#haunted objects

WLS Channel 7 Eyewitness News - “Curse of the Evil Devil Stones” - October 28th, 1980

“Many people scoff at ghost stories and imaginative tales of the supernatural, but tonight our Chuck Goudie has some rock-hard evidence to back up some reports…”

“Joel, has the devil been dug up in Glen Ellyn? That’s a question some folks out there are asking tonight. Whatever it is they’ve unearthed, it may be causing death, sickness, accident, fire, and bad luck…”

A local news clip from the Chicago area, preserved by the vital Museum of Classic Chicago Television.

A family in Glen Ellyn, IL digs up a mysterious terracota stone with infinity and snake symbols on it. Soon lights are flicking on and off, radios are changing stations, and presences are being felt in bedrooms. Gilbert has a heart attack and his wife goes blind for three months. In 1978, they give the stone away to a friend...

...who says she suffered, among many other incidents of bad luck, an infestation by bees in the middle of winter. She also contracted Hepatitis three times. But a friend who photographed the stone got off worse: she died of cancer...two years exactly after the stone was given away.

So it's given away to a parapsychologist, Evelyn Paglini, who says, yeah it's cursed, but she's more concerned about the symbols. The snake and infinity symbols represent a battle between good and evil, but the checkerboards are a complete mystery. She also freaks out the squares with some ominous Latin.

Her assistant, meanwhile, saw two red eyes floating by the stone.

We return to the studio in time to learn that someone else who photographed the stone had their house burn down in mysterious circumstances - oh well, next up is a story about a superfan of the pre-Jordan Bulls losing weight and teases of various other Chuck Goudie investigations into the unknown that don't appear to be online.

TREE SPIRITS

Trees are believed to be dwelling places for ghosts and spirits in many parts of the world. In ancient Egypt numerous deities were believed to inhabit trees. In the Old Testament there are numerous references to sacred groves and altars being set up under trees. In Rome tree omens were considered important. For instance, the withering of laurels foretold Nero's death. Trees were also sacred to the Celts; in fact they had a whole alphabet based on them.

Throughout Eastern countries there has been a tradition of hanging gifts on sacred trees so that good luck can be enjoyed by the giver. Similarly in England many trees growing alongside sacred wells are decorated with pieces of paper or cloth to attract good fortune. In Northern India many local shrines are built under trees for the propitiation of the resident ghosts. In some cultures trees and their spirits were so highly revered that felling a tree that still had its spirit inside it meant losing your life.

In 1981 thousands of people from all over the United States flocked to see an allegedly haunted and crying pecan tree in Gilberton, Alabama. The tree was in the front garden of a home belonging to Mrs Linnie Jenkins, who had reported hearing strange crying sounds coming from the tree. A rumour started that the house was built on the site of an Indian burial site and the noise was the sound of unhappy warrior spirits crying. The media got hold of the story and the crowds descended; Mrs Jenkins began to charge people who wanted to come and listen to the tree. The noise died away within the month and no satisfactory explanation was ever put forward. Sceptics believe it was caused by insects or gasses produced from the souring wood in the tree.

Then we jump into haunted technology from phones to TVs and Baby monitors,  and smart speakers that seem to answer back.

We share listener Reddit stories and personal experiences of TVs showing faces, washing machines stopping mid-cycle, Furby chatter at night, and mysterious messages on a prepaid phone. 👻👻👻

Ungaikyō: The Yokai That Shows Your True Reflection 🔮🪞

The earliest record of the Ungaikyō comes from 1784, when Toriyama Sekien included it in his illustrated collection Gazu Hyakki Tsurezure Bukuro. Sekien drew inspiration from the Chinese Shōmakyō, a legendary “demon-revealing mirror” said to expose the true forms of disguised spirits. He imagined that a mirror which reflected countless yōkai and supernatural beings might absorb their essence over time, eventually transforming into a yōkai itself.

According to folklore, the Ungaikyō has several strange abilities. It can reveal monstrous or hidden versions of those who gaze into it, sometimes showing a reflection of what someone truly is inside. It has also been used in ritual practices to trap spirits, particularly during the fifteenth night of the eighth lunar month when moonlight and water were believed to activate its power. Some tales describe it as a sacred mirror that can reflect not only people but also distant landscapes and even other mirrors.

In modern interpretations, the Ungaikyō is often described as a tsukumogami, an object that gains a soul after reaching one hundred years of age. Its association with distorted reflections and hidden truths ties it to a wider global tradition of mirrors being seen as mystical or uncanny objects.