Claude Lecouteux - The Secret History of Poltergeists and Haunted Houses: From Pagan Folklore to Modern Manifestations

Acknowledgments

Dealing with a subject of this nature would not have been possible without my discussions with various specialists in folk beliefs and popular traditions, as well as experts on the psychic sciences. Their constructive criticism made it possible for me to bring this work to a successful conclusion.

I would like to thank Ronald Grambo (Kongsvinger, Norway), who kept an eye on every step of my progress and was an endless source of encouragement and case histories. With his customary generosity, Philippe Gontier (Graulhet, France) fed me with a constant supply of texts drawn from his plentiful library. Philippe Wallon, a psychiatric doctor, shared his insights with me on a subject that fuels his passion, and Emmanuela Timotin (Bucharest) opened a door to the Romanian domain.

A big thank-you is due as well to my son Benot for his computer expertisewithout his help, how many files might I have lost!

Contents

Introduction:

Chapter 1:

Chapter 2:

Chapter 3:

Chapter 4:

Chapter 5:

Chapter 6:

Chapter 7:

Chapter 8:

Chapter 9:

I:

II:

III:

IV:

V:

INTRODUCTION

Things That Go Bump in the Night

There are more things in heaven and earth... than are dreamt of in your philosophy.

SHAKESPEARE, HAMLET, ACT 1, SCENE 5

If we take the time to scrutinize the accounts from popular tradition and even those from literature, we shall find that our world is haunted in thousands of ways! Newspaper headlines regularly feature alleged paranormal phenomena, and television has tirelessly exploited this vein without coming close to exhausting it, simply due to the fact that irrational subject matter has a proven track record. Dont these kinds of things resonate with many people? Havent divination and predicting the future become acceptable practices over the past few decades and now even commonplace? The devil has made a resurgence, witchcraft remains a vital presence in the rural areas, and talismans and amulets sell as well today as they ever did. In short, humans have hardly evolved at all in this domain, even though Cartesian and Enlightenment rationality has dominated the recent historical landscape. In an irony of fate these rational tendencies have failed to undermine an ancient body of beliefs that merely awaits the opportunity to spring back into life. Recent studies conducted in the 1990s have brought to light the astonishing survival of mentalities thought to have long since been buried in the fog of a medieval obscurantism. Alas, studies of this sort, diligently conducted by ethnologists in the field, do not hold the same appeal for the public at large as do sensational stories.

Because of the ambiguous nature of many peoples mental attitudes, everything touching on the supernatural and paranormal has acquired legitimacy today, and the reasonable voices of objective observers are drowned out by the din created by opportunists and pseudo-experts. In short, readers who approach the subject without any preconceived notions, who are simply seeking to expand their knowledge, are bound to be disappointed because so many of the books dealing with this theme exhibit some combination of navet and charlatanism, and the accountsespecially when stirred up by the mainstream mediatend to go overboard in their desire to meet the publics expectations. An event must be sensational if it expects to enjoy any life, even of the most fleeting kind.

The case file on haunted houses is one that deserves to be reexamined and purged of its successive embellishments. It is in fact an extraordinary testament to the different mental attitudes embraced by human beings throughout history. It has the advantage of being a condensation of human hopes and fears, a veritable crucible of beliefs going back to the dawn of time, and an attestation of the relentless quest to provide explanations for anything that is alarming and strange. Mankinds need to explain the world in which we live began very early with simple questions such as Why is the sea salty? and Why are crows black? and so forth. Each question has often prompted not one but several answers. The same holds true for haunted houses. Confronted by unusual, eerie, or terrifying manifestations, people have sought to name them and determine their causethe only sure means for reducing the horror felt in the face of the unknown. Identifying the source of the problem is a step toward making it more tolerable, because it can then be countered or eliminated by turning to the man or woman who knows the appropriate rituals, words, and gestures, as well as the objects or plants, capable of bringing an end to the anomalous situation that has been encountered. Depending on the era, these specialists were known as magicians, witches, exorcists, or spiritsnames that all indicate uncommon knowledge, that is, knowledge regarded as magical by the profane.

Knocking spirits, or poltergeists, represent one of the forms of domestic haunting. Many studies speak of them in passing when they are looking at hauntings in general. This is the case with the book Haunted Houses by Richard Winer and Nancy Osborn (New York: Bantam, 1979), centered on the United States and Haunted Britain: A Guide to Supernatural Sites Frequented by Ghosts, Witches, Poltergeists, and Other Mysterious Beings by Antony D. Hippisley Coxe (London: Hutchinson, 1973). Older and more precise works include B. Ottos Die Sprache der Verstorbenen oder das Geisterklopfen (The Language of the Dead or the Knockings of the Spirits, ca. 18601870) and F. W. Rechenbergs Geheimnisse des Tages: Geschichte und Wesen der klopfenden Geister und tanzenden Tische (Mysteries of the Day: The History and Nature of Spirit Knockers and Spinning Tables, Leipzig: Otto Spammer, 1853) as well as Robert Papsts interesting study about ghosts in legends and poetry published in 1867. In 1916 Heinrich Ohlhaver studied the life of the dead and their manifestations; in 1920 Felix Schloeny offered the public his book on ghosts titled Livre des fantmes; and in 1927 Max Kemmerich investigated ghosts, poltergeists, the double, and the astral body in his book Die Brcke zum Jenseits. In 1950 the parapsychologist Fanny Moser devoted a book to the study of these subjects (Spuk. Irrglaube oder Wahrglaube? Eine Frage der Menschheit), and Mary Ottinger tackled the ghosts of the British Isles in a 1978 work. These are only a few of the titles that reveal how the English and Germans, more than any other nationalities, have a predilection for all subjects touching on the paranormal.

Among the works that make scientific claims I would point out the studies in French by Camille Flammarion, especially his Maisons hantes,and in those in Italian by Ernesto Bozzano, who relied on metaphysical journals for a wealth of case studies. Bozzano studied 532 cases of haunting, 158 of which involved knocking spirits. In 105 of these cases various noises were a factor. In the German-speaking countries local poltergeist phenomena are the subject of small monographs, often anonymous, which describe the facts in detail, such as those occurring in Resau in 1889 or in Grosserlach in 1916.

Prominent among the vast number of books devoted to these rapping spirits is the one by the Jesuit priest Henry Thurston. It is distinguished by being based upon rare documentation including old English newspapers, several texts from the Middle Ages, and memoirs. The study extends beyond Europe and into the former British colonies. There is only one flaw, in that it lacks precise bibliographical references that would allow us to verify his sources. Finally, just a short time ago, Philippe Wallon, a doctor of psychiatry and research director of INSERM [National Institute of Health and Medical Research], has provided us with an excellent summation of the whole question.