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The story of ‘Philip’ is
one a remarkable experiment that was conducted in the early 1970’s by
The Toronto Society Of Psychical Research.
The purpose of the experiment was to see if a wholly fictious
historical character could be constructed, and through the groups
efforts of concentration on the bogus biography they could create a
ghost.
Dr. A.R.G Owen, a member of the Department For Preventative Medicine
and Biostatistics at the University of Toronto and psychic researcher
who specialized in poltergeist cases was the group’s scientific
advisor. He is quoted in the introduction to “Conjuring Up Phillip” as
saying, “It was essential to their purpose that Philip be a totally
fictious character. Not merely a figament of the imagination but
clearly and obviously so, with a biography full of historical errors.”
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“Philip was an
aristocratic Englishman living in the middle 1600s at the time of
Oliver Cromwell. He had been a supporter of the king and was a
Catholic. He was married to a beautiful but cold and frigid wife,
Dorothea, the daughter of a neighbouring nobleman. One day, when out
riding on the boundaries of his estates, Philip came across a gypsy
encampment and saw there a beautiful dark-eyed, raven-haired gypsy
girl, Margo, and fell instantly in love with her.
He brought her back secretly to live in the gate-house near the stables
of Diddington Manor - his family home. For some time he kept his
love-nest secret, but eventually Dorothea, realizing he was keeping
someone else there, found Margo, and accused her of witchcraft and of
stealing her husband. Philip was too scared of losing his reputation
and his possessions to protest at the trial of Margo, and she was
convicted of witchcraft and burned at the stake. Philip subsequently
was stricken with remorse that he had not tried to defend Margo and
used to pace the battlements of Diddington in despair. Finally one
morning his body was found at the foot of the battlements where he had
cast himself in a fit of agony and remorse.
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This tale of tragedy
was designed to contain many familiar aspects associated with the
background stories to historical ghosts. It is however a complete
fabrication.
While a Diddington Hall
really does exist in Warwickshire, England the group made sure that the
real location’s history in no way resembled Philip’s home. Further
details where included, and a sketch was added. on as the group
discussed and
Simply the aim was to create “collective hallucination” of Philip by
immersing themselves in Philip’s invented character, and creating a
shared mental picture of him and his surroundings; meditating on his
appearance, even his food preferences, but especially his ‘feelings’
towards his wife Dorothea and his gypsy lover Margo.
Initially the weeks past
without incident then after some months, the group made contact with
‘Phillip’ following the pattern set by 19th Century Spiritualist’s and
were able to confirm the details of the invented story.
The experiment produced a
range of phenomena that could not be explained scientifically; from the
table-rapping communication, through table moving, sliding it from side
to side on a carpeted floor, even dancing on one leg. Lastly a live
audience of 50 people was filmed as part of a television documentary,
where table rapping’s, other noises were heard, lights were seen to
blink off and on. Also the table levitated rising a half inch above the
floor, but this event was only witnessed by the group and the film crew
due to lighting constraints.
A personal note
I am opposed in principle to the practice of spiritualism.
The value of this experiment lays not in the methodology by which
‘contact’ was made but in the fact the fictious Ghost, behaved exactly
as a ‘real’ ghost would be expected to behave.
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