The Pearl Experiment is a thought-form experiment initiated in 2007 at a paranormal convention held at the Glen Tavern Inn in Santa Paula, California. A collective of paranormal investigators, psychics, and mediums convened to create a ghost, taking inspiration from the Philip Experiment as their model.
The Philip Experiment, conducted in 1972 by the Toronto Parapsychological Research Society, was overseen by Dr. A.R. George Owen. It involved a group of ten individuals who employed a methodical approach to invent a fictional ghost named Philip Aylesford and then endeavored to communicate with this entity through a séance. The character’s life story was crafted with a blend of real and fabricated events, intentionally incorporating timeline discrepancies and clear contradictions to observe their real-world manifestations.
Philip Ayelsford’s backstory begins with his birth in 1624 in England. Enlisting in the military as a youth, he was knighted at the age of sixteen. Throughout his military tenure, he served as a spy for Charles II and took part in the English Civil War. It was during his service to the King that Philip encountered Dorothea, a nobleman’s daughter. Struck by her sweetness and beauty, he eventually married her.
Following their marriage, Dorothea became distant and unpleasant towards Philip. Her volatile temper surfaced, and she frequently initiated quarrels with him. Disenchanted with the marriage, Philip sought comfort elsewhere. He prolonged his absences by riding through the forest to avoid returning home.
On one such ride, he encountered a group of itinerant Romani people. His attention was captured by a woman named Margo, who possessed striking blue eyes. They were instantly smitten with each other, unwilling to part. Philip brought Margo back to his family’s estate, concealing her presence while he contemplated the future of his marriage and what to do about his wife.
Dorothea, suspecting foul play, discovered the Romani woman’s secret refuge. In a fit of rage and seeking vengeance, she falsely charged Margo with witchcraft, leading to her arrest. Paralyzed by fear and uncertainty, Philip remained silent throughout Margo’s trial and could only watch in silence as she was executed by fire. Devastated by the ordeal, Philip took his own life, passing away at the age of thirty.
Subsequently, a group formed, intent on contacting Philip’s spirit. They convened weekly, encircling a table to meditate in unison. The stipulation was that the participants maintain a jovial spirit and harbor an unwavering conviction in Philip’s eventual manifestation. This practice continued for an entire year, yet yielded no tangible proof.
In their frustration, the group opted to switch their meeting approach to traditional 19th-century séance and table-tipping methods. Four sessions later, they experienced success. When a member summoned Philip, the table vibrated and produced a clear knock.
The team established a knocking system: one knock for ‘yes’ and two for ‘no’. They queried the backstory of their fictional character, Philip, to which he responded with complete accuracy. As belief in Philip grew, so did the paranormal occurrences; he soon demonstrated the ability to tip tables, levitate items, and disrupt lighting. Over four years, the group engaged with Philip, holding televised table-tipping sessions and numerous interviews. Despite the experiment’s apparent success, Owens deemed it unsuccessful because they failed to manifest Philip as a full-bodied ghost. While various theories exist, the prevailing belief is that the phenomena observed during the Philip Experiment can be attributed to psychokinesis.
In the Pearl Experiment, participants utilized the Glen Tavern Inn’s richly haunted past to fabricate a backstory for a non-existent ghost, detailing manifestations for credibility. They aimed to circulate this invented ghost tale among other paranormal investigators to observe if any haunting evidence would emerge. The creation process unfolded as follows:
The entity was designated female early in the process, contrasting the male “Philip” from the Philip Experiment. The first floor of the Glen Tavern Inn was home to vibrant female specters whose narratives could be adapted for the new thought-form ghost. The group saw this as an advantageous setting. They wove the thought-form’s backstory into the inn’s existing lore, enhancing authenticity by aligning her story with pre-existing ghostly tales.
Collectively, the participants envisioned her appearance, attire, and life story, opting for a macabre demise to intensify interest and potentially aid in eliciting Electronic Voice Phenomena, including distinctive sounds like the clinking of coins.
The entire group concurred on discussing the newly conceived ghostly entity. The plan was to incorporate her into articles and disseminate her spectral tales as though she had always been woven into the history of the Glen Tavern Inn. The aim was to lend credibility to her narrative, spark interest in her investigation, and perhaps gather proof to substantiate her existence. Below is the original description of Pearl:
Pearl was a madame who worked the brothel here before 1920
Her real name is Jane. She was a sturdy woman of French descent, who was murdered while counting her money. Pearl was a flashy woman, who had dreams of stardom but ended up on the seedy side of the entertainment industry. She had a hearty laugh. Visitors to the hotel sometimes report hearing her distant laugh in room 107. Pearl was not local and had no family. She was buried in an unmarked grave in Bardsdale. She had a habit of twirling her pearl necklace and it made a distinctive sound.
