| I've been meaning to type in this case for some time. I have quoted this
account from the book *Poltergeists* (catchy title, huh?) by Alan Gauld and
A.D. Colonel (pages 94-97). The book is published by "Routledge & Kegan
Paul". Specifically I have quoted from Part 1 ("Survey and sampling of
cases") which is credited to Gauld alone. I highly recommend this book,
as it manages to be exhaustive and scholarly, yet very readable to a lay
audience.
Both the authors and the publisher are British. I have attempted to retain
the British spellings, but both my fingers and my eyes are American so
their may be some inconsistencies.
Topher
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
[The author spends several paragraphs discussing the case in the context of
their book before they actually describe it. The only observation of
special interest is]
Despite the fact that in the present case many of the happenings centred
upon pieces of electrical equipment, it seems likely that ... the forces at
work were of a kind that might loosely be called mechanical.
. . .
The case in question is ... the well-known Rosenheim case of 1967-8. It
was investigated by Professor Hans Bender, Professor of Parapsychology at
the University of Freiburg, West Germany, and a leading investigator of
poltergeist cases, together with various associates. The printed reports
... are rather short. [specific citations] A television documentary about
the case has been broadcast in Britain.
The case began at the end of November 1967, when inexplicable events
started to occur in a lawyer's office in the Bavarian town of Rosenheim.
Neon lights on a two and a half metre high ceiling repeatedly went out, and
were afterwards found to have been unscrewed from their sockets. Electric
light bulbs exploded, sharp bangs were heard, electric fuses blew without
apparent cause. Developing fluid in photocopying machines was again and
again spilled. The telephones became subject to curious disturbances --
calls were cut off, all four telephones often rang simultaneously, the
telephone bills swelled unprecedentedly. It can be imagined that under
these conditions the layer's office did not run smoothly.
Suspicion in the office at first centred on the power supply. The
maintenance department of the power station and the post office authorities
[in Germany, as in most of the world, the post office is also the telephone
company] were called in. The power station's monitoring equipment
registered large deflections in the power supply. These deflections
sometimes coincided with the peculiar phenomena, and continued even when a
special power supply was installed to ensure `undisturbed' electric
current.
The post office fitted to the telephone a device which recorded for each
outward call the number dialled, the time of the dialling, and the length
of the call. Over a period of weeks this device recorded innumerable calls
to the speaking clock (0119), often dialled six times a minute, and at
times when it seemed absolutely certain that no one in the office could
have been responsible.
Bender and his colleagues came on the scene on 1 December 1967. They
speedily noticed that the phenomena seemed to depend on the presence of a
new employee, a nineteen-year-old girl referred to as Annemarie Sch. A
first deflection of the instruments monitoring the power supply was often
registered the moment Annemarie arrived for work in the morning. When she
walked along the corridors, electric lights hanging from the ceiling began
to swing behind her (this phenomenon was photographed). When bulbs
exploded, the pieces flew towards her. Phenomena decreased in frequency
with distance from her.
In an attempt to demonstrate conclusively that the phenomena were not due
to variations in the mains power supply, the co-operation of two physicists
from the Max Planck Institute for Plasmaphysics in Munich, F. Karger and G.
Zicha, was obtained. On 8 December 1967, they fitted the power station's
recorder, which monitored the mains supply, with a voltage magnifier, and
set it up in the corridor to record the mains voltage. Between 4.30 p.m.
and 5.48 p.m. the recorder registered and irregular sequence of strong
deflections. Some of these were accompanied by sharp cracks, similar to
those produced by electric sparks (these sounds were tape recorded). Then,
and on subsequent days, they set up equipment to record the electric
potential and the magnetic field in the vicinity of the recorder, and also
equipment to record the sound amplitude in the office. They were able (at
least if one assumes that *their*own* equipment was not also being
interfered with) to rule out as explanations of the recorder deflections
the following: mains voltage variation; HF voltage, demodulated at
component with non-linear characteristic; external static magnetic fields;
loose contacts in the electronic amplifier system; extraneous mechanisms in
the recorder; ultrasonic or infrasonic effects, including strong vibrations
and manual intervention. They were forced to the conclusion that some
unknown mechanical influence had acted on the pointer of the measuring
instruments.
Bender describes the end of the case as follows:
The discovery of the PK nature of the occurrences led to an
intensification of the events: paintings began to swing and to turn,
drawers came out by themselves, documents were displaced, a 175 kilogram
cabinet moved twice about 30 cm from the wall, etc. Annemarie Sch.,
getting more and more nervous, finally displayed hysterical
contractions in her arms and legs. When she was sent on leave, nothing
happened, and when she definitely left the office for a new position, no
more disturbances occurred. But similar events, less obvious and kept
secret, happened for some time in the new office where she was working.
A video-recording of one of the picture rotations was obtained.
|