Nexus - 0401 - New Times Magazine-pages

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The Poltergeist Machine The Poltergeist Machine Poltergeist effects may be as much the result of electromagnetic anomalies as the workings of mischievous discarnate spirits, as inventor John Hutchison has been able to demonstrate in his laboratory. have always been impressed by the Statement of Purpose published in each and every issue of NEXUS, to make available ‘hidden knowledge’, otherwise known as ‘gnosis’, in order to assist people cope with the changes that the planet is going through. Whilst the paranormal may not have the serious consequences for people as war or environmental concerns, it would be difficult to state with any confidence that psychic phenomena and the UFO issue have not engaged public attention on a grand scale. The reasons for this boom are obscure, except that it could be said that people are looking for something that makes their lives meaningful. As for myself, I have been an investigator of anomalies for almost 16 years and have certainly found a rich source of fascinating material—and, recently, an inventor who has helped me make sense of one of the prime mysteries of our time: poltergeists. It is the amazing discoveries of this man, one John Hutchison, from British Columbia, Canada, that I would like to share with you here. POLTERGEIST ACTIVITY The general public has been treated to big-budget, special-effects movies on poltergeist activity and has been led to regard it as consisting of spectacular phenomena involving spirits from other dimensions who enter our domestic world and wreak havoc. I suspect that few film-goers realise that there is a reality behind this movie mythology, where fur- niture does move, objects do levitate and sail round the room, fires do start behind locked doors and in impossibly enclosed places, water does mysteriously vanish, objects do appear to arrive from nowhere and seem to vanish just as strangely, iron bars are found twisted and broken, and mirrors shattered. Probably most bemusing, however, are the effects on electronic devices and electrical equipment, causing them to perform strange feats. Television sets switch themselves on and off, repeated telephone connections are made which engineers consider ‘impossible’, and computers show programmes that have not been installed by anyone or information that is inaccessible through normal use. What causes these weird and unnerving effects, and what do they have to do with an inventor in Canada? AN INVESTIGATION Cases come my way through contact with people who know of my interest in anomalies (I have had three books published), and each case brings its own surprises. I was certainly not ready for the situation I met when I arrived at the 'haunted' home of a middle-aged couple in Welyn Garden City in Hertfordshire, UK. I use a small tape recorder for inter- views, and as we settled down in their comfortable lounge I was startled by the noise of a loud crack which seemed to come from the wall opposite me. Neither Jane nor David, as I shall call them, reacted with any degree of surprise. "That happens all the time," they told me casually. Somewhat distracted, I fiddled with my tape recorder, setting it down on the low table before me, beside a cup of coffee. Apparently, unexplained noises were commonplace in this household, including some heavy, plodding footsteps along an upper passage during the small hours of the morning. Jane and David then regaled me with accounts of light bulbs which constantly popped, a video recorder which refused to work on some days, vases of flowers that sailed into the air before dashing themselves on the carpet, matches which caught fire spontaneously inside their box inside a drawer, water taps which turned themselves on and off, the door- bell which chimed as they stood at the open door with nobody pressing the button, dress- ing-table mirrors which cracked increasingly almost every night, a stone statue on the by Albert Budden, B.Ed. ©1996 17 Brook Road South Brentford, Middlesex TW8 ONN United Kingdom Telephone +44 0181 560 9497 ©1996 17 Brook Road South Brentford, Middlesex TW8 ONN United Kingdom Telephone +44 0181 560 9497 NEXUS - 55 by Albert Budden, B.Ed. DECEMBER 1996 - JANUARY 1997