Phantoms and Monsters: Pulse of the Paranormal

Why 'The Possession' cast was terrified of the real “dybbuk box” behind the film

Little known fact: Exorcism film The Possession is based on a real item called a "dybbuk box." The box, which imprisons evil spirits, made headlines years ago. But when actors Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Natasha Calis were asked if they wanted to bring the original on set, their reaction was, no thank you. Because it's evil. Maybe.

We sat down with Jeffrey Dean Morgan, who plays the troubled father of the possessed girl, and the demon girl herself Natasha Calis, to talk all things dybbuk box. Here's what they had to say.

So this is based on a true story?

JDM: I'm a skeptic, look I'm not going to lie. That being said, there was some weird goings on on set. Lots of light bulbs exploding. Just overall kind of creepiness... "Don't mock the box," was sort of the mantra that we lived by while we were filming this. And yes loosely based on a true story. There was an LA Times article about a box that was bought on ebay. And then the people who owned the box some scary stuff started happening to them. We've taken some slight creative...

Calis: It's scarier, I mean the events are true.

Did you meet anyone associated with the box?

JDM: No I didn't want to. I like being a skeptic, I didn't want to get scared. It might have freaked me out a little bit too much to be honest. It might have freaked me out a little bit too much. Somebody wanted to bring the box to the set, the real box. I was adamantly against it. If you go and you look at what has happened to people that have had contact with an actual dybbuk box, it's not good stuff. It's not like demons flying around but it's like trees crushing your house, weird rashes. Why risk that?

There are a lot of great exorcism movies out there. Besides the actual box, how else is this movie going to stand out from other possession films?

JDM: It's a little Jewish.

Calis: It has a different feel to it because it's a Danish director and a Danish Director of Photography. So it has a different feel and beautiful scenery.

JDM: They shot the heck out of it, certainly. She's right in the fact that it's going to look a lot richer than a lot of the horror movies that have come out, especially in the last 20 years. But this really is a throwback to The Exorcist, The Omen. A lot of the stuff that we see in the genre now is a lot of found footage, shaky camera. That drives me crazy, that's not the movie I certainly wanted to go in and make. This had a story, the script had a story. It's not just a bunch of jump scares. There's a story, you become invested in the characters, hopefully. In the end, all the elements that Natasha was talking about as far as camera and sets. You mix that with a good story and some really descent actos and a performance from this lady that is really mind blowing. I've never been more impressed with a young actor in all my life. The stuff that she had to do. The chops to be possessed. You wonder where has your life... where do you get this from? For god's sake. It was truly, there were a couple moments that she scared the crap out of me. I was worried about her, I thought she was going to explode. - io9

Read more at: The Newest Dybbuk Possession Rendition and The Dybbuk Box

The Dibbuk Box

A Dybbuk and Other Tales of the Supernatural

The Dybbuk and Other Writings by S. Ansky

Between Worlds: Dybbuks, Exorcists, and Early Modern Judaism (Jewish Culture and Contexts)

Dybbuks and Jewish Women in Social History, Mysticism and Folklore

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Strange: Dining room table 'spontaneously exploded'

A close call in the kitchen, left a Seattle man's heart pounding. One moment, Adam Welch was getting ready for work, and the next he was surrounded by broken glass.

"I just heard this explosive sound, and I saw flashes out of the corner of my eye," said Welch.

The shattered pieces could be seen throughout his small apartment.

"Glass crowded up against the refrigerator, crowded up against the wall," he said. "It spontaneously exploded."

We took Adam's photos and story to glass expert, Justin Ivy. Ivy works at Seattle Stained Glass, and he has heard of glass exploding before.

"it's not terribly common, but it can happen," said Ivy.

Ivy said if the glass has been damaged in the past, like a "deep scratch, a chip on the edge" that could cause problems. He said, "a hot pan, a bright sunny day, things like that, can cause thermal stress, and cause it to break. It can release that tension in the glass and cause it to just explode."

Ivy emphasized, that while he's heard of this happening, it is rare.

People have posted pictures and stories, similar to Adam's story, online. That is where you can find years worth of complaints about glass tables exploding.

For Adam, he said it is still unclear what caused his table to explode.

"It is a total mystery. There is nothing I can think of that would have been the foundation of this explosion," said Welch.

Adam owned the table for four years. He contacted the furniture manufacturer, and is still awaiting a reply. - video included - khou

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The Trapper's Ghastly Vengence

About a mile back from the Hudson, at Coxsackie, stood the cabin of Nick Wolsey, who, in the last century, was known to the river settlements as a hunter and trapper of correct aim, shrewdness, endurance, and taciturn habit. For many years he lived in this cabin alone, except for the company of his dog; but while visiting a camp of Indians in the wilderness he was struck with the engaging manner of one of the girls of the tribe; he repeated the visit; he found cause to go to the camp frequently; he made presents to the father of the maid, and at length won her consent to be his wife. The simple marriage ceremony of the tribe was performed, and Wolsey led Minamee to his home; but the wedding was interrupted in an almost tragic manner, for a surly fellow who had loved the girl, yet who never had found courage to declare himself, was wrought to such a jealous fury at the discovery of Wolsey's good fortune that he sprang at him with a knife, and would have despatched him on the spot had not the white man's faithful hound leaped at his throat and borne him to the ground.

