The Poltergeist Phenomenon

From the Introduction:

The children were playing in a large tub of water floating model boats. Suddenly a stone fell into the tub making ‘an unusual noise for so small a stone’. Then another and bigger stone fell - and more during the day. The children went to the garden to tell the adults and a stone fell amongst them there too. Later, larger stones at shorter intervals. The following evening stones were falling inside the house. The Commanding Officer of the military station where the family lived posted guards on the roof. Stones were falling around them as they stood on the roof.
A whole table was set for dinner when the plates disappeared; a loud crash in another room heralded their re-appearance in pieces all over the floor.
Thomas took a crucifix from the wall and stated: ‘I defy anything to touch this cross.’ As he was leaving the room the cross hit him in the back.
Father Lee came to bless the house and during this his vestments were ‘pulled’ and the Book of the Rituale which he was using flew up and stuck to the ceiling, flapping as if in the wind.
Later, the family discovered that they could not open the doors of the house and called to passers-by for help. The passers-by explained the problem which from their perspective was very simple: stacked against the doors were large boulders ‘which could not be carried by any man’. It took a team of people to come and remove them to release the family. The stone-throwing poltergeist was getting ambitious.

This story is a very abridged version of an extraordinary tale of manifestations from a military station in Madras in Southern India, from the 1870s. It is tempting to regard it as the product of a far-off place, of a far-off time, or the product of a fevered imagination. But as you read this book you will find that your astonishment has not yet even begun to be challenged. For these manifestations - and hundreds of strange, frightening, and awesome other experiences - have not only been happening for two thousand years, but are happening to people in Britain, America and all around the world today. They are witnessed, sometimes by many people together, by police officers, priests, respected figures of authority in communities, and by researchers such as ourselves. They are happening in the workplaces, schools and homes of ordinary families. And not the lightning-struck gloomy haunted mansions of the movies; factories with high-tech equipment, modern well-lit homes in the leafy suburbs. We ourselves have sat in a newly built house in ‘the stockbroker belt’ where thousands of such manifestations have persisted for over three years - and they happened while we were there. In one school in Scotland the teacher told us how her heavy oak desk lifted in the air and slowly turned round so that the side edge was now in front of her, then it lowered to the floor - in front of a full class of astonished children.

‘Poltergeist’ is commonly translated from the German to mean ‘noisy ghost’ but this is a poor translation. ‘Geist’ means ghost - itself possibly an imprecise word for these experiences - but ‘Polter’ comes from the noun ‘Polterer’ meaning a blusterer, bully, or rowdy person. Poltern is the verb meaning ‘to make a rumbling noise’. Polterabend is a German word for a ‘party on the eve of a wedding’ (i.e. a stag or hen night) and refers to boozy partying accompanied by lewdness and practical joking. ‘Polter’ therefore is less about noise alone, but about frolicking, unruliness and rumbustiousness. The poltergeist is not just noisy and perhaps the true definition implies what we know about these extraordinary, strange experiences: noisy, destructive and disruptive.


Poltergeists are a reality.