All language subtitles for The.Enfield.Poltergeist.S01E02.WEBRip.x264-XEN0N_track4_eng

[whirring]

[overlapping tape
recorder chatter]

[Grosse] Would you like
to talk to me?
Don’t forget.

One for no and two for yes.

[wall thuds twice]

[Grosse] 284 Green Street.

Inexplicable events personally
experienced by Maurice Grosse.

[children screaming]
- One.

Marbles and plastic pieces
seen in high-speed transit.

And there was a chest of drawers
moving towards the door.

[Grosse] Two.
A chair in the bedroom...

[Roz] A chair which was standing
by Janet’s bed appears
to have moved.

[children screaming, chattering]

I went up the stairs,
and as I went up the stairs,
this knock followed me.

Banging on the side of the walls
and on the ceiling.

On the floor.

[Janet screaming, wailing]

You know, I’m sure there’s
something in this house trying
to kill her. I swear it.

We have got

some entities here.

And we shall have
to consider seriously
the possibility

of matter other than normal,

sources of energy
other than normal,

and perhaps even
creation ex nihilo
and a fourth dimension.

[thud]

[radio announcer]
LBC on 261. Pass it on.

[radio presenter]
We’re talking about poltergeists

because rather a spooky story
about the family

who’s living in fear
of strange goings-on

that are driving them
from their home.

With me is Mr. Maurice Grosse.

And you’re at pains to mention
that it’s not an evil spirit,
but do you believe in the fact--

I mean, I’m thinking
of films like The Exorcist
where an evil spirit

can get into a child
and make it do the most
extraordinary things.

Does that sort of thing happen?

[Carr] Round about the 1970s,

there was a gradual
buildup of-of interest
in these phenomena.

On the entertainment side,
the subject was becoming
more topical.

[The Exorcist narrator]
Somewhere between science
and superstition,

- there is another world.
- [gasps]

The world of darkness.

It was The Exorcist movie
that’s directly related,

I suppose,
in some sense, to Enfield.

[The Exorcist narrator]
Something beyond
comprehension is happening

to a little girl
on this street, in this house.

[child] No! Please, don’t!
No, please!

[Pazuzu shouting indistinctly]
Do it!

I wouldn’t tell me wife to go
and see it anyway.

[grunts]

Well, I just found it
really horrible.

I just had to come out.
I couldn’t take anymore.

I believe. [chuckles] I believe.

But the mainstream view
was still

that these phenomena
couldn’t really be real.

[radio presenter]
Let’s go back to the calls.

We’re talking to the people
who’ve been suffering
from these poltergeists.

Next on the line
is Hilda from Wandsworth.

[Hilda] When I came
down the stairs,

I-I would be lifted up
and placed down.

I was absolutely
terrified to mention it to--

[caller 1] The milk bottle
lifted itself up and moved, uh,

two or three yards to
the settee and stood
straight up on the--

[caller 2] It’s quite possible
that, um, disasters such as

aircraft accidents
could be inspired

by subconsciously
wanting something to happen.

[radio presenter]
Hmm. Interesting call.
Maurice Grosse is with us.

He’s a member of
the Society for
Psychical Research.

[Grosse]
We tried to investigate it
in scientific terms

as far as possible.

And my personal view is
that it won’t be very
many years now

before people begin to accept
the paranormal as normal.

We’re only just touching
the tip of the iceberg.

[interviewer] What sort of
a case is this
in your experience?

Well, I think this is
probably the best
case this century.

In fact, as far
as documentation is concerned,

it may be the best case
of all time.

[Grosse] Fortunately,
we have tape recorders.

Now tape recorders
for the assessment of evidence

is the best instrument
you can possibly have
because it is non-selective.

You don’t have to point it,
you don’t have to stay with it,

you turn it on and you leave it.

And whatever you pick up,
you hope you picked up
what you were looking for.

[Carr] The Society
for Psychical Research were
interested in the possibility

that there might be evidence
for some new force of nature.

- [Janet yelps]
- [Grosse on recorder grunts]
Crikey!

As I asked the question,
"Are you having a game with me?"

The SPR was a wonderfully--
very friendly,

but very
fuddy-duddy organization.

The vast majority
of the people there
were elderly men interested

in finding evidence
of the paranormal,
evidence of life after death,

evidence that spirits carry on.

When we talk about
assessment of evidence,

I’m now talking about
the assessment
of real phenomena.

