A box that supposedly contains a disembodied spirit that attaches itself to living people.
Alleged curses that range from hair falling out to full-fledged strokes.
Here’s why the lore and real-life happenings behind the subject of 2012’s “The Possession”
left a lasting impact on Jeffery Dean Morgan.
According to Jeffrey Dean Morgan,
who convincingly plays Emily's desperate and frightened father in the film,
the scares weren't just limited to viewers. Despite describing himself as a skeptic,
the actor admitted to experiencing a sense of unease and unexplained incidents while
filming “The Possession” that made him want to stay away from the dybbuk box and its supposed
real-life victims. He even stated in an interview that, despite his skepticism,
strange things would happen on set like light bulbs suddenly shattering. He told Gizmodo,
"'Don't mock the box' was sort of the mantra that we lived by while we were filming this."
In that same interview, Morgan also describes how someone wanted to bring the dybbuk box onto
the set of “The Possession”, to which he adamantly objected. Considering the
history of people who encounter the box, he did not think the exposure was worth it.
So just what is it about the dybbuk box that could strike fear into the heart of the same
guy who played the fearless and sadistic bat-wielding Negan in “The Walking Dead?”
In Jewish folklore, a dybbuk is defined
as a disembodied human spirit that attaches itself to living people. According to My Jewish Learning,
a dybbuk is not always evil or malevolent, unlike its depiction in “The Possession”.
A soul is meant to reinhabit its original body, but that doesn't always happen. The term "dybbuk"
refers to the scenario when one soul latches on to another in a living body, causing a possession.
Despite what the film suggests, the concept of a dybbuk existing
inside of a box does not actually exist in traditional Jewish folklore or mythology.
"Emily."
According to the book Kabbalah: Secrecy, Scandal and the Soul,
in the event that a dybbuk must be expelled from a living host, it is sent away from our world
entirely and back to the realm of the dead — and not kept in a box or any other trinkets.
According to a 2004 Los Angeles Times article,
the infamous dybbuk box that inspired The Possession is actually a wine cabinet that
seemed to wreak havoc in the lives of those who owned or spent too much time around it.
It first appeared in an eBay listing created by Kevin Mannis,
who claimed that the box once belonged to a Holocaust survivor. He claimed that several
strange and unfortunate events in his life were linked to the box, including his mother suffering
a stroke that temporarily took away her ability to speak after he gave it to her as a gift.
"And I certainly wasn't going to sell it
without disclosing everything I thought had been happening."
The box was eventually purchased from Mannis by a man named Iosif Neitzke.
Neitzke eventually decided to sell the box on eBay as well, claiming that he came down
with a sudden unidentifiable illness and hair loss after the box came into his possession.
As tales of the cursed box and its victims began to spread, Mannis eventually came out
and said that he actually made up aspects of its history. In a 2021 interview on InputMag,
Mannis initially insisted that the box did truly belong to a Holocaust survivor. However, in a
followup interview, Mannis admitted that he made up the lore surrounding the box himself, though
he maintained that his mother did suffer a stroke while he had it. In the interview he explained,
"I am a creative writer. The Dybbuk Box is a story that I created. And
the Dybbuk Box story has done exactly what I intended it to do when I posted
it 20 years ago [...] Which is to become an interactive horror story in real-time."
Jason Haxton, another previous owner of the box, is also featured in the InputMag article.
In it, he states that he believes Mannis did fabricate the original story,
but only to cover up the fact that he probably cursed the box himself using Kabbalah. The problem
with this theory is that Kabbalah is a school of thought that deals with Jewish mysticism,
not some magical force used to cast spells or curse people. Haxton also claims that Mannis
may just be bitter about not being the most well-known of the dybbuk box owners,
and is seeking to destroy the box's urban legend status by claiming it was all a hoax.
To sum it up, even though Mannis admits to fabricating the box's origin story,
Haxton still firmly believes that it's cursed.
It turns out Jeffrey Dean Morgan
isn't the only celebrity to be freaked out by the dybbuk box.
Unlike Morgan, who made a point to stay away from the box entirely,
musician Post Malone experienced the supposed consequences of being around the box firsthand.
In 2018, Malone came into contact with the box when filming an episode of the popular
paranormal investigation series, “Ghost Adventures”. Specifically,
he was in the same room when Zak Bagans, his friend and the host of the show,
committed the taboo act of opening the box. According to the made-up lore surrounding it,
opening the box is supposed to invite chaos and misery into your life.
Shortly after this incident, the rapper would experience a barrage of bad luck
including a car accident, an emergency plane landing, and a break-in,
all of which took place in less than two weeks. Fans speculated that his recent contact with the
box was responsible for this rapid-fire series of unfortunate events. Malone, who is a believer in
the supernatural, acknowledged this theory in an interview on “Late Night with Seth Meyers”.
"Within a month's time. It was really really odd stuff.
But, I've always had, like, ya know, an interest in that."
The original box that started it all is currently part of the collection of haunted artifacts
housed at the Zak Bagans Haunted Museum in downtown Las Vegas. Whatever the case may be, the
many strange and unfortunate incidents surrounding the infamous dybbuk box were more than enough to
strike fear into the hearts of Jeffrey Dean Morgan and his costars on the set of “The Possession”.
With so much misinformation and negativity surrounding the dybbuk box,
it's possible the real source of the alleged curse is just the lies that were told along the way.
Check out one of our newest videos right here! Plus,
even more Slash Film videos about your favorite stuff are coming soon.
Subscribe to our YouTube channel and hit the bell so you don't miss a single one.