These agents do not report to a station chief in some foreign country. Nor do they participate in spying and covert activity to further the CIA’s hidden agendas. They are not Hollywood-type agents either, responsible for bringing in millions of dollars in revenue per year to the big talent agencies like the International Creative Management (ICM), the William Morris Agency or Creative Artists Agency (CAA) in Beverly Hills.

These particular agents do not work for anyone special or further anyone’s aims except perhaps nature’s and their own. In fact, these unique agents are never compensated for their abilities, over which they have absolutely no control whatsoever.

These agents are so utterly extraordinary that most people do not even believe they exist. They even have a peculiar prefix associated with their startling proclivities. They are called poltergeist agents.

Poltergeist agents (PGA’s), also referred to on occasion as psychokinetic agents (PKA’s) are known for allegedly creating, albeit unconsciously, pandemonium and mayhem by unleashing recurrent spontaneous psychokinesis (RSPK) around themselves, their environments and unsuspecting strangers. It might be said that PGA’s give more than one hundred percent of themselves as their seemingly inexplicable manifestations, which cannot be instrumented or directly measured, produce results that today, even after more than 118 years of formal psychical research, still leave investigators perplexed.

Although it is generally believed that the majority of PGA’s are youngsters in the transition to pubescence and/or adolescence, there is an ample body of evidence that strongly suggests that whatever mechanism is at work here can persist within an individual well into adulthood. While the chronological age of a PGA may grow in years, their internal physiology as related to neuro and electrochemical, endocrine/hormonal functions may lag behind or remain in stasis.

Describing the generic personality of a “typical” PGA is anything but difficult. It was most concisely defined by the late paranormal investigator D. Scott Rogo as an emotionally volatile, depressed, anxiety-ridden individual with excessive amounts of pent-up hostilities and unresolved, deep emotional conflicts. A more succinct way of characterizing a PGA’s emotional makeup might simply be “A mass of conflicting impulses," as described in Chapter 3.

At the physical level, PGA’s are anything but ordinary either. In point of fact, a most unexpected and extraordinary correlational component to poltergeist phenomena has arisen. A significantly high percentage of these individuals appears to be either seizure prone or suffer from epilepsy, either at a focal, petite or grand mal level. Even more interesting is the fact that when these individuals take medication to quell their seizures, it appears to abruptly stop the psychokinetic outbreaks as well. This strongly suggests that the region or loci of the brain responsible for producing seizures/epilepsy in these individuals may, neuro-chemically mediate psychokinesis as well. If this is true, it would be the first direct physiological link to any paranormal function. At the same time however, it should be understood that the vast majority of epileptics do not manifest RSPK. This unilateral aspect suggests that there is a hidden variable here that cannot at present even be guessed at.

The interrelationship between RSPK and neuro-chemistry (seizures & epilepsy) also presents some tantalizing possibilities for future paranormal research at the medical level. For instance, in order to determine if a specific locus in the brain is actually responsible for controlling both seizures and RSPK, various medical imaging techniques might be brought into play.

In a single-blind longitudinal study, PGA’s who are either seizure prone or epileptic would be examined and compared to normal patients without RSPK or epilepsy. A functional MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) will be employed to determine any specific anatomical and/or physiological characteristics unique to individuals epileptic PGAs. Even more detailed information would be obtained through the use PET (positron emission tomography) that would provide real-time data to determine if those specific regions within the brain are indeed hyper or hypometabolic. Last, but not least, digital ambulatory EEG’s of these most interesting individuals would be conducted. The resulting data would be quite interesting to say the least. Remember, this is the first time in history that we have what we believe to be the appropriate tools for scientifically investigating this phenomenon.

This distinct medical approach does not end at this point, however. Given what we now suspect might be going on, it is theoretically possible to artificially stimulate or “drive” the hypothetical physiological mechanism behind RSPK. Through the controlled application of photoic driving (strobe lights) and/or 60 Hz. magnetic field induction, the possibility exists that macroscopic RSPK might be created under controlled laboratory conditions.

The one drawback to this approach is that the potential side-effects are substantial in that such subjects could be driven into intense seizures. So, data might be obtained, but at what cost? Would not this type of high-risk human research be considered unethical given its potentially destructive biological side effects?

What is so particularly tantalizing about discovering the mechanism underlying psychokinesis is that this force is capable of moving massive objects and even inducing dramatic and sometime even violent electromechanical changes without any apparent thermodynamic effects. This is unprecedented in the conventional physical world. Whether we are talking about electromagnetism, strong or weak nuclear forces or gravitation, they all behave according to the laws of thermodynamics. Moreover, in order for the known physical forces to do “work” as in F=MA (force equals mass times acceleration) for example, they as a consequence generate prodigious amounts of heat. If we were to discover a non-polluting, potentially inexhaustible energy source that can do enormous amounts of work without the generation of heat, it would forever change virtually every aspect of the way we live on earth. Life would be easier and far more efficient in that most of our machines would not experience heat-related entropy, fatigue and failure. Can you begin to imagine the significance of a “breakthrough” at this level?

