Poltergeists

Poltergeist:- from the German, “polter” (=to make a noise by throwing or tumbling about, to bluster, scold, etc.) = “geist” (=ghost or spirit): hence, ‘noisy ghost, ‘ ‘hobgoblin,’ ‘racketing spirit.’

The most popular theories surrounding the poltergeist tend towards that of R.S.P.K. recurrent spontaneous psycho kinesis. That the poltergeist is not an external spirit, demon or entity, but is internal, a manifestation of human stress and anger that within some people is locked away until like a pressure cooker, the mind vents off emotions in the form of psycho kinetic energy.

Though the poltergeist seems to have been named after its auditory effects, more typical phenomena may include:

*** Showers of stones, [Lithobolia] earth, mud, sticks, fruit, shells and occasionally more bizarre materials such as bank-notes, small animals, etc.

*** Objects, e.g. furniture, may be rolled , moved, overturned or otherwise agitated; in particular, small items are likely to be thrown, levitated, caused to simulate rocking or “dancing” motion, or may be swept across the room in flights of complicated and sustained trajectory from which they descend either gradually and gently in hovering motion or very abruptly;

*** Bedclothes, linen, garments and curtains may be molested, torn, slashed or otherwise damaged. In some rare cases linen has been found to have been deliberately arranged in the form of a ‘tableau’ reminiscent of human figures at worship;

*** Small objects may disappear from their appointed places, possibly making subsequent reappearances in highly incongruous situations ... others fail to reappear at all;

*** “Apports” (objects perhaps foreign to the afflicted household) may similarly arrive on the scene.

*** Manipulations suggestive of internal malfunction may affect electrical equipment later found to be in normal working order. Telephones may ring or register calls when none have been made; plugs are removed and light bulbs smashed or wrenched from their sockets;

*** “Spontaneous” fires may break out;

*** Pools or jets of water (and/or other liquids) may be emitted from normally dry surfaces, e.g. walls, ceilings, etc.

*** Personal assaults such as blows, slaps, shoves, etc. may be inflicted on householders and their guests. However, stigmata in the form of weals, teeth-marks or scratches, are likely to be confined to one particular person, namely the supposed “agent” or “focus” in the disturbances;

*** Apparitions (human, animal or indeterminate) are sometimes witnessed, as are unusual lights, clouds of phosphorescence, etc,

*** In a few instances a form of psychic invasion characterized as “possession” or entrancement with associated psi abilities in the poltergeist agent has been reported.

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