
                         POLTERGEISTS
                        By Dale Kaczmarek
The term "Poltergeist" is often mistaken for various kinds of paranormal
phenomena since the movie release of the same title.  The defination of
Poltergeist is a German word meaning "noisy or mischievious ghost" but may
not be a discarnate entity at all! Many modern day parapsychologists now
believe that Poltergeist phenomena may be caused by a living agent.  An
adolescent or child between the ages of 13 through 19 or 20 which is going
through the chemical and bodily changes commonly known as puberty.
   Because of the extreme peer pressure of the world of today, many of
these adolescents will repress their fears, anxieties or short-comings and
will not wish to sit down with adults or even their friends to discuss
these problems. This only tends to build up both extreme emotional,
psychological and mental strains within these individuals which could
eventually lead to a "psychic explosion" of sorts.  Somewhere along the
line, this built up energy, much like a battery overcharging itself, must
be discharged in some way, either verbally, physically or paranormally.
When this sometimes violent release of energy is done through paranormal
means, it usually involves the movement of objects (levitations), the
sudden appearance of objects (apports) which could include the shower of
stones on the house or structure, strange lights, inexplicable sounds
(rapping, footsteps, etc.) or even on rare occasions, smells.
   This will usually go on for several weeks or even months but is usually
very short-lived in nature.  Unlike a haunting, which can go on for many
years, there is no "earthbound spirit" involved.  The focus of the
poltergeist also must be in the same room or under the same roof for the
phenomena to continue. Once the individual is removed from the environment,
the phenomena almost always stops. However because of the nature of the
phenomena, many times outright fraud, trickery or disception by the
individuals themselves must be examined thoroughly.  In many cases, the
focal individual may try to "beef up" the movement of objects themselves by
adding their own version and perhaps throwing objects around themselves
unbenounced to the investigators.
   One of the most famous poltergeist cases to come out in recent years
happened in Columbus, Ohio and was investigated by William G. Roll,
parapsychologist from Chapel Hill, North Carolina.  Here then are some
excerpts from local newspapers which attest to some of the phenomena that
was experienced by the family. Chicago Sun-Times, Wednesday, March 7, 1984
by Donald M. Schwartz.
   A poltergeist appears to be loose in a house in Columbus, Ohio, and a
newspaper photographer there has captured its work in action. "I was
playing games with a ghost," said Columbus Dispatch photographer Fred
Shannon, "and I was trying to outfox it.  I was determined to get a
picture." Shannon was referring to his efforts to photograph a telephone he
saw propelled across the lap of Tina, the 14-year-old daughter of a
Columbus family who moved into a motel Monday after becoming distraught
about weird goings-on in their home.
   The family agreed to be interviewed on condition they not be identified.
There he was, said Shannon, sitting on a couch across from Tina, having
seen the telephone - and other things in the house - move around by
themselves.
   Mike Harden, a Dispatch columnist, quoted an electrical contractor and
others as having seen lights turn themselves on in the house, a shower
start running, and a brass candlestick, a clock and a wall hanging fly
through the air.
   Harden, whose column on the occurrence appeared in yesterday's paper,
said he saw things fly by themselves. Shannon said he saw the telephone
move several times.  "It seemed to want to attack her (Tina).  It hit her a
couple of times and she yelled."  The problem  was capturing it on film.
"It's such a fleeting thing," he said.  "It darts across."
   While he looked at the phone through the viewfinder of his camera, it
didn't move. Then, trying to "outfox the ghost," he said, he dropped his
camera to his chest on a neck strap and turned his head slightly as if to
look away.
    "I could see it (the telephone) at the rim of my glasses," said
Shannon, "and then the thing was starting to blur out.  It was the phone
streaking across her.  She screamed at the same time.  And I hit the
trigger of the camera."
   Shannon and Harden said that before this incident, they had only a
remote interest in psychic phenomenon.  Now, says Harden, "I'm not saying I
believe in poltergeists or demons.  But after seeing this it made a
believer out of me on psychokinetic energy". Such energy figured in a
discussion Harden had with the director of a North Carolina psychical
research institute who has written a book on poltergeists. Bill Roll, the
author, told Harden that such energized movement is often associated with
an agitated teenager.  Harden added that Tina lives with adoptive parents
but "recently came in contact with her biological family in the city
(Columbus) and she has a lot of ambivalent feelings in her life right now."

