| Poltergeists |
Articles about Poltergeist |
Website Links For Poltergeist |
Information AboutPoltergeists |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT POLTERGEIST | |
| german loanwords | |
| ghosts | |
| spirituality | |
| psychokinesis | |
Reports of poltergeist activity typically feature raps, bumps, thumps, knocks, footsteps, and bed shaking, all without a discernible point of origin or physical reason for occurrence. Many accounts also report objects being thrown about the room, furniture being moved, and even people being levitated. Though rare, a few reported poltergeists have been purported to speak, including the The Bell Witch in 1817 and Gef The Talking Mongoose in 1931. MAJOR HYPOTHESES These are the major hypothesies concerning the origin of poltergeist phenomena: Mischievous spirits A pamphlet printed in London in 1698 by Mr. Ricard Chamberlain provides an account of a poltergeist-type haunting that had occurred some years before. Two copies of the pamphlet exist in the in New England , chiefly in throwing about (by an Invisible hand) Stones, Bricks, and Brick-Bats of all sizes, with several other things, as Hammers, Mauls, Iron-Crows, Spits, and other Utensils, as came into their Hellish minds, and this for space of a quarter of a year...." Poltergeist activity originates with agents Poltergeist activity tends to occur around a single person called an agent or a focus. Separate existences Poltergeists might simply exist, like the " Elementals " described by Occultists . Another version posits that poltergeists originate after a person dies in a powerful rage at the time of death. According to yet another opinion, Ghost s and poltergeists are "recordings." When there is a powerful emotion, sometimes at death and sometimes not, a recording is believed to be "embedded" in a place or, somehow, in the "fabric of time" itself. This recording will continue to play over and over again until the energy embedded disperses. However some poltergeists have had the ability to articulate themselves and to have distinct personalities, which suggests some sort of self-awareness and intent. Practitioners of Astral Projection have reported the existence of unfriendly astral life forms, which Robert Bruce called "negs" (whom we might also identify with elementals). If they exist, these may well have the ability to affect the physical world. See also: Caused by physical forces Some scientists and skeptics propose that all poltergeist activity that they can't trace to fraud has a physical explanation such as Static Electricity , Electromagnetic fields, Ultra- , and Infrasound and/or ionized air. In some cases, such as the Rosenheim poltergeist case, the physicist F. Karger from the Max-Planck-Institut für Plasmaphysik and G. Zicha from the Technical University of Munich found none of these effects present and Psi Proponents claim that no evidence of fraud was ever found, even after a sustained investigation from the police force and CID, though Criminologist Herbert Schäfer quotes an unnamed detective watching the agent pushing a lamp when she thought nobody was looking. However, whether this is true or not, police officers did sign statements that they had witnessed the phenomena. , Physicist Hal Puthoff and head of Electrical Engineering at Duke University who specializes in electromagnetic field phenomena, claim that poltergeist phenomena movement of objects at least could be caused by anomalies in the zero-point field, Roll, W. ''Poltergeists, Electromagnetism and Consciousness'' PDF at [http://www.scientificexploration.org/jse/articles/pdf/17.1_roll.pdf, this is outlined in the above article and in Roll's book ''Unleashed'' and mention is made of it in a chapter of Dean Radin's book ''Entangled Minds''. The basic theory is that poltergeist movements are repulsive versions of the casimir effect that can put pressures on objects. Thus, anomalies in this field could conceivably move objects. This theory has also been mentioned in the current book on paranormal phenomena ''Science'' by Marie D. Jones.Jones, Marie D. ''PSIence: How New Discoveries in Quantum Physics and New Science May Explain the Existence of Paranormal Phenomena'' (New Page Books, 2006) The theory is not complete, however, because it accounts for the movement of objects but not for the strange voices, seeming personality, and strange electrical effects displayed in some cases. See also: Self-delusion and hoaxes Skeptics think that the phenomena are hoaxes perpetrated by the agent. Indeed, some poltergeist agents have been caught by investigators in the act of throwing objects. A few of them later confessed to faking. Skeptics maintain that parapsychologists are especially easy to fool when they think that many occurrences are real and discount the hoax hypothesis from the outset. Even after witnessing first hand an agent throwing objects, psi-believing parapsychologists rationalize the fact away by assuming that the agents are only cheating when caught cheating, and when you do not catch them, the phenomenon is genuine. One reason given is that the agents often fake phenomena when the investigation coincides with a period of time where there appears to be little or no 'genuine' phenomena occurring. Another stated reason is that some of the phenomena witnessed would be hard to fake, even for magicians when under the watch of many people, let alone untrained children and non-magicians. EXAMPLES William Roll , Hans Bender , and Harry Price are perhaps three of the most famous poltergeist investigators in the annals of parapsychology. Harry Price investigated Borley Rectory which is often called "the most haunted house in England." In the Rosenheim case, Dr. Friedbert Karger was one of two physicists from the Max Planck Institute who helped to investigate perhaps the most validated poltergeist case in recorded history. A 19-year-old secretary in a law firm in Rosenheim, a small town in southern Germany , was seemingly the unwitting cause of much chaos in the firm, including disruption of electricity and telephone lines, the rotation of a picture, swinging lamps which were captured on video (which was one of the first times any poltergeist activity has been captured on film), and strange sounds that sounded electrical in origin were recorded. Fraud was not proven despite intensive investigation by the physicists, journalists, and the police. The effects moved with the young woman when she changed jobs until they finally faded out. Friedbert Karger's whole perspective on physics changed after investigating the events. "These experiments were really a challenge to physics," Karger says today. "What we saw in the Rosenheim case could be 100 per cent shown not to be explainable by known physics." {Link without Title} . The phenomena were witnessed by Hans Bender, the police force, the CID, reporters, and the physicists. The claims were aired in a documentary in 1975 in a series called "Leap in the Dark." FAMOUS POLTERGEIST INFESTATIONS Although poltergeist stories date back to the first century, most evidence to support the existence of poltergeists is anecdotal. Indeed, many of the stories below have several versions and/or inconsistencies; however there are a few that do not, for example, the Miami poltergeist has event records signed by all witnesses as to the way things happened. These witnesses include police officers, a skeptical magician, and workers at the warehouse.
