Hopefully you will never have to come face to face with this ghoul. The name poltergeist comes from the german words "poltern" (meaning noisy), and "geist" (meaning spirit or ghost) [1]. It is hard enough to imagine being haunted by a regular spirit, but if you are going to get trouble out of a poltergeist, you might as well move somewhere else. Though it is true that some poltergeists are evil to the bone, most of the time a poltergeist haunting is usually not as devilish as it may sound. Usually a poltergeist haunting is accompanied with strage noises, missed placed objects, and sometimes apparitions, nothing more than small phenomenon. Hopefully this doesn't shatter your views of the paranormal and make you believe that poltergeist aren't a force to be reckoned with. I'm sure that anyone who dared to tempt their fate against a poltergeist aren't sane enough to re-tell their story.
Origin: Just like the other forms of paranormal apparitions, the poltergeist is found all around the globe. Im sure that we can find some revelance, however, that the words that form poltergeist are from a german origin.
Appearance: The appearance of a poltergeist can be a transparent human shape, or perhaps, never seen at all. Some may think that it wouldn't be scary if it couldn't be seen, but hasn't it always been that humans fear what they can't see or comprehend? It could be more terrifying, not knowing when or where the next incident will occur and what its magnitude will be.
Influences On Modern Day: The image of what a poltergeist actually is has been stretched a distorted by todays media. Possibly the most influencial of all is the movie Poltergeist [2]. This movie tells the story of a family who is being haunted by a foul spirit who begins torturing the family with different forms of terror. Eventually, the poltergeist captured a little girl in his realm within a television set. Obviously, this could never happen in today's world. People are blinded with flashy ghost stories that distort the very definition of poltergeist.
[1] Wikipedia: Poltergeist
[2] Poltergeist. Tobe Hooper. Craig T. Nelson, JoBeth Williams, Beatrice Straight. MGM, 1982.
[3] IMDB (Internet Movie Database)
