Poltergeist - A Study In Destructive Haunting's

Luckily, as this publication is quite old, it can be obtained for only a few pence from Amazon and boy is it worth it.

Colin Wilson, who was born on 26 June 1931, is a prolific English writer who first came to prominence as a philosopher and novelist. Wilson has since written widely on true crime, mysticism and other topics. He prefers calling his philosophy new existentialism or phenomenological existentialism. It is hard to find out exactly how many books Wilson has written in his lifetime, but his impressive works fall into the hundreds.

In this title, the topic of Poltergeist’s or “noisy ghosts” its tackled head on. The author details an array of notable cases from throughout history, as well as the most interesting happenings of the 20th century. At the time of this books original release, the UK had just got over its strangest occurrence to date – the Enfield poltergeist. Wilson certainly does not shy away from this astonishing case, in fact he dedicated a whole chapter to it.

As well as detailing some of the most famous poltergeist cases from history, I was shocked to discover that Wilson also puts some reasonable theories forward to explain their origin. He reasons that if, as humans, our brains are split into right and left, and each side really does work completely independently, it surly must be possible that when people hear voices and experience other phenomena associated with poltergeists, it is the other half of their own brain talking to them. That is not to say that he attempts to debunk the “misguided spirit” theory, just that some of these events could well be attributed to the human mind.

This is only a short review because the book has been out for years and I suspect many serious enthusiasts will already be aware of it. But, just in case you have never come across it – here it is.

The author himself is well worth looking into. His books range from serious works on the occult to books about social outcasts. I’d be willing to bet that Wilson’s back catalogue could even give the genius of Brad Steiger a run for his money.