Religion: Long Island's Poltergeist

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That there may be something diabolical, or at any rate evil, in them I do not deny, but, on the other hand, it is also possible that there may be natural forces involved which are so far as little known to us as the latent forces of electricity were known to the Greeks.

So wrote the late Father Herbert Thurston, S.J., on his favorite subject: poltergeists. Through the ages, poltergeists (German for noisy ghosts) have been known to plague mankind by breaking crockery, shifting furniture, shattering windows, and indulging in various bumpings, hangings and bitings not, apparently, to be traced to any natural agency. Many of them have persecuted clergymen, as in the case of Methodism's founder, John Wesley, who was an interested observer of knockings, rappings and agitated warming pans at Epworth Rectory in 1716-17. Last week a modern poltergeist seemed to be loose in a pious Roman Catholic household at Seaford, N.Y. Skeptics, of course, said it was not a geist at all, polter or otherwise, but their alternative theories lacked concrete evidence.

Enter Detective. James M. Herrmann, 42, an airline representative, lives with his wife, daughter and twelve-year-old son, Jimmy, in a white-trimmed green ranch house. One day in February his wife called him at the office. "All the bottles in the house,'' she announced excitedly, "are blowing their tops!" Six screw-top bottles (containing nail polish remover, peroxide, rubbing alcohol, liquid starch, bleach and holy water) located in four different rooms, had opened and spilled.

From then on the Herrmanns and their house had little peace. Among other things, bottles shattered in the bathroom, a sugar bowl flew across the room, a geography globe hurtled through the hall, a portable phonograph dented the woodwork, and a bookcase containing a 25-volume encyclopedia with an overall weight of some 75 Ibs. turned upside down. Detective Joseph Tozzi of the Nassau County police accumulated a briefcase full of notes but no solution. A technical specialist from Brookhaven National Laboratory, Robert E. Zider, went to Seaford with a dowsing rod and a theory that water beneath the Herrmanns' house was unsettling things with a freak magnetic field. From Duke University came Dr. J. Gaither Pratt, psychologist and expert on extrasensory perception.

Psychologist Pratt had a calming effect on the poltergeist—or perhaps on young Jimmy. For Jimmy had been present at most of the mysterious happenings and, as Dr. Pratt pointed out, poltergeist phenomena are commonly associated with adolescents. At any rate, no sooner had Dr. Pratt returned to Duke when back came the poltergeist.

Exorcism Next. When the family called in Father William McLeod of nearby St. William the Abbot Church, he sprinkled holy water in each of the Herrmanns' six rooms. "O heavenly Father, Almighty God," he prayed, "we humbly beseech thee to bless and sanctify this house . . . and may the angels of thy light dwell within the walls . . ."