the totally insane true story behind the 1970s film and book Sybil

posessed Raggedy Ann doll named Annabelle

That sounds pretty scary though.

Totally watch all those shows though. Chip Coffey is my favorite paranormal investigator. We're Facebook friends.

posessed Raggedy Ann doll named Annabelle

That sounds pretty scary though.

― (✿◠‿◠) (ENBB), Monday, July 30, 2012 3:25 PM (11 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Fuck I listened to a podcast abt this case last year, it was awesome... can't remember which one...

http://efeyas.hubpages.com/hub/Annabelle-The-Possessed-Doll-A-Terrifying-Case

they used to give spooky talks at my high school during halloween. and this was after the demon murder case that they were involved in. you'd think they'd want to steer clear of my town. they are good at being spooky though! and they set the bar with amityville.

The haunted doll is amazing

Seamingly, from no where, a liquidy red substance had appeared on the doll.

Nice uninentional punwork in the awful grammar there.

they set the bar with amityville

We used to drive by the horror house all the time when I was in HS until Amy Fisher shot Mary-Jo Buttafuco and then we'd drive by her and Joey's house instead.

Long Island is very exciting you see.

The creepiest haunted doll has to be Robert.

Also the guy who wrote the book about Amityville ate in my parents restaurant shortly after it was published and showed my mom a necklace he'd had made which was a silver model of the book. I think he died weirdly a couple years thereafter.

WHO IS ROBERT?

Never read Sibyl or most of the other books mentioned in this thread, but I did read The Minds of Billy Milligan when I was in maybe junior high. Pretty fucked up stuff, and obviously I was in no position at that age to judge whether it was all true, all bullshit, or some mixture of the two.

ENBB, Robert the Doll

Ahhhhhh!

Going to Key West for my birthday later this year. Totally gonna go see Robert.

I think I saw this movie. BUt I keep thinking of another one: where a girl "inherits" (sorry migraine) the spirit of a girl who just died. A silly horror movie

Don't take Robert's picture without getting permission!

Oh, don't worry, I just read that part. I'll be sure to ask first. Also, I very nearly booked a room at what is now a guesthouse but used to be his old owner the artist's house!

Guys

http://i.cdn.turner.com/trutv/trutv.com/graphics/photos/criminal_mind/psychology/multiples/3-3-Sybil-Shirley-K-Mason.jpg

http://userserve-ak.last.fm/serve/_/26347737/Tears+for+Fears+tff73246.png

creeeeeeepy

Also the guy who wrote the book about Amityville ate my parents

^ misread as this, thought thread was about to take a horrifying turn

okay, am I missing something or is there a link on that site to the story behind the doll?

I have read almost all of these books (although I conflated a lot of Sybil and When Rabbit Howls (which one has the, um, button hook involvement?)) but somehow forgot about Debbie Nathan's book despite being super psyched to read it before it came out.

Rectifying that ASAP.

Robert? There was no story - I was confused too. I just googled him and found a wiki page.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_the_Doll

x-post

Although I never read the book, I totally remember Truddi Chase, seeing her on Oprah and the Shelly Long movie. I was too afraid to watch it!

Thanks ENBB! That's what I was looking for.

okay wtf! tears for fears facial resemblance/album title reference is wigging my shit OUT.

I know, right??!?!?

Button hook is Sybil.

Sybil was the "I can't eat chocolate ice cream" book, too, right? God the effed up details that I remember from these books.

I don't remember anything about chocolate ice cream.
If you're thinking cold water bladder enemas while mom plays thundering classical piano, you're thinking Sybil.

I followed the link from the Wikipedia page on Robert the Doll to its homepage, where they have an animated gif of him wiggling his head, and now I am afraid.

Did Sybil ever meet up with Eve from the Five (or was it three?) Faces of Eve?

My first awareness of these things came from a fascinating UK TV documentary about this Hillside Strangler guy in Los Angeles, who when caught started manifesting multiple personality stuff. At one point psychiatrists were going to class him as guilty but insane, but eventually they decided he was faking it, basically using Sybil as his Multiple-Personalities-For-Dummies. The idea of multiple personalities still fascinates me, for all that I don't believe in them.

Go Ask Alice is also total fraud.

Book cover used to freak me out when I was a kid.

The ice cream thing (it might not have been chocolate) was that a therapist gave whomever it was a dish of ice cream, and the texture and shape of the scoops of ice cream reminded the poor MPD sufferer of testicles and she flipped out.

Go Ask Alice is also total fraud.

Is that true? The book/movie had a big effect on me in middle school--I've even shown the film to my own middle-school students.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zk_-u0wejk8

Yes, it is true! That book is a fraud!

Just read the Wikipedia page. Another illusion shattered.

Could I request that there be no mention of the Easter Bunny on this thread?

This has been a rough day for you, I understand.

Go Ask Alice movie is hilarious. Shatner! Matlock! special one-scene guest appearance by Mackenzie Phillips!

I like the part where she wakes up in a park unaware of how she got there, even though she's apparently been around for weeks

Sparks' second "diary" project, Jay's Journal, gave rise to a controversy that cast further doubt on Go Ask Alice's veracity. Jay's Journal was allegedly the diary of a boy who committed suicide after becoming involved with the occult. Again, Sparks claimed to have based it on the diary a patient. However, the family of the boy in question, Alden Barrett, disowned the book. They claimed that Sparks had used only a handful of the actual diary entries, and had invented the great majority of the book, including the entire occult angle.[2] This led many to speculate that "Alice's" diary—if indeed it existed—had received similar treatment. No one claiming to have known the real "Alice" has ever come forward.

obviously an upstanding member of the medical community

Michelle Remembers is now on its way to me.

To be 100% clear - I really really really do not want to make light of actual child abuse itt -- it's real and really really horrible and, logically, causes people to do all kinds of mental gymnastics to shield themselves from memories of it. Really I just was shocked at the cultural phenomenon of Sybil, LLC, the women involved, and the ripple effect Dr Wilbur's work had on the mental health field, the rise and fall of MPD as a popular diagnosis and the totally bizarre Satanic ritual abuse sex cult stuff that followed.

I also loved Go Ask Alice as a kid. I don't know which I loved more -- Go Ask Alice, Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore, or Alice (the tv show). They're all v entertaining, all of the Alices.

Ha, we watched some of Go Ask Alice in Grade 8! All I remember taking away from it was hippie girls and Jefferson Airplane. I think it actually made drugs seem more exciting.

Maybe I should watch it again:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMM3X3hqj3w

Never knew about these other books btw, though I do remember the Satanism panic from childhood. I'm pretty stoked to check some of this out.

Scared me initially...soon got over it. The music really made an impression, though I later learned it was nothing but covers by hacky in-house musicians: "White Rabbit," "Dear Mr. Fantasy," "It Ain't Easy."

What was the overlap between the SRA panic, D&D panic, and heavy metal panic? (A Venn diagram might help.)

(Also WTF with people panicking in the 80s?)
xpost

The music really made an impression, though I later learned it was nothing but covers by hacky in-house musicians

OTM