Ghosts & Hauntings

The Enfield poltergeist case still intrigues almost 48 years on

By T.K. Randall
July 21, 2025 ·  18 comments

Image: AI-generated (Midjourney) There are few paranormal cases as widely debated as the Enfield poltergeist - a spate of chilling paranormal incidents that occurred from 1977 to 1979 at the home of mother-of-four Peggy Hodgson in Enfield, London.

Over the course of 18 months, the unexplained disturbances occurring at the house escalated from items of furniture being shaken to objects being thrown around, loud knocking sounds and - most terrifyingly of all - the alleged possession of 11-year-old Janet, one of Hodgson's four children.

Several people, including multiple police officers, witnessed these events.

Notable researcher Maurice Grosse from the Society for Psychical Research spent significant amounts of time observing and recording the poltergeist activity at the house.

Photographer Graham Morris was also tasked with capturing photographic evidence of the phenomena.

Grosse, in particular, made vast amounts of audio recordings and witnessed multiple examples of alleged poltergeist activity first-hand which included objects being thrown around, furniture moving across the floor and even the levitation of Janet herself.

Things took an even darker turn when the 11-year-old began speaking in a deep, disturbing voice that was said to belong to the spirit of a man who had died in the house. "There is no way she was doing this for fun," Morris said of Janet's levitation episodes.

"You have got to be mad to actually want to do something like that."

"It was a completely darkened room. If it were the case she were jumping she'd be launching herself at a brick wall or a door in pitch black."

"I think this girl has some sort of force. She is desperate to get this... whatever it is. This energy, this power, whatever she has, across and out to communicate with people."

Even today, it remains unclear what was behind the phenomenon.

While skeptics argue that the voice was put on by Janet herself and that the levitation episodes were faked, others maintain that poltergeist activity really did occur at the house.

Ultimately, though, we may never know for sure what really happened.


Comments (18)

Tags: Poltergeist