The Paracast Newsletter
July 21, 2024
www.theparacast.com
Retired State Department Translator Joel Stern Reveals the Details of an Amazing Poltergeist Case on The Paracast!
The Paracast is released every Sunday and available from our site, https://www.theparacast.com, your favorite podcast app, and the IRN Internet Radio Network. All episodes from 2022, 2023 and 2024 now feature better audio and fewer ads.
WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU HAVEN'T SIGNED UP FOR THE PARACAST+ YET? PLEASE SUBSCRIBE TO THE PARACAST+ SO YOU CAN SUPPORT THE SHOW AND ENJOY THE ULTIMATE PARACAST EXPERIENCE AT A SPECIAL LOW PRICE! We have another radio show and we’d love for you listen to it. So for a low subscription fee, you will receive access to an exclusive bonus podcast, After The Paracast, plus a special version of The Paracast with all the ads removed, when you join The Paracast+. We also offer a special RSS feed for easy updates of the latest episodes on your device, and those episodes are now released 12-24 hours earlier. Flash! Take advantage of our lowest rates ever! Act now! It's easier than ever to susbcribe! For the easiest signup ever, please visit: https://www.theparacast.plus
This Week's Episode: Gene and cohost Tim Swartz present the odyssey of Joel Stern, someone who found himself in the paranormal field. So he was a staff translator and reviewer in the Office of Language Services at the U.S. State Department in Washington, DC, for 28 years. In 1983, he became involved with the amazing poltergeist events that occurred in southern Poland. The incredible ghostly phenomena was centered around a 13-year-old girl named Joasia Gajewski and eventually become national news in Poland. What makes the Gajewski case groundbreaking is that it continued for an extended period and with such consistent energy that scientists were able to study it. The original version of book chronicling the cases,"The Elusive Force," was written in Polish. Stern translated the book into English, then spent decades attempting to get the book published, which finally occurred in 2023. He also spent time with Joasia and her family during the process and has important insights into the people and their circumstances around this groundbreaking case.
After The Paracast — Available exclusively for Paracast+ subscribers by July 21: Retired U.S. State Department translator Joel Stern returns to talk with Gene and cohost Tim Swartz about the book he brought to English-language audiences, 'The Elusive Force." First published in the 1980s, the Polish version of the book recounts the incredible ghostly phenomena centered around a 13-year-old girl named Joasia Gajewski that eventually become national news in Poland. What makes the Gajewski case groundbreaking is that it continued for an extended period and with such consistent energy that scientists were able to study it. Stern spent months translating the book into English, after which he spent decades attempting to get the book published, which finally occurred in 2023. This episode expands on the main show with additional details about this amazing case along with a discussion of what might be going on.
Reminder: Please don't forget to visit our famous Paracast Community Forums for the latest news/views/debates on all things paranormal: The Paracast Community Forums.
When the Poltergeist Finds Its Voice
By Tim R. Swartz
It can be terrifying enough when a poltergeist makes its appearance in a household. Rocks thrown about, strange bangs on the walls, moving furniture, items disappearing and then reappearing, this is enough to set anyone on edge. However, when a poltergeist finds its voice and starts to talk, you know that events have decidedly taken a turn for the worse.
Poltergeist activity has been recorded throughout history and is probably the most prolific of all supernatural events. One of the earliest accounts was from around 500 C.E. when St. Germain, Bishop of Auxerre, was bothered by a spirit that battered the walls of a shelter the Bishop was spending the night in with showers of rocks. Another early case was the Bingen poltergeist, which comes from the Annales Fuldenses or Annals of Fulda. This incident happened near Bingen in present-day Bavaria around 856-858 C.E. A farmer was plagued by a stone-throwing ghost who shook the walls of his house "as though the men of the place were striking it with hammers," set crops on fire and also shouted obscenities and accusations at the farmer suggesting that he had slept with the daughter of his foremen. The poltergeist would follow the man around and fearful neighbors would refuse to allow him near their homes.
The Bishop of Mainz sent priests with holy relics who attested to hearing the poltergeist denouncing the farmer for adultery. When the priests sang hymns and sprinkled holy water, the poltergeist threw stones and cursed at them.
The Bingen poltergeist had many typical features of a poltergeist that are still repeated in modern times. The fact that this poltergeist could talk is something that has been seen in other cases, but nevertheless, it really doesn't happen that often.
Is a Poltergeist a Ghost?
