Poltergeist

The word "poltergeist" comes from the German "poltern" (to rumble) and "Geist" (ghost or spirit). Unlike traditional hauntings tied to a specific location, poltergeist activity often follows a person — particularly adolescents or individuals experiencing significant emotional stress. This has led some researchers to theorize that poltergeist phenomena may be caused by unconscious psychokinetic energy (recurrent spontaneous psychokinesis, or RSPK) rather than external spirits. Typical poltergeist manifestations include: objects flying off shelves, doors opening and slamming, electrical appliances turning on/off, knocking or banging sounds, water or other substances appearing inexplicably, and in rare cases, small fires or physical marks on people. Poltergeist cases typically follow a pattern: activity begins gradually, escalates over weeks or months, peaks in intensity, and then subsides — often resolving when the affected person's emotional situation improves or when they leave adolescence. This lifecycle pattern supports the RSPK hypothesis.

Documented Western poltergeist cases run from the early modern period. The Drummer of Tedworth (Wiltshire, 1661–62) is recorded in Joseph Glanvill's *Saducismus Triumphatus* (1681); the Bell Witch case (Adams, Tennessee, 1817–21) is the most-cited American 19th-century case, though heavily mythologised in subsequent retellings. The Rosenheim Poltergeist (Bavaria, 1967) was investigated by physicist Friedbert Karger and the Max Planck Institute and remains one of the few extensively instrumented cases. The Enfield Poltergeist (London, 1977–79) was documented by Maurice Grosse and Guy Lyon Playfair for the Society for Psychical Research; Anita Gregory's SPR investigation report (1980) reached substantially more skeptical conclusions than Playfair's *This House Is Haunted* (1980), and the case remains contested. William G. Roll's research at the Psychical Research Foundation in the 1960s–70s produced the Recurrent Spontaneous Psychokinesis (RSPK) hypothesis — codified in *The Poltergeist* (1972). The skeptical-side treatments (Joe Nickell's *The Mystery Chronicles*, 2004; Vic Tandy and Tony Lawrence's *Ghosts in the Machine*, 1998, attributing several apparition cases to infrasound) attribute most cases to a mixture of pranks, misperception, structural artefacts, and infrasound effects. The DSM-5 (2013) recognises Dissociative Identity Disorder and stress-related conversion phenomena that can produce some of the reported behaviours in the focus person.

Read both sides before drawing conclusions about a specific case. The proponent reference is William Roll's *The Poltergeist* (1972) and Loyd Auerbach's *ESP, Hauntings and Poltergeists* (1986); the skeptical reference is Joe Nickell's *The Mystery Chronicles* (2004) and Benjamin Radford's *Investigating Ghosts* (2017). If activity is happening in your own household, log every event with a timestamp, witness names, and a photograph if possible — case patterns become clear only with consistent documentation. The well-documented correlation between focus persons (often adolescents) under acute stress and reported activity makes mental-health support a sensible first step regardless of whether the framework you favour is psychological or paranormal. Investigations involving teenagers or vulnerable adults should not proceed without informed consent and a mental-health professional in the loop.