We have all heard that cliché phrase about being in the wrong place at the improper time. Many times, it is mentioned in passing with little to no substance behind it. But other times, like in my life, that expression nearly acted as a credo for my family.
For thirty-one years now, since my first paranormal experience in 1987, I have lived in the life beyond. For thirty-one years, I have seen a dimension reality shows fraudulently sell and nonbelievers mock. For thirty-one years, I have seen a life beyond our tweets, soccer practice for the kids, fake news, viral videos, and who is wearing what at the Oscars.
Our lives seem simple, and they are. Regardless, we tend to only care about life when illness falls upon us. We tend to only care about life when standing somberly at a funeral. Billions of people every day speak of faith. They speak of that yellow brick road that awaits them when the lights go out in their city.
But how many seek it out every day? How many people in this world actually realize that, yes, they are right? There is something after all of this. Can I call it heaven? Can I call it hell?
I can’t. However, what those places represent is all up for interpretation. I have seen evil. I have seen bliss. But magic? I never thought much about it. Magic has always been a whimsical parlor trick fueled by logic and manipulation of the mind. Can people truly control an environment by willing it that way or even requesting an effect from a god without some slight of hand involved?
I have to admit, my life in the field of paranormal research has been filled with a preponderant amount of inquisitive confusion.
When people meet me, they instantly assume I am a very religious man. In reality, I am not. I believe in what I see, and when I tell you I have seen some unfathomable supernatural occurrences, you better believe I mean it.
If you have followed along in my journey, you are well aware how views have changed and how I have adapted to the ever-changing realm of the unknown. For me, I don’t want to believe a man or woman can have the power to bring forth something from a spiritual realm. It doesn’t matter if their intent is genuine and for good, and it doesn’t matter if their intent is for something malicious. I just don’t want to believe it. My mind cannot wrap around it. I have yet to see a person stand in front of me and bend a spoon or invoke a spirit or heal a sick loved one. But the Norman case made me question a lot of things, not only within myself, but within paranormal science.
I have been on a journey since 1987. I was viciously attacked by an unseen, strong force. From that day forward, I pursued the reasons for it. Thirty-some years later, I still don’t know why. But what I do know is it is out there.
Monsters and angels exist. Good and evil exist. And when I say that, I am not referring to the standard definitions. Monsters can be many things, and so can angels for that matter.
However, a vintage doll with a tragic history gave me the opportunity to see a different kind of monster. A monster I would have never thought I’d see. There was a power. A power our stiff, professing scientists have yet to measure. Frankly, it’s because they can’t. Hell, I can’t.
All I can do is tell you what happened, what was filmed and recorded, and leave the rest to the universe. Not everything can be measured. Especially when we are basing measurements on human science. I grow tired of that mentality.
We say, no life could possibly exist on other planets because they lack oxygen and water. That mental attitude is asinine. How can we, with a straight face, base everything off of our own requirements for existence?
Again, not everything can be measured.
Having spent the past few years solely focused on documenting a possessed doll, I’ve opened my mind even more. But I did not expect an ending. I have always said that true ghost stories have no ending. They always are and always will be. Ghosts never die. Energy does not die. Therefore, there is never truly an end.
We asked for it, and furthermore, we should have anticipated it. Were we accurate or even in the right state of mind—considering those previous events—to decide to keep him?
This case, as bizarre and terrifying as it is, did end. And I still to this day can’t even accept that, and I was there. Looking back, it was mindless to consider for one second that any of this could have had a happy ending. I always hoped for one, and maybe, in a way, we did find that for a brief moment in time. Yet it was just an ignorant pipe dream to believe there was such a thing as “happily ever after.” That’s where I stood when it started again.
That forces me to wish I authored fictional stories instead of true accounts of the paranormal. Then maybe the best of times would be something to find trust and comfort in.
Cognitively content, I thought after publishing the book that preceded this one that a chapter of our lives would be left locked away just like he was. You may rid yourself of an entity or a haunting, and that may become the end of your story. But the spirit carries on forever.
In 2016, we acquired a monster—a doll we would later prove to be haunted beyond any terrifying tale ever told. And we proved it by living directly in the line of fire. That was our choice. That was our foolish belief. Embarrassingly, I say arrogance and selfish curiosity led us both to think we were the ones in total control. When in reality, he was the one pulling the strings.
However, at the time, we felt our decision was compassionate. But truth be told, I just didn’t want to part with the one thing we had in our possession, and our masquerade of control, that proved the supernatural existed.
Sure, I have seen a lot. I have documented and published a lot concerning my work in the field. But out of all of those stories and experiences, this one has taken the shape of an exhausting and tantalizing obsession.
At one time, I did want him gone, but that was before I witnessed the unimaginable through him. My friend of misery was no longer my friend of mystery … to a point. How could I want him gone when my job is studying paranormal phenomenon? I could never give up such an opportunity. Not now.
Forget the movies. Forget the campfire stories. I think the critics of my first book on Norman said it best. Many of them set Norman on a pedestal above all of the other haunted dolls that have become household names. Annabelle and Robert, the two haunted dolls I mentioned in the preface, come to mind. Although I can’t account for their haunted validity, I also can’t report on the fact they are not. I haven’t been granted that opportunity.
