What happened
In August 1977 a single mother of four called the police to her rented council house on Green Street in Enfield, north London: furniture was moving by itself and knocking came from the walls. A police constable stated that she saw a chair wobble and slide across the floor and could not determine the cause. For the next eighteen months the house became a media stage: the Daily Mirror printed photos of flying pillows and of 11-year-old Janet supposedly levitating, toys and Lego bricks flew around the rooms, and a gruff male voice came from the girl’s mouth. It claimed to be a former resident who had died in a chair in the living room. The case was investigated by Society for Psychical Research (SPR) members Maurice Grosse and Guy Lyon Playfair, and the American “demonologists” Ed and Lorraine Warren also visited.
Witnesses
The Hodgson family, neighbours, a police constable, Daily Mirror journalists and photographer, SPR investigators Maurice Grosse and Guy Lyon Playfair – more than 30 people in all.
Explanations and hypotheses
Grosse and Playfair, author of “This House Is Haunted” (1980), believed some of the phenomena were genuine, while admitting the girls sometimes cheated. Other SPR members, including Anita Gregory and John Beloff, were unconvinced – recordings showed Janet bending spoons or bouncing on the bed, and the “voice” could have been a practised trick. CSICOP sceptics, among them magicians Milbourne Christopher and Joe Nickell, pointed to typical signs of a hoax. The sisters later admitted faking some incidents, but not all. The case inspired the film “The Conjuring 2” (2016).
Disputed A likely explanation exists, but some of the facts are still disputed.
Sources
- Guy Lyon Playfair, This House Is Haunted: The True Story of the Enfield Poltergeist (Souvenir Press, 1980)
- Psi Encyclopedia (Society for Psychical Research) – Enfield Poltergeist
- Skeptical Inquirer – Enfield Poltergeist (2012)
- The Guardian – The Enfield 'Poltergeist': a sceptic speaks (2015)
More: Wikipedia (en)