WARNING: THIS EPISODE MIGHT HAUNT YOU | Haunted Dolls & The Museum of Shadows | Podcast (328)

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There is a basement in Omaha where people dare each other to sit alone in the dark for just 10 minutes, but most don't make it past 5. They say something breathes on you down there. That if you stare long enough into the dark, something else stares back. This place is packed with over 3,000 haunted artifacts, and it lives inside a building with a bloodstained past. This is no railroad gimmick. This is the Museum of Shadows. And once you cross that threshold, something might cross it with you. Because the haunted objects inside, well, they don't just sit there. They watch. They wait. And sometimes they might follow.

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Yeah. Very spooky.

Annabelle update

Hi. Hello. We have to talk about Well, first you can introduce us. This is Two Girls, One Ghost. Two Girls, One Ghost. And we are your ghostesses. That is Karen. Hello. And I'm Sabrina. And we've been talking about this amongst ourselves and we forgot that we should be talking about it on the podcast as well. Annabelle. Oh yeah, I literally wrote it in here to talk about it just in case we forgot to talk about it at the top. We have to talk about it now. What the heck? Apparently. Okay. Well, we'll give context if anyone doesn't know. So, Annabelle the doll, notorious Annabelle from The Conjuring, she was kept in a glass case and was in the Warren Museum for a very long time. Then I think it's like the museum or the New England Society of the Occult or something like that. Paranormal and the occult or or something like that. They

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decided to take Annabelle on the road. This is also after the Warren have warned prior to their passing. They had stated that Annabelle should never be moved. Right. It like wasn't even a warning. It was instructions. Do not move Annabelle. And we've also covered the story of Annabelle. Gosh, how many years ago? And I don't remember the episode, but Jamie will put the episode on the YouTube screen so you know. But yeah, they were like, don't ever move Annabelle. And of course, folks decided, let's take her on tour, right? And they're taking her to some cool places like haunted penitentiaries and just all Gettysburg. Gettysburg. Yeah. And I do know that they're taking a lot of precautions, too, with like blessings and certain rituals and stuff, but people can basically interact with Annabelle. She's on tour. She's seeing a lot of people, burning a lot of places down, plantations, haunting people. There was a rumor that she went missing. Yes. But apparently she didn't. That was just that was the

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rumor. A rumor. But it was a rumor for like a good solid week. Yeah. Which was it a rumor or was it fact? And now that they've recovered Annabelle, they're like she was never missing. I would believe it that she could just like run away. Well, cuz if she wasn't missing, why wouldn't someone speak out on it immediately and be like, "No, she's right here, dude. Got her." Yeah. Well, yeah. Well, yeah. And I'm just thinking I'm like, "Was this a plant?" Now, I'm thinking about like the PR moves that people make in Hollywood where like they'll make up a rumor about themselves to gain more. They need more press for I don't know. Probably not. But, uh, the tour, I just looked it up. So, it's the New England Society of Psychic Research, NESper, and they have dubbed the tour Devils on the Run, which Okay, maybe then it was a PR move that she was on the run. Yeah. Oh, this says I wonder if this is true that there are like priest escorts. I mean, to be Annabelle, that's sick. My god, she requires a lot. If we ever

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go on tour again, we should have some a priest escort. A priest and a psychic and a witch. Oh, I like that. Walk into a bar. Do we need the priest? Half the stories we read, the priests are too scared to actually bless the houses that need to be exor. I feel like some of the biggest possessions, it's like, and then they're on their 17th priest. Yeah. Yeah. I don't have a good priest in my life to to invite. Who's the bravest priest? That's who we need to bring on tour with us. If you're a priest and you listen to our podcast, show yourself because show yourself. That's awesome. Well, or we'll spray you with this Florida water. This we could do our own blessings. The body of Christ. Uh just threatening the priests who listen. Yeah. Um it's a light threat. Not enough to send us to hell, right? I'm totally fine with wherever I'm going. Whether it's hell, we don't know what anything is like. Whether it's purgatory. Okay, this is a

visits from Corinne's grandmother's spirit

really weird transition. Oh, and I feel really awkward coming from where we just

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did to tell you this. My Grammy passed away yesterday. Um, I'm sorry. That's okay. She had dementia and she was struggling for a very, very long time. Oh. So, my dad left Noah's birthday party to go be with her again cuz they'd been with her for like a week cuz they basically sound sounded the alarms last week and then she hung on for a full week which was horrible cuz she was in a ton of pain. Oh no. But the day before my dad got the call, both my mom and my brother separately were outside and saw a giant butterfly like kind of floating right by them really, really slowly. And this is what's so weird. They both got the message in their head, Grammyy's going to die today, which is so crazy. And then a few hours later, my dad gets the call saying, "Your mom is 24 hours. Like, come to see her if you can." she was basically entering the end of life uh process. But yeah, they both got that message which was so crazy. And then I mean she didn't die that day. She passed

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away many days later. But they got the message before your dad even got the phone call and it was like word for word the exact same thing that both of them heard. And then it was the next day cuz I called my mom and I was like, "Did Grammy just pass yet?" Which is so sad that we have to like wait and continue to ask that. But I was feeding Noah in his room and I heard a couple footsteps outside of his door and I was like, "What the heck?" I was kind of like, "Oh my god, is Brian about to walk in and like distract Noah who like we can barely like wrangle down to eat right now." And then the door opened and there was no one there. And so I was talking to my dad yesterday. There's a lot of information to process right now. I know. Sorry. And I'm delivering this in like such a flat well I mean way are coping with it how you need to cope with it. Yeah. Yeah. And it was also like a week of us a lot doing this. But yeah, so I was talking to my dad yesterday as he was driving back cuz it was yesterday in the wee hours of the morning and then he was taking care of things with his siblings and then um driving to meet my

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mom. But I was talking to him about it and he was saying that where she was was like a very religious place and so when she passed they opened up the window. They wouldn't let anyone at the foot of the bed so that the angels could come get her cuz that's like the direction that they come in. And he was just like, "It was really nice to see all that and like, yeah, I'm so glad my mom is going to heaven." And I was like, "You know what, Dad? I don't know if this is the right thing to tell you right now, but I was like, based on everything we heard from the podcast, I really don't think like I I don't think Grammy was still in her body like rising up and walking to the edge of her bed with the angels." Like, I think all those things, the signs, the things that were happening, I think Grammy was that was her. She was already like in the in between. She was already there. I mean, they say that a lot of people who are close to death are kind of already walking that line. Yeah, I believe that. And I absolutely believe she came. The fact that you heard footsteps and the door opened, right? And like the we had windows open so it was just the door opening. I wouldn't have thought anything of it. Although it

