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How To Become Invisible

Re: "Invisibility" book review

Stu Neville said:
The first method, that takes up a fair portion of the book, contends that basically(and this is seriously simplifying it) one needs to shroud oneself in a "cloak" of matter that will not reflect any wavelength of light, which is how we see things: different wavelengths manifest as different colours. What is required is a material that will absorb any wavelength: and there is a matter that will do this, according to esoteric literature of many shades. Stu
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Seems to me that any material that absorbs all wavelengths will appear as Black, not Invisible.

I could waffle on about Black Body radiation as well, but I haven't the energy right now.
 
No Fair

Stu - Thanks for the excellent review, which certainly makes me want to read that book, if I can get a copy. No fair that they're not available any longer.

What you quoted me as saying is what I was taught, it's Rosicrucian at base and works reasonably well.

We could all do with more books that are aware of the inherent ironies in their subject matters, and which also present them clearly and with good humor and insight.

Again, thanks.

Now to begin yet another a book search...
 
I'm just trying to summarise: he goes into great depth and detail about why it wouldn't be black (because black itself is a wavelength or something): I'm no physicist, so can't argue with anyone on it.

It's a good book though :) Well worth the three quid I paid for it, anyway!

EDIT You're welcome, FL!
 
Stu Neville said:
I'm just trying to summarise: he goes into great depth and detail about why it wouldn't be black (because black itself is a wavelength or something...
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In physics, black is simply an absence of light, so no wavelength, nothing, nada. A black object is one that absorbs all light falling on it, reflecting nothing.

Conversely, white is a mixture of all (visible) colours. A white object reflects all colours that fall on it - it will appear red in red light, blue in blue light, or white in white light. White light consists of a range of wavelengths.

It seems Newton wrote his Optics in vain!

rynner the physicist.
 
Only one way to sort this: a duel!!

Actually, I think I'll re-read the relevant chapter first and make sure I haven't got it arse-backwards: will post some clarification later...:)
 
Crowlwy had the right idea, as quoted above-

"The real secret of invisibility is not concerned with laws of optics at all: the trick is to prevent people noticing you when they would normally do so."

He was a shrewd amateur psychologist.
Plenty of people get away with crime by becoming 'invisible'.
 
Literalism is a Trap

As I said, and as escargot recapitulated, yes, being invisible is simply avoiding notice or being forgettable. Shrinking violets, wallflowers, and criminals all have the ability to a greater or lesser degree.

As with alchemy, which is about changing the alchemist, not base metals, taking invisibility literally is a trap set up in typical esoteric tradition to snare those who are not ready, for what ever reason, for the real lesson.

That's how esoterica works, and each level of accessed knowledge contains its deceptions. Knowing what's real and how to sort it out is part of the growth of a mage or mystic.
 
Long time gone

Hmm - interesting, have been following but been very hectic, so little time to post. FL, what you're saying reminded me of a couple of quotes - first, Patanjali on apparently literal invisibility:

'By control over the subtle body, the yogi can suspend at will the rays of light emanating from himself so that he becomes invisible to onlookers. He may again make himself visible by bringing back the power of perceptibility.' (Yoga Sutras III.21)

Perhaps a slightly over literal translation of a passage referring to what you're talking about? Also this, from Robert Anton Wilson in 'Cosmic Trigger I':

'One day during the Mexican sojourn, the author was meditating and two of his daughters walked through the room without seeing him. We were all quite struck by this at the time, although I do not think I was literally invisible (as some of Crowley's disciples claimed occasionally happened to him during heavy meditation). Rather, I feel fairly sure that what happened was merely that I was so silent, externally and internally, that I was as easy to ignore as a chair. I was not giving off a human vibration.' (p. 78)

If you stop seeing the world, the world stops seeing you! Maybe kids are right when they shut their eyes so you can't see them.



As for sci-fi, Stephen Baxter (amazing visionary stuff - like Blake with quantum physics!), Iain M Banks, Dan Simmons (Hyperion seems to be a direct response / critique to the Culture - turning it into the Hegemony and seeing how it would stifle rather than nurture competing life forms), J.G. Ballard (a major influence!) and Michael Moorcock - not strictly sci fi, but hey, still majestic when he's on form.

