A prank played by two children on their superstitious mother not only followed the classic pattern of a poltergeist haunting, but accidentally and ultimately created one of the most popular new religions of the mid 1800s, Spiritualism!  The classic poltergeist haunting involves invisible supernatural agents making themselves known by breaking things, throwing things, making loud noises, moving furniture, and knocking things off shelves.  Every poltergeist episode that has ever been investigated (as opposed to being simply exploited by the media of the day) has been found to be the work of one or more children or teenagers-- generally as a consequence of feeling unwanted, ignored or neglected within the daily family activities.  What starts as a relatively harmless prank quickly gets out of hand when public attention is focused upon it, and the child feels forced to continue and even escalate the phenomena to avoid an ultimate confession and punishment.

The Fox Sisters in later years (left), and the Founding Myth, versus...

Since various movies came out in the 1970s depicting “ghosts” causing kids to float in the air, many kids have used a flash camera to take pictures of “ghost floating.” If you can jump, you can be poltergeist-levitated, kids! Be the first in your neighborhood.