How many of you out there have a hard time trying to figure out the perfect birthday gift for someone? Maybe dad already has 30 ties and does he really need another blue one? How many more kitchen towels does mom need? Do you really want to get your sister that cute top you found when you really want it for yourself? Not to mention how hard is it to buy for your brother who never seems to like anything. What happens if you're out and about and run across an antique store? That's something different...maybe I should check in there see what I can find? Perhaps you run across something different and unique at a local garage sale. Maybe you're searching around online and find options for more old timey gifts; those look pretty neat and different. Would Mom like something from the 1920s? I bet my sister would love that Victorian era perfume dispenser.
I'm gonna talk about an item that was purchased at an estate sale back in 2003. The purchaser, Kevin Mannis, was trying to find a gift for his mother. At the estate sale, a small cabinet caught his eye. The cabinet was a decent table top size, used back in the day as a wine cabinet. Story goes that the cabinet was owned by a lady from Poland who lived to be 103. Kevin was a bit hesitant to purchase it, thinking there may be a lot of sentimental value to the Polish lady's granddaughter. The granddaughter insisted Kevin take it, but explained to him that her grandmother hid the box away years prior and wouldn't let anybody open it. No further explanation was ever given.
Well, Kevin took the box home and stored it in the basement of his furniture refinishing shop. One day while he was out running errands, he got an emergent phone call from one of the staff members at the shop, stating they heard someone in the shop swearing and smashing things but could not see anyone. When Kevin got back to the shop, he found lights in the basement broken and the room smelled of cat urine. There were no cats in the building. Kevin found no evidence to explain what had happened while he was gone or an explanation for the foul odor. The employee left that day and never return to work. I'm pretty sure none of the above was in the employees job description when they first took the job...definitely probably wasn't getting paid enough to deal with that stuff.
Later, Kevin decided to clean up the box to get it ready to give to his mother as a birthday gift. His mother stopped at the shop as they had plans to go out for lunch, and he gave her the birthday gift. Kevin went to the back of the shop to make a quick phone call and, upon his return, the employee currently working at the front desk (I'm assuming this is a different employee and has not had any scary experiences yet) told Kevin they felt something was wrong with his mother.
Kevin's mother was sitting in a chair, expressionless, crying, and pretty much unresponsive. Kevin had her rushed to the hospital where it was discovered that she had had a stroke and had lost her ability to speak for a while. When Kevin's mom was able to be responsive, she could point to letters on a board to help spell out words. Kevin asked how she was doing and she spelled out "no gift". Not fully sure what she meant, Kevin then said he'd given her a gift to which she replied "hate gift".
Kevin ended up taking the cabinet to his own home. He started to have nightmares in which he was walking around with a good friend, but when he looked into his friends eyes, he saw something evil looking back. The friend turned into a gruesome demonic hag that proceeded to beat him. That's pretty much me every Monday morning...until I've had my coffee. Kevin claims he would awake with bruises and marks all over his body.
At one time, Kevin had his sister, brother, and the brother's wife stay the night at his place and all of them claimed to have had the same dream as Kevin. At one time, Kevin's girlfriend had the box at her place and she stated she had the same dream as well. Kevin stated he began seeing shadow creatures in his home. Visitors to his home claimed to see the same thing. Kevin ended up putting the box in the storage unit outside his place and a smoke alarm went off in the unit. Upon investigation of the unit, there was no smoke but Kevin noticed the smell of cat urine again. No cats were found in that area.
At this point in time, Kevin took the box back into his house and decided to try searching for information on the Internet. Kevin happened to fall asleep and had a nightmare, waking up at 4:30 AM feeling like someone was breathing on his neck. Now he had the smell of jasmine flowers without having any flowers in that area, and he saw another shadow figure down the hallway.
