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picture this a silent room bathed in

warm candl light a group of Scholars

leaning forward eyes closed hands on a

trembling table suddenly a loud knock

shatters the Stillness the air turns icy

no one speaks could they have just

conjured something or something one this

is the philli experiment what if I told

you that you could create a ghost not

summon one not invite one but create one

in

1972 a group of researchers and

paranormal enthusiasts in Toronto set

out to do just that no seances no Ouija

boards instead they used the power of

their own minds to conjure something

someone out of thin air his name name

was Phillip at first Phillip was nothing

more than an idea a fictional character

invented down to the smallest detail his

life his loves even his darkest Secrets

but what began as an experiment in

imagination took a shocking turn the

group began experiencing things they

couldn't explain cold breezes in a

sealed room disembodied knocks and

objects that moved on their own

was this proof of the

supernatural or could the human mind be

far more powerful than we ever imagined

could we through sheer belief create

something that shouldn't exist the

answer might change everything you know

let's find out

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in the early 1970s the Toronto Society

for psychical research led by Dr ARG

Owen wanted to test a bold idea imagine

a time when science and the Paranormal

danced together in a delicate Waltz when

people still believed that perhaps the

Mind held secrets we hadn't unlocked the

goal wasn't just

curiosity it was to challenge the very

fabric of what we thought was possible

they believed that paranormal phenomena

ghosts hauntings polorized weren't

necessarily spirits of the dead but

could instead be manifestations of the

human

mind to Test's Theory the group created

Philip Al's Ford every detail of his

life was carefully crafted close your

eyes and imagine him an aristocratic

Englishman from the 1600s

walking through the echoing Stone Halls

of his estate his face is lined with

sorrow his eyes haunted by a love he

could never save he was married to a

woman he didn't love and his heart broke

the day Margot a gypsy woman he adored

was taken from him accused of Witchcraft

and condemned to the

Flames her cries never left his mind a

ghostly chorus of regret

heartbroken and consumed by guilt

Phillip took his own

life the group memorized Philip's story

they envisioned his face his personality

his world every week they gathered in

the same room a ritual of

imagination now imagine the room a

circle of chairs surrounding a polished

wooden table the air hums faintly with

anticipation candles flicker

their glow soft but insistent casting

Long Shadows on the walls a quiet

determination fills the space as this

group of educated rational people

focuses their Collective energy on a man

who never

existed they spoke his name described

his life and conjured His Image as

vividly as a portrait painted in their

minds for weeks they focused their

energy on Phillip during me meetings

sitting around a table speaking to him

as if he were real to them he is real an

aristocrat with a tragic past burdened

by guilt consumed by love and ultimately

destroyed by all of it they speak to him

in Earnest tones their voices brimming

with

conviction Phillip are you with us they

ask at first it was

nothing weeks passed in

silence then one night it happens a

faint knock a chill that crawls along

the backs of their necks the room goes

still breath held collectively as if the

very air is waiting for philli to

respond The Knocks grow louder the table

trembles at first it's subtle almost

imperceptible but then it moves with

purpose sliding across the floor as if

pushed by invisible hands to Skeptics

this might sound like a clever parlor

trick but here's a thing this wasn't a

dark Seance in a Dusty Victorian parter

this was a modern experiment conducted

in a well-lit room with no hidden wires

no concealed

mechanisms and what's even stranger the

group never wavered in their belief that

Philip was fictional they knew he wasn't

real yet somehow they brought him to

life or at least something that acted

like

life the story of Phillip Bears a

striking resemblance to something

written decades earlier in 1931 French

explorer and spiritualist Alexandra

David Neil published a book titled with

Mystics and magicians in

Tibet in it she described her

experiences studying esoteric practices

among Tibetan Monks one practice in

particular stands out the creation of a

topa a topa is a being brought into

existence through sheer

concentration the monks believed that

intense Focus meditation and

visualization could manifest a fully

formed entity capable of independent

thought and action David Neil even

claimed to have created her own topa a

jolly monk-like figure who eventually

became unruly forcing her to unmake him

through further meditative effort if a

topa could be brought into existence in

the mountains of Tibet could the same

principle apply in Toronto half a world

away could Phillip be a modern topa born

not from ancient spiritual practices but

from a groups shared belief and focus

intent all right but here's what I don't

get if the monks could control their

tulpas through meditation why was

Phillip so

unpredictable I mean knocking on tables

sliding Furniture that's not exactly

