A group of Canadian parapsychologists came together in 1972 to create a ghost and prove that the human mind could conjure a spirit through collective imagination, visualisation and expectation. It is a thought I have spoken about more than once on several podcasts…do we have the ability to create paran ormal activity?
Led by Dr A.R.G Owen the experiment had a simple goal which was to gather a group of people and have them use their collective thought to see if they could in fact conjure a ghost to appear. This experiment would become known as The Philip Experiment and would be overseen by Dr Owen and Dr Whitton- a psychologist as well as Margaret Sparrow a former chairperson for Mensa.
The beginning process of the experiment involved creating a fictional character with a detailed backstory who would become the spirit.. And so Philip Aylesford and Englishman from the 1600s was created. A supporter of Catholocism and the King he married Dorothea the daughter of his neighbour. Dorothea was an attractive woman but had a cold and unloving personality. Whist riding one day Philip encountered a Gypsy campsite where he met a beautiful Gypsy girl by the name of Margo.This encounter was love at first sight and would result in Philip bringing her with him to live in the gatehouse near the stables of home Diddington Manor. Philip’s newfound happiness would not last as is often the case in many tragic ghost stories when Dorothea discovered Margo living on her property. Dorothea confronted Margo and during this encounter would lead to an accusation of witchcraft and use of sorcery to seduce her husband. Margo soon found herself on trial. Philip, fearing for his reputation, did not come and speak to Margo’s defence and she was subsequebtly found guilty of witchcraft and birned at the stake. After the trial, Philip would pace each day along the battlements of his home overcome with grief and remorse. It was during one of these moments of grief that he threw himself to the ground below.
Eight participants with diverse backgrounds and interests ranging from philosophy through to astronomy were chosen to bring this story and Philip to life. Participants included Al and Lorne who were both Engineers. A student called Sidney, Lorne’s wife Andy, a housewife named Dorothy and accountant Bernice. Iris Owen the wife of Dr Owen also took part along with Sue a former Canadian Armed Forces Nurse.
In September of 1872 the group selected would begin meeting regularly in an informal setting to conjure Philip. Sitting together they would talk in detail about him and his story. Through meditation techniques they would focus on images created of Philip in order to imagine him in their mind. For a full year the group would continue meeting in this manner yielding little result other than a couple of people within the group reporting experiencing sensing Philip’s presence around them.
The experiment continued with the group selecting and bringing trigger objects along that they believed Philip may have liked.They sang songs that they believed he could relate to and brought images of a castle suggestive of where Philip may have lived. The group also began replicating a 19th century seance atmosphere and incorporating this within the experiement. Lights were dimmed and candles lit and new methods of communication reminiscent of Victorian seance rooms added asking Philip to come forward and step into the light. While Philip did not appear as a full bodied apparition the group did receive intelligent knocking responses on the seance table. Communication over the coming sessions would only continue to grow and become stronger with the group feeling the intelligent knocks were providing details about Philip. Over time he was able to start to move the table and was reported as being capable of causing it to levitate. Participants would observe mist over the table and witness lights being dimmed on command. To prove the existence of Philip a final seance would be held in front of a live audience of fifty members and a documentary broadcast on National television.
Further experiments followed with new fictional characters such as Lilith a French-Canadian spy and Sebastian a medieval alchemist. Further experiments would yield similar results and would result in the theory that it was a form of outward manifestation from their collective consciousness.
