Nexus - 0401 - New Times Magazine-pages

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Physicists and electrical engineers should now reconsider the floor, vibrating violently. He had seen a drawer open by itself. nature of severely modulated electromagnetic fields, for there are He had felt an invisible force stop him closing his own bedroom evidently previously unrealised potentials. The energies involved oor, which simply stuck half-closed though it normally swung in the Hutchison Effect are clearly the same ones at work during shut on its own. And he had seen something far more alarming as ‘poltergeist’ activity, and it is only the ignorance and entrenched _he stood one day at the bottom of the Harper's staircase, looking positions of the psychical research fraternity that prevent them up it. 'I saw this light,’ he said. ‘It was the equivalent, I should from accepting these insights into electromagnetic energy poten- say, of twelve inches vertical. It looked like a fluorescent light tials. behind frosted glass, which burned fiercely and gradually faded These energies include weird thermal effects. During away’...'"* Hutchison's experiments, flames have been produced and emitted With the insights gained from what is possible during operation from blocks of concrete, and fires have broken out in different of the Hutchison device, coupled with my own findings that 'pol- parts of the building where the device was housed. Again, these tergeist’ activity takes place at locations that are electromagnetic effects are typical of 'poltergeist' reports. On one occasion, a steel hot-spots, we can begin to understand what is going on in such file was held in place against a wooden board by two plywood cas Unusual light phenomena can occur, and on consulting struts, to prevent it taking off. The file glowed white-hot, but the Burke's Handbook of Magnetic Phenomena we find several mech- board when examined afterwards was not even singed. Such mis- anisms documented where magnetic fields interact with light to chievous thermal antics of ‘phantom arsonists’ have been attrib- produce specific optical effects that are predictable in laboratory uted to the 'spirit energy of the poltergeist', whatever that may be, conditions, but are obviously most startling when they occur but Hathaway's warnings are more to do with effective safety spontaneously in domestic settings. Having stated this, however, practices in the laboratory: the sheet of iridescent light which appeared during Hutchison's "From time to time there are scorch marks on the boards from experiments also came as an unexpected and surprising phenome- other experiments. The apparatus makes fire spontaneously in non. parts of the lab, if you're not careful." In the extract given above, it is not difficult to rethink the The device can also induce apparent materialisation of the plastic unusual aurora-like lighting effects rod as a typical trajectory of the in mid-air. Once when Hutchison Hutchison Effect, observed many was filming in 1981, a sheet of iri- times and recorded on video. descence suddenly descended | "From time to time there are scorch Likewise, the lamp slowly sliding between the camera and some of the across the table and vibrating hardware being used. It hada marks on the boards from other could have come straight out of the strange pinkish centre to it, and experiments. The apparatus makes catalogue of effects similarly after it hovered there for a short induced. In fact, compared with period it vanished just as suddenly fire spontaneously in parts of the the extreme effects that Hutchison as it had appeared. Hutchison actu- i U Ww can obtain with his device, domes- ally thought he had been hallucinat- lab, if you re not careful. tic 'poltergeist' phenomena which ing, but when the film was devel- previously seemed so dramatic, oped it transpired that there had now seem quite tame. But as actually been something objective there. already noted, this lessening of effect is consistent with the fact Once again, the Enfield case provides us with comparable that the Hutchison device involves a concentrated collection of examples of strange, luminous phenomena in a domestic setting, devices which appear to act as a single entity, whereas an electro- and in this extract they are accompanied by other typical phenom- magnetic hot-spot occurs by the chance juxtaposition of freak ena also explainable within the Hutchison Effect: environmental field sources. "The Harpers hoped to find some peace and quiet in the Unfortunately, the investigators present during the 'poltergeist’ Burcombes' house, but it was not to be. From the kitchen Sylvie activity at Green Street, Enfield, England, in the late 1970s, did suddenly let out a piercing scream and dropped the kettle she was not carry out a thorough field survey or identify the field sources holding. It was some time before she could calm down enough to involved, despite the fact that a magnetometer registered distinct describe what had happened. 'I was just pouring the water from deflections as objects were 'thrown' across the room. In fact, there the kettle into the teapot,’ she said, 'when something appeared is the distinct impression that, for them, electromagnetic fields right in front of my eyes and then dropped onto the kitchen unit were not a welcome explanation for the phenomena they wit- top, and bounced once." It was a plastic rod, about six inches nessed, as the Playfair book relates how they discontinued use of long, from one of the children's toy sets. 'I sort of looked down, the magnetometer once it showed that power surges occurred in opened my eyes, and this thing was in front of me,' she told conjunction with physical phenomena: Grosse when he arrived shortly afterwards. 'I screamed, shouted "When everybody was settled into bed, we switched on both and jumped back, and after I jumped back I saw the thing jump tape recorders, Eduardo's being connected to the signal from the and come up again." magnetometer, and left the room, since I had told him that nothing "Grosse questioned Mrs Burcombe very carefully about this would happen if we both stayed there. From the landing we could incident, which seemed to be a genuine case of one of the rarest of keep an eye on the dial of the machine, and in the following forty all psychic phenomena: materialisation. The plastic rod had defi- minutes Janet's pillow was twice thrown across the room just as it nitely not been thrown at her, she insisted. It had just appeared in had been the previous evening in my presence. This time, of front of her eyes and dropped down... But he had already seen too course, I could not see Janet, although Mrs Harper assured me at much, in both his own and his sister's homes. He had watched Continued on page 84 open-mouthed as a lamp slowly slid across a table and fell to the 60 + NEXUS marks on the boards from other Continued on page 84 DECEMBER 1996 - JANUARY 1997