Not theoretical phenomena.
Real phenomena.

Because that’s
what I specialize in,
the real stuff.

[Blackmore] Maurice
was... [stammers]
...absolutely committed.

He really wanted people
to-- [stammers] to know.

[Blackmore] You might
imagine there are lots
of poltergeists around,

but there aren’t that many.

And when one comes up
that lasts more than
a couple of days

and has things that can
potentially be tested,

people rushed off there.

From the SPR’s point of view,
was this a genuine case?

[Grosse] November 1977.

Visit by Tony Cornell,
Alan Gauld,

and Bernard Carr, of the SPR.

I’m not particularly
psychically sensitive,

so I’m not like a medium
that would go into a building

and immediately feel,
"Oh, there’s something--
something here."

I wasn’t even an experienced
investigator of poltergeists.

[stammers] I was very young.
I was just a-- a beginner.

On the other hand,
Tony Cornell and Alan Gauld

were the most
experienced ghost hunters,
if you like, in the world.

[Grosse]

Yes, you come up, boys.

[Hodgson family,
SPR members chattering]

[Paul] As time went on,
you got this
complete thoroughfare

of people coming to your home.

[Grosse]

[Paul] You got lots
of people judging you.

Questioning you.
Criticizing you, maybe.

"Well, you didn’t see that."
"How did that happen?"

"You sure that happened?"
Questioning.

That’s gonna be
wearing on anybody.

[Grosse]

[Grosse]

[Peggy]

Right.

- [children shout, gasp]
- [Grosse] What’s happened then?

[Janet] The--
The pillow just jumped over me.

Janet was laying...
[speaks indistinctly]

[Grosse] Now how did that--
While you were
watching how did the pillow go?

Well, Janet moved,
and the pillow shot right over.

- Like this?
- Yes.

- This?
- Yes.

- We’ll just go outside again...
- Yes.

...and listen
and see what happens.

[Cornell]

[Margaret] Mmm.

[sniffs]

[Carr] During the time
I was there with Tony and Alan,
we did hear bumps.

The children were-were
falling out of bed
and things were moving around,

but only when none of us
were in-in the room

where the phenomena
were occurring.

And so, we couldn’t be sure
from-- from-- from the evening

we spent there, that it wasn’t
just the children.

[Pincott] Most of
the senior members
of the society were academics.

In the opinion of many,
only academics

were thought capable
of carrying out a decent,
impartial investigation.

The academics were old money,
if you like.

Maurice and Guy were,
as they called it
in those days, trade.

[Grosse] The establishment
acts like three wise monkeys,

"I see nothing, I hear nothing,
I say nothing."

[children clamoring, crying]

[Hodgson family
speaking indistinctly]

[Grosse] This time it’s hit
the light very hard,

and the light’s gone out.

[Grant]
The reason Dad got involved

with the Society
for Psychical Research

was because it was
the only scientific institution

that-- that was trying to
look into these phenomena.

Dad was always very
interested in science,

that’s the career
he wanted to follow.

And then, of course,
the war took away six
very important years.

He was 20 when he joined up.

He was at Dunkirk.

He never really spoke about
what happened in the war.

And when he came out,
he went to work in one of
his father’s confectioner shops.

[Richard] He managed
to escape that life.

By chance, he and two friends
won the pools.

£3,000 each.

[Grant] In the mid-1960s,
it was a lot of money.

[Richard] Enough for him
to get out of the shop
and start his own business.

And that’s what he did.

The dream of all
poster advertisers

is to be able to sell
one space more than once.

He created a poster
advertising machine.

You could have 32 posters
in this one box.

He’s no fool.

[Grosse] My opinion is that,

if this was anything other than
a paranormal investigation,

the verdict would be
overwhelmingly in favor of
activities of forces unknown.

And as this is
a paranormal investigation,

we must press on for 101% proof.

[party guests]
♪ Happy birthday to you ♪

♪ Happy birthday to you ♪

♪ Happy birthday, dear Janet ♪

♪ Happy birthday to you ♪

[cheering]

[Peggy cheering]
Well, blow it out, blow ’em out.

["Daddy Cool" playing]

[family, guests clamoring]

- Oh, I saw that go.
- [Peggy] What was that?

- I believe the kettle.
- [Peggy] Oh, it’s started.

- I’ll wash out the kettle.
- Enfield,
November the 10th, 1977.

- It’s the-- [screams]
- [Peggy] Now the chair
gone over.

