The Tape Library - Archive of the Paranormal & the Unexplained - The Terrifying True Story of the Dybbuk Box

Episode Date: October 7, 2024

Is the Dybbuk Box truly cursed, or is it simply a paranormal hoax? The legend of the Dybbuk, an ancient Jewish spirit that can possess the living, has gripped believers and skeptics alike. In this video, we investigate the chilling history of the Dybbuk Box and the terrifying experiences of those who have come into contact with it. Is there something evil lurking inside, or is it all just superstition? Support the channel with Patreon - www.patreon.com/thetapelibrary Do you have a supernatural story to share? Drop me an email at [e-mail] You can check out The Tape Library in audio form on all of your favourite podcast providers. Tiktok - https://www.tiktok.com/@thetapelibrary Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/people/The-Tape-Library/100094332411836/ Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/thetapelibrary Archive of the Paranormal, the strange and the unexplained. The Tape Library brings you the creepiest stories, to keep you horror junkies up all night. True scary stories of ghosts, cryptids, UFOs and true crime. Additional footage and audio from Evanto, Singularity, Midjourney and Pexels. Music by Karl Casey @ White Bat Audio and the youtube audio library.  All other footage used under fair use. CHAPTERS 00:00 The Dibbuk Box Origins 06:17 Welcome to The Tape Library 07:52 Kevin's Story 19:41 The Students 24:44 The Curator 30:48 Digging Deeper 37:46 Movie & Lies 41:56 The Haunted Museum Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

First, without a doubt the item known as the dibbit box is a genuine artefact of amazing power and magnetism. Second, without a doubt the divot box is a fraud. These two conclusions contradict each other, but I believe both to be true. Museum curator and author Jason Haxson. This story begins in Poland in the 1930s, a time of violent tensions between the Polish. and Jewish communities. World War II was on the horizon and the atmosphere was tense, to say the least. A young girl named Sophie would regularly go to her cousin's house with her mother and a few other women for tea parties. Sophie's cousin, Havela, a mother of three, had recently lost her children and

husband in a violent riot. It was beginning to feel like the walls were closing in for the Jewish communities in Europe. When the men of their households would go to prayers, the women would would sit around, talking about their fears for the future. Havella was not only convinced things were about to get worse, but was also dealing with the trauma of her family being murdered. Over time, Havela began to become obsessed with the idea of contacting the debt, and these originally innocent tea parties slowly began to transform into something else. She would often hold seances during these gatherings. While this was something that would go against their strongly held beliefs, as Sophie would say decades later,

later, things that were taboo were as alluring to the young back then, as they are to young people today. It started out as innocent fun. Havella leaning into the role of the medium. The girl was all laughing and joking, not taking the whole thing too seriously. They would ask the spirit's questions about the future, and surprisingly, according to Sophie at least, it worked. They sat around a table that night, the letters of the alphabet and the familiar yes and no written at the top of the board, as they attempted to commune with the other world, the planchette moving freely as they did. A number of voices seemed to come through that night, different spirits attempting to communicate with the women. Week after week they would gather and continue their game with the spirits,

until Havela suggested the idea of attempting to contact, something else. The normal gaggle of messages came through the spirit board until one voice seemed to begin to communicate in a way that felt clearer than before, more direct and consistent. They didn't know what it was, but Havela in particular took note of it. She had long stopped thinking of this as a fun thing to do with her friends. The world was growing a darker and scarier place by the minute, and she believed that this voice that was communicated with them was powerful and was exactly. what she had been looking for, something to protect her and her people from any more wrongdoing, something that would offer protection on a grander level than any human being could hope to do.

The group spoke about what they had just experienced when that evening session was over, and one of the women suggested that what they were communicating with could have been a Dybock, a term that only came about in the 17th century, but a concept that was much older. depending on who you ask they are either demons or a spirit of a deceased person that has not been properly laid to rest trapped between this world and the next either way this entity apparently has the ability and more importantly the desire to possess another person to allow it to live in this plane of existence this didn't seem to scare the women too much though as they continue to meet and continue to talk with the spirit its voice growing stronger and stronger.

With each communication, they even began to become convinced this spirit was having an effect on their day-to-day lives, turning their luck around and protected them. All seemed to be good. Until the spirit asked something of the women, it wanted them to perform a ritual

that would bring it into the real world permanently. This immediately raised flags. Something about this request made it clear to them that this creature could not be trusted, and doing its bidding was going a step too far. Instead, they decided to hatch a plan to end this once and for all. They weren't sure for certain how many spirits they were actually communicating with,

but they decided to perform a ritual involving a box. They would bring the spirits into this world, only to trap them inside the box, containing them for as long as they needed, until they could figure out a way to banish the spirits for good. But as they began the ritual in the early hours of November 9th, 1938, something went wrong. The ritual failed, and numerous spirits were able to escape. Although it appears, something at least, was captured within the box.

