Ghosts of the Imagination: The Philip Experiment | 385
Imagine a group of ordinary people coming together with one extraordinary goal: to create a ghost from scratch. That’s exactly what happened in the early 1970s with the Philip Experiment, a fascinating parapsychological study led by Dr. A.R.G. Owen and the Toronto Society for Psychical Research. The team invented a fictional character, Philip Aylesford, a 17th-century English nobleman with a tragic backstory, and then set out to bring him to life through sheer willpower and collective imagination.
What started as a curious experiment in human consciousness quickly escalated into something far more mysterious. The group reported witnessing strange phenomena—tables moving on their own, eerie knocks answering their questions, and even glimpses of a ghostly presence. But was this really the work of a spirit, or just the power of the human mind? Join us this week as we dive deep into the eerie world of the Philip Experiment, where belief and reality collide in the most unexpected ways… on Hysteria 51.
Special thanks to this week’s research sources:
Videos
The Philip Experiment - https://youtu.be/uhT0-n9OH8M?si=kGPGRv6pcmheHSF9
The Quiet Ones - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2235779/
Websites
Philip Experiment Wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_experiment
Ranker - https://www.ranker.com/list/philip-experiment-paranormal-study/jodi-smith
Dread Central - https://www.dreadcentral.com/editorials/358897/the-philip-experiment-we-want-ghosts-to-be-real/
Live About - https://www.liveabout.com/how-to-create-a-ghost-2594058
C. Wesley Clough - https://cwesleyclough.wordpress.com/2024/03/04/the-philip-experiment-a-benchmark-in-paranormal-research/
3X Strange - https://strangestrangestrange.com/debunk/the-philip-experiment-the-quiet-ones/
The Quiet Ones Wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Quiet_Ones_(2014_film)
History vs Hollywood - https://www.historyvshollywood.com/reelfaces/quiet-ones/
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Kevin Crispin
Podcaster
Kevin Crispin is a Mental Health Advocate, Podcaster, Public Speaker, Actor, and Writer. As someone who has suffered from severe anxiety, Kevin uses his life experiences to shed a light on Mental Health as well as work to connect people through kindness, humor, and empathy. He is the host of the weekly podcast Sad Times.
Each week on Sad Times, he has a kind and generous guest who comes on and tells difficult stories from their lives. He believes that difficult stories are universal, but are not universally told. To be aware of our own fear and anxiety and depression can allow us room for the grace and kindness to understand that our fellow humans are dealing with a version of the exact same thing.
He believes each of us is a collection of stories, and that stories are the great healing currency of humankind: the more we hear, the more we heal.
He believes in kindness, he believes in humor, he runs from tornado sirens.
Learn more at the links below
Jay Settlemyer
Podcaster / Teacher
Jay is the host of the Project Skeptic Podcast and an experienced educator in machining at a local technical school.
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