In 1897, one of the most famous novels by the English science fiction writer Herbert Wells, The Invisible Man, was published. Many films have been shot on the plot of the novel, including in Russia. It would seem that invisibility is frank fantasy, incompatible with reality. But is it?
It all started with a banal supermarket theft, which was planned by several teenagers from Minneapolis (USA) in the fall of 1998. They wanted to see if they could pull off something and hide. Failed, the controllers detained them, called the police. And from that moment on, something strange began to happen to a participant in an unsuccessful robbery named Jennis.
When the car with the would-be thieves drove up to the police station, the teenagers were escorted inside, put in a row at the wall in the office of the duty officer, who interrogated them one by one. Everyone except Jennis. Moreover, no one paid attention to her - neither the duty officer, nor the guards, nor the attendants. The people around her, including her accomplices, acted as if she was not there. Slightly recovering from surprise, Jennis decided to test her feelings. She left the office and headed down the corridor to the street exit. No one asked her any questions or tried to detain her.
Later, when Jennis discussed the past events with the accomplices of the failed raid, they were no less surprised at what had happened than she was. According to them, they did not remember at all that she was seized with them, and were sure that she managed to get lost among the buyers. And when Jennis insisted that they had pushed her into a police car along with the others at the supermarket, they just exchanged glances and shrugged their shoulders …
Psychotherapist Donna Higby, who studies the paranormal, became interested in this case. She realized that Jennis had indeed become invisible, although she did not make any effort to this and did not even know about it. It turned out that she stayed in this state from the moment the police appeared in the store, and until she left the police station.
From conversations with colleagues, the American researcher learned about a whole series of similar incidents; it is true that none of their members remained invisible as long as Jennis. Higby has posted in several popular magazines, as well as on the Internet, an appeal to readers asking them to inform her about cases when they themselves or people they know have become invisible for a while. And information began to flow.
Those around them do not see them
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A resident of the city of Ventura from California said that once, while at the post office, she asked an employee with a question, but he did not seem to see or hear her. His colleague's reaction was exactly the same. Moreover, the visitors behaved in a similar way; for them it did not exist at all.
Another correspondent wrote from Roanoke, Texas, that she had "attacks" of invisibility more than once in a restaurant and at the airport. And another Texan, from Fort Worth, reported that he had clearly disappeared from the field of view of others in the cinema and in cafes several times. Letters of similar content came from all over the world: from Brazil, Australia, Puerto Rico.
Of course, in most of the cases studied by Donna Higby, there were not enough independent witnesses, but, due to the specifics of this phenomenon, it is difficult to count on his eyewitnesses.
Almost everyone with whom the researcher spoke were quite normal and balanced people, and their stories gave the impression of being reliable. Moreover, some of them, such as the young thief Jennis, became invisible in a situation where other participants in the events could witness what had happened.
An excursion into history
During her research, Donna Higby discovered written sources that testified to the long history of this mysterious phenomenon.
One of the oldest literary monuments mentioning invisibility was the Sanskrit texts of the Upanishads - theological treatises of the 7th-3rd centuries BC. There, in particular, it is described how to achieve the state of siddhi - a creature with limitless magical abilities, including the ability to become invisible.
Belief in the possibility of gaining invisibility through the training of consciousness, the practice of shamanism or the art of black magic is characteristic of the culture of the Australian Aborigines, American Indians, and the Eskimos. Since ancient times, Japanese intelligence officers and saboteurs - ninjas - have been trained to be invisible, or at least to become as invisible to others as possible.
In China, the first mention of the phenomenon of invisibility dates back to the period of the Wei dynasty, that is, to 477-517 AD. Chinese chroniclers note that in those days invisible jokers appeared on the streets of cities, who … cut off people's braids. And a thousand years later, history repeated itself. In 1876, similar cases of hooliganism by the invisible were noted in Nanjing, Shanghai and other Chinese cities.
There is a belief that in medieval Europe the secret of invisibility was owned by members of the Brotherhood of Freemasons - the Freemasons - and the close to it Brotherhood of the Cross and the Rose - the Rosicrucians.
Donna Higby is sure that cases of spontaneous temporary transformation of people into invisibility are a real fact, and continues to search for a rational explanation for this mysterious phenomenon.
In the spring of 2002, St. Petersburg journalist Elena Zhuravleva collected the stories of her fellow countrymen, who either unexpectedly for themselves turned into invisibility, or were eyewitnesses of such cases. These stories were published, in particular, by the Smena newspaper. The journalist did not name the real names of the heroes. Here are two cases from her collection.
Student-"hare"
A sophomore at the Faculty of Philology and Arts at St. Petersburg University (let's call him Konstantin) a year ago gladly saw his name on the list of applicants who were to start their studies on September 1. However, the joyful mood did not last long. The very next day, all the money was stolen from Kostya. His conscience did not allow him to seek help from his parents - they already laid out all their savings on the table, equipping their son in St. Petersburg.
And before the first scholarship there was still a whole month. Fortunately, Kostya prudently stocked up on food. He had enough cereals, pasta and other essential products. The problem of transportation remained: it was necessary to travel to Peterhof, where the faculty is located, every day.
The newly minted student decided to rely on the Russian maybe and try to become a "hare".
And the incredible began. The controllers, who literally swarmed with electric trains, fined people right and left, but they passed by Kostya, as if he did not exist at all. Further more. When Konstantin passed by the watchman through the entrance of the hostel, he did not even raise his head. Yes, and classmates noticed him only if he spoke to them himself, while they looked confused, as if the interlocutor had just materialized before their eyes.
Konstantin remained in such a semi-ghostly state for a whole month. And then the day came for the grant of the scholarship, bills rustled in his pocket, and all this phantasmagoria, as if by magic, stopped. The very first inspector, whom Kostya ran into on the train, where he climbed out of habit without a ticket, fined him to the fullest. And then, despite all the efforts, Kostya never again managed to get through.
President's case
One of Elena Zhuravleva's colleagues (let him be Nikolai) in 2001 managed to be one of the few foreign journalists invited to the inauguration of US President George W. Bush. However, Nikolai remembered this event not so much because he got into the society of VIPs, but as a strange incident that happened before his eyes.
In the midst of the ceremony, an unremarkable, short, middle-aged man approached the president. None of the numerous guards thought to stop him - it seemed that they all suddenly fell asleep with their eyes open. The security guards came out of their stupor only after the little man shook George Bush's hand, handed him a souvenir and left without haste.
One glance at the full confusion and confusion of the guards' faces was enough to understand that the mysterious visitor had no documents giving the right to approach the president and shake hands with him. But Nikolai was even more surprised when an American colleague who was standing nearby told him in a whisper that the same thing happened at the last inauguration. The same man somehow incomprehensibly found himself next to Bill Clinton and also shook his hand.
Vadim Ilyin
"Secrets of the XX century" No. 20 May 2012