The six cases are documented to varying degrees: four are described in a diary style (with respectively 154, 64, 62, 55 pages) while the details of two of them, the cases 4 and 6, are sketched on a mere 2-3 pages. The cases numbered l, 2, 3 and 5 have been chosen as examples because they are so well described and the two short cases numbered 4 and 5 are included because they are not mentioned in the current literature and are in contrast to the others: case 4 is doubtful and its author doesn’t believe in it at all, and case 6 is unique because of its positive and humorous feature in that Professor Meier apparently has a lot of fun with his dragons.

The phenomena described in the six cases have been classified by me into 30 main categories with many further sub-categories. This enabled a comparison to be made of their characteristics with those occurring in modem cases described by previous researchers (Bozzano,1920,1930; Gauld & Cornell, 1979; Roll, 1976, 1977, 1978; Tizané, 1951; Huesmann & Schriever, 1989; and Cox 1961). An evaluation of the Gerstmann case in relation to Tizane’s list of characteristics of poltergeist cases is to be found in Puhle, 1999 (298-300). Further details of the comparison of the six historical cases with modem cases will be reported later (Puhle 2000a). I report here only the most frequent phenomena occurring in the six historical cases that correspond to those found in the modem cases.

The Most Frequent Phenomena: When expressions such as “often”, “some” and “many” are used to describe daily occurrences, in order to arrive at the total for each category, these have been counted as one or more occurrence per day.

Inexplicable Movements of Objects

128 or more occurrences

Stones Playing a Role

75 or more occurrences

Bombardment

68 occurrences

Bombardment of a Person

36 occurrences

Breaking and destroying of things (with the exception of glass windows)

55 occurrences

Stones Breaking Glass Windows and Entering Inside through Openings

49 or more occurrences

Thrown Objects

39 or more occurrences

Which are hot when touched

5 occurrences

Visual Appearances

37 occurrences

The Significance of These Six Historical Cases for Current RSPK-Research

In these six historical cases it has not been possible to identify focal persons, as for example pubescent young persons. The whole family, including the children, is involved in only 4 of these cases. In the case of Fleischer, the phenomena centred on female persons while in the Gerstmann case, males were the focus. Certainly there appear to be focal persons in the two briefly reported cases (Wegner and the Mayor of Ueblitz) but in one of these, the author of the report actually doubts the authenticity of the case. It is impossible to read into the statements given in these cases, anything about the psychopathological status of the family members or any indications of family tension. Gauld and Cornell in their discussion of 500 cases conclude that only in a very few cases are there phenomena that appear to be independent of a single agent or medium (Gauld & Cornell 1979, p. 342). Bender says about himself and other modem poltergeist-researchers like Roll, Cox, Eisler, Larcher, Palmer, Pratt and others, they would characterize poltergeists cases “als ob es keine andere “agency” gäbe als die Fokus-Person oder -Personen, die “Medien” (as having no other “agency” than the focus-person/persons or the “media” (Bender 1979, p. 134.) One can only say in the cases reported here that either signs of psychopathology, symptoms of illnesses such as epilepsy or CNS disturbances are not present in the descriptions (which otherwise might have supported Roll’s theory (Roll 1977, p 409). (Compare however the critique of this theory made by Martinez Taboas and Alvarado 1981.) On the positive side, the parson Heinisch emphasised that “it is completely unreasonable to attribute a natural explanation for the ca se to pure fantasy, idol imagination, melancholic temperament or disease” (Heinisch 1723, p. 38).

Domestic and industrial electromagnetic fields acting as potential releasing factors for poltergeist phenomena (Nichols 1998) cannot of course be applied to the phenomena occurring during those two centuries. Household electricity and industrial applications started in the USA and Europe very slowly following Edison’s invention of the electric bulb in 1879 and Siemens’ invention of the electromotor in 1866.

The role of natural electrical fields in the form of geomagnetic activity is of course not excluded in these cases. The investigations of Wilkinson and Gauld (1993, p. 304­305) as well as Roll and Gearhart (1974), Gearhart and Persinger (1986), have all found that the onset of poltergeist cases correlates with significantly higher global geomagnetic activity.

