The Phenomena of Materialisation

By Douglas M. Baker

The Phenomena of Materialisation:

This book describes the work and personal experience of a distinguished, highly qualified researcher into this miss-understood phenomenon.

Plenty of photos and laboratory reports are included to make this subject more understandable. Further, the area of fraud is dealt with extensively.

When extraordinary things are observed, each eye-witness account assumes importance. Sometimes one witness will fill a gap in his story of events that others have left out. Each person has his own story to tell and this is mine. It is not meant to discredit or negate the observations of others.

Other investigators had included doctors and scientists. That impressed me from the beginning. Surgeons from Baragwanath Hospital, Johannesburg, discussed their experiences nonchalantly and openly, comparing events with those described by their friends — anaesthetists, doctors and businessmen. It was plain that they were not only technically skilled men of the world, but also orientated towards the esoteric sciences as well. One would quote an excerpt from "At The Feet Of The Master" and another would answer with a reference to "The Voice Of The Silence".

There was no hysteria, no anxiety to impress — all had participated in (rather than observed) materialisation seances, and all held a deep respect for the phenomena that their expert hands had palpated and their trained eyes had seen. And I was one of them. Later, I had opportunities to confirm my first impressions again and again elsewhere in different parts of the globe, as well as to hear the views and opinions expressed by scores of other observers and to examine carefully the evidence of their photographs and testimonies. Some of my own conclusions are more occult or esoteric than those of spiritualists, but they are just as sincere and well intended.

The part played by the thousands of sitters at materialisation seances is indispensable. In most instances their patient devotion made phenomena possible. To them I dedicate this book.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Baker eBooks Publishing
• Release date: Apr 18, 2022
• ISBN: 9781625690265

Douglas M. Baker

Dr. Douglas M. Baker. English born and raised in South Africa has done extensive scientific research into those hinterlands of the mind which one might call psi-semantics. He graduated in the Arts & Humanities in South Africa and qualified in medicine at Sheffield University (UK) in 1964. Having taught in the East End schools of London for 10 years, he began his tour of the Western world giving lectures and seminars in Esoteric Healing, Esoteric Anatomy, Esoteric Astrology, Esoteric Psychology, Esoteric Science and Metaphysics. He, more than any other, set in motion the trends towards alternative methods of medicine which have transformed that field in Britain today. As medical advisor to the De la Warr laboratories in Oxford, he undertook research into Biomagnetism and quantum physics their effects on the human aura and dark matter, producing the book by the same name in conjunction with George de la Warr. Through the years he has given more than 15,000 lectures and attracted people from all over the world to his Esoteric Science Festivals and International Summer Schools staged in America, Canada, England, Switzerland, Italy, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand. His transformative experiences during the Second World War, when twice severely wounded, set the pattern for his life long investigations into the Powers Latent in Man. His extensive esoteric writings are said to be the largest collection in the world produced by a living author. He has written over 100 books, many of which have been translated into the 9 European languages at https://www.douglasbaker.com, and his list of downloadable MP3 audio lectures available at www.douglasbaker.org, include 500 live lectures given around the world and on a vast range of subjects. He has led the field in esoteric astrology, producing with a team, his magnum opus, a Dictionary of Astrology for the 21st Century in three volumes. This is in addition to the already existing 11 volume set of books on the same subject.

Book preview

Table of Contents

THE PHENOMENA OF MATERIALISATION

FOREWORD

I. ECTOPLASM

II. THE SEANCE

III. A DOCTOR LOOKS AT MATERIALISATION

The Seance

IV. THE RATIONALE

Blood & Materialisation

MATTER - More Than Gas, Liquid & Solid

V. RELATED PHENOMENA

VI. MATERIALISATION and FRAUD

APPENDICES

APPENDIX A - REPORT ON ANALYSIS OF ECTOPLASM

Appendix B - FRAUD AT MATERIALISATION SEANCES

WILLIAM ROY / Bill Silver

THE PHENOMENA OF MATERIALISATION

by

Dr. DOUGLAS M. BAKER

B.A., M.R.C.S., L.R.C.P., F.Z.S.

ISBN 9780906006627

© Copyright © 1981 by Dr. Douglas M. Baker

'Little Elephant" Essendon,

Hertfordshire, ENGLAND

This is the only authorised eBook of the printed edition.

