Dare to join us as we traverse the spectral veil with psychic medium June Lundgren on a journey that will lead you through the shadowy realm of the Island of Dolls. In a place where silent figures hang from the trees, we uncover the disturbing history and ghostly legends that shroud this eerie destination. Our adventure doesn't end at the water's edge; we also examine the spectral magnetism of dolls as vessels for the departed and the demonic. With June's expertise, we confront the unsettling reality of spirits latching onto the inanimate, while also peeking into the Victorian era's grief-stricken rituals of remembrance—where sorrow was woven into the very fabric of keepsakes.
Our conversation ventures into the modern-day quest to pierce the paranormal veil, scrutinizing ghost hunting gadgets and applications with a mix of personal encounters and healthy skepticism. June's insights elevate our understanding and challenge the reliability of these technological tools. Together, we scrutinize the accuracy of apps and dissect the phenomena behind recurring spectral terminology. Prepare yourself for a thrilling encounter with the inexplicable, and perhaps you'll find yourself glancing twice at the quiet gazes of dolls on your shelf, pondering the unseen forces that may dwell within.
ENTER OUR GIVEAWAY!! https://sweepwidget.com/c/80150-6zslnw4o
Like, subscribe and rate us! Find us on Spotify, Amazon Music, Audible, Deezer, Podcast Addict and more at Macab at Midnight Add us on Instagram for episode teasers and updates, at Macab_At_Midnight_Podcast Message us with your suggestions and spooky things at macabatmidnight@outlook.com Most importantly, stay scary and we'll see you in your nightmares...
Dare to join us as we traverse the spectral veil with psychic medium June Lundgren on a journey that will lead you through the shadowy realm of the Island of Dolls. In a place where silent figures hang from the trees, we uncover the disturbing history and ghostly legends that shroud this eerie destination. Our adventure doesn't end at the water's edge; we also examine the spectral magnetism of dolls as vessels for the departed and the demonic. With June's expertise, we confront the unsettling reality of spirits latching onto the inanimate, while also peeking into the Victorian era's grief-stricken rituals of remembrance—where sorrow was woven into the very fabric of keepsakes.
Our conversation ventures into the modern-day quest to pierce the paranormal veil, scrutinizing ghost hunting gadgets and applications with a mix of personal encounters and healthy skepticism. June's insights elevate our understanding and challenge the reliability of these technological tools. Together, we scrutinize the accuracy of apps and dissect the phenomena behind recurring spectral terminology. Prepare yourself for a thrilling encounter with the inexplicable, and perhaps you'll find yourself glancing twice at the quiet gazes of dolls on your shelf, pondering the unseen forces that may dwell within.
ENTER OUR GIVEAWAY!! https://sweepwidget.com/c/80150-6zslnw4o
Like, subscribe and rate us! Find us on Spotify, Amazon Music, Audible, Deezer, Podcast Addict and more at Macab at Midnight Add us on Instagram for episode teasers and updates, at Macab_At_Midnight_Podcast Message us with your suggestions and spooky things at macabatmidnight@outlook.com Most importantly, stay scary and we'll see you in your nightmares...
Speaker 2:
Find other great podcasts like this one at podmothnetwork. Thank you. So if that is something that you're sensitive to, then just visit the episode description to find out how to enter our giveaway and we will see you on next week's episode. Stay spooky.
Speaker 2:
Hello hauntlings, my name is Alyssa, here with my ghoulishly gorgeous wife and co-host, lindsay. This is Macabre at Midnight, where we rate all things that sit on a scale, starting with the adorably spooky and ending in the truly disturbing. On tonight's episode, we're going to be talking about the Island of Dolls with a special guest. On tonight's episode, we're going to be talking about the Island of Dolls with a special guest, but before we get into that, we have a juicy, spooky bit of information for you. Kind of ticks off a request on our list. Our friend V requested that we talk about haunted dolls. I hate that. I hate that. Before we dive into it, I do want to mention a couple of things. The first is that we have a Discord, as you know, and a Patreon, so be sure to check out our About Me for the links and if you feel like you would like to donate to help us keep this podcast rolling, then you can find us on patreoncom. Forward slash midnightpodcast24.
