Welcome to Unexplained Extra, with me, Richard McLean Smith.

Where for the weeks and between episodes, we look at stories and ideas that for one reason

or other didn't make it into the previous show.

In last week's episode, The Creeping, Esther Cox, a young woman living in the town of

Amherst, Nova Scotia, found herself at the centre of a series of peculiar and terrifying

events.

For some, these events, which would collectively become known as the Great Amherst Mystery,

are among the most convincing examples of a poltergeist haunting ever recorded.

For many others, these strange events, despite apparently being witnessed by a number of

credible individuals, had merely been concocted by Esther and possibly others in her family.

As many will know, one interpretation of the apparent poltergeist phenomenon is to consider

such things as excitable, often malicious entities with an agency of their own.

Esther Cox herself claimed that the moving objects, loud bangs and fires that broke out

around her were caused by ghosts.

Another interpretation of the apparent poltergeist, however, is the belief that it's supposed

manifestations are in fact the result of psychokinetic power.

As the lover of science fiction, in particular Brian Duparmus thrilling 1978 classic The Fury,

it is this interpretation that I find personally most interesting.

The notion of psychokinetic powers, or having the ability to affect objects and systems

with the power of the mind alone, has been around for many years.

Even as far back as 400 BCE, Shikuni, a character from the Sanskrit epic Mahabharata, was depicted

manipulating dice, using only his will to do so.

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