Conjuring up "Philip"

[Hermetic Hermit]

Conjuring up "Philip"

"Philip" is an artificial poltergeist, an egrigor or artificial intelligence, created as an experiment by a group of Canadian parapsychologists during the 1970s. It was that as a result of their experiment that the human will can produce spirits through expectation, imagination and visualization. The members of the experiment purposed to attempt to create, through intense and prolonged concentration, a collective thought-form. All eight participants were members of the Toronto Society for Psychical Research; and, none were psychical gifted.

The group consisted of Iris Owen, a former nurse and wife of the mathematician A. R. G. Owen; Margaret Sparrrows, former chairperson of MANSA[sic] (MENSA)] in Canada, an organization of individuals with high IQs; Andy H., housewife; Lorne H., industrial designer and husband of Andy H.; Al P., heating engineer; Bernice M., accountant; Dorothy O' D., housewife and bookkeeper; and Sidney K., sociology student. Dr. A. R. G. Owen or Dr. Joel Whitton, psychologist, attended the group meetings.

The group first fabricated the fictitious identity, physical appearance, and personal history of their "Philip Aylesford" who was born in England in 1624 and followed an early military career. At the age of sixteen he was knighted. He had an illustrious role in the Civil War. He became a personal friend of Prince Charles (later Charles II) and worked for him as a secret agent. But Philip brought about his own undoing by having an affair with a Gypsy girl. When his wife found out she accused the girl of witchcraft, and the girl was burned at the stake. In despair Philip committed suicide in 1654 at the age of thirty.

The Owen group began conducting sittings in September 1972 during which they meditated, visualized, and discussed the details of Philip's life. Although no apparition ever appeared, occasionally some sitters felt a presence in the room; still others experienced vivid mental pictures of "Philip."

After going for months with no communication, the group attempted table-tilting through psychokinesis (PK). This activity, popularized during Spiritualism séances, involved people sitting around a table and placing their fingertips lightly on the surface. The table tilting practice was suggested by the British psychologist Kenneth J. Barcheldor who speculated that some of the group members might have skepticism concerning their venture. He felt the séance setting possibly would produce a communication with "Philip," which was the sitters' expectations.

Within weeks after changing to the séance setting the group established communication with "Philip." They engaged "Philip" in a table rapping session where he gave yes or no answers. "Philip" answered questions that were consistent with his fictitious history, but was unable to provide any information beyond that which the group had conceived. However, "Philip" did give other historically accurate information about real events and people. The Owen group theorized that this latter information came from their own collective unconsciousness.

One session was held in front of a live audience of fifty people and was videotaped to be shown on television. In other sessions sounds were heard in various parts of the room and lights blinked on and off. The levitation and movement of a table were recorded on film in 1974. "Philip" seemed to have a special rapport with Iris Owen. Some member thought they heard whispers in response to questions, but efforts to capture them on tape were inconclusive.

The group hoped their experiment would help in the study if the phenomena of poltergeists, hauntings, and Spiritualism. Their findings appear in the work Conjuring up Philip by Iris Owen and Margaret Sparrows (Harper & Row, 1976).

The results from the "Philip" experiment encouraged other groups in Toronto and Quebec to attempt similar ventures. The fictitious entities were "Lilith," a French Canadian spy during World War II; "Sebastian," a medieval alchemist; and "Axel," a man from the future. All personalities communicated through their own unique raps.

http://www.themystica.com/mystica/articles/p/philip.html

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Additional links to information on "Philip"

http://www.pararesearchers.org/Ghosts/Arti...ticle_five.html

http://paranormal.about.com/library/weekly/aa102201a.htm

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If a small group of people concentrating intensely for a period of time can create a "ghost", what effect would hundreds, thousands or even millions of worshippers have on their god?

"The world, indeed, is like a dream and the treasures of the world are an alluring mirage! Like the apparent distances in a picture, things have no reality in themselves, but they are like heat haze." -- Buddha

[zandore]

I read about "Philip" a few years ago.