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was fully closed, which it doesn't ever open, but I could have rationalized it. But it was the footsteps and it was like so distinct. It was distinct enough that I was like already like pre getting annoyed with Brian for like interrupting. Poor Brian. It was your grandma. And yeah. No, it was just it was weird. And my mom was like telling my dad that he probably got so many signs too and he just was so in a state of, you know, I'm sorry. Thanks. Yeah, that is tough. And it's also tough because it's clear she was going through a tough time and it wasn't true suffering for like a decade. So when Yeah. People say like she's in a better place. I absolutely believe that. Yeah. And now she's stopping by checking on all of you. Yeah. The big Noah's gonna have another ghost. Check it out. So for Noah's birthday party, like my Grammy loves wild flowers. So I bought a bunch of wild flowers for the centerpieces so I could combine them at the end and have my dad bring them to the nursing home. Like not that she'd be able to see them, but in her spirit form she would as she

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looks down. But yeah, it will be interesting because it seems like she was pretty active and her in life, her reputation was that she was always late for everything. So that's what all the siblings, my dad and his siblings were telling the nursing home. They're like, "Well, she's late for everything." So you say she's going to die, she's going to be another 5 days. Like she's always late for everything. And I was like, she's also very chatty. So I think she like entered a new plane and was like, whoa, so many people to talk to. So a look for signs. You never know. You never know. But I did think it was quite interesting that my mom and my brother both got the exact same message like word for word in combination with seeing a butterfly. Mhm. My brother saw it like maybe an hour or so before my mom and then my mom came in and told Christian he was like whoa. I wasn't going to say anything but like that exact same experience. Wow. I know. Okay. Weird pivots. Yeah. Um can I say something positive? Yeah. Okay. Well, Noah's birthday party was this past weekend and

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Brian's mom introduced me to her brother. Mhm. As your best friend. Cuz you are my best friend. And it was like the cutest thing in the world. And so cuz you're used to like at functions like this is her co-host. Yeah. Well, she said like this is Karin's best friend Sabrina. Oh, and her business partner. But I was like I was just like that is so sweet. And I just felt so much love. I was really excited. A my cousin. I'm so obsessed with you, too. Addie. Addie. I took Addie in here and we took pictures in the in the chair. Yeah. Pretending to be on air. Yeah. So funny. So cute. Yeah. It was Noah's birthday. He was running around. Yeah. Not behaving like a one-year-old trying to be a 2-year-old. Always looking ahead. Grammy is always late. Noah's always early. Okay. But for today's

intro to Museum of Shadows

episode, we're heading to Nebraska. Okay. Because we are going to one of the most terrifying collections of haunted objects in the world. This is the museum of shadows. And I think this is also a

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call to action that if you want to send us haunted objects so we can be the museum of I don't know ghouls, you can actually send us haunted objects now because we do have something planned. So go ahead. Wink wink. But you have to give us a night and shining armor. No, you have to give us a note along with the object explaining the hauntings, letting us know what it is because if it does not come with a note, we will not keep it. That's not fair to us. That's not That's not fair. We like open communication here. Yeah. No, we are not taking any risks. So, we need to know what we're getting ourselves into. Yeah. To fill out the dating profile, we'll swipe which way we see fit. Actually, that'd be a really fun way to sell haunted objects. Swipe right if you match with this haunted object. New idea. Write it in the scroll with all the haunted objects we own. Remember when you bought the scroll and it lasted for like 24 hours and then we stopped writing in it cuz we cuz we have good ideas. Are who we are. Yeah. Okay.

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Kesha. We are who we are. Oh, I was like what? Always channeling Kesha. Always. All right. Let us set the stage. Okay. Tucked into Omaha, Nebraska's historic old market district is a brick building with a black awning and kind of modest signage. The building facade has changed a little bit over the years and if you walk past it, it is unassuming. Like it just it doesn't stand out as a terrifying haunted location or the host of terrifying hauntings. Okay, it is located at 1110 Douglas Street. So, if anyone else is walking around Omaha, I have no idea how big the downtown is, but that's where it is in the Christian Spect building. Let me actually pull up a picture because this is the building. Yeah. Unassuming. Unassuming. You're just like, "Oh, cool." Like, that's a I don't even know if you'd say, "Cool." You'd just be like, "That's a building." You wouldn't even You wouldn't even say that's a building. You'd just walk right by. Just keep walking. Exactly. But

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there is actually a cool fact about this building in that it's the last known structure in all of Nebraska to feature a cast iron facade. Ooh. So, this place is literally made of metal, which is fitting because it's about to get heavy. That's the only dad joke I put in. I thought about doing more, but I said, "No, this is serious stuff here." I love dad jokes. Thank you for that one. You're welcome. I I feel like you did it for me. I did. Yeah. Thank you. And then I was really trying hard to think of other ones and I was like, "Wait a second. This is I need to just write ghost stories and not focus on ghost stories and dad jokes should always go together." Okay. The building has lived many lives, which I think many of us can probably assume what some of those lives are because I feel like this is kind of a copype sort of situation with many of these older locations. It was once a saloon, a brothel, a mortuary, even a doctor's office. Okay. They're missing one thing, which is usually some sort of

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home for weward kids, right? That's another addition we usually hear. But that it really hit checks all boxes. Yeah. Some say it was used for inbalming at one point. And then others swear that it was a site for black market surgeries in the early 1900s, which I wouldn't be surprised, especially if it had been like a mortuary of some kind. It would be equipped in that way. Yeah. Yeah. But also, you said it's it hasn't been a wayward a home for a wayward children. Mhm. But one could argue that now it is. Now it is. Yeah. Oh, and it's going to make you so sad when you hear one of the EVPs I'm going to share later. Oh gosh. Okay. So, legend says that at least three people have died violently within these walls. Once when it was a saloon. Some people say it was all when it was a doctor's office. So there's varying reports about like how people died, when people died, but also there are no reports actually saying anyone died. So there's no newspapers that I could find.

