Why Are Dolls So Creepy? Exploring the Mystery of Haunted Dolls

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Hey everyone, on this week's episode of Whispers from the Mist, Conversations from the Spiritual Byway, we are going to be stepping into one of the most unsettling corners of the paranormal. Haunted dolls. Why do dolls make so many people uncomfortable? Is it folklore, psychology, coincidence, or could some objects truly carry a history all their own? We're sharing our own thoughts, exploring some of the theories behind these stories, and taking a closer look at why haunted dolls continue to capture our imagination. So join us today as we begin this conversation along the spiritual byway. This is Whispers from the Myths Conversations from the Spiritual Byway. I'm here today with Stacy. Hello, Stacy. Hello, Michelle. How are you? I'm doing well, and I should say welcome back, Stacy, because you were having weather issues in your neck of the woods the last time I recorded.

SPEAKER_00 1:04

Isn't that the truth? It's been it's been uh an interesting month here. We had some pretty strong weather a couple nights ago too, and now we have extreme heat. So yeah. I mean, you're used to extreme heat though.

SPEAKER_01 1:18

I am, but the the storms I experienced those. We were just recently traveling. We were in Texas, and so I had the humid storms too, which is very interesting. But I like a good storm. I like moody, edgy clouds or an edgy sky. And yeah, when rain's warm, it feels much better than when it's cold.

SPEAKER_00 1:39

Oh, that is very true. Yeah, we woke up in the middle of the other the night the other night by the thunder and lightning, and it was so fun because I love a good thunderstorm, but I was a little disappointed in the thunder of this particular storm because it felt like there was far more lightning that didn't have the loud booms following it than there was, you know, thunder.

SPEAKER_01 1:59

You're setting up a scary, spooky story, which today we are going to be jumping into an item that many people consider spooky. But before we do, I just want to go back real quick because the last episode we recorded together had to do with aliens. And you said right after recording that your husband had an experience, and you haven't shared it with me yet.

SPEAKER_00 2:26

No, I haven't. So it was a day or two or a night or two after we recorded the alien episode, and he woke up in an absolute panic at probably about 1 or 2 a.m. and shared with me the dream he had, which was of being taken up in a ship. And like he said the he was taken to a different timeline, and they were trying to fix the timeline, and they kept telling him, you know, not to worry about it, not to worry about it. And he remembers that it felt like he was put back in his body at the end of it. And I don't have full detail because it was his experience and not mine, but I remember the next morning going, how interesting that he had this experience, and he's calling these things aliens when we just recorded our episode on aliens.

SPEAKER_01 3:19

That is fascinating. And I will share nothing like that happened to me. There are no dreams that I remember. But subconsciously, I don't even know how I didn't put two and two together. Let's just say that. But my son is getting married, and his soon-to-be bride was having her bridal shower. And I flew to Denver for that. And one of the requirements of the bridal shower was to dress like the bride. And I knew everyone was going to be in tie-dye or gris merchandise. So I'm like, what can I do that's a little bit different? And then I remembered when I visited at Halloween, she dressed as an alien. So I bought an alien suit, and I absolutely did not realize until the episode was coming out that I was dressed as an alien right between the two releases of our alien episode. It wasn't planned, and I could have been anything else in the world, but I was dressed as an alien. And then again, everywhere I went, vinyl stickers on windows of aliens, alien lyrics. Everywhere I went, aliens during that two-week time frame, which is so crazy.

SPEAKER_00 4:35

So there is one more thing that I wanted to share with you. But it's just, isn't it interesting how much things kind of crop up whenever we start talking about things? And this is kind of along those same lines. You know how in a few episodes we've talked about my experiences with hand dryers and bathrooms? Yes. So I got to work the other morning and I'm there. I'm one of the first few people in the building because my shift starts at seven, and I get there at about 6:30 or a little bit before. And there was nobody else in the building at the time. And I went in to use the bathroom. And there are three stalls in the bathroom, four stalls. And I was definitely by myself. There's only other one, only one other person that was out on the floor, and it was a guy. And obviously, he didn't come into the women's room. So as I stood up to exit the stall, the stall next to mine slammed shut. And it was this very loud, like thud. And I was like, huh, that's interesting. And I got, I left my stall, washed my hands, and went back to work. I went, I went to work. But I remember just going, huh, okay. Nobody else was there.