Poltergeist phenomenon is often placed in the same niche as ghosts and hauntings. The implication is that a poltergeist is a ghost, i.e. a human that has died and returned in spirit form. There is no doubt that there are similarities between ghosts and poltergeist activity. However, a ghostly haunting often tends to have the visual element; for example, a glowing figure dressed in old fashioned clothes is seen walking down a hallway. A haunting also repeats in the same way on a regular basis, much like a recording that is played back over and over. In long-term ghostly hauntings, a ghost will usually ignore entreaties from the living and shows no sign of awareness of its surroundings.
Poltergeist activity, instead, operates in a completely different fashion. A poltergeist almost never makes an "appearance" and becomes visible. A poltergeist can do things such as move heavy furniture, instantaneously teleport objects, produce explosive sounds and disgusting odors, create rain inside a building, cause spontaneous fires and other things that seem to be outside of our current understanding of physics.
A poltergeist is extremely aware of its surroundings, and will often quickly respond to suggestions by observers and other external stimuli. This shows that there is some kind of "intelligence" behind its pranks and not just some random psychokinesis. This intelligence, along with an ability to communicate, will manifest in a myriad of ways. Pieces of paper with strange messages appear; writing on the walls, children's toys will be arranged to make words, and, perhaps the most shocking, they will sometimes start to speak out loud.
When a poltergeist achieves speech, it generally starts out as animal-like growls and whispers that slowly evolve into discernible words. Most poltergeists never reach this stage of their development, but once they do, a clear “personality” emerges from what were previously just random events.
L'Antidemon de Mascon
One early case of a talking poltergeist happened in Mâcon, France in 1612 when a Calvinist pastor named Francois Perreaud (or Perrault), became the target of a very unsettling poltergeist. Perreaud's poltergeist made its first appearance on September 19, 1612 when invisible hands started shaking bed curtains and tossing bed clothes onto the floor. This continued for several nights and then escalated when Perreaud and his family heard "A frightful din in the kitchen consisting of unearthly rumblings and knockings, accompanied by the sounds of plates, pots, and pans being hurled against the walls." Perreaud rushed to the kitchen, expecting to find his kitchen destroyed, but was shocked to find that everything was normal and the kitchenware was in its place.
Eventually a voice that was "very distinct and understandable, although somewhat husky" was heard in the house. It sang, "Twenty-two pennies, twenty-two pennies," then repeated the word, "Minister" several times. Perreaud said to the voice, "Get thee behind me, Satan, the Lord commands you."
The voice kept saying "Minister, minister," until the exasperated Perreaud snapped, "Yes, I am indeed a minister and a servant of the living God before whose majesty you tremble."
"I am not saying otherwise," the voice replied.
Once the poltergeist began speaking, it proved to be difficult to shut it up. It recited the Ten Commandments, followed by the Our Father, the Apostles' Creed, and other prayers. It also sang Psalms and recited accurate personal details about Perreaud's family. The voice claimed that it was from the Pays de Vaud, which was at that time infamous for its witch hunts.
The voice told wild stories, made inappropriate jokes and often acted like a child and teased the maid. It was also able to expertly mimic the voices of various Mâcon residents. It also took on several different identities. At one time the voice claimed to be the valet of the original entity, who had left the house and was now in Chambery.
On November 25, the voice announced that it would no longer speak, but its antics in the form of throwing stones, tying knots in the mane and tail of Perreaud's horse, and other typical poltergeist stunts, continued through until December when it finally disappeared forever.
The Voice From the Stove
One rather unique case started in September, 1934 when a family named Palazon, living in an apartment complex in Zaragoza, Spain, started to hear maniacal laughter and voices coming from inside their home. At first the voice sounded like a woman, but later it would change and appear to be a man speaking. The family was perplexed by the strange sounds, but kept quiet for fear of ridicule.
When the din coming from the apartment became too much, neighbors called the police. The voice then started shouting: "Cowards, cowards. You called the police. Cowards!"
When they arrived, the households young maid, named Pascuala Alcocer, told police that when she was trying to light the wood stove, she heard a loud voice coming from the stove, or its chimney, saying, "You're hurting me!"
Local police and judges personally investigated the home, forcing the family to move out as they shut off electricity and phone service as they tore the place apart. This enraged the voice and it shouted to everyone that it would kill them and all the residents in the building.
Authorities brought in psychiatrists to question Pascuala, whom they suspected of hoaxing everything. The doctors suggested that Pascuala was mentally ill and that she was producing the voice through subconscious ventriloquism. At one point they sent the maid on a vacation along with the family, yet the voice continued to speak.
Whatever the source, the voice was able to see what was going on around the building. It would guess the number of people that were in a room at a time, it would interact with police officers directly when they asked it what it wanted.
"Do you want money?"
"No!"
"Do you want a job?"
"No!"
"Every man wants something."
"I'm not a man!"
