Beyond the Veil Magazine

The Enfield Poltergeist Concludes

Issue #12: December 1979

The Enfield Poltergeist, which has been the subject of our reporting since Issue #6, appears to be over. The phenomena that plagued the Hodgson family for eighteen months have ceased. The house at 284 Green Street, Enfield, is quiet.

This is our final report on what has been called the most thoroughly documented poltergeist case in British history.

The Final Months

Through the spring and summer of 1978, the activity gradually diminished. The violent phenomena (the levitations, the flying objects, the spontaneous fires) became less frequent. The voice of “Bill,” which had spoken through Janet Hodgson for months, fell silent.

By September 1978, the household had returned to something approaching normality. Janet and her siblings were attending school regularly. Peggy Hodgson, exhausted by the ordeal, was slowly recovering her health.

Maurice Grosse and Guy Lyon Playfair made their final visits in late 1978. They found no evidence of continuing activity. Whatever had haunted the Hodgsons had departed.

The Case Assessment

Grosse and Playfair have documented over 1,500 separate incidents during the eighteen-month period. These include:

• Approximately 30 instances of objects moving without apparent cause
• Multiple levitations of Janet Hodgson, witnessed by several observers
• Extended periods of voice phenomena, with recordings analysed by speech experts
• Physical interference with equipment, including cameras and tape recorders
• Apparent communication with a deceased former resident of the house

The investigators acknowledge that some incidents were faked, perhaps two per cent of the total. They attribute these to the children’s desire for attention as the genuine phenomena began to wane. The core events, they insist, remain unexplained.

Playfair has maintained that this was not fraud. Having investigated cases on three continents, he considers Enfield among the most convincing he has encountered. Whatever happened in that house, he insists, was not produced by trickery.

Grosse concurs. Though sceptics will always find reasons to doubt, he was there and saw what he saw. No explanation he has encountered, whether hallucination, fraud, or hysteria, accounts for the evidence.

The Sceptical View

Not all observers are convinced. Anita Gregory, a member of the Society for Psychical Research who visited the house, has expressed reservations. She caught Janet bending spoons herself and believes the voice phenomena were produced by ventriloquism.

Gregory has argued that the case is not as strong as its proponents claim. The children were clearly capable of producing phenomena through normal means. Once that is established, she maintains, the entire case becomes suspect.

Milbourne Christopher, an American magician and debunker, visited Enfield in 1978. He concluded that the phenomena could be explained by trickery and the investigators’ willingness to believe.

The debate is likely to continue for years. Enfield has become a Rorschach test for attitudes toward the paranormal: believers see proof; sceptics see credulity.

What Was It?

If we accept that something genuinely paranormal occurred at Enfield, what was it?

The traditional explanation is poltergeist activity: disturbances centred on an adolescent, typically female, typically at a time of emotional stress. Janet Hodgson fits this profile precisely: eleven years old when the phenomena began, approaching puberty, living in a household under considerable strain following her parents’ separation.

Some researchers believe poltergeist phenomena represent psychokinesis, unconscious mental power externalised during periods of psychological turmoil. The agent (in this case Janet) does not consciously produce the phenomena; they emerge from some deeper level of mind.

Others suggest that genuine spirit activity occurred, that “Bill,” the voice claiming to be a deceased former resident, was precisely that. The fact that details he provided about his life and death were later verified gives weight to this interpretation.

A third possibility is that the phenomena represent some combination of the two: genuine psychic disturbance that attracted or enabled a discarnate entity. The spirit of Bill Wilkins may have used Janet’s psychokinetic abilities as a channel for manifestation.

The Aftermath

The Hodgsons remain in the house on Green Street. They have no plans to move.

Janet, now fourteen, has returned to normal adolescence. She reportedly does not like to discuss the events of 1977-78 and has said she remembers very little of the experience.

Maurice Grosse continues his work with the Society for Psychical Research. The Enfield case has become the defining investigation of his career. He maintains files on the case and responds to enquiries from researchers worldwide.

Guy Lyon Playfair is writing a book about Enfield, drawing on his extensive notes and recordings. It will be the definitive account of the case.

Conclusion

The Enfield Poltergeist raises questions we cannot yet answer. Was it fraud, phenomenon, or some mixture of both? Did a spirit speak through a young girl, or did her unconscious mind create the illusion of such speech? Are the forces that manifested at 284 Green Street reproducible, or was Enfield a unique convergence of circumstances that will never recur?

We do not know. Perhaps we cannot know, not with the tools of investigation currently available.

What we can say is this: something happened in Enfield. Whatever it was, it has not been explained. And until it is, the case will stand as a challenge to our understanding of reality.

The house is quiet now. The Hodgsons are at peace. But the questions Enfield raised will echo for generations.

This concludes our coverage of the Enfield case. We thank our readers for their correspondence and their patience as the investigation unfolded. The mystery of Enfield has not been solved, but it has been documented, and that documentation will serve future researchers in their attempts to understand the unexplained.