About this episode

The episode explores the haunting of the Hodgson family in Enfield, England, and the skepticism surrounding poltergeist phenomena.

“It appeared that in a single day Janet had levitated, traveled out of her physical body, made a book go through the wall from one room to another and caused a heavy cushion to travel from a closed room onto the roof. It did not sound possible, but five different people were certain it had all happened.” – Guy Lyon Playfair, This House Is Haunted How can a thing be true and false at the same time? Frightening and funny? Scary and dull? Real and unreal? How can something be itself -- and its own opposite? Easy: it’s a poltergeist. For over two years the Hodgson family in Enfield, England were plagued with a poltergeist that simultaneously played by – and broke – all the rules of poltergeistery. As usual, there were cries of fraud from the very beginning. And as usual, there were dozens of witnesses to phenomena that could have no earthly explanation. Psychic investigators Guy Lyon Playfair and Maurice Grosse spent hundreds of hours living with the Hodgson’s and documented everything that went on in their house. But what happens when an avalanche of evidence breeds nothing but more skepticism? And what do you do when the very word “poltergeist” seems suddenly too small to describe…

People in this episode

Host: Richard Hatem

Topics covered

• poltergeist
• haunting
• skepticism
• supernatural
• family
• investigation

Keywords

• poltergeist
• Hodgson family
• Enfield
• haunting
• Guy Lyon Playfair
• Maurice Grosse
• supernatural
• skepticism

Mentioned in this episode

Places: Enfield, England, Pasadena, California

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