Can objects be possessed?

[Bernadette]

This came up in a doll group that I'm a member of. Someone asked if anybody believed in haunted dolls, and someone else said that unclean spirits (her words) can become attached to things. Is this true, according to Catholic belief?

[Insanis]

Yes, but it is called "infestation", not "possession".

To clarify, infestation is when demons are active attached to a place or thing. Possession is the demonic control over a person's body (not their soul!).

Any actual "hauntings" of places or things are demonic infestations if they truly are preternatural.

[Bernadette]

Oh wow, I didn't think it was true. Live and learn, I guess.

[Insanis]

Oh wow, I didn't think it was true. Live and learn, I guess.

Most of the time, such things are probably "ghost stories" and not preternatural. Dolls look "alive" and can be the focus of such stories because of this.

Infestations can occur in places and objects without any such particular draw to that perception. The use of them for evil is a prime way to have this happen.

[Prayerful]

Honestly most ghosts died when reliable electric lights, appeared.

[OCLittleFlower]

Yes, they can be.

However, people often try to make money off the idea of a place or object being "haunted" and many stories of hauntings are marketing fabrications or people being quite suggestable.

Yes, places can be "haunted" by souls from Purgatory, etc.

But often there are tricks of the light or creeky floorboards or people who've had a bit too much to drink.

[diaduit]

In 1993 I was living in my first dingy apartment with a friend of mine while working away from home.  It was old, damp and 10 pounds a week so ideal for me at 21, part of an old house on a main street in a small town where it is backed onto a river.  One night while my friend was out and I was in bed about to sleep, I heard a mans laugh from the corner of the room, now terrified as I was I talked myself into believing it was from outside, maybe someone at the river or next door garden, even though the buildings were ground floor businesses up and down the street and not residential and this particular side of the river didn't have a walkway for foot traffic.  A few minutes later while I was turned to the wall afraid to turn around, I felt my bed dip, like someone had sat on the mattress just at my top half....I almost died of fright and prayed for my friend to come home.
Eventually, I don't know how, I fell asleep and never mentioned it to my friend and neither did it happen again.


Never waste an opportunity to tell a ghost story.

[red solo cup]

Ouija board.

[Insanis]

In 1993 I was living in my first dingy apartment with a friend of mine while working away from home.  It was old, damp and 10 pounds a week so ideal for me at 21, part of an old house on a main street in a small town where it is backed onto a river.  One night while my friend was out and I was in bed about to sleep, I heard a mans laugh from the corner of the room, now terrified as I was I talked myself into believing it was from outside, maybe someone at the river or next door garden, even though the buildings were ground floor businesses up and down the street and not residential and this particular side of the river didn't have a walkway for foot traffic.  A few minutes later while I was turned to the wall afraid to turn around, I felt my bed dip, like someone had sat on the mattress just at my top half....I almost died of fright and prayed for my friend to come home.
Eventually, I don't know how, I fell asleep and never mentioned it to my friend and neither did it happen again.

It sounds like a possible hypnagogic experience for part of it.

It does sound quite scary. I am glad it (apparently) turned out well.

Never waste an opportunity to tell a ghost story.

I usually avoid it personally.

[Insanis]

Honestly most ghosts died when reliable electric lights, appeared.

I suspect that beliefs in spiritualism (or whatever they call it now) is at an all time high.

[mikemac]

Ouija board.

When we were kids the girls across the street invited my brother and I over to play with their Ouija board.  My mother got wind of it before we went over and didn't allow us to go.  "Don't you ever play with a Ouija board, bad things could happen" she said.  You could tell mom was very serious, so I never did play with a Ouija board.