the Scottish Society for Psychical Research

....investigating the paranormal in Scotland

Who dislodged the ether?            

by John R. Plowman

While browsing in a box of old books, on the first stage of its journey from the SSPR library in Glasgow to the SSPR library in Edinburgh, a book "Ether and Reality" by Sir Oliver Lodge caught my eye, published by Hodder & Stoughton in 1925. As stated in the preface, it is "an attempt to set forth in intelligible fashion something of what is known about The Ether and its Functions" (author's capital letters). What I found odd was that Sir Oliver Lodge, writing as a scientist, deals with the ether "as a substance with ascertainable physical properties" whereas, as far as I could recall, the famous Michelson-Morley experiment found no evidence for the Earth's movement through the ether some years earlier, in 1887.

To quote from a 1975 physics textbook, the experiment showed "no effect attributable to the ether; therefore no necessity for assuming the existence of an ether." So, what was Sir Oliver writing about nearly 40 years later? He even quoted Einstein in support of the ether hypothesis:

"There is a weighty argument to be adduced in favour of the ether hypothesis. To deny the ether is ultimately to assume that empty space has no physical qualities whatsoever... According to the general theory of relativity (Einstein 1905), space without ether is unthinkable; for in such space there not only would be no propagation of light, but also no possibility of existence for standards of space and time."

Lodge sums up the properties of ether as follows:

"It is a universal connecting medium, filling all Space to the furthest limits, penetrating the inter-stices of the atoms without break in its continuity. So completely does it fill Space that it is sometimes identified with space...it appears as empty space because we have no sense organ for its appreciation... The first function of the ether is to weld the atoms together by cohesion, and the planets and stars together by gravitation. The second function is to transmit vibrations from one piece of matter to another."

The same box of books contained "THE MYSTERIOUS UNIVERSE" by Sir James Jeans (Cambridge University Press 1942). His views are rather different from those of Lodge:

"The concept of an ether entered science some two centuries ago or more. When the known properties of gross matter failed to explain a phenomenon, scientists met the difficulty by creating a hypothetical all-pervading ether, to which they attributed exactly the properties necessary to provide an explanation."

He goes on to quote Maxwell:

"Ethers were invented for the planets to swim in, to constitute electric atmospheres and magnetic effluvia, to convey sensations from one part of our body to another, till all space was filled several times over with ether."

Sir James Jeans compares the Michelson-Morley experiment with the fact that it takes longer to row a boat 100 yards up-stream and 100 yards down-stream than to row 200 yards across the stream. One might expect the earth, moving through a sea of ether, to behave in the same way. It doesn't. Although the earth is moving round the sun at twenty miles a second, the speed of light is the same in all directions. The arguments from relativity show that the ether must be thought of as a four-dimensional structure, extending through all space and all time.

"Sir Arthur Eddington truly says that about half the leading physicists assert that the ether exists and the other half deny its existence, but both parties mean exactly the same thing and are divided only by words."

If the ether is space-time itself, what meaning can we give to such terms as 'etheric body' or 'etheric double'? In "SOME NEW EVIDENCE FOR HUMAN SURVIVAL" (The Psychic Book Club, 1922), the Rev. Charles Thomas records evidence based on book and newspaper tests that his dead father was able to communicate through the medium, Mrs. Leonard.

In discussing the mechanism of these tests in the chapter "Newspaper Tests Viewed From The Beyond", the deceased father is quoted as follows: "I suspect, but am not sure, that whatever is about to materialise on earth has its spiritual counterpart, which is reflected, say, on the atmosphere or ether, but not visible to all."

The communicator, in obtaining material for a newspaper test, required information to be relayed through the medium from the next day's newspaper (usually “The Times,” which, at that period, had notices covering the front page). This information, relating to the deceased, could be checked by reference to the appropriate column of the paper given in the message, but not until the day following the sitting, when the paper was published. "...there was seen neither metal type nor printed paragraph, but 'something different. This 'something different' the communicator did not at first know how to designate, and it was termed 'the spirit, ghost or etheric duplicate of the word', or its 'aura', and we finally agreed to employ the term 'etheric duplicate'."

The communicator is certainly giving space-time information to the sitter, saying when and where the message can be read. In a later communication, it is described as an extension of seeing with the mind's eye.

"But remember it is imperative that I have something upon which to work, for I cannot see with my mind's eye a condition which is not present there. I can only see or feel that for which there is a foundation... although the words may not be yet in type, someone's thoughts are on them, some one has formulated the wording of the notices sent to the office for insertion."

In other words, THE INFORMATION WAS THERE.

I find it a useful hypothesis to think of the etheric body as an information body, a pattern of ideas, a set of space-time co-ordinates to describe where something material is, was, or will be. It explains, for example, why a ghost is usually seen clothed, for this information is important in establishing the identity of the apparition. Similarly, an apparition seen walking above ground level may be giving information about space in times past. It explains too why some people see auras and others do not, for perception of a pattern as meaningful depends on experience in extracting information from background irregularities. Out-of-body and Near-death experiences seem to require an etheric body as an information-gathering observer remote from the physical body.

The fact that the physical body continually replaces tissues with new material, conforming generally to the same structure, suggests some sort of template for which the etheric body is again a suitable explanation.

Those who believe in survival will be satisfied that the deceased can process information. The sceptic will be looking for a physical means of information transfer and the method by which the medium gets to know about the page plan of THE TIMES a day ahead of publication.