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No records, no police records actually referring to mort mortars. Mortars. We're both struggling with like annunciation today. I can't breathe either cuz my pants are too tight. Unbutton them. Can't see. I'm basically wearing my pants are a corset today. But yeah, I couldn't find any records. Okay. And no one online also said that they could find records. Sure. So still the whispers persisted that maybe this building held some bodies, maybe liquor, desperate people. It all led one thing to another and that was actual murders in the walls. Can we also talk about cuz we haven't told everyone who's listening, the fact that we were supposed to record this last week and the morning of Oh yeah. your your research just disappeared. I texted you at 6:00 a.m. because I was like, "Oh, I just wanted to double check like one section." Yeah. And I was going to put all the photos in that I had and it was just gone. And it was gone. So, there is a chance that this episode is going to haunt us and you because it's not going

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to be easy to come out. Yeah. Because clearly, maybe potentially it didn't want to be shared. It's just so weird. Like you literally sat with me and was like, "Go through all of your other email inboxes and like Google Drives." Yeah. And it wasn't anywhere like gone gone. So I had to redo this. Hopefully this episode works. Works. Okay. So still uh whispers, rumors, dead bodies in the building. Mhm. So even without actual murder records, the mood is definitely a bit dismal and murder drenches its history or talk of. So it's perfect fuel for a haunted museum. And

the origins

that is exactly what moved into this building. When did it move in? Uh 2016. Oh, so it's it's pretty new. Less than 10 years. Yes. The Museum of Shadows is founded by a husband and wife team, Nate and Kaylee Rderman. Nate is a demonologist. Kaylee is a psychic medium. So very normal couple and the perfect couple to be doing this. They

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opened the museum in 2016 originally in a small town called Elmwood, Nebraska, but the collection grew pretty fast cuz people would send in objects. They'd hear about them collecting things. And so they were like, "Ooh, we need to get this out of our home and into a larger space and not be like vetting all the objects in our own personal sure space." So they would be sent kind of like the same things we hear time and time again. Haunted dolls, possessed paintings, ritual masks, mirrors used in summoning human bones, dick boxes, and that's really just scratching the surface. So they eventually moved to Omaha where it now lives in this historically creepy building. And to earn a spot in the museum, each of the items that is sent to them has to go through an actual forensic testing, like vetting process. I appreciate that because one, not everything is actually haunted. Mm-m. Two, you have to make sure the other objects get along with this object, right? And if they don't, like, where do

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you quarantine this object, right? And one thing I did see in one of the articles was that Kaylee said that sometimes when things get a little too frisky frisky, she's like, "Nate, you got this." It's a good partnership. You You get those ones. Yeah. I appreciate that. I'd be that that way, too. Brian would never. Oh, Brian. You would do that to me. Yeah. I would be your Kaye, but Brian is my Kaye. Everyone has a little bit of Kaye in them, right? Yeah, definitely. So Nate and Kaylee, they quarantine the new artifacts in a sealed room for weeks and they observe it and they do a bunch of different like testings. Like they have uh Sony like EVP, they're not for EVPs, but like the Sony recorders and stuff to capture EVPs. They have like 24-hour surveillance going in their museum. All that sort of stuff. They're monitoring temperature drops, any object movements, phantom voices, shadow figures. Could you imagine spending a night in this quarantine room with the object just to like see what happens? Oh my god. Can

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you imagine the nightmares? Cuz even just mentally going into that, you would create scenarios in your head that might not actually be created by the object, right? One that it's like what are you manifesting? And then also it's like is this the actual haunted object that's doing this or are you bringing in one of the other spirits that's just curious about you, right? so many questions. But in an interview with Nate, he had said some are a little feisty, others are just, you know, well, they're not friendly at all. So, it's good that they stay behind glass and they can stay in there. That's I mean, this is a question kind of about Annabelle, too. Like, why putting them behind glass is that such a protective barrier, whereas it can be in a museum and it can travel through walls. Like, what about the glass? Same with Robert the doll. What keeps them in there? I know that there's blessings and other I don't know. Ghostbusters like keeping them in the box. The box. What's

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in the box? Also, I've been I needed to just say this because it's something I'm experiencing right now. I'm having really difficult like auditory experiences right now. And I get it occasionally. It's almost that feeling where your ears need to be popped. But I've done nothing. Like I haven't changed altitudes. I don't there's nothing that's happened for it to occur and I'm experiencing it like it started when we started recording. Okay, that's weird cuz my my ear canals hurt. They don't feel like they needed to pop but I also am exper I'm experiencing a lot of like pain right here like where my jaw connects. Weird. And I thought it was just me being frazzled. Well, someone recently I think on a campfire stories was talking about the cone feeling. Yes. And I was like, "Oh, is that what this is?" It was when they were talking about sleep paralysis, right? I don't remember. Or just basically like before they had a paranormal experience, they started having the cone, which is what I've experienced often,

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but I feel like I'm echoing inside of my head. So talking is weird cuz I can like hear myself back, but it might be a paranormal thing. So I figured I may as well draw attention to it. And now the fact that you are also experiencing ear canal. Yeah. Not quite the same. Not as you. But maybe you're going to start hearing [ __ ] cuz cuz I'm having a mental

Ayda the Doll

breakdown. No, we're about to talk. I almost said we're about to talk too, but she's not here. We're about to talk about a doll that really gives Annabelle a run for her money. Her name is Ada, and she was voted the most haunted doll in the world, and she's extremely active. ADA. A Y Da. Okay. Why? What's ADA? Well, I wore a sweatshirt here from the brand Adenola and it I know I always think of ADA compliance when and it says ADA. Yeah. I was like that would have been weird. Oh, that would have been weird. No. Ayda. Ada is one of the most famous and one of the most feared dolls in the museum. Though I don't think she

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really needs to be feared. Okay. She's small, she's pale, she's a Victorian, and she's creepy as [ __ ] Small but mighty. Nate said that this doll was originally discovered in a barn up in a loft by a family on their farm. When they first saw the doll, they didn't know where it came from. Didn't really think much of it. So, they threw the doll out. All was fine. 2 years later, they're in their barn just like a normal day up in the loft. That exact same doll they threw out 2 years before. Somehow, she made her way back in the same spot. Yeah. So that very day, the family took the doll, wrapped her in a ton of trash bags, called Nate, and said, "We have a haunted object that we need to give you. You have to come get it right now." So he's driving there to go get it. And when he gets there, he says the owner had crosses wrapped all around his hands, his neck, just like was riddled in crosses and was so terrified of this object and was like, "Where are you