polite Behavior that's a great question

and that's what makes the Philip

experiment so fascinating unlike Tibetan

Monks who spent years honing in their

mental discipline the Toronto group was

experimenting without a spiritual

framework their goal wasn't

Enlightenment it was to test the limits

of human

consciousness what's even more chilling

is what Alexandra David Neo warned about

in her book the danger of a too gaining

autonomy she described how her Topo

began acting independently developing a

will of its own could the same have

happened with Phillip was he more than

just an

experiment the more the group interacted

with Phillip the stronger his presence

became and yet there was always a

strange emptiness to it all Philip never

spoke never gave them anything beyond

what they already believed about him he

never contradicted his fictional story

it was as if the group's own thoughts

and expectations were reflected back at

them Amplified through the phenomenon

they created so here's the question was

Philip an echo of their Collective

imagination a psychological trick or did

they stumble onto something far more

profound proof that the human mind can

reach beyond the limits of reality

itself and if Philip was real even for a

moment what does that mean for the

stories we tell ourselves every

day are we shaping the world around us

more than we

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realize so what's really going on here

did the group really summon Phillip or

was something else at play let's break

this down a bit one of the most

compelling explanation ties the Philip

experiment to an ancient concept the

tulpa as I previously mentioned in the

high snow covered mountains of Tibet

monks have practiced this mysterious art

for centuries the topa is no ghost no

trick of the senses it is being crafted

entirely through thought the process

requires intense Focus visualization and

an unwavering belief over time the topa

becomes so vivid in the mind of its

creator that it manifests in the

physical world an independent sentient

entity but if toas are real they're not

just limited to Tibetan monasteries or

1970s

experiments over the years there have

been Eerie reports that suggest toas

might be more common than we think take

for instance the case of the imaginary

friends study psychologists observing

young children found that some took

their imaginary companions to

extraordinary levels of detail these

children would claim to hear Whispers

notice small objects moving or even feel

a presence in the room room in certain

cases parents corroborated these claims

noting physical changes Furniture

shifted toys relocated as if the

imaginary friends had become

tangible and then there's the infamous

case of Jeff the talking Mongoose in the

1930s a family on the aisle of man

claimed to be haunted by a strange

mischievous entity Jeff described as a

talking Mongoose would appear

sporadically moving objects making

noises

and even holding

conversations some paranormal

investigators dismissed Jeff as a hoax

but others believed he was a

manifestation of collective belief and

fear a TOA inadvertently created by the

family now take these alongside the

chilling case of the Slender Man what

started as a harmless online contest in

2009 spiraled into something far more

Sinister people shared Eerie stories

doctored images and even video sightings

of this impossible tall faceless figure

and then came the real life horror two

12-year-old girls in Wisconsin lured

their friend into the woods stabbing her

in what they claimed was an offering to

Slender Man was this proof that belief

magnified by the internet could create

something with real world consequences

and then there's the case of paranormal

investigator John ke's ultraterrestrials

beings that seem to materialize through

belief and

expectation ke theorized that what we

perceive as ghosts Cryptids or even UFOs

might not come from external Realms but

are manifestations of our own minds

shaped by culture fear and

Imagination okay but here's the kicker

if belief can create something as

harmless as a monk or as terrifying as

Slender Man wears the line how do you

control what you

create well that's the danger David Neil

warned about in her book a TOA might

start as a benign creation but once it

gains Independence it can act

unpredictably if the Philip experiment

did in fact create a topa the group may

have unknowingly invited a force they

didn't fully understand but there's

another possibility one that's just as

fascinating some Skeptics suggest that

the phenomena attributed to Philip could

be explained by

psychokinesis the ability to move

objects or influence the physical world

with the mind it's a theory that ties

into the subconscious mind where belief

stress and emotion can manifest in

surprising

ways what if the group's intense focus

and expectation triggered psychokinetic

activity without their knowledge the

knocks the table movements could they

have been caused by the group itself not

Phillip

but here's a Twist the group always knew

that Philip wasn't real he was their

creation a fictional character born from

their imagination and yet they

interacted with something that felt very

real and if belief alone can blur the

lines between fiction and reality what

else might we be capable of

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creating philli experiment is

