Possessed Possessions

Possessed possessions are objects believed to have spirit attachments that create disturbances or problems for the people who own them. Almost any object can become associated with such an attachment, including clothing, jewellery, furniture, household goods, machines, artwork, religious items, photographs, stones, natural objects, dolls and collectibles. The term possessed possessions was coined by paranormal researcher Ed Okonowicz, who used it in the titles of two books devoted to haunted antiques, furniture and other objects.

The belief that spirits can inhabit or attach themselves to objects is found throughout magical and supernatural traditions. Objects may be cursed, while fetishes and poppets can be ritually endowed with a spiritual presence. Spirits may also be housed, contained or even imprisoned within objects, and the accidental release of a troublesome or dangerous spirit from such a vessel is a recurring theme in folklore and mythology. Legends surrounding King Solomon, for example, describe Djinn being imprisoned within vessels and rings.

Objects are also sometimes believed to absorb something of the people who own and use them. This idea is closely connected with psychometry, the supposed ability of a psychically sensitive person to touch or hold an object and receive impressions concerning its owner, previous owners or events associated with it. If an owner dies violently, suddenly or in great distress, some paranormal traditions suggest that an attachment may remain connected with a favourite or emotionally significant possession.

Not every supposedly haunted object becomes active immediately. An item may remain apparently dormant for years in an attic, secondhand shop or antique store and begin producing unusual phenomena only after being moved into a particular home. The energies associated with a place, or the emotional and psychological atmosphere created by the people living there, are sometimes suggested as factors determining whether the attachment becomes noticeable.

Paranormal investigators are occasionally contacted by people who believe that trouble began shortly after acquiring a particular object. Secondhand possessions appear frequently in these reports, with dolls being especially notorious in modern haunting traditions.

Paranormal Activity Associated with Objects

Once the object is brought into a home, witnesses may report disturbances that resemble a haunting. These can include poltergeist activity, unexplained sounds, apparitions, shadowy figures, nightmares and what some investigators interpret as Demonic infestation. People may also associate an object with a sudden series of accidents, illnesses, misfortunes or other unexplained problems.

In such cases, the beginning of the disturbance is often traced back to the arrival of the possession. The object may then become the focus of attempts at spiritual cleansing, blessing or exorcism. In other cases, the owners simply remove or destroy it.

According to paranormal accounts, the disturbances frequently cease after the suspected object has been removed or ritually cleansed.

John Zaffis and Haunted Objects

Paranormal investigator John Zaffis, known particularly for his work involving Demonology and alleged haunted objects, collected hundreds of possessions associated with haunting and possession cases during decades of investigation. His uncle and aunt, Ed and Lorraine Warren, also became famous for collecting objects they believed had been involved in dangerous paranormal cases.

Zaffis kept many such items in a private museum. Once removed from the environments in which the disturbances occurred and subjected to whatever spiritual measures he considered necessary, he reported that the objects caused no further problems.

One case associated with Zaffis concerned a couple who purchased a doll at a tag sale. The doll had a burned face. Shortly after bringing it into their home, the wife began waking with mysterious bloody scratches on her legs. The marks reportedly appeared while she was sleeping and while the doll remained in the bedroom.

After consulting Zaffis, the couple were told that the doll might once have belonged to a girl who had died from burns suffered in a fire. Whether this history could ever be firmly established is uncertain, but when the couple removed the doll from their house, they reported that the attacks stopped.

The Tapping Headboard

Not all stories of possessed possessions involve antiques or objects with known previous owners. Ed Okonowicz described one particularly strange case involving an apparently brand-new wooden bedroom set installed in the room of a fifteen-year-old girl.

Soon after the furniture arrived, a persistent tapping sound began coming from the headboard. The tapping reportedly became increasingly loud and urgent, eventually disturbing the girl enough that she removed the headboard from her bedroom and placed it in the basement.

The disturbance did not stop. Whenever she entered the basement, she could still hear the tapping.

Eventually the headboard was given to the mother of one of the girl’s friends. According to the account, the tapping continued in the second house as well. The woman finally moved the headboard into a hallway, where the story became even stranger. One night, both mother and daughter reportedly saw the apparition of a teenage boy, first inside the daughter’s bedroom and then floating into the hallway.

The family eventually got rid of the headboard.

No identity was ever established for the apparition, and there was no known previous owner who could explain why a newly manufactured piece of furniture might have carried a spirit attachment. One speculation was that the wood itself could somehow have been associated with a traumatic event before being made into furniture, perhaps through a tree connected with an accident, death or other tragedy.

Curses, Magic and Spirit Attachments

Some possessed objects are believed to become dangerous through deliberate magical activity. An object may be cursed, ritually prepared or intentionally used as a container for a spirit. In magical practice, objects have long been employed as vessels through which spiritual forces are invoked, housed or directed.

A fetish, poppet, talisman or ritual object may therefore be considered more than an ordinary physical possession. Within the worldview of the practitioner, it can become a focus for spiritual power or even a temporary residence for an entity.

The difference between a consciously prepared spirit vessel and a possessed possession lies largely in intention and control. The ritual magician may deliberately invite or bind a presence to an object, while the owner of a haunted antique may have no idea that anything unusual accompanies it until disturbances begin.

This is what makes such objects particularly unsettling within supernatural folklore. A haunted house announces itself through its history and atmosphere, but a possessed possession can be carried through a front door without anyone realising that something else may be coming with it.

Removing a Possessed Possession

Traditional remedies vary according to the religious or magical beliefs of the people involved. Some attempt to cleanse the object through prayer, incense, holy water, ritual purification or blessing. More serious cases may involve exorcism of either the object itself or the surrounding property.

Others simply remove the possession from the house.

Paranormal investigators have often warned that destroying an allegedly haunted object is not necessarily considered the safest solution within every tradition. If the spirit is believed to be attached to the object rather than trapped within it, destroying the physical vessel might theoretically do nothing to remove the entity. For that reason, some investigators prefer cleansing, containment or deliberate removal.

Whatever method is chosen, the central idea remains the same: if unusual phenomena began when a particular object entered the home and cease after it leaves, believers naturally suspect that the object was carrying something more than its physical history.

Objects That Refuse to Remain Objects

The idea of possessed possessions is unsettling because human beings surround themselves with objects every day. We inherit jewellery, purchase antique furniture, collect old photographs, bring home secondhand books and display objects whose complete history may never be known.

Most of these things remain exactly what they appear to be.

According to occult and paranormal tradition, however, some objects may carry memories, emotional residues or spiritual attachments that survive long after their original owners disappear. A doll may retain the presence of a child, a piece of furniture may become associated with an unexplained apparition, and an apparently ordinary household object may become the centre of disturbances that continue until the object itself is removed.

Whether such cases involve spirits, psychometry, suggestion, coincidence or something still unexplained, the folklore surrounding possessed possessions preserves an ancient warning that physical objects may not always be as spiritually empty as they seem.

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