Poltergeist

The label derives from German ghostlore: poltergeist (from poltern 'to make sound, to rumble' + Geist 'ghost, spirit') and in modern literature has been applied by psychical researchers and popular accounts to a range of noisy, object-moving disturbances found in many countries. Sources summarize a historiography of case investigations (e.g., Stockwell, Ballechin House, Enfield) and note that the modern category emerged in German-speaking contexts and was subsequently used broadly by investigators and the media rather than representing a single, canonical mythic origin.

Accounts summarized in the sources report no consistent, stable visible form; poltergeists are primarily known by their effects. Descriptions and fictional portrayals attribute quasi-physical actions—pinching, biting, hitting, tripping people—and capacity for moving or levitating furniture, cutlery and small objects. The literature therefore emphasizes sensory and kinetic manifestations (knockings, objects hurled, spontaneous fires, electrical flicker, foul odours) rather than an anthropomorphic or regularly visible entity.

Reported abilities in case summaries and popular descriptions include producing loud noises (knockings, rumblings), moving/levitating/throwing objects (furniture, cutlery, mirrors), causing physical assaults on persons (pinching, biting, tripping), producing foul smells and spontaneous fires, and provoking electrical disturbances (flickering lights). Investigators and skeptics cited in the sources attribute many of these effects to alternative causes—hoax or juvenile trickery, psychological projection or dissociation (e.g., Nandor Fodor's psychoanalytic reading), and natural physical mechanisms such as downdrafts, building vibrations or underground water—so the literature presents a plurality of possible mechanisms alongside reports of the phenomena themselves.