The red chair
has turned over backwards.

Yeah, she-she was--
she was like this on it.

- Like that over it.
- [Grosse] Janet was sit--
Janet was sitting on it

at the time it was
thrown over backwards.

I’ll sort it out.

[Paul] Janet was sitting
on the chair,

and the chair
moved across the room.

[Grosse] St-Steady on.
Steady on. Calm down.

[Paul] And her feet
did not touch the ground.

And she was really,
um, screaming.

It was really scary
but unexplained.

[Grosse] It just threw
Janet off the chair,
absolutely in front of me,

and I saw her go
flying off the chair.

At the moment, the people
in the room are Mrs. Nottingham,

Margaret, Janet, Mrs. Hodgson,
Billy, Paul, and myself.

And it’s activating like mad.

[rumbling]

[screams, groaning]

It just tipped over the settee

in front of us all
in the room here.

[Peggy] Oh, Christ. Come on.

Let’s all calm down, shall we?

It’s so easy for someone
who’s not experienced it

or seen it to say,
"Oh, it’s not real."

You-- You, particularly.
I want you to calm down, right?

Listen, whatever you are,
we’re not frightened of you.

We’re gonna keep on
putting everything straight
every time you do anything.

[Grosse]
Well, it’s definitely worse.
It’s the worst I’ve ever seen.

I’ve never...
[speaks indistinctly]

- No.
- [Peggy] I’ve never seen
anything like it.

[Grosse] We have tried
everything in our power

to stop the phenomena
but to no avail.

The situations we
are encountering
simply cannot be explained

when referred to
the accepted laws of physics.

[Carr] At the time of
the Enfield case,

physicists, people like
John Hasted

started getting interested
in the phenomena.

At least a few physicists
began to think,

"Well, maybe some of
these anomalous interactions

involving mind
and the physical world,

maybe they can be
described by physics after all."

[Pincott] John Hasted
was Professor of Physics

at Birkbeck College
in the University of London.

I’m Hasted, physicist.

I work on these things,
and I can speak as a person

who thinks that many
of these effects are well
on the way to validation.

I think it is going
to be absolutely central
in the next 20, 30 years.

Professor Hasted,
like me, wanted to know,

actually, what was going on,
what the physics was.

What is the nature
of physical reality?

That was our key
driving motivation.

[Pincott] John Hasted sprang
on the psychical research scene

with the appearance
of the metal-benders.

So, the camera
will see that, um, there--

- You can see
that there’s no pressure.
- None whatsoever.

And I’m doing it
on the thin side of the fork,
that if it bends it will...

[Pincott] In the early 1970s,

Uri Geller
had surprised audiences

all around the world
with his paranormal
metal bending.

[Uri]
Do you feel anything in yours,

under your fingers,
happening now?

- Uh-oh, wait.
- [TV show guest]
What’s happening?

I already feel something.

[TV show guest] You can feel it
in your fingertips, can you?

[Uri] Well, I can feel
the metal cracking slowly.

- Ah, well. There it is.
- [gasps] Ah. There it is.

- It’s over there.
- Where is it?

[laughs]

[Blackmore]
The effect was very dramatic.

I mean, that led people
like John Hasted

and other physicists to start
to investigate.

[Hasted] Not bad. Not bad.

[Blackmore] He thought that
if bending metal by
the power of the mind

was possible--
if there is any telepathy,

clairvoyance, psychokinesis,
precognition, poltergeist,

any of these things--
that would be dramatic
alteration in--

in our understanding of physics.

And I think that’s
what he was expecting

and hoping to find
with the Enfield poltergeist.

[Hasted] Now the other one.

[Grosse]
Janet is clearly the epicenter.

Does her mind have powers
we have overlooked?

[TV show host]
It was three days ago since Uri

was on Monday’s Blue Peter
and calls are still coming in

from people about strange things
that have been happening

to their knives,
forks and spoons.

We’ve got some people
with us today in the studio
with some unusual spoons

and forks that, uh,
strange things have happened to,

like Allison
down there at the end.

What have you got there, love?
You’ve got the fork?

Um, what’s happening
after the program...

[Robertson] Hasted asked
whether I could go
up to the house to, um,

be an extra hand
to assist with the case.

[Grosse] Come in, David.

We’re in the living room now,
in 284.

[Grosse]

[Robertson] Most people
do not have experience
of the paranormal.

