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The Secret History of Poltergeists and Haunted Houses: From Pagan Folklore to Modern Manifestations
What poltergeist accounts through the ages reveal about our own worldviews
• Provides a wide array of case studies from ancient Greece and Rome to medieval Europe to the modern world
• Explores the relationship between poltergeists and troubled adolescence
• Looks beneath the Christian adulteration of pagan practices to reveal the hidden ancestral beliefs tied to poltergeists and haunted houses
Stories of poltergeists and their mischievous and sometimes violent actions--knocking, stone or chair throwing, moving objects with invisible hands, and slamming or opening doors--are a constant through the ages. What changes is how we interpret this activity. For our pagan ancestors this phenomenon was caused by helper spirits whose manifestations revealed their unhappiness with a household. The medieval Christian church demonized these once helpful spirits and held exorcisms to expel them from the houses they haunted--which proved effective less than half the time. The Age of Enlightenment cast these incidents as clever hoaxes, and many still believe this today. But poltergeist manifestations continue to appear and often defy attempts to debunk them as pranks. What then is behind this phenomenon?
Exploring accounts of poltergeists from ancient Greece and Rome, medieval Europe, and the modern world, Claude Lecouteux finds that while our interpretations of poltergeists may change, the manifestations always follow a similar course and evolution. He shows how modern scientific studies of poltergeist manifestations have found a strong tie between these visitations and the presence of a troubled adolescent in the house. Looking beneath the Christian adulteration of pagan practices to reveal the hidden ancestral beliefs tied to poltergeists and haunted houses, the author shows how these unhappy spirits serve as confirmation of the supernatural beings that share the earth with us and of our relationship with the natural and unseen world, a relationship we must take care to keep in balance.
• Provides a wide array of case studies from ancient Greece and Rome to medieval Europe to the modern world
• Explores the relationship between poltergeists and troubled adolescence
• Looks beneath the Christian adulteration of pagan practices to reveal the hidden ancestral beliefs tied to poltergeists and haunted houses
Stories of poltergeists and their mischievous and sometimes violent actions--knocking, stone or chair throwing, moving objects with invisible hands, and slamming or opening doors--are a constant through the ages. What changes is how we interpret this activity. For our pagan ancestors this phenomenon was caused by helper spirits whose manifestations revealed their unhappiness with a household. The medieval Christian church demonized these once helpful spirits and held exorcisms to expel them from the houses they haunted--which proved effective less than half the time. The Age of Enlightenment cast these incidents as clever hoaxes, and many still believe this today. But poltergeist manifestations continue to appear and often defy attempts to debunk them as pranks. What then is behind this phenomenon?
Exploring accounts of poltergeists from ancient Greece and Rome, medieval Europe, and the modern world, Claude Lecouteux finds that while our interpretations of poltergeists may change, the manifestations always follow a similar course and evolution. He shows how modern scientific studies of poltergeist manifestations have found a strong tie between these visitations and the presence of a troubled adolescent in the house. Looking beneath the Christian adulteration of pagan practices to reveal the hidden ancestral beliefs tied to poltergeists and haunted houses, the author shows how these unhappy spirits serve as confirmation of the supernatural beings that share the earth with us and of our relationship with the natural and unseen world, a relationship we must take care to keep in balance.
256 pages, Paperback
First published April 26, 2012
13 people are currently reading
204 people want to read
About the author
Claude Lecouteux
62 books137 followersDocteur en études germaniques, docteur en lettres, est médiéviste. Il a occupé la chaire de Langues, Littératures et civilisations germaniques à l'université de Caen de 1981 à 1992 avant d'être appelé à la Sorbonne (Paris IV) pour occuper celle de Littérature et Civilisation allemande du Moyen Âge jusqu'en octobre 2007. Ses axes de recherches sont: Les êtres de la mythologie populaire, Les croyances touchant aux morts et à la mort, Les mythes, contes et légendes, La magie
Ses travaux lui ont valu de recevoir le Prix Strasbourg en 1982, un prix de l’Académie française la même année, d'être fait Chevalier de l’Ordre des Palmes académiques en 1995 et Officier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres en 2006. Jusqu'en décembre 2010, il dirige la revue La grande Oreille, arts de l’oralité et collabore à plusieurs revues sur le Moyen Âge.
