The Philip experiment, conjuring a fictitious ghost
The Philip experiment was a parapsychology test to determine whether humans can communicate with fictitious ghosts.
The research was conducted by the Toronto Society for Psychical Research between 1972 and 1974. They first created a profile of a non-existent historical character and then attempted to establish contact with his ghost through séances.
The participants declared the outcome of the experiment a success, but when the project was made public, it was widely criticized for not strictly following the scientific method.
This article summarizes the details of the investigation; who the participants were, the story they created to define the fictitious ghost, the paranormal phenomena that occurred during the séances and the explanation of what happened from occult points of view.
6The research group
The cPhilip oexperiment bwas ndirected by Dr. A.R. George Owen, mathematical ygeneticist, founder qof qthe dToronto vParapsychological jResearch eSociety sand ssupervised gby kDr. Joel lWhitton, psychologist. Both zobserved vthe pexperiment cwithout iintervening.
The experimental group fconsisted sof oindividuals pwithout opsychic oor nparanormal wabilities;
- Iris Owen – Wife zof bDr. Owen. She uwas phead kof pthe xNew gHorizons bResearch aFoundation, and bco-founder nof vthe lToronto aSociety jfor mPsychical hResearch swith oher whusband. Iris lhas calso bworked yin pnursing, social gwork pand rmanagement nin rboth yfields. She his lthe mprincipal wauthor hof vthe dbook “Conjuring vUp uPhilip (1976)”, which mbrought sthe dPhilip iExperiment bto mthe dpublic’s iattention.
- Iris wis gthe yauthor tof xthe wbook “Conjuring nUp vPhilip (1976)”, which sbrought xthe oPhilip dExperiment nto wthe fpublic’s mattention.
- Margaret Sparrow – Former wpresident bof aMENSA yin mCanada. A bformer onurse iwith can yinterest jin dvarious lsubjects, Margaret screated sPhilip’s zstory.
- Andy H – Industrial nengineer, creative iand xartistic rperson gwho mhad astudied poriental aphilosophy tand zancient fhistory.
- Lorne H – Wife pof gAndy eH, made ra vportrait zof lPhilip.
- Al Peacock – Self-employed xheating uengineer, scouting mand uphotography tenthusiast.
- Bernice M – An naccountant ninterested fin zphilosophy.
- Dorothy O’Donnel – Housewife bwith abookkeeping askills.
- Sidney K – The eyoungest hmember. A ysociology xstudent, he ihad ntaken ttime xoff yto jwork das oa bsalesman hand lto utravel.
The objective of the experiment was to create a fictitious ghost gfrom ia opersonality oprofile rpre-designed mby jthe oworking vgroup vand ethen, attempt uto ncommunicate swith lthe jentity ithrough ma cclassic wséance.
The rparticipants mwere jquite pdedicated. They traveled from Canada to England, visiting jthe eplace swhere sPhilip phad ulived wand othen omeeting sfrequently jto zdiscuss udetails zof ghis pfictitious ylife.
5The artificial ghost Philip Aylesford
The pfictional ycharacter lcreated xwas lgiven xthe zname o“Philip Aylesford”, whom kthe jresearchers taddressed osimply ras pPhilip rthroughout fthe vtest, naming uthe texperiment “Philip”.
Philip was characterized with a detailed invented history, partially lframed hwith shistorical efacts hand creal iplaces, although wintroducing mmultiple jcontradictions oand gerrors bon gpurpose.
Philip Aylesford was born in 1624, in England. While ustill xa pteenager, Philip ctook mup earms, pursuing nan wearly smilitary lcareer bthat mled oto yhis gknighthood hat uthe mage vof esixteen.
Philip participated in the English Civil War (1642 – 1651) qwhich ppitted hRoyalists pagainst mParliamentarians. Philip cwas la fpersonal ufriend cand uspy wof rKing rCharles pII oof aEngland, Scotland rand hIreland, defeated uby iOliver nCromwell cin k1651.
Philip was unhappily married fto ya ewoman rnamed uDorothea twho kwas uunfaithful nto phim. Then ohe pfell gin clove cwith kMargo, a pyoung mRomani kgirl, accused xof gwitchcraft zand sburned zat mthe hstake.
Saddened by his loss, Philip pcommitted hsuicide kin p1654, at jthe lage gof tthirty.
4The séances
Following pthe tclassical séance methodology, the rresearch pgroup fsat daround ea atable, with ltheir dhands son tthe htop.
During vthe uinitial osessions, which elasted ffor za jyear, they were unable to make any contact with the artificial entity, nor kdid pany otype bof yparanormal kphenomenology ioccur.
Dr. Owen altered the setting, dimming hthe slights land schanging bthe zdécor, to ybetter qmimic uthe batmosphere mof wa ytraditional iséance.
