Breaking through the walls of illusion
The Poltergeist Dimension
by Brian Allan
exorcism, possession, the exorcist, mt rainier, maryland, cottage city, ouija board, scole experiment, ley lines, poltergeists, aliens, interdimensions, quantum science, Sauchie, levitation, orbs, pyramids, entities, john mack, harvard, electromagnetic,
Forward
In this article we will examine the phenomenon of poltergeist activity and some of the common features it shares with other paranormal events e.g. apparitions and encounters with extraterrestrials. While the explanations I intend to give are of necessity speculative, they do supply definitions that cover most, if not all, of the necessary parameters and they are also implied by recent developments in quantum science. However it is vital that the reader maintains an open mind regarding the events discussed and accepts the findings of particle physicists. Bear in mind that all quantum theories so far tested as our technology permits have been proved 100% accurate. Hopefully the reader will also find some of the points raised challenging and cause for re-assessing their view of reality. In addition, perhaps we shall also see how the prescience of poets and mystics like William Blake gave early insights into the subjective nature of perception and consciousness.
The Poltergeist Enigma
The very word ‘poltergeist’ is enough to cause feelings of unease and disquiet in most people. The connotations and half-understood emotions produced by this term have no real foundation except in the primitive emotional centres of the ‘old brain’ and the reasons behind this reaction stretch back many centuries if not millennia. Traditionally viewed as a supernatural occurrence, the spontaneous movements of objects associated with poltergeist activity have instilled genuine fear into those afflicted with the unwanted manifestations. Although conventional, rationalist science dismisses poltergeist activity as irrational nonsense, nevertheless the outbreaks continue. Churches tend to view poltergeist activity rather differently than more traditional examples of supernatural happenings, e.g. ghostly apparitions and alleged hauntings, and normally attempt to comfort those so affected. It is something of an embarrassment to both church and science that the manifestations occur at all and at the end of the day, in spite of all the denials and protestations, there is nothing either discipline can do about them or prevent them.
Traditionally, churches, particularly the Catholic Church, although slightly uneasy about it still maintains the use of exorcists; even the Vatican has an official exorcist, Fr. Gabriel Amorth. They will, if all else fails, and only with strict approval, attempt to remove an unwanted presence with the appropriate ritual and incantations and depending on the situation sometimes this works and sometimes it does not. Other denominations within the Christian faith abandoned exorcism some time ago although
some of the charismatic and fundamentalist sects maintained the practise using their own interpretation of the ritual. In an apparent demonstration of synchronicity, it has recently been reported that the mainstream Presbyterian Church of Scotland, is now seriously considering re-introducing exorcism in the wake of increasing incidences of alleged manifestations of supernatural activity. This is after a hiatus of approximately eighteen years during which time the service of exorcism was officially proscribed. Worryingly, their interpretation of poltergeist attacks tend to focus on the possession of human beings by ‘demonic forces’ and the act of exorcism can, in some instances, be genuinely dangerous to the point of actual physical harm befalling the unfortunate person afflicted.
Judaism and Islam also recognise the existence of poltergeists and other manifestations of ‘spirit’ whether good, bad or indifferent; they both also recognise demonic influence. Whether or not evil in the form of possession is a real and separate phenomenon is difficult to quantify, and there are several mental illnesses that produce symptoms identical to those displayed by people who are allegedly possessed. These include schizophrenia, multiple personality disorder and a number of other conditions. There is no doubt that in times past, mental illness, especially when coupled with physical deformity was automatically interpreted as demonic possession and the person so afflicted either locked away for life or piously murdered by the church and state. In more modern and supposedly enlightened times, mental illness although no longer carrying the same stigma, is nonetheless still largely hidden away from the public gaze and there are repeated reports of outbreaks of violent paranormal activity within the walls of psychiatric hospitals.
Is it possible that rather than signs of insanity, the symptoms displayed by some categories of psychiatric patients are actually demonstrations of latent Psi abilities? Is this not a curious use of language, demonic possession and demon-stration; is there a semantic link? Certainly, there is an ancient interpretation of the word, demon, as meaning teacher, which given its use as part of words like ‘demonstration’ seems appropriate. The use of modern psychiatric techniques and pharmaceuticals can and do control the effects of apparent mental aberrations, but what if these chemicals merely suppress, not an illness, but a genuine manifestation of an altered state of awareness or a latent psychic ability? Is it possible that where in times past those claiming enlightenment were ignored, imprisoned or put to death, they are now deemed ‘cured’, and convention, perhaps out of fear, still totally ignores what may be a genuine example of communication with entities from other realities? Where poltergeist manifestations are concerned then we are confronted with a series of examples of apparently genuine physical events; the movement of objects, noises and in some cases, disembodied voices. Quite understandably, those afflicted with these occurrences are more interested in stopping what happens as quickly as possible rather than investigating the possible causes, but where investigations have taken place there is clear evidence that the laws of physics are not being broken. Unfortunately, there is still a strong belief, probably incorrectly that somehow ‘spirit’ is involved, so, what is spirit, an intangible manifestation of that which religion is founded upon or something else?