Eventually the voice vanished just as mysteriously as it arrived. The maid, Pascuala Alcocer went into seclusion lamenting up until her death years later that "the voice from the wall ruined her life."
When you look at past cases of talking poltergeists, they display personalities that if they were human subjects, doctors would describe them as psychotic or schizophrenic. However, psychiatric examinations of the families centered around poltergeist activity usually fail to find any major emotional turmoil’s (with the exception of the anxiety caused by the poltergeist itself).
The question remains whether a poltergeist is a ghost, djinn, alien, or other supernatural entity – or the unconscious, psychokinetic, impulses of a fractured human mind. Researchers have attempted to ask this question to poltergeists directly, however, any responses from a poltergeist should be considered to be true as much as a fortune cookie is thought to actually predict the future.
Tim R. Swartz is an Indiana native and Emmy-Award winning television producer/videographer, and is the author of a number of popular books including The Lost Journals of Nikola Tesla, Mimics — The Others Among Us, America's Strange and Supernatural History, Time Travel: Fact Not Fiction!, and is a contributing writer for the books, Brad Steiger's Real Monsters, Gruesome Critters, and Beasts from the Darkside, and Real Ghosts, Restless Spirits and Haunted Places.
As a photojournalist, Tim Swartz has traveled extensively and investigated paranormal phenomena and other unusual mysteries from such diverse locations as the Great Pyramid in Egypt to the Great Wall in China. He has worked with television networks such as PBS, ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, ESPN, Thames-TV and the BBC. He has also appeared on the History Channels programs "Ancient Aliens,” “Evidence,” “Ancient Aliens: Declassified,” The UnXplained, and the History Channel Latin America series "Contacto Extraterrestre.
His articles have been published in magazines such as Mysteries, FATE, Strange, Atlantis Rising, UFO Universe, Renaissance, and Unsolved UFO Reports. He is also the writer and editor of the online newsletter Conspiracy Journal; a free, weekly email newsletter, considered essential reading by paranormal researchers worldwide.
Tim is also cohost on The Paracast, The Gold Standard of Paranormal Radio, with host Gene Steinberg.
His website is: conspiracyjournal.com
Copyright 1999-2024 The Paracast Company. All Rights Reserved.
Privacy Policy: Your personal information is safe with us. We will positively never give out your name and/or e-mail address to anybody else, and that's a promise!
July 21, 2024
www.theparacast.com
Retired State Department Translator Joel Stern Reveals the Details of an Amazing Poltergeist Case on The Paracast!
The Paracast is released every Sunday and available from our site, https://www.theparacast.com, your favorite podcast app, and the IRN Internet Radio Network. All episodes from 2022, 2023 and 2024 now feature better audio and fewer ads.
WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU HAVEN'T SIGNED UP FOR THE PARACAST+ YET? PLEASE SUBSCRIBE TO THE PARACAST+ SO YOU CAN SUPPORT THE SHOW AND ENJOY THE ULTIMATE PARACAST EXPERIENCE AT A SPECIAL LOW PRICE! We have another radio show and we’d love for you listen to it. So for a low subscription fee, you will receive access to an exclusive bonus podcast, After The Paracast, plus a special version of The Paracast with all the ads removed, when you join The Paracast+. We also offer a special RSS feed for easy updates of the latest episodes on your device, and those episodes are now released 12-24 hours earlier. Flash! Take advantage of our lowest rates ever! Act now! It's easier than ever to susbcribe! For the easiest signup ever, please visit: https://www.theparacast.plus
This Week's Episode: Gene and cohost Tim Swartz present the odyssey of Joel Stern, someone who found himself in the paranormal field. So he was a staff translator and reviewer in the Office of Language Services at the U.S. State Department in Washington, DC, for 28 years. In 1983, he became involved with the amazing poltergeist events that occurred in southern Poland. The incredible ghostly phenomena was centered around a 13-year-old girl named Joasia Gajewski and eventually become national news in Poland. What makes the Gajewski case groundbreaking is that it continued for an extended period and with such consistent energy that scientists were able to study it. The original version of book chronicling the cases,"The Elusive Force," was written in Polish. Stern translated the book into English, then spent decades attempting to get the book published, which finally occurred in 2023. He also spent time with Joasia and her family during the process and has important insights into the people and their circumstances around this groundbreaking case.
