The Philip Experiment, discussed last week, has since been replicated several times. The most successful of these efforts, to date, has been the Skippy Experiment, which has also been referred to as the “Sydney Experiment.” This study took place in Sydney, Australia and is often said to be ongoing.
From the start, the Australian team focused on a fictitious character named Skippy Cartman. Skippy was a 14-year-old girl who had been murdered by an older man. According to the story, Skippy had been having an affair with her Catholic schoolteacher, Brother Monk. When the beautiful girl became pregnant, she went to this man – who she loved – for direction and advice. Fearing discovery by the church or other schoolchildren’s parents, however, Brother Monk murdered her by strangling her. He then buried Skippy in a shallow grave. This grave was beneath the floorboards of a work shed on her parent’s property. When the body was discovered, it had already suffered a year of exposure to earthly elements and decomposition. As a result, investigators were unable to determine that the young girl had been pregnant at the time of death. Also, Brother Monk had since moved to another community and did not fall under suspicion. His crimes against Skippy were never discovered.
With the fictitious story in hand, the six participants in the Skippy Experiment claimed to make headway in the creation of their own “ghost.” According to one source, the experimenters met with success only after they changed the type of table they were seated around during the experiment:
“The group met once a week for five months but saw no results. Frustrated, they dispensed with the agency Skippy and began sitting around a light, three-leg card table. Success! The first night, they heard a light tapping noise from somewhere inside the table. The second sitting brought startling results, as well. After 15 minutes, the table began to move seemingly of its own accord. Soon, it was spinning around, balanced on one leg, dragging participants behind it.”
This was a fantastical claim, and it could only be supported by hard evidence. The group – under the leadership of veteran paranormal researcher Michael Williams – reported a great deal of continued success including unexplained knocking and scratching sounds. As late as 2007, there were claims that experimenters would soon capture audio or visual evidence of these manifestations and share these with the public. No evidence from the Skippy Experiment, however, has ever been shared. We can only assume, after so many years, that all attempts to capture this evidence has failed.
Mathews, Rupert. Poltergeists and Other Hauntings. 2009.
Séance conducted by John Beattie, Bristol, England, 1872
The Philip Experiment
“A poltergeist will usually claim to be whatever its human observers believe it to be” – Poltergeists & Other Hauntings (Rupert Mathews. 2009)
In 1972, Canadian Dr. G. Owen conducted the Philip Experiment. This was a study that would test his theory that, “Ghosts have an objective reality, but they are created out of the minds of those who see them.” A ghost, he proposed, was basically a hallucination created by those who believed in it.
In the Philip Experiment a group of individuals met regularly and began to focus on a fictitious character with the aim of creating a ghost. This “spirit” was named Philip and was given a complete life biography including a tragic end. According to the group, Philip’s wife had murdered Philip’s real love by having her tortured and burnt at the stake for being a witch. The man had then fallen into a deep depression before eventually killing himself.
For a period of time nothing happened to the experimenters. The group then decided to add the 19th century practice of table turning, which was used by earlier experimenters to produce some interesting phenomena. All of the participants, it was agreed upon, needed to believe in the paranormal but not feel responsible for creating any phenomena themselves. If something unusual did occur, they all agreed that it would be met with a lighthearted acceptance.
After about a month into the Philip Experiment the table actually began to tremor. In the weeks that followed, the table then began to rock back and forth dramatically. Finally, a knocking sound was heard while they were seated around it.
The experimenters told the “ghost” to knock once for “yes” and twice for “no” and began to ask it questions. They always addressed this entity as Philip. Through the knocking communication, Philip gave a biography of himself that matched the fabricated story. This was complete to the smallest detail. Philip, however, continued to add unmentioned smaller details to the stories that had not been created by the group. When these details were checked, however, it would be determined that they were not always historically accurate.
The table itself then began to demonstrate some very strange behaviors. All of the participants were frisked and the environment was controlled. The table began to move even when no one was touching it. At one point, it even became stuck in the doorway as it attempted to leave the room. When this entity, Philip, was asked to manipulate the lights he would do so and they would flicker.
The volunteers’ knocks were recorded and compared with the knocks produced by Philip. There were distinct differences, however, as Philip’s knocks did not vibrate as long.
This activity was recorded and later captured on film. The table was moved to various locations but the activity continued. At a later period of time, the experiment was replicated by a new group of participants.
Many have noted the similarities between Philip’s abilities and those of the poltergeist. These experimenters had tried to create a physical manifestation of a ghost, but instead were rewarded with a different type of haunting altogether: the Poltergeist.
There have been those who’ve claimed that the original results from the experiment were hoaxed, but this has never been confirmed. The usual criticism is that the experiment lacked the control factors, which would have made it scientific. Attempts by other groups to replicate the Philip Experiment have usually, but not always, failed. The most successful – though not as powerful – replication has been the Sydney or “Skippy” Experiment.
Interestingly, the Philip Experiment is often quoted as being the inspiration for the upcoming movie the Quiet Ones, whichHammer Films says is a “follow-up” toWoman in Black. The movie’s scheduled for release on April 25th, 2014.
The Eight Stages of a Poltergeist Haunting was proposed by Rupert Mathews in his book Poltergeists. Filled with illustrations and unique information, this is by far my favourite book about poltergeists.
