The doll island in my yard began long ago when I was exploring abandoned sites and collected broken dolls left on the desert floor. 

Then, I started thinking, they looked aged and creepy, so maybe I would find some more at Goodwill and age them myself for Halloween display. And, hence, during the corn crop time of year in the summer, I placed the dolls on stakes and tucked their arms and legs and such into the soil, allowing the harsh sunlight of summer and storms to age them.

If you want to age dolls or make a creepy garden display, consider utilizing just the heads or the body parts. Later, you can cobble together the wrong arms and legs for a body for a disjointed look. 

Look to Doll Island in Mexico to get a really great inspiration. On this little canalway island, a man set up a homestead for his family. A little girl drowned in the canal and ever since, the man and the neighbors gave him dolls to keep the spirit girl happy. Ironically, he too drowned in the canalway and the island of dolls remains as a strange monument. 

Dolls can be strung along a clothesline, hanging from tree limbs, in a bird bath, among fall flowers, on poles and lattices, propped against drying cornstalks, atop a hay bale. Be creative!

The curious thing about Doll Island is not that it's spooky to look at, but that it has shown strong evidence of being haunted. Even Josh Gates looked at a doll and it opened its eyes!

Will your dolls be haunted? Highly unlikely! In fact, if you've followed my blog for some time, you probably followed the Haunted Shirley Doll posts about the Shirley Temple doll sent to me from an investigator who gave quite the story of the bad events surrounding the doll. Eventually, two more Shirley dolls were sent to me. I finally had to study them and see if there was evidence to support hauntings, possession, or cursed objects.

Admittedly, our investigation team, Arizona Paranormal Research, did find some interesting bursts of energy, but no EVPs. I, however, found poltergeist object movment and movement of the dolls at various times. Bursts of energy seemed to occur as if there was something about the dolls that put off energy or perhaps caused pathways of energy to be disrupted. I did not, however, find any hauntings, voices, or messages from the other side. 

As a psychometrist, someone who reads information about others who handled and object, I can say this about so-called "haunted objects," if you collect items that are vintage, family heirlooms, or pre-owned things and put them together on display, it can be quite compelling or quite disruptive. 

This is why - 

You can buy a doll, bring it home, put it on display with the others and suddenly people are arguing near the display, objects in the display seem to move, bad things seem to happen in that room. It's normal to assume the new addition is the culprit, but that's not often it. 

Energies combine. Let's say two dolls were loved very much and held, slept with, talked to, and an energy builds from the person to the host (the doll). One energy is like Christmas morning, excited, thrilled by a new day, running around with glee. It's a positive energy, but a very active one. Then, there's another positive energy of love that is zen, quite, peaeeful. You can have two dolls that absorbed positive energy, but side by side they conflict. Simply move the new doll around until there is quiet.

As a researcher and a psychic, I believe people's spirits do not follow dolls or possess dolls or any object. For one moment, imagine that you won the lottery and can now live anywhere, own anything, do anything. It's a totally new life. You leave behind the other one and live in a more blissful level. Do you want to go back to living paycheck to paycheck or deal with an angry neighbor again? Nope. This is the spirit situation. They were here, they left traces or "tags" as I call them. Their spirit self, in human form, has left the energy bits here and there. This is also, as a psychic, how I can do medium work and read to the dead.

If you would like to embody the dolls with a positive energy, I would suggest, sunshine and moonlight are great cleansers, soil is a good grounding aspect to attune with earth's healing frequency (7.83 Hz). Feel free to tuck crystals into their clothing. I'd suggest quartz, as it is a good cleanser, or turquoise and labradorite, that ward off evil. Consider rose quartz for a loving energy. 

My dolls were pinned to posts, propped up in squash patches, sitting atop growing pumpkins, and standing among corn stalks. When nature grows around an object grounded to the earth, it does something unique to the energy of that object. In fact, leaving a new possession outside, at least for a night under moonlight, is a good way to bring it back to healing energy. 

If you don't believe in the woo of energy and frequenccies, remember that Tesla himself believed the secrets of the universe were found in energy, frequency, and vibration. He also felt that we won't gain great knowledge until we explore the unexplained aspects of our world. 

As a side note, I often tell folks who have problem areas in their homes where people argue, bad accidents happen, strange sounds or object movement occur, that they can change the energy there by changing the frequency of that energy. 

Spend some time playing classical music, place a plant, crystals, and sit with a photo album and sort through and smile with happy memories. Do this for a time each day. Rearrange the area, leave a bible opened or a plant, religious idols, photos of happy times there. You literally change the vibe of that area by bringing in positive and laying that down in the space. 

It's not that homes remember or are haunted, per say, they are often sinkholes for bad event energy, rather like a haunted hospital or jail where there was dying or violence.

In a feng shui manner, let light in, remove clutter, allow pathways for energy to flow in and out. Be wary of mirror placement as it can bounce energy like a richocheting bullet and create a back and forth that never ends. If the mirror faces a doorway or window, it can be an energy pathway that constantly bounces chi (energy). The exception is if the window looks out at a beautiful or natural scene, then this reflection is beneficial. 

"Island of the Dolls" 

Here's some of what I did in my garden - 

This year, I took special delight in putting the dolls out to set the mood as the cornstalks die back like scratchy white paper flapping in the wind and the tall overburdened sunflowers droop like faces turned down upon them. 

At nighttime they turn into something sinister and possessed by the moonlight - 

Adding a Michael Myers mask to the situation creates a hauntingly scary nighttime summer garden - 

And then there's my scarecrow, Josiah in the moonlight - 

I suggest if you want to do some nighttime spooky photography in your yard, use the natural moonlight or consider some solar lights as they add a soft eerie light at nighttime. A lantern is another great visual, as well. Don't use the flash, you lose all spookiness.

Another great technique is to move the camera back and forth quickly as you shoot. Because it's dark the shutter stays open and the subject blurs like a ghost.

Take advantage of filtered light through items to create speckling or striping. Use dead branches, crunchy leaves, and get underneath and photograph up to capture moonlight and give subjects an ominous size. 

Doll heads - from Goodwill shop dolls and aged in the garden for that lived-in look!

If the dolls have no eyes, put a glow stick inside - 

Have a lovely and mystical Halloween season!