This box was subsequently destroyed in the war, but years later, somewhere else, a second box was constructed in an attempt to capture those spirits that had been unleashed upon the war. world all those years prior. This was the story that was laid out by Sophie as she spoke with a man named Kevin in America, nearly 70 years later. The elderly woman cried and prayed as she told her story, saying how she was so sorry they didn't know what they were doing and claimed that most of the tragic events that have happened over the preceding decades were due to the evil that they had unleashed upon the world. Havela would keep the second box for years until one of her grandaughters sold it along with a number of other items

and in the state sale after she died Kevin was the new owner of the box and after what he had experienced leading up to arriving at Sophie's door that day he was ready to believe anything Welcome to the tape library Tonight we're getting into a good old-fashioned haunted object story I think the first of these I've tackled since we spoke about Robert the Dole Just as a quick note, as I know I will see comments about it.

The original name for the spirit is spelled D-Y-B-B-U-K, but the original story, where most of the Dibb-B-B-U-K, it is spelled Dib-B-U-K. My knowledge of the Dibbock box before this basically consisted of seeing YouTube thumbnails, with people's scared faces pressed up to the camera, saying stuff like, we opened 14 Dibbock Boxes in one night and survived. So it wasn't really something I paid much attention to.

It just felt like a silly gimmick, and I had seen numerous comments online saying the entire thing was a hoax. But then I came across Jason Haxson's book that lays out his personal encounters with the box and the original story behind it, and I became absolutely fascinated. I never expected this to be such a rich topic. It's a ghost story, but also a fascinating insight into the power of belief, a true melding of urban legend and reality, of past folklore meeting the modern world. world, a tale of FBI raids, demons and even a haunted film set, a story where it's never quite clear where fact ends and fiction begins. So let's kick off our run of paranormal episodes with a deep dive into one of the most famous haunted objects of all time. Get yourself a warm drink, dim the lights and get comfortable. It's time to uncover the disturbing story of the Dibbock Box.

Chapter 1. Kevin's Story In 2003, a posting would appear on eBay for a small wooden box, a simple wine cabinet with the decorations of grapes on each of its two doors. Below the doors was a small drawer that would pull out. The object itself didn't appear to be that interesting, but what captured the attention of those who stumbled across the listing was the long post written along with it. This post recounted the story of Portland, Oregon resident, Kevin Manis,

who had come into possession of the box a couple of years prior. He laid out his entire experience since owning it, seemingly as a warning to others. Kevin said that in September of 2001 he attended an estate sale. He was looking for items for his small furniture shop. A 103-year-old woman had passed away, and her granddaughters were selling her belongings. Kevin learned at the sale that the deceased woman was born in Poland and ended up in a Nazi concentration camp during the war. She was the only member of her immediate family. She was the only member of her immediate family who survived. She managed to escape with a number of other prisoners before ending up in Spain, where she stayed until the end of the war. It was while in Spain that

she acquired one of only three items she would go on to take with her to America. A small wooden wine cabinet. Kevin purchased a few items from the sale including the wine cabinet. But before he could leave, he was approached by one of the women's granddaughters. Who said to him, I see you purchased a dibbock box. Kevin asked what she meant, and the woman said the wine cabinet was always kept in her grandmother's sewing room, out of reach of the kids.

Her grandmother had called it a dibbock box and told her grandchildren they should never open it. She even requested to be buried with the box, but this went against the rules of an orthodox Jewish burial. Kevin asked why she called it a dibbock box, but the granddaughter said she didn't know. Her grandmother would never talk about it. The box was locked and as her grandmother had wished, the family chose to never open it, even after her death.

Realising this item clearly meant a lot to the deceased woman, Kevin offered to give it back. But the woman said no. He had purchased it. It was time for their family to let this strange little keepsake go. When Kevin became more insistent, even offering to let them keep the money, the woman grew somewhat irritated, saying, You bought it, you made the deal, we don't want it. Then she got visibly upset.

Kevin, unsure why she had suddenly become so emotional, decided to leave with the items. Kevin took the box and his other purchases straight to his store. He left them in the basement and then went to run some errands. Within half an hour he received a call from the young girl who was working in the store that day. She was screaming down the phone, terrified. Someone was in the shop. They had managed to lock the intruder security gates and the emergency exit. The shop worker was trapped inside.

