The Cowie Poltergeist

AN SPI UK Case File

© Brian Allan 20/01/99

Word count: 2,975

*Authors Note; At the request of those involved, the names have been changed to protect their identities*

I received an interesting phone call late on the evening of 23rd November 1998 concerning what appeared to be a classic case of poltergeist disturbance. This exhibited all the usual signs including loud knocks, items spontaneously moving, lights going on and off, and cold spots, etc. The woman who reported this, Anne Radcliffe, was clearly very upset so I offered to attempt to improve the situation and restore some normality to her life. Ordinarily, we would pay a preliminary visit to the site, assess the situation, and then depending on the outcome, make a decision whether to continue or not. However, given the situation we felt that a quicker response was justified, so we decided to contact two psychics, AnneMarie Sneddon and her partner, Jim Lochhead to see if they would assist us at short notice. We had worked with them on a previous investigation in the Stirlingshire village of Doune and had found then to be excellent mediums, and as it happens they are also very personable which makes a considerable difference. Once the arrangements had been made, we met up at Anne's house in Cowie; I decided that I would arrive around half an hour before AnneMarie and Jim to give me an opportunity to make a brief pre-assessment. This is vital in a situation like this, because there are many aspects in cases of this type that require some evaluation. Not the least being that the people involved may be engineering the 'phenomenon' to get a change of house, in this situation however, this was not the case.

On arrival, I found Anne and her partner very accommodating in spite of the fact that they were both clearly upset by the situation. I tried to reassure them while slowly peeling away the layers of information surrounding the present phenomenon. From these discussions, I was able to determine that when Anne's son Aaron was two, he, like many young children had an 'invisible friend', in this case it was a dog. Naturally, at first Anne took no notice of this assuming it to be just a child's imaginings; however this opinion changed when the 'invisible friend' scratched her. This happened while Anne was playing with her son and was stroking her son's imaginary dog, when suddenly she felt a sharp pain and saw a scratch mark appear on her hand. This happened two or three times, on one occasion it was actually corroborated by Anne's husband who witnessed it happening. These manifestations disappeared after a few days and gradually over the years were forgotten about, and nothing similar had happened until approximately four weeks prior to my visit.

The second point was the present outbreak of manifestations that started soon after Anne had a heated argument with her son. These began with noises in the loft and took the form of loud knocks and bangs that were at first attributed to the hot water pipes, etc. Shortly after this, they heard the sound of footsteps in the upstairs rooms while no one was there and odd, flickering images appeared on the TV set comprising strange patterns and circles. While this could possibly have been normally occurring interference and entirely co-incidental, they seemed to fall within a general pattern that was ongoing. Anne was sitting outside in the front garden one day when her dog began exhibiting signs of fear and nervousness. Although the weather was calm, the garden hedge beside her began to shake violently and Anne, naturally, was quite perturbed but did not at that time attribute what was happening to any supernatural agency. She informed her mother who attends a spiritualist church about what had happened and her mother, suspecting that there might be more to it advised her to be careful. Over the following days there were several additional bizarre occurrences; some of her large collection of dolls were moved about and one of the domestic pets, a cage bird, escaped but was later fortunately recaptured, significantly, these events were accompanied by sudden unexplainable temperature drops.

On another occasion while Anne and her husband were lying in bed, she heard tapping noises in the room accompanied by what sounded like voices whispering, but the conversation were not discernible. Abruptly there came a noise, a loud sighing from her son's room, which was next door. Since her son was not in the house she became frightened but despite this she went into the room. It was bitterly cold and to quote Anne, "It took my breath away." As she stood there she felt something like fingers being run through her hair, and by now, thoroughly alarmed, she called for her husband. He quickly got out of bed, came into the room and stood beside her. For some reason he sensed that there was a supernatural agency at work here and acting on instinct attempted to pray in an effort to dispel whatever was present, this action resulted in the ambient temperature rising slightly. Thinking that they had gained a respite, they both went downstairs to make some tea and gather their wits; unfortunately this breathing space was short-lived.