SPEAKER_01 5:51

And the retelling of the story. I had not heard the story, but my jaw, I'm like lifting it up off the table because I don't even know how I would react, other than I think I'd probably be like, that's interesting. And I get out of the bathroom as quickly as I could.

SPEAKER_00 6:07

Yeah, yeah. That's pretty much that was my response as well. It was like, I don't necessarily want to be in here anymore by myself. So we're just gonna go back to my desk. But it was definitely interesting.

SPEAKER_01 6:21

Yeah, do you happen to work in like a doll museum?

SPEAKER_00 6:25

No, no, I don't, but that was a really good segue.

SPEAKER_01 6:30

A great segue into what we are going to be talking about today, which is haunted dolls.

SPEAKER_00 6:37

Everybody, everybody has a very strong opinion on dolls too, which is the even more, I think, fun thing about this. This topic is people love them and they hate them, and they love to hate them. And everybody has, I think, I think everyone has a doll story.

SPEAKER_01 6:56

I don't know that I have any personal doll stories of my own, which makes this so crazy that I would put all dolls, including ones that are very realistic looking, to dolls that are kind of abstract as a nemesis of mine in life. But I didn't always feel like that. And that is what's so interesting to me as a child. I love dolls. I love Barbies, I love baby dolls, I love those ladies dressed um like in fashionable gowns from the 1860s. I got them as gifts from my family, I got them from my friends, and I absolutely love dolls. When I grew up, that's what I wanted to give all of my friends when they had a baby. I wanted to get them the best, most beautiful doll there is. But then I opened up spiritually, and that shifted like for no reason. I don't even know why it shifted, but instead of the seeing them as cute little dolls, you know, something to love on, something to kids can have a relationship with, play with, they became scary to me.

SPEAKER_00 8:02

Yep. Yep.

SPEAKER_01 8:04

And I don't know why that is.

SPEAKER_00 8:06

You know, I think it's it's there's just so much lore around dolls. And I think when you open up, you are more attuned to these different possibilities. I know I was the same as you. I love my baby dolls. I loved taking care of them. Barbies were my favorite thing in the entire world. I probably, well, I'm gonna throw myself under the bus here. I think I played with Barbies until I was like 16 because I liked getting them dressed. I liked doing their hair. You know, I really did. I enjoyed playing with them, but baby dolls became well, dolls in general, actually, probably when I was 12 or 13, I would not sleep with them out of the closet. Every baby doll in my room had to go in the closet, and the closet doors had to be shut at night. And when I was probably 10 or 11, I started creating what I'm gonna call per potions to protect me spiritually in my bedroom. I didn't realize what I was doing, but I would go into the bathroom and mix different like shampoos or conditioners, things that smelt really pretty, like together with this like intent that they were going to be put in the corner of my closet and keep me protected and not allow the dolls to come out at night. And I actually um would say, because I was raised Catholic, I would say a prayer every night when I went to sleep. And part of my prayer was to protect me against spiritual beings that were trying to get to me. And you did have a doll experience.

SPEAKER_01 9:42

I have, yeah, I think I've got one or two to actually hear them. I know you've shared one of them before, but every time I hear that story, I get goosebumps. So give me goosebumps, please. And then I don't know what the other story is.