A virtually non-researched factor concerns the religious belief system and “Weltanschauung” (worldview) of the person concerned. It is very remarkable that three of the cases reported here actually take part in Protestant parsonages and in the

fourth case, the physician Gerstmann has a daily contact with the parson who is a chief witness to the case. In the fifth case, many hours of the day are said to be devoted to prayer. The exception is the sixth case, the major of Ueblitz with his three friendly house dragons, where a more independent attitude to the church – in this case the Catholic Church – is to be found (Horst 1825, p. 379). If what he writes to Professor Meier in Halle is taken as face value, then in contrast to other cases he actually experiences fun in having the poltergeists (Horst 1825, p. 377).

This brings us to the wider issue of the threatening versus the friendly nature of the poltergeist. It is known from ethnology that ghosts that are not one off acts (crisis apparitions) but are experienced as outside of villages and in general as hanging around human settlements, and as such are understood to be threatening. On the other hand, ghosts living inside a house or barn, have been traditionally experienced as positive. Negative values have become attributed to all ghostly appearances only since the time of Christianity which looked negatively upon all ghostly appearances which cannot be attributed to angels. This has become evident since Lutheran times for the German speaking areas, by the way in which swear words are applied for these original friendly house companions: The house goblin becomes used in the swear words like Poltergeist, Fratzteufel, Hausteufel (house devil), Rumor-and Polterteufel (polter-devil), Teufels-Affe (devil ape), Hexen- and Teufelsgespenst (hex- and devil­ghost). The house goblin even becomes a Drachen or Draken (dragon), Spuk-, Schreck- and Dreckgeist (horror ghost), a Scheisshäuser (toilet user) and Rabbaudermanneken (little trouble maker) (Horst 1825, p. 349, Horst 1825, vol. l, p. 248, Gerstmann 1714, pp. 3,13, 17, 99, 119). All in all, the goblin becomes a rather hellish ghost.

In contrast to this dire image, the German folklore also tells of the delightful aspects of these goblin-like ghosts, which if we look at them from the larger world perspective, are to be regarded as the largest c1ass of ghosts. For instance, Schott in his treatise Physica Curiosa, says that “the Germans would call these little goblins Gutelen because they are so gut (good) towards the people”. More examples of the positive character of goblins are given in Puhle (1999, p.p. 303 and 304, see also Puhle, 2000). The house ghost has thus been in causal or analogue context with Christianity, converted from a friend into an enemy of human beings. Indeed, evil ghosts were originally experienced in the outer environment but now they are perceived in the domestic environment. This is mirrored in the way RSPK phenomena progress from stone throwing effects outside the house, to disturbances which take place inside the house (cases l, 2 and 5). This is an aspect that was described by, among others, Tizané (1951) on the basis of his one hundred French cases. Bender described the throwing of stones as “an archaic form of aggression”; it is transcultural and occurs in the barbaric form of punishment as stoning to death (Bender 1979, p.136). Our contemporary poltergeist is thus a house-ghost which has lost its identity ­like a fallen angel, it has become a fallen house ghost.

Do the historical cases give us a new key for understanding poltergeists by showing how the form of thought and belief, and the resulting worldview are related to the way in which poltergeists are perceived and experienced? It is instructive in this context to think of what Wegner wrote in 1747: “Even if I cannot define what ghosts are, I think I can declare that they cannot be what you believe them really to be” (Wegner 1747, p.6).

Institut fur Grenzgebiete der Psychologie und Psychohygiene e.V.

Wilhelmstr. 3A

79098 Freiburg i.Br.

Germany

Acknowledgements

I wish to thank Eberhard Bauer for his inspiration and support in this project.

For those who believe they’re locked down with spectral roommates, the pandemic has been less isolating than they bargained for.

It started with the front door.

Adrian Gomez lives with his partner in Los Angeles, where their first few days of sheltering in place for the coronavirus pandemic proved uneventful. They worked remotely, baked, took a two-mile walk each morning and refinished their porcelain kitchen sink. But then, one night, the doorknob began to rattle “vigorously,” so loud he could hear it from across the apartment. Yet no one was there.

In mid-April, Mr. Gomez was in bed when a nearby window shade began shaking against the window frame so intensely — despite the fact that the window was closed, an adjacent window shade remained perfectly still, the cats were all accounted for, and no bug nor bird nor any other small creature had gotten stuck there — that Mr. Gomez thought it was an earthquake.

“I very seriously hid myself under the comforter, like you see in horror movies, because it really did freak me out,” he said.

Now, though neither he nor his partner noticed any unexplained activity at home before this, the couple can “distinctly” make out footsteps above their heads. No one lives above them.

