 Hello to all of our spooky friends out there! This September, we are bringing you a new, monthly edition to our page, and that’s the Director’s Pick of the Month. And we’re starting this one off with a bang.
For those of you who know me, you know I am all about podcasts. I can’t get enough of murder pods, stories of the paranormal , and obviously, my guilty pleasure….podcasts about The Bachelor (I know, I know). And from what I know about all of you, most of you are in the same boat, minus the podcasts about a reality show. With that...I bring you my latest find. A treasure, some might say. A diamond in the rough? Am I taking this too far? You get the point. A podcast about all things ~spooky~, that grabs your attention from the very first minute…. Believing the Bizarre: Paranormal Conspiracies & Myths (But just “Believing the Bizarre” for short). While listening to Believing the Bizarre, you’ll join two hilarious guys, Tyler and Charlie, as they explore a wide variety of all things odd, from alien encounters, urban legends, and, my fave, the paranormal. Each twisted tale is then rated on a scale: Believable, Viable, Skeptical, or Unbelievable. If you join their Facebook Group, you can share your thoughts, too. Seriously, these guys are awesome. The podcast throws together a mix of solid repartee, historical information, and the feeling like you’re hanging out in someone’s living room, knocking back a couple beers while you exchange a WILD story. In these times of social distancing, what could be better than tuning in and finding yourself feeling right at home with friends? You can find their podcast episodes here, along with some incredible merch. My favorite episode so far was Episode Two: The Mandela Effect. Buckle up, because if you want your mind, nay, your whole world, blown, this is the episode for you. Another very interesting one (who am I kidding, they’re all interesting), is Episode Six: The Great Dismal Swamp Mystery. This is their first listener submission story. That’s right, you too can submit your own story about something bizarre that happened in your hometown. Listen to their episodes to find out how! Thanks to everyone who took the time to stop by today! I hope you all have a wonderful September spent doing what you love. As for me, I’ll be putting on my headphones and diving into the unknown as I catch up on Believing the Bizarre. xx Audrey
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Was there ever a toy that you had growing up that just didn’t sit right with you? Maybe it was a Furby that you kept locked in a closet because it would talk in the middle of the night. Could have been one of those baby dolls that opened its eyes, but something about those eyes just made you uncomfortable? Don’t worry. Lots of people feel the same way. There’s something about walking into a room with a doll in it that just doesn’t seem inviting. More often than not, there’s actually nothing wrong with the doll or toy itself. A lot of the time, toys that make sounds are their own can be chalked up to faulty batteries or wiring. But what about the toys that made a name for themselves because there was no explanation? I know what you’re thinking, “here we go, another nonsense paper about Annabelle”. Wrong. Today, we’re going to talk about 3 of the other dolls that plagued real-life people with terror, because they deserve some spotlight too.  See this little guy? That’s Robert. Robert the doll spent the beginning of his life in a lovely home located at 534 Eaton St. in Key West, Florida, (because all nightmares belong in Florida, right?). Robert was a gift, given to Eugene Robert Otto in the early 1900s by one of his house servants. Nice, right? Not so much. Though this one of a kind, handcrafted doll, was meant to provide companionship to Eugene, he seems to have provided nightmare fuel for anyone who interacted with him. Initially, it was little things, movements out of the corner of the eye, Robert not being in the same place he was left, and then things took a turn. One night, while Eugene was asleep, he woke up to find Robert sitting at the edge of his bed. Riddled with fear, Eugene began to scream for his mother. When his mother ran to his room, she found the door locked, with her screaming child behind it. After some time she was able to get the door open and found Eugene’s room in complete shambles, with Eugene curled up under the covers and Robert sitting on the edge of the bed staring at him. Instead of destroying the doll, they locked him in the attic. It wasn’t until 1974 when he was found by a new little girl. Delighted to have a new doll, she began to keep Robert with her everywhere she went, but after a couple of nights, she began to claim that Robert was running around her room at night. Whether or not this was in fact, her parents decided to rid themselves of the doll by giving him away. He was passed around from family to family, all claiming that he was strange until he was given to the East Martello Museum, where he now resides behind the glass of a case specially made to keep him in. Is he possessed? Was he cursed by a house servant with ill intentions? The world may never know.  This long-haired beauty is Okiku. Okiku was a doll given to a little girl with the same name in 1918. Both Okiku the girl and Okkiu the doll resided in Japan. The doll was originally a gift from Eikichi Suzuki to his little sister. She became so attached to the doll that she named the doll after herself and anywhere she went, the doll went too. When Okiku got sick and passed away from influenza complications, the family decided to keep the doll and placed it in a shrine to their beloved daughter. Here’s where things get weird. Okiku the doll was originally a simple doll, dressed in a kimono, with a short black bob style haircut. As she remained in the altar, the family began to notice something: her hair was growing. The family was perplexed, so they did what they thought made the most sense. They cut the doll’s hair. This action proved pointless, as the hair grew back, again and again, stopping at the doll’s knees. Although the doll never did anything other than continue a solid impression of Cousin It, it still gave the family the proverbial heebie-jeebies, so when the family moved in 1938, they reached out to the local Manneji temple. The monks from the temple, along with the family, believed that the spirit of Okiku Suzuki now lived on in the doll. The monks agreed to keep her, and she resides in the temple to this day where she receives regular haircuts from the monks that surround her. Talk about high-quality service.  Last up, we have Letta. Letta the doll’s full name is “Letta Me Out”, a name given to him by Kerry Walton. Walton and his brother were your typical men in the 1970s. Except for typically, men don’t break into abandoned houses that are rumored to be haunted with the intention of looking under the floorboards, but who’s to say what typical means nowadays. Walton found Letta under the floorboards and felt compelled to bring the doll home with him, so naturally, he and his brother stuffed Letta in a bag and went on their way. It was then that they noticed some strange things, as the whole way home Letta continued to move around in the bag as if he was trying to get out, hence the name, “Letta Me Out”.
