Philip’s experiment and the perception of ghosts

Philip’s experiment is one of the most interesting in history, not so much because of the insights it shed, but because of the doubts it has raised. It was a parapsychology test, intended to explore communication with ghosts. What happened in this case is still a matter of debate.

Despite the fascinating results of Philip’s experiment, the truth is that it remained in history as an isolated test that was not continued. The findings were also not corroborated or were decisively overturned..

It is a shame that this was the case, since it has to do with a topic that humanity has lived with since the beginning of time: ghosts.

So far, there is no evidence that ghosts exist.. Accepting it would also be validating the thesis of most religions that talk about a “soul” or “spirit”, which continues to exist after physical death. What did Philip’s experiment contribute in this regard? Let’s see.

Philip’s experiment

The author of Philip’s experiment was Dr. Alan Robert George Owen, a very prestigious mathematician and geneticist. It is important to note that, despite being a scientist, Owen believed in paranormal phenomena before starting the experiment. Perhaps because of this double condition of scientist and believer, he wanted to test his ideas.

Owen formed a group, supposedly with the aim of proving that ghosts were a creation of the human mind. The members were his own wife, Iris Owen; Margaret Sparrow, president of MENSA, an organization that promotes people with high IQs; Andi H., an industrial designer, and his wife Lorne; Al Peacock, heating engineer; accountants Berenice M. and Dorothy O’Donnel; and Sidney K., a sociology student.

The first part of Philip’s experiment was to create a fictional character. They started from real times and places, but everything else was invented. They called this character Philip Aylesford, born in England in 1624, a soldier and knighted at the age of 16. Deliberately, his story contained contradictions.

Philip Aylesford and the experiment

The members of the group designed the story of Philip Aylesford and even a portrait of him. They pointed out that he had married a woman named Dorotea, daughter of a nobleman and characterized by her coldness. The man participated in the English Civil War and had served as a spy for Charles II. However, his marriage was very unhappy.

On one occasion, he passed by a gypsy camp and saw a young woman there with deep black eyes. Philip fell in love with her and the two began a passionate romance. He took her to live with him in a secret place, but This did not stop his wife from finding out about the affair..

In revenge, Dorotea accused the young gypsy of witchcraft and Philip did not have enough courage to defend her. So the girl was sentenced to die at the stake. After her death, the man entered a state of despair. In the end he had committed suicide, overcome by remorse.

Extraordinary events

In September 1972 the “spiritual” sessions began in Philip’s experiment. The group invoked the ghost of him, systematically. Everyone was concentrating for this to manifest, but for almost a year nothing happened. Someone suggested that they do the sessions with the lights off and then things changed.

At first some said they “felt” a presence in the room. Then they began to feel gusts of wind and whispers in their ears. They also began to hear knocks on the table and established a communication with that “presence”, in which one knock was “yes” and two knocks were “no”. Since then, paranormal phenomena have continued..

From sounds and gusts of wind we moved to movements of objects. The table where they held the sessions on one occasion was suspended on a single leg or moved around the room with no apparent force pushing it. Also, the lights turned on and off. It is said that Owen recorded these events on video, but this material is not publicly known.

Philip’s experiment continued and then the same group did similar ones. Psychologist Joel Whitton, who had accompanied the experience from the beginning as an observer, concluded that everything had been caused by the members of the group. In their opinion, they had a collective regression to childhood stages. Several books and two films were published in this regard.

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