Perhaps we should consider what happened during a few purportedly genuine poltergeist manifestations; most people will recall the Oscar wining, infamous and genuinely terrifying film, ‘The Exorcist’ portraying a series of terrifying events that befell a young girl and her family. What is not generally known is that the events portrayed are based on genuine happenings that occurred in the early spring of 1949 in either the town of Mt Rainier or nearby Cottage City, Maryland, USA. There is some confusion regarding the actual town, due perhaps to a desire by the civil and church authorities to protect the identities of those involved. The events centred on Douglass Deens, a thirteen-year-old boy, who, to conceal his identity, was known only as Robbie, became interested in various psychic phenomena, including the use of the Ouija board, through his aunt who was herself already a medium. The events began around January the 10th with the sound of scratching in the walls and the random movement of household objects, more worryingly for the family a picture of Christ shook violently. The boy, Robbie, felt his bed being scratched and he not surprisingly he began to suffer from frequent nightmares. After the sudden death of his aunt on January the 26th, Robbie continued to use the Ouija board to in an attempt to communicate with her and although the phenomena continued, his general demeanour changed to one of agitation and irritation.
Eventually the family took him to see a local Lutheran minister, a Rev. Shultz, who decided that there was the possibility a poltergeist had manifested through the boy and his use of the Ouija board. The minister took the boy into his home for a few days to observe both him and the phenomena. While he was there, Rev. Shultz observed objects moving by themselves and after seeing the boy’s bed shake, he moved the mattress to the floor where he saw it glide over the floor. The minister advised the family to take Robbie for psychiatric evaluation at the University of Maryland, which they did, but after a series of evaluations no evidence of mental abnormality was found and Rev. Shultz advised the family to take their son to see their local Catholic Priest.
It should be pointed out that the Catholic Church has official guidelines to differentiate between ‘good’ and ‘bad’ supernatural visitations, viz. divine blessing or satanic interference. Divine visitations are deemed to induce a series of positive benefits including the ability to heal, prophesise, work miracles and speak in tongues. There are likewise psycho-physiological symptoms that are taken into account including levitation, luminous rays, fragrant odours, prolonged fasting and of course stigmatisation. The Church also claims that unlike those who are demonically possessed those whose rapture is induced by the Holy Spirit remember all that has
transpired and their intellect is ‘elevated’. It is not too clear precisely what is meant by ‘elevated’ but it is inferred that the person so affected contemplates pious and/or spiritual matters to the exclusion of the purely secular. According to this interpretation the unfortunates whose possession, although virtually identical, is deemed demonic remember nothing of their experience and are liable to suffer adverse physical symptoms. In general, it is worth taking a closer look at these phenomena because either singly or in any permutation they are often recorded during other, non-religious paranormal events, particularly poltergeist activity.
The effects of Robbie’s apparent possession included many of the symptoms listed above and because of the negative ambience surrounding him were deemed demonic. His family took him to see a Father Hughes at the St.James Catholic Church in Mt Rainier where he continued to manifest the phenomena. Fr. Hughes reported his findings to Cardinal O’Boyle who after examining the evidence authorised a church exorcism. During the ritual carried out in Georgetown Hospital Robbie manifested some of the actual occurrences featured in the film including projectile vomiting. Following an attack on Fr Hughes that left him with a deep slash stretching from left shoulder to wrist Robbie was released with the exorcism incomplete. The family then took him to St. Louis where a professor at St. Louis University saw him; a Jesuit priest referred to only as Father Bishop SJ. The priest contacted a colleague, another Jesuit called Father Bowden of St Francis Xavier Church. After visiting Robbie, the priests received permission, this time from Cardinal Ritter to conduct another exorcism, which they commenced on the 16th of March 1949. During this very lengthy (but eventually successful) ritual they witnessed more alarming phenomena including large items of furniture moving around the room. The boy lay writhing on the bed cursing and blaspheming at the priests and eventually the priests had him moved to a hospital run by the Alexian Brothers, a monastic order. Here, with his family’s permission Robbie was baptised into the Catholic Church and two weeks later on Easter Monday, April the 18th, the exorcism came to a sudden end when following a sharp, loud noise that was heard throughout the hospital, the entity departed from his body. Robbie remembered nothing of his experiences except a vision of the archangel Michael. The newspaper ‘The Washington Post’ ran the story on the front page of its August 20th 1949 edition under the headline, “Priest Frees Mount Rainier Boy Reported Held in Devil’s Grip”.