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bringing this?" And Nate was like, "Well, I'll probably keep it in my museum." And then he said, "Okay, so long as she's there, I will never step foot near your museum." So, were they experiencing things as well, or was it just the the mere fact that two years later it was back in the same spot that Yeah. No, I think it was the terror of thinking that this little doll walked its way back to their house. Okay. So, Nate takes the bag. He has no idea what is in the bag. He just knows it's a haunted object that this guy covered in crosses is terrified of. He does not know it's a doll. So, he puts the bag in his car, he begins to drive back and he said as he's driving, he keeps hearing the trash bag make noises as if something inside is moving. This sounds so much like the Let him Me Out doll. And even the origin story of how that guy who owns her found her. It was in a barn, like a dilapidated barn. Again, him and his brother were driving home and they kept hearing sounds in the back of the car. I forget what that doll

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looks like. So, I'm gonna She's not Victorian. Oh god, I forgot how. She's so much worse. She's so much worse, dude. It is cute. Like, this is Let me Out is not the faint of heart. Wow. I regret googling that one. Yeah. So, then he brings the bag into the museum to begin the vetting process, opens it up, sees it's a doll. So, he's like, "Okay, first thought, this is a doll, so why don't I place the doll on a chair?" And so the doll's sitting on a chair for the vetting process and he said that she literally came out of her chair and made two crawling motions towards the door of the museum to like try to get out. Is there video of this? Uh not of the crawling motions, but there's a ton of videos of her like so many videos of her moving and I'll show one soon. She moved her head. How do people not believe in the paranormal after this? I have no idea. And they have 24-hour surveillance going on. Like can we watch it? Um let me look. Can we tune in? If you go to

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the Museum of Shadows website, well, so they have a YouTube, they have um a podcast, too, which the podcast isn't really like a traditional podcast in the sense that we do it. It's just they they post some like audio evidence and stuff there, like EVPs and whatnot. We should have them on the podcast. I know. I'm trying to remember what else they have in their possession cuz we've definitely talked about them before. I hope it wasn't ADA. No, we definitely I've never heard of Ada before. Oh, they also have a Pensacola, Florida location, which I wonder if we talked about something that was there. Damn. I can't see anything right now about finding surveillance, but I do know that like in the museum, Nate has said it's self-guided. So, he was like, "You're encouraged to stay all day. Like, if you want to come when it opens and stay all day just like waiting and trying to interact with objects, feel free to do that." We're going to Nebraska. We're going to Oh, and they are leading a ghost hunt. Interesting. So, you can you can buy tickets right now to their ghost hunt. I think they're

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ghost hunting in their museum. And it looks like it might be sponsored by Travel Channel. Interesting. There's a lot going on. We definitely got to reach out to them. Yeah, cuz I know we've talked about them before. So, during this fitting process, she got out of the chair, crawls twice. Her head also moved like fully around. She lifted her arms up. She was just doing all of these movements where it was like, "This is so clearly haunted. Beyond haunted. No doubt." And so now I'm going to show a video of Ada. And you can go to the Museum of Shadows YouTube and there's a ton of videos on there of Ada and of other dolls. But this is this is a very normal type of movement from Ada. So, in the video there are people walking through the museum and I think it's like the second or third person to pass shines their flashlight at Ada for just a moment and she like bends over really quickly as if she's trying to like she doesn't like the light the light in her eyes. And if anyone is thinking to themselves, okay, well, maybe she just

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toppled over because she's bending forward and it's a doll and she's balancing. There are plenty more videos that are quite similar of her moving where she's moving up. So, it ain't that. All right. Ready? As museum guests walk by, Ada does not move until one guest decides to shine a light in her face. It is at that exact moment Ada moves and leans forward as if she didn't like it. [Laughter] [Laughter] [Laughter] She moves so quick, right? And the timing of it. And there are a bunch where she's like kind of like sitting and then someone will walk by and she'll

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be much more upright. And she I know. Yeah, she's quite active. All she wanted to do is like hide in a barn, be by herself, and now she's on her way. So Nate figured out who's attached to this doll and it's not going to make you feel better for who's attached. It's a little girl. She's wearing a period dress and he saw actually a full body apparition of her wow in the museum. And this is something that a lot of people actually see. They'll see Ada in spirit form wandering around. And so this is actually not a demon parading as a little girl, which normally I'm like demon demon demon. This is a little girl. And during an EVP session, Nate asked how she died, and she said, "Beating uncle." And this is an answer that she has repeatedly given anytime any other paranormal researchers or anyone coming into the museum to do some sort of investigation gives when asked that question. It's so sad because I do feel like a lot of spirits that are attached to dolls or

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toys are those of children who have died really traumatic deaths. Yeah. Because they're confused and they like attached to something that resembles their life, right? Oh, poor girl. I know. Yeah. So, this her answer is the same. Her name is the same. And whenever anyone asks what her name is, she says Ada. Spells it out. A Y D A. But this might make you feel a little bit better. Ada has grown to like the museum. Okay, good. This spirit, her spirit is often seen, like I said, walking around the museum. People say that they feel very connected to her. People will like dream about her or think about her and be like, "Oh, I need to go visit Ada today." Like she's got friends almost in the living. A lot of people bring her gifts and Nate and Kaylee do encourage this. Like if you want to bring an offering, bring a gift for her. You're welcome to do that. Some candy. Yes. And if you're nice to her, she will more likely than not interact with you. Like this is where you bring your skeptic

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friend because if you're nice to her and you ask her to do something, chances are she does. There's a lot of Ada moving on command. Okay. Wow. I really want to go to perform. She's like, "Look at me. Look at me. Look at me. She's a child." She is. Yeah. And I'm going to show a picture of Ada. The doll, interestingly enough, does not have eyes. And yet, when people take photos of her, it often appears like there are eyes looking back. So, she's got kind of like a black socket in place of eyes. Oh, she does look like she has eyes. Yeah, it's very scary. Does she have eyelashes though? Black voids. Like, is it eyelids with eyelashes? I don't know. Maybe we'll have to go visit her and see. I want to visit her, right? She does seem nice. How long is the flight to Omaha, Nebraska? I don't know. 5 and a half hours. It's a long flight, but only 275. Round trip. All right, Aida, we might come visit you. One guest swore she heard Ada say her name. Another claimed