Speaker 2:
And the most important thing about tonight's episode is that we have our guest psychic medium, june Lundgren, who we are super excited to have joining us Now. If you don't know who she is, she is a medium who has appeared on shows like Ghost Adventures and the podcast Coast to Coast AM, as well as the Unexplained Files. She is also an author of the titles A Medium's Guide to the Paranormal, the Dark Side of the Paranormal, paranormal Encounters, book 1 and 2, and more. All of those we will link you in our pod notes so that you can purchase them if you feel so inclined. And at the end of this month, june will also be dropping her next book, called Dark Encounters. In regards to those books, we have a special update for you at the very end, so make sure you stay tuned. Listen all the way through so that you can hear what's going on. I've done enough rambling. How are you doing today, june? I'm doing good.
Speaker 1:
It's Wednesday. Huh, Dave, it's nice outside.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, it's about 70 degrees. I think it's about 67 over here where we're at right now. So it's nice weather. We're glad to have spring coming in. What do you know about haunted dolls June? Have you dealt with them a lot?
Speaker 1:
Well, I've moved demons from two of them.
Speaker 2:
From two of them Old demons. Oh my gosh, yeah, geez, that demons two of them. Two of them. Oh my gosh, yeah, geez. That's not the answer I was expecting and dolls and stuff.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, yeah, people bring dolls and statues and stuff. When I was at the ghost conference, somebody wanted me to take a statue. They wanted to give me a statue that they got in Egypt that things move around it, and stuff.
Speaker 2:
I'm like, oh, oh, my gosh.
Speaker 1:
That's just normal.
Speaker 2:
Well, that's a little spooky. We actually have a couple of haunted stuffed animals here but no demons Can't be thankful. Yeah, I wouldn't want demons in the house. I've dealt with demons myself and I just no thanks.
Speaker 1:
They're annoying.
Speaker 2:
They're terrible. But we have our little Em. She's a little 11-year-old. And we have Jace. He's another little 11-year-old boy who we think perished in a wreck. And then we've got he calls himself Lord. He is a 32-year-old Navy sailor who we just found out today passed away in World War II.
Speaker 1:
That's always good to get some background.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, oh yeah. Like I said, today we're going to be talking about haunted dolls. This was requested by Lindsay's friend V. We weren't going to do Robert the Doll, but another podcast within our network actually just did Robert the Doll, so I thought I'd leave some space in between our release and their release. That makes sense. That podcast is called Haunted Moonlight. Go check them out. They are on Spotify and everywhere you can get your podcasts. Again, we're going to be talking about the Island of the Dolls in Mexico. Have you guys heard of this place?
Speaker 1:
No, I haven't been to this place.
Speaker 2:
So Sounds like a place I would not go. I might. I don't think there's any demons in these dolls, though. So I think we're safe.
Speaker 1:
We'll see. They're just creepy though.
Speaker 2:
Let's talk about the history of this place. Let's talk about why history of this place. Let's talk about why people think this place is haunted and how the dolls got there. Before we get too far into the island or the the history of the island, we're going to talk about dolls and how they relate to spirits. What I've heard is a lot of spirits that attach to dolls. Attach to them because they're very human-like. They have faces, they have human appendages and that's familiar to them, so it's something that they attach to very easily after death.
Speaker 2:
In the 1800s, people who had to bury their children would often put dolls in the caskets rather than the body of their deceased child when the wake was happening, because they felt that it was too disturbing to view their past child, which makes sense. This was actually more common in wealthy families, wealthy victorian families, and these dolls were made to look like a child. They were made of wax and they would often have hair on their heads that came straight from the head of the deceased. Oh yeah, well, you know they used to carry around the hair of the deceased as well. That's a choice that was really common back then, and you can actually if you go to thrift stores and antique stores. Sometimes you can find little, lots of hair.
Speaker 2:
I know that they used to do like photos with deceased family members in the photo and they would like pretty them up and doll them up to make them look alive. Yes, they would, but I didn't know about the dolls. Yeah, while the doll was commonly left at the grave, so this wax doll, the Victorian doll, was usually left at the grave of the child. Sometimes the families would actually keep these dolls in the home and lay them in the cribs and care for them, and at the time this was considered a healthy way to mourn. That's some of how I guess how the departed have come to kind of be related to dolls as vessels. Just a little bit of an interesting history on that. Now, spirits don't always attach to human-looking vessels. Sometimes we know they attach to objects that they loved in their lives people or houses or spots. People who work with energy can even attach spirits to items. I don't recommend doing that, but we know that they can.
