As promised, here is another case study. Some people may be wondering why I have chosen to go with a poltergeist case rather than anything particularly medium related. This is two-fold: first off, I think that the poltergeist phenomenon is related to the medium phenomenon-mediums tend to be plagued with the things; secondly the poltergeist phenomenon seems to be related to the topic of the thread.
Before I actually go into the case, I would like to take a moment to go over and explain the poltergeist phenomenon. The word means, or comes from, 'noisy ghost' in German. However, it would be a mistake to claim that poltergeist are the classic dead man walking kind of ghost. No poltergeist I know off ever seems to be related to a dead personality and a poltergeist 'attack' or haunting differs from a classic ghost haunting in a variety of ways-they tend to occur only for a limited time (with a few exceptions), tend to be much more violent and physical and tend to focus in on individual people rather than geographical locations.
This last point brings me nicely onto my theory of poltergeist. The 'noisy ghost' tends to concentrate it efforts around one to two people in the main (others get caught in the cross-fire rather than being specific victims) and occur at times of physical or mental strain eg when there is a death in the family or when a parent re-marries. This leads me to conclude as a hypothesis that poltergeist are generated by a 'psychic' function in the brain which has yet to be explored in any depth. This function is most active in mediums.
Now onto the actual case. The South Sheilds Poltergeist is perhaps the best documented in recent history. Unlike most poltergeist, 'Sammy'-as it called itself-was not shy or retiring. It violently attacked a member of the household-Marc-on various occasions-one of which was in front of the camera.
The phenomenon began in 2005. Marc, Marianne and Robert (Marianne's three year old son) lived in a house in South Sheilds. They first began to notice strange things happening such as doors closing themselves and strange noises coming from Robert's drawers. They called in the investigators in June 2006 as the phenomenon intensified.
The investigators first suspected fraud. They ruled out Marianne as she seemed genuinely terrified but thought that Marc may be involved. They latter ruled this out as they began to witnesses the phenomenon with their own eyes and photograph/record many of them. They concluded that Marc could not stage the phenomenon (e.g. scars appearing and disappearing from his body in front of the camera and independently moving objects).
What make this case so special is the sheer volume of data. At one point 20 credible witnesses saw the phenomenon occur and there is plenty of photographic and video footage. The threatening text messages Marianne received from dead phones and the mysterious disappearance of Robert for short periods of time (only to reappear raped tightly in his bed sheet in a cupboard or under a glass table) all bear testament to the often laughed at poltergeist phenomenon.
References
http://www.mikehallowell.com/shieldspolt/page4.html
http://www.mikehallowell.com/shieldspolt/page11.html
http://monkeywah.typepad.com/paranormali...shiel.html
Paranormal Magazine (various issues)
Before I actually go into the case, I would like to take a moment to go over and explain the poltergeist phenomenon. The word means, or comes from, 'noisy ghost' in German. However, it would be a mistake to claim that poltergeist are the classic dead man walking kind of ghost. No poltergeist I know off ever seems to be related to a dead personality and a poltergeist 'attack' or haunting differs from a classic ghost haunting in a variety of ways-they tend to occur only for a limited time (with a few exceptions), tend to be much more violent and physical and tend to focus in on individual people rather than geographical locations.
This last point brings me nicely onto my theory of poltergeist. The 'noisy ghost' tends to concentrate it efforts around one to two people in the main (others get caught in the cross-fire rather than being specific victims) and occur at times of physical or mental strain eg when there is a death in the family or when a parent re-marries. This leads me to conclude as a hypothesis that poltergeist are generated by a 'psychic' function in the brain which has yet to be explored in any depth. This function is most active in mediums.
Now onto the actual case. The South Sheilds Poltergeist is perhaps the best documented in recent history. Unlike most poltergeist, 'Sammy'-as it called itself-was not shy or retiring. It violently attacked a member of the household-Marc-on various occasions-one of which was in front of the camera.
The phenomenon began in 2005. Marc, Marianne and Robert (Marianne's three year old son) lived in a house in South Sheilds. They first began to notice strange things happening such as doors closing themselves and strange noises coming from Robert's drawers. They called in the investigators in June 2006 as the phenomenon intensified.
The investigators first suspected fraud. They ruled out Marianne as she seemed genuinely terrified but thought that Marc may be involved. They latter ruled this out as they began to witnesses the phenomenon with their own eyes and photograph/record many of them. They concluded that Marc could not stage the phenomenon (e.g. scars appearing and disappearing from his body in front of the camera and independently moving objects).
What make this case so special is the sheer volume of data. At one point 20 credible witnesses saw the phenomenon occur and there is plenty of photographic and video footage. The threatening text messages Marianne received from dead phones and the mysterious disappearance of Robert for short periods of time (only to reappear raped tightly in his bed sheet in a cupboard or under a glass table) all bear testament to the often laughed at poltergeist phenomenon.
References
http://www.mikehallowell.com/shieldspolt/page4.html
http://www.mikehallowell.com/shieldspolt/page11.html
http://monkeywah.typepad.com/paranormali...shiel.html
Paranormal Magazine (various issues)