Another very similar case involving as young Irish girl was reported in 1960 in the village of Sauchie in the county of Clackmannanshire in central Scotland. In this instance, although many of the events were identical to those described above, there were no concerted efforts to conduct rituals of exorcism. During the course of a re-investigation of the case conducted in 2000, among other original witnesses I managed to interview one of the doctors (Dr William Logan) who treated Virginia Campbell, the girl at the centre of events, for the duration of the occurrences. He was in no doubt that there was something bizarre and genuine happening to the girl and he heard the sounds of rapping and knocking several times. There was originally a cine film taken by another attending doctor (a Dr. Nesbit) capturing some of the kinetic phenomena (doors opening and closing and furniture moving around etc) but I was unable to locate the film, which may now, regrettably, be lost. The eventual outcome of this particular case resulted in the phenomena gradually fading away, until after several months it finally ceased completely. Such was the trauma experienced by those involved in the events that even today they will not discus the matter and in the course of my re-evaluation of the case this was made clear on a number of occasions. This is understandable although frustrating from a research point of view but the feelings and fears of those affected must be respected.
Before leaving this section it is worth pointing out that during an interview, Dr Logan made a telling point. On one visit to the Campbell household he heard loud knocking emanating from the headboard of the bed Virginia was laying in. he described the knocking as having a unique, odd, hollow quality to it. Dr Logan explained that he had never heard this odd
quality of sound before and it was many years before he did again. When he did so it was while attending for a medical examination using an MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) diagnostic device. When the machine was operating he heard exactly the same noises as the powerful, magnetic, imaging fields were generated. I have been checked out using one of these devices and they are indeed noisy and there is a strange hollow quality to the sounds produced. While not conclusive it does perhaps help to indicate one possible reason for these strange manifestations, the creation of
electromagnetic vortices powerful enough to have a physical effect on the environment. Was this the cause of both Douglass’s and Virginia’s ordeals and if so why?
The conventional explanations for poltergeist activity tend to focus on either pubescent or troubled children, usually although not exclusively female, or, households where there are strong emotional problems and traumas. This can include the powerful negative emotions generated by constant rowing and squabbling ‘feeding’ entities and giving them a portal into our reality from the astral plain, (which is in reality just another name for a parallel dimension). In some cases exorcism seems to remove the offending entities, although once again it is not clear why, but perhaps the reason lies in the neurological and genetic make up of the exorcist. Are they able to interact with and alter reality? Are they able to enter altered states of consciousness and confront the entities in their own realities? Why this should be the case is not obvious and neither is the mechanism behind it, perhaps because the subject has indeed long been considered ‘beyond the pale’ by conventional science. However, perhaps now we begin to see the glimmerings of an explanation for what has in the past been regarded as magic.
Shadows and Orbs
There is one more class of ‘visitor’ that although glimpsed surprisingly frequently, is less well known than the more traditional manifestations of the ‘other side’ and these are the ‘Shadow People’. They are also more likely to be dismissed as a straightforward case of a trick of the light or tiredness than the more readily accepted examples of paranormal sightings. Shadow people are the figures often glimpsed from the corner of the eye and vanish once full vision is directed at them. Precisely what they are presents a genuine puzzle, but the answer may be more readily available than expected. They have been seen lurking within shadows, and in appearance they are humanoid but not necessarily human ranging in height from a few feet to over seven feet tall. Some theories suggest that they are in fact spirits like the rest, but in some manner their energy field is ‘denser’ which enables them to be seen. This seems to align them with the phenomenon of ‘orbs’, which, when photographed are sometimes shown to cast shadows; ‘orbs’ it is frequently suggested, are the souls of the dead. However there are at least another two explanations worth considering. Are they in reality visitors from parallel universes, or do they inhabit the invisible worlds beyond the spectrum of visible light in the infrared and ultraviolet? Both of these explanations are plausible and since they have some basis in scientific theory there is less necessity to take it solely on faith. As we shall see in the next section there is already some basis for making these assertions.