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that their phone battery died the instant that they took a photo of her. Aida said to be extremely powerful and the most powerful object in this whole collection. She can very easily manipulate lighting of like the whole building. things will flicker. They'll Matilda and Yeah, it's so Matilda of her. And one time she actually tripped the alarm system during her own attempted escape. She was trying to crawl out of her case. The alarm system went on and police were dispatched and came. I Okay, they came for a breakin, but didn't realize that there was a doll trying to break out. Here's the thing. What if she was trying to break out and another doll tripped the alarm or another object because they were like, "We don't want you to leave." So, she's being held captive or there's teacher's pet. Yeah. Someone tell Haley another

Claire the Doll

little kid. So, Aida has a friend and her name is Cla. And Cla's way scarier. Aida's way more haunted and powerful. Thank god this little girl is way more powerful. But Claire is a lot scarier. She is a doll with long brown curls and

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the kind of smile that says, "You might die later." And let's hear from Cla herself. Oh, okay. Okay. This is It's quick. Is there somebody here in the room with us? Claire, can you move for me, please? Is there somebody here in the room with us? So, Claire's possessed by a demon. Or Claire's me because that's that's the noise I like to make. Oh my gosh. Yeah, she Okay. She's definitely There's a lot of when you look at their YouTube, almost all of the clips of Claire is like Claire's really angry. Claire's pissed off. Like it's her being really upset, which is definitely why it does seem more like it's a demonic entity. Before she was encased, visitors were actually allowed to interact with her. So there's in the museum, there's some objects like Ada that are in a case because I think Ada would just walk out and go back to the farm if she weren't, right? But a lot of them there's like almost like a a few

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shelves that just have dolls propped up on them. So I think I don't know the museum rules. I'm sure you get told when you go in, but they're accessible. Like, you could touch them. I bet people probably do, but Claire is now in a case. I believe she is. Yeah. People uh would take pieces of her hair. That's [ __ ] up, right? And then there would those drops, their dogs would die, they'd get divorced. I mean, that's the all those places where they say like, "Don't take any rocks from the land," right? And people send them back apologizing. Yeah. Don't steal Claire's hair because for all we know she can't grow it back. Although maybe she can. I'm not sure. But there's no wonderful for dolls. There's no there's no there's no there's no there's no there's no. But it wasn't until these people mailed the hair back with apologies that things started going or like kind of correcting themselves a little bit in their lives.

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According to the Museum of Shadows Instagram, people who interact with her often experience extreme sadness, pressure on their chest, scratches, screaming, seeing her physically shake, and disembodied voices. And I might be wrong in saying this. I do think she might be in this one specific room that I can't remember the name of the room, but it's one room that is for all demonic or thought to be like demonically possessed items. So, all the demons are quarantined together. So, I guess my question is, how do you know that that growl that we just heard was from Claire and not from the various other objects that are said to be more demonically? I have no idea cuz I don't know if it's an experience cuz that was Nate who was asking the question. I don't know if that was him asking her like amongst everybody in that room or if he had removed her and brought her to Yeah. Yeah. space for

35:00

research. Could you imagine getting stuck in that room accidentally cuz you people think you're dark, but actually the demonic forces wanted you and so they convinced Nate and Haley that you were demonic. Oh my god, I hate that idea. Oh, that's awful. And they're just torturing. Sorry, I'll stop with that picture. Jesus, that's so scary. I don't think that's what's happening, but if I

paranormal evidence

were dark, I might do something like that. Well, on their 24-hour surveillance, they've captured a lot of things like orbs and shadows and movement, but they've also captured EVPs like help me. So, I don't know. The museum also features an antique wheelchair that's supposedly moves on its own, a mirror that's a scrying portal, a dipic box, and then I want to learn more about this, but I read somewhere that there was a crucifix that burns when blessed water is applied.

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We'll have to ask them about that cuz this is another thing with a museum like this. I'm like, museums that have so many haunted objects, rumors could start about what's inside, right? because it's like the scariest place to be. So, I would love to talk to Nate and Kaylee and actually hear about like what truly is going on, right? Well, then rumors could create that haunting to actually be in existence when it didn't exist before. True. Because this is all a simulation and thought is reality. Mhm. But it's also fake. But where are we? Who are we? What are we? What's going on? People can bring their own equipment, too. And there are spirit boxes that have picked up intelligent responses, EMF detectors, spiking near certain objects. People have actually fainted inside the museum without any explanation. And so again, there's a ton of evidence. Not all of it is public, obviously, but I highly encourage you check out the website, the YouTube, the podcast, and from their YouTube channel. I do want to show another doll video.

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This is of the doll Leah. There are a ton of dolls there. And she decides it's time for a rock. I'm nervous. Oh, like literally rocking in a chair. Mhm. She's cute. Bows in her hair. That music makes it so peaceful, too. I know. Just you said rock and I'm like, is a rock going to be thrown? Oh, she joins a rock band. Yeah, right. She turns music on. She turns

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into Dwayne the Rock Johnson. No, she's in a rocking chair and she just starts to slowly rock back and forth. It would be creepy if if these chairs were rocking chairs. Oh my god. Just occasionally we'd rock back and forth. See, the problem is I would love that, but the problem is we would be rocking the entire time. It would be so distracting. There's no way we could sit still in them. No. And the sound would be pretty awful. All right, I'm going to play one more EVP from the podcast that's on their website and then I'll stop playing all their evidence and you guys can go and check more. I love evidence. This is such a fun episode. Yeah, there's Oh my god, I could have included so much. There's 2,000 objects. 3,000 over 3,000 objects and they post a ton. They also like post different evidence in different places. Like their YouTube's not the same as the podcast. And then if you look at their Instagram, like it's just there's so much like nibbles bits all over nibbles. Okay. So,