The odds against anyone meeting a true PGA are literally astronomical. Even most parapsychologists rarely encounter such people or have the opportunity to directly experience them and their concomitant phenomena. Over the last thirty years, I have had the fortune (or perhaps misfortune, depending on one’s perspective) to personally meet and get closely acquainted with six PGA’s, five women and one man.

While working as a research associate at UCLA’s former parapsychology laboratory located in the Neuropsychiatric Institute (NPI), I met Jim in late 1971 when he first visited our research facility. Jim was a 27 year old ex-police officer who was wounded in the line of duty, resulting in an early retirement. A husky, handsome individual who looked more like a model or actor than a cop. Jim was a man all wound up with nowhere to go.

With his hyper-accelerated voice, Jim frequently spoke of intense outbursts of RSPK since childhood, everything from loud banging and scratching noises on the walls of his family’s home to furniture moving around on its own. He also reported common experiences with telepathy, clairvoyance and precognition, which is what initially had gotten him involved with our lab. The first incident I witnessed occurred in 1972 when William Freidkin and William Peter Blatty, visited the lab.

Blatty took out an ancient ankh he brought back from their location scouting trip to Iraq earlier that year. As Blatty held it before the lab staff for closer inspection, Jim reached forward to touch it. Suddenly, the jeweled encrusted artifact powerfully exploded, sending fragments flying in all directions. Surprise and fear sent Freidkin and Blatty running from the lab, never to return. As The Exorcist dealt exactly with this type of phenomena (albeit with a religious spin), I’ll never quite understand their reaction. But then again, they are involved with the making of entertainment, not investigating real-life paranormal events.

Another incident took place when Jim and I had to make a stop at my apartment one afternoon in order to pick up some papers. While waiting for me to gather up my material, coins came flying at us from my bedroom, although neither of us had entered that area of the flat, nor did I have a large quantities of pennies stored anywhere, The pennies were moving relatively slow and were seemingly directed at Jim. He excitedly smiled in response.

The last and perhaps most blatant episode of RSPK I observed around Jim took place many months later at an International House of Pancakes restaurant in Santa Monica where we were having lunch. The waitress finally came over to take our order and it was obvious that Jim was very attracted to the shapely blonde. When she returned with our food Jim attempted to engage her in conversation. Because the waitress was not responsive to his advances, Jim simply smiled and casually told her to look at the massive chandelier hanging overhead.

Wondering what Jim could possibly be referring to, both the waitress and I looked up. The large wooden, metal and glass chandelier that was hanging absolutely steady, suddenly began to turn on its own volition and started to slowly rotate counterclockwise. I immediately took notice of the numerous other chandeliers in the dinning room, all of which were stationary. There was no wind and the earth was not quaking. The waitress stood there transfixed as the light fixture began to wind around its tether and cord as if being turned by some giant unseen hand. As the chandelier wound to the end of its turn, the waitress looked back at Jim who had a childlike grin on his face. Jim asked “Did you like that?” The waitress did not hang around long enough to answer.

This was the last RSPK incident that occurred around Jim when I was present, although he continued to display many other paranormal gifts during the work in our psi development group.

Over time, Jim found it hard to land or keep any type of employment. He also became obsessed with the need to know why he was always having such unusual experiences, while other around him were not. This obsessive behavior greatly intensified over time to the point where Jim lost interest in most everyday events and retreated into a reclusive lifestyle, adopting a born-again Christian philosophy. He moved out of Los Angeles in 1975 and has not been heard from since.

My next encounter with a PGA began through a referral from Dr. Annis, a psychiatrist on the staff at the NPI. One of his therapy patients had a close friend who was reportedly barraged with a myriad of paranormal experiences and wanted to speak with someone working in the field.

In the spring of 1972, I first called 28-year old Sandra who, at the time, lived in an apartment in Hollywood. When we spoke, she too sounded like an old 45 rpm single-play record turned up to 78 rpm. She was excited about finally talking with a real parapsychologist. However, prior to meeting with her for the first time, I was able to interview her ex-boyfriend who was one of Dr. A’s patient.

Don was a successful Hollywood screenwriter who was uncomfortable discussing his experiences with Sandra for a number of reasons. The foremost of which was that he was an ardent skeptic and always believed that all paranormal phenomena were the result of some type of psychopathology. After assuring Don that I just wanted to hear his stories and that I was not going to in any way judge him, he opened up to me. Initially, he talked about events that were easily explained as simple General Extra-Sensory Perception (GESP). It did not get interesting until he reached the mind-over-matter part of his story.

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