The Dark Power of Cursed Objects: True Tales from Around the World

Beware… This podcast is cursed! Join us as we dive deep into the spine-chilling world of cursed objects—those eerie items that have left a trail of misfortune and tragedy throughout history. From haunted dolls to ancient relics, we unravel the strange but true stories behind some of the world’s most infamous cursed objects.

If you’re a believer in the paranormal, a history buff, or just a fan of a good, goosebump-inducing tale, this is the podcast for you! Discover the bizarre and often terrifying tales lurking in museums, graveyards, and private homes, as we explore the cursed items that have inspired countless horror movies, novels, and urban legends.

Each episode, we’ll delve into the dark origins of objects like Annabelle the Doll, The Unlucky Mummy, and the notorious Dybbuk Box. With these eerie stories, we’ll uncover the intersection of history and the supernatural—how these items have shaped some of the most famous events and legends of our time. But beware, just listening might unleash a wave of misfortune… or perhaps that’s just a story.

Tune in if you dare, and get ready to confront the mysteries behind these cursed relics.

Tune in on the Club Paranormal YouTube channel to hear this eye-opening discussion. Whether you’re a history buff or a fan of the unexplained, this episode promises to challenge everything you thought you knew.
#TruthBeToldParanormal #BabaYaga #babayagalive #KrisSpisak #ParanormalPodcast #folklore #folktales #slavicfolklore #Mystery #Paranormal #TonySweet #PodcastInterview #UnexplainedPhenomena #ParanormalCommunity #witches #forestwitch #supernatural Subscribe and listen now on  @TheClubParanormal  your favorite podcast platform to join us in this compelling journey into the darkness. Please Like, Subscribe and Share today's show, Please visit www.ClubParanormal.com for more information about upcoming shows.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:05):
The dark powers of cursed Objects, true tales from around
the world. Today, we dive into the world of cursed objects,
strange but true stories of some of the most infamous
items known to history. Drawing from the pages of Cursed Objects,
Strange but True Stories of the world's most infamous Items,

(00:26):
will explore artifacts that have left a trail of destruction
and misfortunate in their wake. Author jw Oker. We'll talk
about these cursed items lurking in museums, graveyards, and even
private homes. They're bizarre and often tragic stories have inspired
countless of horror films, novels, campfire legends, and in this

(00:48):
episode will uncover the chilling tales of objects like Annabel
the Doll and the Unlucky Mummy, said to have sunk
the Titanic even sparked World War One. Well, if you're
fast by the eerie connection between history and the supernatural,
like i am, then this episode is for you.

Speaker 2 (01:07):
So I'm Tony Sweet with Truth Be Told.

Speaker 1 (01:09):
Please welcome to the Truth Be Told Studios for the
first time. Jw Oker.

Speaker 3 (01:17):
Jw Hey, Tony, thanks for the invite.

Speaker 1 (01:21):
Well, I'm excited to have you here. This is the
last week of September twenty twenty four, So next week
is going to be the Halloween season. I mean we're
kind of already touching on it now because you know,
in Truth Be Told, we we love it anyway. So
it's we're like the Walmart we put up the Christmas
lights in July.

Speaker 2 (01:41):
So no, me too.

Speaker 3 (01:42):
I'm staring outside my window right now one of those
giant skeletons. So I'm ready where to go.

Speaker 1 (01:47):
So I'm excited to have you here because we are
going to be talking, you know, about your book Cursed Object,
Strange but True Stories of the world's most infamous items.
And I always say, uh, when I talk to people
about UFOs or Bigfoot or you know, ghost, there's always story.

Speaker 2 (02:09):
There's always a story.

Speaker 1 (02:10):
That kind of led us down that road to highlight
our podcast or the camps Fire stories. So I'm kind
of curious how you got started real quick, before we
go into the book. You know, how you got started
and what inspired you to be in this genre of paranormal.

Speaker 3 (02:29):
It's a good it's a good question. I am so
I always going to be a writer. It's always kind
of what I wanted to be, and it went to
the phase of my life where I wasn't but I
wasn't doing anything. And you know, I've always had like
a dark street r It's always kind of been there,
you know. You know, I can't explain why, like color green,
it's like green, like the cemetery or the shape of

(02:51):
a skull is really feeling reasons always is uh So
then there's that. But then I started, you know, really
when I started my publishinger looking for weird stuff, like
traveling in you know, the country in the world, looking
for the weirdest commodities I could find and visit and photograph.
And turns out most weird stuff is macap right, and
all my cops is deflated, and most of the parentrmal

(03:13):
is just deflated. Right. Ghosts, not that much crippers in
big food, but like ghosts and you know, curst objects,
there's a lot of that in there. So that's kind
of how it happened, and just habit tendency toward it.
And then when I was trying to find unique stuff,
that stuff was always the most unique. You know, putting
a body part on the display at a museum is
going to you know, it's way more thing than putting
a book on display.

Speaker 1 (03:34):
The music, right right, Well, and let me ask you this,
and and uh you know, we we've always talked about,
you know, on the opposite side, you know, lucky rabbit's foot,
which I never understood how that could be a lucky
because the rabbit lost it just so we could be lucky.

Speaker 2 (03:48):
I didn't forgot that.

Speaker 1 (03:49):
But uh so, just in your experience, where did you start?
What object that you know growing up maybe that you
heard about was unlucky. I mean, of course glass breaking,
you know, that's an object that you know gave you
bad luck. But what are some of the objects that
you were aware of even growing up as a kid.