This is Kevin's explanation of his nightmares:
"I find myself walking with a friend, usually someone I know well and trust at some point in the dream, I find myself looking into the eyes of the person that I am with. It is then that I realize that there is something different, something evil looking back at me. At that point in my dream, the person I am with changes into what can only be described as the most gruesome, demonic looking Hag that I have ever seen. This Hag proceeds then, to beat the living tar out of me."
— Kevin Mannis
Over time, it was believed that this wine cabinet is now working as what would be called a Dybbuk box. What is a Dybbuk box, you may ask? It's basically any type of handheld cabinet or box that trapped a malicious spirit called a Dybbuk in Jewish mythology. A Dybbuk is believed to be the lost soul of a dead person. Instead of going to heaven, the soul becomes trapped in an object and it will remain there until someone helps release the spirit. Which begs the question for me personally… should that spirit be released? The word "dybbuk" is from ancient Hebrew meaning "to cling". Again, I ask...should a clingy spirit ever be released? My current thought process is maybe keep the box closed; dealing with a clingy spouse or clingy kids is enough for one day.
Kevin Harris ended up putting the Dybbuk box up for sale on eBay. He was hoping someone would possibly know more about paranormal Dybbuk spirits and basically take it off his hands. His explanation on eBay was that the wine box was previously owned by a Holocaust survivor in Poland. That owner said the box ended up containing a Dybbux entity, and Kevin said that the box now had paranormal powers and was responsible for his bad luck and nightmares. Now...if you're anything like me and bad luck is just a constant thing in your life, no Dybbuk box is needed...the bad luck just happens naturally.
In June 2003, Kevin sold it to a University of Missouri student named Losif Nietzke. Losif kept the box for only eight months, deciding to sell it back on eBay after he and his roommate suffered insomnia and other illnesses while he had the box. One could play devil's advocate and question were their issues related to the box or overall college life? Maybe it was a little bit of both.
Losif sold the box for $280 to Jason Haxton. Jason heard about the box from another student, one of Losif's roommates.
Jason Haxton later claimed to have experienced some paranormal activity when around the box. He also stated that the box had anti-aging effects on him. Which, technically, if that's all the box did, I would own 20 of them. Just sayin'...
Jason started a website called dibbukbox.com.
Jason also claimed that he experienced welts and hives when he first had the box. He even had a couple episodes of coughing up blood and choking. Jason said that touching the box made it feel like it put the box into a liquid state. While owning the box, Jason said he experienced strange lights and shadows. Jason decided to get the help of scientists, paranormal professionals, Kabbalists, and Wiccans to get help on how to put the box in a safe state of keeping. Jason personally believed that whatever was contained in the box was a neutral energy, but played off whoever came into contact with it. He also believed that the goal to the energy in the box was to reveal 'truth' and that it was looking for the right owner who could help it.
For a while Jason kept the box secure in acacia wood lined with 24-karat gold in his den. He believed this would keep the energy subdued. Recently, Jason admitted he ended up putting it in a military grade shock proof container and buried it somewhere where it would not be discovered.
In 2004, Jason sold the rights to the Dybbuk box to a Hollywood production company. This then turned into the movie The Possession which came out in 2012.
Some of you, if not all of you, may know about and watched the TV show Ghost Adventures. The main investigator/host of that show is Zak Bagans. Zak also started his own haunted museum in Las Vegas, Nevada. He collects supposed haunted items in the museum which is open for tours to the public. Zak heard about the Dybbuk box and ended up buying it from Jason Haxton. Zak Bagans does not have the Dybbuk box available for public viewing, but if you really wanna see it, you can sign a waiver that releases Zak from any liability if anything bad were to happen to you while viewing the box or sometime after.
You can find a video showing Zak Bagans going to open the Dybbuk box with Post Malone in the room. Zak touches the box, Post Malone touches Zak. The box does not get opened, but Post Malone gets freaked out enough that he turns on the light in the room and rushes to get him and Zak out of there. Sometime later, Post Malone experiences two separate emergency plane landings and he crashed his Rolls Royce. Lucky for him, he was able to walk away from each terrifying episode. Was all of this caused by the Dybbuk box? I truly have no idea, but it is said that Post Malone believes he was cursed that day in Zak Bagans' museum.
