Unixplained Fire's and Poltergeists.

Poltergeist and Firestarters....

In November 1890, in Thorah, near Toronto, Canada, strange things started to happening around a 14 year-old girl named Jennie Bramwell, She was  the adopted daughter of a farmer, Mr. Dawson, and his wife. Jennie had been ill and gone into a trance, will in this trance she could be heard crying out 'Look at that!' well pointing to a ceiling which was on fire. Shortly after, to the amazement of Mr. and Mrs. Dawson, she pointed to another fire. The following day numerous fires broke out around the house; as soon as one was put out, another started. In one instance while Mrs. Dawson and the girl were seated facing a wall, the wallpaper suddenly caught fire, Jennie's dress then burst into flames and Mrs. Dawson burnt her hands extinguishing the fire. Fires continued to break out in the house for a whole week. A report in the Toronto Globe, for November 9th,1890,  described charred pieces of wallpaper, which looked as if they'd been burned using a blazing lamp.  The situation soon  became unbearable, at one point all the furniture was moved into the front  yard, and Jennie was blamed for the fires, she was sent back to the orphanage shortly after..... With her leaving, the phenomena stopped.

The reporter from the Toronto Globe depicted her as 'a half-witted girl [who] had walked about the house with a match, setting light to everything she came across.' However, he had difficulty explaining exactly how the fire on the ceiling, and those on the walls had been started. Charles Fort, describing the case, commented wryly - 'I'll not experiment, but I assume that I could flip matches all day at a wall, and not set wallpaper afire.'

Then in January 1895 strange fires started in the house of an out of work carpenter named Adam Colwell in Brooklyn, New York. The fires were investigated by the police and firemen who witnessed furniture burst into flames with no apparent  explanation  and subsequently reported that the cause of the fires was unexplained. 

Thought the Fire Marshall suspected the Colwells adopted daughter, Rhoda, of  playing some part starting the flames. He stated that 'It might be thought that the child Rhoda started at least two of the fires, but she can not be considered guilty of the others, Because she was being questioned, when a few of them started. the Fire Marshall " I do not want to be quoted as a believer in the supernatural, but I have no explanation to offer, as to the cause of the fires, or of the throwing around of the furniture."

Mr. Colwell stated that on the afternoon  of January 4th will in the company of his wife and stepdaughter Rhoda, a crash was heard - a large, empty stove had fallen over, four pictures also fell off the walls. Shortly afterwards a bed caught fire, a policeman was called who saw wallpaper start to burn. Another fire started and a heavy lamp fell from a hook onto the floor. The house burned to the ground and the family, who had lost everything apart from their clothes, were taken to the police station. Captain Rhoades, of the Greenpoint Precinct said that he could attribute the strange fires to 'no other cause than a supernatural agency.'

However, a man named  Mr. J.L. Hope from Flushing, Long Island, went to see Captain Rhoades and told him that Rhoda had worked for him as a housemaid and, between November 19th and  December 19th, four mysterious fires had broken out. This was enough to convince the Captain of Rhoda's guilt in the present  case as well, and she was warned to admit the truth. Frightened, she admitted  that she had started the fires as she disliked the place she lived and wanted to get away. The girl had also knocked the pictures off the walls and dropped matches into the beds, continuing, even after the police, firemen and detectives arrived at the house.

Though the police Captain had previously thought the fires 'supernatural' he now had a natural explanation in Rhoda's now well-attested fire-starting tendencies. The New York Herald ran the story as 'Policemen and firemen artfully tricked by a, young girl.' 

So instead of investigating the fires in Flushing the Captain now satisfied that Rhoda had set the fires simply closed the case.

Sudden fire starting for no apparent reason seems to be connected with poltergeist activity along with the moving of furniture  and banging sounds.... Some, though not all, of the fire-starters seem to be orphans in unhappy situations, and this may, in some cases, explain the motive. But since the methods used to start the fires were  a mystery,  we are still left with the puzzle that certain people seem to posses a seemingly  paranormal ability to unconsciously start fires without any visible means

Angelique Cottin: The Electric Girl.

Electrokinesis / Psychokinesis.

Angelique was an average peasant girl from Normandy, Who for one reason or another seemed to posses a strange electric ability that created a odd effect on the objects and people around her. Although this seemingly paranormal phenomena was very similar to what we now commonly associated with (poltergeists activity or possibly psychokinesis). Angelique would become know as The Electric Girl. her  ability though rare is not uncommon. However she is one of the more well know cases, Because her case was one of the first of a supernatural kind to be studied in a scientific manner.