Speaker 3 (04:12):
Yeah, it's interesting. I grew up like hyper religious, so
I didn't have like luck and fortune and bad luck.
It wasn't a thing, right, It's like a lot more
like conscious than that. Right, whatever's happening to you, right,
But I grew up in I live in New England
right now, or I have from a very long time.
But I grew up in Maryland, right outside of d C.
And d C is home to the most infamous, slash

(04:34):
famous cursed object of all, the hope diamond. Right, So
I grew up going to the Smithsonianesonian's free. You don't
have to pay to get in there. The world's the
country's treasures are in there. Going in there and seeing
this one little you know, this tiny little like you know,
diamond sparkling. I think back in the day it was
in the wall, but these days it's not like a
rotating pedestal in the middle of the room, because it is.
So it's like the most visited object in the entire

(04:56):
Smithsonian collection. And you know, it's got its to me.
It's like the iconic cursed object because it has a long,
long history, right that this is documented, so it's not
some real random thing on the internet, right, a documented
history of where it went whatever, who got it, who
got affected by it, And it's like the perfect curse object, right.
It's small enough to lose, it's expensive enough that like

(05:18):
only the very wealthy headed in their hands, very interesting
people that had in their hands, and then it ends up,
you know, in our nation's attic, right, it ends up
in the Smithsonian. So that's always been knowing that we
had had such access to the most famous cursed object
in the world, or at least in the country, is
you know, always fascinating. He always kind of pulled me
toward that.

Speaker 1 (05:37):
No, it is fascinating, and in fact, you should write
a book on the most cursed family names like Kennedy's
and certain you know how people. I mean, that would
be an interesting book. But the curses that you know,
we and I've heard this many times, I feel cursed,
you know, my lives, everything goes wrong, I feel cursed.

(05:59):
But what do you think in your research of finding
what object usually seems to be the one that's cursed
the most. You know, we've heard about the diamond, but
you know that's sure one. But what what have you
heard probably the most.

Speaker 3 (06:15):
I got two answers to that. One is gemstones. For
some reason, there's probably thirteen or fourteen very famous cursed gemstones,
thirteen out of fourteen of them of which are on
public display, by the way, only one of it's in
private hands. So that's one of them. And again I
think it's for the reasons already mentioned, like it's in
the world of the rich, and it's wrong, always torn
out of the torn out of an eye of an idol. Right,
they'll have that oid the story. But the other one,

(06:36):
which is I don't it seems all to be relatively
reason because of Annabel. But it's always dolls. If you
go to eBay right now and search cursed objects, because
they sell curse objects on eBay, it'll be doll after
doll after doll after doll after doll. So and the
reasons for those are pretty, you know, pretty apparent too,
Like dolls have a creepy side. There are little hom homonucleases.

(06:56):
I don't say that word, little versions of people and
their faces to look at you. And the old ones
are really terrifying, and they're suposed to be for children,
and yet you know they are don't feel like they
should be for children, and so for some reason we
ascribe those as cursed, although I always tell people like
those aren't the dangerous cursed objects. If it is cursed
that doll or that whatever tend right, you're gonna be fine. Right.

(07:20):
The stuff you have to worry about is the mundane stuff.
It's cursed, right. If your kitchen tables cursed, you'll never
guess it. You'll never guess your kitchen tables the thing
bringing all the bad luck into your life because it's
such a mundane op item. But anything can be cursed,
so that's those are the dangerous ones.

Speaker 1 (07:33):
I mean, there was a few tables in my in
my home that I stubbed my toe on many times,
so maybe I just didn't know it was cursed. But
I do have a couple of friends that are psychics
and they both have you haunted dolls. You know, they
call them haunted, but cursed is very similar, I'm sure.

(07:53):
And I do see how dolls can be creepy by
just looking at them, even though if they're smiling, it's
that constant no emotion even through a smile there, you know,
it's all about the way they look, and I could
see where people can can take it as creepy.

Speaker 3 (08:13):
They're always staring. There's always staring because they're not realized,
but they just feel like they're always looking at you.
And like if a human did that to you, someone
sad stared at you, you'd be extremely uncomfortable. And it's
kind the same feeling. This thing just won't even though
you're not supposed to blink or look away, it's at all,
it still feels like a human, a human being is
staring at you.

Speaker 1 (08:31):
Well, don't they say, like many like serial killers and
sociopaths that they don't blink a lot. Uh So, I
think that might be very similar to a doll where
they don't blink.

Speaker 2 (08:44):
So it's you know, unless.

Speaker 1 (08:45):
You get those that you know you can tilt upside
down and they right right right? But in your research,
did you find a common characteristic though, among cursed objects
that link to the to like the misfortune of people?
And and if so, what makes an object cursed in
your opinion?

Speaker 2 (09:02):
I mean that I could.

Speaker 1 (09:04):
I'm sure many many objects have their reason, but what
is your opinion?

Speaker 3 (09:09):
Yeah? I first had the first thing I had to
do before I even really started the project, was defined
what the cursed object was. He's actually pretty complicated, right.
You mentioned like haunted dolls, right, Haunted and cursed are
two different things in the paranormal world. One is, you know,
something is inhabited by a presence. The other thing is
just cursed naturally. But they both can act like cursed

(09:30):
objects if they bring misfortune. Right, So, first of all,
to say, okay, they have to bring misfortune, my next
rule was like, oh but I have to bring misfortune
to lots of multiple people, not lots of multiple people,
right it Otherwise, how you know, how do you know
it's the object bringing that misfortune, right, and then the
third one it had to be supernatural, right or psychological
one or two because you know, a gun is an
object that can hurt a lot of people, right, but

(09:53):
the mechanism that is pretty well understood. So it had
to be like, you know, it had to be an
object that brought it is fortune varying kinds to multiple
people through supernatural or through unknown means. Put it that way,
because again, it's scariest thing to me, Like it's easy
to like push off ghosts and Bigfoot, but cursed objects
are there's actually some scientific validation for the concept of

(10:15):
cursed objects that there isn't in the rest of the
paranormal world yet at all. And that's like really terrifying.
Science is like maybe they're real the like can make
the person are in our minds.

