SGU Episode 8

This episode needs: proofreading, formatting, links, 'Today I Learned' list, segment redirects. Please help out by contributing!

How to Contribute

SGU Episode 8
2nd August 2005
(brief caption for the episode icon)
SGU 7                      SGU 9
Skeptical Rogues
S: Steven Novella
B: Bob Novella
E: Evan Bernstein
P: Perry DeAngelis
Guest
SS: Steven Salerno
Links
Download Podcast
SGU Podcast archive
SGU Forum

Introduction

S: Hello and welcome, once again, to the Skeptics' Guide to the Universe. I'm your host, Steven Novella, President of the New England Skeptical Society. With me, as always, are Bob Novella...

B: Good evening, everyone.

S: Evan Bernstein...

E: Hi, everyone.

S: and Perry DeAngelis.

P: Hey! How is everyone tonight?

News Items

Haunted Dolls on eBay (0:25)

S: So, Bob, you sent me an interesting item that you found on eBay, last week. Tell us about that.

B: Yeah. This was–this was a great one. Actually, it was interesting and it also got me a little upset. What it was was an auction, an eBay auction, for a haunted doll.

S: A haunted doll.

B: And–so this guy had this big blurb on the auction saying things that–I'd been a paranormal investigator for 20 years. In the last four years I have–now these are quotes,

I have mainly studied inanimate objects, mostly dolls.

Alright, so this guy plays with dolls a lot. That tells you one thing.

S: That's his specialty, huh? Haunted dolls.

(laughter)

B: If a house could be haunted...

P: Dolls are good because they have faces and they're like little people and they're very emotional.

S: And you could sell them on eBay.

P: (laughter) Yeah, that's why dolls are good.

B: Right, well, he says,

If a house could be haunted, why not a doll?

Okay. So, he goes on,

There's only three documented haunted dolls out there in paranormal community.

Now, I thought there was only two but he's telling me there's three.

P: (laughter)

B:

Vincent the haunted clown doll, Anabel the haunted Raggedy Anne doll, and Robert the haunted doll from Key West Florida.

Okay.

E: Where do they get these names from?

B: I dun–I guess in the paranormal community that's kinda a well known thing if you're into dolls.

E: Is that like naming a hurricane?

B So–his doll is named Megan.

E: Okay.

B: And it looked like–looked like an average, you know, well made doll to me. And–so he's saying, that, oh, Megan was very interesting and felt–he felt something odd about her. I don't know what it was, but–I don't know what it was but a presence was definitely there. Well, that's what he tried to write. He he actually wrote a presents, as in E-N-T-S was defiantly there, so I can only assume he meant presence was definitely there. So he doesn't have spell check apparently. Let's see,

What first got my attention was that you would sit her up and then she would always end up on her side.

What? That sounds pretty wacky to me. Dolls falling over. So, he decided to tape it. He video taped it one night. He left the tape running, and he–he reassures everyone that nobody–no one was in the room during the time of the recording. He makes a point of stressing that. And he shows a video and it was an MPEG. And at first blush, just looking at the MPEG quickly, you're like, "Okay. The doll–the doll moved it's head." It kinda tilted it's head up and turned it slightly to it's left. But I looked at the video a few times and I got real close to it. Now, to my untrained eye, there was definitely something a little unusual about the movement of the doll. It seemed like there was a little distortion, possibly even some sort of a–I don't know–like a, stop motion effect where it moved he'd stop the camera or something.

S: Didn't seem kosher, huh?

B: It just didn't seem kosher to me. And, of course, he had the timer–ya know the time counting up as it–as it was filming but, of–of course, that's an easy thing to fake assuming that this whole thing is fake.

S: Bob, you don't believe this guy?

P: What are you talking about?

B: Well, I–I didn't believe it–I didn't believe in him until...

P: He's got one of the three.

B: until the clincher. Of course at the end he hits us with,

I have studied Megan with EMF, Electro Magnetic Frequency meters, and have gotten strong hits from her.

Well of course that convinced me. I mean, if it's–if an–if an EMF meter is going crazy, well, what other evidence do you need?

S: Yeah, it has to be haunted.

B: So after all this he got, last time I checked, he got over 40 bids and it went for over $610.

S: A $10 doll, basically.

B: Right. This is a $10 doll, and he got–now, before the–now the auction's over.

S: What a racket.

B: Now, Perry, you–you saw the auction end. It went for $610 or something?

P: Yes, it did. $610. It was the final bid. Yeah.