SPEAKER_00 9:55

So when I was up until about the the age of 16, I actually shared a room with my little sister because both of my sisters are developmentally disabled, but my little sister had seizures growing up. So just kind of a little backstory. For whatever reason, when my little sister would have a seizure, I would wake up. And I would wake up, and there was always like this like, what time is it? Get mom and dad, like, but I just somehow always woke up. She didn't make, she didn't make noises when she made a seizure. So it was just a kind of an amazing coincidence that every time she had when I woke up. But she had a um, it was not an American girl doll, but it was from the same line as American Girls, one of the born babies. I don't know, I don't remember what it's called. But that baby terrified me. And it was one of those dolls that when you raised up, its eyes opened, and when you laid it down, its eyes closed. Do you know what I'm talking about? Oh, I do. Yep. It didn't talk, it didn't make any noise, but I remember waking up probably I'm gonna say in the middle of the night when I was 10, 10 or 13, 10 between 10 and 13, and I heard this doll, which was the only doll that was out, actually say, Mama out of the blue. And we did not have dolls that talked in the house. And I remember it scared me so so much that I ended up getting sick off the top bunk of my bed. My poor dad had to clean the ball wall. But I was absolutely petrified, and I heard it so clearly because I remember I was afraid to do anything because I just heard this little voice go, Mama. Freaky. Yeah, yeah. And and what's I think also more important is my little sister who I shared a room with, because one someone listening to this is gonna be like, well, it could have been your sister. My sister has still does have speech issues. So she can talk a little bit, she can communicate a little bit, and when she gets mad really clearly, but it definitely was not my little sister. Wow.

SPEAKER_01 12:09

Yep. Full goosebumps. Yeah. I've never had an experience like that, but you were talking about the doll's eyes, and it made me think of the different faces dolls can have. They can have eyes like stitched on them, painted on them, and then the freaky open-shut eyes. Which ones scare you the most?

SPEAKER_00 12:30

Um, I think the open-shut ones are are the creepiest because if they get stuck in one direction or the other, or one of the eyes gets stuck open. I am not a fan, but I at the same time, when you were describing the different eye options, I thought of the ones that were painted on that were like bright blue that start to get like worn out over time. So then you have this like hollowed-out eye socket essentially. And that's just not great either.

SPEAKER_01 13:00

No great options. But I agree with you when you were talking about that. I was picturing those eyes and how sometimes they would get stuck. So one would be open and one would be shut, and how incredibly terrifying that was. Absolutely terrifying. So, what's your other story?

SPEAKER_00 13:17

I had an American girl. I know, I think I think I just shared this actually. But over time, throughout the holiday seasons, my mom would always get her a new outfit or something to go on along with her. So when I would get up, you know, Christmas morning, my American girl doll was dressed, or it had, you know, it was in a new scenario every every year, which was really a cool thing to wake up to and kind of I don't want to say expect, but just, you know, a little, a little something that was very special to me. But over time, for whatever reason, I grew more terrified of this doll and more terrified of this doll to the point where it rarely left my closet, except when my mom needed to get it dressed for Christmas. I almost feel like I watched its head turn at one point in time, just kind of moved a little bit, and I thought it was alive. But I remember just being terrified of this thing. And like I was afraid of my Barbies because I thought they were gonna gang up on me. I was convinced that my Barbies were all gonna like create a war and and try to just attack me at night. And it was always at night, too. But I don't I don't know what changed.

SPEAKER_01 14:33

Well, that you have blocked out that memory about what actually happened with the American girl doll. Because I'll tell you, if I was sitting there and my doll turned its head towards me, away from me in the full circle, I'd be out of there. That doll would be out of the house that day.

SPEAKER_00 14:49

Yeah. It it's just it's an interesting thing because I did become so scared of all my dolls in time, but I still played with them, which makes it even more interesting. I still played with them on a regular basis. I would just make sure they were in the closet or in a container or like locked up every night.

SPEAKER_01 15:07

And I can't remember if I did that, but I didn't have a fear of dolls when I was younger. It just happened when I opened up spiritually. And it's super weird because I don't have a fear of stuffed animals and I don't have a fear of like garden gnomes. Yeah. But dolls, for some reason, they're different.

SPEAKER_00 15:28

So I will say that there is a lot of things that go into that though, too. Because one of the experiences that I had as an adult was actually with a stuffed animal. And I remember talking to someone that I worked with that I was learning from many years ago, asking, like, you know, this, I got this as a gift. It came from a different country. It just feels really not good to me. And I remember she asked me to like send her a picture of it, and she said, depending on where dolls or or even stuffed animals are made in the, you know, whatever factory they were in, who was making them, they can come with a certain spiritual not greatness, we'll say.

