Journal of the Society for Psychical /fcM$PProved For Relea^OO^/^9/1^ 0^-^^6-00792^00700350001-2
The Guarulhos Poltergeist
(P- 8). If Noemia did have dissociative episodes, we could suppose that, while in
a dissociated state, she could have ‘spirited away’ the properties and returned
them after a time; given an amnesia between the dissociated personality and
Noemia’s normal self, this seems quite plausible. At any rate for the events which
were not directly witnessed, if we dismiss the RSPK perspective, then the one
responsible
for
this
kind
of occurrence could
easily be an
outsider:
e
o-
a
‘sorcerer’ ...
(7) It’s curious to notice that the first PPG-like events took the appearance of
two floor-polishers breakdowns, one of which belonged to the neighbour. If we
disregard the short-circuit possibility as did Marcos (p. 13), this event plus the
breaking of the front door’s lock (p. 8) twice are suggestive of the presence of (one
or more)
malfunction-linked
person(s) (MLP)
in
the
family. And
what a
coincidence,
it was then Noemia who was using the machine with Judite! Of
course situational stress, like in the present case, tends to favour MLP activity
(Morris, 1986). However, there seems to be legitimate PPG cases: for example,
the
Suzano poltergeist’ case attested by police officers (Andrade,
1982) and
which has been recently reviewed by Carlos S. Alvarado (1984). But, contrary to
that
case,
in the present one— where
the PPG events are
still,
for Andrade
(p.
12), ‘blackmagic related’-the actual initiation of the fire was not directly-
witnessed (except with the machines): that’s where his interpretation stumbles;
because there could be here a possibility of fraud,, conscious (the ‘sorcerer’) or
not (Noemia-or someone else-possible dissociative episodes).
J‘
sh°uld be noted that
’ in 12 of the 32 cases
(37% ) directly studied by the
IBPP, PPG occurred (Andrade, 1988).
General Discussion
One wonders whether there are any cases as complicated and dramatic as the
present one. In fact, Gauld & Cornell (1979) quoted two cases with no apparent
sorcery component: the Naples (1696-7) and the Rerrick (1695) cases, where,
among other disturbances, there occurred apport phenomena of diverse kinds’
incendiary phenomena, persons were hurt by an invisible assailant, phantasms
were seen, and, in the Naples case, the subject talked with a demon ‘dressed in
white with a face the colour of fire’
(p.
162) almost as did Noemia! Two other
Presented a sorcery component:
the Fewston (1621-2) and the Bristol
(1/61-2) cases, where witches claimed responsibility for the death of children
who were subjected to divers bodily afflictions.
Another well-known case is that of Eleonore Zugun (1925-7) investigated by
Harry Price. Eleonore was a Rumanian
girl victimized by a poltergeist in a
manner similar to
-•
~
-h
/
i
i
-
-
x
,
i
.
.wippe.-ea
wO iNOunia,
i.e., s^ratcning \ana Dicing) her
skin.
I he KbPK
activity
(stone-throwing, removal
or delivery of apported
objects
.
.
.) also followed her wherever she went, from Vienna to London and
right into Price’s own laboratory (Price, 1926).
More recently, the Mulhouse case (1977-81), France, investigated by Hans
Bender and his team (Bender & Jacquey, 1984) presented similar characteristics
to the Guarulhos’s. There were also apparitions (of a black shape), cuts on a
person and on
sheets, moving of books including a Bible, disappearance of
money and of papers that were found under a mattress in the new family house,
etc
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204
Ifwe consider now the whole Guarulhos case in the light of Stevenson’s (1972)
pattern analysis devised in order to help the investigator discriminate living from
dkcarnate agents we may find a kind of mixing between effects supposed to
belong to bofh types of agency (pp. 248-249). Indeed, features bdongmgtoHhe
discarnate agenev occurred: heavy objects e.g., stones and bricks were moved
sometimes in a complicated trajectory (cf. Noemia’s family visit), movements of
objects suggested purpose
(e.g., throwing a brick or a glass
at someone)
a
subject (e g
, Noemia) was the object of destructive and injuring impulses, there
was a communication
(of Noemia) with an apparent discarnate personahty
phenomena were localized around family members and places (e.g., PPG m t
e
first house though the family had moved) and exorcism offered several times as a
resolution of the physical disturbances (e.g., in the first house after the strugg e o
Pedro with the ‘monster’ during Marcos’s family stay there), features belonging
to the living agency also occurred: the short range of distance over which objects ..
were moved
breakage of objects were common, they seemed to land forcefully,
there was
no
meaningful
communication
by
raps,
collective
apparffional
phenomena
didn’t occur and phenomena seemed
to be localized around a
pt^
«, ,»«
» mob*
in ^present case
is basically speculative* But one must wonder how such a
complex case, with neither a specific living nor a discarnate agency pattern
could be explained otherwise,
especially
if we dismiss a massive fraud as
hypothesis (Hyman, 1989). It’s worth noting that tins RSpK case is cleariy iade
with
a
psi-conductive
religious
and
magic
content
(Winkelman,
198.).
Moreover
the
sensitives
of
the
Church
with
their
‘prophetic
utterance,
preceding several RSPK events, could have led to the establishment of growing
expectancy set which triggered some of the paranormal outbreaks.
' The Guarulhos case
is certainly one of the richest poltergeist cases in recent
parapsychological
history. Whether the phenomena reported are
cult
a
y,
psychological or paranormally based
(or some combination of the above),
however, is not clear. Perhaps what is most clear is that a complex case like: thisus
open to different interpretations. Indeed, the case could serve as a projective tes
.
one could read into
it whatever one wishes, the result reflecting more perhaps
about that person’s own beliefs, predispositions, and biases, than about the facts
themselves We
still have much to learn from cross-cultural studies not onl,
about the peculiarities ofpsi manifestations but also about the limits of our own
understanding.
Acknowledgements
t
,
I am
very
grateful
to Mario
Varvoglis
for
his
suggestions and
ne.p m
improving my English. Special thanks are due to Professor Robert L. Morns and
his staff
ft the Koestler Chair of Parapsychology, for having allowed me to use
their‘library .here; also to K. Morgan, C. War, and L
R.
£
stimulating discussions we had, during my brief stay at Edinburgh in Octo
1988.
11, me du Pont Hardy
77400 Lagny sur Marne
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Journal of the Society for Psychical Research
[Vol. 56, No. 820 July 1990]
The Guarulhos Poltergeist
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