Poltergeist

Poltergeist, from German words meaning “noisy spirit,” describes disturbances such as knocks, thrown objects, damaged household items, or unexplained movement. Unlike the conventional image of a visible dead person, a poltergeist is defined by disruptive activity. Investigations have variously considered haunting belief, deliberate trickery, errors of observation, building movement, and psychological or social stress.

Printed European cases extend back several centuries. Twentieth-century psychical researchers sometimes reframed the phenomenon as unconscious psychokinesis centered on an adolescent, while skeptics emphasized opportunities for fraud and the difficulty of observing events under controlled conditions.

Horror cinema often makes the activity a staged progression toward demonic attack. Reported cases may be intermittent, poorly witnessed, and shaped by household conflict or media attention.

• Alan Gauld and A. D. Cornell, Poltergeists, Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1979.
• Owen Davies, The Haunted: A Social History of Ghosts, Palgrave Macmillan, 2007, poltergeist chapters.