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During thirty years of indefatigable research among the “dead” such startling conditions have been revealed that it seems incredible intelligent reasoners along other lines of thought could have so long ignored the simple facts, which can so readily be verified. There is utter impossibility of fraud in these experiences; foreign languages, totally unknown to Mrs. Wickland, are spoken, expressions never heard by her are used, while the identity of the controlling spirits has again and again been verified and corroborations innumerable have been made.

On one occasion I conversed with twenty-one different spirits, who spoke through my wife, the majority giving me satisfactory evidence of being certain friends and relatives known to me while they were incarnated. In all, they spoke six different languages, while my wife speaks only Swedish and English.

From one patient, Mrs. A., who was brought to us from Chicago, thirteen different spirits were dislodged and allowed to control Mrs. Wickland, and of these, seven were recognized by the patient's mother, Mrs. H. W., as relatives or friends well known to her during their earth lives.

One was a minister, formerly pastor of the Methodist church of which Mrs. H. W. was a member, who had been killed in a railroad accident nine years previous, but was still unconscious of the fact; another was her sister-in-law; there were also three elderly women, family friends for years, a neighbor boy and the mother-in-law of the patient - all entirely unknown to Mrs. Wickland.

Mrs. H. W. conversed at length with each one, as they spoke through Mrs. Wickland, verifying innumerable statements made by the spirits and assisted in bringing them to a realization of their changed condition, and of the fact that they had been obsessing her daughter. This patient is today entirely well and actively occupied with social, musical and family affairs.

Another case will show clearly the transfer of psychosis from patient to intermediary, and the impossibility of either “subconscious mind” or “multiple personalities” playing any role as far as the psychic is concerned.

One summer evening we were called to the home of Mrs. M., a lady of culture and refinement; she was a musician of high rank and when the social demands made upon her proved too great she suffered a nervous breakdown. She had become intractable and for six weeks had been in such a raving condition that her physicians had been unable to relieve her, and day and night nurses were in constant attendance.

We found the patient sitting up in her bed, crying one minute like a forlorn child, and again screaming in fear: “Matilla! Matilla!” Then suddenly fighting and struggling, she would talk a wild gibberish of English and Spanish, (the latter a language of which she had no knowledge).

Mrs. Wickland immediately gave her psychic diagnosis, saying the case was unquestionably one of obsession, and this was unexpectedly confirmed when Mrs. Wickland, who was standing at the foot of the bed, with wraps on ready to leave, was found to be suddenly entranced. We placed her on a davenport in the music room, where for two hours I talked in turn with several spirits who had just been attracted from the patient.

There were three spirits - a girl named Mary, her suitor, an American, and his Mexican rival, Matilla. Both of the men had vehemently loved the girl and as fiercely hated each other. In a jealous rage one had killed the girl, and then in a desperate fight the two rivals had killed each other.

All were unaware of being “dead,” although Mary said, weeping wretchedly: “I thought they were going to kill each other, but here they are, still fighting.”

This tragedy of love, hatred and jealousy had not ended with physical death; the group had unconsciously been drawn into the psychic atmosphere of the patient, and the violent fighting had continued within her aura. Since her nervous resistance was exceedingly low at this time, one after the other had usurped her physical body, with a resulting disturbance that was unexplainable by her attendants.

With great difficulty the three spirits were convinced that they had lost their physical bodies, but at last they recognized the truth and were taken away by our invisible coworkers.

Meanwhile the patient had arisen, and speaking rationally to the astonished nurse, walked quietly about her room. Presently she said: “I am going to sleep well tonight,” and returning to bed, fell asleep without the usual sedatives, and rested quietly throughout the night.

The following day, attended by a nurse, she was brought to our home; we dismissed the nurse, discarded her medicines, and after an electrical treatment, the patient had her dinner in the general dining room with the other patients, and that evening attended a function given in our social hall.

Another spirit was removed from her the next day; this was a little girl who had been killed in the San Francisco earthquake, and who cried constantly, saying she was lost in the dark. It is needless to add that she was comforted and promptly cared for by spirit friends, who had been unable to reach her while she was enmeshed in the aura of a psychic sensitive.

