Abstract
THERE has recently been published by the Dr. William Bernard Johnston Foundation for Psychological Research, Reno, Nevada, a pamphlet by R. A. Watters entitled “The Intra-Atomic Quantity”. Mr. Watters describes a series of experiments in which grasshoppers, frogs and mice were killed in a Wilson expansion chamber, a cloud produced at the moment of death, and the resulting ‘track's photographed. It is alleged that these photographs reveal forms corresponding in shape to the dead bodies, and it is claimed that this result demonstrates the existence of an “intra-atomic Quantity” which is an “immaterial body” and an “exact counterpart of the physical body to which it belongs”. It is further claimed that when the subjects of the experiments were removed from the Wilson chamber and gave any signs of life, the photographs never showed anything unexpected; but that when the photographs showed ‘intra-atomic’ tracks, the subjects were unquestionably dead. Unfortunately, the few photographs reproduced in the bulletin before us reveal the alleged markings only to the eye of faith; for the rest, the essential experimental details are almost wholly wanting. If Mr. Watters wishes his work to receive attention, he should publish a more adequate and a more fully illustrated report.
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Physical Investigation of Immaterial Bodies. Nature 134, 877 (1934). https://doi.org/10.1038/134877b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/134877b0