Dead Carl Wickland - 30 Years Among the Dead

I was sent for and arriving, found Mrs. O. raving in a demented condition, complaining of being chased here and there and being unable to find a resting place. Suspecting the presence of an invisible entity, I placed Mrs. O. in a chair, pinioned her arms to prevent a struggle, and after several remarks the entity declared it was a man, but denied being dead, or obsessing a woman.

The spirit said his name was Jack, that he was an uncle of the troubled waitress, and that he had been a vagabond in life. After reasoning with the intelligence he began to realize his situation, and, promising to cause no further annoyance, left. Mrs. O. then immediately became her normal self and returned to her work without any further disturbance.

It was later ascertained from the waitress that she had had an uncle named Jack, who had been a vagabond, and that he was dead. In this experience Mrs. O. had acted as the psychic intermediary to whom the spirit obsessing the waitress had been transferred.

A number of years ago Dr. Lydston wrote in the Chicago papers of a patient who, although having no knowledge of French or music sang well the “Marseillaise” in French when placed under the influence of an anesthetic. Dr. Lydston, denying the continued existence of the ego, explained this phenomenon as one of subliminal consciousness, or unconscious memory, comparing it with the case of the uneducated domestic, who, in delirium, recited classic Latin as perfectly as her former employer, a Professor of Latin, had done during his life.

I replied, in a newspaper article, that such phenomena were frequently met with in psychic research, and stated that, despite the classification of materialistic scientists, these cases clearly proved the posthumous existence of spirits and their ability to communicate through mortals. I added that if the truth were known about these two cases, we would find that the man who sang French was a psychic sensitive and had at the time been controlled by some outside intelligence, while in all probability the domestic who recited Latin was obsessed by the spirit of the former professor.

Shortly after this the gentleman alluded to by Dr. Lydston called on me, having read my article, and said: “I don't know anything about French, but I do know that I am bothered to death by spirits.”

In the study of cases of “Multiple Personalities,” “Dissociated Personalities,” or “Disintegrated States of Consciousness,” modern psychologists disclaim the possibility of foreign intelligences on the ground that these personalities give neither evidence of supernormal knowledge, nor of being of spiritistic origin.

Our experience, to the contrary, has proven that the majority of these intelligences are oblivious of their transition and hence it does not enter their minds that they are spirits, and they are loath to recognize the fact.

In the case of Miss Beauchamp, as recorded by Dr. Morton Prince, in “The Dissociation of a Personality,” reporting four alternating personalities, no claim was made that any outside intelligences were responsible for the various personalities, and yet “Sally” (personality 3) insisted that she herself was not the same as Miss Beauchamp (Christine), that her own consciousness was distinct from that of Miss Beauchamp, and told of Miss Beauchamp's learning to walk and talk. “When she was a very little girl just learning to walk ... I remember her thoughts distinctly as separate from mine.”

Similarly in the case of Bernice Redick of Ohio, the young school girl who constantly changed from her normal self to the personality of “Polly,” an unruly child, every indication is given of the influence of a discarnate spirit, probably ignorant of being dead, controlling Miss Redick.

That such “personalities” are independent entities could easily be proven, under proper conditions, by transference of the same to a psychic intermediary, as similar experiments have so abundantly demonstrated.

Any attempt to explain our experiences on the theory of the Subconscious Mind and Auto-Suggestion, or Multiple Personalities, would be untenable, since it is manifestly impossible that Mrs. Wickland should have a thousand personalities, and since it is so readily possible to cause transference of psychosis from a supposedly insane person to Mrs. Wickland, relieving the victim, and in this way discovering that the disturbance was due to a discarnate entity, whose identity can often be verified.

Individuals who are clairaudient suffer greatly from the constant annoyance of hearing the voices of obsessing entities (the “auditory hallucinations” frequently observed by alienists), and when such a person is present in a psychic circle where the spirits are dislodged and transferred to the psychic intermediary, interesting developments occur.

An illustration is the case of Mrs. Burton, a clairaudient patient who was constantly combating obsessing spirits, and who, while attending our circle, was relieved of her unwelcome companions. In the following records the conversation of the spirits through the psychic, Mrs. Wickland, will elucidate the characteristics of the several entities.

Doctor Tell us who you are.

Spirit I do not wish you to hold my hands.

Dr. You must sit still.

Sp. Why do you treat me like this?

Dr. Who are you?

Sp. Why do you want to know?

Dr. You have come here as a stranger, and we would like to know who you are.

Sp. What are you so interested for?

Dr. We should like to know with whom we are associating. If a stranger came to your home, would you not like to know his name?

Sp. I do not want to be here and I do not know any of you. Somebody pushed me in here, and I do not think it is right to force me in like that. And when I came in and sat down on the chair you grabbed my hands as if I were a prisoner. Why was I pushed in here? (Brought in control of psychic by guiding intelligences.)

Dr. You were probably in the dark.

Sp. It seems somebody took me by force.

Dr. Was there any reason for it?

Sp. I do not know of any reason, and I do not see why I should be bothered like that.

Dr. Was no reason given for handling you in this manner?

Sp. It has been a terrible time for me for quite a while. I have been tormented to death. I have been driven here, there and everywhere. I am getting so provoked about it that I feel like giving everything a good shaking.

Dr. What have they done to you?

Sp. It seems so terrible. If I walk around I am so very miserable. I do not know what it is. Sometimes it seems as if my senses were being knocked out of me. Something comes on me like thunder and lightning. (Static treatment of patient.) It makes such a noise. This terrible noise - it is awful! I cannot stand it any more, and I will not either! Dr. We shall be glad if you will not stand it any more.

Sp. Am I not welcome? And if I am not, I do not care!

Dr. You are not very particular.

Sp. I have had so much hardship.

Dr. How long have you been dead?

Sp. Why do you speak that way? I am not dead. I am as alive as I can be, and I feel as if I were young again.

Dr. Have you, not felt, at times, as if you were somebody else ?

Sp. At times I feel very strange, especially when it knocks me senseless. I feel very bad. I do not feel that I should have this suffering. I do not know why I should have such things.

Dr. Probably it is necessary.

Sp. I feel I should be free to go where I please, but it seems I have no will of my own any more. I try, but it seems somebody else takes possession of me and gets me into some place where they knock me nearly senseless. If I knew it, I never would go there, but there is a person who seems to have the right to take me everywhere, but I feel I should have the right to take her. (Referring to patient.)