After The Paracast — Available exclusively for Paracast+ subscribers by July 21: Retired U.S. State Department translator Joel Stern returns to talk with Gene and cohost Tim Swartz about the book he brought to English-language audiences, 'The Elusive Force." First published in the 1980s, the Polish version of the book recounts the incredible ghostly phenomena centered around a 13-year-old girl named Joasia Gajewski that eventually become national news in Poland. What makes the Gajewski case groundbreaking is that it continued for an extended period and with such consistent energy that scientists were able to study it. Stern spent months translating the book into English, after which he spent decades attempting to get the book published, which finally occurred in 2023. This episode expands on the main show with additional details about this amazing case along with a discussion of what might be going on.
Reminder: Please don't forget to visit our famous Paracast Community Forums for the latest news/views/debates on all things paranormal: The Paracast Community Forums.
When the Poltergeist Finds Its Voice
By Tim R. Swartz
It can be terrifying enough when a poltergeist makes its appearance in a household. Rocks thrown about, strange bangs on the walls, moving furniture, items disappearing and then reappearing, this is enough to set anyone on edge. However, when a poltergeist finds its voice and starts to talk, you know that events have decidedly taken a turn for the worse.
Poltergeist activity has been recorded throughout history and is probably the most prolific of all supernatural events. One of the earliest accounts was from around 500 C.E. when St. Germain, Bishop of Auxerre, was bothered by a spirit that battered the walls of a shelter the Bishop was spending the night in with showers of rocks. Another early case was the Bingen poltergeist, which comes from the Annales Fuldenses or Annals of Fulda. This incident happened near Bingen in present-day Bavaria around 856-858 C.E. A farmer was plagued by a stone-throwing ghost who shook the walls of his house "as though the men of the place were striking it with hammers," set crops on fire and also shouted obscenities and accusations at the farmer suggesting that he had slept with the daughter of his foremen. The poltergeist would follow the man around and fearful neighbors would refuse to allow him near their homes.
The Bishop of Mainz sent priests with holy relics who attested to hearing the poltergeist denouncing the farmer for adultery. When the priests sang hymns and sprinkled holy water, the poltergeist threw stones and cursed at them.
The Bingen poltergeist had many typical features of a poltergeist that are still repeated in modern times. The fact that this poltergeist could talk is something that has been seen in other cases, but nevertheless, it really doesn't happen that often.
Is a Poltergeist a Ghost?
Poltergeist phenomenon is often placed in the same niche as ghosts and hauntings. The implication is that a poltergeist is a ghost, i.e. a human that has died and returned in spirit form. There is no doubt that there are similarities between ghosts and poltergeist activity. However, a ghostly haunting often tends to have the visual element; for example, a glowing figure dressed in old fashioned clothes is seen walking down a hallway. A haunting also repeats in the same way on a regular basis, much like a recording that is played back over and over. In long-term ghostly hauntings, a ghost will usually ignore entreaties from the living and shows no sign of awareness of its surroundings.
Poltergeist activity, instead, operates in a completely different fashion. A poltergeist almost never makes an "appearance" and becomes visible. A poltergeist can do things such as move heavy furniture, instantaneously teleport objects, produce explosive sounds and disgusting odors, create rain inside a building, cause spontaneous fires and other things that seem to be outside of our current understanding of physics.
A poltergeist is extremely aware of its surroundings, and will often quickly respond to suggestions by observers and other external stimuli. This shows that there is some kind of "intelligence" behind its pranks and not just some random psychokinesis. This intelligence, along with an ability to communicate, will manifest in a myriad of ways. Pieces of paper with strange messages appear; writing on the walls, children's toys will be arranged to make words, and, perhaps the most shocking, they will sometimes start to speak out loud.
When a poltergeist achieves speech, it generally starts out as animal-like growls and whispers that slowly evolve into discernible words. Most poltergeists never reach this stage of their development, but once they do, a clear “personality” emerges from what were previously just random events.
L'Antidemon de Mascon
One early case of a talking poltergeist happened in Mâcon, France in 1612 when a Calvinist pastor named Francois Perreaud (or Perrault), became the target of a very unsettling poltergeist. Perreaud's poltergeist made its first appearance on September 19, 1612 when invisible hands started shaking bed curtains and tossing bed clothes onto the floor. This continued for several nights and then escalated when Perreaud and his family heard "A frightful din in the kitchen consisting of unearthly rumblings and knockings, accompanied by the sounds of plates, pots, and pans being hurled against the walls." Perreaud rushed to the kitchen, expecting to find his kitchen destroyed, but was shocked to find that everything was normal and the kitchenware was in its place.
Eventually a voice that was "very distinct and understandable, although somewhat husky" was heard in the house. It sang, "Twenty-two pennies, twenty-two pennies," then repeated the word, "Minister" several times. Perreaud said to the voice, "Get thee behind me, Satan, the Lord commands you."
The voice kept saying "Minister, minister," until the exasperated Perreaud snapped, "Yes, I am indeed a minister and a servant of the living God before whose majesty you tremble."
