Lily the Haunted Doll: Whose Soul Inhabits Her? and 9 Other Questions

The first time I talked with Josef from US Ghost Adventures, we left off with a tease promising a show devoted to Lily the haunted doll. Or their “Host a Ghost” as they call her. I had questions about Lily, first and foremost: Why do they advise not leaving her near mirrors?

Because, you see, Lily comes with a few rules. That’s the first thing I noticed about her when I discovered her as I was writing about the US Ghost Adventures GhostFlix tours. I said if I ever got a chance to ask about her rules, I would. Well, I got the chance.

But other questions came up too. Here’s a quick summary of everything Josef and I talked about. If you want to watch or listen to the Lily the haunted doll episode, I’ve embedded the YouTube and podcast links below. But you can also listen to the episode wherever you get your podcasts from.

1. Did anything weird happen after Josef and I last talked?

Lily joined Josef during our first conversation too. He held her up to the screen at one point and said he hoped it didn’t count as a mirror. There was that mirror stipulation again!

But before I could get to asking about that, I wondered if anything had happened. Did the screen count as a mirror after all?

Josef wasn’t sure, but the screen on the laptop he’d been using had cracked. Just out of the blue. He hadn’t dropped it or anything. He took it in for repairs and they had no explanation.

2. Why are you not supposed to place Lily by mirrors?

Josef explained that according to “mirror lore” and superstitions, the body is a reflection of the soul. When you look in a mirror, it’s not just your reflection but your soul manifesting itself in the physical world.

A haunted doll contains someone or something else’s soul. If that entity she sees its own reflection, bad things, or crazy things, can happen, because its soul is being manifested in the real world. It might not like it or might try to escape.

Also, that’s why vampires don’t cast a reflection in mirrors. They have no soul.

3. What is Lily’s origin story?

Lily has an interesting backstory. One day a package with no return address showed up at the US Ghost Adventures office. Inside was a mini coffin made of cheap plywood, and inside that was the most “grimest, ghoulish doll” Josef had ever seen. It was a white figurine, partly bandaged with the face mostly scratched off wearing Victorian clothes.

Accompanying it was a handwritten note that read: “Went to one of your tours. Thought you might be able to better handle whatever this is. Her name is Lily. Keep her on a short leash.”

4. Did they check for bombs when they received her package?

Josef said he was sure some people might’ve preferred that to the creepy doll that showed up instead!

5. Did anything happen in the office after Lily’s arrival?

They put her on the desk like she was one of the team, but then crazy things started happening.

At first, they chalked it up to people playing pranks on each other because it was little stuff going on like Post-it notes disappeared, chairs would be moved, people started missing things from their desk.

One of the tech guys was convinced someone was messing with his station because his computer kept getting reset, or he’d find it turned off or unplugged and the battery kept dying.

They had cameras in the office and could see little movements in the middle of the night. This prompted them to do some more research and they found out this same sort of stuff was what had happened to the previous owner. Lily would wind up in different places from where she’d last been put, but they could see no one was doing it.

6. Where is the original Lily?

Josef shared a bit of a convoluted story about how they ended up finding a return address in Oklahoma that they sent one of their researchers to and that’s how they found an abandoned warehouse full of dolls that looked just like Lily. I think it’s supposed to be kind of a fun story to explain how they have so many Lily dolls, but what they did was use the Lily they’d been gifted to create a prototype for the ones they sell.

So what happened to the original Lily the haunted doll? They keep her in a back office with the door locked. She’s in her coffin box, which is in a backpack that’s covered by two blankets.

They’re not allowed to go in there or disturb her. They’re not even supposed to talk to her.

However, one of the guides did. He took a spirit box in to try and talk to her, but who knows what happened. He won’t go in that room anymore and he won’t talk about it.

The fun thing is the Lily that Josef has had on during our chats was the first one made to look like Lily. She was in the return box with the original Lily, so they shared space together.

7. Who was knocking on the window? 

I love when ghost tour guides and owners share personal ghost stories and one of Josef’s involves Lily.

He had just finished meeting with a new employee on her first day. She went to leave, but Josef had a conference call he had to hop on.

He was in a room on the third floor of the building where their office is. During his call he heard knocking on window. Did you catch the part about he was on the third floor?

Well, he was busy on the call and just sort of dismissed it –until the new employee who had just left suddenly showed back up in the doorway.

He asked if she needed anything, and she was all, “I thought you needed me for something. You were knocking on the window and waving to me.”

He was all, “No I wasn’t. The blinds are closed as you can see. But I did hear knocking too…”

As she went to get back in her car, the employee slammed her fingers in the door. Then, on the way home, she broke down. She feels Lily had something to do with it all…

Josef and I joked Lily’s in charge of new hire initiation and hazing. If you can take that, you pass and can continue working for US Ghost Adventures.

8. Whose soul inhabits Lily’s doll body?

Back to that warehouse in Oklahoma…from evidence they found there, it led them to more information that gives them reason to believe Lily might contain the soul of the notorious Blood Countess, Elizabeth Bathory. She’s one of history’s most notorious and prolific female serial killers, as she took the lives of over 600 young women.

And now back to the why you don’t want to put Lily in front of a mirror…you risk letting the Blood Countess out.

It’s all a bit of a stretch, but a fun one.

Or…maybe it isn’t so far-fetched?

9. What happens if you don’t put Lily away?

We also discussed the other rules on the box Lily comes in. She’s only supposed to be let out from October 1 through October 31. During Halloween season Lily is a helpful effigy who will ward off evil and protect you.

Come November 1, however, you’re supposed to put her away because then the opposite will happen and she’ll start playing tricks on you.

Of course, she might not stay outside in the garage or on the shelf in the closet you put her in.

I’m taking my chances and keeping mine out. I don’t want to deal with the wrath of Smalls. He loves his Lily too much to put her up. I’ll keep you updated on whether anything weird happens or not.

10. What’s ahead for US Ghost Adventures in 2021? Any more fun things?

Josef is such a tease. He left off with another one: “toys.”

I got the feeling he didn’t mean toys of the haunted doll type either. Guess we’ll be seeing him in 2021 to find out what that’s all about then!

If Lily doesn’t push him out of the spotlight again, that is. She sort of stole the show at the beginning of this episode

Listen to the Episode

Watch on YouTube

For More Info

One of US Ghost Adventures tours is Salem Ghosts. They wrote about the Blood Countess, Elizabeth Bathory, on their blog. Visit this link to read more about her: https://salemghosts.com/the-blood-countess-elizabeth-bathory/.

To take any of US Ghost Adventures tours, either in person or virtually, visit https://usghostadventures.com/.

Check-In

Do you think souls can haunt dolls?