Poltergeist! Help!
What exactly is a poltergeist? Poltergeist is German for “noisy ghost.” They’re known to throw things, make noises, and even hurt people. They destroy property and cause fear. These beings also tend to exist where there are children, causing terror and strife in our young ones. Poltergeists, however, may not be the troublesome spirits we think they are, at least not all the time.
Folklore and popular belief is that a poltergeist is a troublesome spirit that manifests itself by making noise and moving objects. These ghosts throw objects, push things off shelves, stack items, and cause things to levitate. They knock and bang on surfaces. These beings may cause phones to ring, electronics like televisions and radios to suddenly come on loudly. They even push, hit, slap, and strike people. They’ve been known to pull hair, slap faces, and trip people.
What is a Poltergeist: A Ghost…or something worse?
It certain seems that they do what they do to harm people, and that they chose their behaviors. Therefore, poltergeists may have wills and intentions of their own, and therefore may be ghosts. Ghosts are the essence of people who have died, and they have the ability to choose their actions and to affect material reality if they can glean enough energy from the environment. It may be to annoy, to drive people away, or to get their attention/cry for help. It’s the most common theory.
Yet, there is another theory: these are malevolent beings, like demons, that attack people out of spite with the express purpose of causing torment, and the people they like to torment most are children and teenagers.
Why do poltergeists like children and teenagers so much?
The theory goes that these beings attach themselves to children and teenagers because of the constant supply of energy, particularly emotional energy, children and teenagers have. It’s also possible that these beings simply like children because they’re more vulnerable and less likely to be believed.
Children and teenager don’t stuff their feelings. Teenagers in particular — and especially pubescent girls — have hormone shifts and growth spurts that the being can feed from. They also tend to have a lot of emotional energy due to those hormone changes that a spirit can leech.
There is also the theory that children and teenagers inadvertently “create” the poltergeist.
What else could poltergeists be if they’re not ghosts?
Some researchers speculate that poltergeists are actually demons who attach themselves to a vulnerable person and terrorize them into submission. Other researchers speculate that these beings aren’t beings at all, but rather manifestations of psychokinetic energy coming from the victim. This would account for poltergeist activity tending to occur in homes where there are not just children and teenagers, but dysfunction and trauma. The children can’t express their feelings in normal ways, so they end up expressing their anger and frustration psychically by destroying things and hurting people.
Can I contact a poltergeist?
You could, theoretically, just as you can contact any spirit. The real question is whether you should. The untrained who use ouija boards and seances to contact disruptive spirits often get more than they bargained for. They attempt to find out how they can make the spirit quiet, but they end up making it worse.
Imagine that a stranger is pounding on your front door, yelling and screaming at you. What would you do? Would you open the door, hoping they stop making so much noise? No, of course you wouldn’t. That’s why you probably shouldn’t contact a poltergeist yourself.
You should contact a trained and experience psychic or medium instead. They can correctly identify the poltergeist and help you find out what it wants so you can quiet it or get rid of it.