Wolsey disarmed the fellow and kicked and cuffed him to the edge of the wood, while the whole company shouted with laughter at this ignominious punishment, and approved it. A year or more passed. Wolsey and his Indian wife were happy in their free and simple life; happy, too, in their little babe. Wolsey was seldom absent from his cabin for any considerable length of time, and usually returned to it before the night set in. One evening he noticed that the grass and twigs were bent near his house by some passing foot that, with the keen eye of the woodman, he saw was not his wife's.

"Some hunter," he said, "saw the house when he passed here, and as, belike, he never saw one before, he stopped to look in." For the trail led to his window, and diverged thence to the forest again. A few days later, as he was returning, he came on the footprints that were freshly made, and a shadow crossed his face. On nearing the door he stumbled on the body of his dog, lying rigid on the ground. "How did this happen, Minamee?" he cried, as he flung open the door. The wife answered, in a low voice, "O Hush! you'll wake the child."

Nick Wolsey entered the cabin and stood as one turned to marble. Minamee, his wife, sat on the gold hearth, her face and hands cut and blackened, her dress torn, her eyes glassy, a meaningless smile on her lips. In her arms she pressed the body of her infant, its dress soaked with blood, and the head of the little creature lay on the floor beside her. She crooned softly over the cold clay as if hushing it to sleep, and when Wolsey at length found words, she only whispered, "Hush! you will wake him." The night went heavily on; day dawned, and the crooning became lower and lower; still, through all that day the bereft woman rocked to and fro upon the floor, and the agonized husband hung about her, trying in vain to give comfort, to bind her wounds, to get some explanation of the mystery that confronted him. The second night set in, and it was evident that it would be the last for Minamee. Her strength failed until she allowed herself to be placed on a couch of skins, while the body of her child was gently lifted from her arms. Then, for a few brief minutes, her reason was restored, and she found words to tell her husband how the Indian whose murderous attack he had thwarted at the wedding had come to the cabin, shot the dog that had rushed out to defend the place, beat the woman back from the door, tore the baby from its bed, slashed its head off with a knife, and, flinging the little body into her lap, departed with the words, "This is my revenge. I am satisfied." Before the sun was in the east again Minamee was with her baby.

Wolsey sat for hours in the ruin of his happiness, his breathing alone proving that he was alive, and when at last he arose and went out of the house, there were neither tears nor outcry; he saddled his horse and rode off to the westward. At nightfall he came to the Indian village where he had won his wife, and relating to the assembled tribe what had happened, he demanded that the murderer be given up to him. His demand was readily granted, whereupon the white man advanced on the cowering wretch, who had confidently expected the protection of his people, and with the quick fling and jerk of a raw-hide rope bound his arms to his side. Then casting a noose about his neck and tying the end of it to his saddle-bow, he set off for the Hudson. All that night he rode, the Indian walking and running at the horse's heels, and next day he reached his cabin. Tying his prisoner to a tree, the trapper cut a quantity of young willows, from which he fashioned a large cradle-like receptacle; in this he placed the culprit, face upward, and tied so stoutly that he could not move a finger; then going into his house, he emerged with the body of Minamee, and laid it, face downward, on the wretch, who could not repress a groan of horror as the awful burden sank on his breast. Wolsey bound together the living and the dead, and with a swing of his powerful arms he flung them on his horse's back, securing them there with so many turns of rope that nothing could displace them. Now he began to lash his horse until the poor beast trembled with anger and pain, when, flinging off the halter, he gave it a final lash, and the animal plunged, foaming and snorting, into the wilderness. When it had vanished and the hoof-beats were no longer heard, Nick Wolsey took his rifle on his arm and left his home forever. And tradition says that the horse never stopped in its mad career, but that on still nights it can be heard sweeping through the woods along the Hudson and along the Mohawk like a whirlwind, and that as the sound goes by a smothered voice breaks out in cursing, in appeal, then in harsh and dreadful laughter. - Myths and Legends of Our Own Land

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Mysterious Hand Causes Stir at Church Crusade

The sudden appearance of a mysterious hand during a crusade organized at the headquarters of the Glorious Assemblies Ministries popularly known as Christ Endtime Military Academy, Calabar, Cross River State, Nigeria is now a subject of discussion among residents of the city.

The mysterious hand which appeared on the fourth day of the programme radiated with light and pierced through the ceiling of the church building before young boys who were part of the programme noticed it with amazement.

Though many people have insinuated many things concerning the hand, the General Overseer of the Church, Pastor Timmy Larry described the hand as the hand of Jesus Christ and that a day before the mysterious hand appeared, a lady saw a vision that a mighty hand came from behind and lifted and smashed a man.

Larry explained that "the mysterious appearance of the hand came up on the fourth day of the programme.

" I was busy praying for people after coming out from seclusion. I was told of the hand by a Camera man, but before that event, I was talking to people about the right hand. "It was revealed that 2012 was going to be an exceptional experience in His presence and I had told my people that the month of July was going to be a month of signs and wonders and it is the month this thing happened," he said.

A member of the Church, Mrs. Iwatt said that the appearance of the mysterious hand as a big surprise and shock to her, adding that "this season God has visited our people greatly and I feel God has come down during the programme as a result of praise and singing. I was sure the presence of God is there."

Another member of the Church, Princess Agnes Archibong said, "it was a surprise to me when the hand of Jesus appeared before us here even people are overwhelmed and you see the hand does not look like ordinary hand. This was a confirmation that the Lord has accepted the man of God." - allafrica

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