Poltergeist:
(noun) – “A ghost or a spirit supposed to manifest its presence by noises, knocking etc”
Origin – German: “Polter” – to make noise. “Geist” – ghost.
Signs & Symptoms of Poltergeist Activity in Your Home:
Objects disappear and reappear a few days later in odd places
Objects occasionally levitate or fly off the furniture
There is a teenager in your home
There is a strange, unexplainable smell in your house, usually coming from one room
Electronics behave unusually in your home
Rhythmic knocking sounds throughout the home
Disembodied footsteps
Creepy feeling that you’re being watched
Cold spots in your home that tend to move from place to place
Doors slam by themselves
Strange messages on your phone
In bad cases, you might find bruises or scratches on your skin
Paranormal
A poltergeist haunting is considered one of the best-known but most feared forms of haunting. It involves a spirit that torments and harasses its victims. It centres around one person who is undergoing serious amounts of stress or trauma and will pick on that person. This is usually a teenager that is going through puberty. Poltergeists are not necessarily harmful, they are sometimes just spirits that are bored and therefore spend their time annoying and tormenting the inhabitants of the house. Poltergeists are never friendly and they feed off of the negative energy in the home. The more they torment you, the more negative energy they have to feed off of. It is very unlikely that a person will ever see a poltergeist. Activity will start small, often things that can be written off as a prank by another family member but will grow worse and worse quite quickly.
What starts off as physical attacks, such as scratches and slap marks and bruising, often leads to psychological attacks. The victim will wake up to their bed shaking violently or might enter into a room only to see the door close and lock behind them. This is beneficial to the poltergeist as the increase in stress and fear in the victim’s life gives the poltergeist more negative energy to feed off of. Although there are rare cases of poltergeists following families from place to place, majority of poltergeist hauntings are linked to specific homes or items.
Scientific
To the delight of most sceptics there is a theory that suggests a scientific explanation for what we call poltergeist activities. Recurrent Spontaneous Psychokinesis (RSPK) is a theory that suggests poltergeist activity is created by a member of the family. Due to mechanisms that we do not yet understand it is believed that poltergeist activity stems out of the unconscious or subconscious of a person in response to severe emotional stress or trauma. This person is referred to as an “agent” and is usually also the victim of the “attacks” but is not aware that they are causing it themselves. It is believed that it is a form of telekinetic energy released, most likely during puberty, and that once this period of emotional stress is over, the “poltergeist” activity will come to an end. A link was made when a scientist investigating possible poltergeist activity noticed that the activity in the home peaked any time the victim was in a moment of severe stress or panic. There is little proof supporting this theory and so it remains only a theory.
Enfield Poltergeist
In August 1977 Peggy Hodgson called police out to her home at 284 Green Street after her children claimed to see furniture moving on its own and mysterious knocking sounds emanating from the walls. One police constable reported seeing a chair wobble and slide across the floor. Over the next 18 months over 30 people claimed to have seen heavy furniture move on its own in the home. Reports of the children levitating and being thrown across the room by an invisible force flooded the police station and recordings were made of knocking sounds and a low, gruff voice. Over the next two years the house received a lot of press coverage and people were constantly in and out of the house to either prove that there was a poltergeist or to prove that there wasn’t one. The press coverage stopped shortly after one magician visited the home and claimed that other than the daughter speaking in different voices, nothing out of the ordinary happened in the home.
To this day it is unsure whether the family were victims of a poltergeist attack or whether they just desired the media attention. As much as people tried to prove the poltergeist was real, people also tried to prove that is wasn’t. Neither of these theories were ever proved and so to this day we do not truly know what happened in that home. A few families that lived in the home after the Hodgsons claimed minor activity was happening but never as bad as 1977-1979. The family living in the home today are happy and say that the home has a cheerful feeling at that nothing odd has ever happened there. Does this mean that the Hodgons created this haunting to get media attention, or does this perhaps add proof to the RSPK theory? Or does it mean that the help from Ed and Lorraine Warren cleared the home of any paranormal activity? This is something we will never know and so it is up to you to decide which one of these theories you like best.
The Hodgson children of Enfield
Hodgson girl being thrown around by poltergeist
Ed and Lorraine Warren during an investigation at the Enfield home
Whether it is caused by something paranormal or by something scientific one thing is for sure, the activity experienced during a poltergeist haunting is destructive and terrifying. It puts severe stress on those involved and has will break down peace and faith in any home.
