Priest versus poltergeist
While some poltergeist episodes last for months or years, in most instances the mind-boggling chaos peters out after only a few days or weeks. A recent Romanian case lasted for just four days, but left a lasting impression on the terrified villagers of Naipu, 50km (30 miles) south-west of Bucharest.
The strange events began in the house of Daniel and Ramona Dobre on Sunday 20 August 2017, when stones began pelting the roof, the falls sometimes continuing until almost midnight. Weirder still, lights switched on by themselves, chairs tipped over, and other household objects flew about. The phenomena seemed to focus on the Dobres’ 11-year-old son Andrei.
When paranormal activity erupts in your isolated Romanian village, who do you call? The local priest and the police, of course – in that order. But as the priest began to recite his prayers, chairs flipped over again and more objects were thrown around. His prayer candle also started burning – from the bottom! Six police officers arrived and observed chairs and pots moving about. Although some were struck by the flying stones, a search of the property proved fruitless. On leaving, the creeped-out constables told reporters they were ordered not to speak further about their experiences.
The villagers were quick to zero in on a likely source for the haunting: in June, a female neighbour of the Dobres had died, and local tradition holds that if a person’s soul does not go to Heaven or Hell within 60 days, it may haunt or even possess the living. Obviously, then, Andrei was being tormented by the deceased neighbour’s Earthbound spirit. To support their case, wise old locals pointed out that the flying stones seemed to come from the direction of the dead woman’s house.
News of the weird events soon spread, and within a couple of days four national television stations – Antena 1, Antena 3, Realitatea TV and RTV – had all reported live from the Dobres’ house. One of the first journalists on the scene was local Giurgiu photographer Vasile Arcanu, who arrived on 23 August with Giurgiu mayor Constantin Carapanceanu and deputy mayor Mugurel Vatafu.
Vasile’s initial scepticism was shaken when, in a span of only 30 minutes, he observed three chairs flip over, and various objects – a bottle filled with holy water, a box of photos and clothes on hangers – thrown about. When I spoke to him in early October he was most insistent that no one – not young Andrei or anyone else – could have faked the events: he had been alone in the house when some of the seemingly paranormal events occurred.
He documented the events quite well with still photographs, but, like many a polt investigator before him, was thwarted whenever he tried to videotape the proceedings. First, a recently charged battery went completely, inexplicably, flat and had to
be replaced. Then, after he’d finally got the camera running, the invisible imp, true to the poltergeist playbook, showed perfect timing: when the camera was switched on nothing happened; when it was switched off objects moved.
A seasoned journalist who has covered many gruesome automobile accidents, Vasile confessed to feeling “a little fear” while in the house, and had an overwhelming sensation of being watched. During his visit, young Andrei exhibited some distressing symptoms: he pulled his hair compulsively and the muscles of his face, hands and feet contracted, creating a rather grotesque effect.
One of the many odd things about the episode was that the recently deceased lady, whose spirit was now believed to be tormenting him, had not disliked the lad. Far from it; she’d been particularly fond of him. But Andrei would cry out the woman’s name and plead “leave me alone!” – and objects would fly.
With the strange events continuing and Andrei’s condition worsening, the rattled residents considered resorting to a quaint old Romanian folk remedy to end the curse: digging up the neighbour’s corpse and staking her through the heart. Their dark mood wasn’t eased by the suicide by hanging of a 19-yearold local man, although police were quick to state the death was linked to relationship problems rather than events at the Dobre house.
With the villagers sharpening stakes and media attention escalating, local Child Protection officers stepped in. Andrei was taken to a local hospital and then to the Alexandru Obregia Psychiatric Hospital in Bucharest where doctors were unable to find any signs of mental illness.
After only four hours the boy’s parents had him discharged, and then, feeling religion offered a better chance for a cure, took him on a pilgrimage to six Romanian churches, including Saint Spiridon in Bucharest and a monastery in Cernica.
The intrepid journalist Vasile Arcanu accompanied the family on the final excursion, to the Letca Noua monastery in western Giurgiu, which is well-known as the site of an Orthodox miracle: in 2002, “ointment” reportedly began streaming from an icon of the Virgin Mary held in the church.
As Andrei entered the churchyard, he turned to his companions and announced: “I am free. There is no one with me.” Just to be sure though, the priest went ahead and read special prayers over the boy. Later, Andrei told Vasile that a voice had warned him: “Be careful. Things may not stay like this”. Immediately thereafter, Andrei’s odd spasms ceased to afflict him and the seemingly supernatural events at his family home slowed and eventually stopped.
While the refreshingly happy resolution of the Naipu episode is rather unusual, its central events followed the same patterns I have seen in many other poltergeist cases. While the responses to, and the explanations for, polt activity may differ from region to region and culture to culture, the core phenomena, and the way events unfold, are remarkably similar across the world – and indeed, across the centuries.
In Romania, where there is general acceptance of the supernatural, and of various explanations for paranormal activity, people don’t seem reluctant to report poltergeist episodes. The same usually doesn’t apply in most Western countries, where witnesses are often ridiculed into silence or become fodder for news media looking for the next cheap thrill. So, the best place to investigate polt cases these days seems to be in developing countries, an idea I pursued in Zimbabwe in September of 2017.
But that’s another story, for another issue…
Sources: Romanian news media 21-27 Aug 2017, particularly Libertatea (Bucharest), Antena3 (Bucharest) and Giurgiuveanul (Giurgiu). Interview with Vasile Arcanu, 4 October 2017.
Doctors were unable to find any sign of mental illness