When it comes to the supernatural, the paranormal, psychic phenomena, the other world or worlds, what should one believe in? Scientific theories, rationalists explanations, mystics explanations, religious explanations, mythological links, the reasoning of experts in different fields, eye witness accounts or personal experience accounts? They’re all very fascinating, more so because in the final analysis, they all raise more questions than they answer. Significantly, there is no single, one-shot explanation that fits a huge range of supernatural phenomena. Take for example, the “time warp-imprinting” theory for supernatural happenings, believed to be caused by a strong the “last activity, last place, last setting” link and apply that to what has been documented.
Amongst loads and loads of documented “material”, Peter Underwood’s Haunted London recounts an incident when it was a Saturday night, about midnight, at the old Tower Cinema in Peckham, south London, and the last show was over. Bernard Mattimore and Jerry Adams, the assistant manager and the projectionist of were making their way to the rear exit when they stopped. They were not alone in the cinema. A man was walking through the air about 10 feet above the floor. The figure seemed to be that of a middle-aged man wearing the clothes of another era, and he seemed to glow in the darkness. The two men watched the elevated figure as it walked slowly across the stage and disappeared into a bricked-up recess that had once held on organ.
Two years earlier, two upholsterers told of seeing a ghost when they were working late one night in the theater. One of them had been so terrified that he had never gone back. A construction worker claimed to have seen the ghost too. And when people cast their minds back, they recalled a number of strange incidents in the cinema: bags of cement inexplicably torn open during renovation work and a seepage of water from a ceiling although the weather was dry and there were no water pipes above the drip.
According to a map dating from 1819, the cinema occupied the site of an old chapel, the ground floor of which had been situated about 10 feet above the floor of the present auditorium. Apparently, “the man walking through the air about 10 feet above the floor” and wearing the clothes of another era was in actuality walking on his ground floor—which had existed more than a century ago! Now, you can try and draw your own inferences from this. In incident after incident, the ‘last activity, last place, last setting’ links are undeniable and strong and point to clear imprinting on space, time and much more. But its not as simple as that. Why not ? Because there are many other phenomena where the ‘time warp-imprinting’ theory doesn’t quite fit. Take poltergeists, for instance.
In attempting to understand the forces at work, researchers in parapsychology have surmised—surmised, mind you, not proved—that poltergeist’s feats in moving objects which are often seen to fly in violation of the law of gravity—such as gliding, rising and turning corners—are examples of psychokinesis, or PK—the ability to influence inanimate objects through mind power. However, the PK theory as the cause behind poltergeist phenomena suffers from a major drawback. That’s because the energy involved in most poltergeist phenomena is far in excess of anything displayed or claimed by “living” PK exponents. The best that they can manage is to move small objects like pens or a paper whereas poltergeists can lift heavy objects such as beds high into the air in a split second, can cause crockery to fly across the room, overturn and move of heavy furniture, hurl heavy rocks and stones, sometimes in quick succession and for a very long continuous spell of time.
Then again, poltergeists don’t seem to confine themselves to any one form, say metal or wood, or crockery, or stones. They can work any or all at will, and often more than one form or type at the same time. There was a time when researchers hypothesised that poltergeists needed a “youthful” source of energy in the house, such as a young or adolescent girl or boy, but preferably the latter. It was also believed that poltergeist activities could not be sustained—they could at most last for a few minutes. Both these conjectures have been found to be flawed.
Poltergeist activity has occurred in the house of an old, sedentary couple in their seventies, with no known source of youthful energy. And poltergeist activity has been known to last for more than two months, including more than an hour at a stretch. Therefore, researchers have tried to zero in on a possible source of energy that might be utilised by poltergeists. But so far, their attempts to explain poltergeist phenomena have resulted, as a major publication summed up, in replacing one mystery with another.
Undoubtedly, in recent years there have been noteworthy medical and scientific advances in explaining certain supernatural phenomena but they still do not account for many aspects that stubbornly defy explanation. For instance, while research has revealed that many so called poltergeist cases are fraudulent, enough instances have been found to convince researchers that the poltergeist is a genuine psychic phenomena and cannot be explained by normal physical laws.
Obviously, deciding which theory or explanation to believe requires careful thought but no matter which one eventually chooses to concur with, an enduring fascination remains for unexplained phenomena. Fairly or unfairly, the balance remains tilted in favour of the paranormal, partly because in these social media times, supernatural happenings invariably receive faster traction than scientific explanations to the contrary. And partly and primarily because hard core eye witness accounts and personal experiences outweigh the surmises and assumptions of even the most reputed experts. In any case, if one is looking for proof at a lighter level—its mysteries rather than inconclusive explanations which have always proved to be bestsellers.