Speaker 1:
It's just like they can bind demons to an object.
Speaker 2:
Right, Attaching energy to an object, and then you know you can come across these things in antique stores or and it can be a scary situation. So I would not recommend secondhand stores yeah. Do you want to tell us about the other doll that had a demon attached to it? Do you want to tell us about that that was the one in.
Speaker 1:
Who Shall Remain. Nameless is haunted museum.
Speaker 2:
Oh, yeah, yeah, oh really, wow Okay.
Speaker 1:
There's a doll there that they brought in. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I had to go down and clean it out. You know the museum, oh my gosh, a couple years back Dang.
Speaker 2:
I think we almost did an episode on that one.
Speaker 1:
Too many negative things.
Speaker 2:
I'm sure I don't know about gathering all that stuff up and putting it in one place. Yeah, I don't know why you would want to sit in a room like that, like just filled with that negative energy that has to be bad for you yeah, especially if you're being influenced by the dark oh yeah for people to bring things together to create something.
Speaker 1:
But my new book, dark encounters, has the entire episode in one of the chapters okay okay.
Speaker 2:
So if you guys want to know more about that, check out her book dark encounters. I might have to check that out. We'll go ahead and hop into our story now. In mexico city, on a small artificial island in I'm going to pronounce this wrong Zochi Mil, zochi Milko, I think it is there are a few huts that don't seem to have much life. In them, there's not a family to be sat down, there are no adults at work, there are no children playing. Despite the lack of children, however, there are plenty of toys. In fact, the population consists primarily of hundreds of rotting dolls. It is a haunting scene, truly, and one might ask oneself how do a bunch of dolls end up on a small island? Anybody got any guesses? Uh, did people just bring them there and drop them off, or no?
Speaker 1:
Okay, I think there was a man that was bringing them. He took care of the place. Yeah, oh, really that is what happened?
Speaker 2:
yeah, so, tied to the trees hanging from the branches, these toys brought not away in a haunting scene. In the 1950s, a man who went by the name of John Julian Santana Barrera made his residency on this island, where it is said that some years prior, a young girl drowned when becoming tangled in the stems and aquatic brush from the water lilies. At this time, the trees weren't decorated in the peculiarities that they are now, like a twisted up Christmas tree that was designed by Annabelle, so this island looked more like the other chinampas around the area, made to grow crops and benefit the community. It wasn't long before Dawn met a resident of the island.
Speaker 2:
There are, as always, more than one version of what happened. Some say that Dawn found this girl while she was drowning and was unable to save her. Others likely the more interesting of the two stories, claim that dawn heard a disembodied voice of a small girl saying the words I want my doll, but in spanish. Uh, you know I, what was I watching? I was watching something, and the people mentioned that these spirits were speaking a different language when they were catching them. Like a lot of people, don't consider that they that they might speak in other languages right.
Speaker 2:
So yeah, you know actually when I was uh studying dracula, uh the ghost hunters who were doing, who were investigating, actually had apps to translate what they were saying into Romanian, because they're like, they probably don't speak English. How do you feel about those? Like, a lot of like ghost hunting stuff is on apps and things now. How do you feel about all that? What do you think of that? June?
Speaker 1:
I mean, it's okay, I don't need them.
Speaker 2:
Well, you don't need them.
Speaker 1:
I mean, if you don't have any. Yeah, if you don't need any abilities, you know they are what they are. Some of them I have a friend who has some that you know will tell her if they're near, you know, like if there's a ghost near, or they'll spit out words and things like that. They're quite interesting. Actually, you, if you don't have any abilities, they're good, they're great tools so you?
Speaker 2:
so you think that, uh, that they are good tools? Because I just I wonder, I mean, I don't know, but we have one called the spirit talker that we use with our, with our dolls, when we're stuffed animals, whenever we're communicating with them, and sometimes they're really accurate. You know, uh, when we were first getting, whenever we first received uh m our little 11 year old girl, she said the name hannah, which is the name of the lady that she came from, and when I contacted the lady, I asked her is your name hannah.