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this is from their podcast episode called EVPs from inside the Museum of Shadows. And this is Well, you'll hear it, but Nate asks if there's a child in the room and like what they're looking for. If there's a child here in this room, can you tell me who you're looking for? Mama. Mama. Mommy. Will we play it again? Yeah. If there's a child here in this room, can you tell me who you're looking for? Mama. It's so sad. It sounds like the child's crying. Yeah. Mommy. Looking around. It doesn't make you so sad. My ovaries. It's so sad. Oh my gosh, that is so sad. I know. So, there are plenty of children here and like nice spirits, innocent spirits, and

the 10 min sit challenge

yet because there are 3,000 objects,

40:00

there's a whole room dedicated to demonic energy and demonically possessed objects. There is a challenge that the museum puts on. It's called the 10-minute sit challenge. And this is where how we heard of the Museum of Shadows, right? Because our listener had emailed us. Oh my god. Yes. Hold on. Don't we have a photo from that listener? Okay. Brillan from Encounters. We read Brilan's email on encounters 281. And we have a photo. Let me look. I'm pretty sure that's the photo where there's like the little man in the basement. Oh, yeah. Oh, wait. So, they did the sit challenge together. Mhm. Her and cousin. Something like that. I don't know. But she wasn't alone. Yeah. So, for most people, they do go alone. though I guess you could bring a friend. You go down into the museum's basement, no flashlight, just you in the dark for 10 minutes, and they're watching on sec like I'm pretty sure Brilan's family was watching upstairs on security footage.

41:00

So there's again 24-hour surveillance as What do you think is scarier? sitting there alone in the darkness or sitting up above and potentially seeing something coming towards way scarier being down there in the darkness because if you see it happening to your loved one you can run down there and protect them and be like get the heck out but isn't the this is the photo I'm thinking of right where there's like the little man we'll put it in it truly looks like a full person but they're shrunken down it's like honey I shrunk the ghosts yes and he's like a different color oddly We'll add it in the video again. You know what it looks like? It looks like a doll. I wonder if there is a doll that looks like that in the museum. If we ever get to talk to Nate and Kaye, we have to show them this photo and ask. Yeah, cuz they obviously know their collection, right? Damn. So, to add to the scariness of this 10-minute sit challenge, the basement is where most of the malevolent objects are stored, and the energy down there is very heavy, the

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air is colder, and most people don't make it past 2 minutes. How long do you think you'd make it? If you were alone, would you even do it alone? No. But if I did, I probably would make it 2 minutes. If we were together, we'd make it the whole time, no problem. We'd probably end up once the 10 minutes stops, we probably would be like, "All right, let's grab our equipment and wander around alone. 2 minutes max." Because that's probably how long I'll actually be able to like distract myself in my head, like singing songs and doing things before I just get way too freaked out. Yeah. I feel like my anxiety would be so high in the beginning and I would probably be able to spend the first 2 minutes calming myself down, but I imagine that something happens after those 2 minutes and then I'd be out of there and then done running, which is a good question. Oh, let me look at Brillin's photo. Maybe it shows. It doesn't. I was going to say, how far away are the stairs to escape? Like where how deep in the basement do you sit? And how are you going to see? Oh my gosh. So, people have reported feeling hands on their shoulders,

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hearing whispers in their ears, seeing flashes of light, movement in the dark, feeling intense nausea, shortness of breath, or if you're like our listener Brillin, there's a little man standing behind you or a doll. Imagine playing the picture game down there. No, no, that's It would be the perfect place to do it, though. You would capture a lot. Why do I want to do that? I I just in my mind I was like, "Fuck, I can never go there now because somebody's gonna be trying." I think I think I'm gonna make this a new thing, a yearly thing starting this year. Every year for my birthday, my birthday episode, I get to make a request of what we do. I fulfilled one of your requests. I played a Ouija board. I didn't ask you to do it. You did for years and then I said, "I'm setting a hard boundary." But I didn't make you do it. You did that on your own. Well, you can't make me do anything. Fine. But for my birthday this year, I want an encounters episode where we drink wine. Okay. Okay. I guess that was an easy

44:00

request. That's gonna get increasingly more creepy, though. Okay. And are you trying to give me alcohol? Cuz then you're going to make more requests of me. Is that all I have to do? No, but I'm just trying to I'm trying to figure out your game here. I'm not taking advantage of you. There will be consent in all aspects. It will be requests that you can say yay or nay to. Okay. But that doesn't mean I won't do it. Gotcha. It's just better with you there cuz you're my best friend if you don't remember that. And you do things for your best friend. So you sacrifice sometimes. No. And then when I see you having fun, I want to do it too, which is exactly how I ended up playing a Ouija board. I'm not influenced other than like when I see you do something that I want also want to do, right? Because you do also want to do it deep down. I guess the answer is yes to everything. [Laughter] Where's the lawyer? We We need something drawn up. One woman said that she saw a

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little girl crouched in the corner. Her eyes were black as coal. Another person said she felt someone breathing down their neck. It's kind of like when you walked into the studio this morning and I was in the corner by the heater underneath the desk next to the heater like a little gremlin. One of the guys said that he was a total skeptic when he went into the 10-minute sit challenge and he walked out a believer. He said something scratched him down there. So, if you do have skeptic friends, just like I said before, bringing them potentially a might perform for them. This is definitely a challenge. I love it. Worth requesting of them for Sabrina's birthday. They have to do it. Exactly. If Karin won't, you all must. But the guy who went down and said that he became a believer, he wasn't just scratched. He had three claw marks and they were bleeding. So, he was like deeply deeply scratched. So, I don't know what he said or if he did anything down there as a skeptic. Maybe had a certain attitude, but I don't want to like place blame on him for anything cuz he very well could have just been like totally open and just sitting there

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minding his own business. However, if you do have skeptic friends going down there and trying to do the 10-minute sit challenge, just try your best to make them be chill. Yeah. Keep it really

the building's legacy

safe. Okay. Okay, so let's go back to the building really quick. As I mentioned earlier, the Christian Spec building is a landmark. Well, I don't think I said it was landmark, but it was has an old metal building. It's an it has metal and it's old and it's the last one. Jinx, so landmark. Locals claim the building itself has always felt off. So, the whole building is said to have cold spots, electrical issues, feelings of dread. Paranormal teams have investigated the entire structure even before the museum moved in. So, it already had the reputation of being haunted in addition to the supposed three murders that happened. And uh now there's thousands of haunted objects. So, pump their energy into it. Pump pump it up. There are rumors of a spirit named Margaret who lingers in the

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stairwell. She said to hum lullabies and pull on people's sleeves. Others believe there's a male spirit. Beautiful. Others believe there's a male spirit who is possibly tied to the building's brothel area who roams the upstairs floor. He's very angry. He's very

would you visit?

territorial. Yeah, it's a very haunted place. So, now you know the stories. Now you've met Ada. You've heard the whispers in the dark. You felt the weight of the thousands of spirits boxed up behind the glass, desperate to crawl out of the Museum of Shadows. But the question is, do you have the guts to walk into this place yourself? Yes. Would you spend 10 minutes alone doing the 10-minut challenge? I'd try. Are you ready to feel the chill down your spine? Give me that chill, ice, ice, baby. And are you brave enough to do it alone?