Speaker 1 (10:27):
Well, that's that's interesting that you said haunted and cursed
are two different things, I because most people would probably
put those two as one.

Speaker 3 (10:35):
So it's funny. So one of the one of the
ways I did so I mentioned so if you go
online right most and it's also one of the reasons
right with the book, you'll see listicals of cursed objects
top ten cursed objects top it's always the same ten
and then you know it's always that The myrtle plantation
mirror is one that's a good example. But the thing
about the myrtle plantation mirror is that it never harms
anybody like you see no stories that you see maybe

(10:57):
figures in it or right, but it doesn't actually harm somebody,
So that's not really cursed. It could be haunted, I guess,
but it's not cursed. So there is a definite line.
But again, at the end of the day, if that
possessed thing is hurting multiple people, that they might well
be cursed.

Speaker 1 (11:12):
You right, And you know that goes back to because
we've heard stories for thousands of years about you know,
folklore and about cursed objects or cursed locations. But in
the mini items that you have stories on that you
know in your book, how did you separate the fact.

Speaker 2 (11:36):
In the folklore?

Speaker 1 (11:38):
Because I always say, I always say, can't you imagine
your dad and you go fishing, and where I'm from,
it's not fishing, it's fishing, and you catch a two
pound bass. In three or four years from now, it's
like that was the biggest ten pound bass I have
ever seen. In my life, so that fish grew by
eight pounds. So I'm kind of curious in you know,

(12:02):
a thousand years or five hundred, even one hundred years,
how do you break the fact.

Speaker 2 (12:06):
In the folklore into It's a good question.

Speaker 3 (12:10):
It's a good question. And with curs objects, it's actually
easier than or like famous curse objects. Again I focus
on the famous ones. That's easier than say a haunted house,
like breaking down that lore. It's also vague both cursed objects. Again,
and you mentioned this in your intro, I would say
other ones that still exists. So some of the curse
objects that spoked on it, there're lots of time. But

(12:30):
other ones that exists, I would say eighty percent of
them are in museums, so that means they have a providence.
That means we have a history of them. We know
exactly where they were, so they can not to harp
on the poor Hope diamond But like we know all
the people that like Evelyn wash Evelyn Walsh, who was
one of the last owners of the Hope diamonds, she's
the one that wore it and like auld crown in
her head, put it on her, put it on her dog,

(12:51):
and also like try to hocket to like help fund
the search for the Lindburg baby. She had a lot
of documented misfortune in her life, a lot insanity and
suicides and deaths, So that part was kind of easy
when it was less When it was less documentable, I
would I'd always mention it, but always have to context

(13:12):
it by saying, you know, no proof here or if
there was antiproof like you mentioned the mummy board, who
is it is touted as being the one that sunk
the Titanic and the Lucitania, I think, and also started
World War Two. Like it couldn't have been in those places.
I just just couldn't. But it again, you do want
to mention those stories because they are wrapped around that
piece and they do infuse something. But for those objects,

(13:33):
and I kind of again, it's kind of lucky for me.
There's so many good there's so many true stories about
these objects that I didn't have most of them anyway.
I didn't have to like load it with too many
lord and legend. Right. It's a lot of times in
paranormal books. I don't know if you run across this,
but a lot of them they are very no documentation
really like if one person posted on a chat board
about something, bam right right in the book. Right. So

(13:56):
with cursed objects, as I did, there was a lot
of documentation, so it wasn't as hard. But again I
didn't want to throw out something just because they had
no documentation or it was just a rumor. For some
of these items are like hundreds of years old, so
a rumor that lasts two hundred years is you know,
almost a fact, right, It's lived long enough to be relevant, right,

(14:19):
So it's not just again me finding a curse object
at my friend's house and then listen to his story
and putting in the book. It's literally like you know,
me finding the you know, the the ice Mummy Azi right. Oh,
that his entire life or death, I should say, post
life has been pretty well documented and studied, so I
can I can use those.

Speaker 1 (14:40):
So let's let's ask you this. You know, we've we've
made the determination haunted and cursed. So with many of
these cursed objects, you say, eighty percent of them or
have are probably in museums around the world. So how
how did these curators of these museums, how do they
do they believe in these curses? Or if they do

(15:04):
and or don't. How do they protect people around to
not bring on that curse? I mean that's I would
I would think it would make me nervous if I'm
knew everybody that pretty much was in you know, that
owned it or around it has been harmed or suffered losses.

(15:25):
Uh So, how do how does one like you said what.

Speaker 3 (15:28):
You just said that was a good nuance where you
said not just owned it, but then around it. Because
curse objects don't just hurt the owner something. Yeah, that's
what I'm writing about them. Sometimes it hurts the guy
taking a photo of it, the guy passing it. I
think most curators, and when I say they're in museums
I mean they're in the top museums in the world
right there. You know, they're the Smithsonians, They're in the
British Museum, They're in New York, They're in big museums.