She hadn't seen the person, but she claimed she could hear them in the basement. It sounded like they were smashing glasses down there, and she was too scared to go down to confront them. Kevin rushed at the shop, having to unlock the security gate to get in. He found the girl on the floor of his office, crying her eyes out. He then rushed down to the basement to see if the intruder was still there. There was only one entrance to the basement, for there shouldn't have been any way for someone to have slipped out. Kevin didn't find anyone. What he found instead was that each of the 10 fluorescent

light tubes in the basement had been smashed and that the basement smelt of disgustingly strong cat urine. By the time he came upstairs his employee had left. She never returned to work and any time Kevin tried to ask her more about what happened. She refused to talk about it. Kevin had decided to give the box to his mother for her upcoming birthday. But first he would need to give the box a bit of a refurbishment. The first thing he did was get it open. Inside he found numerous peculiar items, two different pennies from the 1920s,

two locks of hair, one reddish blonde, one black, a small granite statue that was engraved with what looked like Hebrew, a dried rosebud, a wine cup, and a black cast iron candlestick holder with tentacles at the base. Kevin apparently also offered to return these items to the family, but they declined, so he said he would include them with the purchase of the box. While cleaning the cabinet, Kevin also noticed there was Hebrew writing carved into the back of the cabinet. Kevin's mother's birthday was the 28th, but it would be the 31st of October. they would see her and present his gift to her.

She had visited the shop as they were planning to go for lunch. Kevin gave her the present before they left, and she seemed to love it, carefully looking it over. Kevin mentioned he had to make a quick phone call before they could leave and left his mother with the box. Within minutes, one of the employees came rushing into Kevin's office. His mother had had a stroke.

He found her sat in the chair. tears falling down her cheeks, unable to move, unable to speak, she was quickly rushed to hospital. While she did eventually recover, for some time after the stroke, she was only able to communicate by pointing to the letters of the alphabet on a chart. The day after the stroke, Kevin visited. When he asked her how she was, she used the chart to spell out the words, no gift. Kevin thought that her memory of the day before was hazy and was somewhat amused that even with what had happened his mother's first concern was her birthday presence

he assured her that he had given her a gift the wine cabinet remember she then spelled out hate gift Kevin again took this in a light-hearted manner and promised to get her a better gift once she was well

Kevin's mother would later say how she opened the box when Kevin had left her alone. When she did, she was hit by a sudden breeze, and what she described as an overwhelming sense of evil. Then she immediately suffered the stroke. There was a long period of time with nothing much happening. Kevin ended up giving the box to his sister, but she gave it back to him, complaining she could never get the doors to stay shut. They just kept opening on their own, a problem that Kevin never experienced himself. He gave to his brother who only kept it for three days. His brother loved it, claiming it smelled of jasmine flowers, something that again Kevin hadn't noticed himself, but his wife on the other hand

thought it smelled disgusting, like cat urine, and wanted it out of her house. So he then gave it to his girlfriend. She returned it after only two days, simply saying he should sell it instead. He then sold it to a middle-aged couple. Again, after only three days, Kevin came to the shop in the morning to find the box sat on his front step. A note was attached that simply read. This has a bad darkness about it. Kevin had given up trying to pass the box on at this point. He didn't understand why people were acting so strangely about it and decided to bring it home with him. That same evening, the nightmare started. A nightmare that would recur constantly while he kept possession of the box he would be walking with a friend or loved one

when he would look into their eyes and realize they weren't the person he knew there was something evil inside them once he would make this realization the person would transform into a gruesome-looking hag that would then attack him a creepy dream in its own right especially one to have night after night But what made it all the more scary is that Kevin would wake up with welts and bruises on his body. One night Kevin's sister, his brother and his brother's wife, all came round for dinner. The evening got away from them and all three decided to stay. The following morning the family gathered for breakfast. Kevin's sister told them that she had a terrible night's sleep after she was awoken by a horrible nightmare.

She dreamt that she had been attacked by a terrifying looking woman. Kevin froze, sweat dripping off his neck as he listened to his sister, describing his recurring dream to a tea. He was even more scared when he glanced around the table to see his brother and his brother's wife acting in the same way. They had had the same dream. Later that day, Kevin phoned his girlfriend, who he had given the box to temporarily.

she had also had the same dream. After this revelation, Kevin started to see things around his home. He described them as shadowy figures, appearing out of the corner of his eyes. But he wasn't alone. Visitors to his house would claim to see them too. Kevin took the cabinet out into a storage unit outside his house for the night, only to be awoken by the fire alarm in the unit going off. He rushed downstairs, pulled open the door, but there was nothing.

