Sam Sattel
June 8, 2018
7 min read
Marcel Vogel didn’t lead the most ordinary of lives. As a child he underwent a near death experience after being pronounced dead from respiratory difficulties. This event left Marcel struggling to reconnect with any kind of “normal” childhood. What was once a focus on everyday fun suddenly became a life riddled with questions. Why am I here? What’s the purpose of my life? These are the questions that Marcel sought to find an answer to in his lifelong journey as a scientist.
After six years of deep quietness and prayer as a child, Marcel received an answer to his questions, “You will be a phosphor chemist. You will do pioneering work in luminescence. You will write a book and create your own business.” Marcel was only 11 years old at the time he received this insight in his mind.
Throughout his early years Marcel held an intense fascination with the luminescent properties of fireflies. This lead him and his father to build a laboratory where Marcel worked tirelessly to replicate the chemical that made these insects glow. At the age of 12 he successfully manufactured a luminescent chemical compound in a tube, all before the time of fluorescent lights. This scientific journey was no easy experiment, and Marcel reportedly spent hours at his local Mechanics Institute translating German articles on phosphor chemistry to conduct his experiments.
As Marcel entered high school and college his fascination with luminescence continued to grow. He majored in chemistry and physics and at the University of San Francisco. No courses were available in the field of luminescence, so Marcel spent hours at the university library teaching himself.
In 1940 Marcel met German Professor Doctor Pringsheim. Pringsheim was interested in the study of luminescence and was directed by the university’s librarian to a student who had read every book on the subject, Marcel Vogel. The two men joined up, combining their passion for luminescence to publish The Luminescence of Liquids and Solids and Their Practical Application in 1944.
In 1944 Marcel also founded the Vogel Luminescence Corporation where he used his knowledge in luminescence for practical business purposes. Here he manufactured a variety of products including fluorescent oil colors, paints, chalks, crayons, invisible inks, and even insecticides that could be traced with portable black lights.
In 1957 Marcel sold Vogel Luminescence and joined IBM as a one of the company’s few research scientists without an official PhD. Marcel’s radiant creativity went into full swing, and he was awarded over 30 patents up until his retirement 27 years later.
One of Marcel’s most famous inventions was the development of a magnetic coating used on IBM’s hard disks for data storage. Vogel spent weeks testing a variety of formulas without any success. After working 18-20 hour days, he finally collapsed from exhaustion in his laboratory.
When Marcel awoke, he found himself in a dream-like state and reported that he saw a can of molasses floating in front of him and the words “infinite viscosity” in his mind. It was in that moment that he understood the solution to his problem. By combining two chemical compounds together that were thought to be incompatible, the magnetic coating was born.
(Image originally via Gary Stevens of Hosting Canada. A hard disk head and platter. 28 September 2007 Image source)
The magnetic coating was just one of the many inventions that Marcel is credited for during his time at IBM’s Data Products Division. His research and inventions in the fields of liquid crystals, photo relays, and rare earth phosphors led to massive contributions to build today’s LCD displays, watches, and radios.
After 27 years Marcel officially ended his career as a Rational Scientist at IBM and began an unconventional journey as a Spiritual Scientist. In 1984 he founded Psychic Research, Inc. where he focused on human-plant communication and the healing power of crystals.
Marcel’s lab was filled with over $500,000 of equipment donated by IBM at the time of Marcel’s retirement. His gadgets included an electron scanning microscope, a Zeiss Ultraphot microscope, an Omega 5 radionic instrument, and a Cary Model 15 spectrophotometer.
Within his lab Marcel began a childlike curiosity to discover a new perspective on human-plant communication. Are plants capable of emotions and sensing human thought? Marcel thought so and was able to duplicate the Backster Effect, which showed that plants are able to respond to a variety of physical and chemical stimuli including emotions and thoughts
To prove this, Marcel connected split leaf philodendrons to a Wheatstone Bridge to measure resistance. He then pulsed his breath rapidly while holding a thought in his mind and found that there was a direct response from the plant on his device. What was most interesting about this study was that the plant responded to a thought Marcel held regardless of distance. He could be 10 feet or 10 miles away and the results were the same!
Marcel did further experiments where he would focus on a plant and then hold the thought of the plant being cut or burned. Again the plant responded on the Wheatstone Bridge and Marcel determined that the plant was mirroring his own mental activity. Vogel concluded that plants acted like a kind of battery, storing the energy of a perceiver’s thoughts and intentions. As Marcel goes on to explain, “I learned that there is energy connected with thought. Thought can be pulsed and the energy connected with it becomes coherent and has a laser-like power.”
For those of you interested in learning more about Marcel’s work with plants, The Secret Life of Plants is worth the read.
One of the greatest achievements in Marcel’s post-rational science career was his invention of Vogel Crystals. Marcel experimented with cutting quartz crystals in a specific manner to amplify their ability to transmit Universal Life Force energy. In other spiritual domains you might hear this referred to as Chi, Reiki, or Holy Spirit.
According to Marcel’s strict specifications, a crystal can only be considered a Vogel Crystal if:
In addition to these technical specifications, there was also a great importance placed on the intention of the person cutting the crystal. Only a person skilled in both hand and mind was able to successfully replicate the production of a Vogel Crystal. Above all else, Marcel said that his crystals had to be cut with Love.
Marcel taught how to use these crystals for therapeutic and healing purposes. In one instance at IBM, a colleague approached Vogel about persistent back pain from a weekend of skiing. Marcel took out a Vogel Crystal in his pocket, and used his breath to send a charge of Universal Life Force Energy at his colleague. The man reportedly fell to the floor in an altered state of consciousness, and upon waking his back pain was gone.
Vogel spent a number of years working with medical doctors on how to use the healing techniques of his Vogel Crystals. He later appeared on TV and in newspapers and magazines, touted as one of the best crystal healers in the United States. In the late 20th century Marcel toured the world, teaching others how to use his faceted quartz crystals to heal ailments and enhance meditative practices.
Marcel’s intention with his crystal and therapeutic work was something to be admired, “I want to the best of my ability to cut away mysticism and replace mysticism with knowledge. With knowledge then fear leaves and you can deal with what you are doing in a loving way.”
In the video below you can see Marcel Vogel talking about the therapeutic use of crystals in more detail.
Marcel Vogel wasn’t your ordinary scientist. From an early age it was clear that his life was cut out for something radically different. At the core Marcel Vogel held an intrinsic curiosity about the process of life and all of its mysteries. He wasn’t afraid to experiment with new ideas and skillfully manifested them into physical reality. From the first magnetic coating on hard disks to therapeutic healing crystals, Marcel Vogel was a pioneering inventor living out a mission to spread love, healing, and knowledge to all.
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