SPEAKER_01 16:16

Well, that's one way to put it. Dykes. Well, after listening to that story, I'm reflecting again on my dolls, and I can't remember a time I was scared of them. Definitely clowns, but I will say I was scared of clowns, but that's probably due to Hollywood. But I will say, no, it's probably due to I keep going back. No, it's their paint, it's Hollywood. Everything about clowns are just creepy. But I will say I do treat my dolls with respect. I treat my stuffed animals with respect. I don't pick them up and throw them across the room. I gently place everything down. So I've always, always done that, even before I was fearful of them. But yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:59

Isn't it interesting how you naturally have this like ability to be very protective of these things that have this almost spiritual connotation connotation to them? And I think dolls take such a lifelike position in, you know, growing up. And, you know, I was I always respectful to them. I don't know. I don't really remember. But I think as I got older and continued to play with them, they just kind of had this, it almost felt like um a hold on me. Like I didn't want to let them go until I knew that I could like put them up in the attic in a box and I didn't need to worry about them.

SPEAKER_01 17:40

Yeah, because they become your friends. I mean, for me, I love my dolls. I took them everywhere. I invested time, I invested energy. You know, probably a few Barbies hated me because I gave them bad haircuts, but I love them. They were very loved. And like you, I held on to my Barbies probably way too long because I love my Barbies. Um, I was going to share a couple of reasons why sometimes people may get freaked out about dolls and throw that stigma on them. You can jump in if you would like to, but I did a little research on this. The first thing I found is something called the Uncanny Valley Hypothesis. And this was created back in the 1970s by a Japanese, I can't remember what he did, but his name was Mashiro Mori. And the idea behind the uncanny valley is you have something in front of you that for everything it's worth looks like we do. And our face looks at it and it recognizes it as being human or like human, like we can identify it. And again, that can be something that looks exactly like us or even a doll that's a little more abstract but represents us. So you have this object that has this quality, yet it has no mind or spirit. And that causes a little bit of fear or a little bit of discomfort because it should talk. It should be able to respond, and maybe it does.

SPEAKER_00 19:26

You know, that it brings you almost to the whole Toy Story movie theor like idea where you wonder if your toys and stuff are are doing things or having like these great meetings when you're not in the room. So I can I can see that. Are they actually moving when we're not there? Are they doing their own thing?

SPEAKER_01 19:48

I kind of would like to think so, but you know, that was me as a little kid thinking that. Another reason why dolls can feel so different, it's because they are living on a timeline. And like us, as we grow, we may get wrinkles, they may get cracks. As you said earlier, their fake eyes might rub off. Um, they might start to change color, like their bright hair becomes dingy looking. So they are aging, they are falling into disrepair, and so that can freak people out. I will not tell you how many times I'll see an episode of something on TV because I watch a lot of true crime, like a house is burned down, but it'll show a doll half burned or lackened by the smoke, or they're investigating a scene and there's a doll there. And that does freak me out. They show it in a very like hard time of existence, I guess is the best way to put it, or in a moment when they don't look like the dolls were meant to look.

SPEAKER_00 20:52

And it becomes this picture that you hold in your mind, too, especially if it was a doll that you might have had. Right.

SPEAKER_01 21:01

Which is interesting. And we're gonna get more into that in the next episode we record. Another reason why dolls can feel different and be a little bit scary is the idea that again, you have this thing for all intents and purposes. It looks like a human being, but it's not living and it's not dead. It's just in this zone of being a little bit uneasy.

SPEAKER_00 21:25

That's really interesting.

SPEAKER_01 21:27

And then, of course, there's Hollywood.

SPEAKER_00 21:31

Of course.

SPEAKER_01 21:32

And what Hollywood has done to dolls. And I know you have a favorite Hollywood-haunted doll. Do you want to talk about him a little bit? Oh my goodness, Chucky.