B: Now, since–since the auction ended I've tried to find it in the archive and it's not listed anymore. Now I–I really wanted to write a letter and send it to eBay and say, "Hey. I mean this fraud."

P: Well, Bob, that's not a problem. There are–there are currently 114 haunted dolls for sale on eBay. If you do a search...

B: Oh really?

P: on 'haunted doll'. You'll come up with 114 of them.

S: But Perry, there's only three legitimate ones in the world.

P: Uh, these would be the illegitimate ones.

(laughter)

E: Right. These have names. I guess the other ones don't? I still don't get that.

P: And–Ya know, many of them with very dram–a lot of dramatic photos. A lot of ghost orbs here. Lot of, lot of blurry images. Lot of–lot of lens flash. Lot of camera cords.

B: I thought eBay was good with fraud but I guess this kind of fringe thing is–is kinda hard–ya know–hard to enforce. I mean it's–it's easy to determine that, yes, this Monet painting is indeed a fake, but how do you conclusively prove that...

S: Right.

B: that–you know–it's like proving a negative. You can't prove that this doll did not move at this point in time in the past.

P: Well–well, Bob, that's the whole point of the "evidence." I mean they have photos of the dolls, like, sitting. And–and have blurry, ya know, flashes and–and blobs on them.

B: Hey Evan–Evan, if I–if I got my hands on that MPEG I wonder if you–if you guys would be able to scrutinize it at work.

E: Yeah. Send it over. We'll see what we can make of it.

B: Just to see–to see if there was something...

S: Yeah. Now, I mean, with most of these dolls it's let the buyer beware, right? If you want to buy something because somebody else says it's, ya know, haunted, that's your problem. But if somebody doctored up a video at least you can make the case...

B: Right.

S: that that was a conscious, deliberate, deception. If he was using that to sort of establish a value for–for the object that it doesn't have.

B: Eh, eBay's not in the business of debunking the claims of–of what the people are trying to sell.

P: I mean they try and not have outright just fraud.

B: Of course.

P: Here–here's a doll that actually was able to issue some EVP.

S: Electronic Voice Phenomenon, huh?

P: Yeah.

S: It was a talking doll. Gee, I've never seen that before.

(laughter)

B: I've been getting the strangest EVP's from this light in–in the house. When I bring the meter close to that light it goes off the chart. That light must be haunted.

S: EVP is Electronic Voice Phenomenon.

B: Oh.

S: Not–not an EM meter. EM meter is...

P: Right. This is...

S: would be a different phenomenon.

(laughter)

P: They–guy says that

I captured three voices on the recorder very briefly. We believe one says, "Now." Then we believe one says, "Want to play some music?" There is also some rustling noise and, I think, a door slamming. Then you hear some more rustling and a voice saying simply, "Hello."

That–that's what he got on his EVP...

S: There ya go.

P: From this doll. From this picture of this haunted doll. And there's–you should see, I mean, the–in this particular doll, which is simply–the auction is entitled "Haunted Doll EVP" there's a–just a huge burst light near the doll. I mean, in fact, it looks like it's right on the lens. It's quite–it's incredible. I mean it's very impressive.

B: Light on the lens?

S: So we actually had the privileged of seeing a haunted doll before. Do you guys remember this? We were in the most haunted location in the world.

P: It was one of the three that he mentioned, Steven.

S: Ed Warren's basement. Right.

B: That must have been the Raggedy Anne doll.

S: It was, luckily, for our protection it was locked behind a glass case.

B: Thank goodness.

P: It was.

S: And we were–we were warned not to taunt. The last person did that died in a motorcycle accident leaving the museum. So we were very careful to taunt it as much we possibly could.

P: Right.

B: Well yeah. He–I mean, I remember Ed saying that don't touch anything in the basement, because just touching anything–ya know–you could–I–I don't know–get possessed or whatever.

P: Well–well he–he, but, Bob if you did do it by accident he had the cleansing ritual.

B: Right. But–of course I didn't do it by accident. I touched everything I possibly could when he wasn't looking.

E: Oh, yes.

B: And–and I'm still alive with ten years–no–five years maybe.

E: Eh, it's been about five six years, I think.

B: So–I mean, every day is just a–a bonus for me, ya know. God.

P: (laughter) That's true. That's true. You're living on borrowed time, Bob.

B: (laughter)

S: Well, later in the show, in a few minutes, we're gonna have Steve Solerno on, the author of a book called SHAM, about the self help and actualization movement, but before that we're going to do this weeks Science or Fiction.

Science or Fiction (8:30)

VO: It's time to play Science OR Fiction.

References