What Possessed Me To Do That?

This weekend I received a gift from my Reddit Secret Santa. They had given me a lovely dream catcher, a headband, a yarmulke, and a dreidel. They are both Native American and Jewish. I was really touched that they wanted to share their culture and faiths with me. Being the kind of person I am I wanted to know more about their culture, especially since it was still Hanukkah. I started researching different aspects of the religion but by the end of the evening I somehow ended up looking up various Jewish demons and ghost which led to today’s post. During my research, I came across Dybbuks and Ibburs.

Like quite a few people I know, I was only familiar with Dybbuks before this weekend’s research due to horror movies and Zac Bagans. Through the movies like The Possession (loved it because it had Papa Winchester in it) and Zac Bagans Halloween special from this year (refused to watch it because Zac Bagans makes my skin crawl). A dybbuk is a spirit that sticks around after death to possess a human body for evil reasons. It can either be someone evil who passed that wishes to carry on their evil deeds on an innocent person or someone that passed away who wasn’t really evil so to speak but wants to punish someone who is currently evil for their actions. Dybbuks aren’t demonic but they can be mistaken for demons because of their actions.

The term Dybbuk box didn’t really come around until the early 2000’s when it was used by Kevin Mannis to describe a wine cabinet that he purchased in 2001. The family that he bought it from claimed there was a Dybbuk sealed in the box. Mannis claims that he gave it to several family members who either had odd things happen to them or had terrible things happen to them. For example, the day he gave it to his mom for her birthday, his mother had a stroke. Eventually, Mannis sold it on eBay. A more detailed history of Mannis’ Dybbuk box can be found here. After appearing on eBay, the box began to become popular with people talking about it. Even the news stations across the country were commenting about the odd eBay listing. Eventually, the box sold to Jason Haxton. Haxton would end up developing weird health issues like head-to-toe welts and coughing up blood. Thinking that the Dybbuk box was causing these issues, Haxton worked with Rabbis on how to seal the Dybbuk back into the wine cabinet. That would have been the end of the story but Haxton decided to donate the wine cabinet to Zac Bagans. Of course, Zac Bagans had to figure out a way to use it on his show. I didn’t watch the Halloween special but from what I heard Zac kept freaking out about nothing.

On a curious note, it looks like the Dybbuk box may have been what caused Post Malone’s troubles this year. According to an article found here, Post Malone visited Bagans’ museum and saw the Dybbuk box. While viewing the Dybbuk box, Malone touch Bagans which supposedly enough to transfer the curse to Malone. Since he visited the museum, Malone has experienced plane trouble, had his house broken into, and was in a car crash. All this happened within weeks of each other. Thankfully Post Malone is still doing well and hopefully won’t be affected by the Dybbuk anymore.

While researching these spirits, I did wander over to eBay. I was surprised to see several posts from people claiming to sell dybbuk boxes of various styles. All claim to be possessed by an evil spirit and that the box should not be open. Most of these just look like someone took a box or a jewelry box or whatever and poured multi-colored candlewax on them. I seriously doubt any of these are legit. Who would knowingly sell an evil spirit for $2? Honestly, this feels like one of the many ways that people try to exploit the paranormal for financial gain through fakery. **Cough** Cough** likezacbagans **Cough**Cough** Sorry. Been trying to get over a cold.

While Dybbuks are evil, they have an opposite. An Ibbur is a Jewish spirit that possesses someone to do something good. It is typically a righteous spirit that needs to inhabit a body in order to accomplish a task that can only be done by a person, to fulfill a promise that they didn’t get a chance to do while living, or to perform a mitzvah (a religious duty). An Ibbur, unlike a Dybbuk, does not harm its host. The host may not even be aware that they are possessed at the time. They are considered to be a positive entity. It’s unusual to think of possessions being something good but it looks like the Ibbur is one.

Did any of y’all watch the Halloween special? What did you think of it? Has anyone purchased a Dybbuk box off of eBay? I would love to hear your experiences if you have.