Poltergeist Phenomenon - a compilation of different cases

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We had this thread on the Skeptiko-forum. But since the sub-forum, with this thread in it, is closed for posting, I'm posting it here instead, so more cases can be added and commented upon.

This is a pretty gruesome case of poltergeists:

The Amherst Poltergeist

Background: The Amherst Poltergeist is one of the most frightening poltergeist accounts in Canadian history. The activity centered around Esther Cox, age 19, who lived on Princess Street in Amherst. After nearly being raped by a local shoemaker named Bob MacNeal, Esther started experiencing violent poltergeist activity including moving objects and loud noises. Her body even swelled mysteriously.

Some ghost stories live on because of the sheer terror they brought into the lives of those who experienced them firsthand. For the most part, ghosts and apparitions are harmless to those who witness them, flickering briefly into view to perform some timeless task or to relay a message to a loved one, and then fading back into the unknown. Poltergeist activity, however, is another matter entirely. Seeming to center around an individual, a poltergeist produces physical phenomena that have been known to cause serious harm and otherwise scare the daylights out of its victims.

[...]

Testimony: A number of eye-witness accounts support this story, including Dr. Carritte who examined the girl because of the swelling. While attending to the girl, the doctor reported watching the words "Esther Cox you are mine to kill" etch itself into the wall plaster by unseen hands. According to The Great Amherst Mystery by Walter Hubbell, the doctor later wrote to a colleague regarding the case, expressing the sentiment that no one would believe him if he published what he had witnessed. In fact, he wouldn't believe if he hadn't experienced it for himself.

Source:The Terrifying Amherst Poltergeist



Amherst Mystery Part 1





Amherst Mystery Part 2




Esther Cox

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BORLEY RECTORY - "The Most Haunted House in England"

The most famous case in the career of Harry Price was undoubtedly that of Borley Rectory, a deteriorating house in Essex.

The tiny parish of Borley is located in a desolate, sparsely populated area near the east coast of England, near the Suffolk border.



Harry Price got involved in the case after a newspaper carried a story about a phantom nun at the house in June 1929. Price was asked by the paper to investigate and he was told about various types of phenomena that had been reported there, like phantom footsteps; strange lights; ghostly whispers; a headless man; a girl in white; the sounds of a phantom coach outside; the apparition of the home’s builder, Henry Bull; and of course, the spirit of the nun.

The ghosts at the rectory had been relatively peaceful, but all that would change in October 1930 when Smith was replaced by the Reverend Lionel Foyster and his wife, Marianne. Their time in the house would see a marked increase in the paranormal activity. People were locked out of rooms, household items vanished, windows were broken, furniture was moved, odd sounds were heard and much more.

However, the worst of the incidents seemed to involve Mrs. Foyster, as she was thrown from her bed at night, slapped by invisible hands, forced to dodge heavy objects which flew at her day and night, and was once almost suffocated with a mattress.

Soon after, there began to appear a series of scrawled messages on the walls of the house, written by an unknown hand. They seemed to be pleading with Mrs. Foyster, using phrases like “Marianne, please help get” and “Marianne light mass prayers”.

Here is the actual photographs of the writings:


Because nearly all of the poltergeist-like activity occurred when Mrs. Foyster was present, Price was inclined to attribute it to her unknowing manipulations. However, he did believe in the possibility of the ghostly nun and some of the other reported phenomena. The rectory did not fit into pre-conceived notions of a haunted house, which was one of the reasons that it would go on to gain such a reputation.

Despite the implications of the phenomena centering around Marianne, Price maintained that at least one of the spirits in the house had found the rector’s wife to be sympathetic to its plight. This was the only explanation he could find for the mysterious messages.

Link to whole story

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Enfield Poltergeist

This case need no further introduction, and if you are not familiar with the case these two documentaries covers it pretty well:




Interview With a Poltergeist





Even though this story is criticised for instances of some trickery done by this girl, there were many incidents where witnesses watched activity that didn't include any of the kids. Like the two police officers watching a chair slide across the room when they were present, watching it happen right in front of them. Or the photographer that watched the apport of small objects appearing and flying across the room, even hitting him in the head. In many cases with poltergeists a ray of activities can happen very quickly and then go dormant for longer stretches of times. I can imagine that how the whole ordeal of this case was something like this:

- The Hodgsons family was plagued by instances of poltergeist activities, and was dumbfounded and scared of what was happening. As the mother said; it started with the kids claiming they heard knocks and tapping from the walls and furnitures in their room. The mother thought the kids where playing around and was irritated by their nonsense when they were screaming. She then heard this for herself in the room, and watched the heavy chest of drawers moved by itself out in the room, and when she were trying to push it back she was unable to.They initially sought help from their neighbours, a man who went in to Hodgsons house alone - while the whole Hodgsons family stayed at his house - and he could hear these knockings in the wall that seemed to following him around while he was walking around from room to room in the whole house, looking for the cause of them.

