Devil’s Toybox (Built
11/12/13)
Introduction
The
Devil’s Toybox is a cube made of inward facing mirrors that has been sealed off
and purportedly carries paranormal properties including discarnate growling and
the box moving on its own – some claim these stem from its function for the
capture of spirits. This claim was most recently put into practice by the TV
crew of Ghostland Tennessee in their premiere episode, 02/24/13 on Animal
Planet, who traversed a reputedly haunted location with the box and proceeded
to explode it off site to get rid of the trapped spirits.
While this latest application was showy there isn’t a whole lot of information
widely available on the Devil’s Toybox before Joshua P. Warren brought the
technique to light post 2010 and after that most sources repeat the same text verbatim.
The first ever recording of the sounds alleged to occur inside the box, taken
by Warren himself with a stick on telephone microphone, were first heard on
Darkness Radio in February 2012 (Original Audio at 19:30, Touched Up Audio at 23:20 and Reversed Touched Up
Audio at 39:35). These effects are supposed to happen the box is exposed to
areas or items of high paranormal activity or naturally after 6 months.
Warren himself has alternatively claimed that
its roots go back to the Greek concept of the mirrored room, or Psychomanteum,
and later that the Wiccan religion adopted the tool, but he also said he may
have invented the technique from his personal experiences and is unsure. Many
rumors online, stemming from Warren as well, claim that this tool was also the
inspiration for Clive Barker to create the Lemarchand’s Box (aka the Lament
Configuration) of Hellraiser fame.
Well
there definitely seems to be a demon here, but it’s the devil in the details I’m
afraid. Firstly, the Grecian Psychomanteum is much older but would operate very
differently form the Devil’s Toybox is proposed to. I also skimmed through assorted
works of Wicca’s founders and high rollers, Gardner, Valiente, the Farrars, and
Buckland, but found no references to a mirrored box, let alone one with the
same name. In case it was more modern invention, I consulted two friends, the
first, a Gardnerian Wiccan High Priestess for the past 13 years, and the second
was a Dianic Wiccan Solitaire for the past 4 years, and neither had ever heard
of nor used a similar device. On top of that Hellbound Heart, the first novella of what would become the
Hellraiser series, was published in 1986, over 30 years before Warren brought
this technique to the public and Clive Barker has not once mentioned it as a
source of inspiration in any interviews.
So what does all of this mean?
Well it seems that a lot of what is
being circulated about the Devil’s Toybox is not accurate but that in and of
itself does not discredit it as potentially working on some magical level (albeit
the physics principles are faulty too) so I elected to build one as my first
experiment.
How to Build a Devil's Toybox
How to Build a Devil's Toybox
Step 1: Gather Materials 6 square mirrors of equal size
and duct tape. I bought them from a Craft Store for under $10.
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Step 2: Clean the mirrors well. Mine had little foam pads glued to the back that were removed. |
Step 3: Begin duct taping the exterior corners but make
sure to use an object with a square edge to guide you
or will may have a lopsided cube.
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Step 4: Secure Final Mirror on top and duct tape the surface
of the cube to insulate against light getting in or
spooks getting out.
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I have an idea of an even more daring experiment - a fingerbox with mirrors inside. even the sound of it seems extremely unsafe imo.
ReplyDeleteSo.... What happened? Did the blog stop because you lost interest or was it something spookier?
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteTo help shed some light on the possible answer to one of your questions. This is from the iMDB trivia section for Hellraiser:
ReplyDelete"The concept of a cube being used as a portal to hell has its basis in the urban legend of The Devil's Toy Box, which concerns a six-sided cube constructed of inward-facing mirrors. According to legend, individuals who enter the structure and then close it will undergo surreal, disturbing phenomenon that will simultaneously grant them a revelatory experience and permanently warp their mind."
Here's where it gets interesting: I think I may have been one of those ill-informed tools who propagated the myth that Barker was inspired my the D's T urban legend.
See, I essentially make my living writing "Goosebumps for Grown-Ups" and one of my most popular stories was regarding said legend and literally the first line of the story was "'The Devil’s Toy Box' is an urban legend that savvier horror fans will recognize as the inspiration for the infamous Lament Configuration from Clive Barker’s seminal Hellraiser series."
Which, as you so astutely pointed out, is not actually the case. All that trivia-entry says is "The concept of a cube being used as a portal to hell has its basis in the urban legend of The Devil's Toy Box[...]" and absolutely nothing about Clive Barker knowing this or actively using it as inspiration.
And yet horror geeks like me read that trivia entry or something akin to it and simply ASSUMED as much. So I think that's your answer: It's an urban legend about an urban legend wrapped in an enigma that was designed by David Cage.
Sorry for being part of the problem. I even wrote my story a year after this post and TWO years before I read your article, so thanks for making me feel like an uneducated hack. Jerk...