What is a ghost: some kind of physical substance or something intangible that exists only within the sensitivity of living people?
In the fall of 1972, the Toronto Society of Parapsychological Researchers decided to conduct a unique experiment and artificially create a phantom. Sounds fantastic, doesn't it? In their experiment, the Canadians were guided by the judgment that thought is material, and even a ghost can materialize with a strong desire. The results were truly stunning.
A group of two psychologists, an unemployed with a brilliant level of intelligence, an industrial designer, a housewife, an accountant, a sociology student and a writer, worked on an unusual project.
Artificial ghost biography
To begin with, the researchers decided to invent a fictional person, whose phantom should appear in our world. It was Philip Aylesford - an aristocrat, Catholic and supporter of the monarchy, who lived in the middle of the seventeenth century in England. Like any other restless spirit, Philip had his own life tragedy. He married without love the daughter of a neighbor, Dorothea, but later he met a gypsy camp and inflamed with feelings for young Margot.
The couple began to meet in secret at the house of the city gatekeeper, but they soon found out about their romance. Dorothea said that Margot was a witch who bewitched her husband, and the gypsy was thrown into prison. Philip tried to ransom the girl from prison, but to no avail. A trial was held, during which Margot was accused of witchcraft and sentenced to be burned at the stake. After the death of his beloved Aylesford experienced the tragedy very hard for several days, and then threw himself out of the window of his castle.
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Canadians not only worked out in detail the biography of a person who never existed, but also painted his portrait.
Contact with a ghost
After that, the authors of the experiment began to devote all their free time to Philip. They constantly thought about the Englishman, discussed him with each other. After a while, the researchers were ready to make contact with the ghost.
They held a seance, during which they turned off the light and sat down at a round table on which were placed various objects that reminded parapsychologists of Philip. And the ghost did appear.
During one of these sessions, the group heard a soft knock on the table. A few minutes later, the Canadians found out that Aylesford decided to communicate with them, using one blow to the tree as "yes" and two as "no." Despite the fact that such communication was rather limited, the experimenters learned a lot about Philip. Answering people's questions, he told spiritualists about the details of his character, about his passions and antipathies. At some point, the spirit even managed to move the table a few centimeters!
Why Canadians Become Afraid of Their Ghost
Obviously, this was a real supernatural phenomenon, but the surprise and enthusiasm of the authors of the experiment quickly began to fade away. An invisible ghost, who appeared almost every evening, called himself Philip and claimed that he was an English aristocrat three and a half centuries ago, but for some reason he could not tell about himself and his era anything that the researchers did not know themselves. Canadians began to suspect that this entity either originated exclusively from their collective consciousness or was an impostor from somewhere else.
Meanwhile, the influence of the spirit on reality became stronger and stronger. During the seances, Philip began to raise the table in the air, toss objects, turn on and off the light in the room. All members of the group unanimously claimed that once a thick fog formed in the room, while the poltergeist suddenly refused to comment on his actions.
Some time later, an industrial designer who was one of the authors of the experiment reported that he saw a distinct human silhouette in his house late at night, although he lived alone. The Canadians doubted the safety of the experiment, but decided to finally hold the largest and most crowded spiritualistic session.
The experiment culminated in an event attended by fifty outsiders, including journalists. Philip lived up to the expectations placed on him and demonstrated all his pranks to those present, including moving the table, levitating objects and the appearance of a mysterious fog. Many Canadian publications have written about the session with the artificial ghost. However, the Spiritualists then stopped communicating with their fictional ghost, so as not to tempt fate.
Followers of the artificial ghost
This phenomenon has been studied by many parapsychologists and paranormal researchers. In the wake of Canadians' success, similar experiments have been carried out in many parts of the world, some of which have been successful.
Perhaps the most interesting was the experiment carried out in 1973 to summon a fictional person from the future named Axel. American enthusiasts came up with a person who would supposedly live in the United States a thousand years from now, and connected with her spirit. An invisible supernatural power appeared, but soon also disappointed researchers with the meagerness of their answers. It seemed that Axel existed only in the imagination of the people who created him and could not name a single detail of his life that had not been invented by the Spiritualists themselves.
Isn't it the same with the summoning of other spirits, even if they really lived and already died people? It is not surprising that spiritualists are always amazed at the scarcity and unreliability of the responses of the ghosts summoned from the other world, while the external side of such sessions is taken as realism, that is, knocking, moving the saucer on the table, and so on. But the same thing happens with invented ghosts …