SPEAKER_00 21:44

I you you and I were texting back and forth with about Chucky. Because I will be per perfectly honest with you. I never got into Chucky when they first came out, like even a little bit. But there is a Chucky series that recently came out. I don't know if you've seen anything about it. But it gives you a little bit of the background idea of what caused Chucky to be him. And it was actually Boodo. The person or spirit that pro that that possesses Chucky was the spirit of a murderer, supposedly. Again, this is all it's a movie. And he puts himself into the Chucky doll. And Chucky goes on rampages.

SPEAKER_01 22:29

And murders people.

SPEAKER_00 22:30

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 22:31

And it's a series. Like there were many movies created about this. And then a television series, which you were just talking about it. I think one of them was about the bride of Chucky. So now you have two evil little dolls running around.

SPEAKER_00 22:46

We'll say I'm glad that I watched it because it kind of gave me that, like, okay, like I don't want to say that there's a logical explanation, but it kind of gives you this background into this, like, how did this toy start killing people and going on these, like, where did this come from, you know, kind of idea. And so finding out that it was voodoo or, you know, practicing, you know, that kind of magic of not, you know, any sort, it it was interesting. And and that is not, I'm going to also throw out there, that is not a knock to voodoo by any means. That's not saying that voodoo is all bad. That's not saying anything like that, but understanding where it came from is is an interesting place to be or just an interesting thing to learn. And it kind of shows you how far people will go to continue to live.

SPEAKER_01 23:40

And this original movie, the original Chucky movie, came out in 1988. I was still in high school. Thank God I was still living with my parents. So I had people home after watching it. I wasn't by myself. But just to see that doll stand up and run across the room was absolutely terrifying. And I know a lot of it had to do with humor too, because he would say things that were funny, that as adults, older kids, we understand. But I just I didn't like it. But I don't really like horror movies at all.

SPEAKER_00 24:16

Uh, you know, I'm I'm kind of on on board with you. And that's why I I can tell you honestly, I've never watched a single Chucky movie. I just we were watching the um TV show, and the TV show was pretty scary as well. But I I and I don't I don't step into that quite often, but it helped me, I guess, let it go too, because I'm also one of those, like, if I I have seen horror movies over the years, and I have to understand them in order to be able to let them go and move forward, uh, if that makes any sense whatsoever.

SPEAKER_01 24:48

It sure does. And I will say that Chucky is probably the most well-known horror doll created by Hollywood. But there are a couple others to include Annabelle, who is based on a real doll, and we're gonna get into her in the next episode. But the story of Annabelle is not what happened. She's not even the correct kind of doll, but she is the Hollywood version of the doll with the you know, white face, she, uh, the red lips or rosy cheeks, the crack marks, you know, the fading. Um I've never watched it, but I know Annabelle is very big in the conjuring world. And then when I was doing research back in the 1960s, an episode of the Twilight Zone called, I think it was like Living Doll or something, had a doll called Talking Tina, who was based on a real life doll at the time called the Chatty Kathy. And her famous line in that is, I'm Tina and I'm going to kill you, or something like that. But basically, I'm so-and-so and I'm going to kill you. And I'm just like, how terrifying is that? Back in the 60s, this little innocent, beautiful doll, based on a doll your child probably has in their room, is going to kill you.

SPEAKER_00 26:07

Not great. That is not I'm gonna say hard pass on that one. Not great at all.

SPEAKER_01 26:12

Yeah, the Twilight Zone came up with some freaky things, but I mean, they were on to things because their topics have been explored in later years. So they were like a beginning of something, someone's imagination or experience.

SPEAKER_00 26:26

You know, if you think about it, one of the things I think you and I have talked previously is I'm I'm a firm believer that whether it's in this universe or a different universe or this timeline or a different timeline, there's a reason that we come up with these ideas. There are like, you know, one of the things I I was actually talking to my husband about this last week is I said I bel I firmly believe that at some point in time there were real unicorns.

SPEAKER_01 26:51

Um I knew you were gonna say unicorns right there. I'm like, she's grown the unicorns. I knew it.

SPEAKER_00 26:55

I love unicorns. But why couldn't these things actually have happened? Why couldn't they have, you know, why couldn't dolls actually have spirits at some point in time? That doesn't mean they're bad. That doesn't necessarily mean that they have to be terrifying, but where did it come from?