It’s very rare.

What, something like
one in a million

can actually
do physical things.

The other 999,000
have got no experience
of it at all.

So, what reason have they got
to believe that it
actually exists?

We took up a strain gauge
that was attached
to a metal spoon,

then that goes to amplifiers...

and then the amplifiers
go to a chart recorder.

It’s basically
measuring any bending.

Small changes in length
of the metal.

What you do is encourage her
to bend the metal.

This went on for
about 20, 25 minutes.

The signals built up
in strength.

- The sensor actually
physically bent...
- [sensor whirring]

...then finally broke
without any touch.

Janet could produce the signals
more or less on command.

My impression was that she
was sort of mentally

in touch with
what was happening

with some of the
physical phenomena.

It was sort of responsive
to her internal state.

[Grosse]
Can the subconscious mind

actively affect its
physical surroundings?

Throw things about?

Bend metal?

Is the mind just a product
of the biology of the brain?

Or is it a quite separate
spiritual entity?

[Blackmore] How does mind
fit in a world of matter?

That is the question I think
has threaded all through this.

[Grosse] I think I have studied
and listened to practically
every theory

that’s been put forward
over the last century.

But I do not find
any of them very convincing.

[Richard]
My father was a thinker,
something of a philosopher.

He was always interested

in the infinitely small,
the infinitely large.

For example, he created a box
which was only an
inch-and-a-half thick,

and you would look
into this box,
and you would see into infinity.

[Grant] It’s a mirror
within a mirror
within a mirror within a mirror.

Going back and back
and back and back
and back forever.

Just suppose the mind
could control matter.

The implications
would be tremendous.

Imagine if you could
explode an enemy’s atom bombs

merely by concentrating
on the trigger mechanism.

So, some scientists have
taken this subject seriously.

They’ve devised
ingenious experiments
to find the truth.

[Morris] Janet seemed to be
the center of everything.

There’s this force that’s
following her around
and doing all this stuff.

And I was sort of thinking,
well, something has
to be done definitively

to photograph whatever’s
happening in that house.

A lot of the photographs
I was taking were quite mundane.

I wanted to get
the thing moving, flying,
falling over, whatever.

It was almost as if
whatever this thing was
was outsmarting you.

You just had to try
and get one step ahead,

but you never did.

Uh, I liken this
to a game of chess,

where the poltergeist
makes a move,
and we make a countermove.

The essence of the phenomena
is a mischievousness.

[Morris] One night,
I set up the cameras
in the corner of the room.

I’m downstairs,

we’re listening to
a live feed on a tape recorder.

And I’ve got a 25-meter cable

that I can hit
and trigger the camera.

- Suddenly we heard...
- [thud]

...and I’m thinking,
"What the fuck was that?"

I hit the button
and taken a sequence
of pictures.

[children screaming]

- [Janet breathes heavily]
- [Peggy] Janet!

Where is she?

[Morris stutters] It was only
by processing these
the following day

that we... [stammers]
...got to realize

the true extent of--
of what was happening.

Where she was actually
flying across the room

and crashing down
just inside the door.

You could see that Janet
has come from prone in the bed,

covered up, to upright.

The thing just runs
six frames a second.

So, when the pictures
were taken,

they were at least a sixth
of a second between--
between each frame.

There’s not one picture
of her climbing up

or moving the covers down
to get her legs out,
or anything.

She’s gone from that to that
in a sixth of a second.

All I know is I triggered
the camera remotely when
I heard the noise.

I wasn’t in the room
at the time.
I didn’t see it.

As to what it is,
I’ve absolutely no idea.

Just have to let the pictures
speak for themselves.

[Grosse] Time,
ten minutes past 1:00,
3rd of December.

This time, Janet was thrown
right out of the room,
onto the stairs.

- Try and explain
to me what happened. Yeah.
- I was in bed, lying down.

And my arms went up like this.

So, then I felt something
pull my arm.

- And I was pulled out of bed...
- You were pulled up
by your arms.

- ...dragged over there, and fe--
- You were dragged along
the floor?

- Yeah, and I was lifting-- No.
- What, running?
Were you running?

- How were you going?
- Dragged.

Dragged. Yeah.
To where? To where?

- Like this. Like-Like this.
- Dragged out.

She’s showing being
pulled forward
with her hands together.

[Robertson] It was getting
to the point where they
felt it was out of control.

They couldn’t really handle it.