They called the police who came and investigated. While there the officers watched one of the chair in the livingroom slide across the room while no one was near it. The officers immediately looked if the floor was tilted, and if the chair could have slide because of that - but it wasn't. They looked for wires or strings and found nothing. As the police said this was nothing they could help the family with 8since it wasn't anything criminal going on), they said that they have to look for help elsewhere. Without knowing who could help them, the mother called the local newspaper to hear if they knew of someone, and they of course sent a news-team there. As I mentioned above, the photographer and reporter watched the apport of small objects appearing and flying across the room, even hitting one of them in the head, while they were in one of the room.

When Maurice Grosse of the SPR got involved in the case I think he got somewhat emotionally invested in this. He stated that he wouldn't abandon them on this case and help them through it no matter what He was staying there and doing vigils days and weeks on ends and eagerly waiting for some poltergeist activity he could record, but the activity was dormant then. I think that especially Janet, whom, as the rest of them, was really afraid of what had happened to them initially, thought of Maurice as a father figure, and really wanted to please him as he was so eager to really get evidence of this poltergeist recorded. But more, I think she felt the comfort of having him around, and if this poltergeist stayed dormant for a longer period of time the risk was that Maurice would eventually lose interest and not come around and stay there. So with this in mind I think Janet started to create some of the activities for that reason. Mind you, that there was things happening during this time that was inexplicable but they weren't as intense as they were in the beginning.

Many other poltergeist activities are like a sparkler; there is an intense line of incidents that happens on top of each other in a short period of time, but as a sparkler they "burn fast", and its like "it" runs out of energy and stays dormant for periods of time. So, in a mix of Janet really wanted to give proof of what has happened to them initially, and that she wanted also to please Maurice because his eagerness - and also have him around as a father figure and not feeling frightened when activity stir up again - I think she started to "spice up" some of the events.

This is, I think, the case of many poltergeist activities. The eagerness to convince people of what has happened to them initially, and the sheer frustration that things doesn't happen "on cue" when investigators are there to investigate and record proof. The mix of being believed and not brushed off, and frustration of the "pockets of inactivity" I think can drive those involved to act like this. For debunkers like Randi, French, Nicolls, etc, this is like "christmas" for them. If they can point out that some of the activities was staged and forged they can then claim that everything else - even if they are totally inexplicable and compelling - somewhat also must have been tricks (without giving some explanations to how) and/or are false memories and other bullshit excuses - case closed.

The challenge for paranormal investigators, I think, is to don't get to emotionally invested - even though it might be hard - and always stay objective. Do everything to eliminate/exclude the possibilities of tampering - and if suspicious don't encourage those involved when things, that you cant control for, are happening. And also; don't try to make those involved feeling like you are frustrated that nothing happens during investigations.

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It Was Raining Stones - for 6 years
This isn't your run-of-the-mill poltergeist, but since the apport phenomenon is often happening in "normal" poltergeist cases it should be filed as such.

The incident of stones bombarding a couple of adjacent houses in Birmingham during the night time initially points to shenanigans and normal means by vandals. But as the police got involved, staking out the place, putting totally 3500 man-hours into this case. They heard stones, during the night stake-outs, that seem to come out of nowhere, hitting the house randomly, verticality (falling down on top of the roof), and horizontally (hitting the housewalls and windows), but they couldn't see, or find any kind of perpetrators even though they, themselves, stood there in the garden. 

It was going on (as far the police involved) for 18 months, with incidents almost every night, regardless weather or seasons. And it was ONLY hitting these particular houses, even though these five houses was chain-houses connected with others The full length of incidents was going on for 6 years!.

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The Birmingham Poltergeist Case: 30 years on from the Ward End ghost mystery:

"Residents of Thornton Road, Ward End, still speak in hushed tones about the police investigation that turned into a paranormal probe. Yet the trauma remains for those who lived through the nightmare – which left cops and churchmen baffled.

For three years from 1981, windows were smashed repeatedly by polished stones that seemingly rained continually from the night sky. Roofs were also damaged and frightened householders even erected barricades after what they feared were paranormal attacks. Yet despite round-the-clock surveillance by police officers who camped out in gardens, hid in trees and set-up secret cameras, the culprits were never caught. Even ballistic experts couldn’t help. In desperation, paranormal investigators and the clergy were called in".