Speaker 2:
She said yeah, and then I asked her if she could tell me you know what my name began with, because you want to test them and make sure it's not just. I mean, it's technology. You know people can program it to do anything, right. So I asked her if she could tell me what my name began. She said ALY, and I was shocked. But the words that come through sometimes it'll repeat itself or there's like like like very, very specific terms that you wouldn't expect, like I don't even know. Uh, the name miriam comes through at a lot of places and I guess judas's cradle is something that comes up a lot with a lot of people. So it made me kind of question like okay, is this an accurate tool or not? But then you have those instances where she's giving names and like telling, telling you how to spell your name. So I don't know. I guess I kind of question it. I'm interested in seeing someone who just has the abilities like their opinion of the tools.
Speaker 1:
We had the one gentleman that created some apps for the team I was with for a while, and one of them's called Ghost Radar, and out of the three that he designed, that one's the most accurate.
Speaker 2:
Okay, ghost Radar, I'll have to look into that one.
Speaker 3:
Looking for something scary, morbid, frighteningly insane, get out. They're every form of horror, from ghosts, cryptids and curses to deals with the devil, giant insects and more. Join us at haunted tales, our weekly horror anthology series, and let me tell you a story back into our story here.
Speaker 2:
The story goes on to say that dawn, upon locating the area or, the girl located her doll floating in one of the canals. Taking this doll, he hung it up in a tree to show respect to the departed girl. Don continued to live on the island but said that every time he went outside there would be more dolls strung up in the trees and many of them were dismembered or decapitated. I don't know if I believe that part of the story, but that's how the story goes. Eventually, on this crop-growing island, don began to struggle, struggle. His crops were dying and he believed that this was the doing of the girl's restless soul. Because of this, he began to add dolls himself and he would trade his vegetables or dig in the dumps to find other dolls, hoping that these offerings would make the child happy.
Speaker 2:
In In the year 2001, don eventually passed away, but chillingly, he was uncomfortably near the area that he claimed to have found the first doll Through his life.
Speaker 2:
This was Don's obsession and he hung those dolls up over the 51-year span on which he lived on the island. Those who know him stated that Don was different after going to the island and that he no longer acted like himself, but rather like he was being influenced. Someone who knew him said that he got very upset that he was unable to save the girl in the first place. Some think that Don died of a heart attack. Some think maybe the girl did it, but we don't really know. Many of the locals believe that these dolls are in fact haunted by the spirits of the dead. If you ask the locals, they will tell you that once the sun sets on the horizon and the moon has lifted purple form into the sky, these dolls seem to forget that they are no longer living among us. People who travel there claim to hear whispering and whistles, and these dolls are even capable of moving their limbs, opening their eyes and turning their head.
Speaker 3:
No, no, yes, yes.
Speaker 2:
I hate that. Well, you know, some think the dolls are trying to lure them in in order to drown them. It's commonly suggested that when visiting the island, it is wise to bring the little girl a gift, another doll, to add to this collection. So what have you been to this island June?
Speaker 1:
No, I haven't been to it. I've been by it, but I haven't been to it.
Speaker 2:
Okay, what do you think? Do you think this place is haunted?
Speaker 1:
There's a lot. Yeah, it is haunted, but there are human spirits, gotcha, yeah, and they just haven't crossed completely over, they haven't ascended, and most of them want to stay there. That's cool.
Speaker 2:
Do you think that they mean any harm to people coming to the island? You know people think that they want to drown them. Do you think that they actually want to harm them? No, yeah, people just trying to.
Speaker 1:
There you go, empire of the stories.
Speaker 2:
And make it more interesting. We stress on this podcast if anytime we're talking about ghosts, we stress that it's really important to try not to embellish ghost stories, or rather hauntings, because that takes away from the credibility of it all. You know and right.
Speaker 2:
And if, if you go back to the beginning of the story, where it said he found the girl and she was drowning, versus he heard a disembodied voice, I almost believe that he found the girl, not because I don't believe in disembodied voices, but because just the way that people tend to embellish things to make them scarier, to make more interesting, so I think it's more likely that he found her drowning. Yeah, I know that it takes a lot of energy for spirits to move things and make things happen. Do you think that these dolls are moving at night? You think they're up to turn their heads or do you think that that's all just?