Ses travaux lui ont valu de recevoir le Prix Strasbourg en 1982, un prix de l’Académie française la même année, d'être fait Chevalier de l’Ordre des Palmes académiques en 1995 et Officier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres en 2006. Jusqu'en décembre 2010, il dirige la revue La grande Oreille, arts de l’oralité et collabore à plusieurs revues sur le Moyen Âge.
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
January 7, 2021
I love reading about the paranormal so this book was right up my alley. The author is an academic and his prose at times can come off as a lecture, but stick with it and you’ll be rewarded with accounts going back millennia about spirits and bizarre occurrences.
Mr. LeCouteux has put together years of research into the subject and is knowledgeable of the socioeconomic factors that color the prevailing theories of the time when a specific incident was recorded. He notes the different explanations provided by the chroniclers, such as satanism, demonic possession, ghosts, or spirits with unfinished business. I gained a broader understanding of the influence of the person reporting an occurrence over the context of the narrative.
Overall, I very much enjoyed this book and recommend it to anyone with an interest in the unknown.
Mr. LeCouteux has put together years of research into the subject and is knowledgeable of the socioeconomic factors that color the prevailing theories of the time when a specific incident was recorded. He notes the different explanations provided by the chroniclers, such as satanism, demonic possession, ghosts, or spirits with unfinished business. I gained a broader understanding of the influence of the person reporting an occurrence over the context of the narrative.
Overall, I very much enjoyed this book and recommend it to anyone with an interest in the unknown.
April 27, 2018
As someone who is keen on the stories of supernatural phenomena based on true events devoid of media-generated sensationalism, testimonies of mediums (or psychics), or narratives of parapsychologists, I was immediately hooked on The Secret History of Poltergeist and Haunted Houses by Claude Lecouteux, a former professor of medieval literature and civilization at the Sorbonne, upon reading the excerpts thereof : it’s a book worth being acclaimed as an unprecedented kind of literature in context of regarding its multidisciplinary approaches to the nature and kinds of poltergeists and various supernatural phenomena based upon historical records as well as cultural accounts gleaned from his exhaustive research on the subject matters. The book itself will make the reader realize that there are indeed more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in this world.
The word “Poltergeist” meaning a noisy spirit in German, first appeared in the dictionary by Erasmus Alberus in 1540, an era marked by turbulent religious conflicts between the Catholics and the Protestants, including Reformation. In fact, Martin Luther, the father of Protestantism, was an avid believer in devils’ manifestations in the form of poltergeist and availed it of a potent means of proselytism of his new religious founding. Also, from 1550 to around 1700, many books on spirits were written mainly by scholars, men of letters, and theologians, including King James I of England (1566-1625), who wrote Demonology in form of a Dialogue, a treaty on spirits of devilish nature.
As aforesaid, etymologically, the word “poltergeist” denotes a primarily acoustic phenomenon that has also been termed as “knocking spirits,” which Lecourteux uses as a neutral term without academic snobbery. He categorizes the activities of poltergeists as follows: (1) Casting stones/filth; (2) Vague noises; (3) Banging of windows; (4) Mischievous/Malicious acts; (5) Broken dishes; (6) Destruction of houses by fire; and/or (7) Attacks on specific individuals. He further illustrates the historical accounts of poltergeist incidents in the cases of a certain Greek philosopher named Athenodorous as narrated by Pliny the Younger (62-113) in his letter to his friend Sura in which a story of a specter of an old man who appeared to the philosopher to show him where he had been buried and a man named Gilles Bolacre who rented a haunted house in Tours that disturbed him every night with knocking sounds and went to court to have the lease successfully rescinded on the ground of the landowner’s violation of caveat emptor.
Lecourteux also proffers a reasonably plausible connection between some of the supernatural phenomena and human synchronicity, which includes telesthetic power. He provides the reader with the concept of “Place Memories,” a telesthetic phenomenon in which the cries of the victims and various noises accompanying the violent scenes are imprinted on the walls or at the places where acts of violence were committed as if upon a magnetic tape recording. He elucidates that inanimate objects could be endowed with human properties by means of the telestehtic faculties of the subconscious that have the ability to find and interpret such uncommon vibrations and emanations, just as mnemonic faculties have the ability to discern the latent vibrations of thought.
