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The entity in the movie, Evey (whose full name we learn is Evey Dwyer), is much more demonic and violent than Philip, the spirit that was supposedly created by the group that was part of the Toronto Society for Psychical Research and operated under the advisement of Dr. The fictional Philip Aylesford, drawn by one of the séance participants. They believed that giving Philip such realistic traits and attempting to communicate with him would help to conjure up an actual ghost. During their séances, they tried to converse with Philip, their once fictional character. Taking that theory even further, the researchers behind the Philip Experiment gave the character they were imagining a full life, including a name, a nationality, a past and a personality. Basically, thinking of a ghost and providing it an identity might be enough to conjure it into existence.
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For example, if you grew up fearing that an evil old woman lurks under your bed and will grab your ankles when you step onto the floor, you imagining the woman in detail could be enough to manifest her into an actual demonic spirit. It just means that they are created by us, instead of coming from somewhere else. Proving such a hypothesis true doesn't necessarily mean that ghosts aren't real. In researching The Quiet Ones true story, we discovered that the purpose of the real experiment was to prove that the supernatural is a manifestation of what already exists in the mind. What was the purpose of the Philip Experiment? Bottom: Iris Owen (left) was the lead member of the real group, which consisted of eight people and is pictured here during one of their séances in the early 1970s.
THE QUIET ONES MOVIE
Top: The five-person group in The Quiet Ones movie attempts to contact the poltergeist Evey. Fellow participant Sue Sparrow was her coauthor. George Owen's wife, Iris, who was the leader of the group involved in the Philip Experiment, wrote the 1976 book Conjuring Up Philip: An Adventure in Psychokinesis, which chronicled the experiment and its findings in detail. In the movie, Professor Joseph Coupland (Jared Harris) conducts his experiments in 1974. Owen and the eight participants of the research group began conducting the Philip Experiment in 1972. What year did the real experiment (the Philip Experiment) take place?ĭr.
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Owen specialized in psychic research with an emphasis on poltergeists. Together with his wife Iris Owen, they agreed to conduct full-time research for the foundation for a period of five years. He had also worked as a lecturer in genetics at Cambridge until 1970, the year he acted on an invitation for his family to immigrate to Canada, where he was to direct the parapsychology research of the Toronto-based New Horizons Research Foundation. Owen), a former fellow at Trinity College, Cambridge where he was a professor of mathematics. The group was led by participant Iris May Owen and was operated under the scientific advisement of her husband, Dr. The Quiet Ones true story reveals that the real experiments were conducted in Toronto, Canada under the patronage of the Toronto Society for Psychical Research (TSPR), founded in 1970 and not affiliated with a university. Much like a cancer, he believes it can be drawn out and removed, in turn healing Jane.ĭid the real experiments take place at Oxford University? In the beginning, Professor Coupland believes that the malevolent spirit, Evey Dwyer, is not a poltergeist at all, but merely a manifestation of the negative energy produced by Jane. They perform experiments on Jane in hopes of separating her from the poltergeist. In the movie, Professor Joseph Coupland (Jared Harris) and his team focus on Evey, the demonic being that they believe is attached to the unstable girl, Jane Harper (Olivia Cooke).
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Instead, the real-life research team attempted to manifest a ghost solely from a fictional character they made up and named Philip Aylesford. The real experiment did not involve researching the negative telekinetic energy surrounding a troubled girl in an effort to separate her from it and/or stop her from producing it. Jane Harper (Olivia Cooke) is an entirely fictional character.
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