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Psychical research contains elements of the greatest importance to humanity, and has already become a vital factor in the social life of the world at large. It is undoubtedly true, however, that the various branches of research are endeavoring to classify their findings on purely psycho-physiological bases.

The Psycho-Analyst advances the theory that many of the psychoses have their seat or origin in some psychic lesion, or trauma, either concealed or forgotten. The Analytical-Pychologist, by mental measurements and intelligence tests, is making the segregation and classification of mental defectives possible. So also the Neurologist and Psychiatrist are diligently seeking to isolate the etiological factors in the various neuroses,, mental aberrations and insanities, and to ascertain the best methods of prevention and treatment.

While these branches of research are loath to accept the hypothesis of discarnate intelligences as contributing, exciting factors in many of the psychoses and aberrations, they are nevertheless rendering important service in uncovering and bringing to light the unstable qualities in the neurotic, the susceptible and those predisposed to mental unbalance.

Psychical Research presents two general phases for investigation: the Normal and the Abnormal.

The Normal phase, from the standpoint of the physician, as well as the minister, deals, among other issues, with the question: What becomes of the Dead? This problem is of vital interest to the patient who lingers on the borderland of transition, doubtful of the future, or perhaps trembling in fear of his probable condition after the tomorrow of death. Should it not be the noblest part of the physician's calling, in such situations, to be in a position to assure his patient from actual knowledge, that there is no death, but a birth into new fields of activity and opportunities in the higher mental spheres?

In the Abnormal phase of Psychical Research there is demand for broadest Possible knowledge on the part of the physician pertaining to the mysterious functioning of minds, discarnate as well as incarnate. Research in Abnormal, as well as Normal psychology, indubitably indicates, not only the existence of spirits, but also unquestionably demonstrates that such entities play an important role in the various psychoneuroses and insanities.

The physician, undoubtedly, comes in more intimate touch with the consequences of promiscuous dabbling in Psychical Research, so frequently resulting in mental aberrations, than any other person, for he is usually the first one to be called into consultation, and upon his decision depends largely the disposal of such an unfortunate victim. For this reason, if no other, it should surely be not only the privilege, but also the urgent duty of the physician to become thoroughly acquainted with the various phases of Psychical Research, particularly its dangers in the hands of thoughtless investigators, especially the predisposed psycho-neurotic.

The alarming results often occurring in connection with Psychical Research prompted me to follow up a line of investigation to ascertain the underlying causes thereof, for these also concern the physician.

The serious problem of alienation and mental derangement attending ignorant psychic experiments was first brought to my attention by the cases of several persons whose seemingly harmless experiences with automatic writing and the Ouija Board resulted in such wild insanity that commitment to asylums was necessitated.

The first of these cases was that of Mrs. Bl., whose attempts at automatic writing led to mental derangement and altered personality. Normally she was amiable, pious, quiet and refined but became boisterous and noisy, romped about and danced, used vile language, and, claiming she was an actress, insisted upon dressing for the stage, saying that she had to be at the theatre at a certain time or lose her position. Finally she became so irresponsible that she was placed in an asylum.

Another case was Mrs. Bn., who, through the practice of automatic writing, changed from an artist and a lady of refinement to an altogether different and violent personality. Screaming at the top of her voice she continually rubbed her temples and exclaimed,

“God save me! God save me!” Rushing into the street she knelt in the mud, praying, and refused food, declaring that if she should eat before six o'clock P.M. she would go to hell.

Mrs. Sr., who bad followed the same practices, also became mentally deranged and violent, necessitating police interference. Rising in the night she posed in the window of her millinery shop as Napoleon, whom she presumed herself to be, and after committing many other irresponsible acts, requiring restraint, was sent to the Detention Hospital.

In like manner, Mrs. Wr. became obsessed with hallucinations that God was constantly talking to her and condemning her for wrong acts of which he accused her; after attempting suicide at the request of this so-called God she was taken to the asylum.

Many other disastrous results which followed the use of the supposedly innocent Ouija Board came to my notice and my observations led me into research in psychic phenomena for a possible explanation of these strange occurrences.

My wife proved to be an excellent psychic intermediary and was easily controlled by discarnate intelligences. In answer to her doubts concerning the right of “disturbing the dead” these intelligences asserted that a grievously wrong conception existed among mortals regarding the conditions prevailing after death.

They stated that there is in reality no death, but a natural transition from the visible to the invisible world, and that advanced spirits are ever striving to communicate with mortals to enlighten them concerning the higher possibilities which await the progressive spirit. But death - the freeing of the spirit from the body - is so simple and natural that a great majority do not, for a longer or shorter period, realize the change, and owing to a lack of education concerning the spiritual side of their natures, they continue to remain in their earthly haunts.