“I’m a fairly rational person,” said Mr. Gomez, who is 26 and works in I.T. support. “I try to think, ‘What are the reasonable, tangible things that could be causing this?’ But when I don’t have those answers, I start to think, ‘Maybe something else is going on.’”

They’re not alone … possibly in more ways than one.

For those whose experience of self-isolation involves what they believe to be a ghost, their days are punctuated not just by Zoom meetings or home schooling, but by disembodied voices, shadowy figures, misbehaving electronics, invisible cats cozying up on couches, caresses from hands that aren’t there and even, in some cases — to borrow the technical parlance of “Ghostbusters” — free-floating, full-torso vaporous apparitions.

Some of these people are frightened, of course. Others say they just appreciate the company.

There is no scientific evidence for the existence of ghosts, a fact that has little bearing on our collective enthusiasm for them. According to a 2019 YouGov survey, 45 percent of U.S. adults believe in ghosts; in 2009, the Pew Research Center found that 18 percent of Americans believe themselves to have seen or otherwise encountered one.

Before stay-at-home restrictions in New York, Patrick Hinds, 42, left Manhattan with his husband and daughter to spend six weeks at an “adorable” cottage in western Massachusetts that they rented on Airbnb.

One night, Mr. Hinds woke up around 3 a.m., thirsty for a glass of water. He said he walked into the kitchen and saw a white man in his 50s, wearing a well-worn, World War II-era military uniform and cap sitting at the table.

“It seemed normal in the split second before I realized, Wait, what’s happening? And as I turned to look, he was gone,” said Mr. Hinds, who is the host of the podcast “True Crime Obsessed.” “It didn’t feel menacing at all. It almost didn’t even occur to me to tell my husband the next morning.”

If you were to accept the premise that ghosts are real, it stands to reason that some tension would naturally result once their flesh-and-blood roommates start spending much, much more time at home together.

John E.L. Tenney, who describes himself as a paranormal researcher and is a former host of the TV show “Ghost Stalkers,” estimates that he received two to five reports of a haunted house each month in 2019. Lately, it’s been more like five to 10 in a week.

Mr. Tenney has seen something like this before: In 1999, immediately before Y2K, he witnessed a spike in reported ghost and poltergeist activity, as well as U.F.O. sightings (which, in his experience, are also on the rise in this moment). “It does seem to have something to do with our heightened state of anxiety, our hyper-vigilance,” he said.

Mr. Tenney has no doubt that the vast majority of these cases in his inbox are “completely explainable” in nature. “When the sun comes up and the house starts to warm up, they’re usually at work — they’re not used to hearing the bricks pop and the wood expand,” he said. “It’s not that the house wasn’t making those sounds. They just never had the time to notice it.”

Or did they? Janie Cowan believes she’s been haunted since college. The ghost she calls Matthew (a “good, biblical name” chosen in the hopes it would keep him on his best behavior, explained Mrs. Cowan, who is 26) has historically made his presence known in her Nashville home through the sounds of someone running up and down the staircase at night.

The noises are “not like a house settling, or like our cat walking around,” said her husband, Will Cowan, a 31-year-old accountant. “It’s very clearly out to get attention.”

Around the same time the couple began to self-isolate in March, Mr. Cowan started to use their guest bathroom so that his wife, a home health nurse who has been picking up more night shifts during the pandemic, could sleep in without the sounds of his morning routine disturbing her.

He has found that Matthew, who both spouses agree prefers Mrs. Cowan, doesn’t seem to appreciate these changes. On three separate occasions, while showering in the guest bath, Mr. Cowan has been unexpectedly blasted with cold water. But it wasn’t just a quirk of the plumbing: Every time, he said, he reached out to find that the hot-water nozzle had been turned off.

Madison Hill, 24, is riding out the pandemic with her boyfriend in her apartment in Florence, Italy. Ms. Hill, a writer and teacher originally from Charlotte, N.C., had always had her suspicions about her home, particularly the bathroom. There was the sense that someone was watching her, doors slamming, towels inexplicably on the floor.

A few weeks into quarantine, she woke up to find something on her nightstand that did not belong there. It was a camera lens, one she’d brought from the United States but lost when she moved in. She had long given up on ever finding it. But here it was.

