|
Featured Back Issue
|
 |
|
Aug 2001, Issue 617
Mysteries of the Yellow Emperor, Great Wall and Great Pyramid of China, Shaman's Curse View Issue > |
|
Upcoming Events
|
|
American Society of Dowsers Conference
August 6-13 Killington, VT Website Ancient Earth Mysteries Conference August 23 Dallas, TX Website View More Upcoming Events |
Poltergeists
by Louis Proud
FATE :: January 2008
British paranormal experts Colin Wilson and Guy Lyon Playfair have something in common: they both reject the popular and “respectable” theory that poltergeist disturbances are manifestations of the unconscious mind, viewing them instead as destructive and mischievous nonphysical entities, or spirits. Unscientific and sensational though the spirit hypothesis may sound, it seems to make far more sense than the unconscious mind theory, at least as far as Wilson and Playfair are concerned.
Considering that poltergeist disturbances have been recorded for more than a thousand years, coupled with the fact that eminent scientists have been studying them for about a century, it might strike the reader as surprising that the phenomenon remains a mystery to this day.
As regards major scientific studies of the poltergeist, William Roll’s The Poltergeist (1972) is among the most significant. Roll, a psychologist and parapsychologist of some note, classifies poltergeist activity as a form of “recurrent spontaneous psychokinesis” (RSPK), noting that most cases involve a psychologically disturbed individual, usually a pubescent child, around whom most of the paranormal activity takes place. This person is usually called the focus. According to Roll, because the incidents occur around a living person, there is no reason to assume that nonphysical entities are responsible. “It is easier to suppose that the central person is himself the source of the PK energy,” he explains.
According to Wilson, however, proponents of the unconscious mind theory, such as Roll, fail to explain “why poltergeist effects are so much more powerful than the kind of psychokinesis that has been studied in the laboratory.”
Wilson was once a supporter of the unconscious mind theory. That all changed in 1968, however, when he met Playfair at a conference center in Derbyshire, England, where he had been invited to give a lecture on the paranormal. Playfair told Wilson that he thought poltergeists were “a kind of football.” Wilson describes the rest of this conversation in his own words: “‘Football!’ I wondered if I’d misheard him: ‘A football of energy. When people get into conditions of tension, they exude a kind of energy, the kind of thing that happens to teenagers at puberty. Along come a couple of spirits, and they do what any group of schoolboys would do: they begin to kick it around, smashing windows and generally creating havoc. Then they get tired and leave it. In fact the football often explodes and turns into a puddle of water.’”
Wilson was, at first, critical of Playfair’s theory, viewing it as crude and superstitious. But when he arrived in Pontefract the following afternoon, at the residence of Mr. and Mrs. Prichard, he was forced to reconsider his opinion.
The first manifestations of the Pontefract poltergeist haunting occurred in 1966, then ceased two days later. When the disturbances began again in 1968, Mr. and Mrs. Prichard’s daughter, Diane, then aged 14, was clearly the focus.
When the poltergeist first arrived, small pools of water began to appear on the kitchen floor. According to Mrs. Prichard, they were “neat little pools—like overturning an ink bottle.” Wilson was, of course, astonished when he heard this comment during his interview with the Prichards, as it seemed to corroborate Playfair’s “footballs of energy” theory. “I began to feel that there might be something in the spirit theory after all,” he explains.
Playfair told Wilson that the pools of water left by the poltergeist were impossible to make by pouring water onto the floor, as splashing would result. “These pools,” says Wilson, “look as if a small cat has placed its behind close to the floor and urinated.”
As soon as they were mopped up, the pools of water reappeared elsewhere. And when water board officials arrived to search for a leak, none was found. Not only did green foam spurt out of the tap when it was turned on, lights in the house began to switch on and off of their accord, and a potted plant situated at the bottom of the stairs somehow found its way to the top of the stairs. These events occurred in 1966, when the Prichards’ other child, Phillip, then aged 15, was clearly the focus, as Diane was away on holiday when they took place.
When Diane became the focus in 1968, few disturbances occurred during the day while she was at school. During the evenings, however, all hell would break loose. There would be loud drumming noises; ornaments would levitate around the room; furniture would be thrown around, often smashed. On one occasion the hall stand, made of heavy oak, floated through the air, landing on Diane and pinning her to the stairs. Although Diane was unharmed (in fact, not even bruised), moving the object proved to be something of an ordeal, as the family was unable to budge it on their own.
Wilson observes that the ghost seemed to have a sense of humor. On one occasion, for instance, in true slapstick fashion, a jug of milk floated out of the refrigerator and poured itself over the head of Aunt Maude, who, it should be noted, had earlier revealed her skepticism of the poltergeist’s existence.
Later on, Aunt Maude’s fur gloves appeared around the door, looking like two giant, sinister hands. What happened next is best described in Wilson’s own words: “As the gloves floated into the bedroom Mrs. Prichard asked indignantly, ‘Do you still think it’s the kids doing it?’ Aunt Maude burst into ‘Onward Christian Soldiers’ and the gloves proceeded to conduct her singing, beating in time.” The poltergeist, it seems, wanted to change Aunt Maude from a skeptic to a believer in the most humorous way possible....Read the rest of this article exclusively in the January 2008 issue of FATE!
