Author: Beach Combing | in : Modern
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‘The Wesley ghost’ is one of the best attested instances of a poltergeist haunting prior to the twentieth century. There were apparently twelve people living in the Parsonage House (pictured), Epworth (Lincolnshire) at the time of the disturbances, disturbances that centred on the period December 1716 to January 1717: three servants, the Wesley parents and seven daughters. In that time ‘Jeffrey’, as he came to be called by the family: (i) created noises, ranging from simple knock to bizarre animal and windmill sounds; (ii) was seen and felt in various forms, including as a headless badger and a fall of coins; and (iii) moved objects in the house, particularly the door latches and the focus of his hate, the pater familias, Samuel Wesley. Wesley was the local Anglican vicar and it might be worth remembering at this point that in the seventeenth and eighteenth century while demonic ‘possessions’ took place in monasteries and, particularly, nunneries in Catholic countries, they (or poltergeist equivalents) took place in religious households (like the Wesley’s) in Protestant countries.
The most important people in this case were John Wesley, the central figure in the Methodist movement, and his brother Samuel Wesley (the younger). John, aged 13, was at this date away at school, and Samuel aged 26 was in London but they both took a keen and continuing interest in ‘Jeffrey’ and crucially they recorded the happenings both during and after the event. Samuel wrote letters to his family demanding information while the haunting was ongoing; John, meanwhile, took detailed accounts from members of the family and the household in 1820 (aged 17). These documents were subsequently published in two places. A summary of the events was brought out by John Wesley in three parts in the Arminian Magazine 1784 (late reprinted in vol. 7 of John Wesley’s Works); the original letters, diary entries and accounts from family members were included (and indeed took up much of) Priestley’s Original Letters by John Wesley in 1791.
It goes without saying that this proved an important episode in John’s spiritual life, confirming him and, by extension, many of the radical early Methodists in their belief in supernatural agency including devils, witchcraft and spirits. In terms of proof for a paranormal event (or outright fakery) we have detailed accounts from most of the twelve individuals who lived through the haunting: in their own words or curated by John and Samuel Wesley.
The accounts are surprisingly coherent: this is no Rashomon. In the thousands of words dedicated to the case there are some disagreements between witnesses in terms of dates, in terms of locations, and in terms of motivations for the haunting. But generally speaking the accounts hold together: it is not worth losing sleep over whether the haunting began at the end of November or on 1 December. Was this because the events described were perceived similarly by all participants; or because conversations within the house led to a shared view of the haunting? In eight posts, including this one, Beach will look at the Wesley haunting in detail.
ii) Dramatis Personae
iii) Time
iv) Hearing the Ghost
v) Seeing the Ghost
vi) Feeling the Ghost
vii) Psychology of the Haunting
viii) Jeffrey Unmasked
The tag for these posts is Wesley Ghost.
For anyone interested in the original documents they have been usefully put together in a single pdf document. There are about sixty pages and the file weighs in at 15 mb.
15 Nov 2015: Chris from Haunted Ohio Books,
Looking forward to your series on the Wesley Ghost! You said something that was very striking and which never consciously occurred to me: it might be worth remembering at this point that in the seventeenth and eighteenth century while demonic ‘possessions’ took place in monasteries and, particularly, nunneries in Catholic countries, they (or poltergeist equivalents) took place in religious households (like the Wesley’s) in Protestant countries.
Food for thought! I need to look at my collection of US polts and see what role the Protestant religion plays. The only one I can immediately think of is the Stratford poltergeist, in the household of the Rev. Phelps. But I might disagree about demonic possessions being a strictly Catholic event. I’ve written about a Methodist “
exorcism” and there are other examples of similar “possessions” in Protestant households.
Then Chris writes later…
Intriguing parallels in the Wesley case with Gef the Talking Mongoose and the Bell Witch Case. See
this post for some of the similarities. I’ve noticed in many historic cases of poltergeists (and current ones I’ve been asked to look at) that there is a definite progression: from rappings, to moving objects, to voices, to apparitions. In most cases the polt never gets beyond the rapping stages before it dissipates. If you believe that these things are all generated by disaffected adolescents, perhaps their energy (or attention span) wears out in that time period, with only a few “polt vectors” able to sustain the telekenetic energy or the imposture for more than several weeks or months.
Then Chris on my suggestion that it was Emilia:
Was it just Hetty who sweated and trembled in her sleep during the Jeffrey outbreaks? For some reason, that particular detail always suggested that she was the vector. Dr William Roll did some work on polt vectors, using (I think) PET scans. He found that these children/adolescents all showed unique activity in a particular part of the brain. I’m sorry to say I just saw this ages ago and don’t have a citation. Here is an article proposing a theory of
how poltergeist activity might work. ‘They’re here’: The mechanism of poltergeist activity – physics-math – 01 April 2008″. New Scientist. Retrieved 2014-06-15.
22 Nov 2015: MC writes ‘One part of the poltegeist phenomenon that always intrigued me is the noise apparently from the wanton devastation of objects which later turns out to be intact.
