Poltergeist Causation

[Eponastill]

My first house had some activity that may be described as poltergeist activity, though I'm not really familiar with what that entails.


The activity only seemed to occur between December to February with nothing in between.

This is very interesting, because I've been collecting poltergeist tales from newspapers and it seems to me the majority of reports come from november to february (I need to make a little count). I was wondering whether it was a case of Slow News Days or something else. Personally I am in total brain fog over the winter and do not function well. It's interesting that you mention that period of the year.

 

[Eponastill]

Fort's conclusion - yes, the maid did it - but she didn't do it by any ordinary means.

I have lost count of how many times the maid gets the blame (and I'm inclined to agree with Mr Fort. Even when they get caught doing something I think of Enfield and that weird stuff may well have been happening to start with, before the circus started and the temptation to carry things on may have been a bigger factor)

 

[brownmane]

This is very interesting, because I've been collecting poltergeist tales from newspapers and it seems to me the majority of reports come from november to february (I need to make a little count). I was wondering whether it was a case of Slow News Days or something else. Personally I am in total brain fog over the winter and do not function well. It's interesting that you mention that period of the year.

I hadn't heard that. The odd noises and activity were obvious enough. The noises never changed, so it was apparent when they were absent.

We were only in the house for 3 years, and had 3 winters there.

The entity did target my husband. As I mentioned, he had no interest nor knowledge in occult topics. It scared him. Me, I was quite interested in a possible haunted house.

 

[Paul_Exeter]

The first time I ever encountered what seemed to be poltergeist activity was in the 70's when I rented a hovel in Grovetown, GA. It was an old house that had been made in to two aparments. I had the smaller side with one bedroom and the original kitchen. The other side had two bedrooms and a back porch. The other side was empty when I moved in and some of my army buddies had shared it (3 guys) for a while, and before that 2 of them had shared the side I moved in to. They told me to keep the living room chair facing away from the hall because there was always "someone" like a ghost peeking in from the hall.

At first I rearranged the furniture and I would sit in the chair and read but did feel that someone was looking at me and I would look up to see a shadow move away from the hall door. Very wierd and I just ignored it. Then another friend came to visit and he came in, walked around and then said I can't come to this house, there is an entity here. If we visit you will have to come see me. I still wasn't bothered.

Then someone moved in to the apartment on the other side and it seemed like all hell broke loose. It was a crazy woman with a 10 month old baby. She was in the army and her mother took care of the baby when she wasn't home. Usually the mother came to the apartment but after a couple of weeks the mother said she wouldn't come back so the woman had to take the baby to her mother's. When I was home I would hear the same walking down the hall, stubling on some furniture and walking back the other way over and over. Only when that woman wasn't home. She said she heard noises when in my apartment when I wasn't home. She claimed all kinds of things, her knick knacks getting moved etc. but I am not sure. At night someone would be standing at the end of my bed. I would turn the light on and no one was there. The dog got where she would not sleep anywhere except on the bed with me under the covers and she would shake and growl often. Eventually I moved back to the barracks and found a home for my dog.

I only occassionally had weird things dissapear and then reappear in some weird place, like the car keys in the freezer, but I had kids and who knows why kids do some stuff.

Then as a grandmother taking care of my mother and my grandchildren I had the weirdest experience and nothing has happened to compare. My parents divorced after 37 years of marriage. My dad lived elsewhere and my mother lived in the house we grew up in. My dad had remodeled the kitchen in the 80's making the cabinets himself. I was baking cookies with my grandson and I opened a cabinet to put the baking powder and baking soda back. After I closed the cupboard door and turned my back on that cabinet to go to the counter where the cookie bowl was the door flew open and all the spices (in small cans and jars) flew out and pummeled me in the back and head. My grandson was facing the cabinet and he had a look of shock on his face. I cleaned it up and thought it was weird and could not explain it, but let it go. Then my brother told me our dad had been taken to a rehab center by cops serving a judges warrant. He had been having too many DWI/DUI and causing fights with the neighbors. Some company had gotten a court order to take care of his finances and talked my brother in to signing a paper to commit him. When I next spoke with my dad months later he blamed for all of it and I found out that the day I had my weird experience is the day the police came to his door to get him. He has always heard voices, and been a little crazy. I wonder if he was the poltergeist in that incident.

