I think Andrew Lang summed up the poltergeist phenomenon very satisfactorily in this article over 100 years ago. He observes how similar cases have been seen across time and culture, and how straightforward accusations of fraud never seem to quite explain what’s going on. He touches on the possibility that the mental state of those involved may be a causal factor.
Andrew Lang on the “poltergeist”
A great chance of solving a very old puzzle has probably been lost. Domestic history is full of the doings of what science calls the poltergeist. The doings are stereotyped; all sorts of articles of furniture and miscellaneous objects are thrown about, or carried about, no man being able to see how, why, or by whom.
Any student with independent means and with a fair knowledge of languages, ancient and modern, could write a history of these phenomena, from the days of ancient Egypt to last week. Equipped with elaborate notes, references to authorities, and quotations, this would really be a curious tome: there is matter enough to fill a folio, but the folio would not pay its expenses.
I have read the story, always the same story, in a prayer by an afflicted Egyptian householder to Isis or Hathor; read it in the Greek of Iamblichus; in mediaeval chronicles; in reports of early explorers of South America; in missionary reports from Burmah and from the Eskimo; in dozens of trials for witchcraft; in many pamphlets of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries; in a remarkable tract by the Rev. Mr Colton (early in the nineteenth century); in German, French, Russian, and modern American treaties.
In fact, “where’er these casual eyes are cast,” in Glanvil, Bovet, Southey, Coleridge, Telfer, and so forth, I find always the same story; in China the facts are the same as in Peru and in our newspapers, and the explanations are numerous. The Irish say that Fairies are the cause of the troubles; the English blame the Pixies; others attribute the phenomena to the devil. Coleridge believed that the events did not happen but that the beholders had some epidemic malady of the imagination; which is clearly the worst theory of all!
But, almost always, a little girl or boy, usually a little girl, is mixed up with the matter, whether in wigwams of the Hurons or farmhouses of today. Occasionally a little girl is brought to confess that she plays the tricks; now and then she is caught in the act of throwing something about; not often.
The game has been played with much vigour, in August, at a farmhouse in Staffordshire. The place was turned upside down, the farmer and his wife were pelted with knives, forks, and other missiles; many panes of glass and much crockery were broken. After weeks of this, according to the newspapers, a girl of fourteen confessed that she was the mysterious agency.
Here, I think, the chance was lost; the child was probably punished; but what I want to know is, how did she produce her effects for so long a time without being detected? Probably no person induced her to exhibit her methods. It is not so easy – you may try the experiment – to keep pelting people with all manner of missiles without being detected. I remember scarcely a case in which the naughty child was offered a free pardon if she would exhibit her methods. The superstitious are apt to allege that the events begin no one knows how, and that the child only keeps up the game by imitating them. The secret of her successes remains undiscovered: we ask in vain why little girls, all the world over, know the trick and practise it?
Cases of little boys as the centres of the trouble are rare, and, what is odd, I cannot remember a case in which a boy either was detected or confessed. Science has probably lost sight of this naughty self-taught conjurer in Staffordshire. We need to know if she had suffered any severe nervous shock before she played her pranks. This is often the case, and the fact diminishes her moral responsibility.
Illustrated London News, 10th September 1910.
Coming right up to date, Eric Dullin wrote a journal article in 2024 summarising the features of poltergeist cases (Dullin, E. (2024). A Detailed Phenomenology of Poltergeist Events. Journal of Scientific Exploration, 38(3), 427-460. https://doi.org/10.31275/20243263). I’m not sure we really know any more than we did in Andrew Lang’s time! although we now have even more examples of cases that match the features.
It is interesting that Mr Lang mentions fairies and demons as explanation – we’ve also seen dead people blamed, and as technology progresses even UFO experiences seem to share certain phenomenological features. Long ago the ancient Greeks acknowledged this sort of phenomena as Daimons, and were aware of their tricksterish ways. An interesting article on this interpretation (albeit not poltergeist-focused) can be found on Merediths ‘Maze to Metanoia’ substack.