(15:50):
So generally curators don't believe, but they do love the stories.
The stories help bring people in, to help people's curiosity
and bring it in. How However, there's a whole subset
of museums less less more more private collection museums right
that do collect there they just collect haunted objects, right,
Zappa's Museum, the New Kirk Museum, like even the Warns

(16:13):
Museum there, when they were around, they they what they
would say is they would they have a ritual for
cleansing it, right. I think Zapfis goes on the record
the most about this where he says he uses crystals
and prayers and sunlight and ocean water, whatever salt, and
then he says if it doesn't work, he just gets
rid of it. His story, So there's a ritual to it.
For those that actually focus on haunted objects or cursed objects,

(16:35):
they have their rituals. But for those that don't, those
who are like more mainstream curators of you know, the
world's treasures, they don't do much. Again, you can get
within three everybody in this planet can get within three
inches of the hosts Hope diamond right now? You know that?

Speaker 1 (16:48):
See that That would that would kind of freak me out,
even though I it's not that I don't believe in curses,
it's just I don't I go into a situation where
I feel like I protect myself. So maybe that keeps
me from you know, bringing home many curses. But before
we go into because I want to go into like

(17:10):
some of the objects that you have in your book,
and I want to talk about those. But you know, hauntings.
We could bring in a psychic and say, you know, ghost,
go to the light.

Speaker 2 (17:23):
Be gone. You're not welcome here.

Speaker 1 (17:27):
How do you How do you break a curse? Because
if it's thousands of years old, somebody's had to say
at one time, like I don't want this anymore, I
go away, leave me alone. How how do you feel
a breaking? How to break a curse versus like ways?

Speaker 3 (17:43):
Two ways? The first is you give it somebody else
the ring right, just give the hsup somebody else. That's
one way, a little shady, that's way right. The other
way is simply and this is where some of the
science comes in is don't believe in it. The science
has this idea of placbo right where body can heal

(18:06):
itself on zero provocation, and then the body can heal
us of you even knowing it's a placebo. Like this
blows my mind that you can say this is a
sugar pill. It's gonna help you, and it can help you,
like science hasn't figured it out, but it knows it works.
We have the opposite idea as well, the no cibo,
which is something will harm you if you tell you
it's gonna harm you. Right, That's why one of the
most famous ones is that as zombie ism, right, where

(18:27):
like people do go listless and loser appetites and wander
when they hold their a zombie because that kind of
convinced themselves for a zombie. And with cursed objects, if
you believe it's cursed it and again we don't know
that there's science behind us, we don't totally understand it,
but you can start bringing really bad luck of misfortune
to your life. So again that's the two ways. Either

(18:48):
give it somebody else if you really believe, and too
if you cannot believe, it just becomes an object again
because you know it's maybe the power over you is
kind of determined by you.

Speaker 1 (18:56):
Maybe that's why I go into like, it's not that
I don't believe. I just I don't believe it can
harm me in some way. So and I have to say,
you know, they tell you all the time. You know,
you look in the mare and go you're fat, ugly
and dumb. Every day you're going to start feeling fat,
ugly and dumb. You're right, you know, and so I
can get that. So well, let's go into some of
your objects and topics that you have in your book. So,

(19:20):
of course we have Annabelle, which is from the Conjuring
franchise the House, and so have you got to see
many of these objects like Annabelle, And then I want
to talk about your opinion on Annabelle and what your research.

Speaker 3 (19:37):
So I saw because I always turned my non fiction
into travelogue. Oh that's because again, most of the value
in the book for me is the experience, the people
I meet, the things I see, the places I go.
Like the book is like a cherry, like I love
writing it, but like really looking back on my career,
the real value is the experience. So in this book
I went to see most of them. Again, a lot

(19:57):
of them are not around anymore, somewilar too far for
me to go to. But I saw most of them
and continue to see them, honestly if I get the
opportunity to see them. And you know it's so. And
also I went so far as to buy one, right
because one of the one of the sections is the
Business of Cursed Objects, which where they sell curse objects.
I bought one. So again just have the experience and

(20:19):
putting on a book. So yeah, and I've seen Annabel.
They back in the day you can only see it
when the Warrens were alive, you can only see it,
you know, special occasions in their house, right. But since
their death they put that thing on tour almost like
every year at the Para con which is using Connecticut.
I think this year's in Pennsylvania, they have a good
chunk of the Warren's collection on display and Annabel is

(20:41):
the main attraction. She's there in that box they have
that do not touch sign on it, right, the famous one.
And yeah, so in these days again it almost like
Cope Diamond. If you just time the conference right, everybody
can get within a few feet of Annabel.

Speaker 2 (20:54):
Well, I have to say, Annabel is a freaky looking dog.

Speaker 3 (20:58):
I know, especially to people who are younger who don't
know who Raggedy Ann is. Right.

Speaker 2 (21:02):
Oh yeah, Raggedy Ann was kind of that that design.

Speaker 3 (21:05):
Yeah, the design is if you're not used to it
as a very freaky design.

Speaker 2 (21:09):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (21:09):
Well, let's go to the next one. I just so
we did talk about this for a second. The Unlucky Mummy.

Speaker 2 (21:15):
What I mean, you look.

Speaker 1 (21:16):
At it and you're like, hey, you know that's actually
pretty colors and great design and you know it doesn't
look at to be threatening. Where where did this come from?
What was one of the first accounts of the cursed?

Speaker 3 (21:32):
Uh?

Speaker 1 (21:33):
Folklore or stories from this one?