There is no way to really study phenomena like this unless you ackowledge that our conscioussness does not reside in our brain, or that we are more than the sum of our physical parts.

The first incidents I mentioned I always thought it was some ghost and that is what everyone who experienced it thought. The second one was what I would consider actual poltergeist activity which I don't think is ghosts.

Fascinating, some real food for thought, thanks for posting

 

[Paul_Exeter]

This is very interesting, because I've been collecting poltergeist tales from newspapers and it seems to me the majority of reports come from november to february (I need to make a little count). I was wondering whether it was a case of Slow News Days or something else. Personally I am in total brain fog over the winter and do not function well. It's interesting that you mention that period of the year.

From a skeptical perspective you could advocate this is when we have our fires lit and/or central heating on and when rodents seek shelter in our habitats (https://www.terminix.com/blog/home-garden/keep-rats-away-from-house-this-winter/). So there are undoubtedly noises during these months as the building reacts to being heated from the inside and rodents scuttle around and therefore some overactive imaginations will construe this to be a poltergeist presence. However, I am most adamantly not suggesting this is the cause of all poltergeist activity.

 

[Paul_Exeter]

Read a post on another forum from a skeptic who claimed that poltergeist cases have ceased since the advent of digital photography and night vision cameras etc. That is, now we have the technology to capture the poltergeist at work whatever the time or lighting conditions, the phenomenon no longer presents itself (or never existed at all, depending on your viewpoint).

Have to say, this got me thinking. Yes, we continue to receive reports of minor, sporadic poltergeist activity and it is not something easily caught on camera. For example, in our old detached family home in Devon we used to sometimes hear someone thumping around upstairs when everyone (including pets) was downstairs. Now if we had today's technology back then the '90s, the chances are we have have recorded nothing more than the sound we all heard anyway and so would have been none the wiser.

However, as regards major poltergeist cases such as Enfield and Battersea, digital technology would certainly make a significant difference to the level of evidence obtained, and indeed the level of evidence required. That said, major poltergeist cases have always been few and far between and the next one could be around the corner or a decade or so away. But then perhaps the poltergeist is 'self-aware' and will evolve to evade 'capture'? Or could it be that the ordinary public would refuse to believe the footage is real when they are surrounding by CGI and virtual reality in their daily lives?

 

[SimonBurchell]

Read a post on another forum from a skeptic who claimed that poltergeist cases have ceased since the advent of digital photography and night vision cameras etc. That is, now we have the technology to capture the poltergeist at work whatever the time or lighting conditions, the phenomenon no longer presents itself (or never existed at all, depending on your viewpoint).

Have to say, this got me thinking. Yes, we continue to receive reports of minor, sporadic poltergeist activity and it is not something easily caught on camera. For example, in our old detached family home in Devon we used to sometimes hear someone thumping around upstairs when everyone (including pets) was downstairs. Now if we had today's technology back then the '90s, the chances are we have have recorded nothing more than the sound we all heard anyway and so would have been none the wiser.

However, as regards major poltergeist cases such as Enfield and Battersea, digital technology would certainly make a significant difference to the level of evidence obtained, and indeed the level of evidence required. That said, major poltergeist cases have always been few and far between and the next one could be around the corner or a decade or so away. But then perhaps the poltergeist is 'self-aware' and will evolve to evade 'capture'? Or could it be that the ordinary public would refuse to believe the footage is real when they are surrounding by CGI and virtual reality in their daily lives?

My prediction would be that the technology would fail, batteries drain etc. and that dramatic phenomena would occur, just out of range of the tech, or while the tech suffers a blip. I have experienced a number of instances of objects not behaving themselves over the years, so a scaling-up of what I have experienced would be a poltergeist, I have no doubts. I have even had a screw dematerialise from within my clenched fist, which was shocking.