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We'll see. The Museum of Shadows is waiting for you. And if you decide to go, maybe leave a little offering just in case. I love this one. And we got through it. Nothing happened. Just the weird ear thing. And I still have the weird ear thing. Let us know if there's any like EVPs that come up cuz people hear stuff a lot in our episodes that we never hear. Well, I'm curious. Is there anything that in your first iteration of research that you didn't include in this one? Like, are there any objects that you had done research on? No, I actually added maybe a little bit more about Ada my second time around. Maybe Ada was like, "You didn't do me justice." Yeah. Not just something to glaze over. Yeah. Don't shine a flashlight on me, but shine a light on my story. Oh, interesting. Yeah. I guess the first time I didn't have the video of her. Oh, maybe she just wants to be seen and heard. Mhm. Interesting. Okay. Yeah. So, if if you've heard anything weird EVP like in this episode, please let us know. Jamie, while you're

49:00

editing, I don't know, light some

listener story

incense. Good luck. Okay, so I wasn't sure what route to go. I was like, Nebraska or haunted objects. Mhm. So, I'm going to go haunted objects cuz I feel like we talked a lot about haunted objects. So, this is from our listener Lynn and it is called My Uncle Brought a Haunted Puppet into the Family Home, which looks like the Let him Meow doll. But the Let Me Out doll, she's a doll, but she has puppet like kind of like one of those Marionette dolls. We talked about Let me in episode 300. I remember that. I also think Let me misunderstood. I think a lot of haunted dolls are misunderstood. Well, she's a wooden doll with human hair, and that combination is a little creepy. Okay. Hello, Karin and Sabrina. You have kept me company on my 20our travel journey home from university, and I will definitely keep you with me for many more. I wanted to share a story about

50:00

how my uncle brought home a puppet that was definitely haunted, and how this sparked years of paranormal activity felt by my whole family. Okay, wait, little tangent. So, I have finished from I'm completely caught up. I finished the season 3 finale. I'm on episode nine of season 3 and for some reason at this like one moment I look up when the intro was going and I see co-executive producer Kristen Leen who is one of my great friends who I worked with on Blind Spot who is just like an amazing human. So I texted her I was like excuse me what the heck? She's in the room for season 4 right now and I was like this is so sick. I got so excited. I love that. I love that you saw something that you already loved so much before even knowing that right that my friend that your friend is Yeah. Yeah. creating it. So if you have any beef with the show and I will tell Kristen I thought you play for her on her behalf. Well she didn't create the show

51:00

but I could be like hey just want you to know this is the feedback. Keep doing what you're doing cuz it's great. No she's great. That's the feedback. She worked on season three and then now let's work on season four. So, she wasn't on season one and two. Yeah. But anyway, the reason I thought of that is because there's a doll in the show. There's a weird storyline for the I need to watch this. Yes. Love it. Okay. Lynn says, "I have a huge multi-generational Chinese family, so hopefully all of the names and relationships don't get too confusing, but this happened around 2001, a few years before I was born." You baby. My uncle David, who is my mom's older brother, had just finished medical school and was going on a solo backpacking trip in Cambodia before properly entering the workforce. Uncle David has always been quirky, drawn to odd experiences, willing to throw himself head first out of his comfort zone and collecting strange stories that he whips out at every social situation. So, when he was approached on the streets of rural Cambodia by a man who

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asked him in broken English if he wanted to see a puppet show, my uncle said yes. I don't remember the details of the performance. I don't even know if it's something he includes in his story because again, this was before I was born. So, everything I know has been passed through word of mouth. His story also isn't one that my family loves to talk about because it is creepy. All I know is that the puppeteer took him to a small shack and my uncle was the only audience member. Is this not the perfect beginning to a horror movie? This is the best opening. Yeah, this is very like this feels like Jordan Peele. Like it starts with a man backpacking in Cambodia and then all is great, everything seems happy and then brought to a puppet show. Yes. When the show was finished, my uncle was about to leave when the puppeteer stopped him and asked, "Do you want to take a puppet home with you?" Being a fearless young man and seeing nothing creepy or wrong about the situation again, my uncle said yes. Which is when things start to get weird. When my uncle returned home,

53:00

haunted puppet in tow. The standard haunted object stuff started happening. It would move in his bedroom when no one had touched it. He would get really bad nightmares. And then the experiences spread to the rest of the house as well. Uncle David lived on the second floor of the house along with my grandparents and auntie Bri, who is my mom's younger sister. My parents lived in the basement with my two older brothers, Matt and Ryan, who at the time were probably two and one. One night, Matt, my brother, went into my parents' bedroom, saying he was scared and he wanted to sleep with them. Half asleep, they just let him crawl into bed, but not before Matt started whining for his pacifier that he had left in his bed. So, my mom sent my dad to go get it and to check on Ryan. So, he did. He trudged down the long corridor of our house to the nursery, checked that Ryan, yeah, was sound to sleep still, and grabbed whatever Matt had left behind. But as he turned to leave, there was a soft voice of a child calling, "Auntie Gloria," a neighbor who watched my brother sometimes while our parents work. My dad froze, Ryan was

54:00

asleep, and most importantly, he couldn't talk yet. Still, that voice was clear and distinct, childlike in quality, but definitely not the toddler speak where you have to strain to understand the kid. It was like something was trying to lure my dad in. Not my brother. Apparently, my dad just bolted when he heard the voice and left Brian sleeping in his crib. Ryan turned out fine, but Jesus Christ, great fatherly instincts there, Dad. So, other odd occurrences started happening in the house, too, like my mom smelling flowers in the middle of the night, which is an East Asian belief that there's a spiritual presence nearby. And my family's prayer room partially caught on fire when no one was in it. Eventually, when my family was talking about all the paranormal things that they were experiencing, my uncle confessed about the puppet, and my grandfather was pissed. My family is deeply religious, Roman Catholic to be specific. My grandparents served in the church. They went on overseas mission trips and my brothers became alter servers when they were old enough. So my grandfather was not happy when he heard that his son had brought some demonic presence into their house to haunt his children and