Speaker 3 (21:35):
So it's a good one. I like it a lot
because it is it's literally just the top of the sarcophagus.
There's no mummy in it. There's no it's literally that's
why it's mummy board. It's just it's shaped like a
human like you just saw on the image, but like
it's just a board. It's on display right now at
the British Museum. You go see anytime you want. And
the reason why it's special is it predates the King
tut Oh cursed story, right, so it kind of set
the template for Egyptian curses. Before Before the mummy board,

(21:58):
we didn't have this classic you know, you to pyramid,
you take a body and you get cursed. The mummy
board really started that, and then King tut blew it
into the skyline, right, it made it a thing. The
mummy board is your typical story right at some point
in time, most at that time, I think it was
the nineteenth century so eighteen nineteenth century. So it was
always the British people because you were like, you know,

(22:19):
looting tombs. But now they were like buying artifacts, right
that had been looted from graves, especially in Egypt, which
has a massively material funeralistic culture, at least ancient Egypt did.
There's tons of artifacts buried in the sands and inside
of tombs and pyramids, and looters would take it and
then they would sell it to people who were willing
to buy it. In this case, it was bought by

(22:40):
a group of Englishmen who then you know, they various
ones had they started having problems. I think one you know,
shot himself on accentry honey event. Another one died and
then ended up in a private collection in England. So
it did go over there. It said that when they
brought it over, the photographer who was taking pictures of it,
he died. So there's a big a lot of stories

(23:01):
of people just interacting with this board and dying. The
main guy that kept it at the end, the guy
that survived of the group, he's in like a paranormal
society and that ghost telling the story society, and like
he would tell stories of this thing all the time,
and then eventually those stories got bigger and bigger, and
again Britain. For a time there was the center of
the world, the world landscape. So anything big happened that

(23:25):
had any connection to Europe or to England. You know,
this mummy board got blamed for it World War two.
The assassination attempt was because the mummy board was in
that guy's possessions, right, so he'd gone to private collectors
for a while. It was on this Titanic, and that's
why the Titanic sunk. It was on the Lusitania or
something in North America. It sunk as well, and somehow
kept coming back so salvage and passed around. That story's bogus.

(23:48):
Of those stories are bogus, right because obviously a mummy
board didn't call it World War two. But also it
just couldn't be in all these places. It just wasn't
it mostly most most of its time after the original
group had it at the Brutish at the British Museum.
But all the all the stories of the main group
are true. And of course you know, it just has
a long history as an art as an ancient artifact.

(24:10):
So I like this in a lot, because again it doesn't.
It feels like the mummy inside the thro Copaicus will
be the cursed thing, right, the dead body. But it's
the board, the beautiful, the carved board, and it's just sitting. Again.
If you walk through the Egyptian Wing in the British
Museum which I have, there's tons of cool stuff, you
would never ever, ever, ever ever notice this one, like
it's just a real board. They have actual mummies all

(24:31):
around there, the cooler and full sarcopha guy, and they
have a bunch of mummy boards and urns and all
kinds of things, And you're gonna walk right by this
because there's so many things like that and cooler than that. Honestly,
you have no idea that this thing a has been
has had a cursed story wrapped around it for centuries.
And also you know it set the template for cursed
Egyptian funeral artifacts.

Speaker 2 (24:53):
Yeah, that's fascinating. Uh.

Speaker 1 (24:56):
I don't think too many people probably have heard the
unlucky mummy, but I find them they're all fascinating. How
uh so many objects that can be uh cursed? And
I'm curious, do you believe a lot of these cursed
objects such as the Unlucky Mummy holds like more of

(25:18):
a supernatural power or merely just like tragedy, tragedy, tragic
coincidences versus you know, like I said, just more of
like a supernatural power, because I get for the Egypt, Egypt,
where you know, these looters come in and steal all
these you know, their final resting place and you know,

(25:39):
get a little pissed off and the gods above or
like no, no, no, We're not gonna have have this.

Speaker 2 (25:45):
But what is your take? What is your take?

Speaker 3 (25:48):
You have to fall on coincidence, right, because the thing,
the one thing that all cursed optics share in common
is they don't hurt everybody, like they're very selective, almost
to the point, right, they're not. They're not weapons of
mass destruction at all. Rightular people here and there every
once in a while, they're different means owners, journalists, and
it almost seems random. Like again, Osie the ice ball,
I mean, you know, hundreds of people have touched that

(26:09):
thing and thousands of people have seen it, tens of
thousands of baby and only like it's death count as
maybe fifteen, which is pretty high for cursed off chick.
But still of the people who should be cursed by it.
It's not. The thing is, especially with these items because
they're famous, because they've been around for hundreds and thousands
of years, you know they're going to be around death
like death. Like I always tell people, get in the
search for them my Cob. I live in New England,

(26:31):
and I love New England because there's so much my
Cob stuff up here. It's because it's the part of
the country's been around the longest time. Plus human beings
equals lots of death, and if an object's been around
long enough, it's been around death. I think usually because
a lot of rich people have these artifacts, their deaths
are more interesting, usually because you know, there's you know,
rich people are weird, so like weird, their stories are

(26:52):
more interesting than like, you know, again, somebody with a
cursed autumn in their living room, they're not going to
have an interesting story. But the rich people will have
interesting stories because they're doing all kinds of places. Are
they're weird, the going cool places, they're they're buying weird stuff.
So I think that's it. It's it's just they're around
long enough that enough people have died around them.

Speaker 1 (27:09):
And you you said you bought, you have purchased one.
So the question is, is you know through our history
cursed objects have been feared but also collected, And why
do you think people you know, or drives people to
own something like this and that that's it in some
people's mind, considered dangerous and you know, deadly.