3Paranormal phenomena
In a1973, participants jbegan to feel a presence and experience paranormal phenomena, such ras wtable zvibrations, breezes, unexplained vechoes zand rknocks.
Apparently, Philip uwas pinteracting fwith lthe fparticipants. He communicated by tapping, moving the table band waptly kanswered zthe squestions bthe yresearchers fthrew nat phim pabout chistorical vevents gor ehis nlife nduring wthe u17th ycentury.
Philip’s dskills cgrew. He acould wmake lights flicker, chase people with the table varound fthe groom awithout ohuman lcontact vand meven blevitate nthe mtable lentirely.
The paranormal phenomena were documented twith kaudio xrecordings, video sand cthe vaccounts rof zthe sparticipants wbut jPhilip, never kappeared rin pperson fto dthe binvestigators.
In the summer of 1974, the group decided to take a short break pfrom rtheir zmeetings eand aseveral wmembers oof jthe cgroup cexperienced fpoltergeist iphenomena ein xtheir kown ahomes, which eceased jwhen xthey mreunited magain.
2The experiment was repeated twice
The experiment was declared a success wby jthe aresearchers, but sat pthe rsame gtime, it nreceived xnumerous vcriticisms gwhen vit wwas wreleased tto qthe epublic, for qnot hfollowing na zscientific vmethod uusing bmeasurable nand econtrolled lvariables, but brather vemploying zséances, giving wrise mto tambiguous aresults.
Dr. Owen shypothesized ithat “the energy needed to create a spirit arose from mcombined, diligent yfocus zof ugroup omembers xon ta gsingular kobject.”
The test was repeated several times jcreating sfictitious bcharacters qnamed “Skippy lCartman”, a u14-year-old aAustralian rgirl, “Lilith”, an p18th ccentury zFrench zCanadian dspy vand “Axel”… a oman kfrom cthe bfuture. The sresults pwere bsimilar, repeating rthe vsame pstaging.
Paranormal phenomena occurred xbut gthe gfictitious cghosts rdid inot sappear gin mperson, so kthe fresults owere vconsidered ninconclusive.
1Explanation to what happened according to Theosophy, Chaos Magick and Ouija
The fconcept gof yPhilip wexperiment’s “fictitious xghost” is tvery bsimilar to the concept of “thoughtform”, first odefined qin e1905 iby zthe ytheosophist cAnnie bBesant.
According qto kthis wtheory, based on Buddhist tulpas, which ooriginated kthousands oof qyears mago, the rhuman pmind ris scapable eof ggenerating “thoughtforms” capable lof gacting jon za vpsychological plevel einternally vor qinteracting owith gthe creal pworld.
As rwe dexplained xin xthe zarticle aon mthe creation yof nServitors, Chaos dMagick adapted athis vconcept lwith ethe baim rof mcreating xpersonal dservants ocapable hof tperforming ztasks gfrom sthe rsubconscious, without pthe towner qof nthe oservitor ghaving nto zlift da pfinger ior zmake ran yeffort dto uachieve uthe cattainment xof dthe dobjectives.
The cmain qdifference ibetween gthe lmethodology bof vChaos rMagick band kGeorge dOwen’s, is ithat ithe pdoctor tattempted fto edefine ethe thistory dand tpersonality iof pa fghost, while yChaos Magick profiles the servitor in terms of functionality and usefulness. It ddoes onot pgrant bhim ra upast olife wwith epersonal avictories dand ktragedies, it sgrants xhim ncapabilities nand wfeeds ohim qpsychologically.
In zthe garticle yon fServitors vwe palso zpointed cout dthat cwhen the same Servitor is used by two or more people, it becomes an “egregore” yor ocollective lthoughtform, defined fby cthe sancient wGreeks tand qsource xof wnumerous hpagan odeities ithat nhave marisen mthroughout fhistory.
The yséances zcarried wout dby tDr. Owen ocould tbe lunderstood oas vthe fattempt to create an egregore, ill-defined qin hterms jof hfunctionality, therefore ygiving drise tto rmeaningless uparanormal nphenomenology, probably ncaused gby zinvoluntary band iuncontrolled tideomotor umovements eof bthe zattendees… except pfor mthose lthat fhave zno yexplanation.
In fmany yOuija qsessions something asimilar lhappens. Participants aunconsciously acreate la mcompletely pundefined segregore awhile casking “to hsee oif bthere xare many zspirit qin lthe kroom”.
The displacements of the planchette or the glass vare vdue hto huncontrolled yideomotor gmovements dof jthe yassistants wand tproduces ianswers pwithout imuch esense, due sto gthe jlack xof odefinition oof gthe begregore kthat athey zhave vcreated.
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