No smoke, no signs of a fire, just the box, and that unmistakable stench of cat urine. Kevin brought the box back inside and spent the evening on the internet attempting to research it to see if he could find anything that could explain what was going on. He was awoken yet again by the same nightmare. He regained his composure as he realised he had fallen asleep at his computer desk, when he suddenly noticed his house now smote of jasmine what was less comforting though was the movement he saw in the corner of his eye his head spun around just in time to see a shadowy figure rushed down the hall out of the room kevin searched a house but yet again there was no sign of any intruder kevin was scared to just destroy the object not knowing what that would do so instead he posted it on ebay with his story in the hope that someone with a knowledge of the paranormal would take custody of the object.

He stated that he hasn't set any sort of starting bid. This wasn't about money, he just wanted help and wanted someone responsible to take the box away from him. Kevin began to receive lots of questions about the box and he updated his post a few times to try and answer them, but for the most part he wasn't really able to offer much more insight into it. He did state in an update though that he came home to find all the fish in his aquarium dead. He said whoever purchases the box, he would like to have a serious conversation with the winner, stating that he wants to confirm they were a serious adult who knew what they were potentially getting into, and stating that after it was sold, he wanted nothing to do with the box.

2,000 miles away in Missouri, a student named Joseph typed his bid into the website. One week later, the box would be his problem now. Chapter 2. The Students 20-year-old college student Joseph was watching Kevin's posting for quite some time. The bidding was up to $100 at this point and he wasn't sure he could justify the cost. He spoke with his roommate Brian about it, but he didn't seem super interested. But for Joseph, this was becoming a mild obsession. Ever since he first saw it, he could not get the box out of his head.

Eventually, while alone late one night, Joseph put in a bid. One week later, Brian returned home to their apartment to find that it reeked of urine. He searched every room but couldn't figure out the source of the smell. But there was a package for Joseph, sat on the table. When Joseph got home, he opened the package and Brian set eyes on it for the first time. The Dibbock Box. In total, Joseph would remain the keeper of the box for less than half a year. The first night passed without any events.

The two students were not alone in the apartment. A total of six people shared this at the time, and it all gradually became interested in Joseph's story about the box. In that first month, all six students took turns keeping the box in their rooms. Two of them reported feeling like they had burning eyes. Another fell sick But nothing that could be concretely blamed on the box But one night they came home

The box was now being stored in a back corner of the apartment But when they saw it they noticed the doors were open All of them claimed that they didn't touch it This was just the start as the summer started to come to an end A vent took a darker turn Lights would suddenly burn out or shatter completely The smell of urine would appear and disappear seemingly at random. A string of bad luck befell the group.

People falling sick, electronic devices breaking, sudden insect infestations. Again, nothing that couldn't be explained away by coincidence, but strange enough to raise suspicions. Joseph began to look into the term divok. At first it didn't give him many results due to the misspelling, but eventually he found out what a dibbock was. Joseph later wrote in his post,

If you believe in paranormal phenomena, the box contains or is possessed by at least one dibbock, possibly two, as the grandmother stated, a dibok and a Kesslim. Kessalim is a term similar to a Turkish word that means priest. That would probably correspond to the pair of wrapped strands, a blonde and black hair. News of the box quickly spread around the university,

and the apartment became a popular hangout for those wanting to dare themselves to interact with the box. But the flatmates were grown increasingly concerned about the box, especially Joseph. He began to sleep badly. Then the hallucination started. Nothing clear just sort of black blurs on the periphery of his vision that would be gone when he looked. And then his hair began to fall out. He saw doctors but came back with a clean bill of health. Joseph had understandably had enough. After the Thanksgiving break, the students all returned to their home to discover Joseph had moved out

and had taken the box with him. All the strange smells and items breaking quickly stopped. In between his studies, Brian was working part-time at the University's museum and had been telling his colleagues about this strange box that his roommate had purchased. Curator Jason Haxson in particular had become fascinated with the tales of the box and was really keen to study it to try and find out its true origins. So when Brian told him that Joseph was planning to sell it, he saw his opportunity. Jason talked to a friend of his, a stage magician named Michael,