Here is the original email that was sent to the original group members:
Hey Everyone,
Here are the words we used to thought manifest Jane/Pearl. To keep the momentum going, please recite these words at least once a day and visualize/meditate on Pearl’s life at the Glen Tavern Inn.
Also, please note that I’ve made a forum called, The Ghosts of Glen Tavern Inn. By the end of the week, I should have all of the ghost stories I’ve culled in the forum. Pearl/Jane is mentioned as one of the ghosts.
You may check it out here: (Redacted web address.)
This, hopefully, will catch on and give us someplace we can track sightings/evps/etc even after the Convention.
Pearl was deliberately featured in an article by the Ventura County Star, which included authentic ghost tales from the hotel.
Additional details were included, such as her red lipstick and red nail polish, which were revealed during an automatic writing session.
One of the seance rooms, on the first floor, was supposedly occupied by a madam Heather calls “Pearl.”
“We don’t know her real name,” Heather said. “She was of French descent. She wanted to be a star. She really liked her money and liked to count her money. She has a very hearty laugh.
Heather said paranormal investigators call her Pearl because they believe she was strangled by her own pearls.
The other seance will be held in another first-floor room supposedly frequented by a 1920s prostitute that Heather calls “Rose.”
Rose likes to open and close the doors,” Heather said. “She makes the phone ring.”
Heather and other members of The Real Deal say they have heard Pearl but have actually seen an apparition of Rose.
Rose has a short bob, an olive complexion, dark hair,” Heather said. “Pearl has a broader nose, red nails, red lipstick.
The perfume saleswoman that Heather believes she channeled through her automatic-writing session has been detected through smell, according to another member of The Real Deal, Chad Saunders of Ventura. Saunders said the overwhelming smell of perfume will sometimes permeate a hallway in the hotel.
“I want to say violets. It’s very floral,” Saunders said.
Just before the thought-form activation ritual, the group convened to flesh out the thought form’s backstory. Pearl was depicted wearing a green dress, and her cowboy assailant’s image was fully developed. He was described as towering, donning a large cowboy hat, with deep, piercing eyes and a dark mustache. The sound of his cowboy boots clacking down the hallway heralded his approach to commit the murder.
As Pearl counted her money, her cowboy assailant crept up from behind. He seized her pearl necklace and strangled her with it. Occasionally, the sound of the necklace snapping and the pearls scattering on the floor can be heard.
A detailed description of Pearl was included in a booklet about the haunted spirits of the Glen Tavern Inn, which was shared among the local paranormal enthusiasts. The booklet featured a common internet image that matched her detailed description.
Please forgive the poor quality of the images. They were captured with a low-quality phone camera in 2008 and transmitted via email. To date, a physical copy of this booklet remains unlocated. If you possess a copy or know someone who does, kindly contact me at: heather@thepearlexperiment.com.
The image selected was based on a description compiled by the group. Below is an excerpt from an email:
November 15, 2008
Please note the picture associated with Pearl. I found it online and it seemed like what Pearl would look like (to me) when she first came to the Glen Tavern Inn. Before the reality of show biz hardened her…
The Thought-Form Activation Ritual:
During the third week of July 2007, the activation ritual was performed in the lobby of the Glen Tavern Inn in the middle of the night.
There were eight original members: Heather Woodward, Amy Beauchamp, Chad Saunders, Bill Murphy, Syd Shultz, Dave Davey, Maria Quijada, and Kristin Ballmann.
Guided by Amy Beauchamp, the ceremony began with a circle and the invocation of the four corners. Each participant in the circle read Pearl’s description aloud. Additional invocations were recited to anchor her into reality and manifest her existence. A candle was then lit, and subsequently, the circle was closed.
Following the ceremony, the members dispersed to attend the conference and resumed their individual activities. Discussions about Pearl subsided for several months. Although the creation of Pearl was not forgotten, the group agreed that the thought-form required time to gather energy and reveal herself.
