Pursuing the poltergeist: earthbound spirit or psychic projection?

A new book takes a fresh look at the strange phenomenon that has baffled and bothered people down the centuries

It can be asserted that the poltergeist, like that strange creature, the duck-billed platypus, really exists, and that some of its habits have been positively established — so says the late Colin Wilson in the final pages of his 1981 book, Poltergeist! A study in destructive haunting (New English Library).

Such habits, typically, of the poltergeist — the word, from the German, means literally ‘noisy’ or ‘banging’ ghost — include knocking, rapping and scraping sounds, the movement or levitation of even large objects (even including people) by some invisible force, and the unexplained disappearance and reappearance of household items; poltergeists are also claimed to have struck, bitten or pinched people.

Mystifying happenings like this have been reported around the world, even as far back as the first century CE, although instances become more common from the 17th century, with such cases as the Glenluce Devil (1654–56) and the Tedworth Drummer (1662).

Now, with few factual books having been written about poltergeists, paranormal researcher John Fraser is ‘advancing and updating’ Wilson’s book with his own work, Poltergeist! A new investigation…