[Imaginary Friend]

If a small group of people concentrating intensely for a period of time can create a "ghost", what effect would hundreds, thousands or even millions of worshippers have on their god?

What we have today!?

An excellent article. Thank you.

[GIDEON MAGE]

Since I already explained this here

I will quote myself, with my permission:

What you are saying is very similiar to Occultism. There is a real "Godforce" out there somewhere, which comes to us in the form we expect to see. We create "thoughtforms", and the universe responds by "entering" the shell that we ourselves have brought about. The thoughtform is very real, and following the hermetic sense of "as above so below" is "as below, so above". It makes no difference whether, for instance, Jesus or Buddha or Aradia ever existed in incarnate form. Conversely, if we really believe, we are creating thoughtforms on the astral plane. The Godforce that resonates, if you will, with the scale of energy of the thoughtform, is very powerful, and very real. Religions that have been around for thousands of years contain multiple, very powerful, thoughtforms. World-spanning religions, like Judiasm (despite the limited numbers surviving 1700 years of Christian butchery), Christianity, Buddhism, and Islam, have people praying (contacting the appropriate thoughtforms and adding to their power 24/7) and strengthening them. Appearing in literature is another way that the "TF's" gain strength and momentum. The Greek and Roman Gods are powerful even today, not to mention Mayan, Aztec, etc. If you find the one or ones that vibrate for you, they can work for you as you work for them ("Worship"). So it is all real, and all Gods are really One, filtered through individual cultural lenses. With proper training, even completely and deliberately fictional "Gods" can be followed and quite real, such as those found in modern sci-fi and fantasy, although extreme caution and complete familiarity with the author's works is strongly advised, and then, only with a good, experienced teacher. In summation, I recommend much study before using Gods other than the one or ones that a person is brought up to believe. TF's are very powerful, but with proper training and intention, they can add both joy and meaning to one's life.

[Hermetic Hermit]

I read about "Philip" a few years ago.

Cool, I did a quick search of this messageboard and found a few comments on "Philip" but I thought it would be a good topic to bring up again. I also said in the topic GIDEON MAGE linked to "At first we thought that it was a ghost but after further experimentation we came to the realization(I can explain further but it would take too long at this time) that it was our group mind, our focus."

So I thought I would add more of an explanation.

What we have today!?

An excellent article. Thank you.

You're welcome

Since I already explained this here

I will quote myself, with my permission:

Thank you GM for granting yourself permission and I welcome your information to this topic as well. I agree with what you said and can see that you are well aware of this phenomenon.

Also thank you for the disclaimer at the end of your quoted post. Things can get carried away and control can be lost.

[Hermetic Hermit]

Tulpa - wiki

In Tibetan mysticism, a tulpa is a being or object which is created through sheer willpower alone. In otherwords, it is a materialized thought that has taken physical form (a thoughtform). The concept was brought to the West in the 19th century by Alexandra David-Neel, who claimed to have created a tulpa in the image of a jolly, Friar Tuck-like monk which later developed a life of its own and had to be destroyed.

Alexandra David-Neel

Mystic, occultist and traveller, Alexandra David was born in Paris, on the 24th of October 1868. As a child her favourite books were the science fiction fantasies of Jules Verne, and she promised herself one day to outdo the heroes of these stories. One of the first indications of this sense of adventure was her running away just before the family left to move to Brussels. Only after a widespread search was she caught by a gendarme, whom she scratched for his trouble.

By the age of fifteen Alexandra had already begun to study music, at this time she also obtained her first occult reading matter, an English journal produced by the Society of the Supreme Gnosis, sent to her by a woman called Elisabeth Morgan. That summer her family spent the holidays in Ostend, but Alexandra wanted something more interesting and walked into Holland and crossed over to England. In London she found Mrs. Morgan, who immediately persuaded her to return home.