The First Evidence:
A few months following the ritual circle, some original members attempted to reach out to Pearl using automatic writing and a Frank’s Box session. Heather Woodward managed to contact Pearl through automatic writing; however, Pearl attempted to communicate in French. This was an intriguing turn of events, as the thought-form was believed to be from France, yet no one in the group had suggested she would speak French. It appeared as though she had autonomously decided to adopt this detail.
Woodward did not understand French, and neither did anyone else present. Consequently, the writing consisted of fragmented phrases. Below is a snippet from an email conversation between Heather Woodward and another participant of the session:
“je te meilleur francaise” that is what i got. except that te and je were switched because obviously I can’t speak French. LOL. If I was better at it, I could have probably detached my brain, but it was only my third time. *shrugs* Also, “she” was giving me other words and speaking very fast, so I only wrote down the words that I caught the sounds of. So, this very well may have been a full sentence that I butchered. Oh yeah, there was the word “vous” because I was getting the “Lady Marmalade” song in my head. The part about “vous le vous”. She was trying to get me to pick up on the “vous” with the “francaise”. So, it was something like “vous le vous francaise” or something like that. Also, someone in the room was speaking French to me, and I was getting quick answers in French. So, these could have been parts of other sentences that I picked up on.
So, yeah. I need to work on the whole automatic writing thing. But Pearl *would* say something like, “I’m more French then you, good evening” just because that’s such a pretentious “French” thing to say.
LOL.
(Undisclosed Email) Wrote This Reply;
So from last night, this is what I could remember enough to look up:
je te meilleur francaise bon soir
essentially is I better french you this evening, which can be interpreted by me (and your non existent knowledge of the french language) “I am better at french than you, good night” OR “I am more french than you, good evening”
The first statement makes the most sense to me, even though it is a bit of jibberish…however, if it is cajun, I wouldn’t doubt that it could be that far from actual french.
Here is the literal translation from the statement, “I am better at french than you, good night” = “Je suis meilleur en le français que vous, bonne nuit” Now, “Je Suis” is the equivilent to saying “I am” and the verb “To Be” is the word “Etre” which you may have been seeing and hearing her say that instead of Je te. It could have been “J’ ete” which means “I’ve been”…
If that seems close enough, then it is french and she was just trying to communicate with your limited knowledge of the language, but if it is far off, I would guesstimate that it would be cajun. Which I cannot find translations for.
Following the encounter with Pearl, the thought-form project experienced a brief period of inactivity. However, she remained in the minds of group members who were engaged in their investigative projects. In November 2008, Bill Murphy, an original member, was contacted by a couple who had visited the Glen Tavern Inn and captured an image of a woman in a green dress bearing a striking resemblance to Pearl. This couple was unaware of the paranormal convention and had no connections with any of the circle’s founding members.
The photograph was captured in a corridor between two mirror-lined rooms. Reflected in the mirror is the side profile of a woman with dark brown hair in a green dress, looking towards the photographer. At the moment the photo was taken, there were no other women in or near the room, according to the couple. They believed they were alone, given the late hour of their investigation. They also recalled that no one else at the hotel matched the description of having dark hair or wearing a green dress. Upon seeing the photo, Murphy immediately recognized it as definitive proof of Pearl, the thought-form.
Below is the original email sent to Woodward:
Pearl Lives!
BillM (Redacted Email)
To(Redacted Email)
See attached pic. One person who saw the pic asked if she was pregnant. They also have a pic that looks like an unborn fetus but that may be matrixing, I don’t have that photo.
The pic of Pearl is zoomed all of the way in, the original is nearly wall to wall and they tried to duplicate the photo but every time they try the person relected in the mirror also shows up in the room.
I am ready to throw all of my time and effort into this project and will make sure to sync my schedule with everyone elso connected to this case.
In the attached image, the woman depicted has dark hair and a discernible nose outline, and is clad in a dark green dress. She faces the camera directly, though her body is positioned in profile. The dress flares out at the waist, suggesting she may be pregnant—a detail not originally associated with the thought form. This marks the second time Pearl has modified her appearance and expanded her narrative.
Regarding the Glen Tavern Inn, there is a ghost story involving a woman who, after an affair with a married man and becoming pregnant, took her own life. It raises the question: did Pearl choose to embody elements of other presences within the hotel?
Here is a close-up of the original picture and the date it was taken.