I've read a reasonable amount of Asimov, Clarke and co but have never been so turned on by them - they somehow seem quite dry. Loved Cordwainer Smith / James M Blish, though. Likewise, too many to go into detail here.

I read Interzone and The Third Alternative, would welcome pointers for other interesting zines etc. Funnily enough I'm just finishing off the final draft of my first serious sci fi short story, am about to send off and see who might want it.

Come to think of it, unsure if this is the right forum for this sort of discussion - so have attached email link to this message, unsure how it works, if you feel like dropping an email.

Ave atque vale -

Big_Al
 
I'm glad to see that that copies of 'Invisibility' are still floating around. It is an interesting book indeed. Whilst I'm not convinced of the legitimacy of the books entire contents there is enough in it that rings true to me. Has anybody read the other book by Richards, It's entitled 'Levitation' - it's another interesting read.
 
Originally posted by escargot
"The real secret of invisibility is not concerned with laws of optics at all: the trick is to prevent people noticing you when they would normally do so."
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I used to read a lot of William Burroughs stuff, and I remember reading that he used to practice some kind of magical invisibility. I was always kind of dubious about this sort of thing, but at the same time very curious, then I finally read something where he described his technique.

I'm probably remembering this slightly incorrectlty, but the technique was something like this:

When walking in a crowd, be completely aware of everybody around you. The trick is to see everybody that comes into view before they see you, and briefly make eye contact with them before they notice you. The idea being that somehow nobody actually notices you or sees you once you see them first. Whether this is a psychological trick wherby the other people don't feel the need to notice you as they are reassured that you have already noticed them first, I don't know.

I was disappointed when I read this, as it could conceivably work and effectively make you invisible, but wasn't 'magical' in the way that I was hoping for at the time. Of course, it does seem very precisely magic(k)al to me now, as I've learnt a little more about magic(k) - requiring intense mental effort and concentration etc., however, I can only imagine this working in crowded places, not in a room with just you and one other person for example.

I tried it out for a while, walking around Manchester, but without actually stopping people and asking them if they can see you (which would break the 'spell', hehe) its hard to say how effective it is. Attempting to do this does have an interesting effect on the mind though.
 
Simple Test

A simple test is, when in a crowded street market area, shoplift something brazenly. If no one hollers, gives chase, or arrests you, or later posts a description of you on every street corner, you were, for all intents and purposes, unnoticed, and thus, more or less, Invisible.

Another test might be to walk around in an open trenchcoat wearing nothing else, but again, the consequences of failure can be rather intense.
 
Stand on a street and shout "Big Issue" ... seems to work quite well :hmph:
 
Confirmed?

Beany said:
The image is a composite from two cameras, one in front of the person, one behind. The coat acts like the blue screen used in TV weather forecasts, e.g:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/england/lookeast/weather_cso.shtml

If you were stood there, you'd just see a person in a blue coat, you need the camera technology to see through them.
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Is this assertion confirmed, or speculation? I ask because blue- or green-screen work is much clearer as, indeed, your local weather on TV shows you daily. Why is this so blurred, transluscent, and so unlike a blue-screen image?
 
Re: Confirmed?

FraterLibre said:
Is this assertion confirmed, or speculation?
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Well, it was my understanding of the article... but I was wrong.

There's a fuller explanation on Susumi Tachi's lab's web page:
http://www.star.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp/projects/MEDIA/xv/oc.html

It seems that the image of the scene without the 'invisible' person is actually projected out from (effectively) the viewpoint of the observer. The coat's made from a retro-reflective material (like a cinema screen), and so the image can be seen on it.

This means that everyone else would be able to see the projected image on the coat- but it would only look the same as the real world behind if viewed from one particular point.
 
Reactive Paint

or smart paint. For reference read aviation engineer Dean Ing's excellent novel The Ransom of Black Stealth One, for instance.

Apparently the military has paint that projects images, and it's used to, for example, make the underside of the plane look like the sky above it, and vice versa.
 
Re: Reactive Paint

FraterLibre said:
or smart paint. For reference read aviation engineer Dean Ing's excellent novel The Ransom of Black Stealth One, for instance.