    The following is a Press Release dated April 13, 1984 concerning the
Tina Resch case and written by William G. Roll.
   'This is a preliminary report of our work with Tina Resch.  There will
be a detailed account at our annual Founder's Day conference in October,
perhaps sooner.  A Psi-Line to aid other families to reach us and to
increase scientific access to such cases, including skeptical scientists,
is planned. I spent five days in March in Columbus interviewing persons who
had been in the Resch home when there were occurrences which Tina
apparently could not have caused in ordinary ways.  I was myself present
when some such incidents took place. As a result of these observations we
invited Tina to North Carolina for a period of research and counseling in
the hope that we--and she-- might gain understanding and perhaps control of
the occurrences.
    We felt that the incidents were related to emotional factors and that
counseling might enable Tina better to deal with these and, hereby, with
the incidents.  The studies included ESP and PK computer tests in the form
of games which might appeal to a teenager.  During the same period there
was a series of incidents when Tina was with one of her counselors and
another when she was in my home.  Both sequences included ostensible PSPK
incidents and will be described in our full report.  On one occasion after
I had been alerted by a series of incidents, I was watching Tina about 5
feet from her when a candle on a table on her left about five feet from her
moved 9-10 feet hitting the wall behind her.  I did not see the candle as
it took off but I had Tina in full view and could find no ordinary way in
which she could have caused this incident.  We were preparing to video
record the incidents when Tina had an accident playing with a friend and
suffered a bad break of her left leg.  For the remainder of her
stay she was in bed, usually under medication for pain, and there were no
further incidents.
    On April 9, Mr. and Mrs. Resch arrived in Chapel Hill for two days of
interaction with Tina's counselors.  The family returned to Columbus
yesterday.  Her counselors found Tina to be an usually likeable and bright
girl with no more emotional problems than others her age.  The family now
hopes to return to a normal life and asks your help in restoring their
peace and privacy. The Resch is not an isolated series of peculiar
occurrences but belongs to a growing body of cases which suggest that we
are dealing with a natural product of the human mind or brain.  Together
with other psi processes, RSPK points to new areas for scientific
explorations.  We have achieved much in our explorations of the world
around us, including outer space, as we are reminded today with the return
of Challenger.  Our knowledge of inner space, of our own human potential,
has lagged sadly and dangerously behind.  At the same time as we are
conquering outer space, our self ignorance has brought us close to the
destruction of our own species.
   Not long ago the claim that meteors move through the sky and fall to
earth was as ridiculous as the claim the phones and candles may fly through
the air without visible means.  "There are no rocks in the sky," we could
say without looking at the meteors.  Now we say, without needing to enter
the Resch home, that phones and candles don't fly unless they are thrown.
If we continue to ridicule or ignore psi occurrences we may lose our last
chance to understand and to control our deeper relationships, positive and
negative, with our fellow human beings and with our physical environment.
Let us be as courageous in exploring inner space as we have been in
exploring outer space.  Let us also proceed with scientific caution and not
claim more than data allow.'

 Suggested further reading:
The Poltergeist by William G. Roll, (Signet Books, 1972, $2.95, ISBN:
    0-451-12110-4)
Poltergeist: A Study In Destructive Haunting by Colin Wilson
    (Wideview/Perigee Book, 1981, $6.95, ISBN: 0-399-50732-9)
Poltergeists: Fact Or Fancy by Sacheverell Sitwell (Dorset Press, 1959,
    ISBN: 0-88029-165-6)
On The Track Of The Poltergeist by D. Scott Rogo  (Prentice-Hall Books,
    1986, $7.95, ISBN: 0-13-634437-2)
Haunted People by Hereward Carrington & Nandor Fodor  (Signet Mystic Books,
    1951, $.75)
The Enigma of the Poltergeist by Raymond Bayless  (Ace Star Book, 1967,
    $.75)
Ghosts And Poltergeists by Herbert Thurston  (Gateway Edition, 1954, $1.45)

















































