Interview with a Poltergeist

I came across the video below that is a British documentary on the supposed supernatural occurences in Britain in the late 1970's. Apparently a single mother and her two daughters began experiencing raps, knocking, and furniture being moved about. At the height of the phenomena was the sound of a dog barking and voices coming from "behind" one of the little girls. The investigators were divided into two camps. The first believed it to be a genuine phenomena. The second camp held that the girls were playing pranks.

Magicians both in the IBM and SAM have long had a hand in investigating phenomena like this. Notably the investigators did not utilize them. The documentary is long, about 45 minutes. But only watching it once I found some interesting anomalies that seemed to have escaped the notice of those involved.

1. "Little 11 year old girls cannot do this sort of thing." Nonsense- Kate and Margaret Fox turned a simple rapping game in their Hydesville, NY farmhouse into a world class phenomena.
2. "I saw things flying about in the room." Listen to the one photographer who claimed to be hit by one of the flying leggo's. NO ONE saw where they were coming from. So if they didn't see where it came from then how can they assuredly say it didn't come from one of the little girls? Mike Gallo, coin magician, has a move that is similar to the familiar Han Pien Chen move but the coin flies in the OPPOSITE direction in which you would expect it. It is plausible that the small objects such as marbles, leggo blocks, etc., can be tossed about with no problem.
3. "Little 11 year old girls can't speak in this weird voice." At about 8 minutes from the end of the documentary, or 38 minutes into the tape, they discuss the voice that was clearly being manifested. One investigator "analyzes" where in the vocal box this sound comes from and declares it impossible. Nonsense.

Here's how you can catch the little girl making the sounds. Firstly, the ear is notoriously bad at detecting the source of sounds. I know, I'm a ventriloquist. Secondly the "inertia" of sound must come from a source. And it is not the vocal chords- it is the diaphragm. The diaphragm contracts and pushes the sound up and into the vocal chords. So at 38 minutes, look at the little girl in the red sweater. DO NOT watch her mouth. Watch her white turtle neck, on the right side, just above the clavicle (collar bone). You will see her throat move as the air is pushed up from the diaphragm. She is creating the voice.

On the tape the investigator says that he taped her mouth (and we see it being done) after she takes a swallow of water to "prove" it isn't her making the noise. This is so absurd that it is just silly. Read any basic text on ventriloquism and you will discover that vents can "swallow" water and talk at the same time. The water is pooled under the tongue. I think a better test is to tape her nostrils shut, put a motion sensor over her mouth and attach it to her throat and diaphram. You would discover that she pushes air out to produce the sounds.

4. "A little girl wouldn't know about a deceased man named Bill who died in the house." Again, this is absurd. The narrator clearly states that the man was buried in a cemetary NEAR THEIR HOUSE. Why is it so difficult to discern that a bored little girl can get that kind of information.

All in all it is a wonderful lesson in deception by two clever girls. And notice at the beginning of the tape that it was the mother who contacted the Daily Mirror. As the tape progresses you discover that the Mom was divorced, they were having a hard time making ends meet. So who wouldn't want to sell a story to the papers. They did get a free week at the beach to "give them a break" from the ghost. I would strongly submit that most of this would have been solved had a magician/ventriloquist who is trained in detecting deception were a significant part of the team.