 Bruce Springshaw and his IBLS Soulcatcher |
One of the principle aims of the IBLS was to co-ordinate these disparate and often opposing disciplines in order to create a unified forum of debate where empirical practice could bounce off belief. This union of the empirical and the humanistic, backed by an unprecedented acceleration of technological and scientific potential, convinced the IBLS that they could be pioneers in the locating that 'oh so elusive fish', the Soul.
The Bureau's founding team consisted of an elected board of twelve men and women made up of six scientists and six humanists. Under them were placed a technical and secretarial support group of twenty. They were given a whole floor of the now derelict MI5 building in Waterloo and equipped with a new library, high tec laboratories and elaborate research posts.
Initially the IBLS succeeded in running a streamlined operation full of optimism and efficiency. The crew were hardworking and dedicated, but as time passed it became more and more dogged with bureaucracy, much of which was beyond their control and was a result of certain socio-political problems concerning their investigation. A key problem was finance. The bureau was entirely reliant on the state, therefore a Church of England government, for its funding. But as a research unit the IBLS demanded full autonomy and rightly saw accountability to the church as a real threat to any possibility of success. Their understanding of the Soul remained strictly outside of any religious context. Instead it consisted of two things; firstly the whole ancient idea of the Soul, and secondly the humanitarian ideal of belief in the individual. The consistency of the idea through time and culture was fundamental to the bureau's argument that the Soul cannot just be a belief, but that it must really exist. This led to the theory that it could be defined as a physical entity and was internalised somewhere within the body. But because of the church's influence the IBLS found it difficult to release their findings either publicly or to the government in case they compromised or conflicted with texts from the Bible or Christian painting and sculpture.
Only 22 years after its formation were IBLS discoveries matched with official public reports. Before this they had been blocked by a British 'Vatican' or bureau of censorship.
Ironically though, Christianity which had so hindered progress in the early years, was also a key reason for the IBLS's early popularity. The then largely Christian public perceived the IBLS as crusaders - analogous to knights seeking the Holy Grail - and striving to find that enigmatic and impossible thing that we have all been searching for. But as the Church's power dwindled and the Bureau finally achieved autonomy in 1968, the mood changed to one of hostility. The public increasingly placed the notion of Soul in a religious arena and the IBLS became synonymous with the church.
Indeed it is probably the Bureau's biggest mistake to have ever used the word Soul as opposed to a word such as 'consciousness'.
However, luckily the lack of democracy backfired disastrously on the ageing Internalists who had grossly underestimated the public and political sympathy for Springshaw's theory. A vote was called in the commons ordering that half of the next annual budget be awarded solely to the new theorists who by then had been tagged by the tabloids; The Externalists. The Externalist's manifesto stated that the Soul could only be found through direct experience and knowledge out in the field. A laboratory and a microscope were not enough. Instead an ontological investigation in the physical world and an exterior search were needed. Unlike the Internalists, the Externalists recognised the crucial role of their opposites and wanted to work side by side on the design of Springshaw's famous 'Capri IBLS Soulcatcher,' but the Internalists blindly refused to get involved.
The Externalists' practice was brilliantly simple. It required the driver to trawl hooks, both real and subtle behind the car - not, however, down into the ocean, but straight upwards into the sky - fishing into the clouds for their own Soul. This was achieved by means of a huge kite which could be steered, controlled and reeled in and out from a cock-pit mounted above the car on a super-structure. Each Capri ( there was a fleet of twelve) was fitted with a bed and all the necessary equipment and supplies that one man would need over a period of months.
Twelve Capris and twelve men set off on the 14 of June 1984; each in a different direction around the world; each convinced that this time they would find that thing which has eluded all of us always. They left behind their families and their nation firmly believing in their quest. But these twelve young men never returned. They disappeared, along with their cars, without a trace. Of course there where sightings along the way and reports and rumours did reach the Mainland, but as the months went by these reports became more infrequent and vague. The immediate finger of suspicion was pointed at the then USSR and accusations of huge conspiracies where hurled to the East. But although the Soviets had their own agencies for locating the Soul and were keen to beat us to it, most of their energy was being poured into competing with America and it's Star Wars project. It is unlikely however, that either the USSR or USA were plotting any real global conspiracy as neither party were convinced that the capturing and location of the Soul within the body had any real potential-but ask any philosopher or thinker and s/he'll tell you a very different story.
What is unclear about the last reports from the men is that it is hard to distinguish between what they were imagining and what was true. One of the unfortunate side-affects of these duels in the sky with themselves was a peculiar breakdown in their ability to discern between the Subtle and the Real. For once a Soul was hooked it could take up to six hours to reel it right in. It took every ounce of a man's conciousness and strength to stop it breaking free. And we should remember that these findings were made during the trials when they could only practice with animals. Leo Villa was one of the original members to depart along with Bruce in 1984. He vividly described the adverse affects of Soul-catching during training;
"When 'the myself' is above you and rods are straining and buckling your whole world disappears, you don't know where you are -you don't know who you are- but most of all you don't know what you are.. And then when it ends you're in trouble- when the ropes have snapped or you just can't do it- then you're empty; the most empty thing in the World- and as you sit there with your head in your hands you can feel 'the Myself' on the back of your neck darting back and forth with glee across the sky."
NB. 'The Myself' was the term the men preferred to use instead of Soul.
Investigations and enquiries were carried out but as no leads or clues were uncovered, the case was closed and in the winter of 1985 what remained of the IBLS was shut down, without ceremony, for good. After two years of tracking Springshaw's lost objects across Europe and the East, I have managed to trace Bruce Sprigshaw's Capri Soulcatcher, probably the last in existence, to a remote mountain village in Russia called Vorkuta, located on the west side of the Polyarnyy mountains. Last year I travelled to Vorkuta, reconditioned the car to a drivable state (it was found on its side in a forest) and brought it back to England. I have done this to honour the memory of Bruce; a childhood hero of mine and to raise awareness of the situation concerning the IBLS widows who to this day are not recognised by the government and have never received any compensation for the loss of their husbands.