodoo. They instill the seeds of fear as to the possibility the doll is somehow an object that can come to life. It is the aesthetics of their near-to-human appearance that holds revulsion among some observers.
Cognitive bias plays a major role in fearing certain dolls or believing they are haunted. Our brains put us in a defensive mode when it recognizes an anthropomorphic, inanimate object's alleged potential of becoming alive. Our minds then present us with possibilities based on that reaction such as: get away, it could harm or kill you... don't go to sleep with that thing in your room or looking at you... is it just waiting, patiently for its chance when I'm not looking or asleep to !!!. Of course, we have horror movies like Chucky and Puppet Master to name a few, to thank for reminding us of all of the possible ways of being murdered by evil dolls. We are taught to fear so much in the world around us!
Unlike the few who frequent estate sales looking to find an old doll in the actual hope of it being haunted, some seek and find solace with dolls. This may include a cultural or traditional feeling of belonging or a source of comfort to others, in turn developing an emotional attachment. A doll's realism is a comfort to some and provides in some instances, a kind of friend to make them feel less alone in the world... someone always on their side no matter what, you know, just like our pets. A child's interaction with them facilitates role playing that includes dressing them or playing with them, or even simply displaying them. To them, dolls are never old, scary, ugly or damaged and perhaps in a way, exemplifies a maturity that is sometimes missing in adults and is an example of how people should treat each other and avoid judgement based on appearances.
Getting past the emotional barrier and idea of thinking a doll as haunted due to it being an antique, or possessing features such as old, cracked skin, missing an eye, hand, arm, etc. is part of the concept known as "uncanny valley." On the high part of that valley wall are the dolls that bear little resemblance to living human beings and thus provoke revulsion. Onward down that valley wall are those dolls that have very human-like, physical characteristics, even considered as pretty or handsome. At the bottom of that valley of perception is the person affected to the point of being uncomfortable just looking at the doll whatever its appearance, or being in the presence of it. Even that term, "presence of it," implies something more than being inanimate, going past appearance to the point of uncertainty as to whether the doll is living or not. Because a doll is visible to the eyes, this same strangeness causes paranormal investigation itself to change in its methodology. Ghost hunters, walking around in the dark, are quick to ask such questions as: "is anyone here," "what is your name," "give us a sign of your presence," etc., yet are more reluctant to do the same round of questions to an alleged haunted doll sitting before them. In the case of a haunted doll, that "presence" is already assumed. There is a huge difference to hearing a phantom voice from something unseen as compared to a doll that would physically move its mouth, eyes, arms, etc. Too many primal fears dominate our thoughts in the scenario of that particular temporal moment, when beyond any single person’s volition or control, one finds themselves standing on the precipice of an alleged haunted doll being transduced from it's spirit state into our corporeal environment.
Yet, I have to kind of chuckle to myself when people, believing in a doll being haunted, say things like, "it's possessed by a ghost, " or "it uses the energy around it to become alive," etc. Many people in the believing-in-ghosts club consider energy to be some form of substance than things can be "made of," as if it is just floating about everywhere in the air waiting to be grabbed and utilized. Energy is a property, not a thing. If a particle or photon is absorbed by your body, something else has to happen for it to be conserved. One such way would be to be converted to heat inside your body. The law of conservation of energy states that energy can be converted in form, but not created, so if that ole ghost is possessing that doll, and the ghost is not a physical form capable of storing or converting a transferred energy, it violates the 2nd law of thermodynamics. This law also states "as energy is transferred or transformed, more and more of it is wasted, a.k.a. "entropy," something that is measurable. These measurements would include changes in air temperature, not doll surface temperature, and highly elevated EMFs (the rate of electromagnetic radiation emitted at a given frequency is proportional to the amount of absorption that it would experience by the source). These facts beg three questions. (1) where is this ghost's energy coming from... out of thin air? (2) what process is causing the conversion for the doll to utilize the energy? (3) what process is being used by the doll to remain in waiting, maintaining and storing the energy? Why is the never proven, old paranormal folklore perpetuated about a ghost's presence being detected by a cold spot?
Dramatic probability theory in psychology circles emphasizes personal emotion involved with encounters with the unexplained such as in dreams, where the overriding theme is a friend or loved one reaching out to you from the other side to deliver a message of sorts in an attempt to help you in some way, even if it serves no more purpose than for you to come to terms with a current internal struggle. With alleged haunted dolls, the overriding theme is their non-emotional interaction with you that is not for your benefit, but for theirs and often with harmful intent. This also demonstrates the opinion of German-British philosopher F.C.S. Schiller, that reality isn't something we are free to construct or imagine as we please. My own humble opinion: "Don't live in the idealist's manufactured false reality from which they are reluctant to extricate themselves from. Their fleeting, unsustainable, nonreplicable evidence is example of the haunted doll's power being only as much as we ultimately choose to bestow on it."
The doll in this video has been in my wife's family for approximately 70 years, having been given to my wife's sister as a small child. She recently passed and this heirloom, along with another shown at the end of the video is now in the possession of my wife. Beauty is in the eye of the possessor and in the end, whatever is inside you is most likely what's inside the doll. These dolls are considered beautiful by me because of something which hasn't been mentioned above. They were presented to the original owner out of love, cherished out of love and now kept in the family's safe keeping out of love.
The "spirit" of love... I'll take that kind of haunting any day. And as far as bridging the barrier between our world and the next, perhaps love IS the answer, one not to be pursued or found in an alleged haunted doll.
- MoonJoey