Noisy Spirit or Be quiet I'm trying to sleep

Stop me if you've heard this one before; first objects began to be misplaced throughout the house only to turn up in odd places, like keys being found in cabinets behind dishes. Then, strange noises begin to appear late at night. The family is concerned, especially as the events increase in intensity. The teenage girl in the house tells her parents that she has been seeing strange things in her room at night. Perhaps the girl begins showing signs of attach, such as scratches or bruises.

This should be familiar to most as typical Poltergeist phenomenon.  Poltergeist, which is a German word meaning noisy-spirit, is a term that has been coined to explain strange events that often seem to occur near or around young girls. The reason they are called noisy spirits is because most of the events involve noises being made such as slamming of doors or loud knocks on the walls. The activity almost always seems to center around teenage girls. Many modern Parapsychologists have come up with a term to potentially explain these strange phenomena; RSPK, or Recurrent Spontaneous Psychokinesis, is the supposed ability that during puberty teenage girls may unconsciously be activating or using dormant psychokinetic powers to cause the strange events that typically occur during Poltergeist Phenomenon. The explanations are that the girls, and on rare occasion’s boys, are going through a tumultuous time and the hormones are allowing them to tap into this power.

One historical example that I want to look at is the case of The Bell Witch from Tennessee.  I won’t go fully into detail, for a closer look at the story check out The Legend of the Bell Witch, but basically around the early 1800's a family named Bell began experiencing what can be described as Poltergeist Phenomenon. While the events were mostly centered around the daughter Betsy it appears that the entity had an extreme distaste for her father. I offer one possible reason for these events. Perhaps the entity was somehow manifested by Betsy to combat her fathers possible abuse. Now it isn't easy to prove, however it is true that the entities manifestations almost entirely died down upon her fathers 'suicide'. If its the case that Betsy was unconsciously or consciously manifesting this entity it would fit right into the RSPK explanation.

 RSPK is relatively modern; however, in his book Lo!, Charles Fort speculates that what we term as poltergeist phenomenon or any other so called “spirit” activity may in fact be from humans’ mental powers. So as usual Fort may well have been ahead of his time in discerning the cause of these strange events. The next time things begin moving around your house or you hear strange noises at night, don't immediately assume that it must be a ghost or spirit. It just could be your teenage daughter acting out in a very Fortean way.

-Tony