who also had become captivated by the story of the box and offered to go harsh with him on the fee for the box. This spurred Jason on and he quickly submitted a bid. much like Kevin, Joseph had chosen eBay as his method of passing on the box's curse. Joseph bought the box from Kevin for $140. And now Jason and Michael were the owners for $280. A decent profit, but maybe not worth losing your hair over. But when Jason tried to arrange delivery, he didn't hear a word from Joseph. Instead, after several days, Jason got a call from Brian,

who claimed that he now had the box. Joseph couldn't stand having it for a day longer. Brian turned up the next day at Jason's office with a large carball box. It was immediately obvious he hadn't slept in some time. Brian quickly dropped the package off before leaving without saying goodbye. That evening Michael came to Jason's office and the pair unpackaged the Dibbock box. They carefully inspected the box and they carefully inspected the box and all the items within, noticing a pungent smell as they opened the doors for the first time. After inspecting it, Jason believed that the box must have been constructed sometime in the 1960s,

not in Spain in the 1940s. And while it did appear to be a wine cabinet, the strange items inside suggest it had been used for an alternative purpose. For some reason, Jason felt compelled to touch the box properly, so he removed his glove and placed his hand on top of it. before instantly pulling it away. His friend was busy looking at the items they had taken out, so hadn't noticed Jason's strange reaction. He carefully placed his hands back on the box and confirmed what he had just experienced. It felt like the wood was vibrating and moving, almost as though it weren't an inanimate object.

Jason quickly pulled his hand away again when a shooting pain is his stomach, travelling up his body. As soon as he moved his hand away, the pain faded, but it would return in the coming days. That night Jason was plagued with nightmares. He remembers the faces of people he knew, morphing and contorting into hideously grotesque versions of themselves, and that there was a woman there, with dark eyes watching him. He awoke in a sweat, terrified by the images his mind had conjured up, But it was just a dream. However, when he fell back asleep, he had another dream, another old woman, looking at him, this time, pointing at a box. That morning Jason awoke to find his eyes were terribly bloodshot.

The days that followed he developed a metallic taste in his mouth that overpowered everything he ate. He had the constant feeling that something was lodged in his throat. but the doctor was unable to 100% identify what was wrong. Jason became convinced that he had somehow been poisoned. Someone must have coated the box with something that explains his symptoms and much of what the students had experienced. But he ran tests on the surfaces of the box and all its items, and everything came back clean.

Then it all began to happen at the office. The light bulb began exploding. staff at the museum had all noticed that Jason was not looking well his ears were scarlet-coloured his body covered in waltz and hives that would itch so bad Jason would wake up in the morning bleeding from scratching what's more sleep itself was fleeting he was looking and acting more and more like a zombie to those around him

Brian soon approached him to warn him that he believed whatever was connected to the box was now affecting Jason and also potentially the others. Brian was not happy to discover his boss was storing the box at work, and believed that a string of bad luck that had befallen not just him and his colleagues, but also their families, could be blamed on the box. The staff were angry, and wanted it removed. Michael had offered to take the box if it proved to be an issue for Jason, but he was having trouble getting in touch with his friend suddenly. Jason put the box in the back of his car to take it round there, himself. and was shocked to discover his car suddenly stunk of cat urine.

This wasn't the only strange smell he had noticed, as the office had previously smelled of Jasmine in the prior days at random times. When he arrived at Michael's house, there was no one home. Jason left the box in the car overnight, and luckily Michael finally got in touch with him the following day. He thought Jason was just being a little silly, but he would happily take the box if he wanted to drop it in later that day. But just two hours later, Jason received another call.

It was Michael telling him not to come to the house. He and his wife had suddenly fallen very ill. Realising he was stuck with it for now at least, Jason took the box out of the car and hid it in the closet of an unused room upstairs. Jason did not tell his family. His wife had been very clear that she did not want anything to do with this box. That's when the strange events began in Jason's home. The house would suddenly become so cold that the family could see their breath before returning to normal temperature.

One night he was watching TV with his son when he became convinced he had seen a large black shadow moving up the wall. When he could sleep, the nightmares continued. The distorted faces and that woman plaguing his dreams. The box had garnered a decent amount of interest. online from people interested in the paranormal, and numerous of them got in touch with Jason to discuss the box. Steve Mass of the Long Island Paranormal Research Group heard the issues that Jason was having and suggested he try a ritual of his own. He told Jason to get a copy of the Kia Solomon. In there were steps to perform an appeasement ritual. Jason, a man who was passionate about history and science, couldn't quite believe it when he was.