In 1885, when she was seventeen, Alexandra again left home. This time she hiked alone over the Saint-Gotthard Pass through the Alps to the Italian lakes. Her mother came and retrieved her at Milan.

[...cont'd] - http://www.mysteriouspeople.com/Alex_David-Neel.htm

On the Creation of Tulpas

However interested we may feel in the other strange accomplishments with which Tibetan adepts of the secret lore are credited, the creation of thought forms seems by far the most puzzling.

Phantoms, as Tibetans describe them, and those that I have myself seen do not resemble the apparitions, which are said to occur during spiritualist séances.

As I have said, some apparitions are created on purpose either by a lengthy process resembling that described in the former chapter on the visualization of Ydam or, in the case of proficient adepts, instantaneously or almost instantaneously. In other cases, apparently the author of the phenomenon generates it unconsciously, and is not even in the least aware of the apparition being seen by others.

However, the practice is considered as fraught with danger for every one who has not reached a high mental and spiritual degree of enlightenment and is not fully aware of the nature of the psychic forces at work in the process.

Once the tulpa is endowed with enough vitality to be capable of playing the part of a real being, it tends to free itself from its maker's control. This, say Tibetan occultists, happens nearly mechanically, just as the child, when his body is completed and able to live apart, leaves its mother's womb. Sometimes the phantom becomes a rebellious son and one hears of uncanny struggles that have taken place between magicians and their creatures, the former being severely hurt or even killed by the latter.

Tibetan magicians also relate cases in which the tulpa is sent to fulfill a mission, but does not come back and pursues its peregrinations as a half-conscious, dangerously mischievous puppet. The same thing, it is said, may happen when the maker of the tulpa dies before having dissolved it. Yet as a rule the phantom either disappears suddenly at the death of the magician or gradually vanishes like a body that perishes for want of food. On the other hand, some tulpas are expressly intended to survive their creator and are specially formed for that purpose.

Must we credit these strange accounts of rebellious "materializations", phantoms which have become real beings, or must we reject them all as mere fantastic tales and wild products of imagination?

Perhaps the latter course is the wisest. I affirm nothing. I only relate what I have heard from people whom, in other circumstances, I had found trustworthy, but they may have deluded themselves in all sincerity.

Nevertheless, allowing for a great deal of exaggeration and sensational addition, I could hardly deny the possibility of visualizing and animating a tulpa. Besides having had few opportunities of seeing thought-forms, my habitual incredulity led me to make experiments for myself, and my efforts were attended with some success. In order to avoid being influenced by the forms of the lamaist deities, which I saw daily around me in paintings and images, I chose for my experiment a most insignificant character: a Monk, short and fat, of an innocent and jolly type.

I shut myself in tsams and proceeded to perform the prescribed concentration of thought and other rites. After a few months the phantom Monk was formed. His form grew gradually fixed and lifelike looking. He became a kind of guest, living in my apartment. I then broke my seclusion and started for a tour, with my servants and tents.

The Monk included himself in the party. Though I lived in the open, riding on horseback for miles each day, the illusion persisted. I saw the fat tulpa; now and then it was not necessary for me to think of him to make him appear. The phantom performed various actions of the kind that are natural to travelers and that I had not commanded. For instance, he walked, stopped, looked around him. The illusion was mostly visual, but sometimes I felt as if a robe was lightly rubbing against me, and once a hand seemed to touch my shoulder.

The features which I had imagined, when building my phantom, gradually underwent a change. The fat, chubby-cheeked fellow grew leaner, his face assumed a vaguely mocking, sly, malignant look. He became more troublesome and bold. In brief, he escaped my control. Once, a herdsman who brought me a present of butter saw the tulpa in my tent and took it for a living lama.

I ought to have let the phenomenon follow its course, but the presence of that unwanted companion began to prove trying to my nerves; it turned into a "day-nightmare". Moreover, I was beginning to plan my journey to Lhasa and needed a quiet brain devoid of other preoccupations, so I decided to dissolve the phantom. I succeeded, but only after six months of hard struggle. My mind-creature was tenacious of life.

