Do items such as chairs, glasses, keys, watches and other things seem move around your house and you have a heck of a time trying to find them? Then later, you discover them exactly where you left them? You might have a poltergeist. No, I'm not talking about simply forgetting where you put something. It's more a case of you knowing exactly where you left it, but it's just gone, only to reappear days or weeks later.
Do you hear unexplained banging or tapping on your walls or actually see things move? Do televisions, radios and other electronic items turn on and off by themselves? You might even hear shrieks or smell something disgusting. These are other signs that a mischievous spirit is harassing you. The term "poltergeist" comes from the German poltern, "to knock," and geist, "spirit." It has in some cases been referred to as "noisy ghost." Some cases of poltergeists that remain unexplained and may involve actual spirits. In other cases the phenomena may be produced by subconscious psychokinesis (PK)on the part of an individual.
Analysis
On http://www.themystica.com/mystica/articles/p/poltergeist.html it states that in the late 1970s, parapsychologists Alan Gauld and A. D. Cornell did a computer analysis of cases collected since 1800 to that time. They identified 63 general characteristics, which included the following:
64 percent involved the movement of small objects;
58 percent were most active at night;
48 percent featured raps;
36 percent involved movement of large objects;
24 percent lasted longer than one year;
16 percent featured communication between the poltergeist and a person;
12 percent involved the opening and shutting of doors and windows.
Before the 19th century, poltergeist activity was blamed on the Devil, demons, witches, and ghosts of the dead. The Gauld-Cornell analysis found only 9 percent of the cases attributed to demons, 7 percent to witches and 2 percent to spirits of the dead. Most of the demon and witches attributions occurred in non-Western countries.
The development and increase of psychical research during the late 19th and early 20th centuries helped confirm the belief that poltergeist activity was genuine. Among the early investigators were two founders of the Society for Psychical Research, Sir William Barrett and Fredric W. H. Meyers. Meyers believed in the genuineness of poltergeist activity and that it was distinguishable from ghost hauntings.
The poltergeist phenomenon has been investigated intensely over the years and in some cases, has also been photographed and/or videotaped. However, there are cases in particular that stand out in the annals of poltergeist incidents.
Specific Cases
In the Atlanta home of Mr. and Mrs. Wilson, blood appeared on the walls and floors. It eventually vanished just as fast as it appeared. However, they got a sample of the blood and took it to a local scientific establishment for analyses. Tests reveal that the blood was human type, group 'O'. Mr. and Mrs. Wilson are both blood type 'A'. To this date no rational explanation has been found.
The Dagg family of Quebec, Canada, was plagued by a disruptive spirit in 1989. Their adopted daughter, Dinah, was 11 years old. She was physically attacked by an unseen force and claimed that from time to time, it would speak to her in the woodshed. One day, a visitor went with Dinah to the woodshed and she asked, "Is anyone there." A voice of an old man could clearly be heard, speaking obscenities.
The voice said, 'I am the devil. Get out or I'll break your neck.' The following day a crowd of people gathered to hear the strange voice speak. They were not disappointed and in fact, some were embarrassed when the voice started revealing intimate secrets about their private lives.
Some 30 years ago, a family in Thornton Heath, England woke up one summer night to the blaring of a bedside radio that somehow turned itself on. This incident was the first in a string of events that would see the family tormented by a poltergeist present in their home for four years. During Christmas, 1972, a tree ornament was sent flying across the room and hit the husband in the forehead. As it did so, the tree began to shake violently. Then in the New Year, footsteps were heard in a bedroom. The couple also had a son, who was terrorized by this activity as well. He awoke one night to see the spirit of a man in old-fashioned dress staring at him in a threatening manner. They also had a lampshade that was repeatedly knocked to the floor.
The final straw came one night when they were entertaining friends. First they heard a loud knocking at the front door, then the living room door flew open and all the house lights came on. This led the couple to seek help by having their house blessed, but it failed to stop this nasty poltergeist. After that, they actually saw objects flying through the air and heard many loud noises like large pieces of furniture being smashed to the floor, but when they went to investigate, nothing was even moved.
The couple then sought help from a medium, who told them a farmer named Chatterton was haunting their house. He still considered it his home and the family were trespassers. Records showed that a family named Chatterton had indeed lived there in the mid-18<sup>th</sup> century.
To make things worse, Chatterton's wife also began causing havoc in the home. An elderly gray-haired woman began following the wife up the stairs at night. And in another weird incident, the family even saw the farmer appear on their television screen. Of course, the family finally moved and no more poltergeist activity was ever reported in the house. I think these spirits took a particular dislike to this couple and their son.
In 1977, this case in Enfield, England made headlines, because of the strange activity that centered around 11-year-old Janet Harper and her 10-year-old brother, Pete. They had complained that their beds were "jolting up and down and going all funny." However, as soon as their mother entered their room, they would stop and she figured they were just making up the story.
However, things got much worse in the Harper household. They heard shuffling noises and knocks on the wall. Then a heavy chest of drawers slid across the floor by itself and Mrs. Harper grabbed the children and left. She went to a neighbor for help.
"The neighbors searched the house and garden but found no one. Soon they also heard the knocks on the walls, which continued at spaced out intervals. At 11 p.m., they called the police, who heard the knocks. One officer even saw a chair inexplicably move across the floor and later signed a written statement to confirm the events."
In the following days, several people saw Lego bricks and marbles thrown around the house and when someone tried to pick them up, they were hot to the touch. Mrs. Harper finally got Maurice Grosse of the Society for Psychical Research to come into the home to investigate.
