Dead Carl Wickland - 30 Years Among the Dead

The risk of interference from this source constituted, they said, the gravest danger to the unwary novice in psychic research, but to be in ignorance of these facts was an even greater risk, especially in the case of the susceptible neurotic.

These intelligences also stated that by a system of transfer, that is, by attracting such obsessing entities from the victim to a psychic intermediary, the correctness of the hypothesis could be demonstrated and conditions could be shown as they actually exist. After this transference of psychoses the victims would be relieved, and the obsessing spirits could then be reached by the advanced spirits, who would care for them and instruct them regarding the higher laws of life.

They claimed they had found my wife to be a suitable instrument for such experimentation and proposed that, if I would cooperate with them by caring for and instructing these ignorant spirits, as they allowed them to take temporary but complete possession of my wife's body, without any injury to her, they would prove their assertions were correct.

Desirous of learning the truth or falsity of such important claims, which, if true, would have a great bearing on the cause of much that is otherwise baffling in criminology, as well as in psycho-pathology, we accepted what seemed a hazardous undertaking.

In order to carry out their purpose the Guiding Intelligences allowed many manifestations to take place, often very unexpectedly, and some of these occurred while I was pursuing my early medical studies.

One day I left home without any intention of immediately beginning my first dissecting work, therefore my wife's subconscious mind could not possibly have taken any part in what transpired later.

The students were required to dissect a lateral half of a body; the first subject was a man about sixty years of age and that afternoon I began dissecting on a lower limb.

I returned home at about five o'clock and had scarcely entered the door when my wife was apparently taken with a sudden illness, and complaining of feeling strange, staggered as though about to fall. As I placed my hand on her shoulder she drew herself up and became entranced by a foreign intelligence who said, with threatening gesture:

“What do you mean by cutting me?”

I answered that I was not aware of cutting any one, but the spirit angrily replied: “Of course you are! You are cutting on my leg!”

Realizing that the spirit owner of the body on which I had been operating had followed me home, I began to parley with him, first placing my wife in a chair.

To this the spirit vigorously objected, saying that I had no business to touch him. To my answer that I had a right to touch my own wife the entity retorted:

“Your wife! What are you talking about! I am no woman - I'm a man.”

I explained that he had passed out of his physical body and was controlling the body of my wife, and that his spirit was here and his body at the college. When he finally seemed to realize this I said: “Suppose I were now cutting on your body at the college that could not kill you, since you yourself are here.”

The spirit admitted that this seemed reasonable, and said:

“I guess I must be what they call 'dead,' so I won't have any more use for my old body. If you can learn anything by cutting on it, go ahead and cut away.”

Then he added suddenly: “Say, Mister, give me a chew of tobacco.”

I told him that I had none, and then he begged for a pipe, saying: “I'm dying for a smoke.”

This request was, of course, also refused. (The fact that Mrs. Wickland has always abhorred the sight of any one chewing tobacco precludes the possibility of her subconscious mind playing any role in this episode.)

After a more detailed explanation of the fact that he was actually so-called “dead,” the spirit realized his true condition and left.

Subsequent examination of the teeth of the cadaver indicated that the man had been an inveterate tobacco user in life.

Upon another occasion, when I had been appointed assistant demonstrator for a class of students in dissecting, the body of a colored man had been selected as a subject but the body had not yet been disturbed when, one evening, Mrs. Wickland became entranced and a strange spirit, speaking through her, exclaimed:

“You ain't goin' to cut on dis colored man, Boss!”

I told him that the world called him dead; that he was not in his old body, but was now controlling a woman's body. He would not believe this and when I showed him my wife's hands, saying they were not colored but white, he replied:

“I'se got whitewash on dem; whitewashin' is my business.”

This spirit proved to be very obstinate, offering a variety of excuses and explanations rather than accept the truth, but he was finally convinced and departed.

Another incident will still further demonstrate to what a seemingly unbelievable degree spirits may cling to their earthly bodies through ignorance of their transition, or so-called death.

In the dissecting room was the body of a woman, about forty years of age, who had died at the Cook County Hospital, Chicago, the previous June. In January, seven months after her death, a number of students, myself included, were assigned this subject for dissection. I could not be present the first evening but the others began their work. Nothing was ever said to me of what occurred during those few hours, but for some reason, unknown to me, the other students never touched that subject again.

The next day there was no school in the afternoon so I began to dissect alone, working on the arm and neck. The dissecting room was in the rear of a long basement and very quiet, but once I distinctly heard a voice say: “Don't murder me!”

The voice sounded faintly, as from a distance, but since I am not in the least superstitious and not at all inclined to credit small incidents to the actions of spirits, I concluded that it probably came from children in the street, although I had not heard any playing nearby.

The following afternoon I was again working alone when I was rather startled by a rustling sound coming from a crumpled newspaper lying on the floor, a sound something like that produced when a newspaper is crushed, but I paid no particular attention to it and did not mention these occurrences to my wife.

The episodes had quite passed out of my mind until a few days later. We were holding a psychic circle in our home and our invisible co-workers had already departed when I noticed that my wife still remained in a semi-comatose condition. I stepped up to her to ascertain the reason when the controlling spirit rose suddenly, struck at me angrily and said:

“I have some bones to pick with you!”

After a period of struggle with the stranger I asked what the trouble was.

“Why do you want to kill me?” the entity demanded.

“I am not killing any one,” I answered.

“Yes, you are - you are cutting on my arm and neck! I shouted at you not to murder me, and I struck that paper on the floor to frighten you, but you wouldn't pay any attention.”

Then, laughing boisterously, the spirit added with great hilarity:

“But I scared the other fellows!”

It was necessary to explain at great length the actual situation of the spirit, who said her name was Minnie Morgan, but finally she understood and left, promising to seek a higher life.

The ease with which spirits assume control of the psychic intermediary, Mrs. Wickland, is so perfect that the majority of them at first fail to comprehend the fact that they are so-called dead and are temporarily occupying the body of another.

Those intelligences whose reasoning faculties are alert can generally be made to realize that their situation is unusual when attention is called to the dissimilarity between their own former bodily features, hands and feet, as well as clothes, and those of the psychic. This is especially so when the spirit is a man, for the difference will then be more readily noticed. Following the statement that the body which is being controlled belongs to my wife, spirits usually retort: “I am not your wife,” and a great deal of explanation is required before they can be brought to a recognition of the fact that they are in temporary possession of another's body.