Stephen Lancaster - Norman: The Doll That Needed to Be Locked Away

Llewellyn Publications

Woodbury, Minnesota

Copyright Information

Norman: The Doll That Needed to Be Locked Away 2018 by Stephen Lancaster.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any matter whatsoever, including Internet usage, without written permission from Llewellyn Publications, except in the form of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

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Any unauthorized usage of the text without express written permission of the publisher is a violation of the authors copyright and is illegal and punishable by law.

First e-book edition 2018

E-book ISBN: 9780738755779

Book design by Bob Gaul
Cover design by Shira Atakpu
Interior photos provided by Stephen Lancaster

Llewellyn Publications is an imprint of Llewellyn Worldwide Ltd.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data (Pending)
ISBN: 978-0-7387-5551-9

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Contents

: The Serpent Beneath It

: A Mothers Gift

: Infestation

: The Visitors

: Take the Hint

: Duality

: The Children Speak

: 911

: He Killed

: Haunted Doll for Sale

: I Know

: Hurricane Matthew

: December Chills

: Heart Still Beating

: Christmas Eve 2016

: Ashes

: Rest

Disclaimer

I have tried to recreate events, locales, and conversations from my memories of them. In order to maintain their anonymity in some instances, I have changed the names of individuals and places, and I may have changed some identifying characteristics and details, such as physical properties, occupations, and places of residence, to protect the original family and the tragedy they experienced, and one in which we shared.

Dedication

This book is dedicated to my wife, best friend, and research partner, Christina, my parents, Sharon and Stephen, my daughter Lucidity, my stepdaughter Hannah, my grandson Tanner, my dog Tank, and to all of my dear friends.

And, to a girl I never knew.

Acknowledgments

A very special thank you to Rosemary Ellen Guiley, Darren Evans, Amy Glaser, Matt and Tara, Liam and Lyndsay, Cody and Kelia, and A. J. Parker.

Foreword

Dolls are one of the most likely objects to become haunted.

Dolls that have human forms are ideal vessels for residual energy and spirits. Owners, whether adult or child, often form strong emotional bonds to dollsthey become human substitutes.

If something tragic happens to the owner, or if the owner suffers intense unhappy and negative feelings, the bad energy can be transferred to the doll. This energy is residual, but if it is strong enough, it can take on a thought-form presence as a bad personality of the doll.

Residual energy can be dormant for long periods of time, but if the doll goes to a new home and owner, and the place and person have the right energy, the residual personality can become activated and cause phenomena in the new house.

There are other ways that dolls can become haunted. Spirits can be attracted to dolls and take up residence in them. They may be attracted by the dolls owner, by the residual energy lodged in the doll, or other unknown factors. Spirits can range from low-level tricksters to more hostile and powerful entities.

They, too, can be dormant until activated by the right circumstances.

In some cases, the spirit might be the earthbound soul of a person, someone who has not made a full transition to the afterlife. An example is a doll owner who dies suddenly and tragically and for various reasons does not cross over because they were lost, confused, or hanging on to unfinished business.

Dolls can also become haunted if they are deliberately used in spirit summoning and spellcasting work. In such cases, spirits are invited to inhabit the dolls.

Removing the doll from the premises alleviates the haunting phenomena in the house in most cases. Sometimes binding spells must be performed on dolls to keep pesky spirits from getting loose and causing havoc.

Earthbound souls need to be helped to the afterlife. If a doll becomes attached due to a spirit attachment to a person, then that becomes an entirely different issue that must be addressed accordingly.

Rosemary Ellen Guiley

Rosemary Ellen Guiley is one of the leading experts in the paranormal, with more than sixty-five books to her credit. With John Zaffis, she has coauthored two books on haunted objects: Haunted by the Things You Love (2014) and Demon Haunted: True Stories from the John Zaffis Vault (2016).

Introduction

It was Christmas Eve of 1968. Festive lights flickered and danced over a blanket of snow throughout the neighborhood, where people were rejoicing, singing, and enjoying laughs and the company of friends and family.

There stood a six-year-old girl outside of her home watching it burn to the ground. She stood barefoot in the snow and in her nightgown, unable to blink or look away from the fire.

From her right hand dangled her doll Matty.

According to first responders who arrived on the scene, the young girl seemed dead to the outside elements as she stood in bitter snow up to her ankles.

Her mother and dog died in the fire. Her brother had died before he was even born. He would have been her twin.

She was taken away and placed in various foster homes until she became an adult. All she ever had of her family were lucid memories and that doll.

Not much was said about the incident.

The cause of the fire was never determined and this little girl lost her entire family. Before birth and after birth, death had become this child.

However, there was a secret. A secret only she knew.

That secret would be whispered in my ear forty-eight years later.

Typically I chronicle multiple paranormal cases in my literary work, but this story is one of its own. It deserves to be its own.