SPEAKER_01 27:11

It came from somewhere. And with that in mind, you know, we're turning all of our attention to dolls and putting fears or discomfort around them. But there are a lot of objects in our life. Take the coffee cup in your hand. Why is it we aren't fearful of coffee cups? Like, what's the difference between a coffee cup or, I don't know, a jacket and a doll? Like, why is it the doll gets the attention, but we don't talk about haunted jackets or haunted coffee cups?

SPEAKER_00 27:43

You know, that's that's actually an interesting question. And that's one of the things that I think most may not realize is if you walk into an antique store, there is a huge chance that there are objects that you wouldn't even consider haunted are actually haunted, and you're bringing home not necessarily a bad spirit, but a spirit that, you know, is attached to that, you know, antique hope chest that you you decided to to pick up one day.

SPEAKER_01 28:13

And you know, I think about it and I think of a coffee cup. Like that's something we use. And I guess we have a relationship with our coffee cup because it's our favorite coffee cup. Right. But other items such as dolls, those are something we're building a relationship with. When we go to family dinner, sometimes there's a hide chair there and the doll goes to family dinner. We share our secrets with them, we share our dreams with them, we play with them, we pretend with them. It's true. Our imagination grows with them. So I think that's a huge reason is because I don't want to say we're giving them our power, but we're giving them our love, our time, our attention, and we're bonding with them in a way different than other objects in everyday life. Yeah. It's an emotional investment.

SPEAKER_00 29:01

It is an emotion uh emotional investment. And it's one that, you know, I think the other piece to it too is you are creating these beautiful relationships with your dolls. And at some point in time, I think that's one of the reasons that I became so scared of them, because what were they building back? Were they building that relationship back? And were you respectful to them in a way that they wanted you to be? Like there are so many questions. It's like when you when you have friends and you get into a fight with a friend at school and you're learning conflict resolution. Did you go through that with your dolls? Or were they really upset that you put them in the pink polka dot dress instead of the I don't know, pair of jeans that they wanted to wear that day? I I I realize I'm kind of sp specifying Barbies there, but yeah.

SPEAKER_01 29:49

Yeah, I understand. And while you were talking about that, I was thinking about Chat GPT too, because here we give all of our secrets when we're younger to our dolls and we build that relationship, but now we're building our relationship with AI. So what is it taking from it? Is it liking us? Is it, I mean, I know it's AI, but I'm respectful of it. I always say please, I always say thank you. Well, how many movies were created around computers taking over the world? Well, that's true. There's even a doll. I think her the name was like Megan, I think was a movie about and she was an AI living doll.

SPEAKER_00 30:29

And she was trained to protect, yeah. She was trained to protect her owner. And it she realized that humans are and are humans are are infallible, essentially, and realized that she had to go to immense length to protect, you know, her human, and it just kind of launched from there. See, it all comes full circle.

SPEAKER_01 30:54

Just gotta say. Well, before we close out this episode, I do want to talk about something I saw online, and I'm quite fascinated with the subject of the Warren Occult Museum in Monroe, Connecticut, because I'm going there in August. So in upcoming weeks, we're gonna have some episodes about the Warrens, who they are, some of their cases, who currently owns the house, like all of that good information. But I did see online a while back that they were asking for people to send in Raggedy Ann dolls. Now, we all know that at the Warren Occult Museum, Annabelle resides. And she is not the vision of Annabelle from the movie. She's actually a raggedy and doll. Right. So months and months ago they asked for these dolls to come in. And recently you had the opportunity to purchase one of those dolls who have been sitting in the energy of the occult museum, which has over 750 haunted artifacts, and bring it into your home. Speechless, right?

SPEAKER_00 31:57

Why? I like that's the only like what you know. We we being essentially and spiritually opening up, seeing things that go bump in the night, having experiences, going into places that have restless spirits. I just don't understand why we encourage the I don't want to say spread, but it doesn't feel good to me.