"Grosse claims that he experienced the strange happenings – first a marble was thrown at him from an unseen hand. He saw doors open and close by themselves, and claimed to feel a sudden breeze that seemed to move up from his feet to his head."
Writer Guy Lyon Playfair also got involved in this case and along with Grosse, studied the phenomenon for two years.
"The knocking on walls and floors became an almost nightly occurrence, furniture slid across the floor and was thrown down the stairs, drawers were wrenched out of dressing tables. Toys and other objects would fly across the room, bedclothes would be pulled off, water was found in mysterious puddles on the floors (and) there were outbreaks of fire followed by their inexplicable extinguishing."
Then the unthinkable happened. The spirits decided to reveal themselves through Janet. She spoke in a deep, gravely voice and announced that her name was Bill. This spirit said he had died in the house and the voice, as well as much of the phenomena has been recorded. Playfair later wrote about all the activity in a book called This House is Haunted.
Despite much documentation skeptics say the daughter, Janet, caused the strange occurrences. They claim that whenever she was absent, there was no poltergeist activity. They even claim that photos of her levitating on her bed were simply her jumping on it. Sounds a little far fetched to me. It is more likely that this hyper child caused the activity simply by her presence. Poltergeist cases often revolve around over-active children. I think it has more to do with their energy causing things to happen. However, that does not explain any ghost sightings.
This case focuses on an antique bed, which Al Cobb of Savannah, Georgia believed was haunted. In 1998, reporter Jane Fishman of the Savannah Morning News began a series of articles about it. Cobb said he bought the bed, which was vintage late-1800s at an auction as a present for his 14-year-old son, Jason.
Three nights after the purchase, Jason told his parents that he felt someone had stuck their elbow on his pillow and was watching him. He could feel cold air down the back of his neck.
"The next night, he noticed the photo of his deceased grandparents on his wicker nightstand flipped down. So he righted it. The next day, the photo was facing down again. Later that morning, after leaving his room for breakfast, he returned and found in the middle of his bed two Beanie Babies – the zebra and the tiger – next to a conch shell, a dinosaur made of shells and a plaster toucan bird. That got his parents' – and his twin brother, Lee's – attention. Trying to make sense of the irrational, Al called out, 'Do we have a Casper here? Tell me your name and how old you are.' Then he left some lined composition paper and crayons, and with his family, walked out of the room. In 15 minutes, they returned and found written vertically in large block childlike letters, 'Danny, 7.'"
Mr. Cobb decided that while the rest of the family were out of the house he would try to communicate with the spirit of Danny some more.
"With the same kind of notes, Danny indicated that his mother had died in that bed in 1899 and that he wanted to stay with the bed. He also made it clear that he didn't want anyone else sleeping in it." Yet another note read: "No one sleep in bed."
Though Jason was moved out of that room, he decided one day to lie down and pretend he was napping. Later, when he returned to the room to get some clothes, a terra cotta head that hung on the wall flew through the air, just missed him and smashed into the closet door.
This anxious spirit really got antsy and did such things as move furniture, open kitchen drawers, flip over chairs, light candles and more. Fishman wrote a second article in which she stated that there was no way of telling "who – or what" was casing this activity.
Young Jason then began talking about other spirits, including an "Uncle Sam," who had come to reclaim his daughter that he said was buried under the house. Parapsychologist Andrew Nichols, who is head of the Florida Society for Parapsychological Research came to investigate the goings on.
"What happened at the Cobbs," he told Fishman, "– more specifically to Jason – would have happened without 'Danny' or the bed. It was the electromagnetic energy of the wall – that Jason started sleeping next to when they moved the bed there – that charged a psychic ability that the boy already had."
Going further back in history to 1716, a case of poltergeist activity was documented in the annals of British Psychical Research. At the parsonage in Epworth, Lincolnshire, all of the members of the Wesley family heard loud rapping sounds and other noises over a two-month period. During one such incident, Mrs. Wesley and her husband were descending the stairs when they heard a noise as if someone was emptying a large bag of coins at their feet. Then they heard the sound of glass bottles being "dashed to a thousand pieces." Other sounds at the parsonage included running footsteps, groans and a door latch being lifted several times. While this case was investigated, no suitable explanations for the activity could be determined.
Poltergeist – The Movie
Just about everyone is familiar with the film "Poltergeist" of 1982. This one was followed by Poltergeist II in 1986 and Poltergeist III in 1988. Each recounts an episode in the lives of the Freeling family, who lived in a home inhabited by spirits intent on kidnapping their children.
What some people may not know is that these movies seem to be connected to the mysterious deaths of four of the actors within a six-year period. Dominique Dunn played the older sister in the first Poltergeist movie. Shortly after the film's release, she was murdered by her ex-lover. Julian Beck played the 'bad spirit' in Poltergeist II. She died unexpectedly shortly afterward of stomach cancer. Will Sampson played the 'good spirit' in Poltergeist II. He died in 1987 after receiving a heart-lung transplant. And finally, there was Heather O'Rourke, a young girl who appeared in all three movies. In 1988, she died of a septic infection due to a bowel blockage that caused bacterial toxins to enter her system. Originally, it was believed that she had the flu, but within 24 hours, she died on the operating table.
Some view these deaths as suspicious and a lot of sites on the net talk about what has become known as the Poltergeist Curse. However, it is much more likely to be just a coincidence.
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Comments: 6
Thanks Rose!
Carol: I'd like to know more about your poltergeist as well.