"I am not saying otherwise," the voice replied.
Once the poltergeist began speaking, it proved to be difficult to shut it up. It recited the Ten Commandments, followed by the Our Father, the Apostles' Creed, and other prayers. It also sang Psalms and recited accurate personal details about Perreaud's family. The voice claimed that it was from the Pays de Vaud, which was at that time infamous for its witch hunts.
The voice told wild stories, made inappropriate jokes and often acted like a child and teased the maid. It was also able to expertly mimic the voices of various Mâcon residents. It also took on several different identities. At one time the voice claimed to be the valet of the original entity, who had left the house and was now in Chambery.
On November 25, the voice announced that it would no longer speak, but its antics in the form of throwing stones, tying knots in the mane and tail of Perreaud's horse, and other typical poltergeist stunts, continued through until December when it finally disappeared forever.
The Voice From the Stove
One rather unique case started in September, 1934 when a family named Palazon, living in an apartment complex in Zaragoza, Spain, started to hear maniacal laughter and voices coming from inside their home. At first the voice sounded like a woman, but later it would change and appear to be a man speaking. The family was perplexed by the strange sounds, but kept quiet for fear of ridicule.
When the din coming from the apartment became too much, neighbors called the police. The voice then started shouting: "Cowards, cowards. You called the police. Cowards!"
When they arrived, the households young maid, named Pascuala Alcocer, told police that when she was trying to light the wood stove, she heard a loud voice coming from the stove, or its chimney, saying, "You're hurting me!"
Local police and judges personally investigated the home, forcing the family to move out as they shut off electricity and phone service as they tore the place apart. This enraged the voice and it shouted to everyone that it would kill them and all the residents in the building.
Authorities brought in psychiatrists to question Pascuala, whom they suspected of hoaxing everything. The doctors suggested that Pascuala was mentally ill and that she was producing the voice through subconscious ventriloquism. At one point they sent the maid on a vacation along with the family, yet the voice continued to speak.
Whatever the source, the voice was able to see what was going on around the building. It would guess the number of people that were in a room at a time, it would interact with police officers directly when they asked it what it wanted.
"Do you want money?"
"No!"
"Do you want a job?"
"No!"
"Every man wants something."
"I'm not a man!"
Eventually the voice vanished just as mysteriously as it arrived. The maid, Pascuala Alcocer went into seclusion lamenting up until her death years later that "the voice from the wall ruined her life."
When you look at past cases of talking poltergeists, they display personalities that if they were human subjects, doctors would describe them as psychotic or schizophrenic. However, psychiatric examinations of the families centered around poltergeist activity usually fail to find any major emotional turmoil’s (with the exception of the anxiety caused by the poltergeist itself).
The question remains whether a poltergeist is a ghost, djinn, alien, or other supernatural entity – or the unconscious, psychokinetic, impulses of a fractured human mind. Researchers have attempted to ask this question to poltergeists directly, however, any responses from a poltergeist should be considered to be true as much as a fortune cookie is thought to actually predict the future.
• • •
Tim R. Swartz is an Indiana native and Emmy-Award winning television producer/videographer, and is the author of a number of popular books including The Lost Journals of Nikola Tesla, Mimics — The Others Among Us, America's Strange and Supernatural History, Time Travel: Fact Not Fiction!, and is a contributing writer for the books, Brad Steiger's Real Monsters, Gruesome Critters, and Beasts from the Darkside, and Real Ghosts, Restless Spirits and Haunted Places.
As a photojournalist, Tim Swartz has traveled extensively and investigated paranormal phenomena and other unusual mysteries from such diverse locations as the Great Pyramid in Egypt to the Great Wall in China. He has worked with television networks such as PBS, ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, ESPN, Thames-TV and the BBC. He has also appeared on the History Channels programs "Ancient Aliens,” “Evidence,” “Ancient Aliens: Declassified,” The UnXplained, and the History Channel Latin America series "Contacto Extraterrestre.
His articles have been published in magazines such as Mysteries, FATE, Strange, Atlantis Rising, UFO Universe, Renaissance, and Unsolved UFO Reports. He is also the writer and editor of the online newsletter Conspiracy Journal; a free, weekly email newsletter, considered essential reading by paranormal researchers worldwide.
Tim is also cohost on The Paracast, The Gold Standard of Paranormal Radio, with host Gene Steinberg.
His website is: conspiracyjournal.com
Copyright 1999-2024 The Paracast Company. All Rights Reserved.
Privacy Policy: Your personal information is safe with us. We will positively never give out your name and/or e-mail address to anybody else, and that's a promise!