[Grosse] This evening I visited
Professor Hasted for advice.

Although it is very rare
for any person to be
seriously hurt

from poltergeist incidents,

I’m concerned that
there could be an accident.

[Robertson] Hasted asked me
to try and find ways
to help the family.

The poltergeist case
is a situation

where this particular
mental state becomes intense.

Hasted suggested
that it can actually
break through

into something
beyond our physical reality,

and... [stammers]
...the energy from it
manifests in a physical way.

- [Grosse]
Interview with David Robertson.
- Okay.

Um, yesterday morning
I took Janet up
to the top bedroom

where lots of phenomena
appeared to happen.

- [children screaming]
- What’s happened there?

[Janet] The window!

[Robertson] Uh, she described
how she was floating
about the room.

- [Margaret screams]
She’s still going.
- [screaming]

I could hear moving,
but I was outside the room,
of course.

What’s happening now?

[Margaret, Janet screaming]

I can’t get in.
There’s a-- [stammers]

- A really strong force
pushing the door.
- [screaming]

Of course, all this time,
there had been a group
of people outside

who have actually witnessed
what was happening.

Some of the people outside
the house witnessed Janet
levitating horizontally,

up in front of the window,

and the curtains
were billowing into the room.

[Grosse]
Following is an interview
with Mrs. Hazel Short

the woman who looks after
crossing of the children.

[Hazel]

And that was followed
by a pillow.

Then I see young Janet.

And I could see her
going up and down,

up and down in front
of the window.

Uh, she was curved,
as though somebody--

- [Grosse] Picking her up?
- Yeah.

So she was actually curved.
So, uh--

Well, that’s what she looked
like to me ’cause she could--

Uh, remember,
I was standing down here,
looking up.

[Grosse] The following
is a statement made to me

by Mr. John Rainbow,
tradesman of Chatsworth Drive,

Enfield, Middlesex.

[Grosse]

[Rainbow]

[stutters]

[Grosse]

[Robertson]
These are paranormal things

that are happening
in the neighborhood.

There are actual
independent witnesses
who saw physical phenomena.

[Grosse]
This is evidence not just seen

by people involved in the case,
but by outsiders.

And it all begins
to tie together.

[breathes deeply]

[children screaming, clamoring]

[Grosse] Consider the idea

that we actually exist
in various dimensions.

Perhaps thousands,
millions of dimensions.

I’m beginning to wonder
if we live in many worlds
at the same time.

[Hasted] Well, we would have
to conceive of people’s minds

being able to have contact
with these other dimensions.

Because if all of us

believe only
in three dimensions,

then we’ll never see
anything extraordinary.

But once we have contact
and can persuade
other minds also

to see this other
parallel universe...

it may just be
a very good formulation

for movement
and disappearance of atoms.

[television host]
If people could
really spirit objects

merely by thinking about them,
surely, by this time,

spies and bank robbers would’ve
perfected the technique.

Yet if there’s
one thing we’ve learned,

nature never cheats,
but some people do.

They bend the evidence,
and that’s something
that scientists often forget.

And there’s no heat at all.
Just touch it.

[whistling]

[whistling continues]

[Grosse]
Saturday, December the 10th.

I arrived at 284 at 7:05 p.m.
to be greeted by whistling.

[whistling]

[whistling continues]

[Grosse]

[whistling]

I-- I might be...
[speaks indistinctly]
...the trajectory.

[whistling continues]

This whistling, uh,
that’s going on now,
is paranormal whistling.

Uh, absolutely nobody here
is whistling at all.

Billy can’t whistle
and neither can Margaret.

[whistling continues]

[Richard] I was 25 years old,
a young lawyer.

And before I went off to work
in the morning,

I would come down to breakfast
and my mother and father
would be there.

And my father,
every morning, would delight

in telling me what had
happened the night before.

And I went through
day after day of banging’s,

and knocking’s, and screaming,

and shouting,
and things happening.

[Grosse] Time is 10:17.

If there’s any entity here,
you’re welcome.

Please talk directly
into the microphone.

You’re welcome.
Please talk directly
into the microphone.

If you cannot do that,
please knock on the table

or make any other
appropriate noise.

[Richard]
He kept on badgering me.
"Why don’t you come?

Why aren’t you interested
in coming to the house
to see what’s happening?"

I said, "Dad, I’m really
not interested."

I was what you would call
a complete skeptic.

Then I made a concession to him.

