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THE METAL-BENDERS” by JOHN B. HASTED

The modern technical term for physical poltergeist phenomena is RSPK (recurrent spontaneous psychokinesis). In a poltergeist ‘case’, objects sometimes spontaneously fly about the house, apparently in a random way, without discrimination. But it is seldom that anyone is hurt by them. Sometimes their paths of flight are unnaturally crooked, and often the objects are not seen to leave their normal positions; sometimes they just appear in the air and gently drop. Sometimes they arrive warm and sometimes they arrive with spin, or angular momentum. Sometimes they ‘appear’ in motion, their flight starting from a position different from their normal place. Sometimes the origin of the objects is unknown, as in the cases where showers of stones are reported.

Furniture, heavy and light, can move spontaneously about the room, tip over, and even levitate and crash down again on the floor. Sometimes these movements are observed, sometimes they happen when no one is in the room, for example, during the night. A typical poltergeist case will last only for a period of weeks or months. The spontaneity of the movements has led to the opinion that the phenomena are caused by a ‘ghost’. However, the more usually accepted view is that one or more of the personalities involved, usually children, are unconsciously ‘responsible’ for the phenomena, in that they are physically present when they occur. Such personalities have been called ‘epicenters’ (although this term is also used to describe the area of the house in which events most frequently happen). When the subject realises that he or she is ‘responsible’, and is thereby the centre of attention, he often adds to the effects by normal physical means.

Rarer and stranger events, including many quasi-physical as opposed to physical phenomena, have been reported in poltergeist cases, but the above are the most usual and the most relevant to metal-bending. In [this description] I shall not attempt an accurate generalised description of poltergeist cases, but instead shall concentrate on certain personal observations which have relevance to metal-bending and to physics.

I have had to live with poltergeist phenomena on several occasions, and the experiences are not easily forgotten. I have kept notebook records of nearly a hundred ‘movements’ of objects which I witnessed. I have records of many more reported to me by other observers of English cases.

It happens that the particular type of event I have observed most frequently is the travelling of an object from one location to another in a most abnormal way. It might best be described as the disappearance of the object in its original position, and its re-appearance somewhere else. This is the phenomenon known, as I subsequently found, as ‘teleportation’. It is likely that this phenomenon is of physical similarity and relevance to metal-bending, and therefore I shall discuss it in detail; I introduce it by way of a description of the poltergeist phenomena (rather atypical) which I had the opportunity to observe in my own home.