The final incident is reported from the house of Mr Eric Mascarenhas, Chief Officer of the Bombay Suburban District Local Board, at Santa Cruz. A Madrasi Christian maidservant was recently engaged in his family on the third day after she had taken service, stones mysteriously dropped anywhere in the place where the girl was, although the doors and windows were closed.
On his return home in the evening, Mr Mascarenhas was informed of the incident and he tried to ascertain the cause. While he was doing so, more stones fell, and some dropped on the crockery that was laid on the table. He noticed that the stones fell only when the girl was present. The phenomena stopped the following day, when the girl was discharged from service.
Inquiries as to the antecedents of the maidservant, who is aged 12, revealed that similar occurrences when she was in the employ of Dr. Pinto at Bandra. To make sure against the presence of any evil spirits, he invoked the assistance of the priests, Fathers Gomes and D’Sa, vicar and curate respectively of Mount Carmel’s Church, visited the house about three o’clock in the afternoon. While discussing the cause, they were surprised to observe stones falling around them. One of the stones fell on Father Gomes; he still has it, as well as all the other stones which had fallen during the time he was there, and before his arrival.
In an interview he declared his inability to explain the falling of the stones. He could only say that they fell without any force, merely dropping down.
A curious coincidence is that all the phenomena referred to have occurred in the afternoon. Local psychical workers have been busily absorbed on the subject during the past few days.
(Note: Though curious, the phenomena described by our correspondent are not peculiar to occult students, and need arouse non scepticism. They belong to a class called “poltergeist” manifestations, in which some form of energy not yet understood appears to find an outlet in mischievous pranks. The ancient manor-houses of Europe have a rich variety of such occurrences in their legend. Some scientific students of spiritualism believe that the “poltergeist,” while not exactly a ghost in the ordinary sense, is a low form of discarnate intelligence. It was suggested by Hudson, in his Law of Psychic Phenomena, that they were thought-forms sent out by the subconscious personality of persons of evil repute at the time of death, and that, as these manifestations invariably occur only when a certain person is present, that such person acts as an unconscious medium for the translation of the thought-form into visible energy – hence the flinging about of stones and crockery.)
Times of India, 27th February, 1933.