I said, "Look, Dad,
if this thing ever talks,

and can talk to me, I will go."

So one morning, he triumphantly
switched on the tape recorder,

and he said to me,
"Listen to this."

[Grosse]
Time is 24 minutes past 10:00.

Saturday, December the 10th.

[Peggy]
Right, are we all in bed?

[Margaret]
Yes, we are all in bed.

[grunting]

[Peggy] Blimey.

Where’d that noise come from?

[Margaret] By the wall.

[Grosse] Where about?

Where Janet’s sleeping.

- [entity barking]
- [Grosse] Under Janet’s bed.

[Margaret] Yeah.

Seems to be saying it to me.

- [entity barking]
- Where’d that come from?

Over there.
Near your tape recorder.

- Near the tape recorder?
- [Peggy] What it sounded
like to me.

From that side
of the room, definitely.

[Grosse] All right,
so it didn’t go
anywhere near Janet?

- No.
- [Grosse] Right then.

- [entity barks]
- [Grosse] That last noise--

That bark came well
away from Janet.

At least six foot
away from Janet,

and six foot
away from Margaret.

[entity barks]

[entity growls, whimpers]

[Margaret]
Ooh, I don’t like that noise.

- [entity barks]
- [shouts]

Come on. You whistle.
You can bark. You can speak.
I want to hear you speak.

[entity barks, whimpers]

No, come on, you can do better
than barking like a dog.

I want to hear you speak.

Let’s have a name.
Somebody’s name.

Anybody here.

See if you can
say my name, "Maurice."

[entity barks] Maurice!

[gasps] Is that it?

[Grosse] Come on.
Try "Maurice."

[entity] Maurice!

[Janet whimpering,
inhales sharply]

[Richard] I heard this sound.

It went, "Maurice!"
Just like that. "Maurice!"

[Grosse] Try again.

- [entity] Grosse!
- It said, "Grosse."

[Grosse] Did it say, "Grosse"?

[entity] Grosse!

[Richard] It spoke.

[Grosse] Now--
Now can you tell me your name?

Tell me what your name is.

I’m Bill.

- [Peggy] Bill.
- [Grosse] Bill?

- [Peggy] I’m getting--
- [Grosse] Scared?

Have you got another name?

[Bill] Wilkinson.

[Janet, Grosse] "Wilkinson."

Now, I’m going to
ask you another question.

Did you die in this house?

[Bill] Yes!

[Richard] I was dumbstruck.

And I said to him,
"Okay, Dad. [sighs]
I’ll-- I’ll go."

[footsteps approaching]

I arrived at
this house in Enfield.

I was then invited
to go upstairs.

The door to the room
was slightly ajar.

I thought to myself,

"I’m gonna look through at Janet

and see what she’s up to."

And as soon as that thought
had gone into my head,
the voice said--

[Bill] Shut the fucking door!

[Richard] Read my mind.

And then it said to me,
"You can come in,

but you must stand by the wall
and look at the wall."

[Bill] I’m Bill Wilkinson...

and I died 15 years ago.

I come from
Durants Park graveyard.

[Bill] I have come here
to see my family.

[Richard] And I thought,
"I’m having a conversation

with a discarnate voice,
which is strange,

but I suppose it behooves me
as a lawyer to ask him
some questions."

Bill?

I want you to tell me

whether you--
you remember what happened
to you when you died.

[Bill] I had an hemorrhage,
and I fell asleep,

and I died in a chair
in a corner downstairs.

[interviewer]
And what do you make of that?

[breathes deeply]

Um, that I witnessed
and spoke to a ghost.

- [Janet] Your name?
- [Bill] Shut up.

- [Janet] No, your name?
- [Bill] Shut up, you. Shut up.

[Richard] Yeah.

[Bill speaks indistinctly,
grunting]

[Bill] Get out of here, you...
[speaks indistinctly]

[Bill, Janet
speaks indistinctly]

[Grosse] It’s not the children.
It’s too quick. It’s too sharp.

[Bill speaks indistinctly]

[Grosse] It just doesn’t fit.

[Bill speaking indistinctly]

[Grosse] There’s a certain
change of tone,
from normal tone to this voice.

[Bill] I come to see my wife
but then she weren’t here...

[Grosse] Though it appears
to come from Janet,

- and sometimes Margaret...
- [Bill speaking indistinctly]

...when we listen
to our recordings
over and over again...