There is nothing strange in the fact that I may have created my own hallucination. The interesting point is that in these cases of materialization, others see the thought-forms that have been created.

Alexandra David-Neel

Magic and Mystery in Tibet

[AtlantisRises]

as you are aware Hermet This is something that i have been considering for quite a while. I to feel that religion/god etc may be nothing more then a result of thousands of people believing. This explains the life and death of religions as people slowly stop believing and instead of believing in god start to believe in the church. ie eventually people only consider the priests and rarely if ever think of "god"

[Hermetic Hermit]

as you are aware Hermet This is something that i have been considering for quite a while. I to feel that religion/god etc may be nothing more then a result of thousands of people believing. This explains the life and death of religions as people slowly stop believing and instead of believing in god start to believe in the church. ie eventually people only consider the priests and rarely if ever think of "god"

Hello AtlantisRises, I agree belief is definitely an incredibly powerful thought, ironic in my opinion that it may be the "believers" who don't fully understand its power. But, again in my opinion, if God was indeed a manifestation of His worshippers religion must be but the "history" of these events written by individuals who most probably weren't aware of this "power" of belief.

I think the realization of this would be hard for some to accept but isn't knowing that we as individuals and more importantly we as a group are capable of creating "God" worth it?

In my opinion accepting that we have this ability to create, thus making us "gods" in a sense, would be the next step in mankind's mental evolution. "And you shall be as gods."

You mentioned the transfer of belief from God to the church and priests, I agree. That would be the inevitable result, in my opinion, of organized religion's attitude towards self-empowerment or "enlightenment".

You also mentioned the "life and death of religions". Again I absolutely agree and I would like to first relate some information to you and second give a "real-life" example that many still consider a "mystery".

"The great Fifth Hermetic Principle-the Principle of Rhythm-embodies the truth that in everything there is manifested a measured motion; a to-and-from movement; a flow and inflow; a swing forward and backward; a pendulum-like movement; a tide-like ebb and flow; a high-tide and a low-tide; between the two-poles manifest on the physical, mental or spiritual planes.

There is always an action and reaction; an advance and a retreat; a rising and sinking; manifested in all of the airs and phenomena of the Universe. Suns, worlds, men, animals, plants, minerals, forces, energy, mind and matter, yes, even Spirit, manifests this Principle. The Principle manifests in the creation and destruction of worlds; in the rise and fall of nations in the life history of all things; and finally in the mental states of Man." -- Hermetic Teaching

The Ancient Maya

"Their society consisted of many independent states, each with a rural farming community and large urban sites built around ceremonial centres. It started to decline around A.D. 900 when - for reasons which are still largely a mystery - the southern Maya abandoned their cities."

"Maya history can be characterized as cycles of rise and fall: city-states rose in prominence and fell into decline, only to be replaced by others. It could also be described as one of continuity and change, guided by a religion that remains the foundation of their culture."

http://www.digitalmeesh.com/maya/history.htm

Maya History Civilization Timeline

869 Construction ceases in Tikal, marking the beginning of the city's decline.

899 Tikal is abandoned.

900 The Classic Period of Maya history ends, with the collapse of the southern lowland cities. Maya cities in the northern Yucatán continue to thrive.

1200 Northern Maya cities begin to be abandoned.

1224 The city of Chichén Itzá is abandoned by the Toltecs. A people known as the Uicil-abnal, which later takes the name Itzá, settles in the desolate city.

1244 The Itzá abandon Chichén Itzá for reasons unknown.

1263 The Itzá begin building the city of Mayapán.

1283 Mayapán becomes the capital of Yucatán.

1441 There is a rebellion within Mayapán and the city is abandoned by 1461.

http://www.belize.com/histgeo.html

This principle is real whether people acknowledge it or not but I am sure that the Maya understood this principle and abandoned their cities before they began to "fall".