Speaker 3 (27:31):
It's interesting again, it's it's a it's kind of oxymoron,
almost real life oxymoron, that it's dangerous. I'm going to
collect it, all right, I try to like to me,
that's a big it's a big it's a big negative
market against the idea of cursed objects that people can
collect them. However, the way I have like got around
that in my mind rationalized it is, you know, zoos

(27:52):
are full of deadly animals. Again, I grew up in DC.
The National Zoo's amazing, but it's full of tigers and lions,
and there's at been of a serpent. But those those
people exactly, But those people that that they're they're run
by professionals who know how to handle those things. Right.
The difference is in parapsychology, there's not a ton of
degrees and internships you're doing. You're kind of just self proclaimed.

(28:15):
So but that's kind of how I see it, if
somebody knows how to deal with it. But it's but
I do see the appeal to say I own cursed objects. Again,
I'm perverse enough and macob enough that like having a
cursed object appeals to me. Uh just on, just on
that that level of uh strange, weird morbidness. And it's
very it's very it's very morbid instinct. Right. It's the same

(28:36):
as people that like to collect you know, human skulls
or even even animal taxidermy. Right, there's a morbist to
that that is appealing to to certain people, and I
think cursed objects fit that same people like me, who
would you know, put a statue of you know, I
have a taxionary bat in my basement, like it's and
I like it. I'm that kind of guy who would
also be like, oh, this is cursed, I'll take it.

(28:57):
But again, for good or for good or ill? Right, right,
that doesn't always pay off for sure.

Speaker 1 (29:03):
Well, it's it's like next week because you know, truth
be Told and I it's under the umbrella of Club Paranormal.
And then I have a nonprofit called Earthy Beings and
we're putting on events that are kind of based around
ancient cultures and ancient traditions and ancient religions bringing into

(29:24):
the modern world so we can kind of just see
where we came from. And next week we are having
a psychic medium doing a live event for Halloween, more
entertainment than really educational.

Speaker 2 (29:35):
But and I was.

Speaker 1 (29:37):
I was at a Starbucks s up and where I live,
and I said, hey, you should come to the event,
and she's like, I want to, but I'm Catholic, and
I just, you know, I just it scares me and
it goes against my It feels like it goes against
my religion.

Speaker 2 (29:52):
And dah da da da.

Speaker 1 (29:53):
But you said you were brought up very religious, how
you know, how did that kind of go against you know,
your thoughts and even your family? How did they feel
about having an object that would be considered cursed in
your house?

Speaker 3 (30:09):
Yeah, no, it's funny that Catholic person and myself back
in the day. I'm not religious anymore. We believe more
than paranormal people. And like the after you know again
that the world I grew up in the air is
full of demons and age. Yeah, very paranormal, which is
a real and The reason why think your your Catholic
friend wouldn't go is because she fully believed in it, right,
That's why. And it was the wrong kind of forces

(30:30):
for her, for her religion. So so I was joke.
I don't believe in anything these days, I don't know
anything from ghosts to true love. I don't believe in
back of the day, you know, I was. I believed
in everything, right, everything a religious person believes in. The Again,
we all believe in extravagant things, whether it's whether it's
again a supernatural being, or it's like I believe Nobod's
gonna kill me when I get in my car, Like

(30:51):
that's at all faith. But you know that belief is
is real. So these days, the whatever I am, I
don't even know. Niedhlissen it guy, I still had to
answer those questions of like, Okay, I don't I'm gonna
buy this thing. I don't. I don't believe in curses.
I mean, I even know the science says it a
little bit, which is a little bit terrifying. But what

(31:11):
if I'm wrong? You know, Yeah, I've been wrong a
lot of times in my life, and what if I'm
wrong this time? It seems like I need to take
you know, And I still did it because I just
needed a book gimmick. It's just what I needed something
for the book, and so I bought one, and you know,
nothing happened. It was a good it was a good
good year. I like, you know, I put on my

(31:31):
it was a little bronze bulldog. I put it on
my desk. I took it on vacation with us. Nothing happened.
But then whatever, like uh, two years later, my entire
life all apart, like everything my life apart from like
from like Florida ceiling. Now I have to wonder the
rest of my life was it. Did it just fall
apart because life fall apart? Or did that stupid bulldog
have a tiny bit to do it? That I always

(31:52):
have to word of this now I hate it. I
used to do these talks. I'd like curs ops and
I bought this bulldog and I bring it with me
to the talk and I'm like, look, and I had
a great time with it. It was great. It was
like and my joke I was always you know, you
need to get a new pet, like especially a dog.
The dog doesn't act like itself for a while, right,
it's kind of timid and hid in corners, but eventually
it becomes its full self. And so the joke was
always well, maybe this curse off one day become its
full self. And now I can't do that bit anymore

(32:14):
my talks because of all like the misfortunate I did
eventually suffer in my life and just like oh man,
I lost the punchline. Now it's like I could turn
into a real curse story, I guess.

Speaker 1 (32:24):
So, So in that case, what did you do to who?
What person that you didn't like?

Speaker 2 (32:30):
Give it? Did you give it?

Speaker 3 (32:31):
It's still there, It's sitting. It's almost like pointless, like
my life so so collapsed on itself that there was
nothing left to like break. So like I' still there,
it's still there. It's still like that. That would be
the next experiment, Right, I should get rid of that
and see what happens, Like does my life suddenly do
a massive U turn? Like like yes, right, does it

(32:53):
start finally happening for me? That's what I should do.
But you're right, who would I give that? To? A few?
I have a few ideas, allry, All right.

