The Philip Experiment: What's a ghost?

What is a ghost? The urge is to give a tidy answer: the spirit, energy, emotion of a person who died. That’s what horror movies and ghost hunting shows tell us. But when we dig a little more, things become less solid—harder to hold. The answers we grasp onto, hoping for a neat solution, begin to turn to mist. That mist may swirl into almost recognizable shapes, but it never stays that way for long.A group of like-minded acquaintances in Toronto asked the same question. They set up an experiment that spanned the early 1970s with results that are just as mystifying and unsettling today as it was for those members of the Toronto Society for Psychical Research.This is Weirdly, episode one: the Philip Experiment.Sources:Astonishing Legends, Conjuring Philip, Part 1:https://astonishinglegends.com/al-podcasts/2023/03/11/ep-254-conjuring-philip-part-1?rq=the%20philip%20experimentAstonishing Legends, Conjuring Philip, Part 2:https://astonishinglegends.com/al-podcasts/2023/03/25/ep-255-conjuring-philip-part-2?rq=the%20philip%20experimentAstonishing Legends, The Philip Experiment Blog (by Tess Pfeifle):https://astonishinglegends.com/astonishing-legends/2020/10/12/the-philip-experiment?rq=the%20philip%20experimentConjuring Up Philip:Owen, Iris M., and Margaret Sparrow. Conjuring up Philip: An Adventure in Psychokinesis. Fitzhenry & Whiteside, 1976. Archive.Org, https://archive.org/details/conjuringupphili0000owen. Accessed 4 Aug. 2026.Ideomotor Effect Wiki:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ideomotor_phenomenonNewkirk Museum of the Paranormal:https://www.patreon.com/paramuseumOn the Use of Romani:https://www.theskyandearthknow.com/p/why-we-use-roma-and-romani-insteadhttps://now.org/blog/the-g-word-isnt-for-you-how-gypsy-erases-romani-women/