Poltergeist Rapping
I’ve recently found this article: www.spr.ac.uk/main/news/colvin-acoustic-properties-poltergeist-rapping
Needless to say I find it less than convincing: the sounds were not examined in situ but on records of variable quality often dating from decades before (Enfield Poltergeist).
I’ve recently found this article: www.spr.ac.uk/main/news/colvin-acoustic-properties-poltergeist-rapping
Needless to say I find it less than convincing: the sounds were not examined in situ but on records of variable quality often dating from decades before (Enfield Poltergeist).
This very different from the so called Berry-Kirlin-Hertel case (alleged Bigfoot vocalization), where noises were taped in situ and immediately dispatched to a research laboratory together with the original taping equipment used.
Also there’s always the big question: is the record genuine? Was it really a rapping during a poltergeist case and not, say, a completely unrelated noise?
Your opinions?
Re: Poltergeist Rapping
In the paper it is claimed that the poltergeist raps don’t build to maximum sound intensity quickly in the way that would happen if you just hit a piece of wood. However, since most raps emabnate from walls or wood, you wouldn’t expect them to. If the rap was caused by, for instance, a hoaxer hitting the other side of a wall, concealed from investigators, the sound intensity would grow more slowly. This is because some of the sound, particularly the higher frequencies, would be absorbed by the wall. So the raps examined cannot readily be differentiated from hoaxed raps.
Re: Poltergeist Rapping
What to say in order to contribute to this discussion?
There is a hell of a difference between the noise that “poltergeists” make, and the noise that Human beings make.
They are different certainly, as I can attest.
I think I have said this before, in another thread. When we moved into our house, the vendors told us it was haunted by a blue lady-yawn. She was popping out of the fireplaces and on top of the stairs-the usual stuff”why is that?
Naaah we didn’t see her at all. However, it was the house “suffering” is that the right word? from certain problems. Specifically, “sound energy problems”.
That is to say the usual “Footsteps on Stairs;Bangs in the Ceilings and various goings on the the cellar-“things sounding like they are being dragged around” syndrome.
We got used to this after about 6mths and learnt how to deal with “it” by telling it to shut up. “Simples”
Re: Poltergeist Rapping
We’re talking hereabout raps recorded in poltergeist cases. The ones I’ve heard, from recordings, sound pretty much like someone knocking on a wall from a distance.
What are the specific differences you found between the noises humans make and those of poltergeists?
I don’t suppose you have any recordings of your polergeist do you? I’d love to examine them if you do!
Re: Poltergeist Rapping
I’d just like to clarify WHY sounds going through a solid, like a wall or furniture, produce a waveform that builds up more slowly in intensity. It’s because the sound splits into two modes, transverse and longitudinal, that travel at different speeds through the solid (one twice the speed of the other). So different parts of the sound emerge at different times from the solid, so causing the less steep rise in sound intensity. It is easily seen if someone knocks on a wall and it is recorded from the other side.
Re: Poltergeist Rapping
no we didn’t do any recordings-we never knew when it was going to strike.
however I can tell you that myself and my Dad were awoken by an almighty crash in the roofspace (apparently coming from above). It only partially awoke my Mum but my brother and sister not at all until they were awoken by our parents. That makes no sense if the sound is, what can I say-"real". The house was 6 bedroom and fairly large but it wasn’t a mansion and I can assure you the "crashing" sound is amazing. ( There is a story somewhere about a "great Sunday Morning crash that occurred in a vicarage in the Nineteenth century that happened regularly, but I can’t remember the book it was in)
We thought the roof was coming down but there was no plaster falling and interestingly the sound gradually "echoed" away until it felt as though it had dispersed to the ground floor. At this point the "sound" was if a heavy weight was being dragged across a wooden floor. and that is a very common motif in ghost stories isn’t it?
All I can deduce is that the sound is not proper sound.
Re: Poltergeist Rapping
Did anyone look in the attic to see if anything had moved there?
Re: Poltergeist Rapping
I’ve not looked at the full study, but presumably they tried to recreate the poltergiest knocking sounds as closely as possible for the control sound(s)?
So, if in some sample cases it sounded like the knock came from a bedstead or from behind a partition wall, they tried to match these conditions.
This seems a pretty basic bit of scientific procedure given the premise of the experiment.
Re: Poltergeist Rapping
my dad and brothers made a thorough search of the roofspace. nothing was disturbed thank goodness. we had only been in the house about 6 weeks i think so nothing was stored up there.
Re: Poltergeist Rapping
Though I cannot offer explanations at the moment, there was a similar occurence at a relatives’ house I was staying for the night quite a few years ago. Sadly I was sleeping so soundly I couldn’t be awakened.
My relatives say it was a terrible noise, they thought someone had broken into the house at floor level (we were all sleeping upstairs). We explored the ground floor in daylight the next day but nothing, and I mean nothing, was out of place.
Digging into the history of the house it turned out there had been occasional sound of footsteps on the outside: my mother was witness to one of these occurences and said it was a "really scary" moment, especially since the dog (a trained gun dog known for her mild temperament) was literally berserk and could only be restrained with difficulty.
The alarm (fitted at a much later date) went off in the wee hours of the night. Again, no signs of attempted entry and the event memory usually said the signal came from a particular motion sensor on a flight of stairs.
Finally, digging even further back, it turned out the house previously located on that site was the scene of a bona fide poltergeist case. A Roman Catholic exorcist was contacted and gave his opinion that it was due to the presence of two pubescent girls. He also predicted that the case would die out on its own, as it happened shortly after.
Re: Poltergeist Rapping
Ok that sounds pukka
I have been on my holidays, so sorry not to reply quickly
what is interesting is the way you say you were not awakened, and also the way we didn’t really panic. After all, we had only been in the house a short time, but we didn’t investigate fully, but then it was the early hours of the morning.
As I say these "sounds" are real but not real if you see what I mean
yours
indiagold