Here’s a screenshot of the original picture:
Bill Murphy’s Solo Work on the Pearl Experiment:
Bill Murphy dedicated his efforts to the Pearl Experiment through several solo initiatives. He undertook this independently, without seeking collaboration from any of the original contributors. An article in the Santa Paula Times reported that from March 23-25, 2012, Bill Murphy organized a conference titled “Explore the Theory of Thought Form Manifestation” at the Glen Tavern Inn. During this event, he focused on the Pearl Experiment and presented the Pearl photograph.
Here is an excerpt of the article:
The Pearl Experiment resulted in a photographer taking a photo of the lobby of the Glen Tavern Inn and when it was developed later realizing that a ghostly image in the mirror hung in Enzo’s Restaurant must be Pearl, a character that had been the focus of a previous experiment in thought form manifestation (TFM).
“She was even twisting her pearl necklace,” said Anita of the image.
It was eight months after the July 2007 Pearl Experiment was conducted at the Inn that photographer Jim Spann unknowingly took the only known picture of a woman that existed due to a combination of an experimental device coupled with group intention.
Bill said Spann approached him at a conference in Colorado and showed him a scrapbook of images he suspected might be spirits.
“He asked me about mirrors and I told him about mirrors and their influences,” and when Bill looked at the image it gave him a start… the woman was not in the area of the lobby where she must should have been positioned for her figure to be reflected in the mirror.
When told that the photo had been taken at the Inn Bill had another start when he realized the loosely organized The Pearl Experiment, those who talked about the woman, given her a life, told stories about, even dressed eight months before, had seen results.
The parapsychology experiment was conducted initially with the idea that there possibly could be a recording – audio or visual media – and Spann had such documentation.
And because the experiment was conducted at the Inn Bill said “We want to reveal our findings where it took place… on Saturday morning we’ll introduce Pearl. I really want to use this opportunity to launch this new experience that everybody can be a part of… as far as we know Pearl was made up by using protocols of other experiments and manifested as a thought form… we create the experiment through curiosity and now we have to understand it.
“It’s almost,” noted Bill, “like doing it backwards!”
Murphy was on Coast to Coast twice talking about the Pearl Experiment:
How the Living Influence Hauntings
https://www.coasttocoastam.com/show/2014-05-30-show
“Murphy detailed his own Pearl Experiment in which he created a back-story for a non-existent ghost named Pearl and combined it with the actual history of reported hauntings at Glen Tavern Inn in California. Inserting a fictitious ghost history into a place does seem to have an effect on the outcome of an investigation, he suggested. As evidence, Murphy pointed to a photograph taken of the Glen Tavern Inn lobby on the day of the experiment. It shows a ghostly image in a mirror that appears to be a female form roughly matching the description made up for Pearl, he revealed.”
Slenderman Tales/Open Lines
https://www.coasttocoastam.com/show/2018-03-09-show
Murphy’s website indicates that he is producing a paranormal documentary focused on the Pearl Experiment. The original members are not involved in any of his independent projects, nor were they approached for participation.
The Pearl Experiment/Slenderman Connection:
On May 30, 2014, Bill Murphy appeared on Coast to Coast discussing the Pearl Experiment and mentioned the Slenderman phenomenon as a tulpa experience. On that same evening, Anissa Weier and Morgan Geyser listened to the interview.
Following two unsuccessful murder attempts, Weier and Geyser were allegedly influenced by the Coast to Coast interview. They decided to kill their friend, Payton Leutner, to become proxies for Slenderman. Weier and Geyser lured Leutner into the Waukesha Forest, where they stabbed her 19 times with a kitchen knife. They falsely promised to seek help for the bleeding girl but instead walked 4.9 miles toward Interstate 94, where they were apprehended by the police. Despite her critical injuries, Leutner crawled to the edge of a road, where a cyclist discovered her and immediately called 911. She spent six days in the hospital. The bloody knife was found in Weier’s bag.
Here is the blurb from the Coast to Coast Website:
“Surprisingly, Redfern described earlier sightings of the same type of being going back decades before it was even conceived, and proposed that its form might be an archetypal character which tapped into our deepest fears and ideas of horrifying entities, and was already “primed in our subconscious.” He also described the phenomenon of the “manifested thought form,” sometimes referred to by the term “tulpa,” and how there is ample anecdotal evidence for the existence of these beings. In part of the second hour, paranormal researcher Bill Murphy described experiments he has conducted in attempting to create physical manifestations by mental power alone.”
Did the interview with Bill Murphy talking about the Pearl Experiment and thoughtforms feed into the energy of Slenderman and the Waukesha attempted murder?
