Can you catch a poltergeist?
ALAN MURDIE looks at hauntings that seemed to result in cases of paranormal contagion
We all know you can catch a cold, the ‘flu, the measles or worse. Can you catch a poltergeist? Depending on your perspective, this sounds a bizarre, amusing or frightful idea.
One person who thinks researchers might be at risk, or should at least seriously consider the possibility, is Dr Peter A McCue. In an article in the Journal of the Society for Psychical Research entitled ‘Paranormal Contagion: A Potential Hazard for Case Investigators’ (2022, vol 86, no 4 193-208) he calls attention to how, after investigating hauntings, some field researchers find phenomena breaking out around them, as though something has attached itself to them and followed them home.
He also draws attention to a possibly related area, “the matter of supposedly cursed or haunted objects (dolls, paintings, items of jewellery etc)”, about which he has written an interesting book, Curses, Coincidences and Malign Influences (2021). He further explored the idea in an on-line talk of ASSAP (the Association for the Scientific Study of Anomalous Phenomena) in July 2023. If true, the consequences could be rather dire, given we do not know the limits of poltergeist forces.
I first heard of poltergeist contagion from researcher John Spencer at a talk in 2001 given at the Ghost Club, where he mentioned experiencing strange breakdowns with electronic devices directly after leaving a poltergeist afflicted property. Then, by Mike Hallowell and Darren Ritson, with dramatic accounts of a poltergeist force seemingly latching on to them (it has recently been re-issued).