and he found himself doing just that, standing above the box, conducting a 15th century ritual in his garage. But seemingly it worked. Over the following weeks, Jason's symptoms calmed down, and he was soon a healthy, fit man again. Now that he no longer felt like he was in danger, it was time to search for the truth of what was really going on here. Chapter 4. Digging Deeper Jason began to track down the box's original owner, Kevin Manis. While he was unable to find a direct way to contact him, he did speak with Kevin's sister,

who understandably wasn't keen to give out her brother's contact details to this stranger. He was able to learn a little bit more about their family, however, discovering that Kevin's grandmother was a Russian Jewish immigrant, who had died a few years prior, at the age of 103. This really seemed like it fit the origin story that Kevin had laid out in his post. What's more, it appeared that Kevin's grandmother was interesting in Jewish mysticism. A relative that Jason spoke to suggested that Kevin had simply used all of this as inspiration for his story, and that the entire thing was a hoax.

Eventually, Jason managed to find a phone number for what he believed was Kevin's home. He had actually travelled to Portland in the last ditch effort to meet him. After speaking to what sounded like an old lady on the phone who claimed that no one named Kevin lived there, Jason simply said that if she did know her Kevin, he would love to speak to him, and he would pay $150 for the privilege. The next day, Jason met Kevin. The following day, the pair discussed the box and their experiences with it. Apparently, Kevin had no idea that the box had become something of a legendary item on the internet.

Kevin also revealed a bit of further bad luck he had experienced. The same day his mother had a stroke, the FBI apparently raided his store. They were searching and confiscating belongings and even arresting staff members, while he was desperately waiting for the paramedics to come and save his mother. Kevin never knew what the raid was about, and eventually the items he had taken away from him were returned, but with no explanation. However, this event spooked Kevin's landlord, who termed, the lease, effectively closing down Kevin's entire business.

This story raised Jason's suspicions a little. It felt a little too convenient to fit Kevin's narrative of a curse. But sure enough, after doing further research, he discovered that around that time, there were numerous police raids on stores in the area, apparently an attempt to close down a stolen items ring that was operating out of stores in Portland. Kevin told him that once the box was gone, his mother made a full recovery, but that the nightmares had never fully gone away. He also told Jason a few other stories of incidents he had, including one man who became aggressive in the shop and knocked the box over. He was later found having

committed suicide just down the street. Another local resident came to Kevin one day, to ask what it was he was getting up to in the basement of his shop. The basement of his shop. The basement had a small window that could be seen from the street. The residents said they and others had seen people in black cloaks down there, dancing around, and not just one or two, but up to ten people in there, in the middle of the night. Kevin had no idea who these people could be. He was the only one with a key. Kevin wanted to help Jason's investigation, so he offered to track down the family who originally had the box.

which seemingly he did. He met with Sophie and her granddaughters, and the story of Havela's box was laid out to him. Months after this, the spell that Jason had used apparently began to lose its effect. He began to find rotting mice in his car. The house suddenly smelt of excrement, due to an unusual sewer issue that no one was able to fully explain. Other dead animals were found in the home at times,

and Jason became convinced that when he would sit alone at his desk at night to write in his journal, something would be touching his hair. Unlike Kevin and Joseph, Jason decided that the story should end with him. He decided rather than selling the box and passing this on, he would find some way to contain it. This time he spoke with a friend who was a wicker practitioner. one morning early before everyone else was awake. Jason took the box to the property next door that he also owned, but was currently empty.

In a small room off of the basement, Jason carried out another ritual. Once completed, Jason returned to his home and stepped into his bathtub, that as he had been instructed to do, was heavily scented with herbs. Suddenly, as the water fully engulfed his body, Jason began to fill a tremendous pain. He fell out of the tub and onto the floor before vomiting a dark mucus from his mouth. Before the pain suddenly ended, and Jason was alone, collapsed on his bathroom floor. Some time passed and Jason hadn't gone near the box. He left it locked up until he knew what to do with it.

After researching further and speaking to a number of experts on the subject, he came up with a solution to contain the box. the box, by taking some inspiration from the book of Exodus. He would use the same material used to create the Ark of the Covenant. He would build a box out of Acochet wood and line it with gold leaf. Once the box was constructed, Jason went back to the room in the basement to retrieve the box. As he went into the cellar, he noticed the ceiling was now covered in a strange white powdery mould, and dead spiders lay all around. He opened the trap door. He opened the trap door, and discovered hundreds of house centipedes around where he had stored the box.

