Philip Aylesford’s life story is a tragic one taking place in 17th-century England. The English Civil War was raging at that time and consisted of a conflict that saw the Royalists fighting to preserve the monarchy under King Charles I against the Parliamentarians. The war ended in disaster for the Royalists, with the execution of King Charles I in 1649—a cataclysmic event for those who believed in the divine right of kings.
Philip, unfortunately, was on the side of the royalists– the side that lost in the English Civil War. When he returned, he found his home wasn’t as he’d left it and quickly fell into despair. Sadly, Philip died around 1654, apparently at his own hand. [Content warning, this portion of the story will contain brief mention of suicide.]
However, Philip would have a resurgence– in the 1970s during the Philip Experiment. The Philip Experiment is a famous parapsychology case from the 1970s in which a group of Canadian researchers attempted to communicate with our dearly departed Philly boy through collective imagination.
Annnnnnd it seems to have worked! There were some pretty strange things that went on and they were actually recorded– you can even watch them online to this day. But, of course, the results were inconclusive and remain unexplained in their entirety, which is why we’ll be trying to sort them out on today’s episode of Idiopathic..
Additional Resources:
References:
1. Olson JA, Jeyanesan E, Raz A. Ask the pendulum: personality predictors of ideomotor performance. Neurosci Conscious. 2017;2017(1):nix014. doi:10.1093/nc/nix014
2. Hosseini E. Brain-to-brain communication: the possible role of brain electromagnetic fields (As a Potential Hypothesis). Heliyon. 2021;7(3):e06363. doi:10.1016/j.heliyon.2021.e06363
3. Pizarro JJ, Zumeta LN, Bouchat P, et al. Emotional processes, collective behavior, and social movements: A meta-analytic review of collective effervescence outcomes during collective gatherings and demonstrations. Front Psychol. 2022;13:974683. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2022.974683
4. Escolà-Gascón Á, Houran J, Dagnall N, Drinkwater K, Denovan A. Follow-up on the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency’s (CIA) remote viewing experiments☆. Brain Behav. 2023;13(6):e3026. doi:10.1002/brb3.3026
5. Wahbeh H, Radin D, Yount G, Woodley Of Menie MA, Sarraf MA, Karpuj MV. Genetics of psychic ability - A pilot case-control exome sequencing study. Explore (NY). 2022;18(3):264-271. doi:10.1016/j.explore.2021.02.014
6. Venkatasubramanian G, Jayakumar PN, Nagendra HR, Nagaraja D, Deeptha R, Gangadhar BN. Investigating paranormal phenomena: Functional brain imaging of telepathy. Int J Yoga. 2008;1(2):66-71. doi:10.4103/0973-6131.43543
7. Peres JF, Moreira-Almeida A, Caixeta L, Leao F, Newberg A. Neuroimaging during Trance State: A Contribution to the Study of Dissociation. PLoS One. 2012;7(11):e49360. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0049360
8. Williams JM, Blagrove M. Paranormal experiences, sensory-processing sensitivity, and the priming of pareidolia. PLoS One. 2022;17(9):e0274595. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0274595
9. Shin YK, Choe S, Kwon OS. Strong evidence for ideomotor theory: Unwilled manifestation of the conceptual attribute in movement control. Front Psychol. 2023;14:1066839. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1066839
10. The Philip Experiment. Astonishing Legends. October 12, 2020. Accessed October 11, 2024. https://astonishinglegends.com/astonishing-legends/2020/10/12/the-philip-experiment
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