Insider
Culture
The Enfield Poltergeist, real
or not?
It was one of the biggest ghost stories of the last century, but
was it ever real? By Oliver Bessell
This is one of the
UK’s biggest ghost
stories, inspiring
novels, short
stories, TV and
films while also
spawning
numerous story
adaptations to its
name. As a story of
the paranormal, it
undoubtedly
attracts attention
and speculation; is
it real or not? The
prospect of a real
haunting is always
intriguing to believ-
ers and non-
believers in super-
natural paranormal
forces. The idea of
a ghost, a person
after death, how
could it not be?
Yet we as Human
beings are
designed to contra-
dict and analyse
things that don’t
apply to the nor-
malities of our so-
ciety, by which I
mean… dismiss a
possible real
haunting as being
fake. The Enfield
case is no differ-
ent, yet I must
clarify that several
researchers have
already evaluated the
validity of this haunting
of Enfield house and its
effects.
While widely documented
now as it is a well known
story, the haunting of an
Enfield house stuck a
shock of fear into those
who lived there. In 1977,
Peggy Hodgson called
the police with the belief
that something paranor-
mal was in her house.
From then on the lives
on the Hodgsons, who
lived in a normal street
and led normal lives,
changed forever. Their
The apparent
levitation of
Janet Hodgson
caused by the
poltergeist.
claims of a haunt-
ed house spooked
the
nation but
intrigued paranor-
mal investigators.
Especially Maurice
Grosse from the
society of Psychi-
cal research who
stayed with the
case for years! He
claimed that he
often heard noises
and strange occur-
rences in the
house. He also
Claimed that Janet
Hodgson was pos-
sessed by the
phantom. Other
investigators came
and went often
dismissing the
case as unexplain-
able or a hoax.
Like Ed and Lor-
raine Warren, the
now well known
couple from the
fictional, semi- bi-
ographical horror
movies, The Con-
juring, had a rela-
tively small role in
the haunting
claiming it was a
demon not a
ghost. So why
were their roles so
pivotal for their
own movie?
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