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The House of Knocks and Bumps, pg. 2

Typewritten manuscript, page 2, "The House of Knocks and Bumps" by Daniel Lehmann The text reads: - the James M. Hermann home at Seaford, Long Island. In the Seaford Case - that lasted about six weeks from February 3 to March 10, 1958 - the final result is still in the air. Quite a number of persons, experts and laymen, have advanced theories about the cause of the disturbances. Some of them are no doubt convinced that their interpretation is the right one. However, no explanation can be said to be proved, for a number of reasons - reasons that may become clearer after comparing the Seaford case, and others that have been well-covered in the past, with the events at the poultry farm near New York City. Through history, the search for the cause of such troubles has been concentrated on physical or spiritual explanations. The term "poltergeist", the German term for "a noisy ghost," implies a spiritual interpretation - that is, a spirit who is not content to merely haunt a house through quiet, dignified appearances, but who insists on making his presence known by knocks, bangs, turning lights on and off, and throwing objects and pieces of furniture large and small about the room. Present-day explanations in the physical category include "the settling of house near coastal areas and near underground water," advanced by G. W. Lumbert, a former president of the (London) Society for Psychical Research and "electronic forces, operating near Air Force bases, or originating from off-shore submarines," which was the theory that seemed to satisfy Mr. Herrmann most concerning the manifestations in his own home. However, the trouble with most of the physical theories, as pointed out by Dr. Osis and many others who have examined such cases, is that poltergeist "forces" are always very selective. If the damage was caused by purely blind physical forces

The Seaford Poltergeist was used as a point of comparison for other reported poltergeists. The term “poltergeist” is a German loanword meaning “noisy ghost.” Various theories behind poltergeist activity are described, which many deemed unsatisfactory to fully explain these phenomena.

See: “The House of Knocks and Bumps” page 1, page 7, page 8
 
Manuscript, “The House of Knocks and Bumps,” Daniel Lehmann, pg. 2, Folder “Baltimore Poltergeist,” Box D, Eileen J. Garrett Parapsychology Foundation collection, Collection 331, Special Collections, University of Maryland, Baltimore County (Baltimore, MD).

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