Long story short: this happened many years ago in my granparents’ farmhouse when I was sleeping over. Since then I have always been intrigued by the phenomenon. Another long story short: I ran into a person from South Africa who had experienced exactly the same phenomenon in his house. Differently from me, he was pretty scared (I didn’t have to live in that farmhouse) hence he contacted a sangoma, a practicioner of traditional medicine and diviner, for advice. The sangoma listened to his story in total silence and then proclaimed “That spirit is called Old Babboon. It’s not dangerous, but it’s sent around by witches to scare people by making noises that make them believe their house is being destroyed. Don’t worry, it won’t be back”. I have always found incredible that even among the native cultures of South Africa this particular facet of the poltergeist phenomenon is so well known as to have its own name and its own back story!’
Thanks MC coincidentally a question that interests me!
22 Nov 2015: ANL writes in with some poltergeist advice generally, ‘At the core of most Poltergeist cases lies a conundrum: how can an apparently physical phenomenon have psychological facets? Electromagnetism, for example, appears to follow well-known rules which exclude any psychological effects. But was this always the case? In the distant past, electromagnetic phenomena (such as lightning, static electricity, Saint Elmo’s fire and magnetism) were almost always interpreted as “supernatural” phenomena and ascribed to hypothetical “agents”; gods, spirits and demons. It may be that we are now doing exactly the same thing with many “Fortean” phenomena such as poltergeists, UFOs and strange nocturnal lights, which are often ascribed to agents such as discarnate spirits, aliens or even fairies! However, although not understood, these phenomena may be perfectly understandable. In the case of the (admittedly controversial) Rosenheim poltergeist, for example, two physicists from the Max Planck Institute (Karger and Zicha) concluded that they were dealing with “new physics”, and there are clear indications in many poltergeist cases that real, unknown physical processes are involved. For example, objects (such as stones) that seem to appear from nowhere are very often found to be warm or hot to the touch (I first came across this in the case of the Lisieux poltergeist, not well-known even in France, in which apples appeared to pass through a closed door, making popping sounds as they did so. They were hot). Then there are real problems with the modern superstition of “Recurrent Spontaneous Psychokinesis (RSPK)” by a young person or a child: 1) First of all, if Recurrent Spontaneous Psychokinesis exists, and is capable of moving large objects such as furniture, why have we NEVER come across anybody who can do this consciously? 2) Where does the energy to move large objects come from? The human brain only generates about 23 watts, which is far from enough. And by what mechanism could this energy be converted into kinetic effects? 3) The woolly thinking of modern parapsychologists has led to a dogmatic superstition that “disturbed” young people or children are the “foci” of poltergeist phenomena, as they are involved in a high percentage of cases. They conveniently ignore the fact that adults, for example, are involved in 100% of cases! In other words, this idea is complete bullshit baseless. So, are we looking at a rare physical phenomenon, with kinetic and electromagnetic aspects, which induces a form of hysteria when viewed exclusively through the distorted lens of a supernatural belief system, be it a religion or just a belief in discarnate souls, aliens or other agents? If you are interested in poltergeists, please see the links below. I also suggest that you Google “Albert Budden Poltergeists”: (
1) and (
2).
1 Dec 2014, Barry E writes in: Once again this sort of thing makes me think Tulpas. If you have never seen the old scifi movie Forbidden Planet it is really worth watching, and it offers the most likely explanation of poltergeist activity, although with a non physical power source. It is the story of an extinct highly advanced culture that creates massive infinitely powerful, self repairing main frame computers powered by heat from the core of the planet. The purpose of the computers is to physically manifest the thoughts of it’s creators. What could possibly go wrong? lol I would imagine that the poltergeist activity is powered by take your pick, bioenergy, Qi, Kundalini, energy that has built up, uncontrolled in adolescents, and is inadvertently sparked off in an uncontrolled way to the shock and displeasure of all. I have experienced this several times in an absolutely physical way, from feeling the room temperature instantly rise for short periods, as well as the physical feel of a non physical psychic “punch”. Both of these examples were from the angry, unconscious flashing off of this invisible energy of others. There is a lot more going on here than we can possible imagine. If you have not read the Robert Monroe books I recommended he offers a very interesting description of what is going on here behind the curtains with his fascinating explanation of LOOSH…. Robert explains what we have here is people farming by trans-dimensional beings, ” someone, from some where” that long ago set up this plantation for the harvesting and export of very valuable LOOSH energy. Interesting that this explanation echoes the early middle eastern creation stories. Sounds weird at first, but after some thought it elegantly ties up a LOT of loose threads in understanding the nature of reality. Sorta kinda like the “spice” in the Dune novel. After practicing Qi Gong for many years I can testify that this energy is very real and has physical manifestations. Here is a little bonus inexplicable story, that probably has a similar source: I was driving a manual left hand drive car, windows closed, so my right arm is in the middle of the car with my hand on the gear shift. I am distracted by traffic and shifting gears when I distinctly feel several drops of water fall on the cuff of my coat and the back of my bare hand. I felt the force of the blow, including that it obviously transmitted less force through the coat. I felt the cool wetness of the water, but when I looked and felt my hand, and looked at the car headliner there was no water anywhere.