Over time, a lot of people do not believe there's anything special about the box or anything haunted about it. Many skeptics have stated the idea that because the owners believe there's something in the box, something haunted about the box, perhaps their energy has contributed to what people have experienced.
Chris French, of the Anomalistic Psychology Research Unit at Goldsmiths College, expressed skepticism at the idea that the box is haunted or cursed, saying:
"[They were] already primed to be looking out for bad stuff. If you believe you have been cursed, then inevitably you explain the bad stuff that happens in terms of what you perceive to be the cause. Put it like this: I would be happy to own this object."
I can see what Chris is saying and part of me can actually agree with that. I guess the overall picture is, though, people have experienced something with the Dybbuk box in their possession. What is the cause of that...we may never know.
If this helps you decide anything about the Dybbuk box, original owner, Kevin Harris, came out in 2021 with the following statement:
"I am a creative writer. The Dybbuk Box is a story that I created. And the Dybbuk box story has done exactly what I intended it to do when I posted it 20 years ago...which is to become an interactive horror story in real time", and that he "added new elements to the Dybbuk Box story over the years to help evolve it, keep it relevant and interesting."
OK...so now we have Kevin stating he made the whole story up. Yet multiple subsequent owners of the Dybbuk box state they have had bad experiences since owning the box, and I have found no evidence that refutes their claims. Which then leads me to the $64,000 question: If the Dybbuk box was a created story, yet people have had bad experiences with it, did their energy create the "hauntings" that have come from the box???
If you feel so inclined to do so, you can watch Kevin Harris' story, and others, on an episode of Paranormal Witness; season 2, episode 1. I found it on Peacock TV.
During my research for this story, I came across a Youtube "movie" called Dybbuk Box: The Story of Chris Chambers. So, I get all comfy on my couch with a nice, hot cup of coffee ready to go, snuggled up with one of my huskies...start watching to see what I can learn. As I got watching this hour long "movie", I started wondering how a single guy has such a clean apartment...no laundry scattered here and there, no dishes in the sink, literally nothing out of place. I'm not saying single guys can't keep a clean home, so don't come at me. I'm just saying that the single guys I know do not have a spotless home. My personal thought is either this guy has severe OCD (no judgment...fellow OCD person here) or this is something that is completely staged. Well, I decided to watch the whole thing anyway.
The movie starts out with Chris ordering the Dybbuk box, receiving the box, and finally opening it. He goes through the few items that were found inside the box. He started experiencing flickering lights, a painting fell off the wall a couple of times, getting answers on the spirit box, and different EMF readings were happening. Over time, Chris was looking fatigued as he was stating that he couldn't sleep, couldn't eat. The ceiling fan in his bedroom feel onto his bed...at a time he was not sleeping in the bed. Again, if this were real footage, that stuff probably would've scared the hell out of me, but I just got the feeling throughout the "movie" that things were staged. The video clips were just too clean to look like real, unedited footage. True or not, the "movie" shows how the Dybbuk box affected Chris over time.
The most haunting footage in this "movie" to me was the horrible pea green paint color in the kitchen!!! I mean, seriously, who the hell thinks that's a good color for anything! I ended up not scared of what this guy was going through, I just truly wanted to paint that kitchen. It was awful! I may never recover from that.
Is the Dybbuk box truly a haunted object, filled with a Yiddish demon that will terrorize your life? I have no idea. Do I believe there could be some type of haunting to it...perhaps due to people's energy in general? Maybe. Am I insane enough to want to see the box for myself? Absolutely! Should anyone ever paint anything pea green? Definitely not! That alone will probably cause a haunting for sure!!!
-- Audre
Photo by: blogspot.com
Sources:
wikipedia.org
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