A Detailed Phenomenology of Poltergeist Events

Abstract

The objective of this paper is to propose a reference point in the phenomenology of poltergeists either for people who want to know more about these phenomena or for researchers looking for cases and sources associated with some particular phenomenon. In parallel, an ongoing work is conducted aimed at building a global case repository of poltergeist cases with their phenomenological characteristics and their sources, which will be available soon at www.macropk.org. A historical view of the 50+ qualitative and quantitative studies of the poltergeist phenomenon is presented along with the different authors/researchers and the publications associated. The different types of phenomena observed are studied from four angles: the physical impacts on the environment, the interactions with people, other features such as duration, focus effect, and contagion, and how the phenomena ended. Each type of event is illustrated through different cases extracted from our case repository (about 1250), often with a short extract from (one of) the sources describing some key characteristics. A discussion about the validity of these data is then developed, looking in particular at testimonials, fraud detection, legal impacts, and the similarity of description of unconnected people. These elements tend to give a strong plausibility to the diverse phenomena observed, even the more “bizarre” ones. Considering all these cases and the details associated with them could help to build a more global picture of the phenomenon. This could provide more ideas based on facts to develop current and new hypotheses, as well as new psychophysical models, in order to make progress in comprehending the phenomenon. A list of the 105 cases used in the description of the phenomenology is provided along with their sources and their distribution across historical periods and geographical areas.