Nov 28, 2025 08:29 PM
Several very thorough studies of poltergeist cases over the years lead to the conclusion that most are random PK manifestations of some young family member's repressed unconscious frustrations/hostilities. There are exceptions however, leading into the whole separate category of actual hauntings which generally involve an intelligent disincarnate entity or a residual place memory.
https://psi-encyclopedia.spr.ac.uk/artic...eist-cases
"Poltergeists are characterized by a relatively short-lived series of anomalous physical disturbances that can include objects seeming to move about on their own and odd percussive noises – raps, knocks, snaps and thuds – that occur despite the absence of a clear physical source. Traditional interpretations tend to consider these phenomena as the mischievous actions of a discarnate spirit or demon, reflected in the historical use of terms such as ‘stone-throwing devil’ and ‘poltergeist’ (in German literally ‘noisy spirit’).1
However, some early observers noticed instances where the disturbances took place more often in the presence of certain living individuals. For example, although poltergeist disturbances occurring in the home of Francis Perrault, a minister living in France in 1612, were generally seen as demonic, it was also noticed that they became particularly intense whenever his maid was present.2 In the early twentieth century this link began to receive more attention from psychical researchers, partly following an observation made by William Barrett in 1911, who noted in relation to recent poltergeist outbreaks that they were ‘usually, though not invariably, associated with the presence of a child or young person of either sex’.3
A possible human connection to the phenomena was more broadly confirmed in the 1970s through a survey of 116 poltergeist cases reported between 1612 and 1974 by parapsychologist William Roll; he found that the phenomena in 92 cases (79%) seemed to be associated with a particular individual, or two individuals in certain instances). Similarly, in a 1989 survey of 54 German poltergeist cases, Monika Huesmann and Friederike Schriever found that 63% were linked to a living person.
Recognizing the human connection, Roll and fellow parapsychologist J Gaither Pratt proposed that poltergeist phenomena might be large-scale displays of psychokinesis, caused sporadically and involuntarily by the individual most closely linked to it (often referred to as the ‘agent’). In 1958 they coined the term ‘recurrent spontaneous psychokinesis’ (RSPK) as an alternate means of conceptualizing poltergeist phenomena..." cont'd.
“When the evidence for an anomaly becomes overwhelming, and the anomaly cannot be easily accommodated by the existing scientific worldview, this is a very important sign that either our assumptions about reality are wrong or our assumptions about how we come to understand things are wrong.”
― Dean Radin, The Conscious Universe: The Scientific Truth of Psychic Phenomena
https://psi-encyclopedia.spr.ac.uk/artic...eist-cases
"Poltergeists are characterized by a relatively short-lived series of anomalous physical disturbances that can include objects seeming to move about on their own and odd percussive noises – raps, knocks, snaps and thuds – that occur despite the absence of a clear physical source. Traditional interpretations tend to consider these phenomena as the mischievous actions of a discarnate spirit or demon, reflected in the historical use of terms such as ‘stone-throwing devil’ and ‘poltergeist’ (in German literally ‘noisy spirit’).1
However, some early observers noticed instances where the disturbances took place more often in the presence of certain living individuals. For example, although poltergeist disturbances occurring in the home of Francis Perrault, a minister living in France in 1612, were generally seen as demonic, it was also noticed that they became particularly intense whenever his maid was present.2 In the early twentieth century this link began to receive more attention from psychical researchers, partly following an observation made by William Barrett in 1911, who noted in relation to recent poltergeist outbreaks that they were ‘usually, though not invariably, associated with the presence of a child or young person of either sex’.3
A possible human connection to the phenomena was more broadly confirmed in the 1970s through a survey of 116 poltergeist cases reported between 1612 and 1974 by parapsychologist William Roll; he found that the phenomena in 92 cases (79%) seemed to be associated with a particular individual, or two individuals in certain instances). Similarly, in a 1989 survey of 54 German poltergeist cases, Monika Huesmann and Friederike Schriever found that 63% were linked to a living person.
Recognizing the human connection, Roll and fellow parapsychologist J Gaither Pratt proposed that poltergeist phenomena might be large-scale displays of psychokinesis, caused sporadically and involuntarily by the individual most closely linked to it (often referred to as the ‘agent’). In 1958 they coined the term ‘recurrent spontaneous psychokinesis’ (RSPK) as an alternate means of conceptualizing poltergeist phenomena..." cont'd.
“When the evidence for an anomaly becomes overwhelming, and the anomaly cannot be easily accommodated by the existing scientific worldview, this is a very important sign that either our assumptions about reality are wrong or our assumptions about how we come to understand things are wrong.”
― Dean Radin, The Conscious Universe: The Scientific Truth of Psychic Phenomena