176 - Poltergeists

【ポルターガイスト、porutaagaisuto】

[It seems that the Japanese, or at least the writers, use 'poltergeist' to refer to the supernatural events, and not the spirits themselves, so take this into account while you read the story]

A poltergeist is a psychic phenomenon in which objects suddenly fly through the air, doors open and close, and wall banging is heard, even though no hands are touching them. 

Poltergeist is originally a German word, poltern = noisy, geist = ghost, referring to a noisy spirit, as the phenomenon suggests.

The first historical mention of the poltergeist phenomenon dates back to 858 AD. In a farmhouse in the Bingen region of Germany, "noisy spirits" were said to be throwing stones and banging violently on the walls.

These phenomena are often seen as poltergeists, such that a priest performed an exorcism ritual at the time, but it was said to be ineffective.

Since then, numerous poltergeist phenomena have occurred in various parts of the world.

In 1850, a poltergeist in an American pastor's house reportedly hurled furniture around the room, threw rocks and broke windows, set fire to papers in the room, and suspended the family's children in midair and pinched them.

Poltergeists are also said to sometimes emit voices, but most of the time these statements are lies.

Also, in Japan, during the Edo period, it was said that if a woman from Ikebukuro village was hired as a server, objects would fly or stones would fall at that establishment.

After the founding of the British Psychic Research Association in 1882, research on poltergeists flourished.

The results suggested that many of the homes where the phenomena occurred had teenage children and that these adolescents might be involved.

The "spiritual" entities may use the children's high energy to move furniture and make noises.

On the other hand, recent research on poltergeists in Japan has shown that each object has its own vibration cycle and that when an object vibrates due to wind, water currents, or earthquakes too weak to be felt by humans, the building may resonate with such vibrations, causing the building itself to shake.

However, this does not explain the phenomena of furniture flying around, voices being heard, or even people being pinched.

There are now more than several thousand cases of poltergeist phenomena, but are they scientifically explainable or caused by spirits? Further investigation is needed to determine the truth of the matter.