SPEAKER_01 32:23

No, I mean there's an interest that exists there. And I understand that people are curious. Are dolls really haunted? Could I have this experience with a doll? But it doesn't even necessarily have to be a doll. If you go to eBay and you put in haunted objects, haunted dolls, haunted coffee mugs, whatever, you'll find them there. Yep. But you're taking a chance when you're buying them because A, are they really haunted? And if so, is it something good or is it something evil? And maybe they aren't even haunted, but you're taking a risk bringing it into your home. And I've thought about this a lot because I intentionally go into places that are haunted or have activity to learn because I'm curious. Right. But there is no world in which I would knowingly bring some of that energy back into my personal home. Right. I go in, I know I need to put up my boundaries, my protections. And when I come out, it's usually like, Stacy, I need a Reiki session, make sure nothing's attached. But I I really don't. And I remember leaving the Sally house, and everything that went into the house with me got crystallized when I got back to the room. I, you know, said a prayer prayer protection. I ran crystal selenite over it, trying to clean it up. I packed it up in like a bag that was sealed until I got home and could wash it. Yeah. But that was me protecting. I would not knowingly bring that energy into my home.

SPEAKER_00 34:00

Right. I and and that's and it's so fascinating to me that people are that it's there's a market for it, you know, because you just don't know what you're bringing in either. And that to me is not great.

SPEAKER_01 34:12

Not a great feeling. I mean, I'm curious, but I'm not reckless. Not saying that people who do that are reckless. They're just coming from a different place than I would be coming from in that situation. Right. Yeah, my home is my sanctuary, and I already have visitors every once in a while. So I don't need to bring in unknown energy that would freak me out.

SPEAKER_00 34:37

Yeah, we don't, we don't, we don't need, we don't need additional stuff. Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 34:41

Yes, but I mean, for everyone listening out there, this is not don't get dolls episode. It's not anything like not intending to bash dolls, just from my perspective, they make me uncomfortable. And these are the reasons why, and this is what I've read about and why other people might be uncomfortable with them. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 35:06

Every doll needs love. And you know, I I don't I I I think it's just um we're we're hitting on one of those scary things that people are afraid of, and that's what that's what you do when you talk about spirituality, is is you you get to talk about the things that people don't like. I don't think all I don't think all dolls are bad. I don't think I don't either. You know, even now I'm sitting in a room and I have a bunch of stuffed animals and stuff in this room too, and they stay here. I have all of the Toy Story crew on a shelf near me too. But the, you know, they're also treated very differently as an adult as well.

SPEAKER_01 35:45

Definitely. And you'll hear a little bit in our next episode because we are going to be looking at a few case studies, a few haunted dolls that are out there. We are going to break them down and talk about them a little bit. And you'll find that they each have their own backstory, which is to me a little bit fascinating. Well, a lot fascinating. I always say a little bit. I always clarify, well, I'm a little bit upset when I'm just really upset. It just seems to soften the blow.

SPEAKER_00 36:14

I hear you.

SPEAKER_01 36:15

Do we have questions today? I know I do. So the first question would you buy an antique doll? The second question is have you ever felt uncomfortable around a doll in your presence? And the third question is can fear itself create the experience for you?

SPEAKER_00 36:39

Those are really good questions.

SPEAKER_01 36:41

Yeah, I'm still thinking about that last one. Can fear itself create an experience? I think so. I agree. I agree. If you put all of that nervous and fearful energy onto an object, I think so. Yeah. But what do you think, listeners? You can let us know by DMing us or sending us an email. Yeah, please do.

SPEAKER_00 37:01

I'm curious.

SPEAKER_01 37:02

Yeah, and share stories too. If you have a story about an uncomfortable interaction with a doll or what you consider a haunted object, it doesn't just have to be a doll. Send it to us. We'd love to read it. I like those goosebumps. Um so please do that. Please do. We look forward to hearing from you. Okay, well, Stacy, do you want to close out this episode? Absolutely stay curious. Trust what you know. And we will meet you on the spiritual byway. Until next week. Bye, everyone. Bye, everybody. Thank you so much. Thank you so much for taking the time to be here with us at the walking scratch. Wherever you are on your journey right now, just know you're not alone. We're here for you, and we're all in this together.