The China Anniversary

"Hey this episode is the two year anniversary for the podcast! Also check out our website at cultscryptidsconspiracies.com! Today Cristina brings up haunted dolls while Chelsea discusses the curse of the Terracotta army!"

Presented by: Cristina
In keeping with the second anniversary being gifted with fine china, Cristina did a haunted porcelain doll roundup.

The first doll is Okiku of Hokkaido, Japan. A teenager Eikichi Suzuki bought the doll for his younger sister, Okiku in 1918. She named the doll after herself and took it with her everywhere. She died shortly thereafter. The doll was placed on the family shrine.

Okiku the doll began displaying bizarre behavior, starting with her hair growing, even after being cut off. They concluded their daughter's soul was in the doll. Unwilling to throw it away, they took the doll to the local temple, where she resides to this day.

In an older version of the story, the doll was left behind at the temple with the note, "This is my daughter, please take care of her." The priest put the doll aside and forgot about it until he began having dreams about the man soaking wet screaming that he should cut the hair. He found the doll and saw her hair had grown.

Another story involves the father giving the doll who similarly forgot about until she ran across it. Again, the hair had grown. Cristina put for the theory that the hair grew from the glue hail and extra hair being used in the process.

The second story is from 2017. A women in the UK bought three dolls from antique shop, including a "semi-realistic" bride one with yellow eyes. Strange things began happening. The fire alarm would off and she heard footsteps in the night. She'd had nightmares of the doll crawling to the bed. Her husband woke up with scratches on the leg. A medium came to investigate and declared the doll was haunted. The fire alarm's heat sensor was being set off by heat from the doll.

The doll was moved to the shed. When she had to go to the shed, she found the doll's necklace and in a different position. She sold it on eBay for over 800 pounds (compared to her 5 pound investment).

A youtuber bought it and recorded the unboxing. In the video, the lights flickered. His dad started waking up with scratches. The youtuber, after researched, believed the doll was a wedding gift and targeted married men. It's voice can be heard on a ghost box. He still has the doll.

In general, humans are scared as realistic dolls are creepy down to human evolution, when we know it's not a threat but still not at ease. This is related to the Uncanny Valley, where as things become closer to human without passing, it becomes unnerving. That the seem to stare at us doesn't help. Nor do the dolls that simulate breathing and heart beats.

Takeaway: Unsettling doesn't mean haunted, but it doesn't hurt to avoid ghosts.

Presented by: Chelsea
Category: Curse

The Terracotta Warriors are set of 700s of stone statues buried with the tomb of Qin Shu Huang, the first emperor of China, along with up to 700,000 living workers and servants. Buried around 210 BC, the tomb wasn't discovered again until 1974 when a farmer named, Yang Zhifa stumbled upon it with his brothers and their friend Wang Puzhi. They initially left it alone, believing it to be a shrine to the Buddha, but informed officials once they realized their mistake.

All archaeological discoveries get rumors of curses attached to them and this one is no different. Wang Puzhi suffered from heart problems and, unable to travel to see a doctor, took his own life. The two youngest of the brothers, Yang Wenhai and Yang Yanxin, died relatively young of poor health, not paid enough by the Chinese government from the promised amount too afford health care. The remaining brothers are poorly paid for appearances related to their discovery.

As Cristina says in the takeaway, the real curse is greed.

Trivia

 * Patreon skit: Mal on trial for murder.