From the German "poltern" (to make noise) and "geist" (spirit). Poltergeists are characterised by physical disturbances — objects thrown, furniture moved, unexplained sounds — rather than visual apparitions. Researchers note they typically centre on a specific living person, often an adolescent.
The earliest documented poltergeist case dates to 856 AD in Bingen am Rhein, Germany, where a farmer's family reported stones thrown by invisible hands and fires starting spontaneously. Similar cases appear across every century and culture since.
The 20th century produced some of the most thoroughly investigated cases. The Rosenheim Poltergeist (1967-68) in Bavaria was studied by physicists from the Max Planck Institute. Light bulbs exploded, phones dialled on their own, and a photocopier dispensed fluid with no power. All activity centred on secretary Annemarie Schneider and ceased when she left the office. The Enfield Poltergeist (1977) was witnessed by over 30 people including police officers.
Parapsychologist William Roll coined the term "recurrent spontaneous psychokinesis" (RSPK) — theorising that poltergeist activity is unconscious psychokinetic energy produced by a living person under stress, rather than a spirit entity.
Rosenheim Poltergeist
Beginning in late 1967, a law firm in Rosenheim, Bavaria began experiencing bizarre electrical disturbances. Light bulbs exploded in their sockets. Electrical power consumption spiked to impossible levels with nothing running. Telephone bills showed hundreds of calls to the speaking clock — calls that were placed four to six times per minute, faster than any human could dial. Fluorescent lights swung on their own. A photocopier began dispensing developing fluid onto the floor with no power connected.
The local power company and Deutsche Bundespost investigated and found nothing that could explain the phenomena. Physicists from the Max Planck Institute in Munich — including Hans Bender, Germany's most respected parapsychologist — installed recording equipment. They documented on film a pendulum clock rotating on its own, pictures swinging off walls, and drawers opening without being touched. All readings were logged by independent instruments.
Investigators noticed that every recorded disturbance coincided with the presence of a specific employee: 19-year-old Annemarie Schneider. When Schneider was on holiday, nothing happened. When she walked down the corridor, equipment malfunctioned in her wake. When she was distressed, activity intensified. When she resigned and left the building permanently in January 1969, all phenomena stopped.
Schneider was not suspected of fraud — the activity was witnessed happening behind her, around corners, and in areas she had just left. Bender concluded that she was an unwitting RSPK agent — producing psychokinetic effects unconsciously under workplace stress. The Rosenheim case is considered by parapsychologists to be the most instrumentally documented poltergeist case in history.
The Resch Poltergeist
In March 1984, the Resch family home in Columbus, Ohio became the site of intense poltergeist activity centring on 14-year-old Tina Resch. Telephones flew across rooms, picture frames hurled themselves off walls, and a heavy sofa moved across the floor with no one near it. The family contacted local media.
Columbus Dispatch photographer Fred Shannon was sent to the house and initially sceptical. He witnessed and photographed objects moving — including a telephone that flew off a counter and struck Tina while she stood with her arms folded. Shannon stated unambiguously that no person near her had touched the phone. The photographs were published nationwide.
The case attracted serious investigation from parapsychologist William Roll, who spent days documenting activity at the house. Roll had coined the term RSPK and had studied dozens of poltergeist cases. He found that Tina's emotional state correlated precisely with the frequency and intensity of the phenomena — activity spiked when she was upset or frustrated and subsided when she was calm. Roll's investigation produced over 250 documented incidents in the weeks of observation.
The case became controversial when a television crew's camera caught Tina apparently pulling a lamp off a table herself when she thought filming had stopped. Roll maintained this single lapse did not account for the full scope of witnessed activity, including events observed by police, journalists, and other adults in positions where Tina could not have caused them. The Resch case remains one of the most heavily documented RSPK cases in American history.
My partner and I booked room 217 at the old Beaumont Hotel not knowing about its history. Around 3 AM I woke to a drop in temperature so severe I could see my breath. Standing near the wardrobe was a translucent figure in what looked like Victorian-era clothing — female, facing away from us. I managed to grab my phone and get about 8 seconds of video before it simply faded. The hotel staff the next morning went pale when I described her. Apparently a woman named Clara died in that room in 1912. The video is shaky but she's clearly there.
We moved into our house in September and things started small. Knocking from inside the walls at night. The smell of cigarette smoke in rooms where no one has ever smoked. Then two weeks ago it escalated: kitchen cabinets all opened simultaneously while we were eating dinner. Last Thursday a hardcover flew off the bookshelf and hit the opposite wall with enough force to dent the drywall. We have two kids (7 and 10) and we are genuinely frightened. I've set up cameras throughout the house. On review I can see objects moving but no one near them. Our 7-year-old says she talks to "the man with the grey face" in her room at night. We're not religious people but we are running out of rational explanations.
This happened two nights ago and I am still not okay. I set up a trail camera in my basement after hearing dragging sounds for three weeks. I checked the footage this morning expecting to find a raccoon or a burst pipe. Instead, frame 847 shows a figure standing in the far corner facing the wall. Approximately 6 feet tall. Completely white — not wearing white, white. Like the colour had been removed from it. It was there for exactly one frame (the camera shoots every 3 seconds) and gone in the next. I have lived alone in this house for six years. The basement door was locked from the inside when I went down this morning. I don't know what to do. I'm posting the image now.