Haunted Dolls

This morning, I was listening to the How Haunted podcast. I only discovered it earlier this year, so I’m still catching up on past episodes. The host was discussing haunted dolls, and of course, I assume anyone with even a passing interest in the paranormal has heard of Annabelle - I certainly had. However, I had never heard of Robert the Doll until today, so I was surprised when the host suggested he was more famous than Annabelle. Now that I know the character of Chucky was inspired by him, I realise I did know of him, just in a different guise.

Although I don’t believe any doll is truly haunted, I can understand how imagination can easily take over - most dolls are undeniably unsettling. I’ve disliked them since childhood. There is something unnerving about their fixed stare, their rigid poses, and often the clothes they wear. They seem to be watching, observing, waiting for a moment to react to something you do. It’s very easy to attribute coincidences to the arrival of a doll. Once the first incident is blamed on it, every subsequent misfortune becomes its fault, and the belief spirals. Before long, a person may convince themselves the doll is haunted, possessed, or malevolent. In reality, it remains nothing more than an object - handmade or mass-produced - yet becomes “real” in the believer’s mind. As we know from religion and cult dynamics, belief is an extraordinarily powerful force.

If someone believes Friday the 13th brings bad luck, they will inevitably interpret any unfortunate event that day as proof. The same event occurring on Thursday the 12th or Saturday the 14th would simply be dismissed as bad timing. As with many belief-driven ideas, it begins with one person making a connection, then running with it, persuading others, who then pass the idea on. Soon, entire communities credit Friday the 13th with dark forces and misfortune. I once pointed out to someone who urged me not to fly on Friday the 13th that although it was the 13th in the country where I boarded the plane, in my home country it was already the 14th.

Again, this highlights how arbitrary time really is - something humans created to organise our lives. Time zones, calendars, dates… all human constructs. Without them, Friday the 13th would not exist at all.

Try an experiment: tell a friend or neighbour that you own a doll - or any inanimate object - and that you believe it might be haunted. Then, whenever something goes wrong, blame it on the doll. If you hear a creak at night, suggest the doll is moving. Say you position it one way before bed and find it facing another direction in the morning, insisting no one else in the house could have touched it. See how long it takes for your friend to tell someone else, adding their own embellishment, which will then be passed on again. Before long, psychics, paranormal enthusiasts, and perhaps even religious groups might reach out to “help.” In reality, the object is simply plastic or porcelain, nothing more - yet a reputation has formed. That is how these stories begin, and how personalities are assigned to inanimate objects.

From May 2017 to February 2018, I went through the most difficult nine months of my life. I experienced heartbreak, loss, emotional strain, and finally contracted chickenpox - an awful illness to endure as an adult. Did I blame it on the alien-themed doll I had been given for my birthday in April 2017? Of course not. These events were simply life: unfortunate timing, unavoidable illness, and bad luck. The chickenpox was the final blow only because I was already physically and emotionally exhausted, and I happened to cross paths with someone who was carrying the virus. The doll had nothing to do with it. But imagine if I had decided otherwise. Would I now be known as the woman with the haunted doll? Would tabloids ask for interviews? Would I become a topic on a paranormal podcast? Possibly. If I had chosen to believe the doll was responsible, I might still be blaming every creak or house-settling noise on it today. But haunted dolls don’t exist - we simply allow imagination to fill in the gaps.

Say you finally get rid of the doll… only to find it sitting on your doorstep again. Did it somehow return on its own? Of course not  - someone was clearly playing a prank. One of the stories Rob (How Haunted pod) shared involved a doll that supposedly “returned” from across the country. If you take that literally, it might be worth stepping back and considering a more realistic explanation.

If you bring home a doll that’s said to be haunted, will you end up haunted too? If you believe in that kind of thing, then yes - your expectations can shape your experience. But if you don’t believe, because after all a curse only has power if you believe (something I’ve always felt to be true) then you’re unlikely to experience anything unusual at all.

I don’t intend to belittle anyone who genuinely believes they have been haunted by a doll or toy. As I’ve said, belief is powerful, and the fear must feel very real to them. I genuinely feel for anyone living with that level of distress. However, I hope the people around them would encourage them to seek appropriate mental-health support rather than reinforce the belief. Allowing someone to continue believing such things without help is, in my view, unkind - and potentially harmful.

As a side note, later next year I will be staying with friends inside Ye Olde Kings Head in Chester with friends. They've already told me I will be spending the night in the Dolls Room! Fine by me. Came back next year to see if I have changed my mind on them!!