What distinguishes The Secret History of Poltergeist and Haunted Houses from other books of similar subject matters is its etymological, historical, and sociological explanations on poltergeist and other supernatural incidents as recorded in annals, newspapers, or folktales.
In light of the above, Lecourteux addresses our human nature that has hardly evolved at all in the domain of supernatural despite the dominant influence of Enlightenment rationality in the recent historical and social landscapes. That is, science has failed to deprecate ancient beliefs in spiritual entities variable in accordance with religious and cultural climates throughout our human civilizations. Also, the veritable records of supernatural incidents betoken different mental attitudes of the times. After all, our ancient predilection for anything supernatural have survived and will survive change of time and political, social ethos because it is linked to man’s fundamental questions about a realm inhibited by the dead and spirits.
The word “Poltergeist” meaning a noisy spirit in German, first appeared in the dictionary by Erasmus Alberus in 1540, an era marked by turbulent religious conflicts between the Catholics and the Protestants, including Reformation. In fact, Martin Luther, the father of Protestantism, was an avid believer in devils’ manifestations in the form of poltergeist and availed it of a potent means of proselytism of his new religious founding. Also, from 1550 to around 1700, many books on spirits were written mainly by scholars, men of letters, and theologians, including King James I of England (1566-1625), who wrote Demonology in form of a Dialogue, a treaty on spirits of devilish nature.
As aforesaid, etymologically, the word “poltergeist” denotes a primarily acoustic phenomenon that has also been termed as “knocking spirits,” which Lecourteux uses as a neutral term without academic snobbery. He categorizes the activities of poltergeists as follows: (1) Casting stones/filth; (2) Vague noises; (3) Banging of windows; (4) Mischievous/Malicious acts; (5) Broken dishes; (6) Destruction of houses by fire; and/or (7) Attacks on specific individuals. He further illustrates the historical accounts of poltergeist incidents in the cases of a certain Greek philosopher named Athenodorous as narrated by Pliny the Younger (62-113) in his letter to his friend Sura in which a story of a specter of an old man who appeared to the philosopher to show him where he had been buried and a man named Gilles Bolacre who rented a haunted house in Tours that disturbed him every night with knocking sounds and went to court to have the lease successfully rescinded on the ground of the landowner’s violation of caveat emptor.
Lecourteux also proffers a reasonably plausible connection between some of the supernatural phenomena and human synchronicity, which includes telesthetic power. He provides the reader with the concept of “Place Memories,” a telesthetic phenomenon in which the cries of the victims and various noises accompanying the violent scenes are imprinted on the walls or at the places where acts of violence were committed as if upon a magnetic tape recording. He elucidates that inanimate objects could be endowed with human properties by means of the telestehtic faculties of the subconscious that have the ability to find and interpret such uncommon vibrations and emanations, just as mnemonic faculties have the ability to discern the latent vibrations of thought.
What distinguishes The Secret History of Poltergeist and Haunted Houses from other books of similar subject matters is its etymological, historical, and sociological explanations on poltergeist and other supernatural incidents as recorded in annals, newspapers, or folktales.
In light of the above, Lecourteux addresses our human nature that has hardly evolved at all in the domain of supernatural despite the dominant influence of Enlightenment rationality in the recent historical and social landscapes. That is, science has failed to deprecate ancient beliefs in spiritual entities variable in accordance with religious and cultural climates throughout our human civilizations. Also, the veritable records of supernatural incidents betoken different mental attitudes of the times. After all, our ancient predilection for anything supernatural have survived and will survive change of time and political, social ethos because it is linked to man’s fundamental questions about a realm inhibited by the dead and spirits.
September 30, 2016
I was expecting a nice, easy, slightly creepy read with an academic twist to get me into the Halloween spirit. Instead, somehow this was so cut and dry that it was on the verge of boring me to death. For instance, he spent 10 pages defining what a poltergeist is. This is a translation from French, and while it is a good translation in that it easily reads like English, it just wasn't interesting.
Further, it seemed as if the author had a difficult time narrowing in on what lens he wanted to examine the phenomena from. Folk lore? History? Psychology? I figured from the description is would be psychology, and while elements were there, there was a lot more of the classification of different types of poltergeists through history rather than any sort of analysis from any of those viewpoints. Basically it's a book about how to classify different types of poltergeists, which is about as exciting a book on how to classify different types of dinosaurs.
I gave up halfway through.
