Strangers,
It might be redundant to ask if you believe in ghosts. . . after all, you’ve landed here. Perhaps, like us, you’re open to the idea, but remain uncommitted. It feels like a good approach, considering all the things we don't know about the world—and the world beyond what we experience every day.
We’ve touched on spiritualism on the podcast before--in the Victorian, let’s contact ghosts sense of the word--and a number of hauntings, too. But there’s an interesting and lesser-known tale of a 20th century medium we haven’t yet explored. It might be more accurate to say this woman was. . . well, haunted: the psychic activity purported to swirl around her is extensive, and to increasingly concerned observers, she certainly did seem to be channeling energy from beyond.
At least at first, Alma Fielding might not seem like the kind of woman destined for extraordinary experiences. According to NPR, Alma came to public notice in 1938; then, she was “ a 34-year-old housewife [living] in Thornton Heath, a suburb of London.” Alma was from a middle-class background and lived with her husband—who’d fought in World War I—her son, and a man described as “their lodger.” The Fieldings’ lives seemed quiet and, well, normal . . . until Alma contacted The Sunday Pictorial with a problem. Could the reporters help?
Help with what? Well. A ghost. Or maybe ghosts, plural. Specifically of the poltergeist flavor.