[http://perso.orange.fr/ouriel/fr/htm/poltergeist%20de%20rosenheim.htm
Although some parapsychologists suggest that poltergeists could be a form of recurrent PK, there is very little evidence for PK recorded on film or witnessed by objective parties. There are famous poltergeist cases where the activity was seen by objective parties and even skeptics. POLTERGEISTS IN FICTION Both the name and concept of the ''poltergeist'' became famous to modern audiences in the ''. The first poltergeist movie actually gave an excellent depiction (during the first half of the film) of a "typical" poltergeist infestation, right down to the depiction of the focus as a prepubescent girl. Poltergeist is Monster In My Pocket #117. It resembles the long-limbed, yellow creature outside the hall door glimpsed briefly in the 1982 film. Dean Koontz's Odd Thomas encounters many poltergeists in his adventures. Most notably, the ghost of a killer, Odd, was tracking and a nameless ghost with a Buzz Cut who wrecks the Panamint Casino when Datura verbally abuses and belittles the ghost of an Indian waitress. There is a poltergeist named Peeves in the '' Harry Potter '' books. Peeves, however, does not conform to the classic definition of a poltergeist. The fact that he manifests visually would seem to indicate that he is something similar to a ghost, though J.K. Rowling has stated that a poltergeist is not the ghost of any person who has ever lived. Perhaps she intended Peeves to be more of a literal translation of the word poltergeist, because Peeves is quite noisy and mischievous. However, it is also possible that Harry and other students can perceive Peeves because they are Wizard s, and that he would be still invisible to Muggle s. It is also interesting to note that Peeves appears in colour, where the other ghosts at the school appear as white, misty figures. The Terry Pratchett Discworld novel '' A Hat Full Of Sky '' features an "ondageist" named Oswald. This is the opposite of a poltergeist: a spirit obsessed with cleaning and tidying. On October 20, 1942, the Old-time Radio show Lights Out featured a story called "Poltergeist" in which a trio of girls experience horrific, unexplained assaults from flying stones after one walks over a grave. In the board game Atmosfear , a playable character is Hellin the poltergeist. On Tuesday, November 15th, 2005, Supernatural aired an episode involving a multiple haunting in the old house of Dean and Sam. The owner of the house would claim there were rats in the house. She only heard scratching and rustling noises, but didn't actually see them. The poltergeist in the house threw knives, opened baby cribs and refrigerators, and claims the hand of a repairman trying to fix the garbage disposal. Also, in another episode, Phantom Traveler, a person mentions that Dean rescued him and his family from a poltergeist with his father. Some Castlevania games feature a few poltergeist phenomena. For example, certain furniture may suddenly spring to life and attack (some of the furniture are named Ouija Table ). Another case is the enemy Alastor, where a giant sword floats around in the air, wielded by an occasionally visible, invulnerable spirit. In some disputed game canon, it is said that a yet-unseen character called the Poltergeist King takes charge of the Belmont family weapons between quests. The popular Ju-on series of horror films in Japan and the Americanized version '' The Grudge '', feature poltergeist elements including the replaying of the tragedy and the violent nature of the ghosts. The comic Fetus-X includes a fork-throwing poltergeist cheerleader and attempts to bring her back from the dead. The 2002 novel, ''The Bishop in the West Wing'', written by Catholic priest and author Andrew M. Greeley , includes a poltergeist as a central feature of the story. The Touhou Project Danmaku game Perfect Cherry Blossom features three poltergeist, the Prismriver Sisters , who play on musical instruments without even touching them. Released in October 2006, a comedy French film called Poltergay was inspired by poltergeist phenomena. The film features the story of a couple of young lovers moving into a mansion in the vicinity of Paris which used to be a gay night club. The club was shut down after a fire broke out killing a group of club patrons whose spirits live in the mansion to present time and naughtily haunt the male lover , leading him to be insecured about his sexual preference. SEE ALSO REFERENCES EXTERNAL LINKS
|
|
|