Customer Reviews

Conjuring Up Philip: An Adventure in Psychokinesis

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is research, folks, in a very readable form (mostly). It describes the circumstances, processes, and experiences of a legitimate experiment in a very readable way, alternating with the "science" stuff average readers often find quite boring. If you're not into the science part, skip it. The rest is absolutely fascinating.

The experiment's outcome might horrify skeptics and believers alike - real effects were demonstrated, but not in a way that would please either of the extremes. And, for those of you who want real-life science and methodology applied to paranormal phenomena, this is TRULY written FOR YOU!

This book was inspired by some research published by the British Society for Psychical Research in the early 70s about the creation of ghostly phenomena. Apparently, it's easy to do. This book follows the adventures of a group of people who met regularly to establish and then deepen contact with a fictitious, concocted 17th century English aristocrat who they named Philip.

Once conditions were right, Philip manifested without fail. The seance room table was observed to creak, groan and move around. As the weeks went by it would perform more startling actions, like rushing across the room to greet a newcomer, chase someone round the room and distort itself by raising only one of its legs. On one occasion it even bit a participant by trapping part of her hand between the two edges of its corner joint. In addition, the table would rap answers to questions about specific aspects of the life of Philip.

The book mentions how a physical cost was paid by the participants in terms of colds, flu and severe headaches that resulted from the experiment.

This book proves that what spiritualists may interpret as messages from the dead may well be nothing of the kind, because if people sit round in the expectation of ghostly manifestations, then these will result. Therefore, contacting the dead would appear to be a waste of time, I suppose, unless information comes through that can be subsequently verified and which was unknown by the sitters.

Debunkers of psychokinetic phenomena will have to think again if they read this, and it may well be that the ideas of Newtonian physics will have to be tossed in the trash.

I would have given this book 5 stars, but I found the second half a bit boring, with too much theory and analysis.

A Canadian group decides to systematically write a history and biography of a fictitious person set in a historical place with known history of occupants; none of them share any overlap to the fictitious person's history. They study this. They then engage in classical seance summoning of this spirit. After several weeks of work they are getting classical results, including remote phenomenon ad the homes of group members not present at the seance.

They have in effect constructed a dynamic thought form, a spirit. This book to go read and think about a LOT.

then answer the musical question: If millions of people think devoutly about a purple and green dinosaur and name it Jesus for thousands of years, what impact does this have on the thousands of years and millions of people who were mumbling at a saffron robed dinosaur called Siddaharta? And is there any such thing as a thing which has been imagined which is truely unreal? And if thoughts are unreal, what the hell is going on as you read this diatribe? After all, you just told me your thoughts are unreal.

This book to go read. Wide awake, sober, and think about it REAL HARD.

THEN go get drunk.

Hail ERIS.