Mathews covers many aspects of what we would now consider classic poltergeist hauntings. What I like most, is that Mathews doesn’t automatically subscribe to common poltergeist theories (regarding psychokinesis and the paranormal). He is thorough in covering many possible explanations including fraud and misidentification. Mathews covers historic and modern cases, investigations and scientific experiments, as well as famous early mediums and fraudsters.
Astutely, Mathews says there are generally eight stages to an “idealized poltergeist visitation,” or haunting, where fraud has not been detected:
Stage One: Beginnings
The activity usually begins with faintly registered sounds. This is usually a scratching noise, which might be disregarded as rodents or related to water pipes, etc. These noises are usually only heard at night.
Stage Two: Noises
The sounds will become harder to ignore. At this point, the noises might resemble knuckles knocking on wood or another objects such as glass. Sometimes, very loud cracking or unexplained banging noises are heard but this is less common. Objects might vibrate. At this stage, the activity might also be heard during daylight hours.
Stage Three: Moving Objects
Mathews says that sometimes Stage Three begins at the same time as Stage Two. Objects might be moved inexplicably. Stone throwing, or lithobolia, is very common. Objects might disappear and reappear. This activity usually focuses on a certain item or type of object such as a specific ornament or keys. It’s rare to actually see the item moved. The object might be hot to the touch immediately after.
Stage Four: Apports and Disapports
When an object appears from out of nowhere it’s called an apport. When an object disappears “into oblivion” it is called a disapport. These types of activities are extremely rare but have been reported.
Stage Five: Communication
In some cases communication is established through a code of knocks. This may be two knocks indicating a “yes” and one knock indicating a “no” or some other established pattern. Sometimes speech occurs. In almost all of these cases, there seems to be a gradual process which starts with whistles, slurps, growls and so on. At first, mutterings or distant voices can be heard. Next, the voice is said to sound robotic. Finally, witnesses have claimed regular speech is achieved. At this point, the poltergeist will be able to speak as a normal person might as they begin to make statements. Claims by the poltergeist about their lifetime identity are often grande. They may say they were a murderer, a victim, a suicide, or even a famous person. When these statements are checked out they will usually be found to be false. According to Mathews, it is rare for a poltergeist to have knowledge of events outside of what is widely known within the community it appears in. Mathews does not mention this, but it’s interesting to me that many claimed spirit-contacts through Ouija boards share these same characteristics of deceit[i].
Stage Six: Climax
The poltergeist activity will suddenly increase to a point it had never reached before. This may last several hours or several days. If the poltergeist can talk it may state that it’s going to leave soon. Unlike previous claims, however, this will generally turn out to be true.
Stage Seven: Decline
According to Mathews, “the decline is almost always much shorter than the build-up.” The poltergeist will lose its abilities in reverse and gradually become weaker.
Stage Eight: Endings
The activity may slowly skip to an end. Sometimes, this poltergeist activity will reach a dramatic conclusion. In many cases, exorcisms or blessings may prematurely kill the activity. Sometimes, the focus person leaving the premise may cause the activity to cease.
Other Features
The “idealized” poltergeist haunting will usually have a focus person. According to Mathews, this focus person is most often a teenage female but may be any age or gender. Some investigators believe poltergeist activity always centres around one person but this is not always the case. Mathews adds that, “it is often said that focus people are usually in a stressful situation of some kind.” He gives examples of divorce and attempted rape.
Also noteworthy, poltergeists sometimes manifest physically. The apparition might be smoky or misty (this makes me think of Jinn). Sometimes, it will take on a human form. The apparition might also appear even more inexplicable such as in an animal or part animal form. Wet spots might also manifest, which are said to smell like urine. Sometimes the wetness can be viewed as it occurs and seems to come out of nowhere.
Witnesses have claimed to be harmed by poltergeist entities, as well. Scratches and bite marks are said to appear on the person’s skin without explanation. In some cases, pets will die. Fires can start in the home inexplicably. In the Bell Witch case, the poltergeist claimed to have killed Jack Bell. In another – which is not in Mathews’ book – a woman named Doris Bither claimed to have been raped by a poltergeist. Witnesses later supported her claim. The Bithers’ poltergeist account and investigation was made into the 1981 movie The Entity starring Barbara Hershey (before the fictional Poltergeist movie). For an interview with Doris Bither’s surviving son please go to: ghost theory
It’s important to note that the poltergeist distinction is not as clear as many imagine. Especially mainstream parapsychologists or paranormal investigators. The characteristics of poltergeist hauntings often share many similarities with conventional hauntings. Translated from German, the word poltergeist basically means “noisy ghost.” Identified as a poltergeist, it has come to represent a specific idealized type of haunting. Many individuals separate poltergeists from traditional ghosts, for example, because they believe spirits of dead people cause other types of hauntings and there are psychic explanations for poltergeist activity. One early theory was that poltergeist activity was caused by uncontrolled female teenage sexual energy, an unfounded problematic belief that persists to this day.
[i] For more reports that suggest spirits are often deceptive, consider reading Hungry Ghosts by Joe Fisher, which is fascinating. Since publication, Fisher died falling off a cliff. Many believe he was pushed.