Speaker 1:
I think that the human spirits that are there, that can do that quite easily okay, especially if they if they're you know, if they're kids and they honest poop somebody yeah yeah, kids are.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, I feel like, I feel like they might be able to as well, just because if there's enough of them gathered in one place like that, they probably have enough energy to do small things like that. Oh, yeah, yeah, a lot of people put emphasis on it being just you know, the one girl here, but mexico, this is also. It takes place on aztec land, I believe, is what I found. So, and you know, the ancient peoples were much more in tune, I think, with the spirit world than a lot of modern people are. I think technology has taken away from that, so it would make sense for that to be a high energy area.
Speaker 2:
What about you, linds? What do you think of all these haunted dolls? I know you love it. Well, I'm not a fan of but I mean it's fine if they're like human spirits, but I just I don't like dolls in general. I never have. I have heard that it is bad for human spirits to hang out here, but you said they want to be there. So do you think that it's bad for the spirits to hang out? I don't know how it would be bad for them.
Speaker 1:
Children should cross. You know, know they all should just stand, but if they want to stay, stick around, like then it's up to them, entirely right? Oh, there's a local graveyard that dates back to the early 1700s here that there's a little boy, edward, and he hollered at me to come visit him. So you know, he likes to be there, he likes to let the deer go through the graveyard and he loves to play with them. Aw, he's happy, I asked him. I said do you want to go home?
Speaker 2:
He said no. I'm good Okay.
Speaker 1:
I'm like all right, fine.
Speaker 2:
All right, so they can leave. If they're happy here, they can leave at any time. They don't necessarily need. Oh, yeah, yeah, okay, that makes sense. I like that.
Speaker 1:
I almost wonder if there's not a ley line that runs under the island. Oh yeah, maybe, maybe.
Speaker 2:
The Aztecs used. The Aztecs, like the ancient Romans knew about ley lines, lines that they were lines of power. Mm-hmm, I was going to say that might explain why there could be more than one spirit there, if there's some kind of portal or vortex or something.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, it's like if you go to Stonehenge when I went to Stonehenge, there are six intersecting ley lines. They intersect at Stonehenge. Wow, it's a place of power. I did not know that.
Speaker 2:
That's cool. Yeah, I of power. I did not know that that's cool. I knew that that was believed to be an area of ley lines, but I didn't realize that there were so many going through there.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, they made that right there and it's the point of power.
Speaker 2:
That's neat. I love that they say that the druids they believed the druids used to meet there because it was point of power.
Speaker 1:
Yeah.
Speaker 2:
I think that that's a good spot to go ahead and wrap things up. Before we end this, I want to talk a little bit about a giveaway that we are going to be doing. So we're going to be doing a special giveaway for our listeners, and June has agreed to help us out with that. As we mentioned earlier, june is an author of several titles, and if you are a reader who is interested in learning more about the paranormal, then you will be happy to hear that she has agreed to do a giveaway with a copy of one of her books, demon Seer, the Awakening. To enter that giveaway, you check out our About Me. There will be instructions on how to do that. Even better, if you are a Patreon donor, then you will get a double entry, and I want to thank you in june for joining us on our show. You are an absolute joy. It was fun to understand a little bit more about spirits that want to stay here, and you know you're what is going on over there on the island.
Speaker 2:
You debunk some of the spooky fairy tales that people have come up with, and if you enjoyed this episode of Macabre at Midnight and you enjoy spooky things, then we'd like to take a moment to ask you to help us reach listeners like you by liking, rating and subscribing to us wherever you get your podcasts For regular updates. You can follow our socials. You can join our Discord and, if you feel so inclined, you can donate to our Patreon, where you can get all sorts of awesome benefits and macabre merch that are exclusive to Patreon members. And if you donate this month again, you get an additional entry into our giveaway for June's book. Go check out her titles Again. We will link them in our biography. Help her out. Buy some of those books. I think that you'll find them to be really interesting. You can find all of this information in our About Me. And remember to lock your doors. Sprinkle a little bit of salt on the threshold.
Speaker 1:
And you'll definitely see me in your nightmare. Thank you.