The Scole Group
While there is a considerable body of evidence supporting the existence of both possession and poltergeist activity there are very few attempts to explain the mechanism behind them other than they are caused by spirit. Whether they are or nor becomes secondary to the hard physics that allows them to function in the real, physical world. Constructive and innovative experiments by people like the ‘Scole Group’ who attempted to obtain positive proof of life after death are most helpful and illuminating. During a series of procedures of almost five years duration they obtained a remarkable range of
results including examples of photographic and written examples of communication from the ‘other side’. There were also examples of ‘apports’ or physical objects produced out of ‘thin air’ in a séance room appearing from time to time. From my perspective there was also one particular manifestation of great interest and that was the appearance of an entity the group dubbed ‘blue’. This entity appeared on several frames of videotape along with other bizarre images of pyramid shapes and what look like planets. The entity, ‘blue’, was so called because of the overall blue colouring that was present on the image; in fact, ‘blue’ was identical to the ubiquitous ‘grey’. The
explanation given to the Scole experimenters via the mediums and psychics they used was because the entity, along with others, was from another dimension existing in parallel with our own. According to the spirit guides acting through the mediums, these entities continually attempted to gain access to this reality by any means necessary and worryingly many of them were not friendly towards us.
Before leaving the findings of the Scole Group it is worth examining the appearance of ‘apports’ in some detail because it has much in common with poltergeist phenomena. It is this particular phenomenon that although seemingly mundane, blows conventional, Newtonian physics out of the water. Traditionally, apports tend to be small items usually of a personal nature, like medals, coins, keys, buttons and items of jewellery, although small pebbles also appear. They appear spontaneously in séance rooms as ‘gifts’ from the ‘spirit world’, one of the common feature of apports, all apports, is they are always warm to the touch when they first appear in a séance room. The question here is how do they appear out of nothing after, presumably; having passed through brick and wood. There is only one possible explanation and it takes us right back to quantum physics; they are dismantled to their component sub-atomic particles, or, they are altered in frequency to permit passage through apparently solid matter. Bear in mind that for all their seeming solidity, all items in this continuum are actually composed of more empty space than solid matter and all that prevents us from walking through them is the simple fact that we exist at the same frequency as they do. To dissemble these items to their component atoms and rebuild them would easily explain the reason for the heat felt when they are touched, is surprising that they are now hotter than they are. We must never lose sight of the fact that in order for this to happen, the items and the entities producing them must obey the physical laws existing in this reality irrespective of what passes for normal in other continuums. It has been suggested that the ‘cold spots’ frequently felt and measured during poltergeist and other paranormal manifestations are the source of energy required for the manifestations to occur; thermal energy converted to kinetic energy, what we do not understand is the transfer mechanism. Since the laws of thermodynamics indicate that heat should travel to cold, is it feasible that whatever the mechanism is, it exists of necessity in the unseen continuum where the entities dwell? There is yet another point to consider, why do they bother with the demonstrations at all, is it a genuine attempt to gain our attention, is it an involuntary, uncontrollable reaction, or are they merely playing with us out of a sense of boredom?
Conclusion
The haunting and beautiful opening verse by Blake sets in poetry the nature of subjective reality and thoughtful musings such as this, when combined with the findings of quantum physicists tends to lend credence to claims that there are indeed a series of dimensions existing in parallel with our own and the only reason that we cannot normally contact them is because they exist at a different frequency. Even although Newtonian and rationalist science regards quantum physics with a good deal of suspicion and contention if not sheer disbelief, it still reluctantly accepts it because it possesses a core of legitimacy and repeatability. On the other hand anything gleaned from ‘non-scientific’ sources is a non-starter. Even the pioneering work of such luminaries as Dr. John Mack a professor of psychiatry of Harvard Medical School is likewise dismissed as ‘unscientific’. Dr. Mack has for some years realised and espoused that there is little or no difference between accounts of paranormal events and ET encounters and a complete reassessment of outlook is required when dealing with these matters. Fortunately, the evidence supporting the probability of additional realities populated with other, non-human beings and ruled by Non-Euclidean physics is gradually being amassed. If we are in fact interacting with these beings (albeit for the most part inadvertently) and if they are able to tap into our frame of reference, then they must be able to manipulate and integrate their physics with ours. Once we can accept this, and develop the necessary interfacing technology, then the possibility of direct interaction with ghosts, poltergeists and indeed ET’s becomes a reality and not a matter for conjecture.
© Brian Allan 2004
References:
‘The Uninvited’ by Nick Pope, pub Simon & Schuster
‘The Scole Experiment by Grant and Jane Solomon, pub, Piatkus
‘This House is Haunted’ by Guy Lyon Playfair
‘Angels of Heaven, Angels of Hell’, by Brian Allan
‘The Sauchie Poltergeist Revisited’, by Brian Allan
To see the world in a grain of sand
And heaven in a wild flower
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand
And eternity in an hour
William Blake