Apparently the military has paint that projects images, and it's used to, for example, make the underside of the plane look like the sky above it, and vice versa.
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Would it look like the creature in the "Predator" movies? Sounds fairly logical to use tiny cameras and fiber optics for the same effect.
 
Re: Re: Reactive Paint

Onix said:
Would it look like the creature in the "Predator" movies? Sounds fairly logical to use tiny cameras and fiber optics for the same effect.
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I believe small camera arrays and fiber optics feed the images to the paint, and yes, it would probably resemble the creature's armor in PREDATOR. I've never seen the real thing yet.

Well, that I know of. lol
 
Susan Bulmer said:
When viewed from a distance the surroundings were reflected from the suit so a moving soldier just looked like a blurring of the landscape. Up close, of course, all you'd see would be a person in a silver suit!;) :)
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Of course, most infantry fighting is done up close, so it would be like fighting either cybermen or baked potatoes.
 
I suffer mildly from depression (it doesn't feel mild to me, but...), and I've noticed that when I'm really down people don't seem to see me. People crash into me in the street, and then look at me as if to say 'where did you come from'. Has anyone else noticed this (or is my medication too strong:D )
 
Chi (qi)

If you're not radiating your life force, projecting your energy, then you may very well be overlooked as just another object in the environment, or not observed at all. It's like when a frog, or lizard, becomes perfectly still and blends in to its surroundings. No signs of life, we may not easily notice it.

Depression mutes the chi we radiate, to use a martial arts term.
 
Some of the yogis have claimed to have the abilty. Has to do with pulling all of your attention inside the pineal chackra, or third eye. Played around with it myself and have gotten some interesting resutls (won't make any outrageous claims though). I guess it could be like remote viewing way inside of yourself, so much that the body dissapears.
 
An article from Mark Pilkington along similar lines to Stu's book (if a little wide ranging and unfocused - which is apt ;) ):

Now you see it...

Mark Pilkington
Thursday July 8, 2004
The Guardian

Recently, the press carried photographs of a man wearing something children everywhere dream of owning: a cloak of invisibility. The image was created by Susumu Tachi, a professor of physics and computer science at Tokyo University, using camera trickery. Images captured in real time by a camera behind the cloak were beamed onto it from a projector in front.

Accounts of invisibility have occurred in every culture, from vanishing medieval saints, through the "Invisibles" who announced their presence in 17th-century Paris, to West African Marabouts who sell invisibility charms to this day. Cases of spontaneous human invisibility, where people find that briefly it seems nobody can see them, are also documented.

Magical amulets won't get you very far in contemporary warfare, but the ability to vanish from your enemies has been crucial on the battlefield since the British donned khakis in the late 19th century. In 1941, English illusionist Jasper Maskelyne made the Suez canal and the harbour of Alexandria "disappear" from enemy bombers. Also in the second world war, America developed Project Yahootie, in which lights strung around the wings and fuselage of navy bombers were adjusted to the brightness of the sky above, making them difficult to see with the naked eye. Although the technique proved more trouble than it was worth, these were the first stealth aircraft. The so-called Philadelphia Experiment of 1943, in which American destroyer USS Eldridge vanished from sight in a naval yard, is folklore.

While invisible to radar, today 's bulky stealth aircraft are easily spotted with the naked eye. But military technicians are said to be developing adaptive camouflage, that changes colour to match its surroundings. The idea is that sensors all over an aircraft receive visual information about their surroundings, then output corresponding images to chameleon-like panels made of "electro-chromic polymers". Whatever is above the plane is projected onto its underside, making it virtually invisible from the ground.

Rumours persist that such technologies are used in aircraft being tested at Area 51 in Nevada, the world's most photographed secret airbase. Watch the skies!
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http://www.guardian.co.uk/life/farout/story/0,13028,1256004,00.html
 
Dean Ing

Dean Ing, aeronautics engineer and science fiction writer, has claimed that they've had paint since the 1980s that responds to surroundings to mirror it. Calls it Smart Paint. Says planes have had this coating for a while now.

He also explains those huge slow Black Triangles: They are inflatables that get into position, then inflate huge helium-filled balloon-like retractable wings so they can hover and do surveillance silently from relatively low altitudes.

Invisibility is a simple matter of not being seen, and sometimes that's just a matter of context.
 
if i close my eyes, youll all disappear :D
 
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