# Has Anyone Ever Recorded a Poltergeist? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 14, 2016, 11:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-recorded-a-poltergeist/743122 "2016-01-14T11:05:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2016, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-recorded-a-poltergeist/743122/21 "2016-01-14T20:33:23Z")
Yes, several have been recorded, but they never made the Top 100 and now the big labels won’t even return their phone calls. ---
**Author:** ![dasmoocher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/dbc845/32.png) [@dasmoocher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dasmoocher)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2016, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-recorded-a-poltergeist/743122/22 "2016-01-14T20:53:02Z")
> [@wolfpup](#): > > Yes, several have been recorded, but they never made the Top 100 and now the big labels won’t even return their phone calls. [Yep. As Wikipedia mentions in the last sentence:](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poltergeist_%28band%29) > [@](#): > > Poltergeist, originally Carrion,[1][2] is a Swiss power/thrash metal band that played from 1985 to 1993, and is now active as of 2013. Carrion made a total of two demos and one full length album under SriLanca Records. Poltergeist made a total of two full-length albums and three demos under Century Media Records.[3] They also made a single and a full-length album under Haunted House Records.[4] It is currently unknown if Poltergeist is signed to a label or working on a new album. ---
**Author:** ![Greg\_Charles](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/839c29/32.png) [@Greg\_Charles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Greg_Charles)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2016, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-recorded-a-poltergeist/743122/23 "2016-01-14T21:41:10Z")
> [@Omar\_Little](#): > > Similar question, with the fact that almost every adult in the western world carrying an HD video camera on their person during every waking hour, has anyone filmed a credible clear video of [insert name of myth here]. > > - Bigfoot > - Nessie > - Space alien > - Flying saucer > - Boggie creek monster > - Chupacabre > - insert your own Cool, I get to do the XKCD link: [https://xkcd.com/1235/](https://xkcd.com/1235/) ---
**Author:** ![botsgotme](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/91b2a8/32.png) [@botsgotme](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/botsgotme)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2016, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-recorded-a-poltergeist/743122/24 "2016-01-15T14:29:07Z")
The question was simple: has anyone ever recorded knocking sounds of unknown origin, in some setting suggestive of the poltergeist phenomenon.I wasn’t asking about anything else. I agree-knocking sounds heard in an old house could be caused by any number of things; I am not interested in those. Just something that cannot be explained by natural causes. If no such recordings exist, then yes, I agree, the phenomenon is most likely a hoax. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2016, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-recorded-a-poltergeist/743122/25 "2016-01-15T14:39:46Z")
> [@botsgotme](#): > > Just something that cannot be explained by natural causes. How exactly would you determine a recording couldn’t be explained by natural causes? The descriptions of supposed poltergeist sounds I have heard all are similar to natural sounds like knocks or thumps. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_Torque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Max\_Torque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Torque)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2016, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-recorded-a-poltergeist/743122/26 "2016-01-15T14:52:09Z")
The most incredible ghost video I’ve seen: [DID YOU SEE IT?!](https://youtu.be/T9hI6u8V-MQ) ---
**Author:** ![Wakinyan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wakinyan/32/352_2.png) [@Wakinyan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wakinyan)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2016, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-recorded-a-poltergeist/743122/27 "2016-01-15T15:17:43Z")
There are numerous videos of poltergeist, but whether a certain video is really poltergeist or not is of course a question of belief. For instance, if I post a video of a chair that is seemingly moving by itself i my kitchen (poltergeist), then nobody can prove whether it is poltergeist or not. One cannot say that it scientifically proven not to be poltergeist, naturally, or state the opposite. The only thing one “scientifically” can say is that the chair seems to move, but we who look at the film do not know why. Then of course, if you believe in poltergeist you are prone to say that this is proof of the phenomenon; if you don’t believe in poltergeist then you say that there’s natural explanation for it (pulling strings, for instance). I’ve been thinking about this when people say, hey, how come we never filmed an UFO now that everybody has a camera? At the same time there are thousands of videos of “UFOs” on YouTube. Nobody know what it is one sees, in a number of them. So the answer to the “how come” question is: Hey, here’s a vid of an UFO. And then the person who made the claim says: But that is a fake. But both statements are to my highly “unscientific”. There is something on the vid and the onlookers do not know what it is, both are only assuming according to their beliefs. And of course the same with (some) poltergeist videos. There are numerous videos of poltergeist. The question is: Do you believe it? The videos doesn’t really matter, so it doesn’t matter if UFOs or poltergeist are filmed or not. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2016, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-recorded-a-poltergeist/743122/28 "2016-01-15T15:29:50Z")
> [@jtur88](#): > > There have been a lot of things for which there was “no scientific evidence” until advancing technology made it “a simple matter” for researchers to examine phenomena in more detail. Like bacteria, DNA, etc. If we had clumped them all together like Leprechauns, we wouldn’t have gotten very far. Another thing: You’re ignoring the difference between an \*\*\*unproven \*\*\*assertion and an \*\*\*arbitrary \*\*\*assertion. In the case of bacteria and DNA, there were valid reasons to suspect their existence prior to absolute proof. We merely had to wait until science had the necessary tools to establish their existence. In the case of leprechauns and poltergeists, the possibility of their existence is based on nothing but fantasy. ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2016, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-recorded-a-poltergeist/743122/29 "2016-01-15T21:23:04Z")
> [@botsgotme](#): > > The question was simple: has anyone ever recorded knocking sounds of unknown origin, in some setting suggestive of the poltergeist phenomenon.I wasn’t asking about anything else. I agree-knocking sounds heard in an old house could be caused by any number of things; I am not interested in those. Just something that cannot be explained by natural causes. If no such recordings exist, then yes, I agree, the phenomenon is most likely a hoax. If I come to you with a recording of knocking sounds of unknown origin, what are you supposed to do with that? Yes, the origin of the knocking sounds is unknown to you. But why would you think that just because you don’t know the origin of the knocking sound that a poltergeist is a possibility? There are thousands of mundane sources for the knocking sounds on the recording. One is that I knocked on the table, and recorded that. The recording doesn’t preserve any information about the source of the knocking, does it? So even if you can’t prove anything about the source of the knocks it is not surprising, since how could you prove what caused any random recording of knocks? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-recorded-a-poltergeist/743122.md?page=1)