After some months of treatment, rest and recuperation, the patient returned to her home and resumed her normal life again.

One of our early experiences in Chicago occurred on the 15th of November, 1906. During one of our psychic circles, Mrs. Wickland, entranced by a strange entity, fell prostrate to the floor, and remained in a comatose condition for some time. The spirit was at last brought to the front, and acted as though in great pain, repeatedly saying:

“Why didn't I take more carbolic acid? I want to die; I'm so tired of living.”

In a weak voice the spirit complained of the dense darkness all about, and was unable to see an electric light shining directly into her face. She whispered faintly: “My poor son! “ and when pressed for information said that her name was Mary Rose, and that she lived at 202 South Green Street, a street entirely unknown to us at that time.

At first she could not remember any date, but when asked: “Is it November 15th, 1906?” she replied: “No, that is next week.” Life had been a bitter disappointment to her; she had suffered constantly from chronic abdominal ailments, and finally, resolving to end her miserable existence, she had taken poison.

She could not at first realize that she had succeeded in destroying her physical body, for, like most suicides, she was in total ignorance of the indestructibility of life and the reality of the hereafter. When the real purpose of life, experience and suffering had been made clearer to her she was overcome with repentance and offered a sincere prayer for forgiveness.

Then her spiritual sight opened slightly and she saw dimly the spirit figure of her grandmother, who had come to take her to the spirit world.

Subsequent inquiry at the address given by the spirit proved her statements to be true; a woman by the name given had lived at this house, she still had a son living there, and we were told that Mrs. Rose had been taken to the Cook County Hospital and had died there the week before.

Upon investigation at the hospital we found further verification of the facts and were given a copy of the record of the case:

Cook County Hospital, Chicago, Ills.

Mary Rose.

Admitted November 7th, 1906. Died November 8th, 1906.

Carbolic Acid poisoning.

No. 341106.

Another case will show that identification of a spirit is often possible.

Mrs. Fl., a patient who had been declared incurably insane by several physicians, was a refined lady of gentle disposition, who had become very wild and unmanageable, swearing constantly, and fighting with such violence that several persons were required to restrain her.

She was also subject to coma states, again to fainting spells, would refuse food, announce that she “had been married above by celestial powers,” and used extraordinarily vile language; these various phases alternated constantly, but no full proof of obsession was evidenced until one day when Mrs. Fl. lost all power of speech, and, mumbling idiotically, simulated perfectly a deaf and dumb person.

At this time a gentleman from an adjoining state came to the house to visit a patient and, shortly after his arrival, the nurse who attended Mrs. Fl. reported that the patient had again changed and was talking like a little child. So striking was this alteration that the gentleman was asked to step into the room to observe the patient. He was a total stranger to her but as he entered the room she pointed to him and said, in a high childish voice:

“I know that man! He used to put bows on my shoulders. And he pulled my toofies! He took me to a gypsy camp too! He lived right across the street from me, and he used to call me Rosebud. I'm four years old.”

The astonished gentleman corroborated every statement, saying that he had known such a child in his home town in Iowa, but that she had died the year before. He explained that he was very fond of children and had on several occasions taken the child to a gypsy camp, and that whenever he bought taffy-on-a stick for the little girl, he would tug at the stick while she was eating the candy and playfully threaten to pull her teeth.

It was evident that affection had attracted the spirit child to her friend, and that she found in Mrs. Fl. a vehicle through which she could make her presence known to the gentleman.

The patient was relieved of this spirit and gradually of other obsessing influences, and several months later was pronounced entirely competent to sign legal papers, being declared normal and sane by a judge and jury.

Another case in point was that of Mrs. O., who was a cook in a restaurant. She had observed a waitress acting queerly, laboring under delusions and hallucinations, and brought her to my office. After an electrical treatment the patient declared she felt greatly relieved and returned to her home.

But that night Mrs. O. herself became disturbed by an unaccountable condition which prevented her from sleeping, and her restlessness continued until ten o'clock the following morning, when, in the midst of her preparations for dinner, she suddenly became wild, tore her hair, and threatened to harm herself.

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.