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This is one of the more extensive and meticulously written down account of a poltergeist case. This first part is the translation from German and retelling of the event, by Robert McLuhan at Paranormalia
This is the shorter `summary` of the case. In the next post I will post the full length story and diary of Joller - the owner of the house, and the father in this family.

One of the fullest descriptions of poltergeist activity is a nineteenth century case that took place in Stans, Switzerland. I first came across it in Gauld and Cornell's Poltergeists, and from their summary and extracts found it to be one of the most dramatic cases I'd ever come across. Pure Hollywood. The source is a pamphlet written in the mid 1860s by Melchior Joller, the lawyer whose household had been torn apart, and who was anxious to give the true story of the events, based on the diary he kept at the time.

However it's in German, so is not as well known as it deserves to be. So I've been amusing myself in my spare time by doing an English translation. It's quite long, about 40 pages in the original. You can read the full version here if you're interested, and I plan to make it available on Kindle in due course (for free). In the meantime, here's a summary.

Source: http://monkeywah.typepad.com/paranormali...stans.html

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Here is the translated full length story, and diary, of Joller - the owner of the house, and the father in this family:

The Ghosts at Stans (original text)

THE UNEXPLAINED PHENOMENA

[Note about the house: The ground floor was not a living space but used as a sort of all-purpose out-house, for laundry, dairy, wine-press and suchlike. It was enclosed by thick brick or stone walls with few windows. The rest of the house was of wood, and rested on these foundations. Outside steps led up to the front door on the first floor, where there was a porch, a hallway leading to the main living room, the kitchen and a pantry, a bedroom and a small corridor leading to a bathroom. The second floor contained Joller's study and four bedrooms linked by a corridor. The attic space included an upstairs living room, a drying room, two small bedrooms - one occupied by a maidservant - and some storage space.]

Autumn 1860
It was first noticed - as far as we could recall, not knowing what it was at the time - by our housemaid around the beginning of autumn 1860. She slept in a third floor attic room above the bedchambers, and one morning she told us she had heard and felt a distinct knocking on her bedhead during the night. She was sure it meant someone in the house was about to die. I rebuked her for this superstition and told her firmly to keep such things to herself, putting the knocking down to a hallucination, although she stuck absolutely to her conviction. The matter was soon forgotten, the more so as everyone remained perfectly well.

Also this investigated by David Fontana 
Cardiff Poltergeist
http://www.british-paranormal.co.uk/the-...-services/

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The haunting of Jackie Hernandez - Poltergeist in San Pedro CA

In the summer of 1989 in a quiet neighbourhood in San Pedro, California, Jackie Hernandez awoke in the middle of the night to see a ghastly vision in her children’s bedroom. Sitting in one of the beds, looking right at her, was the image of a haggard old man. He wore a lumberjack flannel shirt and denim suspenders.

Jackie was petrified by terror. And in that twilight moment of adrenaline, she caught a glimpse of the bright eyes that were inside her children’s bedroom. The eyes belonging to a cadaverous face that had been staring at her. Motionless, threatening.

What follows is the true story based on multiple eyewitness accounts of the strange events that happened one summer in San Pedro, California.

Source


Documentary: The haunting of Jackie Hernandez - a true paranormal story

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The Gorton Poltergeist


A set of houses in Gorton, Manchester, England, were plagued by poltergeists back in mid 90's

Those six families living in these six residences complained of things like: childlike apparitions haunting their bedrooms, a dog involved in a sort of tug-of-war by some unseen force pulling a bone it had in its mouth, unaccountably cold rooms, a man being pushed across the room by an unseen force, weird smells appearing out of nowhere, moving plants, televisions activating even when not plugged in, and pillows found put in unexpected shapes while people were away, and apparitions of a man walking straight through walls.



The Case of The Gorton Poltergeist - Part 1/2





The Case of The Gorton Poltergeist - Part 2/2

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The Zaragoza Poltergeist (Zaragoza Duende)
- started on September 27, 1934 in Zaragoza Spain.

The Palazon family, residing in an apartment complex on the “Gascón Gotor” street, encountered a frightening ordeal when they started to hear maniacal laughter and voice coming from inside their home. The family did not know what or who was causing this. As the neighbors started to hear these strange sounds coming from the residence, word started to spread about the strangeness that surrounded this building.

(I recommend this more detailed documentary from Spain. about the case, - it's subtitled in engish)