Read Online Poltergeist: A Classic Study in Destructive Haunting by Colin Wilson - Free Book Online

constructing theories about the paranormal. The recognition of the “two people” inside our heads may be the most important step ever taken in this direction.
    Having said this, it is necessary to admit that most of the mystery remains unexplained. Lodge’s “psychometric hypothesis” and Lethbridge’s theory of “ghouls” may provide an explanation for the majority of ghosts—but what about all those cases in which the witnesses insist that the ghost behaved as if it saw them? Again, it would certainly be convenient if we could explain the poltergeist in terms of “unconscious psychokinesis.” But why has no psychic been able to duplicate poltergeist effects? It is not really an answer to say that they have not learned to switch the power on and off. Many psychics can switch other powers on and off—
telepathy, psychokinesis, second sight. So why not poltergeist effects?
    These awkward questions remind us that there are others we have failed to answer. In the case of Lombroso’s bottle-smashing poltergeist in the Via Bava, why did it stop smashing bottles when the wife went away for the first time? If Lombroso is correct, and the poltergeist was a “spirit” that drew its energy from people, then we have our explanation. The spirit needed energy from both the wife and the young waiter to smash bottles and crockery. When the wife went away for the first time, it lost half its energy supply and decided to take a rest. But the second time she went away, she cursed it, and it made a special effort to be disagreeable. In order to do this, it had to make use of the “vestigial energy” she had left on dishes and other objects she had touched. When the young waiter was eventually dismissed, the wife alone could not provide sufficient energy for its needs and it went elsewhere . . .
    Modern psychical research has a way of ignoring such questions. It prefers straightforward distinctions. If there is a “medium” present (or, as we now say, a “focus”), then it is a poltergeist; if not, then it is a ghost.
    But even this pleasantly simple distinction proves to be less useful than it looks. The “spirits” themselves seem to dislike being type-cast, and often decline to stick to their proper role. A case that starts as an ordinary haunting may develop into a poltergeist haunting, and vice versa. And then, just to confuse the issue, the spirits occasionally identify themselves as devils and demons, and manifest themselves in the highly disturbing form known as “possession.” This subject is so complex that it deserves a chapter to itself.
    [ 1 ] . Encyclopedia of the Unexplained , p. 197.
    [ 2 ] . California Institute of Technology.
    [ 3 ] . In Mysteries , p. 116.

two
    Possession is Nine Points of the Law
    Paris has always led the rest of the world in new fads and crazes—from the can-can in the 1830s, to existentialism in the 1940s. In 1850, the newest and most exciting craze was “table turning.” The rules were simple. A group of people sat around a table, resting their fingertips lightly on the surface, their fingers spread wide so that everyone’s hands touched those of the neighbor on either side. When conditions were favorable, the table would begin to vibrate, then to move of its own accord. It might twist around at an angle of ninety degrees, or rise up into the air, or simply balance on two legs.
    This entertainment had, of course, originated in America, the home of modern “Spiritualism.” In March 1848 the Fox family, who lived in a farmhouse in the village of Hydesville, New York, were kept awake at night by loud rapping noises, which defied all attempts to track them down. One of the two younger Fox sisters—Margaret was fifteen and Kate twelve—started snapping her fingers, and the raps imitated the sounds she made. A neighbor who came in to hear the raps tried asking questions, with one rap for “yes” and two for “no.” The obliging spirit was able to give the age of various