The De La Warr Mark IV Thought Photography Camera

The Mark IV Thought Photography camera was manufactured by the De La Warr Laboratories in England in the 1950's. It was designed to capture on film the subtle vibration of a witness (a sample of the vibration of a person or object) whether sputum or a drop of blood, and transfer these vibrations onto a photographic image. There are three significant factors involved in operating this equipment:

1. the instrument itself
2. the photographic plate (glass or film) and
3. the operator

One of the major problems in the operation of this camera is the necessity of charging the plate prior to using the camera.

A vital force or charge must be translated to the film in order for a picture to be created in this camera. It is my belief that this is very analogous to electro-photography in which a plate is charged by the corona discharge in an electro-photographic copier. The charge is acted upon by light, producing an image on the drum, transferred by the toner application to the paper, and fixed o the paper by heat. In the case of the De La Warr camera, I felt that a subtle energy charge was necessary and could be created by the use of a four sided single terminated meditation crystal.

An invitation presented itself for me to visit David Tansley in England. He arranged a meeting with the owners of the De La Warr camera, Elizabeth Baerlein and Lavender Dower, at their home in Oxford, England. We agreed on a research protocol.

1. I would not touch the plate; Elizabeth Baerlein would load the plate into the holder.
2. I would charge every other plate with the crystal, in the light.
3. Lavender Dower would test, with a pendulum, the energy that was being accumulated in the plate. The three of us would decide when we had a fully charged plate
4. A crystal was held four to six inches over the plate in the wooden holder. I drew my breath in and began to pulse my breath onto the plate. A change was immediately noted in the reading on the pendulum. When we came to a certain numeric value, we stopped and asked what length of exposure was required. The answer was 14 seconds, which was noted. The holder was marked and we decided on observing the heart chakra of my body. This rate was set into the camera, after I put a witness of a drop of my sputum on the witness plate. The other set of values were designating the vibrational rate of my own body and the earth's magnetic fields which surrounded Oxford.

When it was time to try the first exposure I stepped back about forty feet from the camera and said "Let's take a frontal view of my body" and faced the camera. One of the plates was chosen randomly and put into the camera. The switch was turned on for 14 seconds. I felt nothing in my body and noted that to my associates.

The next plate was loaded and when the switch was turned on I immediately felt a pressure in the solar plexus and thymus region of my body. I began to sway and noted this effect verbally. Both plates were developed. The first had not been charged and was totally free from any image or fogging. The second plate was excessively overexposed and would not clear in the hypo bath after five minutes. I reached in and touched the plate and when I lifted it out from the hypo into the red safe light, it immediately cleared. There was an image of a spiral of energy on the glass plate, with points or light scattered throughout the plate.

The experiment was repeated three times in a row with exactly the same results. An untreated plate in the De La Warr camera gave no image and the treated plate produced images. I then said "Let us see what a side view would look like". We followed the same procedure with side views and now we had a threefold flame emerging from the plate. This was repeated a number of times. These events were observed by David Tansley, Lavender Dower, and Elizabeth Baerlein.

The photographic glass plates were Ilford ordinary #N.30 glass, with an Ilford meter setting of 16 degrees and the speed group A, black and white. The photographic developer was B.72 and the fixer was Hypo (sodium hyposulfate). I left the crystal with the two ladies and they worked for months after I left with no apparent success in producing any images.

Images can be formed on photographic film purely by the intention of the operator as in the case of Ted Serios, but there is no control over the image production or the capacity to get repeatable results in any one event.

What does the De La Warr camera contain?

When Lavender Dower loaned me the camera, I took it apart, carefully measured and photographed the equipment. The lower and larger box contains three chambers, with the dimensions of the "King's Chamber", in which an electrical vibrator produces a tone. There are 12 dials in three rows. They are attached to various lengths of wire that lead to a magnet which is set in a vertical position. Two of these units are identical and they are tuned by a rubbing plate. The third unit is a spiral of wire which can be tuned to various positions on the ascending or descending spiral form. This, too, leads to a magnet set with the north pole in the up position and is tuned accordingly. There is another box on top which is separated by posts. This holds the film plate holder and contains within it three parabolic reflectors aligned to each of the magnetic rods. The focal point of the parabolic reflectors is the glass plate. The plate holder is completely light tight. To operate the equipment, it is rotated until it is facing due west.

There were implications from George De La Warr's work that we can move, with a camera like this, in and out of time. We can precipitate, on film, the three physical states of matter.