Free Poltergeist: A Classic Study in Destructive Haunting by Colin Wilson

Paris, in 1860, there was a particularly violent poltergeist in the Rue des Noyers; it smashed every window in the place, hurled all kinds of objects around the house (including many which the occupants had never seen before), and finally drove the unfortunate people out of the house. Rivail decided to try to find out what exactly had happened. His medium’s “control” (i.e., the spirit who acts as master of ceremonies) explained that the disturbances were the work of a mischievous spirit. And, at the request of the control (a spirit called Saint Louis), the poltergeist of the Rue des Noyers was summoned. He appeared to be in a bad temper, and asked irritably: “Why do you call me? Do you want to have some stones thrown at you?” Rivail now asked the spirit: “Was there anyone in the Rue des Noyers who helped you play tricks on the inmates?” Certainly, replied the spirit, it had had an excellent “instrument.” It added, “For I am merry and like to amuse myself sometimes.” Who was it, Rivail asked. “A maidservant.”
    “Was she unaware you were making use of her?”
    “Oh yes, poor girl—she was the most frightened of them all.”
    Rivail asked how the spirit managed to throw various objects about the place, and received the interesting answer: “I helped myself through the electric nature of the girl, joined to my own . . . thus we were able to transport the objects between us.”
    Rivail asked the spirit who it was. It replied that it had been dead about fifty years, and had been a rag and bone man. People used to make fun of him because he drank too much, and this was why he decided to play tricks on the inhabitants of the Rue des Noyers. He indignantly denied that he had done these things out of malice; it was merely his way of amusing himself.
    This spirit seemed to belong to a class described in The Spirits’ Book: “They are ignorant, mischievous, unreasonable, and addicted to mockery. They meddle with everything and reply to every question without paying attention to the truth.” This latter remark brings to mind a comment by G. K. Chesterton, who describes in his autobiography how he once experimented with a planchette—a device for automatic writing. The sitters asked one of the “spirits” the name of a distant relative, and the board answered “Manning.” When they said this was untrue, it wrote: “Married before.” “To whom?” “Cardinal Manning.” Chesterton remarks:
    I saw quite enough of the thing to be able to testify, with complete certainty, that something happens which is not in the ordinary sense natural . . . Whether it is produced by some subconscious but still human force, or by some powers, good, bad or indifferent, which are external to humanity, I would not myself attempt to decide. The only thing I will say with complete confidence about that mystic and invisible power is that it tells lies.
    Elsewhere, Rivail asked the spirits about the subject of “demoniacal possession,” and how far human beings can be unconsciously influenced by spirits. The answer to the latter question was that the influence of spirits is far greater than most people suppose—that they often influence our thoughts and actions. This is a theme that is often repeated in the books of “Allan Kardec.” Asked about possession, the spirit replied: “A spirit does not enter into a body as you enter into a house. He assimilates himself to an incarnate spirit who has the same defects and the same qualities as himself, in order that they may act conjointly.” But, it added, the spirit cannot actually “take over” the body of the person it is “possessing.” This is united indissolubly to the physical body.
    In that case, asked Rivail, can a person be dominated and subjugated by a spirit until its own will is paralyzed? Yes, came the reply, this is precisely what is meant by possession. But the domination is established through the cooperation of the “possessed,” either out of weakness