Since then, other small objects, including a set of keys, have moved to strange new places inside her apartment. The reappearance of the camera lens in particular struck her as a “mischievous,” playful gesture — perhaps even a thoughtful suggestion that this could be the perfect time for Ms. Hill, who majored in film in college, to pick her old hobby back up.

Kerry Dunlap shares a one-bedroom apartment in the Ridgewood neighborhood of Queens with his girlfriend, Alexandra Cohl. Mr. Dunlap, a 31-year-old teacher, rapper and concert promoter, believes he first met their resident ghost last summer.

He saw her in the bathroom, in the middle of the night: wearing green scrubs, standing an arm’s length away from him. She appeared to be glowing. The woman vanished when he turned on the light. Mr. Dunlap knew that one of the friends the couple is subleasing from had spotted a ghost in the apartment; both agreed they’d seen an older Asian woman of small stature.

Mr. Dunlap and Ms. Cohl, a 27-year-old writer and editor, used to find themselves in a routine late-night tug of war over the too-small comforter they shared. Several weeks ago, Mr. Dunlap woke late at night to the sensation of what he assumed was Ms. Cohl adjusting the blanket at his feet to spread it evenly across the bed. When the movement stopped and he didn’t feel his girlfriend climb into bed beside him, he called out to her. She didn’t answer.

Then she came back in from the bathroom.

“It was so weird, dude,” Mr. Dunlap said. “It was so weird.” But the incident left him and Ms. Cohl with a lingering positive impression: like whoever — or whatever — it was had been trying to make the couple feel more comfortable, or to mediate a potential conflict between them before it happened.

Kurt Gray, an associate professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, studies how we perceive and treat the minds of other entities, including animals, machines and the dead. Times of great unease or malaise, when there is an increased drive to find meaning in chaos, can lend themselves to perceived hauntings, he said — not to mention that disease itself shares certain psychological parallels with a “malevolent spirit,” creeping invisibly upon its unsuspecting victims.

This phenomenon could also be a side effect of the loneliness of our time. “In quarantine, you are physically confined and also psychologically confined. Your world narrows,” Mr. Gray said. “You’re trapped at home, you’re needing human contact — it’s comforting to think that there’s a supernatural agent here with you.”

For Danielle, a 39-year-old lawyer, isolation predates this pandemic. (The Times agreed to not use her last name, to protect her professional reputation.) She has been recovering at her home in Richmond, British Columbia, since contracting an unrelated serious illness over the winter.

She first experienced strange activity in February, she said, when she kept walking into her guest bedroom to find a particular lamp turned on, although she had no memory of leaving it that way. This happened again, and again, and again, until, on a whim, she said aloud, “Don’t turn that back on.”

The next time she entered the room, she found the ceiling light — which she never, ever switches on — blazing. On more than one occasion, she has heard the voices of a man and a woman having a conversation she couldn’t quite make out.

More recently, she was sewing face masks in the same bedroom. She had exactly enough fabric left to make one more mask, but when she briefly turned away from the ironing board where she’d just pressed the double cotton gauze, the two remaining pieces disappeared.

“It was gone,” Danielle said. “Like, in a 20-second period, gone. I went and checked the garbage pail, nothing. Checked the recycling, nothing. My fabric stash, nothing. I tore the house apart looking for these two pieces of fabric, and they have never come back.”

Danielle describes herself as a highly social person, someone whose friends and family had worried about how she’d fare cooped up all by herself. “This kind of feels like someone popping by to cheer me up, or keep tabs, or make sure that I’m not feeling alone,” she said.

If the idea of a paranormal identity can provide someone “a little bit of social sustenance” to help them endure their solitude, Mr. Gray said, then great. At least, as long as the ghost isn’t advising its hauntees to “go into emergency rooms without a mask and French kiss everybody,” he said.

Are you troubled by strange noises in the middle of the night? Do you experience feelings of dread in your basement or attic? “Don’t panic,” said Mr. Tenney, the “Ghost Stalkers” host. Take careful notes on what you observe. You may soon find a rational explanation for your fears. What if that strange noise at 2:50 p.m. every weekday is just the UPS truck clattering by?

But Mr. Tenney also offers this: One could argue that the ghost puttering around in your kitchen is not only there, but that she’s always been there. Maybe you’re what’s changed. Or maybe you’re listening more closely in the greater quiet all around us. “Perhaps we’re just now starting to notice that the world is a little bit weirder than we gave it credit for,” he said.