Anne went into the kitchen while her husband entered the living room and switched on the television. As he waited for Anne to come in with the tea, he sensed a movement over to his left, and he saw a black shape enter the room and move past the window, it disappeared as it reached the corner. Displaying considerable courage he immediately leapt to his feet and approached the corner, but there was nothing to be seen. By this time, Anne had rejoined him in the living room and they were becoming quite understandably increasingly alarmed. Once again they returned upstairs to go to bed, but were again disturbed by noises from their sons' room. Again they opened the door and were stunned by the intense feeling of cold emanating from the room, but this time they also sensed movement although they could see nothing. Their alarm had by now turned to naked fear and helplessness and quickly closing the door behind them they again went downstairs to the living room. For a few moments just when it seemed as if their ordeal had ceased they heard the noise of scratching and scuffling coming from the stairs and a few seconds later the telephone rang.

Picking up the receiver Anne was relieved to hear her mothers voice, she was asking if Anne had just phoned her as her phone had rung and there was no one on the other end. Significantly, when she (her mother) had dialled 1471, there was no call recorded at that time, and being fully aware of what was happening, caused her to wonder if all was well with her daughter. This placed the call to her mother at the time when they had heard the scuffling noises on the stairs. At this point, just as I was setting up my test equipment, AnneMarie and Jim arrived and while they had a brief chat with Anne and her husband, I completed my tasks. I picked then up the video camera and we all set off to look round the house starting with Anne's bedroom where AnneMarie quickly detected an area of psychic energy below the window. After determining the physical size of the anomaly, she suggested that I touch the area of energy, it was cold and felt as if it had some resistance, rather like moving your hand through water, I also had the sensation mild of pins and needles on my skin. In addition to this, I experienced what may have been an anomaly in the auto focus on the video camera. As I pointed the camera at the area of psychic energy, the image became blurred, as the auto focus seemed to be unable to find a reference point. When I moved the camera away, the focus functioned normally; this happened a couple of times then appeared to correct itself. While this may have been a transient problem with the infrared mechanism on the camera, equally it may have been a side effect of the energy field.

Moving on to the son's room, two areas of psychic energy were detected, again I was able to touch them, but there was one particular oddity here. One of the areas was about eight inches above a radiator, which being winter was on and therefore warm, but the area of energy was cold which made the phenomenon even more bizarre. The psychics had decided that there was not an entity as such in the house and that the manifestations were being caused, (albeit inadvertently) by Anne's son Aaron as an unconscious reaction to occasional emotional conflict between them. AnneMarie decided that it would be safer for all concerned if she removed the areas of psychic energy from the bedrooms and (as she put it) 'shutting the boy down'. This would in effect, switch off his involuntary and powerful psychic abilities. It would have been easier if the boy had been there, but since he was staying with a relative because of the disturbances, she felt confident that she could accomplish the same result with a photograph.

We discussed this and our other findings with Anne and her husband who were both only too eager to have the matter resolved. AnneMarie also explained that as part the strategy to eliminate the phenomena she intended to remove all the areas of 'psychic energy' from the bedrooms. When we returned to the bedrooms, once the psychic energy in Ann's bedroom had been removed, I noticed that the camcorder's auto focusing system no longer malfunctioned when pointed at the area where the energy had been. After the psychics had neutralised the affected areas, we explained as tactfully as possible to Anne that her son was the unwitting cause of what was happening and Anne-Marie explained what course of action she recommended. Anne provided a recent photograph of her son and gave this to Anne Marie who placed it between the palms of her hands. I asked her what was happening and she explained that she was asking her 'spirit guides' to make contact with the boy and shut him down on a psychic level. She went quiet for a few minutes, then smiled and announced that it was accomplished, adding that there was little chance of the manifestations recurring. The only way for this to happen would be if Aaron were to be psychically 'reopened' by a skilled medium that knew what he or she was doing. She also commented that it would be best if the son was not told that he was the 'nexus' or focus of the events. Instead she suggested the he was told that the problem had been caused by a 'spirit' that had now been removed which would have two benefits. First, the boy would not be aware that he had any latent abilities and therefore would not be tempted to try any impromptu 'experiments'. Secondly, it would also serve to prevent him having any sense of guilt that he was responsible for what had happened.

AnneMarie told Anne that she sensed a great deal of personal unhappiness around her and asked if she had ever tried psychic healing, Anne burst into tears but agreed to let her try. AnneMarie asked her to sit in front of her, close her eyes and try to relax; she then stood behind her with her head slightly bowed. Slowly and gently, she moved her hands over Anne's head and shoulders for a few minutes. These motions were somehow vaguely suggestive of the mysterious hand movements normally associated with magicians of ages past as they cast their spells. Although still quietly sobbing, Anne became visibly relaxed and AnneMarie suggested that anything coloured red was removed from the house, ornaments or pictures etc, at least for the time being as their continued presence would tend to aggravate the situation. After this, we chatted for a few minutes and continued to re-assure the couple that all the negative energy had been removed while the psychics both assured them that they would sleep well from now on.