 

[AnonyJ]

....My own theory, based on broad reading of paranormal subjects, some personal experience, and conversations with friends who have had paranormal experiences, is an expansion of Joe Fisher's "psychic vampire" theory as related in his excellent book The Siren Call of Hungry Ghosts. Fisher's tragic story took him to investigating mediumistic communications from communicators claiming to be spirits of the dead - but the more he investigated, the more he came to the conclusion that the mysterious communicators were lying. He came to believe that the communicators were feeding off the strong emotions being generated in the people seeking communication with the deceased. I have experienced that paranormal events can strengthen if you pay too much attention and your fear builds up. I have a friend who started experiencing a haunting with associated low-level poltergeistery, and she realised that the more afraid her family was of an occurrence, the stronger the phenomena would become. She made the offhand comment "They feed on fear, so we started to ignore it and it went away."

I think poltergeists latch on to someone experiencing strong emotion, and feed. They generate phenomena designed to frighten the witnesses, and as the witnesses become more and more terrified, the poltergeist is able to generate ever stronger phenomena. I suspect there are many cases were polt phenomena start at a low level, and people dismiss it as mice or rats, and it goes no further. The would-be poltergeist entity wanders off to try to find someone else. My theory is as good as anyone else's. We really don't know, and we probably never will.

That's a fascinating perspective, thank you for the ideas and describing your friend's experience

It's spurred my own thoughts - if someone has a secure fairly orthodox spiritual belief, genuinely does not fear harm from ghosts/poltergeists/entities and can recite prayers to reinforce this then that too would be discouraging to said ghosties?

I am thinking of someone like our own Rev. Lionel F. here, in that he's seen and heard some very strange things and is obviously very interested in all kinds of Forteana yet AFAIAA has never been 'haunted' at home or work by a peristent spirit/entity.

 

[SimonBurchell]

That's a fascinating perspective, thank you for the ideas and describing your friend's experience

It's spurred my own thoughts - if someone has a secure fairly orthodox spiritual belief, genuinely does not fear harm from ghosts/poltergeists/entities and can recite prayers to reinforce this then that too would be discouraging to said ghosties?

I am thinking of someone like our own Rev. Lionel F. here, in that he's seen and heard some very strange things and is obviously very interested in all kinds of Forteana yet AFAIAA has never been 'haunted' at home or work by a peristent spirit/entity.

This is a difficult question. It is commonly reported that religious intervention by priests makes poltergeists react angrily,and blessings do not dispel them.

I have read accounts by priests experienced in dealing with the paranormal who comment that their intervention would make a poltergeist worse... although I can't remember my sources (I've read too much, sorry!)

I am a practicing Christian, and yet I experience sporadic paranormal phenomena. I even encountered an angry ghost in a church some years back.

When I had a particularly nasty sleep paralysis event, which really felt like something was trying to claw its way through my brain and take control of me, prayer caused the attacker to rapidly retreat and attack someone else (I awoke and my wife started to struggle and scream in her sleep, I woke her up, and then I heard my neighbour starting to scream in her sleep). So it seems to me that faith and prayer have power, but not against poltergeists.

Relevant here is a translation I did of a Mexican poltergeist case:

https://forums.forteana.org/index.php?threads/ghosts-poltergeists-obscure-cases.67403/post-2050393

 

[Robbrent]

This is a difficult question. It is commonly reported that religious intervention by priests makes poltergeists react angrily,and blessings do not dispel them.

I have read accounts by priests experienced in dealing with the paranormal who comment that their intervention would make a poltergeist worse... although I can't remember my sources (I've read too much, sorry!)

I am a practicing Christian, and yet I experience sporadic paranormal phenomena. I even encountered an angry ghost in a church some years back.

When I had a particularly nasty sleep paralysis event, which really felt like something was trying to claw its way through my brain and take control of me, prayer caused the attacker to rapidly retreat and attack someone else (I awoke and my wife started to struggle and scream in her sleep, I woke her up, and then I heard my neighbour starting to scream in her sleep). So it seems to me that faith and prayer have power, but not against poltergeists.

Relevant here is a translation I did of a Mexican poltergeist case:

https://forums.forteana.org/index.php?threads/ghosts-poltergeists-obscure-cases.67403/post-2050393

Great Stuff

These things exist I have absolutely no doubt about it, and they feed off strong emotions in particular fear (like you said earlier) if you , I think they feed any strong negative emotions, fear, anger, grief etc, of course out ancestors all knew about this, but their knowledge has been lost

 

[AnonyJ]

This is a difficult question. It is commonly reported that religious intervention by priests makes poltergeists react angrily,and blessings do not dispel them.