Luckily he had wrapped the dibbock box in bubble wrap, because for some reason, despite the soil around it being bone dry, the plastic that coated the box was saturated with large amounts of water. He took the dibbock box outside, placed it inside his gold line box, and locked it. He then placed that inside a plastic shipping container to protect the it further. After this, Jason claimed that most of the effects the box seemed to be having on him simply faded away. But if he ever went to look at the divot box, he would be hit with a new smell, a kind of woody scent that he claimed was almost addictive, like it was trying to entice

him. Some time after this, Jason buried the box somewhere on his property, but he wouldn't tell anyone where and there it would remain. Chapter 5. Movies and Lies Kevin would never give Jason the details of Sophie's family and became increasingly difficult to get in contact with. Jason had begun writing a book on his experiences and had wanted Kevin to work on it with him, but for some reason Kevin was reluctant to do so. What's more the story of the the epic box had gained such momentum that multiple films inspired by the box were now in the works, the most famous of which would go on to be the possession. The 2012 horror movie produced by Sam Ramey did not follow the story of the box, but instead crafted its own tale inspired by the

folklore that had seemingly been created from Kevin's initial eBay post. Interestingly, the cast and the crew of the film believed the set they were filming in was haunted. and a number of incidents befell the production. The most commonly reported and most interesting to our story is that lights would apparently explode at random. But it was years prior to this that Jason discovered something that troubled him. Rumors of movies were being discussed online and he spotted a post from someone on IMDB,

saying they knew the guy who made the divot box and the whole thing was a fake. At this point Jason was three years into his time, digging into the story of the box and so desperately started trying to get in touch with the person who made this post. While they were reluctant to speak about it, at first, they did confirm once again that the story was made up, and they even knew one of the people who donated a lock of hair to be put into the box. Sure enough, Jason's investigation led him to a bar, where the staff claimed to know all about the box, and that one of them had put his hair into it. The bar was a lot of the bar was

a place that Kevin Manis had previously worked. Jason confronted Kevin with this, who claimed that the staff there could not be trusted. This threw Jason through a loop. If this whole thing was made up by Kevin, how could he explain all the strange incidents that he'd experienced, and the events that Brian had reported to him too for that matter? Kevin was no longer responding to Jason, and the pair went years without communicating. However, in 2010, Jason was able to get into contact with Kevin's younger brother. The brother told Jason that he and his siblings had never had any recurring dreams of an old hag woman. That night they had stayed at Kevin's, despite what he claimed. The brother said he had seen the old wine cabinet at Kevin's shop and asked if he could have it. But Kevin

told him he had plans for it. There was an interesting detail that emerged in their conversation. While he confirmed that he believed Kevin had made the entire origin story of the box up, he did strongly believe it had a dark energy around it. He thought that maybe, Kevin, in creating this box, had messed with some spiritual energy that he didn't understand. While the tales of a demonic entity being contained in the box were not true, maybe he had done something when he locked all these items inside and inscribed it with Hebrew text.

He also confirmed that his grandmother was very interested in subjects like Kabbalah and other magical practices. Some think she would have taught Kevin all about when they lived together for several years. Although again, this is a detail that Kevin would later deny, and he apparently became quite offended that Jason had introduced his grandmother into this tale. In recent years, debunkers have found a post made online by Kevin years prior. where he calls someone out for claiming to be experiencing paranormal activity from a dibbock box, claiming that he created the concept of the box, and betting them they would be unable to find any reference to a dibbock box in any literature prior to his eBay posting.

Chapter 6. The Haunted Museum Despite this revelation at the end of Jason's book that came out at the end of 2011, It did nothing to dissuade the popularity of the Dybock Box story. The possession did very well upon its release the following year, and the legend of the Dybock Box continued to be shared amongst people. The box were become even more famous, when in 2016, Jason Haxton seemingly dug the box back up and presented it to infamous TV personality and ghost hunter, Zach Baggins.

He brought it to Zach's show Deadly Possessions. This show also brought Kevin on and for some reason locked him in a basement room with the box, while Zach and his crew watched on television screens from another room. This is my first experience of watching any of these shows, so sorry if I sound a little confused about what's going on here. In what I think might be one of the funniest moments I've ever seen on a paranormal show, Kevin suddenly starts speaking in a fake English accent. It's unclear exactly what he is talking about, but he makes repeated reference. references to a shadow person. Zach and his crew start freaking out, first believing that Kevin is conducting some sort of ritual

before then debating if he is possessed. In actual fact, it turns out Kevin just didn't know they were recording and thinking he had a few minutes to himself was rehearsing a poem that he would be performing at a spoken word event. This information was unsurprisingly left out of the show however and they still included the clip. Bagan's apparently then purchased the box from Jason for an undisclosed amount, and has since made several episodes about the box, even inadvertently, apparently cursing post-Malone in the process. The stories of the box became even more exaggerated, and claims were made that it was simply one of ten boxes that were spread throughout the world. The box now resides in Zach's controversial, Haughty Museum. Finally, in an interview,

