Michael Clarkson - The Poltergeist Phenomenon: An In-depth Investigation Into Floating Beds, Smashing Glass, and Other Unexplained Disturbances

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Table of Contents

To John Rossiter, who dared to dream.

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank all of those people who helped me with this book, including my publisher, New Page Books, and my literary agent, Robert Mackwood.

Special thanks to Dr. William Roll, a researchers dream with his kindness and help, and to other parapsychologists such as Stephen Mera, Andrew Nichols, Malcolm Robinson, and the late Maurice Grosse.

Thank you to Sarah S. for opening up her life to these pages in Chapter 7.

For the St. Catharines case, thanks to the Niagara Regional Police, to my former employer the St. Catharines Standard, and to the subject, John Mulvey.

Other thanks go to the Toronto Public Library system, the Bridgeport (Connecticut) Public Library in helping find articles and sources, and to the many authors of books, periodicals, Websites, associations, and interviews given in the bibliography and notes.

Finally, a big hug to my family for putting up with the ups and downs of life with a writer.

Michael Clarkson,
Winter 2010-11

Glossary of Major Terms

levitation: The lifting of objects through PK or RSPK.

parapsychology: The study of general paranormal phenomena.

poltergeist agent: A person around whom poltergeist activities seem to revolve.

poltergeist: A disturbance or energy with bizarre physical effects of paranormal origin that suggest mischievous or destructive intent, such as breaking or movement of objects and loud knocks or noises. The disturbance usually centers around an individual, often a young person going through puberty in a stressful house. The term is German, meaning noisy ghost.

psi: A term used to encompass all paranormal abilities.

psychokinesis (PK): The power of the mind to consciously affect matter without physical contact.

recurrent spontaneous psychokinesis (RSPK): Bizarre movement of objects, noises, and other paranormal effects caused unconsciously by a person; otherwise known as poltergeist activity. Unlike PK, it occurs spontaneously and repeatedly throughout a period of time.

telekinesis: Paranormal movement of objects. Psychokinesis is the modern term for this.

Introduction

Poltergeist activity is something that really scares the crap out of me.

Donovan van Wyngaard, South African producer and director

A book about the supernatural might seem like merely a diversion for a writer who has been heavily into police, investigative, and sports reporting for four decadesas I have. And yet, I have also studied fear and its energies for many years, and authored six books, based largely on psychology. The topic of poltergeists has intrigued me for a long time, even before 1980 when a young man who had been the center of a poltergeist case came to my house to talk. Since then, I have been following with added interest such cases as they pop up from time to time in the media and in scholarly publications, and some of them seem worthy of further examination. During the past five years, I have been closely examining the cases that appear in this book.

I am not an expert in poltergeists or paranormal phenomena, but as a journalist, Im always looking for reasonable proof for things like extrasensory perception, UFOs, or ghosts. As a fear researcher, I believe we are just beginning to understand some of the amazing capabilities of the fight-or-flight system, which is hardwired into each of us by nature to allow us to adapt our physical response to mental and emotional tasks.

For this book, I have reviewed 75 poltergeist cases and interviewed more than 100 witnesses, parapsychologists, psychologists, university professors, magicians, and skeptics. Some of the cases may raise as many questions as they provide answers, and others may seem to have holes in them, or be completely the result of trickery. But if we are too quick to toss out everything, we might miss some intriguing stories, and theories on the edge of science.

Poltergeists are difficult to prove for a number of reasons. Reportedly, the phenomenon often involves adolescents or teenagers, who may be prone to trickery or at least to manufacturing attention for themselves, and families involved in reported poltergeist activity are often embarrassed, and reluctant to let investigators into their homes.

Reports of poltergeists have fascinated people, from ancient times to the Amityville Horror case on Long Island in 1974, and beyond, to the Harry Potter books and movies and a family in Ireland abandoning their home in 2010. Poltergeists were reported as early as 858 BC in a farmhouse in Rhine, Germany, where an unseen force reportedly threw stones, shook the walls, moved objects, and produced loud banging noises. Other cases were reported in AD 530 in Roman Italy and AD 900 in China. The Spiritualism movement in the United States began in 1848 when it was reported that sisters Kate and Margaret Fox were creating disruptive, noisy energy in their Hydesville, New York home. (Spiritualist belief is in the continued existence of the human soul, and it remains be popular in places around the world, particularly in Brazil.)

Many people are skeptical about early poltergeist investigations, which were sometimes done by superstitious researchers who might have too easily jumped to conclusions. Even the famous murder and poltergeist/ haunting case in a house in Amityville (made into the book and two movies called The Amityville Horror) was said by many people to be fraudulent.

In ancient times, many people believed that demons were behind such activity, but then the theory turned to the idea that they were actually ghosts of the dead. Beginning in the 20th century, parapsychologists such as Sir William Barrett, Federic Myers, Nandor Fodor, and William Roll started to believe that the activity revolved around young people, that the loud bumps and moving objects were the types of things mischievous or angry youths might attempt; in these cases, it was believed the adolescents did it subconsciously through a type of kinetic energy in which they moved objects with their mind and emotions, possibly without even knowing they were doing it.

After reviewing many cases for this book, I have narrowed the description of a poltergeist, taking direction from what the contemporary investigators believe: The poltergeist is an unusual form of energy produced most often by a young person. However, others believe that ghosts or demon possession is responsible. Although each case has its own characteristics and idiosyncrasies, here are the trends I have found. The cases generally encompass:

Dramatic events, such as unexplained knocking, electrical malfunctions, and movement of objects and furniture. Occasionally reported are levitation of objects, electrical appliances working without power, and stones falling apparently from nowhere. Infrequently reported are strange voices, apparitions, strange odors, cold spots, and water formings.

A poltergeist agent, usually an adolescent entering puberty, immediately around whom the strange activities occur. He or she is usually quite intelligent.

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