According to the story's the odd phenomena  started at around eight o'clock on the evening of January 15, 1846, in La Perriere, France. Angelique 14 years old at the time, along with a few other girls were busy weaving silk gloves on a large oak frame, when to there surprise the heavy wooden frame began to move about all on it's own, and though the girls tried they could not keep the frame from moving. Frightened they called the neighbor for help, unfortunately he did not believe them and told the girls to get back to work. So still frightened over what had just happened the girls slowly returned to the frame, it was still until Angelique came close then suddenly it began to move again. The other girls where afraid but Angelique was not frightened by this strange event instead she felt some kind of attraction towards it.

After hearing about what had happened with the frame Angelique parents became worried, even  fearing that there daughter may have been possessed, they sought help from the local Church in order to preform an exorcism. But the church  refused to do an exorcism instead the priest wanted to see this strange phenomena for himself, after witnessing it he was convinced that this was not demonic possession but instead something physical. he then told her parents to take her to see a doctor.

 Angelique's ability's continued to grow, when she would try to sit in a chair...it was immediately pushed away. At one point with just a touch from her a large 6o pound table lifted into the air. if she would try to sleep in a bed, it would rock uncontrollably. It got to the point that the only place she could sleep was on a large rock covered with cork. Every time she would go near a small object it would move away from her in the opposite direction without any apparent physical contact by Angelique. Even a light touch from her hand or apron would make objects and furniture start moving around or even flying across the room, in some instances this would happen even if the object has being held down or sat in at the time. People who where close to Angelique even without touching her would sometimes get an electric shock.

Many times there seemed to be a cold wind blowing when she was around .....this also happens in some hunting's or poltergeist investigations. It is also noted that when her powers where active Angelique's heart rate would increase to at least 120 beats per minute and that she was injured by her involuntary movement's during convolution's she would suffer from well using her power. Whenever this would happen she became frightened and would run away from the scene.

For some reason her ability was weaker when she would stand on a carpet or waxed cloth, but whenever she would stand on the ground they would be drastically stronger. Also for some strange reason metals were not affected by her powers witch was strange because her powers seemed to be some sort of electricity.

When she was tired her powers would become weaker and some times they would even stop for two or three days at a time and then just suddenly start up again without warning.

Later one of the doctors Angelique had been seeing took her and her parents to Paris, France Where they meet with a large group of scientists at the observatory.

All of the scientists had been appointed to this case be The Academy of Science. After numerous tests they all came to the conclusion that Angelique's strange powers were real. Later a report of there findings where published by the well know physicist Francois Arago, in The Journal des debates on February of 1846.

Arago seemed to believe that Angelique's powers were some kind of strange electromagnetism....

Arago recorded a lot of strange facts about her ability's. One thing he concluded is that for some reason the left side of her body, more specifically her left hand and pelvis seemed to be where most of the repulsive energy originated from and that when she used her powers that side of her body was warmer then the right side and that she suffered from convulsions so badly that when she started to shake, if you were to grab her hand you would begin to shake as well.

Another thing he noted is that her ability's did not happen continuously but rather spontaneous during the day and at there strongest in the evenings between seven and nine o/clock.

Whenever they would place a piece of paper, a pen or any other small object on the table , and Angelique wold move towards it with her left hand the object would go flying off the table as if thrown by a gust of wind without any physical contact.....The table itself would be sent across the room the moment she touched it with her hand, or even by a thread she was holding.`Threw his observation of Angelique ability's Arago was able to confirm what others had witnessed earlier.

That being........that Angelique needed only a light touch from her body or clothing to move or flip furniture, and that she could not touch an object without it being thrown to the ground or breaking apart.

Most likely Arago came up with his theory about electromagnetism after witnessing Angelique's strange sensitivity to magnets.

If a magnet was hung in a horizontal position the needle would swing rapidly with the movement's of her arm even though she never made physical contact with it, or it would stay still well deviating in the opposite magnetic direction of Angelique.. Whenever she would go towards the north pole of a magnet she would get a very powerful electric shock, while the south pole had no effect of her.

The scientists tested this many times even switching the poles without her knowing and yet Angelique was always able to tell them the north side and the south side based on the different sensations she felt..but even with this strange ability she seemed to have no effect on the needle of a compass even though Arago had expected there to be some kind of reaction.

Even with the violent convolution's and the unpredictable nature of her power Angelique seemed to be in relatively good health throughout her entire ordeal, it was suggested at one point that the cause of this strange phenomena may have been nervous condition she was suffering from at the time.

Argo finished his study's by saying: ( The case of Angelique Cottin demonstrated: "That, under peculiar, conditions the human organism gives forth a physical power which, without visible instruments, lifts heavy bodies, attracts or repels them, according to the laws of polarity, overturns them and produces the phenomena of sound.

But that was not the end of it after the case study had finished, and against the doctors advice, Angelique's parents being poor and thinking they could turn a profit on her behalf, started exhibiting her as a kind of side show attraction to paying visitors. Although by that time the phenomena had probably stopped and she was encouraged to fake what had once been a real ability.

On April 10, 1846 , her powers just stopped, and never came back..