of input. Manis would years later confirm that he created the story of the box and inserted the items inside it. He had intended for it to be some sort of interactive horror story. To quote from the interview, Manis says it wasn't money issues that motivated him, but relationship problems with his girlfriend and a host of other bad luck events. He says he channeled all of that negative energy into his tall tale. Manis said, at the time I created a divot box. It was a bit of a bit of It was during Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. I created the box while praying and asking for forgiveness for all of the sins I committed that I knew about, and perhaps even more important, the sins I committed that I didn't know

about. Not everything about Maness's story was fake, however. He did confirm that he gave his mother the box on Halloween, and she did in fact have a stroke straight away after opening it. She has unfortunately since passed away. He goes on to say that his mother did then go on to put on an act for the show Paranormal Witness that she was later interviewed for and in her conversation with Jason Haxton. He does also state though that he had no collusion with Haxton,

or seemingly the students that purchased the box after his initial post. Baggins and his crew were apparently not super happy with Kevin's interview and went on the record to say that despite what Kevin says, they have witnessed and documented numerous unexplained events surrounding the box As for Jason Haxton, his book ends with an afterword by Professor Howard Schwartz on the story and Jewish folklore as a whole. In this afterword, it is even suggested by the professor that maybe Haxton's book is simply a work of fiction. An interesting choice to include in his own book, and one that blurs the lines of reality and fiction in this story, even further. But Jason still claims to be a firm believer in the story.

box. While it does appear he ultimately profited off of selling the box to the Ghost Adventures team, he could have just as easily done that years before when interest in the box was high. I doubt that he could have planned that it would receive a resurgence in interest years after his book was published. Maybe the offer the Ghost Adventures crew made was just too good to pass up. It is also worth noting though that Haxston created at least one, maybe two replica boxes that he would use for media appearances. to avoid moving the original box. So there is always the doubt if the box that Baggins has

is the true Dibbock box, although he apparently says that it is. Again, to quote the article, Haxton maintains that everything has happened to him because of the box is true, and ultimately he says, it's been more of a blessing than a curse. I always call it a wish box, says Haxon.

Whoever created a Dibbock box gave it a power to do something. The creation of the Dibbock Box and its story created a ripple effect in people's lives. Referring to Manis, he adds, the sum of the Dibbock Box is greater than he ever imagined. In the same article regarding Manis, he also said,

Did the con man get conned by God? That's seriously my take on it. Someone screwed around thinking it was funny and that they were in control. It's like playing with fire. It was funny until it wasn't. The Dibbock Box is a contradiction. It is based in folklore but its origin story has no basis in anything prior to an eBay posting.

It's declared a fake by its creator, who then goes on to say, although he made it up, he still feels like it's responsible for a lot of bad luck that he suffered. For the students and for Jason Haxton, who purchased it after Kevin created it, They claim that this object affected them in very real ways, despite acknowledging Kevin's omission of it being a fraud. Is there something to Haxson's theory that Kevin inadvertently created something evil? That he played around with something he just didn't understand, and the box is the consequence of that. Can the power of stories really bring something other into our world and create the magical, out of nothing.

That's all for this entry into the tape library. I think this is one of my favourite subjects I've gotten to write about in quite a while. This mixture of fiction and reality really just sets my imagination going. Much like I mentioned recently when covering the Warrens, sometimes the most fun parts of covering stories like this is assuming that the stories have been embellished, but trying to find out what nuggets are truth actually exist, wrapped up in stories that have been altered by

different voices throughout the years. I think the Dibbock box kind of reminds me of what the tape library was supposed to be. Some people seem to think I'm here trying to prove the existence of the supernatural, which really isn't the case. I'm just an idiot with a microphone and an internet connection. Who likes to be scared. What I want to do is share stories, stories that hopefully will give you a little chill,

but also, even if it's just for a moment, make you think of a world in which maybe not everything can be explained. As always I would love to hear your takes on this one. Are you in the firm This Is All Made Up camp? Could something have influenced Kevin into claiming the story was all made up? Or do you like Jason's theory that Kevin inadvertently created something powerful? Let me know in the comments below. We're having a run of paranormal topics here on the tape library in the coming weeks. So if you enjoyed this then please click subscribe or follow so you don't miss it. out on what we've got coming next. If you are listening to the podcast version of this episode,

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