According to Nick Redfern in his book, The Slenderman Mysteries, yes, it is possible.
Check out the podcast interview here:
If you want to know more about the case check out this podcast series:
The Pearl Experiment Resurrects Itself:
In 2018, some original members reunited to advance their experiment. They hypothesized that Pearl might be a sentient thought form, assuming the histories of other spirits at the Glen Tavern Inn. The team pondered whether Pearl was content or felt forsaken, whether she had evolved or remained unchanged, and what she might use as an energy source if she was still “alive.”
At their initial gathering, they conducted a séance circle alongside an EVP session, hoping Pearl would respond to her creators’ energy. They also set up auditory triggers, including bells, to provoke a response, theorizing that Pearl could manifest bell sounds despite their absence in the hotel.
The séance took place in Ventura, California, with most original members—Amy Beauchamp, Heather Woodward, Dave Davey, and Maria Quijada—and some newcomers for support. Beforehand, the group assembled outside, apprehensive about the reunion after years apart.
Amidst their conversation, the hotel room’s smoke detector activated without apparent cause, leaving them perplexed and intrigued. With no smoke or obvious trigger, two members documented the incident, wondering if the alarm’s pulsation was Pearl signaling her presence—not with bell tones, but in a manner fitting her narrative.
The séance took place on the hotel room floor, arranged in a circle. Audio recorders were placed at the center of this circle. Throughout the séance, electronic voice phenomena (EVPs) resembling bells were recorded, indicating Pearl’s readiness to communicate. Participants in the circle felt that Pearl did make her presence known, sharing feelings of abandonment and confusion about her purpose and creation.
Here are some clips of the seance:
The members felt accountable for her sorrow and conducted a second ritual to remove her from the Glen Tavern Inn, transferring her into the ether. This allowed her to gain sentience beyond her place of origin and to reinvent herself. The session was marked by a profound sense of relief and catharsis. Tears flowed, and a feeling of redemption permeated the atmosphere. At the séance’s conclusion, the group requested that Pearl signal her presence by manifesting her name.
In the ensuing months, the group members experienced a series of synchronistic occurrences involving the name “Pearl” in various contexts, situations, and scenarios. These ranged from encounters with actual pearls to hearing the name in unusual circumstances, to observing the name spelled out on restaurant signs and billboards. Every participant of the séance encountered this phenomenon multiple times, regardless of their residence in different cities or travels across states.
Throughout the following year, the original group members reconvened for additional seances to connect with Pearl and monitor her energy. She appreciated the liberation from the haunted confines of the Glen Tavern Inn. The divination sessions suggested that the thought-form was undergoing a transformation. The more frequently the group reached out to her, the more potent her presence became. Consequently, the participants opted to experiment with table tipping to determine if she could engage with the physical world and manipulate inanimate objects.
During the initial session, the table tipping gained little momentum, with movements being slow or not occurring at all. However, after several attempts, Pearl appeared to become accustomed to pushing the table, and movements commenced promptly when the group convened. The intensity of the table tipping increased when the members were in high spirits and the atmosphere was vibrant. The members quickly understood that a positive and energetic mindset was crucial for success.
In one session, Pearl mentioned that she lacked a strong feeding ground and a “food” source because she was confined to the ethereal realm. Consequently, the group decided to create a sigil for her, linking her to a magical energy system. Each participant contributed to the sigil, incorporating the part of Pearl they had originally created.
The thought-form was also placed in the Harry Potter Room of Requirement as a “food” source. The Harry Potter franchise possesses its own energy and could be considered an egregore. The Room of Requirement, which provides anything needed, was deemed suitable for Pearl, as it would supply her with the necessary energy for her reinvention without significant interference.
The Pearl Experiment abruptly ended during a séance in which Pearl requested to become sentient. She expressed a desire to move into one of the experiencers’ bodies to feel what it is like to be human. The group was uncomfortable with this request, primarily because they had no experience with such a situation, and no one wanted to risk possession. There was no other way to allow the thought-form to experience sentience without a physical form.
The group decided to withdraw and let Pearl remain in her Room of Requirement without further interaction from her creators. However, she has appeared during Estes sessions and other divinatory methods over the years without being summoned. Typically, she appears to say hello or provide awareness of other thought forms in haunted locations. She seems to recognize the energy signature of other man-made ghosts and often takes pleasure in taking over sessions or offering her opinion on why a location is haunted. She has become a welcome presence.