- [Bill speaking indistinctly]
- ...I get the strong impression

that there is another
personality at work.

[Bill] I don’t know.

I’m doing exercises
on Janet’s bed. [panting]

[Hasted] When you hear
the voice, and it comes out,
where does it come from?

- Here, your throat?
- No.

- [Hasted] Where do you
feel it comes from?
- Back of the neck.

Mmm, the back of the neck.

[Hasted] And so, it must be
as if it’s somebody else
speaking then

- when you hear it?
- Yeah. Behind us.

[Hasted] And do you
get the feeling,
when you hear the voice,

that there is a person there?

[Margaret] Yes.

- [Bill] Yeah.
- [Hasted] Is that the voice now?

Yeah.

[Hasted] Is anybody there?

- Nothing. No.
- No.

It doesn’t always
do it to order.

No, it doesn’t.
It goes in spasms.

Like, we’re talking now.
It may not now,
after you’ve said that,

but it won’t do it
when you want it to.

[Hasted] Is anybody there?

Who’s there?

[Bill grunts]

[Bill] Ghost-chaser’s here.

- [Hasted] Tell me about that.
- [chuckles]

[Roz] Professor John Hasted

and David Robinson
recorded the voice

- on a special thing
called a laryngograph.
- [speaks indistinctly]

They found that
the voices were produced

not in the normal way
as we are talking now,

but... [stammers]
...from what are called
the false vocals folds

which are a...
[stammers] ...bit further up
from the larynx.

They discovered that...
[stammers] ...these voices
were not produced normally.

Janet used to say,
"It’s doing this.
It’s doing that."

Something was using her.

[Bill] I can go on
for blinking hours.

[Hasted] Don’t you ever
get a sore throat, Janet?

- No. Yeah.
- [Hasted] Sure?

[Hasted] You never get pain
in the back of the neck

- or something?
- No.

To keep up this particular
type of voice for any
length of time

without damage to
the vocal cords
is absolutely impossible.

I mean, there must be some
hoarseness attached to it.

But don’t forget,
these children don’t do this
for a couple of minutes or so.

They do it for lengths
of periods up to three hours.

And without any hoarseness
or sore throats whatsoever.

[Grosse] What we have done
is amass good evidence

for activity that has
no known physical
or psychological explanation.

We now have irrefutable proof
that the majority
of the manifestations

encountered are of a nature
not explicable
by orthodox science.

[Pincott] The international
conference at Cambridge
on the Enfield poltergeist,

presented by Maurice Grosse
and Guy Playfair.

And it was
an excellent presentation,

followed by much discussion
and controversy.

[host] Now, Mr. Grosse
is going to speak first.

[audience applauding]

[Grosse] Can you hear all right,
by the way?

Can you all hear? Yes? Good.

I’m Maurice Grosse,
and my colleague below
is Guy Lyon Playfair.

[Blackmore] The annual
SPR conferences were great.

I went to every one
for a couple of decades,
at least.

[Grosse]
...is to give a brief, brief...

And the Enfield poltergeist,
of course, was... [blows]

...you know, for a few years,
w-was-was big deal.

On December the 10th,
one of the girls began
to speak in a voice

resembling that of an old man.

Each of us subsequently
recorded many hours

of what we tentatively term,
"automatic speech."

[Grosse, through recorder]
Now-- Now, can you
tell me your name?

Tell me what your name is.

[Bill through recorder]
I’m Bill.

[Grosse]
Do you know you’re dead?

[Bill] Shut up!

[Grosse] Now, tell me,
what are you doing here,
and why are you here?

[Bill] Shall I tell you
really who I am?

I must remind you
that’s an 11-year-old girl.

Yes, I’d--
[speaking indistinctly]

[Carr] I wasn’t so impressed
with the voices...

- [Bill speaks indistinctly]
- ...because, I mean,
it was a deep voice.

It wasn’t the normal
voice of Janet, for example,

but it wasn’t clear to me
that Janet couldn’t be
producing the voice.

[Carr] Grosse and Playfair
were convinced this was the--

you know, the case
of the century.

Some of the members of
the SPR w-were rather skeptical.

[speaks indistinctly]
I’d like to answer that one.

We are observers
and we are presenting facts
the only way we know.

And we believe this
is the first time ever

that a poltergeist case has been
in-investigated in such depth.

[Blackmore]
I’ve got my diary, and it says,

"The symposium was boring.
What a shambles.