© Copyright Dr. Douglas M. Baker 2012

ISBN 9781625690265

Published by Baker eBooks Publishing

Many audio lectures and some of the images and charts used here can be downloaded in higher definition for free from our website https://www.douglasbaker.org.

This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher's prior consent in any form, binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

FOREWORD

When extraordinary things are observed, each eye-witness account assumes importance. Sometimes one witness will fill a gap in his story of events that others have left out. Each person has his own story to tell and this is mine. It is not meant to discredit or negate the observations of others.

Other investigators had included doctors and scientists. That impressed me from the beginning. Surgeons from Baragwanath Hospital, Johannesburg, discussed their experiences nonchalantly and openly, comparing events with those described by their friends — anaesthetists, doctors and businessmen. It was plain that they were not only technically skilled men of the world, but also orientated towards the esoteric sciences as well. One would quote an excerpt from At The Feet Of The Master and another would answer with a reference to The Voice Of The Silence.

There was no hysteria, no anxiety to impress — all had participated in (rather than observed) materialisation seances, and all held a deep respect for the phenomena that their expert hands had palpated and their trained eyes had seen. And I was one of them. Later, I had opportunities to confirm my first impressions again and again elsewhere in different parts of the globe, as well as to hear the views and opinions expressed by scores of other observers and to examine carefully the evidence of their photographs and testimonies. Some of my own conclusions are more occult or esoteric than those of spiritualists, but they are just as sincere and well intended.

The part played by the thousands of sitters at materialisation seances is indispensable. In most instances their patient devotion made phenomena possible. To them I dedicate this book.

We have only to think strongly of an idea, and that which ensouls it or represents it will manifest itself to us. Any strong thought of devotion brings an instant response; the Universe would be dead if it did not.

C.W .Leadbeater

The Masters And The Path

Materialisation is but one of the many ways in which a soul may express itself.

This is my story.

Douglas Baker

Little Elephant

June 1981

I. ECTOPLASM

The phenomenon of materialisation centres around the matter of ectoplasm. It seems clear that about one person in ten million has the ability to produce ectoplasm from his own body in such quantities that, despite its constant attrition by the forces of the environment, it builds into a deposit sufficiently extensive and concrete as to enable phenomena to be expressed through it. It may thus act as a medium of expression as surely as the artist uses pigment and the sculptor uses marble or clay.

Ectoplasm is a white, amorphous material that can adopt every conceivable shape or form given appropriate circumstances. It may appear as wisps near the ceiling, on the floor or mid-way between. It may take up the form of rods or pseudopodia. It can adopt the shape of every part of the human anatomy and in depth — by which I mean that the form may not be superficial with just an outer surface or skin area and no structures in depth, like arteries and ligaments. Indeed, the inner structures may not only adopt very accurately the accepted anatomical shapes of various organs, like lungs, heart and larynx, etc., but also evince the normal activity of such organs, manifesting a respiration rate, a heartbeat, a voice, etc.

Ectoplasm is usually fairly transparent, and I have even turned a materialised form, talking to me, in the direction of the red light in the seance room and seen its glow right through the ectoplasmic body. Ectoplasm has mass and weight. The materialised form of, say, a six foot man, when lifted, weighs about ten or fifteen pounds. Ectoplasm adopts the shape of clothing too, ranging from diaphanous, gauze-like material through to the thick cord of a girdle. Human-like forms produced may range, when fully materialised, from that of a babe in arms to an adult of either sex and up to any age.

Ectoplasm is always dynamic. It is in a constant stage of being created, maintained or of being withdrawn. Only in exceptionally favourable circumstances will a materialised form maintain sufficient equilibrium to enable it to act as a totally materialised human entity, embodying character, intelligence and even spirituality. It is through this capacity to achieve perfection of materialised form that there arise the many doubts of even well-intended observers and also the opportunity for fraud to occur. The more used to perfectly materialised human shapes the sitters are, the more likely they are to accept substitutes, i.e., live humans dressed for the part. The actual phenomenon of materialisation becomes of less interest in these circumstances, than what or who materialises.

This very dynamism of ectoplasmic forms is,