fascinating no doubt it's the kind of

story that makes you question the

boundaries of reality the power of the

mind and even the nature of existence

but were the findings shared in this

experiment

real no they were not when you start

peeling back the layers the cracks in

the story become impossible to ignore

let's start with the claims the group

reported hearing knocks in response to

their questions and seeing the table

move sometimes violently they did

described feeling cold drafts and even a

presence in the room but is there really

any solid evidence that these phenomena

were anything more than a

performance first let's talk about the

setup the group conducted these

experiments in a room that was well lit

and free from any obvious tricks sounds

impressive right but here's the thing a

well-lit room doesn't mean a controlled

environment there were no third party

oversight no controlled conditions and

no measures to prevent unconscious

influence without these safeguards how

can we separate genuine phenomena from

group psychology or outright

trickery now let's focus on the table

movements this is classic seon style

theatrics studies in group psychology

and the idea motor effect and

unconscious physical response show that

people can inadvertently move objects

like a table without realizing they're

doing it in fact experiments is far back

as the 19th century debunked Seance

tricks by revealing how subtle movements

from participants could create the

illusion of Paranormal Activity and the

knocking easily replicated a shift in

weight here a subtle movement of the

legs there and you've got all the

ingredients for a ghostly tap okay but

what about the cold drafts if the room

was sealed where's that chill coming

from well good question wend cold cfts

are notoriously subjective a slight

opening in a door a shift in air flow

from an HVAC system or even the natural

cooling of the room during a long

session could create that sensation and

let's not forget the power of suggestion

if one person claims to feel a chill

it's almost guaranteed others will start

to notice it too whether it's real or

not but here's the most damning piece of

evidence against the Phillip

experiment the group knew philli wasn't

real from the start they admitted he was

a fabrication a thought experiment

turned into a seance and if you're

sitting around the table convinced

you've summoned the ghost how much of

what you see and hear is influenced by

your

expectations this is where the

phenomenon of confirmation bias comes

into play seeing what you want to see

and dismissing anything that doesn't fit

it's the same trick at work during a

Ouija board session tiny unconscious

movements create the illusion of

external force and the more you believe

the more convincing it becomes even

today experiments show that when people

are told to expect Paranormal Activity

their brains fill in the blanks they

hear sounds that aren't there feel

Sensations that aren't real and even

report seeing things that don't exist

now look I'm not saying toas aren't real

Tibetan Monks spend years in meditation

honing their mental discipline to levels

most of us can't even

imagine if anyone could create a being

through sheer willpower it's them but

the Philip experiment these weren't

Tibetan Monks this is a different story

this wasn't an ancient spiritual

practice it was a group of well-meaning

but untrained individuals sitting around

a table essentially playing pretend and

that brings us to the final question if

the group created Phillip through belief

why didn't he ever do anything they

didn't expect he never gave them new

information never deviated from the

script everything he did aligned

perfectly with their expectations so

what you're saying is if Philip wasn't

real then this wasn't just an experiment

it was a group of people convincing

themselves of something they wanted to

believe exactly and when you strip away

the mystery what you're left with isn't

proof of the Paranormal it's a lesson in

how powerful our minds can be

but not to summon ghosts but to trick us

into seeing what isn't there so was the

Philip experiment a groundbreaking

exploration of the mind's power or just

a clever paror trick dressed up as

science you decide but one thing's for

sure belief is a powerful thing and

sometimes it's the only ghost in the

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room thank you so much for hanging out

with me today my name is Ralph that's

Wendell and this has been Divergent

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great night

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