55:00

grandchildren. He told my uncle to immediately call our uncle John who was deeply spiritual and practicing Buddhist and asked him how to get rid of it. So Uncle Dave went up to his bedroom and called Uncle John and explained the situation. Before he could even finish, Uncle John said, "Wrap the puppet in red paper and leave it at the entrance to a temple," which is the temple that our Buddhist side of the family frequented. My uncle kept asking follow-up questions, trying to clarify if he needed to do anything else, but was quickly told, "Stop talking. Be quiet. It is listening." Holy [ __ ] Just do what I said and leave it at the temple. I have chills. I imagine being told that. Horrifying. It's just like you're already scared. Later that night, my uncle wrapped the puppet in red paper and got into his dad's red car, which red is a symbolic color in Chinese culture known to scare away bad spirits. So, I guess he was doubling up to cover all of his bases. Now, I couldn't tell you what was going through his head in this moment, but my uncle did not go to

56:00

the temple. He got into the car, drove to the National Museum, and left the puppet on the front steps as some kind of donation to the museum. He said he thought it was an object of significance and that it should be donated and not lost to history, which I can kind of see the perspective, but maybe cleanse the thing first or at least hand it to an actual human being instead of leaving on the museum steps because wouldn't you know it, he called the museum a few days later and they said they never received an item of that sort left on their doorstep. After that, my grandfather had the house cleansed by a Buddhist monk and a Catholic priest, and we thought that was the end of it until my uncle started having nightmares in his room. My grandfather eventually moved into that room for a few months when he was sick with cancer because he needed at home care and that room was very spacious, but he agreed there was a sinister energy in that room. Eventually, that room became my brother Matt's bedroom when he was around 18. And since moving in, he started experiencing severe nightmares and sleep paralysis episodes. My younger sister and I took over the room that used to be the nursery. And

57:00

all throughout my childhood, we would hear movement and thuting in the walls and the ceiling as if something was running. We chocked it up to the sounds of an old house. But ever since we heard the puppet story from our brothers, we have spooked ourselves into believing that there's definitely a haunted puppet scurrying around in our walls. Holy [ __ ] Maybe so scary. I know. Like where is it now? Some people are afraid of clowns. I'm afraid of puppets. Lynn says eventually the basement floor got gutted out and renovated to accommodate us being adults and needing our own space. Matt still stays in Uncle David's old bedroom and continues to feel weird in Juban's home. But now he works in the UK for most of the year. So at least it's not a nightly occurrence anymore. In the basement, I no longer hear scurrying in the walls, but our cats, who we got long after the puppet incident, will randomly stare at corners and assume a hunting position even when nothing's there. My uncle has moved out to start his own family, so now he doesn't have to experience the paranormal consequences of his own actions. And literally, I was

58:00

just thinking that like he goes on a backpacking trip, becomes a yes and guy. Yep. Could have been murdered in so many of the things he said yes to and honestly luckily it was just a haunting, right? But like now his whole entire family has to deal with it and the puppet's not even there anymore. Or is it? Have they checked the walls? Right. Is it Did it crawl back? Lynn says, "Moral of the story, maybe don't take home puppets from random people you meet on the street because they might be trying to get rid of them for a reason. See you on the other side, Lynn." I'm very curious about what the actual puppet show was like, right? Like what was the story? How long was it? Also, what language was it in? Did he just stand there? Like what? I I need a picture of the whole entire setting. Well, because if it wasn't in his native language, how does he know what story was being told? What if the whole thing was like passing this haunting onto him? Tying it. Oh my god. It probably was. Oh, I am like unwell from this one. This I

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hate I actually hate this. I'm usually trying to be respectful of people's stories. I hate this one cuz this is so scary. It is really creepy. And where is the doll now? Who took it? Because I just never thought as a traveler that like a puppet show could be so threatening. I could if if someone walked up to me on the street and said, "Hey, do you want to come see my puppet show?" Absolutely not. My first thought would be, are you talking about like a sex thing? My second thought would be, you're trying to kill me and turn me into your puppet. Well, and then when he went there and he was the only person and he also had to like leave and go somewhere else to never go to a secondary location. No. Do your puppet show right here for me in front of everyone on the street or Why wouldn't you want to do the puppet show in front of everyone, right? Like if you're trying to get payment or something like that, like Well, I guess maybe share your arts. How big are these puppets? That's the other question. We don't know. We have so many more questions. I wish there was a picture of

1:00:00

this puppet, but I also wish there wasn't. But I wish there was just so that we could Wait, this is in Cambodia. Let me just look up like a Cambodia puppet shows. H, there's a lot of like shadow puppet stuff. So, they're behind. Oh, it is an ancient art form that has been passed down through generations in Cambodia. I think I was very much thinking almost like a ventriloquist doll. like a really thick wooden like creepy ass doll. But all of these photos that I'm seeing are actually like really beautiful and they're carved. They're almost like what? They're like flat. Oh, like the wood carvings. Yeah, it's like a wood carving. Yeah, I guess we don't know what type of puppet this was. I feel like this is probably hard to travel with cuz I'm imagining a puppet that's more dolllike. Yeah, I was too. But then also I'm not sure these ones can walk themselves anywhere. Well, we don't know. They never say never. Yeah, Justin Bieber. Well, yeah. If you have haunted dolls or if you've been to the Museum of Shadows

1:01:00

or if you would sit down there for 10 minutes by yourself, email us. Let us know what's up. Uh two girls one goes podcastgmail.com. We'll take any story and haunted object if you let us know what's going on with it. Mhm. Our PO box is on our website if you want to know where to send it. You can also find our on our website, everything else. Patreon cuz it's not in our brain, Instagram, socials, all that. Uh but do join our Patreon. We have a lot of cool exclusive perks there. We do campfire stories every single week where you can tell your story live to us on a virtual stage. Um we have exclusive We have bonus content. We have episodes one week early and ad free book club and so much more. So, we'll see you over there. We love you. Thank you to our editor Jamie who produces and edits our podcast. And uh thank you to Chris

1:02:00

Walking Out. You have to do our sign off. I'm so bad at this today. And we will see you on the other side. Very spooky.