Notably, the doll made people uncomfortable. Many of the family and friends surrounding the Walton’s were apprehensive of the doll, claiming feelings of sickness, faintness, or overwhelming emotions. This wasn’t just related to humans, either. Animals seemed to dislike the doll, aggressively so. Many dogs were known to bite and attack the doll with no provocation. After doing some research, Walton discovered that the doll was almost 200 years old with origins in Romania. During this research, they found that Letta has a full head of human hair. Walton then went on to consult with many psychics, who all seem to have suggested the same thing: Letta is inhabited by the spirit of a small boy that drowned and was originally created to mimic the boy’s features. Letta, however, made an impression on Walton, and he decided to keep the doll with him in Australia, where she resides to this day. Walton has been known to take Letta traveling from time to time, perhaps to give Letta the chance to get out that he so desperately wanted. Maybe these dolls have nothing extraordinary about them, (outside of strangely luscious hair). Were these dolls just coincidentally moved? Maybe. Were these dolls crafted with evil intentions? Who knows. What we do know, is that none of the members here at PRISM want to share a house with these dolls, we’d rather take our chances with Annabelle. Have you ever seen a dead guy?
I have. As a child there were dead people who showed themselves to me from time to time. My life took a turn into one of all things paranormal, and over time I have seen a few more dead people. Mostly it’s the movement of a shadow person, or the glimpse of someone darting into a room, someone walking out of the corner of your eye. These are the most common ways to see ghosts. But there is another way, a more disturbing way that you can see a ghost. When it happens to you, there will be no doubt about what you have seen, but more even more impactful; what you have felt! This very type of sighting is what I experienced while investigating a ghost town near the Spanish peaks of Colorado. During a nighttime investigation, my team and I were in the rubble of an old building. I was looking at my cell phone, using one of those star gazer apps trying to locate the Big Dipper and the comet NEOWISE that was supposed to be visible near it. I was completely distracted from my communication with the spirits, and that was the perfect opportunity for her to show herself to me. As I looked over my shoulder to announce that the Big Dipper was below us and we would have to wait to see the comet, in that literal second……. there she was. We saw each other. She was sitting on the ground, knees in her chest and slender arms wrapped around her knees. She was young, perhaps 20, perhaps younger. She had shoulder length chestnut hair with bangs. Her skin was pale and her eyes were brown. There was a trim of wavy fabric on the bottom of her long nightgown and at the ends of her long sleeves. I saw all this detail because she WANTED me to. She wanted more than that actually…… she made eye contact with me. In the literal half a second that we saw each other, I FELT her. She shared with me not only her image, but her emotions. They were sad, angry and forgotten all rolled into one. I felt what she felt so clearly that it took me a second to form words to tell everyone what I just experienced. I had to fight back tears. It was amazing and intense. I knew her in that second, and I wonder if she learned anything about me. I look forward to my return to this haunted location so that with luck, this sad, angry and forgotten woman can tell me more of her story. -Holly Carpenter Check out more about our Ideal, CO investigation under our Evidence tab! Hello there! Welcome to the PRISM Colorado blog. We will be posting one blog post here a month, covering various topics about the paranormal and reviewing our latest investigations. We are hoping this will be a great way for us to hear the things you want us to chat about as well. We are so excited to be up and running again. We just did our first investigation in several months last week, and it turned out great. The evidence will be uploaded within two weeks and we're looking forward to your feedback. In July, we have two investigations coming up! One will be at a secret location (stay tuned because you are going to love it!) and the second is our first 2020 trip back to Francisco Fort Museum. The Fort is always a great experience, even if it is just experiencing a slice of the history there. Our BIGGEST news is our August event, which we are so excited to announce! We will be hosting an online "public" investigation via Twitch. You can find our twitch here, and you'll be able to follow our team along as we investigate the Dickens Opera House in Longmont, Colorado. If you check out our evidence tab, you can listen and watch some of the things we've captured there before...and you'll see that this event is bound to be full of awesome paranormal activity. If you scroll to the bottom of the page, you'll see an RSVP form there. Let us know if you'll be making it. We hope you can stop by! Stay tuned, Audrey  |
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