I have read accounts by priests experienced in dealing with the paranormal who comment that their intervention would make a poltergeist worse... although I can't remember my sources (I've read too much, sorry!)

I am a practicing Christian, and yet I experience sporadic paranormal phenomena. I even encountered an angry ghost in a church some years back.

When I had a particularly nasty sleep paralysis event, which really felt like something was trying to claw its way through my brain and take control of me, prayer caused the attacker to rapidly retreat and attack someone else (I awoke and my wife started to struggle and scream in her sleep, I woke her up, and then I heard my neighbour starting to scream in her sleep). So it seems to me that faith and prayer have power, but not against poltergeists.

Relevant here is a translation I did of a Mexican poltergeist case:

https://forums.forteana.org/index.php?threads/ghosts-poltergeists-obscure-cases.67403/post-2050393

I was thinking of people not intervening as such, but of people like you & I (I am also a Christian) experiencing and/or living alongside such phenomena or things*. If we are already less fearful of them due to our 'spiritual armour', then the attempts of these things* to manifest and cause trouble may be much less successful. They try but do not succeed!

It's interesting to note the evening prayers of many orthodox Jewish people include Psalm 91 as a standard 'sod off' to paranormal things*

*things = ghosts, ghouls, poltergeists, demons, jinni, spirits or other similar entities - I'm too lazy to type a list twice.

 

[pandacracker]

An interesting thread.

As to the question as to why schools aren't a hotbed of poltergeist activity; maybe there's enough energy in a school (fights, intrigue, depression, hysteria etc) for the polt to feed off. The activity starts at home because it's relatively quieter and the energy entity needs to generate more energy.

 

[Paul_Exeter]

An interesting thread.

As to the question as to why schools aren't a hotbed of poltergeist activity; maybe there's enough energy in a school (fights, intrigue, depression, hysteria etc) for the polt to feed off. The activity starts at home because it's relatively quieter and the energy entity needs to generate more energy.

There have been a few, however it is certainly not something schools would want to advertise. A haunted nursery was featured on one of those 90's paranormal documentaries (Extreme Hauntings?) and it was quite a detailed case with multiple witnesses and poltergeist activity.

I now work in further education and have been told many times by staff who have stayed on late for whatever reason that the buildings at night have a rather spooky atmosphere. One of the buildings I have worked in is said by the longer-serving staff to be haunted by a student who had died but have to say I put this down to 'workplace folklore'. However, I was helping out in one of the supposedly haunted classrooms and the closed door suddenly opened in a smooth and deliberate manner and then stopped without banging against the wall. The tuttor's face went white with shock and we exchanged that "I saw it too" look. I know a skeptic would argue it was a gust of wind but I have been in that classroom pretty much everyday for three years and had not seen this happen before or since. Then I was told by two members of staff they had been on their own in that room on a staff training day and the door had done the same thing and then a chair had moved on its own.

 

[blessmycottonsocks]

I read an article on Quora a while back suggesting that poltergeists are the result of a spirit that has gone insane.
The human body may last 90 years plus, but the mind or intellect will often have descended into dotage or dementia by then.
If that already somewhat disturbed mind somehow lingers in spirit form for decades or centuries thereafter, it could degrade further into a violent insanity, tormenting the living and throwing objects in its anguish.

 

[User7597]

There is an entire chapter on "Ghosts from Hyperspace" in Rudy Rucker's book "The Fourth Dimension". It's about the idea that ghosts and poltergeists reside in the fourth dimension outside of our normal, material space, but are also right next to us and can pop in and out at will. Though the idea that spirits are 4-D beings goes back to Henry More in the 17th century, it wasn't until Johann Carl Friedrich Zollner's book "Transcendental Physics" of 1878 that it became popular.

The idea is referenced in the film "Poltergeist" when balls that are thrown into a cupboard of one room appear from the ceiling of another room, indicating a route through the fourth dimension.

 

[bugmum]

I now work in further education and have been told many times by staff who have stayed on late for whatever reason that the buildings at night have a rather spooky atmosphere.

To be fair, as an ex-primary school teacher who now works in a university, ANY educational establishment at night has an eerie quality. They are places designed to be full of people and when you are the only one there, it feels anomalous.