Insider
Culture
Connecting the rea-
son of the pairs exag-
gerated role in the
investigation is possi-
bly key to the haunt-
ing itself, that it’s a
massive exaggeration
of true events.
While it would be
easy, effortlessly
easy, to describe any
evidence of the fami-
ly’s torments to be
explained as two girls
“making it up” or
“messing around” as
some sources say. It
would of course be
more interesting to
suppose that the
haunting is real. This
haunting would be a
good movie, this
haunting would be a
good book, I imagine
plenty of writers or
film executives have
said it. It strikes a
core of fear and in-
trigue. Caused by the
eternal Human que-
ry: are ghosts real?
Just as we might ask
ourselves, are aliens
real?
With tales of flying
chairs, demonic voic-
es and the levitation
of a London school-
girl, how could some-
one not find this intri-
guing?
Yet the saddest part
of this story is not
the apparent haunt-
ing of the Enfield
House but rather the
nature of the two
girls having grown
up, maintaining the
fact that they were
truly haunted. So
either they’ve at-
tached their life to a
compulsive lie or
they’ve desperately
appealed that this is
true for their whole
lives.
As both Peggy Hodgson
and Maurice Grosse
have since died, it falls
to Janet Hodgson and
her sister who have the
closest connection to
the Enfield Poltergeist.
While it would be nice to
assume that no one
would live with a lie this
long it might be difficult
to let loose a lie you’ve
been telling for 42
years, you may even
end up believing it.
Janet Hodgson has re-
peatedly shown up on
interviews explaining
her story, and no doubt
has profited from it fi-
nancially… could this be
a possible motive to the
hauntings possible fabri-
cation? Nevertheless
she has consistently told
all reporters, interview-
ers and any others that
this haunting was real
and as scary as you’d
Janet Hodg-
son, played
by Madison
Wolfe in the
Conjuring 2.
“Janet and
Margaret
really
opened my
eyes”, Madi-
son Wolfe
on meeting
Janet and
Margaret
Hodgson.
expect. But with any
supernatural fasci-
nation it turns from
something with ele-
ments of truth to
something that has
almost completely
transformed into a
type of mythology.
While I myself like
to believe that
somehow ghosts
might be real and
while this view isn’t
tied to religion or
spirituality in any
way, I feel it’s more
because of a desire
for it to be real, be-
cause it would be
more interesting if it
was. To know that
centuries of folklore
and supposed sight-
ings weren’t outright
of lies or mistakes
but just out of a de-
sire to believe that
life doesn’t just end
with death!
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