The What & How of Haunted Objects
When an inanimate object becomes possessed by a malevolent spirit/ ghost/ any supernatural entity, it becomes a haunted object. These objects can be anything from a piece of jewellery (HP-Part 6, Haunted Necklace), to a doll (Annabelle) or a toy (Chucky) or a painting (bass, how many references do you want me to quote) or any other thing that ghosts/ spirits fancy.
There are a number of reasons/ ways for the objects to become haunted. Many a time, some people are quite attached to a particular object during their lifetime. So, after death, such people don’t find peace & are not able to move on to their final resting places & hence they make the object as their resting place. In other cases, it may so happen that a person’s spirit/ ghost latches itself onto the nearest object available at the time of its death (Remember Voldy’s seventh horcrux?). In some cases, an object may become the victim of a curse thus forcing the poor object to make room for a supernatural entity within its limited confines. Those well versed with the original Harry Potter storyline (yea, Original as in before Rowling discovered Twitter & started messing with it) would be well aware of such objects (Horcruxes again. Too many HP references, I know, I swear this is the last one).
Most of the time, the spirit/ ghost in the haunted object resides solely with the purpose of causing harm and creating mischief and trouble to people coming into possession of the object. However, credit must be given where it is due, and the ghost deserves a lot of credit for having the patience of waiting X number of years (with X ranging from 0 to 1000s) while someone comes into possession of the object. Also, people can get attached to weird objects sometimes.
For example, on a popular reality TV show (I’m not going to name which, if you watch it, you’ll know it), one of the celebrities was asked to destroy a “TOWEL” to complete a task, as it was the object which he was most attached to. Now imagine if such a person attaches himself to a Towel after his death. Chances are the Towel would be thrown away(best case scenario for the spirit, trust me. How, you ask? Read on) as nobody would like to use another person’s private stuff, especially if that person is dead. In case it is not thrown, or if it comes into another person’s possession, let’s say a 105 kg, 73-year old Male… (take a moment to let that sink in. That’s how). Now you can use your imagination Where, When and How the haunted ‘Towel’ would be used. You can also never be sure if it’s only going to be used as a Bath-Towel…Uugghhh.
I think this calls for a minute’s silence for the dead spirit of the dead person. Now that you know the repercussions of getting attached to wrong things in Life, Choose Wisely. Rather, don’t get attached to anything at all.
Sab Moh-Maya hai.
(Everything is an Illusion)
In pop-culture
Coming back to the scary aspect of the objects, one of the most earliest objects considered to be haunted are Egyptian Mummies. There’s a famous story/ controversy theory about a Cursed Egyptian Mummy.
“In 1890s, the Mummy of Princess of Amen-Ra was discovered in Luxor, Egypt. It was then bought off by four foolish Britishmen, who suffered various mishaps and died because of it. There were many other accidents that occurred during the transportation of the Princess from Luxor to London. When the mummy finally reached London, it was housed in a museum where a number of accidents occurred with people around it. The Museum’s night watchmen regularly kept hearing frantic hammering and sobbing from the coffin. One of the watchmen died while he was on duty; others refused to go near it. A photographer took a photo of the coffin. When he developed it, the painting on the coffin was found to be that of a horrifying, crying woman. The photographer was said to have gone home then, locked the door and shot himself. After that, while the mummy was shifted to the basement of the museum, the casket of the Mummy was bought off by an American archaeologist, who didn’t believe in all the supernatural stories surrounding it. In April 1912, the casket of Princess of Amen-Ra was escorted aboard a historic, sparkling, White Star liner which was making its maiden voyage to New York.
On the night of April 14, amid scenes of unprecedented horror, the Princess of Amen-Ra accompanied 1,500 passengers to their deaths at the bottom of the Atlantic. The name of the ship was of course, the H.M.S. TITANIC.”
Why the gloomy face, you ask? Only Mummy can tell
There are obviously people who have debunked this theory on the net just as there are people who have proved it to have happened exactly as mentioned above. However, though we can never find the truth maybe, the story is quite an interesting read.
There are numerous such stories about haunted/ cursed objects. Besides the above, the story of Annabelle the doll is already made famous thanks to the Conjuring universe. There’s also the infamous story of Hollywood actor James Dean & his ‘Little Bastard’; a Porsche 550 Spyder which resulted in the deaths of many people including the actor himself. Similarly, stories about Giovanni’s painting of the Crying Boy and how it caused fires, burning down homes became viral (before the term ‘viral’ was even invented)in the 1980s.
Choose Your Destiny… Flawless Victory
How to fight off against such objects? Well, for starters, don’t go around looking for one. Who would be so stupid to go around looking for one, you ask?
Look for yourself –
And some more…
However, if you have friends or relatives (who secretly hate you) and they gift you such an object & thus unwittingly you become the master of such an object – GET RID OF IT.
- Throw it away.
- Run away from it.
- Throw it in the Ocean (or in a well, if you can’t find an ocean).
If even that doesn’t work, you have no choice but to fight it. You will have to destroy it with a really powerful magic – something like a Goblin-made sword, or a Basilisk fang…umm I’m drifting off towards HP again.
Anyways, it must be really difficult to undo a curse on a cursed object or to remove a ghost attached to an object. The Annabelle doll is still sitting encased in a museum; the ‘Little Bastard’ James Dean’s car had to be dismantled as the deaths surrounding the car couldn’t be stopped at all. In the end, if nothing else works, you can always try making friends with the spirit.
Anyways, this is one of the most fascinating topics and there are many spooky stories on the net about haunted objects. Be prepared for some really scary stories this week. It’s going to be fun.
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