Speaker 1 (33:01):
We'll talk off air about that. I mean even but
actually though you think about it. Even you've heard the
you know, somebody that wins the lottery the lottery curse.
You know, you all these people win the lottery their
life even though they had millions of dollars, they they've
you know, lost their family, they lost their friends, they
then eventually lost all their money. And so I mean,

(33:23):
I guess, you know, and in some ways you can
lose in many different areas. When they when they considered
a curse, yeah, they.

Speaker 3 (33:31):
Always say it's it's almost impossible to tell a blessing
from a curse until you have like long enough time,
you know, Right, it's just hard to know.

Speaker 1 (33:38):
Right now, going you know, researching around the world, maybe
even going to seeing some of these objects. Was there
ever an object that you cause, you know, I feel
like I'm very intuitive where you know, if you're around
somebody and you're like instantly you're like, I just don't
feel comfortable, or I just don't like this person. It's

(33:58):
just didn't even have to do much, you just like
I just don't care for him. Is there an object
that you have been around that you were uneasy and
even were like I don't think I can stick around
very long? And which one was it if you did.

Speaker 3 (34:13):
Well, here's here's the aready and now and so I do.
I have this section in the book where I put
objects that should be cursed in my experience, like why
aren't these cursed? And I write about those as well.
And one of those objects is the Mamma fire or
the yeah, the preserved head of the Dusseldorf vampire. Do
you know about those? Huh?

Speaker 2 (34:30):
Tell me, tell me, tell me.

Speaker 3 (34:31):
So the Ducee Door vampire was a serial killer in Germany.
I killed a lot of people, would drink drink their blood.
But because his body count was pretty high and he
would like you know, destroy women. He was an evil, evil,
evil dude. So they they actually eventually caught him, executed him,
and then because they wanted to study his brain, they
kind of preserved his head and like you know, looked

(34:52):
his brain. That's him, that's it. And for some reason,
some reason, I mean, there's a chain of providence, it
ended up that severed head that's split in half because
they dissected it in a Ripley's Believe it or Not
museum in Wisconsin. And the most consin Dell's literally right there
with like Lego sculptures and family family family tickets and stuff.
And you go into it and it's on this hook

(35:13):
and slowly rotating, and it's it's lit so you can
see it's like it's well preserved. It's like you can
see the hairs on his cheeks still and like everything
like that. I think it's cranial cavity is empty. I
can't remember it not, but I think it's empty. But
it was so disturbing. Obviously it's disturbing our artifact intrinsically right,
But I'm like, why hasn't this cursed everybody who's owned it?

(35:34):
Like the severed head of a serial killer seems like
something again, and I'm this thory of my most body parts,
I guess, most preserved body parts. It feels like if
if desecration starts a curse, if you know, if evil
deeds start a curse, if people being evil from the
ground up starts a curse. This thing has all those
piece all those elements to it, but it's not a

(35:54):
curse object. But again, I did feel super super strange
around it. I mean, not so strange and show my kids,
but like it was, it felt very weird.

Speaker 1 (36:03):
I can see why. In fact, I'm gonna show that
picture again just because that's one of those doll faces
where it just it just looks like no emotion. It's
just like you can even see in the eyes.

Speaker 3 (36:13):
It's just kind of like, eh, yeah, yep, it looks
very German too.

Speaker 2 (36:18):
Very German.

Speaker 1 (36:19):
So what have you heard and I'm sure you've talked
a lot to a lot of experts of going into
or purchasing or going into a museum or even somebody's
home to protect yourself?

Speaker 2 (36:35):
How how how how have.

Speaker 1 (36:37):
You heard from other people and how do you protect
yourself going into something like this?

Speaker 3 (36:43):
And they would say the number one thing is not
to go in, right, That's like this classic classic caution is.

Speaker 1 (36:48):
Just kind of like saying having safe sex. Don't you know,
if you don't want to get pregnant, have safe sex.

Speaker 3 (36:53):
Sex is not sex. That's right. Yeah, So there's that,
But again it's really again a lot of times they
hold onto their believes, right. I know the Warrans have
their issues, right, but they at least had an aesthetic
around what what their methodology was. This is based in Christianity.
A lot of crosses that kind of thing. So to
this day, a lot of people still kind of like
ascribe to your own positive religion, the positive aspects of

(37:15):
your religion to fight because again, if you believe churs
objects are evil like somebody who either I mute it
or it's evil with purpose, then you gotta use good
with purpose to kind of kind of combat it, right,
And that is prayers, and that is iconography, and that
is you know, believing in higher powers. If you believe
that just it can happen just naturally. It's like this
is natural phenomenon that like a thing just gathers, you know,

(37:39):
bad bad mojo, like a battery. There's not a lot
you can do. Again, you can try to just not
let not believe it. But if it is, it's almost
like whatever if you if there's a hot stove, there's
just no way you can believe yourself into not getting
hurt by that stove. I know some people claim they
can do that right right, cold workers stuff, but there's

(38:01):
methodologies behind that. But normal people, if the silver is hot,
there's no way you're gonna say you can believe yourself
or hope to Christ that like it won't burn you
if you touch it, It's just gonna burn you. So
I think there's in some ways there's sometimes there's no
way to protect yourself, but the same with anything, right,
same with any like a weapon, same with a dangerous animal.
Sometimes there's just no way to protect yourself.

Speaker 1 (38:19):
Do you feel like a lot of these objects are
I mean, I would say not the Hope, but Hope timon,
but are more religious based curses because it seems like
a lot of things could be.