Tapes of little girls woofing
et cetera, et cetera.

A quick drink and then
back to think about my
own paper for tomorrow."

I’m afraid it didn’t
make very much
impression on me. [chuckles]

[Grosse]
In this case, we have 1500,
at least, episodes.

And I myself--
I will stick my chin out

and say 1490 of them
cannot be called
into question at all

unless somebody
is prepared to stand up

and call us either
fools or liars. That’s is all.

It is very interesting
in that clip that Maurice says,

"Are you calling us
either fools or liars."

As far as he’s concerned,
those are the only options.

The real point is
you need investigators

who are going
to ask pertinent questions.

And that’s what Anita
brought to it.

First of all, I think
it’s very, very difficult

to be neutral
about a case like this.

I find it very difficult.

I can’t say,
but I share a feeling

of our very
devoted investigators.

[Blackmore] I always got on
really well with Anita.

[stammers] She had
an interest in psychology.

She had interests
in all sorts of things.
But she was very open-minded.

So, look, for instance,
the little dialogue we heard

between Maurice
and whatever it was.

It was an element
of a game in this.

I feel that the investigators,
the subjects, that family

all play a part in somehow
creating this situation.

I have continually
challenged everybody to tell me

how this girl does it
if she does do it deliberately.

And nobody, nobody has been able
to come up with an answer.

I’d like to say, uh,
as Maurice just said

that we are interested
in the genuine stuff,

and some of you simply
must accept the possibility
that the phenomenon

for which this society
was founded do actually exist.

- [member 1] We do.
- Now, if that changes your--

- [member 2]
Well, it could be challenged.
- [chuckles]

Yes, couldn’t we?
I’m sick of it. Yeah.

[host speaks indistinctly]
...stop it. Anyway,
we are running out of time.

And... [clears throat]

[Blackmore]
Anita undoubtedly brought

the kind of psychology
that would be

much more common nowadays,
but then, you know,

she w-- she was quite
pioneering in a way.

And saying,
"We’ve got to understand
what’s going on in the family,

what’s going on
in the minds of these kids."

[Grosse] And so we are faced
with the big problem
of psychic research.

How do we convince the skeptic?

The answer may be
that the only way

people can be
thoroughly persuaded

of the existence of phenomena

is to experience
the activity themselves.

This is a surprise.

- [Playfair speaks
indistinctly] Hello.
- [people chattering]

[Peggy] Hi. How are ya?

[Peggy] Be quiet now.

- [Grosse] Hello.
[speaking indistinctly]
- [Gregory] Nice to be here.

Ah, this is Mrs. Hodgson...
[speaks indistinctly]

- [Gregory speaks indistinctly]
- [Grosse] ...and Anita Gregory.

[Pincott] "So Tuesday
the 20th of December, 1977,

in the evening,
I went to Enfield.

Anita Gregory came,

and events took
a very interesting turn."

[Grosse] Right. Now let’s go
from where we were before.

We know what your name is now.

Tell me something
about yourself.

[Pincott] Anita was
a lecturer in psychology.

Come on, you can talk now.

[rocking chair creaking]

Bill.

[Pincott]
She was the ultimate academic.

[Gregory]
My name’s Anita Gregory.

I’m interested in you.

What do you want?

What do you want?
Tell us what you want.

Do you want me to go out?

Are you frightened of me?

[Bill] No.

[Gregory] Tell me how you are.

[Bill] Fuck off.

Well, that’s very good,
that’s splendid,

but you haven’t
told me how you are.

You’ve told me where to go,

but you haven’t
told me how you are.

Tell me how you are.
I really want to know.

[Bill] Shit off!

Didn’t catch that.
Say it again. More distinctly.

Now you’re doing very well.

Say it a bit
more clearly, please.

You tell me how you are.
I really want to know
how you are.

How you’re feeling.
I want to know
what it feels like to be you.

[Bill] Shit you!

[Gregory] Really must
say good night now. Bye-bye.

- [Grosse] Okay.
- [Peggy] Bye-bye.

[Pincott] When we went outside,

Anita gave me a look.
Disbelieving look.

"Do you really believe that?"

Mmm.

[Janet speaks indistinctly]

[Grosse]
Friday, December the 23rd.

Arrived at 7:50 p.m.
and was told that both

the goldfish died
at the same time
this afternoon.

Oh, my God! Oh, my--
[breathes heavily]

[Bill] I came to torment you.