But the critics and television made Norman a household name. On one hand, I am extremely blessed and grateful for that. On the other hand, why did it have to be my household? To think that our doll made readers forget about the others that scared film audiences for years was more than overwhelming and flattering. But at what price?
The toll this experience has taken on our family is nearly immeasurable. Norman has changed our lives forever. Unseeing it is impossible.
Friends, it is not effortless to openly expose monstrous events such as these. There are reputation, credibility, and just plain sanity at stake. We have put Norman out there to act as a learning tool for others, no matter the outcome for us both socially and professionally. Now more than ever, he is more of a being than a plastic toy.
There has been a very common and repetitive question in reviews of the first Norman book and in emails and comments on social media. Why would we keep such a dangerous entity in our home? Some people ask that question in a very accusative manner while others ask it with sincere intentions. Why keep our family purposely in danger? To some, it may sound like we are foolish to do so. To others, you get it. We are a family of paranormal investigators and researchers. I am a phenomenologist. We have accepted this responsibility.
One way or another, somebody is going to accept the responsibility and repercussions of owning Norman. So I answer that question with a question. “Why not us?” There isn’t anybody more qualified than two people who have lived years studying and experiencing supernatural processes.
You may have bought this book because you saw Norman on television or on the internet. What you saw on Travel Channel’s A Haunting is only about 25 percent of the story. There is so much more to learn about.
You may have grabbed this book for one reason or another without any prior knowledge of me or its predecessor. More will be revealed later on concerning previous events, so don’t worry about being out of the loop. A lot of previously released footage is also available on social media, so take a look at that. This book is a collection of my notes written out and streamlined to share and continue the saga.
For over twenty years now, I have documented alleged hauntings. In my previous works, each chapter was a story, an experience, and my thoughts concerning a particular case. But in those situations, I was able to walk away from them, and the experiences were written after the fact.
Norman was different. He became his own story, and one we had control of telling. So every day a new entry was added to our journal concerning the living dead doll.
My name is Stephen Lancaster. My involvement in the field of paranormal research spans over two decades. I have worked over one thousand cases in that time and can count on two hands twice over those that truly left me dumbfounded.
I began serious research on the phenomenon known as “troubled objects” three years ago with the main point of focus being Norman the haunted doll. My story, our story, continues.
As I write this, it is July 26, 2019. It was three years ago to the day when we first started to experience strange and unexplainable activity in our home. I took a look back on social media to see what I was saying then.
In a 2016 post dated for today, I said,
Activity at our house has been on the rise ever since we started collecting haunted objects.
There has always been activity here of some sort over the years and there are at least a dozen witnesses to it. But considering what we do when it comes to research, I always dismissed it as spiritual energy returning home with us.
However it appears to be escalating a lot recently. There has been a lot of emotional turmoil in the house for the past week (everything is fine, not that kind of emotional) and that may be feeding whatever is here.
We have a surveillance system up in the house. This morning, we caught a wooden totem fly across the bedroom at my back while I was working at the desk and a transparent anomaly appears to the right of the camera prior to the throw. Very interesting stuff.
[We are on] high alert today.
I believe tonight we might do a full on investigation and fire up everything.1
As you can probably tell, we never suspected Norman at first. Three years ago today, the Norman saga started to take shape. This post was shortly after we acquired the doll, yet at the time, no fingers were pointing toward him.
Curious events were starting to take place in our house, slowly escalating to what you now know as the phenomenon Norman the doll. But that was then. What do I do now?
The investigative and research part of me wanted to keep going. I wanted to witness just how far this would go. In the world of paranormal research, events and experiences such as these are monumental, and let’s face reality here: they are extremely rare.
I mean, after all, this is why I, or we, or maybe even you do it, right?
The endless nights. The countless batteries. The cup after cup of coffee. We all have our reasons. Maybe it is scientific discovery. Maybe the motive stems from a personal supernatural experience. Maybe it is simply the selflessness behind using one’s years of experience to help others with their own paranormal issues. At this point in my life, and my many years in the field, mine is all three.
Whatever the case, history was being made. And not just any history—an extraordinary one. This was not a bizarre occurrence that could be swept under the rug by our government. This was not a fictitious staged event by a network producer to boost the ratings of a ghost hunting television show. This was historical, concrete, genuine, and factual.
With that being said, this became quite the conundrum when one is an often-sought-out, seasoned paranormal researcher who was in total control of what’s real and what’s not. Here I was with my own personal case, and I couldn’t really explain it. Damned if I did. Damned if I didn’t. But damned if I wouldn’t. So we continued on with our hell house, our box of mystery, and our doll that was nor toy nor man for the benefit and interest of discovery, and for the hopes of uncovering how and why.
We continued raising hell. We kept researching him, and this is what happened … so far.
1. Stephen Lancaster, “Activity at our house has been on the rise ever since we started collecting haunted objects,” Facebook, July 26, 2016, https://www.facebook.com/wraithwrite/posts/1580550655578507.