They maintained that many such spirits were attracted to the magnetic aura of mortals -although the spirit, as well as the mortal, might be unconscious of the intrusion - and thus, by obsessing or possessing their victims, they ignorantly or maliciously became the cause of untold mischief, often producing invalidism, immorality, crime and seeming insanity.

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.

On the other hand, there are spirits, fixed and rooted in obstinate skepticism, who stubbornly refuse to understand that they have made the transition out of the physical. These will not listen to reason and fail to be convinced of their changed condition, even when a mirror is held before them, declaring that they have been hypnotized, and prove so obdurate that they must be forced to leave, and are taken in charge by the invisible coworkers.

The transference of the mental aberration or psychosis from a patient to the psychic intermediary, Mrs. Wickland, is facilitated by the use of static electricity, which is applied to the patient, frequently in the presence of the psychic. Although this electricity is harmless to the patient it is exceedingly effective, for the obsessing spirit cannot long resist such electrical treatment and is dislodged.

Induced by our invisible helpers the spirit may then entrance the psychic, when it becomes possible to come into direct contact with the entity, and an endeavor is made to bring him to a realization of his true condition and of his higher possibilities. He is then removed and cared for by the advanced spirits and Mrs. Wickland again returns to her normal self.

In many cases remarkable evidence that discarnate entities were the offending cause of aberration has been obtained by a system of experimental concentration in a psychic circle. Obsessing spirits have been dislodged from victims frequently residing at a distance, conveyed to the circle by the co-operating intelligences and allowed to control the psychic. Such spirits often complain of having been driven away, yet are ignorant of being spirits, or of having controlled or influenced anyone.

But the similarity between the actions of the controlling spirit and the symptoms of the patient, as well as the relief obtained by the latter through this removal, indubitably prove the spirit to have been the cause of the disturbance. In many cases the identity of the spirit has been unquestionably authenticated. After this transfer and permanent dislodgment of the obsessing spirit, the patient gradually recovers, although there may be a number of spirits requiring removal from the same patient.

It may be asked why advanced intelligences do not take charge of earthbound spirits and convert them without having them first control a psychic intermediary. Many of these ignorant spirits cannot be reached by the intelligent spirits until they come in contact with physical conditions, when they are compelled to realize their own situation and are then started on the road to progression.

While the control of the Psychic by an ignorant spirit in a circle generally brings the spirit to an understanding and is of interest to the investigator, at the same time groups of other spirits in darkness are brought to profit by the lesson conveyed through the actions of the controlling spirit.

Many controlling spirits act as if demented and are difficult to reason with, this condition being due to false doctrines, fixed ideas and various notions imbibed in physical life. They are often unruly and boisterous, when it is necessary to control them by holding the hands of the psychic to keep them in restraint.

Upon realizing their true condition many spirits experience a sensation of dying, which signifies that they are losing control of the psychic.

Other spirits, again, are in a sleepy stupor, wishing to be left alone, and severe language is at times required to arouse them, as will be observed in the records following. In these records reference is often made to a “dungeon” in which refractory spirits may be placed, and controlling spirits sometimes complain of having been kept in a dungeon.

Due to a certain psychic law, intelligent spirits have the faculty of placing about an ignorant spirit a condition simulating a prison, an impenetrable, cell-like room from which there is no escape. Herein stubborn spirits must stay seeing nothing but the reflection of their own personalities, their past actions appearing before the mind's eye until they become repentant and show a willingness to adapt themselves to the new condition and to conform to the spiritual laws of progression.

The nature of Mrs. Wickland's psychism is that of unconscious trance; her eyes are closed and her own mentality is held in abeyance in a sleep state for the time being. She herself has no recollection of anything that transpires during this period.

Mrs. Wickland is not subject to any negativism between these experiences; she is at all times her rational self, clear minded and positive, and after thirty-five years of psychic work has not suffered impairment or detriment of any kind.

She is constantly protected from the invisible side by the supervision of a group of strong intelligences known as “The Mercy Band,” which is guiding this work, endeavoring to bring humanity to a realization of the simplicity of the transition called death, and the importance of a rational understanding of what becomes of the spirits.

The purpose of our work has been to obtain reliable and incontestable evidence at first hand regarding “after death” conditions, and detailed reports of hundreds of experiences have been stenographically made in order to record the exact situation of the communicating intelligences.