Speaker 3 (38:33):
You know, that's a really good question. I would say, no,
that's and I've never thought about it this way. Most
of the objects are not religion based at all. They're
very mundane or they're very like they're from jewels to furniture,
it's crazy funerary objects, statues. I mean, the closest thing
to a cursed object religious wise, I think in the

(38:54):
book is probably the Dipic box, which again is a
giant hoax and actually is not religious. But that there there,
That is probably the closest thing to a religious artifact,
if you believe the story. Right. But most of the
time it is literally just based on basic human stuff.
Right Again, leaving a tomb or or desicate, desecrating a

(39:16):
grave or you know, stealing something that sometimes causes a curse.
Or a lot of the gems were supposed to be stolen.
It's a bad act that actually does it. It's not
necessarily a blasphemous act or any kind of like religious
sack relgi or desecration. It's usually just bad act. That's interesting.
I don't know, I know what that means. I thought
about it. You said that, but that that is kind
of interesting that religion very rarely plays a part in

(39:37):
the origin story. Sometimes in the anti story, like we
talked about. Yeah, that's never in the never in the
origin story.

Speaker 2 (39:42):
That's pretty interesting.

Speaker 1 (39:43):
So all right, Well, unfortunately we're about to wrap up,
but I want to see if you could give us
a takeaway for our listeners. That are you know, to
maybe that people are looking for answers with your book.
Is there anything that you should kind of give people
some advice on, you know, what to do, how to

(40:06):
if they want to go research a cursed object or what.
What can you give a takeaway for you know, your readers,
readers and our listeners today.

Speaker 3 (40:15):
Yeah, at first I'd say I would actually say to
find the beauty and cursed objects. I did fall in
love with cursed objects. I've always not an interested in them.
But falling in love with them because what they are
really like literally, what they are is objects that we
use to wrap stories around. So again, Diamond and I
a little lost as somebody nobody would know in history
really unless you're like the DC Social But because of

(40:38):
this one object, you know, it's very easy to learn.
So it's a way to remember stories, right, mostly tragedies
almost way to remember tragic stories. But it gives us
this opportunity to tell the stories. So I would say,
you know, look for the stories a lot of times
go to the museums. Again, most of the stuff as
in museums, they're they're amazing, and then you know, research

(41:02):
beyond like due to top ten because these things that
are in the newspapers, in the magazines, in historical documentation
for museums. But again, learn to fall in love with
them and you'll fear them last. But also you kind
of see the value of them, like holding onto these
stories for us.

Speaker 1 (41:17):
I wonder if you walked into a museum such as
like the Natural History or or Smithsonian, if you did
ask a curator or somebody that worked there and says,
can you tell me your the items that are cursed
in your museum, if they would be like crazy or
like oh yeah, that one over there has been. I'm
curious to see if they would actually be open.

Speaker 3 (41:37):
To I think in my experiences they're more likely to
take you to take you to something and show and
tell you a story.

Speaker 2 (41:42):
That's cool. That would be cool.

Speaker 1 (41:44):
So well, JDBI, thank you so much. And I know
people can go to odd things. I've seen dot com.
Uh and uh check out how many books have you written?

Speaker 3 (41:55):
I My eleventh came out last week, so I think
it's about sixty percent nonfiction like Cursed Objects and the
other half for novels.

Speaker 2 (42:02):
So and so what was this slatest one?

Speaker 3 (42:05):
It's a book about cults. So again, and go back
to religion. I wrote a book kind of similar to
Curse Objects for I picked thirty of the most interesting
cults that I could find for various and I you know,
you know, told their story in this book.

Speaker 1 (42:17):
Well you're going to have to come back and talk
about that, because I I find cults so fascinating. I yeah,
because I'm like, there's no way I would ever fall
for a cult, but you know, never say never, but
I could.

Speaker 3 (42:30):
Surprise you some ideas I learned, so much, not just
about cults and individually, but the mentality and ideas and
as a result of that project. Yeah, I'll come back
for sure.

Speaker 1 (42:39):
Yeah, I definitely want to to do that. So but
please everybody go out and pick up, you know, for
the Halloween season. Come on, that'd be a great stocking
stuff for your Halloween fireplace. Cursed Objects. Please go pick
it up on Amazon, go on his website. Odd Things
I've seen dot Com. Are you going to be speaking

(43:01):
at any para cons or any places around the country soon?

Speaker 3 (43:04):
Yeah, the next, for the next the next two months
or the next I guess almost October now the next month.
I have a lot of appearances. So if you go
to my web my website, I think I see dot com,
go the appearances tab, it'll tell you all the states
I'm doing a talk or showing up or doing a signing.

Speaker 2 (43:16):
Perfect.

Speaker 1 (43:17):
Well, thank you so much for being here. I really
appreciate I had a good time. I hope you did
to me too. That was great, all right, everybody, So
thank you guys for joining us today. I really appreciate you.
And uh, you know, make sure you subscribe, share and
follow our YouTube channel, and please tell your friends don't forget.

Speaker 2 (43:34):
If you're around.

Speaker 1 (43:35):
Next Friday, we have the Halloween Psychic Experience with Koby
Rebel up in New Hall, California, in Santa Clarida where
Magic Mountain is. If you're local and get your tickets
limited seating, it's selling out fast and it's going to
be a great time. So but please every Friday live
right here. I'm excited to have you part of the show.

(43:57):
We'd like to hear it from you on what you
want on the channel and all kinds of different stories
that maybe we can have a day that you guys
can tell us your stories. But until next time, I'm
Tony Sweet with truth be told. I will see you
very soon. Take care, guys,