CONCLUSION

This case had all the hallmarks of a classic poltergeist haunting and they don't occur all that frequently it is an excellent opportunity for research when one does present itself. It has to be said that (not surprisingly), this excitement is not found in the recipients of the haunting who not surprisingly want it to stop as quickly as possible. There are several theories about the causes of poltergeist activity, and we should examine some of them. If we consider what typically happens; viz. there are noises, random movement of household items, the inexplicable appearance of pools of water, 'cold spots', people being scratched or having their hair pulled and so on. In spite of arguments to the contrary, this requires an expenditure of energy and we shall look at the reasons later. As the reader is no doubt aware, the word poltergeist is German in origin and translates, literally, as noisy ghost, which sums up the situation very well indeed. The 'mechanics' of the situation are most intriguing as they bring together two sets of laws that are apparently totally opposed to one another, namely energy both physical and spiritual. Where is this energy coming from and how is it generated? One possible explanation originates from one of the very phenomena usually associated with poltergeist manifestations i.e. the 'cold spots'.

In order for the entity to cause objects to move, or any other phenomena that involves the physical transportation of solid matter having mass and weight, there must be the expenditure of energy in some shape or form. Since heat is energy, then the 'cold spots' may be the points from where that energy is drawn. This is then utilised by the entity, by whatever means, to perform whichever acts or demonstrations it deems to be necessary. In other words, thermal energy is being converted into kinetic energy which is an elegant demonstration of a physical universal constant; the law of thermodynamics. However, it is the very unpredictability of the actions that cause one to wonder if this discharge of energy is either random or directed. Often the acts themselves seem like those of a child, immature, malicious and spiteful. This particular aspect conveniently leads to another one of the theories of how the phenomenon works and as it happened, in this case it apparently proved to be the case.

In many reported cases there is one common factor, the presence of a pubescent child, either male or female it doesn't appear to matter which. The necessary energy required to initiate the phenomenon appears to reside within the adolescent, although at precisely what level is open to speculation. However another element that is also frequently reported is a strong, emotionally charged atmosphere irrespective of the ages of those present. This can be produced inadvertently either by spontaneously occurring passions within the adolescent or by emotional turmoil created within the troubled mind of an adult attempting to deal with severe personal trauma. Whatever the root cause the end results are the same; a random lashing out at whatever is closest resulting in the alarming but human centred phenomena associated with the poltergeist. Perhaps it is the human factor that imbues certain of the manifestations with the appearance of being deliberate and controlled.

So far we have looked at the physical laws, i.e., matter cannot be created or destroyed, merely changed in form where we accept that any physical manifestation must by its very nature use energy. The other form of activity functions entirely from a discrete and separate entity. This type of occurrence is rather more unsettling because there is no apparent focal point. For whatever reason, the 'noisy spirit' decides to trouble and upset some unfortunate family with the usual irritating and frightening results. In reality, the terms 'trouble' and 'upset' are too mild, the most suitable term is 'infest', since the word and the mental images that it invokes are perhaps more descriptive of the phenomenon. Since there is no obvious human initiator or conduit involved, then the method by which the energy is converted by the entity is rather more obscure. The telekinetic effects are the same; therefore both the human and the spirit entity must have access to this catalyst. Or is it possible that the entity still requires an external agency in order to produce these phenomena, some part of the human condition still unknown to us? While this is possible there are many attested cases of poltergeist activity occurring when there has been no human agency present.

For example, there are instances of violent poltergeist activity when the people involved have been out of the house and returned to find items broken or disturbed in their home with no corroborating evidence to suggest burglars or vandals. There is a school of thought suggesting that same element of human contribution to the phenomenon already discussed can be responsible for the 'absent activity' by means of telekinesis. What is clear however is that this facet of the phenomenon is a very real but separate phenomenon that may be created directly by entities manipulating latent human capabilities as a form of intermediary. Despite claims to the contrary, poltergeist activity can apparently be controlled, 'defused' or removed by a competent medium, so to that extent it is not to be feared. What would be really interesting though is if the energy created could be harnessed in a positive manner and perhaps one day this will be possible.