The Whole Haunted World #10

A Brazilian poltergeist and Part 3 of The Skeptic's Guide to Ghost Hunting

When is a Poltergeist Not a Poltergeist?

Not long ago, a story of a Brazilian poltergeist incident popped up repeatedly in my social media feed. I clicked on one of those links to find this long article detailing a story that began in 1973 and went on for the next 15 years, about a São Paulo family that was bedeviled by a poltergeist.

The short version: some of the phenomena did indeed sound like classic poltergeist activity - scratches found in both furniture and skin, shattering glass items, objects moving on their own. But other incidents, like a rain of stones, strange women appearing at the house, and sightings of a creature covered in shiny red fur, were far from other poltergeist reports. The family sought religious aid, but nothing worked.

Eventually the family decided they were victims of a curse placed upon them by one of the husband’s ex-girlfriends. The ex-girlfriend and her mother practiced a folk magic called Umbanda, and they had seemingly called upon a spirit known as Exú. The mother of the family, who had frequently been at the center of the “attacks,” finally took on the entity in a battle of prayer, which succeeded in banishing the spirit and returning the family’s life to normalcy.