Customer Reviews

This House is Haunted: Investigation of the Enfield Poltergeist

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This book follows the case of the Enfield Poltergeist,a fascinating haunting which asks many questions but which unfortunately provides few answers, In 1977,a working class family in England became the focus of an apparent haunting. It began with banging noises and the movement of objects and developed into one of the most controversial cases in psychical research. Guy Playfair and the late Maurice Grosse spent years with the family documenting events and watching as a parade of skeptics,mediums and fellow psychic investigators passed through the small apartment. This book doesn't "prove" the existence of ghosts or even demonstrate that this case was based on real paranormal events- Grosse and Playfair both were unsure of the nature of the events they were witnessing. This book is sometimes tedious,but is an important document and should be read by anyone seriously interested in hauntings and poltergeists. Was it the result of trickery or mental illness? Ultimately Playfair and Grosse committed to the paranormal nature of most of what they documented.

If you're looking for a good "true" ghost story, this isn't it. This overly long (304) book is simply a series of "events" dutifully captured by author Playfair. Unfortunately, after about 30 pages, you'll find yourself bored silly by yet ANOTHER piece of furniture that moved, a picture that fell, a pen that disappeared, a coat that moved from one room to another, etc and this happens over and over and over and over again. It's terribly boring.

Later in the book, the girl Janet starts speaking in another "voice"--but only when the observers leave her bedroom so they can't see the other voice speak. (?)

Over and over, the author states, "Of course, she couldn't have done it because I was right there" or "no child could have moved a 100 pound sofa" and so forth. Well, that doesn't "prove" anything.

And the cover photo of the girl clearly jumping on her bed is said to be "evidence" that she was "levitating" or being thrown off the bed by an unseen force is just silly. In fact, ALL the photos are just pointless if they are trying to "prove" anything since seeing a pillow on the floor doesn't "prove" it moved from the bed to the floor.

Anyway, I thought the "story" of the Enfield poltergeist was much more exciting than this book.

And I first heard about this in Will Storr's EXCELLENT (and funny/terrifying) book WILL STORR VS THE SUPERNATURAL. Now THAT is a scary book!