Religion: Long Island's Poltergeist

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...