Further, it seemed as if the author had a difficult time narrowing in on what lens he wanted to examine the phenomena from. Folk lore? History? Psychology? I figured from the description is would be psychology, and while elements were there, there was a lot more of the classification of different types of poltergeists through history rather than any sort of analysis from any of those viewpoints. Basically it's a book about how to classify different types of poltergeists, which is about as exciting a book on how to classify different types of dinosaurs.
I gave up halfway through.
July 1, 2015
An interesting, scholarly examination of the subject. The book doesn't come off as New Age gurgling, but rather a well-rounded foundation to understanding the subject of poltergeists. Very useful for anyone seeking information without the embellishment usually found in sensationalist writers seeking to cash in.
July 18, 2021
This book is for serious scholars, people who are more knowledgeable than those modern ghost hunters who are looking for just more dramatic ghost stories. This book is deeply historical and very well researched from a European perspective that I appreciate. The records from Europe are older than those of the US and there was much in here that I didn't know. It's difficult to define poltergeists and haunted houses because the labels and characteristics blend with other ideas throughout history. But this is the value of the book which shows us that people have interpreted these events from the Middle ages to the modern era in ways that fit their notions about the supernatural. Very highly recommend this book for the paranormal scholar.
September 11, 2017
Ugh. Poorly written research paper. The cover was the best part and it quickly went downhill.
October 13, 2019
Not what I thought! Reads like a text book. Although someone did write a spell in Latin inside the book.
November 19, 2021
First book of Lecouteux's that I did not enjoy. While previous books I've read have had this wonderful quality of enjoyment in the topic at hand, this book looks down its nose at everything in it. The author continuously brings up how little he believes any of these things to have happened, that it's all fantasy and superstition brought on by lack of education, and somewhat seems to push the modern idea of (unconscious) pyschokenesis. I don't understand how anyone can find the idea that adolescents and 'females' are unconsciously throwing items around and faking spirit manifestations to be more believable than actual ghosts actually existing; it's right up there with the idea that mediums are unconsciously tapping into the thoughts and bookcases of anyone, anywhere in the world to spontaneously come up with the correct information in a reading.
Unlike other books by Lecouteux, this one seems unfinished; there's just a listing of accounts, some mildly snide comment about the hysterics peasants work themselves into, and then another account. The title promises a 'secret history' but there is little to no analysis of the accounts as there were in Witches, Werewolves, and Fairies: Shapeshifters and Astral Doubles in the Middle Ages. Aside from an occasional note that some aspect of an account sounds more like a house spirit than a poltergeist, Lecouteux seems to expect everyone to read his other works first, as he doesn't feel like going over old ground where necessary, which means this book feels incomplete. You keep reading accounts but there is never any point to them; you just discover whatever it is causing the phenomenon likes throwing rocks. As another reviewer pointed out, it did feel like he couldn't focus on one aspect, instead just throwing it all in there and hoping for the best.
Read his earlier books. This one is a let down.
Unlike other books by Lecouteux, this one seems unfinished; there's just a listing of accounts, some mildly snide comment about the hysterics peasants work themselves into, and then another account. The title promises a 'secret history' but there is little to no analysis of the accounts as there were in Witches, Werewolves, and Fairies: Shapeshifters and Astral Doubles in the Middle Ages. Aside from an occasional note that some aspect of an account sounds more like a house spirit than a poltergeist, Lecouteux seems to expect everyone to read his other works first, as he doesn't feel like going over old ground where necessary, which means this book feels incomplete. You keep reading accounts but there is never any point to them; you just discover whatever it is causing the phenomenon likes throwing rocks. As another reviewer pointed out, it did feel like he couldn't focus on one aspect, instead just throwing it all in there and hoping for the best.
Read his earlier books. This one is a let down.
April 14, 2014
I'm very familiar with U.S. poltergeist cases, especially the investigations of Dr. William Roll. This book primarily focuses on European cases. Suggests that poltergeist experiences are an international, trans-cultural phenomenon with many commonalities in reported cases/experiences.
February 16, 2014
Well researched and carefully footnoted, and yet very readable. The author does an excellent job demonstrating how it is that these stories's interpretations evolve over time.
March 12, 2014
Ugh, this thing reads like a textbook...hideously dull!
May 21, 2014
Interesting and scholarly. :)
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews