CHAPTER V Tormenting Spirits. Marriage Disturbances

OBSESSING SPIRITS may purposely torment helpless sensitives,
sometimes for revenge, but more often with a desire to punish the latter
who, they declare, are interfering with them.

These tormenting spirits frequently cause their victims to commit deeds
of violence upon themselves and do not seem to suffer from pain which they
inflict upon the physical body of the sensitive, yet, contradictory as it may
seem, many labor under the delusion that the body of the mortal is their own.

After the death of her husband Mrs. L. W. developed a melancholia
which was followed by "hallucinations of hearing," and, constantly
tormented by hearing the voices of spirits, she often dashed madly out of the
house, screaming and pulling out her hair.

At such times her daughter, who was clairvoyant, saw spirits about her
mother, particularly the spirit of a jeering man, and the patient herself often
saw this man saying: "There comes that terrible man again."

The patient was brought from St. Louis to Los Angeles in the belief that
a change of scene and climate would be beneficial, but the violent attacks
increased; in these seizures she bit her hands and arms, beat her face with a
slipper and tore off her clothes.

She finally became uncontrollable and was taken to the Psychopathic
Ward, declared insane and committed to a sanitarium, where she remained for
a year without any improvement. After escaping three times she was placed
in our care, and within a few months the tormenting spirits* were taken
away, the lady became entirely normal, has since remained well, ,and is
assisting her daughter with her household occupations.

A few days after her arrival at our Institute the spirit of the "jeering
man," so often seen by the patient's daughter, was removed and allowed to
control Mrs. Wickland.

*See Chap. 4, Page 65. Spirit: Minnie Day; Patient: Mrs. L W.
Chap. 4, Page 89. Spirit: Emily Steve; Patient: Mrs. L W.

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EXPERIENCE, JANUARY 13,1918
Spirit: JOHN SULLIVAN. Patient: MRS. L. W
Psychic: MRS. WICKLAND

The spirit struggled furiously for a time and restraint was required.

Spirit What in the world are you holding me for? I have nothing
whatever to do with you folks. I don't like any of you. I don't see what
right you have to hold me. I never did you any harm, and I'll make it
pretty hot for you before I get through.

Doctor You came to us as a stranger and at once started fighting.
What else could I do but hold you in restraint?

Sp. I don't want to be held down like this.

Dr. Who are you?

Sp. Why should I tell you who I am? I don't know any of you, and
I don't care who you are. Just leave me alone so that can go.

Dr. Tell us who you are, friend. You seem to be a pretty strong girl.

Sp. If you take me for a girl you had better look again!

Dr. Tell us where you came from and what you want.

Sp. What do you want to know for?

Dr. Perhaps we can help you out of your present condition.

Sp. Don't hold me so tight, then I will talk.

Dr. Tell us all about yourself.

Sp. In the first place I don't want those needles (referring to
electrical treatment given patient) put on me. Then, I have been kept a
prisoner for a while. Now I'm out I feel just like fighting. (Freed from
aura of patient and the restraint placed upon him by intelligent
spirits.) What in the world did you put all those needles on me for? If
I can go away from here, I will go back home.

Dr. Where is your home?

Sp. My home is where I came from.

Dr. I am curious to know how you got those "needles" on your back.

Sp. It was just like I was on fire every time I had them. I don't want
to sit here and be held down, and I'm going.

Dr. How did you happen to have the benefit of such "needles"? I
am very curious to know.

Sp. I don't know myself, but I got them.

Dr. How did you happen to come here?

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Sp. I don't know.

Dr. Did you come here with somebody you were attached to?

Sp. I was only attached to myself.

Dr. Where have you been recently?

Sp. I have been in darkness. I got away from my home, then I
could not see anything. It seemed as if I was blind.

Dr. Were you not in a strange condition when you were in that
place you call home?

Sp. It wasn't my real home, but it was just like it.

Dr. Did you become disgusted sometimes and then act queerly?

Sp. Sometimes I did not know where I was and then I acted up all
the time. Once in a while we had a big fight. There were several
people around, but I will get them some day.

Dr. Who were they?

Sp. Why, I don't know; all kinds of people.

Dr. Were there any women?

Sp. There were so many you could not rest. Women! Some day I
am going to get hold of the rest of them and shake them up.

Dr. I don't see why you should want to harm others.

Sp. One woman would come at me one way, and one another, and
it made me mad, but what can a fellow do when he has a whole lot of
women around? (Other obsessing spirits in patient's aura.)

Dr. Where do you think you are now?

Sp. Where? I don't care where I am.

Dr. Where have you been living?

Sp. We have been living at different places. We have been from
one place to another, until I am plumb disgusted with everything. I
feel like running away so nobody can find me.,

Dr. You could not get away from yourself.

Sp. I have had nothing but women around me, women, women,
until I am sick and tired of women. I got one woman down and I bit
and kicked, and still she clung to me. (The patient, Mrs. L. W.) She
has no business to hang around me like she does. Some day I shall
kill her.

Dr. Do you know what you have been doing?

Sp. I don't care what I have been doing. I took a chunk out of her
wrist one day, but she clung to me just the same. Then I pulled her
hair out as much as I could, but still she clung. I couldn't get rid of her.

Dr. Friend, wouldn't you like to know what you have been doing?

Sp. I don't care to know, but it makes me so mad, because

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since I got those needles in me I don't seem to have any power.

Dr. Where is the woman now?

Sp. I haven't seen her for a while.

Dr. What harm did she ever do you?

Sp. She has no business to hang on to me like she does.

Dr. Suppose we reverse matters, and say that it is you who have
been hanging on to her.

Sp. She has no business to dress me up in woman's clothes and
put woman's hair on my head.

Dr. How long have you been dead?

Sp. Dead! I'll show you that I'm not dead, and I will also show you
that you are not strong enough to hold me either! Talk about me
being dead! (Laughing harshly.)

Dr. Do you not realize that you have been in a strange condition
for some time?

Sp. It's the worst I have ever been in. Keep your hands off me,
for they are like fire, they are so hot.

Dr. Has it ever occurred to you to ask how that woman could
"dress you up?" Don't you think you have been very selfish?

Sp. Selfish? Selfish? She's the selfish one.

Dr. Suppose you were an ignorant spirit hovering around the
woman?

Sp. Me, hang around a woman? Not me, no sir!

Dr. Such things happen, just the same. Did you ever read your
Bible? Do you remember how they cast out spirits in olden times?
You are also a spirit, such as they had to deal with.

Sp. There were devils, and I'll show you I'm no devil !

Dr. You have been tormenting a woman and I chased you out with
electricity.

Sp. Well, now I've caught you! (Attempting to fight.) I'll bet you
are the one who put me in the dungeon. Now I will get that woman
and bite her to pieces! That woman hung on me all the time and I
want to get rid of her.

Dr. You were hanging on to her. She is rid of you now. Try to
understand that you are a spirit and come to your senses. I am telling
you the absolute truth.

Sp. I wish I could get hold of that woman. I will smash her up
good, and I will smash her face again.

Dr. Why should you want to do harm to the woman? She is not
bothering you.

Sp. I would like to get after you too!

Dr. If you don't behave yourself you will get more of the
electricity.

Sp. I would rather stay here, but you hold me too tight.

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Dr. You tell us you are a man, but we can't see you. We can only
see a woman.

Sp. Haven't you got any eyes? Don't you know I am a man ?

Dr. You have woman's clothes on.

Sp. I tore them off, but she put them on, and I tore them off.

Dr. You have lost the woman that you say has been bothering
you and are now controlling another woman.

Sp. What do you mean by that?

Dr. You are an ignorant, earthbound spirit, hovering around the
earth plane bothering a woman. You are now using my wife's body.

Sp. I'm not using anybody's body but my own. Why did that
woman hang, on to me?

Dr. You were doing the "hanging on." Since you have been taken
away from her, the woman is getting along nicely.

Sp. Did you put me in that dungeon?

Dr. No, intelligent spirits put you there. You are very selfish-
selfish to the last degree. Don't you think you should try to realize
your condition ? If your record were written, would you care to have
everybody read it?

Sp. I don't care. I get so mad to think I should have a woman
hanging on to me, and then have her dress me in woman's clothes. I
hate women.

Dr. That lady has been brought here because she has been
bothered by foolish spirits. We realized that it was obsession, and we
drove you away with electrical treatments. We are now trying to bring
you to your senses.

Sp. If  I could just get hold of that woman I would bite her to
pieces. I will bite her arms too!

Dr. Try to be sensible, then you will have understanding and be
able to progress and be happy.

Sp. There is no happiness.

Dr. Have you ever tried to understand God, or the real question of life?

Sp. There is no God or there would be no misery.

Dr. If there is no Supreme Being how do you happen to be? How
do you exist? Can you explain how it is possible for you to talk to us
through my wife's body?

Sp. Is it your wife that is hanging on to me all the time?

Dr. You were bothering a lady who came here for help. I chased
you away from her, then intelligent spirits put you in a dungeon. Now
you are using my wife's body for a time.

SP. Why in the world should I be bothering women when I hate
them? I will smash every one I can.

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Dr. Friend, if you ever expect to be happy, you will have to
change your attitude. You have lost your own body and are hovering
around the earth plane obsessing people. Selfish spirits always do
that. The insane asylums are full of obsessed people. You have
tormented this woman for three or four years.

Sp. How in the devil could I get hold of that woman? I hate
women, and why in the world should I have a woman hanging on to
me all the time? I wouldn't hang on to a woman for love or money, for
I hate women. I would like to crush every woman; they are all
deceitful creatures. God never made such a thing as a woman. They
are the most selfish creatures in the world. If you treat them to all
kinds of nice things, they are all right, but when you turn your back,
they stab you. They get all the money they can out of you.

I swore revenge on all women, and I will have that revenge. I
could have had a good home once if it hadn't been for a woman.
Revenge is sweet and I will have it.

Dr. Now the time has come when you must stop and consider the
question of life more seriously. Don't you think you have made many
mistakes yourself? Examine your past life and see whether you have
been perfect.

Sp. No one is perfect.

Dr. Don't you think that perhaps you had many faults?

Sp. No man is perfect, but I am as good as the average man.

Dr. Try to understand the mystery of life. You have probably
been dead many years. Intelligent spirits are here now to help you
and they will teach you many wonderful things. You have been
allowed to come here and use my wife's brain and body that we might
try to help you.

Sp. She's a fool to allow it.

Dr. She allows it because she has charity for such as you. All
women are not false.

Sp. My mother was a very good woman. If it was not for her, I
would kill every woman I come in contact with. But she has been
dead forty or fifty years.

Dr. You are dead, too, as far as the body is concerned. You are a
spirit now. Look around and tell us what you see,--be honest now.

Sp. I see my mother, but I'm afraid of her.

Dr. We are not afraid of you.

Sp. Well, my mothers a ghost.

Dr. She's a spirit like yourself. What does your mother say to you ?

Sp. She says: "John, I have been hunting for you for

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years." But I am afraid of her.

Dr. Does she appear ghostly?

Sp. No, but I am afraid. Why, here's my father, too! And there's
Lizzie! Don't you come near me; I don't want you either. Don't you
come near me! I don't want you, Lizzie, you snake!

Dr. Probably she has come to ask you to forgive her for something
she did.

Sp. I will never, never forgive her.

Dr. Sometimes mistakes happen. There may have been a
misunderstanding. You may have taken for granted things that were
not true.

Sp. I hate her, and I don't want her near me!

Dr. Try to put hatred out of your heart and be sensible.

Sp. Lizzie, you go away, or I will kill you! You acted like a snake! I
don't want to listen to you. You are as false as they make them. I don't
believe what you say. Don't you come here with all kinds of excuses,
for I don't believe you. I am mad at you and I will stay mad. You are a
big liar!

Dr. What does the spirit say to you? Who is she?

Sp. That's Lizzie, who made all my trouble, and she says all the
trouble was caused by jealousy. But I was not jealous!

Dr. Listen to what she has to say.

Sp. (Listening.) That's a fine story! We were going to be married
and she was a nice girl. She says I looked at everything the wrong
way, and that I was jealous.

Dr. You were probably stubborn and hot-headed.

Sp. (To Lizzie.) You're a liar. You went with that other fellow, you
know you did. She says that when she went home that evening she
happened to meet that fellow on the street car. He only walked a block
with her, and I happened to see them walking together. I went home
and stabbed myself.

Dr. That was certainly a brave act. I suppose you committed suicide.

Sp. I wish I could have died, but I could not. I would have been far
better off, but I'm going to have revenge on women.

Dr. Why don't you try to be sensible and forgive the girl?

Sp. Say, do you believe her story? I suffered a great deal from that
stab I gave myself, and I did wish I could die. There's Lizzie walking
around and she's crying.

Dr. Listen to your own conscience.

Sp. I loved that girl and what did I get from her?

Dr. I think your mother spoiled you when you were a boy.

Sp. My mother thought the world of me and gave me every

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thing I wanted, so that I could have a good time. No, Mother, don't come
near me! There is no help for me.

Dr. The first lesson you must learn is to crucify self. Jesus said: "Except
ye become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of Heaven." I
don't think you understand what that means. All you cared for was self, and
your mother spoiled you.

Sp. Mother says she is very sorry now. Here's Lizzie again. I don't
believe her, because she did go with that fellow.

Dr. Suppose she did; what of it? You must have had a very jealous disposition.

Sp. She says she did not go with him, and that she has told me what she did.

Dr. Do you know that she is dead?

Sp. She is not. If she Is, is she a ghost?

Dr. You say she stands there. Does she look like a ghost?

Sp. No, she doesn't. My mother says: "John, be reasonable and sensible.
Your own conscience accuses you." It is hard, when you love a girl, to see
her with another fellow. -What I suffered on account of Lizzie! After seeing
her with the other fellow, I went home and stabbed myself, just a little bit, to
try and scare her. I thought if I did that she would come to me.

Dr. You committed suicide but you do not realize that you are a spirit
and have been troubling a lady, and obsessing her. She is a patient of ours.

Sp. What do I care for her? I hate women and she won't leave me alone.
All I wanted was revenge, and I got it.

Dr. That lady has done all kinds of wild things because you were
obsessing her.

Sp. Mother and Lizzie both stand there crying, but nobody cares for me,
so what's the use?

Dr. What name did you have beside John?

Sp. John Sullivan.

Dr. I should think you would feel ashamed to have bothered that lady.

Sp. I'm not any more ashamed of myself than you are!

Dr. Do you think you loved this girl? Or was it only selfishness on your
part? You simply wanted her, that's all.

Sp. She could have been mine, but I made her suffer. My love turned to
hate. No, Lizzie, you don't need to cry. I shall never forgive you, if you ask
me a hundred times.

Dr. If your mother had given you a few thrashings you would not be in
the condition you are now. Try to forgive Lizzie, and by doing so you will
be helped yourself.

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Sp. I shall never forgive her. The women were all crazy after me. I was
considered a good looking man.

Dr. That was your trouble. If you had been homely you would have had
some sense. You must try to be sensible now, because you are using my
wife's body.

Sp. Well, take your wife! I don't want her. Say, Mother, it's no use you
and Lizzie standing there and crying, for I shall never forgive her.

Dr. If you don't forgive when you have this opportunity you will find
yourself in a dark dungeon when you leave here, and there you will stay until
you repent. Try to understand that the wrong is within yourself.

Sp. I'll not forgive. I loved my mother and I always had plenty of money.

Dr. What city did you live in?

Sp. St. Louis.

Dr. Do you know you are in California?

Sp. I know where I am. I am in St. Louis, and it's winter. It's about
nineteen degrees below zero.

Dr. What year do you think it is?

SP. 1910.

Dr. It is the 13th of January, 1918.

Sp. I do hate to see women cry. Mother, stop crying. To see a woman
cry always distresses me.

Dr. Doesn't your conscience trouble you at all?

Sp. What's the use of worrying about things?

Dr. Listen to what your mother says, then she can help you.

Sp. Mother, I'll tell you,-if you had spanked me more when I was a little
boy and not given in to me so much, I might have been a different fellow
from what I am now. It is too late in life to change, and what's more, one
never gets anywhere by changing.

Dr. You still have more misery ahead of you unless you are willing to forgive.

Sp. I don't care to be in that dungeon you speak of. Why do parents give
their children all they want? You see, Mother, what nice work you have
done. Aren't you proud of your son? You brought me to this. This is your work.

Dr. You pretend to love your mother, but you have no charity or
sympathy for anybody.

Sp. I hate the word sympathy. My father says I shall have to change. I
am too old to change now. (Frightened and shrinking from something.) Take
that away! Take me away! I'm sick!

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Dr. You must be serious and honest.

Sp. My mother says she knows that she raised me wrong. Don't let me
go in that dungeon! I'll forgive Lizzie--I'll do anything! I am tired of life, and
tired of everything.

Dr. When you reach the spirit side of life you must try to be of service
to others, instead of a detriment. Try to undo the wrong you have done by
obsessing this lady.

Sp. She tormented me and I hate women. I got revenge. I took a slipper and
pounded her face. I did it for revenge on women, for I hate them all.

The spirit could not be brought to realize his situation and he was taken
away to be' placed in a "dungeon" until he could overcome self and his hatred
toward humanity.

Several years ago, a friend of ours complained of the peculiar and erratic
actions of a business associate, Mr. P., who had suddenly become extremely
irritable and despotic to those in his employ, highly unreasonable, impossible
to please, and subject to violent attacks of swearing.

As obsession seemed indicated we concentrated for the gentleman in
question, and after several weeks an irate spirit spoke through Mrs. Wickland
and frankly admitted having tormented this man, wanting revenge for
attentions which he claimed the 'latter had been paying to his wife. (The
situation had existed during his life but he did not discover this until after his death.)

The spirit gave the name of a man prominent in local business circles; he
had passed out some time before but was not aware of the fact. He said that
he had been sick for a long time, but could now go where he pleased without
any trouble, for he had become well.

He could not understand why his wife would no longer speak to him, or why
 his child, who had always been so affectionate, was now so cold toward him.

He declared that some of his friends were false to him and had for some
time been paying attention to his wife, sending her gifts and flowers, but that he
would have revenge on them as soon as he was through with his present victim.

The spirit said that he could not think very clearly, but supposed that
was because he had recently taken an anaesthetic, which he thought also
accounted for the peculiar lightness of his body, and a feeling of having no weight.

He was puzzled by the fact that whenever he thought about any persons
he immediately found himself with them and involved in their affairs.
Recently he had been around Mr. P. but

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could not get away from him; this had exasperated him exceedingly, he had
"done a lot of swearing," kept the man awake, made him go to work "early,"
and had annoyed him in every way possible.

After many explanations the spirit finally realized that he had "died,"
although this was at first difficult for him to comprehend, for he "had always
thought death ended all, and that was all there was to it."

Being assured that activity and progression awaited him in the spirit
world, and that matters would there be explained to him to his entire
satisfaction, he left.

The following day there was such a remarkable improvement in the
conduct of Mr. P., and his behavior was so wholly normal that the entire
office force noticed the change, although Mr. P. himself never knew of the
experimental effort which had been made in his behalf.

A patient, Miss R. F., was intermittently seized by impulses to -run
away, and at such times became greatly agitated, but shortly after entering
our Institute she was relieved of the instigator of these wanderings.

EXPERIENCE SEPTEMBER 15, 1920.
Spirit: EDWARD STERLING. Patient: Miss R. F.
Psychic: MRS. WICKLAND.

An intelligence took control of the psychic, and, rising, attempted to run
away, becoming very indignant when restrained.

Doctor Won't you sit down?

Spirit No!

Dr. Where are you going?

Sp. Home.

Dr. Home? Where is your home?

Sp. I want to go to find it. (Struggling for freedom.)

Dr. What a nice lady you are, to act like this.

Sp. Lady? Lady? I'm no lady, I'm a man !

Dr. Where did you come from?

Sp. That doesn't make any difference. I'm going home.

Dr. Where is-your home?

Sp. Wherever I can find it. I know I am not going to sit here any longer.
I'm going, I'll tell you that!

Dr. (Recognizing the phraseology of the patient.) Why did

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you cut off your hair? (The patient, under an irrational impulse, had
cut her hair short.)

Sp. Do you think I want to wear long hair like a woman? No, sir, I
don't! I'm going, yes, sir! I'm going, I tell you.

Dr. Where will you go? You have no home.

Sp. I won't stay here; I'm going.

Dr. How long have you been dead?

Sp. I'm not dead. I'm going! I don't want those awful things put
into me, all over my body. (Referring to static electrical treatment
applied to patient.) It's just like sticking sharp things into me, real
sharp things.

Dr. You felt the electricity I gave to a patient.

Sp. I tried twice to run away, but I was brought back.

Dr. Why did you make that lady cut off her hair?

Sp. I didn't make anybody cut their hair off. It's my body, and I
can cut my hair off if I want to. I went to sleep and when I woke up
my hair had grown so long that I did not know what to do. I went to
sleep and I slept a long time, and after waking up, I found I had long
hair, and I wasn't going to have that so I would look like a woman. I
could not go to a barber shop, 'cause I was too ashamed to be seen
on the street, so I cut it off myself.

Dr. You did not cut your own hair, you cut off the hair of the lady
you were controlling.

Sp. It was my own hair I cut. Why do you keep me here like this? I
haven't done anything to you or anybody else.

Dr. You have been disturbing a lady and doing her a great wrong.
You say you are a man, and yet you are wearing lady's clothes. How
do you account for that?

Sp. I couldn't get any man's clothes.

Dr. Shouldn't that fact open your eyes and show you that there is
something the matter with you?

Sp. Can't I sit down?

Dr. 'Yes. if you will sit quietly. Should you not try to find
out what is the matter with you? 

Sp. I don't want to stay here; I'm going home.

Dr. If you will sit still and listen, I will explain your situation. You
are so-called dead.

Sp. I am not dead, I'll have you know. Stop holding me!

Dr. I am not holding you, I am holding my wife. You must realize
that- you are in a strange position. You passed out of your mortal
body but do not understand your situation.

Sp. Let me go; I want to get out of here. What are you holding my
hands for?

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Dr. I am not holding your hands; I am holding my wife's hands.

Sp. Your wife's hands! I never saw you before, and I'm not your
wife. Do you think a man marries another man? I never heard such talk!

Dr. What I tell you is true, just the same. You are an ignorant
spirit and do not understand your condition.

Sp. You let me alone. I want to go home.

Dr. Did you ever stop to think what happens to a person when he dies?

Sp. I am not dead. I just went to sleep.

Dr. That was the sleep of death.

Sp. I slept so long that when I woke up my hair had grown long.

Dr. Not only had your hair grown, but you also had on woman's
clothes. How did you get them?

Sp. I'm not dead, just the same.

Dr. You have lost your physical body. When you lose that, you
are supposed to be "dead."

Sp. If I was dead I would go to the grave and stay there until the
last day. You stay there until Gabriel blows his horn.

Dr. That is only ignorant belief. You were too lazy to understand
life's mysteries.

Sp. I was taught that when I died, if I believed in God and Christ,
and that Christ died for our sins, I would go to Heaven.

Dr. Why did you not go to "Heaven" when you died? You have
"died" so far as the world is concerned. You are here, and yet we
cannot see you. I see only my wife's body.

Sp. I have never seen your wife and I don't know her.

Dr. Have you ever heard about mediums?

Sp. Yes, but I don't believe in them.

Dr. You are speaking through a medium now. You claim to be a
man and yet you are using a woman's body to speak through.

Sp. Lies, nothing but lies!

Dr. It is true, nevertheless. You have woman's clothes on. You
know there is something strange about your condition. You probably
do not know that you are in Los Angeles, California.

Sp. No, I am not.

Dr. Where should you be?

Sp. I have been on the go for some time, traveling.

Dr. Look at your hands; they are not yours.

Sp. I never saw you before you put all that electricity into me, and
I feel like giving you a good licking. What do you think

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of any man doing such a thing to another man? It goes right through
you. You don't know how it hurts. I'm not going to stand for any more
such nonsense. I stood it for a long time, then I went. When I left, a
great big Indian (spirit) got hold of me and put me in prison. I got
loose after awhile and came here.

Dr. You have been bothering a woman who was a patient of ours,
and electrical treatments given to her dislodged you.

Sp. What is the matter with me? I have felt so crowded.

Dr. Can't you understand that you are in a strange situation? You
were probably a big man and you felt crowded because you were
occupying a body smaller than your own physical body. Why don't
you open your mind and learn the facts?

Sp. There's nothing to learn.

Dr. It has probably been a long time since you lost your body.
What year is it?

Sp. I had a good long sleep and I don't know.

Dr. Shouldn't your present strange condition cause you to ask
questions? We cannot see you, we can only hear you talk.

Sp. What sense is there in talking to a person when you don't see him?

Dr. This lady is a psychic, and you are a spirit talking through her body.

Sp. I don't believe you.

Dr. This is my wife's body. Are you my wife talking to me?

Sp. I'm not your wife! I'm a man!

Dr. I drove you away from the woman you were controlling. You
made her act like an insane person. How did you come here ?

Sp. You tell me how.

Dr. You are an invisible spirit; you do not understand your
situation. The lady you have been bothering happened to be in a
nervous condition and susceptible to spirit obsession, and you
obsessed her. You made that lady do many insane things. What do
you think of such actions?

Sp. I wouldn't say it was anything very grand, but I don't even
know any woman.

Dr. You influenced her to cut off her hair and to run away.

Sp. What did I want with long hair? I went to sleep and when I
woke up my hair had grown too long, so I cut it off that's all.

Dr. That was the woman's hair you cut.

Sp. It was too long.

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Dr. That is her business. Just reverse things. Suppose you had
your own body and somebody cut your hair off-would you like it?

Sp. No, I wouldn't, but she couldn't help yourself.

Dr. Don't you think that you were very selfish?

Sp. I don't know. Say, if, as you say, I'm dead, why is it that I'm
not in Heaven or hell?

Dr. There are no such places.

Sp. I haven't seen God or Christ or the devil, yet you tell me I am dead.

Dr. You are not "dead."

Sp. Why, just a little while ago you said I was.

Dr. You are dead to the world.

Sp. You said I was dead.

Dr. I said you were so-called dead; you lost your physical body.

Sp. You said I was dead.

Dr. Now listen to reason, or I will have to take you into the office
and give you more electricity.

Sp. I don't want that; it makes you feel like you were burning up.

Dr. We wanted to get you out, and we succeeded.

Sp. What business is it of yours if I stayed there?

Dr. We wanted that lady to be rid of you.

Sp. You had no right to get me away from her.

Dr. Do you think it was right of you to control her and disturb her life?

Sp. A fellow has got to have some place to live.

Dr. Suppose it had been your mother and a selfish spirit were
controlling her and making her act as if insane; do you think that
would be right?

Sp. I was not insane, and I did not make her insane either.

Dr. It was an insane act for her to cut off her hair and run away.

Sp. How would you like to have your hair long, if you were a man ?

Dr. It was the lady's body and the lady's hair, not yours. Now you
have been driven from the lady's body, and you must change your
conduct. If you are not careful you will be put into a dungeon. You
said a short time ago that an Indian "got hold of you"; you had better
be careful or another Indian will get hold of you.

Sp. I will fight him if he does.

Dr. Listen to me. My wife is a psychic and she allows such

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spirits as you to control her body to bring them to a realization of their
condition. You should appreciate the privilege. There are thousands of spirits
who would be glad to be in your place at this moment. You know that you
are in a strange condition. Perhaps some of your kindred are here. They will
take you with them to the spirit world. You must behave yourself and
understand and be sensible.

Sp. What shall I do?

Dr. Understand that there is a spirit world, and that you should strive to reach it.

Sp. You mean Heaven?

Dr. The Kingdom of Heaven is within one.

Sp. Don't you believe that Christ died for your sins?

Dr. He did not die for mine. Don't you understand that something is
lacking in such a belief? Jesus taught us how to understand, life; he did not
die for the sins of any one. Those who believe that Christ died for their sins
lack the right understanding of His teachings.

It is a sin against God to teach such a doctrine. If it were true, it would
mean that God had made a mistake and was forced to provide an intercessor
as an offering of atonement for His own mistake.

Now friend, you must leave my wife, and you must also leave the other lady alone.

Sp. What are you talking about? I never saw your wife.

Dr. You are temporarily controlling my wife's body. We cannot see you.
If you do not come to your senses pretty soon, we shall have to force you
out, and then you will be in the "outer darkness" which the Bible speaks about.

Sp. It is not right that God should treat me as he has. I prayed and
prayed and prayed. I went to church and paid a whole lot of money to the
church, because they said if I did not give money I would go straight to hell
when I died. and I thought when I paid my money I should get my money's worth.

Dr. What did Jesus say? "God is Spirit and they that worship him must
worship him in Spirit and in truth." God is Spirit, not a spirit. The Bible
says: "God is Love, and He that dwelleth in Love dwelleth in God." Where
will you look to find such a God except within your own self ? "Ye are the
temple of God, and the spirit of God dwelleth in you." What is Heaven? It is
a condition of your own mind, attained when you understand life's purpose.

Sp. Isn't Heaven a place? It says so in the Bible; it says Heaven is paved
with golden streets. Isn't that so?

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Dr. That, like many other statements in the Bible, is symbolical of great
truths of life.

Sp. You said a short time ago that Jesus did not die for your sins. What
do you believe?

Dr. I recognize that we are all spiritual beings in mortal bodies while on
earth. When we pass out of our mortal bodies with understanding, we will
not waken in darkness, but our spiritual eyes will be open, and advanced
spirits will help us to progress in the spirit world. Some kind spirit friends of
yours may be here now. Do you not realize that some change has taken
place with you?

Sp. I can talk more than I could. You said I was talking through your
wife. How can I talk through her?

Dr. My wife is a psychic who is so developed that spirits can talk
through her, and intelligent spirits have allowed you to control her. However,
you will not be able to stay long.

Sp. I think I will stay here. I feel better. I feel pretty good now.

Dr. You will feel still better after you realize the beautiful condition in
the spirit world. You will have to become as a little child, then you can "enter
the kingdom of Heaven." Do not merely believe, but try to understand. What
is your name?

Sp. Edward.

Dr. And your other name?

Sp. I don't know.

Dr. Where did you live? Do you know that you are in Los Angeles,
California? Do you know what year it is?

Sp. No, I don't know.

Dr. Why don't you know?

Sp. I have no memory. I can't think. I don't know anything any more.
(Such a state of bewilderment suggests that the cause of amnesia conditions
found in certain patients is probably possession by confused spirit
intelligences.)

Dr. That is because you have been in the outer darkness,and, being a
wandering spirit, you drifted into that lady's aura, controlled her and made
her act as if insane.

Sp. I wanted to have a good, quiet home.

Dr. Is it right to do the things you have done?

Sp. When you have been walking in darkness for a long time, and you
see a light, don't you want to stay?

Dr. That is not the right kind of light. You need the spiritual light of understanding.

Sp. Then do you think I ought to go to church and sing, and pray to
God, and read the Bible?

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Dr. Did you ever make a thorough study of the history of the Bible to
learn who wrote it?

Sp. It was God's inspired book.

Dr. God did not write the Bible; the book is man-made. Could one credit
God with having written certain things in the Bible, many of which are unfit
to be read in respectable society?

Sp. Who wrote the book?

Dr. It was compiled from many sources, during different periods, mainly
for the purpose of keeping people in subjection through fear of an imaginary
devil and hell. The Bible is a collection of poetry, history, allegories and
philosophy, of contradictions and truths.

But humanity believes that every word of the Bible is inspired, and
insists upon interpreting it literally, instead of accepting what is reasonable.

The Bible states that: "The letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life," and
"Spiritual things . . . are spiritually discerned." Hence, religion is a process of
mental discernment. The teachings of Christ contain wonderful truths, but the
allegories have been taught as historical facts by the church, and dogma,
doctrine and creed have obscured their underlying spiritual significance.

SP. Don't you believe that God made the earth in six days and rested on
the seventh?

Dr. No; that is only an allegorical statement. The seven days are
symbolical of the seven principles in Nature. "God is at once the Creator and
the Creation"; if God should rest, all would be at an end. We should
understand life as it is, not merely believe what is told us.

Now it is getting late and you cannot stay any longer. See whether some
one is here whom you know.

Sp. Oh! There's my mother! It's a long time since I saw her. But she died
when I was a kid.

Dr. Listen to her; she can help you.

Sp. Oh, mother, will you take me I Take me, mother, I'm so tired. Oh,
mother, take me with you!

Dr. Of course she will take you with her, but you will have to rid
yourself of all your foolish beliefs and acquire understanding.

Sp. Let me go! (Rising to walk away.)

Dr. You will have to think yourself with your mother. You can't take
this body with you because it belongs to my wife. Just think yourself with
your mother, and you will be there instantly.

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Sp. I'm so tired and weary-so tired. Let me go with my mother. I see her
coming; she went away for a while.

Dr. Now go with your mother. God gave you intelligence to think, and
you must be reasonable and let your mother and others teach you.

Sp. Mother says I must ask you to forgive me for being so rude, and she
also says I must ask that lady to please forgive me for bothering her.

Dr. Can you tell us where you came from?

Sp. I can't remember.

Dr. What year do you think it is?

Sp. It should be 1901.

Dr. That was nineteen years ago. Who is the President?

Sp. McKinley.

Dr. He was shot on the sixth of September, 1901, and died on the
fourteenth. This is 1920 now.

Sp. Where have I been all that time? Sleeping? The winter of 1901 1 was
awfully sick, and it seems hard to remember anything else after that. It was
around Christmas and I caught cold, and I was very sick.

Dr. Where were you when you were taken sick?

Sp. I was working in the woods. I worked in a lumber town at lumbering.
I remember something hitting me on the head, and that's all I remember. My
mother says my name is Sterling; yes, that's it!

Dr. Can your mother tell what place you came from before you took up lumbering?

Sp. I was born in Iowa, mother says, but when I got hurt, I was working
in the woods in Northern Wisconsin. I used to live in Iowa.

Dr. Can you remember the name of the town?

Sp. No, I can't.

Dr. Well, friend, try to obtain an understanding of life, and be of service
to humanity, instead of a detriment. You have been bothering a lady and she
is not yet entirely free.

Sp. I was not the only one bothering her; there are two more just as bad as
I am.

Dr. When you have understanding you must help this lady to get well,
and take the other spirits away from her.

Sp. I will try. Thank you! Goodbye I

Haunted houses are often frequented by spirits who seek revenge for
wrongs suffered by them during life.

While Mrs. Wickland and I were in Wisconsin, we held. a

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circle in the home of friends and Mrs. Wickland was controlled by the spirit
of a man who said he had been murdered by the owner of a near-by stone
quarry, but that he was still alive in his house at the side of the quarry.

He laughed spitefully and said: "He killed me, but I am having my
revenge! I haunt him!'

Although we explained to the spirit the existence of a higher life, he
stated that he was not yet ready to leave his old haunts, and refusing to
progress, departed.

Our friends then told us that they had known this man in life; that ten
years before, the quarry had been owned by three men, one of whom,
desiring to own the quarry himself, had bought the holdings of the second
man, but the third man, who lived in the house by the quarry, had refused
to sell.

A few days later the third man was found dead, and, although there was
no proof as to the identity of the murderer, there was a strong suspicion in
the neighborhood that the first partner was the perpetrator of the crime.

As time went on the owner of the stone quarry developed a strange
reluctance to work the quarry, and rumor said that he was haunted by his
dead partner. It became common report that the house nearby was haunted,
and when our friends had driven there a year before to pick berries they had
had an unusual experience.

After placing the horse in the empty barn, they noticed some berries in
the yard and returned to the barn for a basket, when the horse began to rear
wildly and neighed in terror.

Stopping in amazement, our friends heard a coarse laugh and looking
about saw a grinning man standing in the doorway of the deserted house. It
was the man who had died several years before; they had known him in life
and recognized him now.

The man laughed and vanished, and our friends rushed to the barn, took
the horse out and drove away in great haste.

We had a series of letters from Mrs. G. G., who resided in a village in
New York; she was a psychic and clairvoyant whose house was haunted by
a band of evil spirits.

She wrote that she had been in the best of health when she had moved
into this house but had soon become afflicted with a strange ailment of the
arms and legs which no doctors could relieve.

Spirits who claimed to be her guides advised her to have a psychic circle
every evening and "sit" for half an hour, saying

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they could help her in this way. They explained that she was being injured
by the spirit of the woman who had built the house and that she could free
herself by having a certain friend of hers attend the next circle.

This friend came and the spirit said she would leave with this woman.
When the latter reached her home she was taken with the same sickness with
which Mrs. G. G. had been troubled, while Mrs. G. G. recovered.

But disturbances of various kinds continued in the house; even the
orchard was haunted, and spirits were heard to say that Mrs. G. G. could
not live if she remained there,for they would kill any one who came into that house.

The G.'s sold the house and moved away without telling the purchasers
anything of their mysterious experiences. The new owners took possession
of the house and the mother, an elderly lady, went to bed the first night
apparently well, but in a short time screamed that two men had come into her
room threatening to kill her, and before morning she was dead.

Mrs. G. G., however, continued her circles, but was unable to rid herself
of spirit influences and finally wrote to us for aid.

"There is no one I can go to or depend upon. I joined the New Thought
Society to be helped; they claimed to send out vibrations but I failed to get in
on the wave. No one prays more earnestly for help than 1, or tries harder to
do right. Tell me, if you can, how to get relief."

We concentrated for the lady, as well as the house, and a number of
spirits were brought from both.

One of the first declared that he did not know he was obsessing Mrs. G.
G. Another spirit was Harry Harris, who had so brutally mistreated his wife
that she had shot herself. How his life had ended we did not learn. He
insisted that he was not dead, but was living in an old house with a band of
outlaws (spirits) and that they would kill any one who dared to move into
their house.

Another evening four spirits were brought from the haunted house; first
two women, then "Pete," who had been a dexterous pickpocket in life, and a
woman named Kate, who had been killed by Pete and had "hounded" him
ever since.

To conceal himself Pete was hiding with others in a house that
"belonged" to them, and to no one else. "We kill any one who comes in," he
said, speaking through Mrs. Wickland.

He admitted having troubled Mrs. G. G. "I stayed with her to get my
grub," he said.

While Pete was speaking, Kate took control of another medium

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who was in the circle, and Pete was terror-stricken, while Kate
attempted to escape from him. Each thought the other was a ghost, and
neither was aware of controlling a psychic.

It was some time before they realized that both had died. Finally Pete
sank on his knees and begged Kate to forgive him; a reconciliation followed
and both left, promising to reform.

Later, Mrs. G. G. wrote that she had greatly improved.

In answer to an urgent appeal for help, Mrs. Wickland and I called at the
home of Mr. and Mrs. C., in Pasadena, where nightly rappings and noises
were keeping the family awake for hours.

Mr. C. had purchased this house from the children of an elderly lady
who had died some time before. (A fact not known to us until later.) The
house had been moved to Mr. C.'s lot, remodeled there, and the C.'s had then
moved into it, only to be disturbed by noises of all kinds. Every night,
between twelve and four, the door of a closet between two bedrooms was
shaken and rattled loudly, and rappings and "crackings" kept the family awake.

While we were seated in one of the rooms of the C. home, discussing the
situation, Mrs. Wickland became unexpectedly entranced by a spirit who
complained of intense rheumatism, and stormed at the C.'s for living in "her house."

"This is my house," she declared peremptorily, "and these people have
no business in it! I will chase them out!"

The controlling spirit proved to be the former owner-of the house and
later inquiry bore out the statement that she had suffered severely from rheumatism.

She could not realize that she was dead but insisted that she was still
living in her own house, although troubled by intruders.

"If I am dead, why am I not in Heaven?" she asked.

Many explanations at last resulted in understanding and a penitent
departure, and in a letter written several months later Mr. C. stated that all
noises had entirely ceased in the house.

That spirits often play a serious part in domestic disturbances and break
up many homes we have had ample evidence.

A patient, Mrs. SI., who was brought to us from a Northern state, was
the second wife of a Dakota farmer. After the birth of her first child -she
developed a tendency to wander away at random and when brought back and
questioned she could only give vague answers, but always insisted that her
husband, a steady, reliable farmer, was faithless to her.

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When the obsessing spirit was transferred to Mrs. Wickland we found
that -it was none other than the first wife, who indignantly accused her
husband of being faithless to her, and said that she was determined to get rid
of her "rival."

After passing out of the physical body she had remained on the farm,
but she was unaware of her death, and did not realize that her "rival" was her
husband's second wife.

The spirit, after due explanation and enlightenment, left, and Mrs. SI.,
restored to herself, returned to her Dakota home.

We had a similar experience with an acquaintance of ours, a gentleman
whose first wife had died, leaving him to care for their small son.

Later he married again, but before long we noticed that the family life was
becoming unhappy, and the culmination came one Sunday morning when the
second wife angrily left the house.

The husband desolately came to our home, followed presently by the
little boy, and although they had never visited us before, they remained for
some hours.

In the evening the boy returned, and while Mrs. Wickland was
conversing with him and a group of friends, she became controlled by the
spirit of a woman who said she was the boy's mother.

She had no knowledge of her death and craved longingly to caress her
small son, saying: "I want my boy! I want my boy!"

Then she burst forth into a jealous denunciation of her successor and
declared she would drive her out of the house.

"I chased her away this morning!" she exulted.

She, too, was finally made to understand the true situation, and,
regretting the suffering she had caused, promised to do everything possible to
make amends.

The second wife returned home again, and, during the ten years which
have elapsed since this episode, no further disturbances have occurred in the
family.

Miss L. was the young fiancee of a widower who had formerly, with his
wife, occupied a flat in the same building in which the Young lady lived, and
the two women had been intimate friends.

The wife died very suddenly and some time after her death the gentleman
became engaged to the young lady. Soon after this the latter began to show
mental abnormalities which continually grew worse.

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In her normal condition she esteemed the man highly, but when she came
to us she had a violent dislike for him, and asserted that she would rather die,
or go to an insane asylum, than marry him. She had made several attempts to
end her life but had each time seemed to come to herself at the last moment
and called for help.

At the time the patient entered the Institute Mrs. Wickland clairvoyantly
saw the spirit of a woman of the brunette type possessing the patient, who
was a decided blond. This spirit was so interblended with the patient that it
was difficult for Mrs. Wickland to determine, from the transfiguration,
whether the patient was light or dark.

When Mrs. Wickland described this spirit the patient's mother and fiance
both recognized her as the man's former wife.

The patient proved very obdurate; screaming spells alternated with
obstinate, stubborn moods, and she could not be left alone at any time. She
declared herself insane and scoffed at being cured, and insisted that she
wanted to die, for if she lived she would have to marry "that man."

One day, during a treatment, she entered a semi-trance condition and a
spirit intelligence expressed itself forcefully.

" He shall never marry her! He shall never have her! I will drive her to an
insane asylum, or I will kill her, but he shall never have her !'

Immediately following this, the spirit of a child spoke defensively as if
protecting a mother. The patient's sister, who was present, recognized in the
latter intelligence the deceased thirteen year old son of the dead wife.

The climax came a few days later. The patient had been unusually
obstinate and unruly, and very contemptuous to her fiance when he called.
After a strong treatment was administered, the patient became quiet and slept
well that night.

However, during the night Mrs. Wickland was greatly troubled by the
presence of a spirit who annoyed her until four o'clock in the morning, when
she became completely entranced by the spirit of the man's former wife.

After considerable effort I induced the spirit to talk, but she was with
difficulty convinced of her real situation-that she was a spirit and controlling
Mrs. Wickland's body. She strongly censured both her forrner husband and
our patient for their treachery to her, and repeated her threats against the girl.

"I will send her to the asylum! I will kill her!" she declared.

A great deal of argument and persuasion were needed to

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bring the spirit to repentance, but this was at last accomplished. Upon being
asked if her son was with her she said that she had seen him at times, but
that he was dead and she did not want to have anything to do with him.

The spirit was urged to leave the young woman whom she was
tormenting and go with other spirit intelligences to a higher life, of which she
showed herself entirely ignorant. Although repentant, she still longed to
remain on the earth plane, but finally consented to leave and to cease
troubling the patient; then she suddenly became weak and declared she was
dying. (This sensation often occurs when spirits realize their actual situation;
sometimes they again experience the physical conditions under which they
passed out of their earth bodies.)

Chills and violent attacks of coughing added to the spirit's distress and
after a painful pseudo-death struggle she left. These symptoms were
recognized by her husband and the patient's mother as corresponding exactly
with those manifested by the man's wife at the time of her death from pneumonia.

After this the patient recovered rapidly. She was soon able to leave the
Institute, is now well and happily married.

A peculiar case was that of Mr. Me., a well known man in Chicago,
whose family name is one of highest social prominence.

This man suddenly began to act strangely; he shunned the members of
his family, and told his wife and relatives that he wished to live on a higher
plane and wanted nothing more to do with them. Then one day he packed his
trunk and left home, going to live in a small room which he had rented in the
lowest section of the city.

We had never seen this gentleman, but a relative of his, who knew of our
work, asked us to concentrate for him at our next psychic circle; we did so
and a spirit was brought who controlled Mrs. Wickland. After some
solicitation she gave her full name, confessing that she had been the first wife
of Mr. Me., and she then told her story.

She had met Mr. Me. in Chicago during the World's Fair and, for a time,
they had lived together without the formality of marriage until his relatives
discovered the situation and compelled them to marry. The girl was accepted
in society but rebelled at the restraints of conventional life, and, being of a
vain and restless disposition, could not live happily with her husband.

She finally left him and went to the "west side," where she entered a
house of ill-repute. Although at times she regretted

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the folly of her conduct, she continued her mode of living, became a morphine
addict and finally committed suicide.

After her death she had returned to her husband, and when he married
again she felt angrily aggrieved, and at last influenced him to leave his wife
and child, to go to quarters where she herself felt more at home.

We convinced her of the great wrong she was doing in controlling her
former husband in this manner, and after she had obtained an understanding
of the progress awaiting her in the spirit world, she promised to leave,
wishing to attain a higher condition.

When next we saw the relative of Mr. Me., who had asked us to
concentrate for him, we told her of the story related by the spirit, and in
amazement she admitted it was true in every detail; that the name given was
correct and that Mr. Me. had been married before, but that the unfortunate
episode had been regarded by the family as a skeleton in the closet and was
never mentioned.

She later reported that Mr. Me had returned to his home, normal and
sane, and was again living happily with his wife and child.

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CHAPTER VI Spirits and Crime

HABITS, desires and inclinations are rooted in the mind and remain
with the individual after he is freed from his physical body, until
they are eliminated by the will.

The spirits of many criminals, murderers, those who were executed or
are seeking for revenge, remain indefinitely in the earth sphere and often
endeavor to continue their former activities and to carry out their evil designs
through controlling the bodies of mortals who are sensitive to their influence.

In many cases of revolting murder investigations will show that the
crimes were committed by innocent persons under the control of
disembodied spirits who had taken complete possession of the murderer.

There is little doubt that the murder of Stanford White by Harry K.
Thaw in 1906, at Madison Square Roof Garden, New York, was due to
spirit influence.

Harry Thaw was a psychic sensitive and had shown evidence of this fact
all his life, and whatever personal grievances he may have had when he killed
Stanford White, he was unquestionably obsessed by avenging spirits who
desired retribution for real or fancied injustice done to themselves or kindred.

Harry Thaw was largely only the psychic subject and the physical
instrument through which was enacted a terrible drama by the invisible
world, the actors being ignorant, revengeful spirits.

On July 15, 1906, several weeks after the tragedy occurred, a strange
spirit controlled Mrs. Wickland during a psychic circle and fell prostrate to
the floor. Placing the form of my wife in a chair I began questioning the
controlling intelligence.

The stranger strenuously objected to being touched, brusquely
demanded to be left alone, and called out:

"Hey there, waiter! Bring me a drink"'

"What kind of drink do you want?"

"Bring me a whiskey and soda, and be quick about it!"

"Who are you?"

"None of your business who I am."

"Where do you think you are?"

"In Madison Square Roof Garden, of course."

"What is your named?"

"Stanford White."

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Holding one hand on the back of his head, on the right side, and clutching
at his chest and abdomen as if in great pain, he cried:

"Have a waiter bring me that whiskey and soda!"

I was about to ask further questions when the spirit's attention was
attracted to some invisible, and he began to tremble with fear.

"Are you seeing dead people?" I asked.

He nodded his head violently, then shouted, "They are after me!" and,
jumping from the chair, ran -to a corner of the room in an effort to escape.

His agitation was so great that he lost control of the psychic and was gone.

Immediately another spirit took possession of the psychic and in great
excitement began to walk back and forth, exclaiming exultantly:

"I killed the dog! I killed the dog! There he lies!" pointing at the floor
toward the spot where White had lost control. "The dog! I have been looking
for a chance to kill him for several years, and I got him at last! The dog!"

I forced the spirit to sit down and learned that his name was Johnson.

"I killed Stanford White," he boasted. "He deserved death. He had trifled
too long with our daughters."

He was very pronounced in his denunciation of society men.

"They steal our children from us and put fine clothes on them, and the
parents do not know what becomes of them."

I asked the spirit whether he was aware of being dead, but he laughed at
the idea and said:

"How could a dead person talk? The doctor said I had consumption and
would die soon, but I didn't die. I never felt better in my life."

When asked to carefully examine his hands, feet and dress he demanded to
know how he, a man, became possessed of a woman's body. Lengthy
argument finally convinced the perplexed spirit of the fact of his transition,
and he departed, thoroughly penitent.

He was followed by a third entity, but this intelligence was aware of
being a spirit, temporarily controlling a borrowed body.

"I am Harry Thaw's father. Save my boy! Save my boy! He is not guilty.
Harry will not be electrocuted." (Later events proved this to be true.)

"He is sensitive to spirit influence and has been all his life.

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He was always erratic and so excitable that we were afraid to correct him for
fear he would become insane. But I see our mistake now. I did not understand
the cause of Harry's queer actions while I was in the physical, but now, from
the spirit side of life, I can see that Harry has been a tool in the hands of
selfish, earthbound spirits most of his life.

"He was obsessed by revengeful spirits when he killed Stanford White. I
have tried to reach the external world by every possible avenue, to tell the
people that Harry is not insane, but that he is a psychic sensitive."

"Save my boy! Save my boy!" he begged repeatedly.

"What would you have us do ?"

"Please write to my wife, and to my attorney, Mr. Olcott." (We did not
then know that Mr. Olcott had been Mr. Thaw's attorney, but verified the
fact afterward.) "Tell them your experience and what I have said to you, and
urge them to recognize and understand Harry's condition.

We promised to comply with the wish of the spirit and he then departed.

The following evening, July 16th, another spirit came; he seemed at first
to be looking for some one, then asked:

"Where did the other fellows go ?"

This spirit also condemned high society in general, and denounced young
girls in particular for their foolishness.

"The rich take our girls to their dens; they put them on the stage and the
girls disown their parents. They deserve licking!" he declared, and
emphasized his words with suitable gestures.

This spirit was laboring under such great mental excitement that he
suddenly lost control before I could ascertain any particulars.

On February 10th, 1907 the spirit of Mr. Thaw returned, and reiterated
his statement that Harry was a psychic sensitive who was frequently subject
to the influence of mischievous spirits. He also urged upon humanity the
great need for inquiry into the subject of spirit influence, saying that a proper
understanding would prevent untold misery to both spirits and their
unfortunate mortal victims.

That Richard Ivens, hung for the murder of Mrs. Bessie Hollister in
Chicago, 1906, was a victim of foreign influences was so evident that
alienists, criminologists and psychologists alike declared their belief that
Ivens was innocent, and that he had

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confessed the crime under the hypnotic suggestion of some unknown person.

Ivens would alternately confess his guilt, saying, with a strange, trance-
like stare, that a "big man" had compelled him to commit the deed, and then
again wildly deny it.

Hugo Munsterburg, M.D., Professor of Psychology, Harvard
University, wrote in June, 1906:

"It is an interesting and yet rather clear case of dissociation and auto-
suggestion. . . . The witches of the seventeenth century were burned on
account of similar confessions, and the popular understanding of mental
aberrations has not made much progress since that time."

Professor William James of Harvard wrote: "Whether guilty or not, Ivens
must have been in a state of dissociated personality. . . . He was not his
natural "self" during those fateful first days, but the victim of one of those
rare alterations of personality either suggested or spontaneous, which are
now well known to occur in predisposed subjects."

We present a sequel to this tragic story.

EXPERIENCE, MARCH 7, 1907
Spirit: RICHARD IVENS. Psychic: MRS. WICKLAND

When the spirit assumed control the psychic fell to the floor apparently
lifeless, and only after half an hour of strenuous effort was the intelligence
brought to consciousness.

"Leave me alone," he moaned, "do you want to hang me again?"

He complained of having great pain in the neck and begged to be left
undisturbed, saying he wanted only to sleep.

"What is the trouble with your neck?"

"It is broken. They hanged me and I am dead. I want to remain dead; if
you bring me to life they will hang me again."

"What is your name?"

"Richard Ivens."

"Were you guilty of the murder of Mrs. Hollister?"

"I do not know. Others said I was. If I did it I do not know it."

"Why did you plead guilty at times and then again deny your confession."

"I pleaded guilty because those three fellows (spirits) made me. The big
man stood over me with a knife and threatened to kill me if I would not plead
guilty. When the big man was

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not there I told them that I did not know whether I killed the lady or not. I
told it to the police; I told it to the jailer and to everybody that questioned
me, but they would not believe me when I told them the truth.
"0h, I have suffered so much! Why did you call me back when I was dead?
Why didn't you let me sleep? They will arrest me and hang me again!"

Suddenly the spirit shouted with fright: "Don't you see? There is that big
man again! He has his knife and the two short fellows are with him. Oh!"

Clutching his knee he cried: My knee! He has driven the knife through
my knee-and through the other leg! My leg! My leg! He is the devil! He has
stabbed me!"

The terrified spirit was gradually made to understand that his tormentors
were spirits, that he was free from his physical body and beyond the power
of bodily harm.

"You are using a body not your own and need now to free yourself from
all mental delusions. Do you not see other spirits beside your enemies?"

"Why-yes, there are others now; they seem to be friendly, and there-
there's Mrs. Hollister !"

"Ask the man with the knife why he hounds you," I suggested.

"He only grins."

"Ask him why he wanted to kill the lady."

"He says, because he hates women-" he stopped abruptly, and,
breathless, seemed to be watching a scene of great disturbance.

"They have taken those devils away ! It was a lively fight, but they got them!"

Calming himself he said: "I feel better now. I am so glad that terrible man
is gone."

Asked to recall what he could of the Hollister tragedy, he said: "When I
saw the woman that night I also saw the big man. My head began to feel very
strange; I was grabbed by the throat and lost consciousness. When I came to
myself again the big man said that I had killed the woman.

"I had known the man for about a month, but I did not know he was a
spirit. He has been hounding me ever since.

"Why didn't they give me a chance to live, even if I would have been in
prison? Oh, the shame I have brought upon my family! I feel so sorry for my
poor mother; if she could only know the truth. If I could only speak to her
and tell her that I could not help it-that I did not do it! Nobody had any sympathy

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for me, and nobody would believe me when I told them about the big
fellow standing over me with the knife. He made me plead guilty.

"If I committed the crime I am sorry for it, but I don't know that I have
done it. Why did they kill me?"

After I had explained the continuity of life and progression into higher
spiritual realms, he eagerly asked:

"If they did not kill me, is the lady still alive also?"

"Certainly; doubtless she has come here to forgive you. Although you
destroyed her physical body you were not responsible for the act; you were
merely used by wicked spirits who hypnotized you."

With this new understanding the weary spirit was taken in charge by
invisible helpers, who told us that the "Big Man" and his accomplices had in
earth life belonged to a band of "White Caps" which had operated
extensively for some years in England and America, mutilating and killing
many women in their criminal mania.

Several months later the spirit of the "Big Man" himself was brought to our circle.

EXPERIENCE, JUNE 6, 1907
Spirit: CHARLES-THE-FIGHTER. Psychic: MRS. WICKLAND

The spirit seemed stupefied by drink, and when finally aroused was so
pugnacious that the aid of several persons was required to quiet him.

"I'm Charles-The-Fighter, and I'll have you all shot!" he shouted.

Turning to some other invisibles he cursed them for having lured him to
this place and commanded them to help him, instead of standing idly by.

Subdued at last, Charles-The-Fighter was compelled to listen to an
elucidation of his real situation. In an endeavor to convince him that he was
controlling the body of another he was asked to examine the hands of the psychic.

Seeing the hand of a woman he shrank back, terror-stricken, and cried:
"Take that hand away! Take it away! I don't want to see it any more."

Questioned regarding the story of the hand he declared: "I shall never
tell! I would rather die. Oh! There is her face too! And the hand that I cut off
to get the diamond ring! They haunted me all this time."

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Looking about in horror he seemed to see a vast gathering of specters.

"See all those faces! Have I killed all those people? Have they come to
accuse me? There! There is that boy! He was hung once, but he seems to be
after me too. (Ivens.) I killed the woman, but I made him confess to save my
own neck. But just wait, you devil, you! I will fix you when I get out of
this. I will cut you all to pieces!"

But at last Charles-The-Fighter realized that further resistance was
useless and that his days of robbery and murder were over. He told of his
hideous career of crime and said that he murdered for revenge, stole to buy
whiskey, and drank to drown his conscience and to' escape the specters
which constantly haunted him.

In early childhood he had been happy under the care of his own mother,
but after her death his stepmother had abused him so mercilessly that he
often rushed sobbing to his room and, on his knees, prayed to his dead
mother for help.

This roused the stepmother to a jealous fury and, regardless of the
protests of a weak father, she had beaten him angrily, forbidding him to ever
mention the name of his mother again.

Her abuse grew into such a cruel tyranny that the boy had developed an
over-powering hatred for her and revengefully vowed that when he was
grown he would kill every woman possible.

Consistently he had carried out his ghastly purpose and had given his
entire life to plotting and perpetrating atrocities and crimes, generally
victimizing women.

Ile had died in 1870, during a wild fight with his companions, but he had
not been aware of the loss of his physical body. He boasted that for many
years he had continued his crimes, always eluding the police.

"Once, in Boston, I wanted to kill a policeman, but when I sneaked up
behind him and hit him on the head with a club, the club went right through
him and never hurt him. He didn't even turn around."

The spirit thought himself now in the hands of authorities but declared
that he was willing to give himself up to escape the haunting faces of his
many victims.

"I would be glad to go to bell to get away from this torment."

While listening to an explanation of the law of cause and
effect and the conditions prevailing in the spirit world, Charles
saw his own mother standing before him. The sight of her had
an overwhelming effect; the hardened criminal cowered in his

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seat and wept piteously while his mother pleaded with him to come with her
and learn to expiate his crimes.

I Crushed by guilt and remorse he cried abjectly: "I cannot go with you!
Dear mother, don't ask me to go with you! You must go back to Heaven and I
must go to hell, where I belong. I must be cut to pieces and burned in the fires
of hell."

But maternal love prevailed and the spirit, humble and penitent, followed
his mother.

in 1894 Harry Hayward, a handsome reprobate with a weakness for
beautiful women and a life of gaiety, hired a villain to murder his sweetheart
in Minnesota and was hanged.

While he was in prison awaiting execution he maintained his debonair
attitude to the last, played cards with his jailer with the utmost nonchalance,
and ordered ice cream, his favorite dish, whenever possible.

"When you come to hell, where I am going," he told the jailer, "I am going
to treat you to ice cream."

During this time I anonymously sent him a book and several papers
relating to the spirit world, but otherwise had no connection with him.

On February 27, 1908, a nurse asked us to concentrate for Mrs. McA.,*
a patient whom she was attending, arid whose case strongly suggested
psychic invalidism, chronic illness and lassitude due to spirit obsession.

The nurse was a psychic sensitive herself and surmised that many of the
uncontrollable notions of her beautiful patient were caused by spirit
obsession, and had several times endeavored to order any intruder away.

One day Mrs. McA developed an intense desire for homemade ice cream,
although ordinarily she did not care in the least for it. But she insisted that
her whim be satisfied at once, putting her maids to a great deal of inconvenience.

When the nurse entered the room with the ice cream she had a sudden
feeling that some one had rushed upon her and the next instant was seized by
so strong a feeling of choking that she was forced to leave the room. Upon
recovery she returned and, convinced of the presence of a spirit, flung a
window open and silently ordered any foreign entity present to leave the
house.

This nurse and Mrs. McA.'s maid attended our circle that evening, and
the controlling spirit at once complained of pain in

*See Chap. 9, Page 206. Spirit: Grace Brusted; Patient: Mrs. MCA.

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the neck, readily explaining that his neck had been broken when Ile was
hung, and said his name was Harry Hayward.

"Can't you give me some ice cream? I have tried and tried to get some
and today I could almost taste it, but I couldn't quite get it. I was chased
away by a woman-she threw me out of the window! I don't like to be
thrown out of a window by a woman!"

Hayward realized that he was hovering around the earth as a spirit, and
when we inquired how he had learned about spirit life he replied that while
he was in jail he had read of it in some literature which had been sent him by
an unknown person.

He complained that no matter where he went no one would take any
notice of him; when he took a seat in a train some one would come along and
sit down on his lap, and he would be powerless to move.

He was very pleased to be able to converse with people again and asked
many questions about the various persons concerned with his trial and
execution, inquiring particularly about the guard with whom he had spent a
great deal of time playing cards.

I was under the impression that this guard had died some time before and
informed the spirit so, suggesting that possibly he might be able to see him
in the spirit world.

He was silent a moment, endeavoring to trace his former friend, then said
emphatically: "No, that man is not dead. I see him playing cards at his son's
home in Minneapolis."

Hayward was readily enlightened concerning the higher life and left,
expressing a willingness to progress in the spirit world.

The psychic invalid showed marked changes for the better after this, and
subsequent correspondence proved Hayward's statement about the old guard
to be true. The latter was living, and on the evening of our experience with
Hayward had been playing cards in his son's home.

Ten years later, after the spirit of another murderer, who was hung, had
been in our circle, Hayward returned and told something of his earth life.

EXPERIENCE, SEPTEMBER 21, 1918
Spirit: HARRY HAYWARD. Psychic: MRS. WICKLAND

I think I should like to come in and say something, for I feel I have been
in the same boat as the fellow who preceded me--I mean, on the same
platform. I feel but little better than he. I had a little more understanding
than he had, and therefore my

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punishment was a little harder. I had education and all the money I needed,
but I wanted more.

I also want to tell you that since I have come to the spirit side of life I
have wished I could go on every street corner and shout a message to mothers
not to raise their children in the wrong way.

Mothers say they love their children; they worship them, and they let
them go astray because they cannot say "No" to them.

Do not raise children without discipline. Train children as you train
animals, as you train flowers. If you plant a flower in your garden you don't
want it to grow up wild, but you train it so that it will grow successfully, and
have graceful flowers. But how little does humanity think of the children's
growth and training; children are not trained to become blossoms for humanity.

I tell you, if my mother-I do not condemn her by any means-had trained
me properly, so that she could have said "No" to me, instead of worshipping
me and letting me have all the money I wanted, and if she had punished me
when I did wrong, I would have been different.

No, I would not have been hung if my mother had taught me the
beautiful lesson of living for others, and of loving my fellow man as myself.

If mothers would think of their children's welfare and raise them in the
beautiful thought of living for others, they would all be better.

I lived a very sporty life. Nobody taught me any other. I had a very good
time and I liked the girls pretty well, but there came a time when I spent more
money than my father allowed me to have. I was only a young man and I
should have been made to work. My misfortune was that my mother and
father were rich. Work was a disgrace for me, they thought. It would have
been far better if they had put me to work instead of giving me money each
time I asked for it.

I  commenced to gamble. You know when you get into that game it is hard to
quit. Money came too easy for me. I met a young lady whom I liked. Young
girls always were sweet to me and I was able to have whoever I wanted. The
young lady liked me, and I liked her for what I got from her, so we decided
that she would insure herself for $10,000 in my name.

I had a scheme. If somebody killed her, I would not get the blame, but I
would get the money. I laid a bold scheme. I hired a man to kill her. At the
time the deed was to be committed 

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I took another girl to the theater, because I thought that, whatever
happened, blame could not then be attached to me.

I hired a man to take her for a buggy ride out to Lake Calhoun and he was
to kill her. When they got to the woods, the man killed her, and came home.
Being in the theater, the girl I was with could testify I was not at the scene of
the killing, but, you know, I was so crazy to get hold of the insurance money
that I never thought how it looked to go to the insurance office so soon after
the death, and they became suspicious, and finally caught me.

If I had only waited a week or two they would never have surmised
anything about me. I was arrested. My mother loved me so much that she
tried to put the blame on my -other brother. He was married and had two
children. The trial cost my parents a whole lot of money, and lasted months
and months before they could make any headway. They could not decide
whether it was Eddie or I that should be hung for the deed.

One day, while I was in jail, there came a little pamphlet for me, and
some papers, all about the spirit world. I knew I had to go, for finally I had
been sentenced to be hung. I realized my trouble. The papers interested me
very much, and I thought I should like to know what the spirit world was. I
believed in it in a way, and in another way, I didn't. The doctrine was better
than the church had taught, but for a while I treated it more as a joke.

I talked about it quite a little to the watchman, but when the time came
for me to be hung, I shrank from it. It is a very strange sensation when you
think you are going to the gallows and your life will be snapped out-you
cannot imagine how it feels.

You cannot imagine the sensation you have when you realize that you
have only a few hours to live. Still, the little message which had been sent to
me gave me a little courage, and I thought probably only my body would be
destroyed and not my spirit. So at the last moment I kept up my courage
and felt that I wanted to see What the hereafter was.

I have to thank the one who sent me that pamphlet, because it was a
bright, cheerful spot to me at the last of my days.

When I realized that I had passed out of my body, my first thought was:
"I am not dead." I went to my mother, and I spoke to her, and she felt my
presence. I still clung to my body, however, and I felt I could not leave it. I
got out of it quickly, but I went back to it again. When my body was
cremated I stood by and saw it burned.

131

After that I walked around, but I could not find the spirit world. I
walked and walked, from one place to another. I still had my feeling for nice
pretty women, so I traveled. In a way, I realized that I was dead, yet I did
not fully realize it.

One time I felt I would like to take a journey and I wanted to travel by
train. I went to the ticket office to get a ticket, but I had no money. I thought
I would talk to the agent nicely and he would give me a ticket, but he paid no
attention to me. So I thought, "All right; I'm going on the train anyway," so
on I got.

I sat down on one of the seats, and, before I knew it, a great, big, fat man
sat right down on my lap. I got real mad. I tried to push him off, but I could
not, and I could not get up either. I had to let that man sit on me until he was
ready to get off the train!

I had not learned the power of thought, to think myself away; I had only
learned to walk. I had not yet learned the little thought lesson to think
myself in a place in order to be there.

Before long I came to a beautiful lady (Mrs. McA.), and I commenced to
like her. Before I knew it, I was in her magnetic aura and I could not get
away. She wanted to be in bed all the time, and there I was!

Once I heard some one say: "You must leave this lady and go away; if
there is any spirit around her, it must leave and go away." I was there,however.

I was very fond of ice cream, and I wanted some, so I impressed the lady
to ask for it. When it was brought in, I wanted it. I seemed to come in
contact with the lady who was carrying it, and I felt that if I could only get a
good hold of her I would get the cream.

All at once I was a lady myself, and when I tried to get that
ice cream I had the same sensation that 1, had when I was hung.
But the lady, who was carrying the ice cream had such power
that, before I knew it, she had thrown me out of the window-
bodily, mind you.

I have to thank you for delivering me from all that trouble and also want
to thank you from the bottom of my heart for the sermon you gave me at
that time, which helped me to an understanding of the beautiful world beyond.

I wish again that I could stand on every street corner and tell the mothers
to raise their children to be good men and women, and when necessary,
punish them while they are little, and not spare the rod and spoil the child.

132

If mothers raised their children properly, there would not be the
selfishness there is in the world.

I have a nice little home in the spirit world now, and I have much to do,
for my work is not yet done. I am trying to extend help to all those who
wish help.

I thank you for enlightening me in the first place. Good Night.

The "Car Barn Murderer," of Chicago, was a criminal of a different type,
a victim of his environment, and was brought to our circle some time after his
execution, when he followed a girl, formerly a family neighbor, who came to
visit Mrs. Wickland.

He returned several times after that, to tell his story and to bring
earthbound spirits of similar experiences to an understanding.

EXPERIENCE, SEPTEMBER 21,1918
Spirit: PETE NEIDEMEYER. Psychic: MRS. WICKLAND

I want to come here tonight to tell you that I also am one who is very
thankful to you, although you probably do not care whether I come again or
not. But I do know you helped me to something like happiness which I
thought never could be mine.

I was nothing but a wild beast in earth life, but still, when you do not
give children proper training, how can you expect to have good men? I had no
training at all. My mother was very wild and did not care what became of her
children. She thought: "Let them take care of themselves."

So you go out in company with others and get into first one game then
another. Sometimes you go to church. I didn't believe in that old story about
Christ. I could not believe it, and I thought there. was no such thing as what
they taught about Christ, and if there was, what did I care?

I walked in the path of evil from the time I was a little boy until I got
where I could not live any longer, whether I wanted to or not.

I will tell you, if you have children, please give them an understanding
when they are little. If they take anything from a person, make them take it
back where they got it. Don't let them get the idea that you will take it from
them and think it is all right., If they steal once, they will again, if not
properly taught.

When I stole, my mother thought I was a smart boy. I

133

kept on going from bad to worse. I belonged to a gang of about a dozen boys.
We got so bold and desperate that we did not care what became of us. We
got into all kinds of hold-ups and the more we got into, the better we liked it.
At last we held up and killed people. The result was, that we were caught
and hung.

I am Neidemeyer, and here I am.

Years ago I was brought to this circle through our neighbor girl. I liked
that girl very much. One day she went away from home and I thought I
would go with her.

I did nut realize that I had been hung. I did not realize that I was dead. I
had gone home and had stayed there for a long time, but I did not know that
I was dead.

My mother was a strange woman, but from what I have seen since I
came to the spirit side of life, I realize that she was obsessed. Nobody could
do anything with my mother. My father and my brother were very good
people, but my mother and I were the black ones.

This neighbor girl was good, and she always tried to do the best for me
that she could. The day I followed her, she went to this man's house (Dr. W.)
and she went into a little room and spoke with the psychic through whom I
am talking now,, and I saw things that day that I had never seen before. I did
not know what they meant. Somebody seemed to keep me there, and I could
not get away.

Before I knew much I was sitting in a little meeting; I heard singing and
before I realized it I was full of life again. I could talk and my throat did not
hurt me any more. I began to wonder what had happened to me.

You talked to me so kindly that it helped me. You talked to me about the
real life on the other side. You helped me to an understanding of life-not what
the church and ministers taught, that we should pray to God and believe in
the blood of Christ, and that Christ died for our sins, and that if we believe
that we will go to Heaven.

I was not the kind that could go on that straight road, because I felt that
was too easy, and I couldn't believe that we could get to Heaven without any
effort on our part. I knew I was bad, yet I felt in my heart that I should do
something to try and be good, and do good for what I had done bad. The
thought of that seemed to be more reasonable than that of jumping from my
bad condition right into Heaven. I thought I would not be a very good
example either.

You commenced to talk to me about the philosophy of God

134

in a way I had never heard before, and it appealed to my sense. I hope
somebody will talk in that way to my fellow men who are in the condition I
was. It would touch their hearts.

There are many of them who are not bad, but nobody cares for them.
The majority of them do not believe in the Jesus Christ story. As they are
now, they are going to the dogs.

Since I came to this little circle the first time and received help, I have
had my struggles. It is years since I made my first appearance here.

I want to tell you what I have to do since my mother passed out. I have
tried and tried to bring her to an understanding of the truth, but she will not
listen. I hope some day to be able to awaken her to a higher condition.

As we progress we go from circle to circle. If I believed that Christ died
for my sins, that belief and creed would keep me out of the higher spirit world.

When I had passed out of my body, you told me that I should look for
spirit friends who would help me, and that my first lesson would be to serve
others. I have had a very hard time.

The first thing I had to do was to conquer self, and it is very hard to
conquer selfishness when you have never thought of anything else but
selfishness. We must conquer that before we can do any work at all in the
spirit world.

The best way is to be put in a dark room-we sometimes call it a dungeon-
where we see nothing but ourselves and our acts of the past. One after
another these acts come crowding in. The good ones are so few that they
hardly count for anything. When we do see a good act, it seems as if it
belongs to some one else. We have to stay there until our hearts and eyes are
opened. When we seek to overcome our bad habits and to live for others then
we get out of the selfish state.

My heart was very hardened, but finally I cried out: "Not my will any
longer, but thine."

The first thing to be done is to help serve the, very lowest we come in
contact with. I felt that I did not want to assist with this or that, but I had to.
I had to learn patience. When we can serve without grumbling and do it for
the love of our fellow man, it does not seem so hard.

So I have gone on and on, from one thing to another, always learning, and
through learning I have stepped into a more beautiful condition. In the
invisible world we advance by stages, but only through learning.

I want to thank you tonight for the help you have given me.

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I have a beautiful little home in the spirit world by this time, and I am
happy, but my work is not done yet.

My work is to keep on helping those who need help, and to try to
influence the boys on earth not to do the mischief they Are planning, but to
try to be good, and do the very best they know how for their fellow men.

Goodbye.

EXPERIENCE, AUGUST 30, 1922
Spirit: PETE NEIDEMEYER. Psychie: MRS. WICKLAND

I should like to come here tonight to say a few words. I want to thank
you for helping me to the higher life.

I had gone down, down, and had only hatred and selfish thoughts. I was
down as far as I could go. My mother was obsessed. She had a great deal of
influence over me. She was down on the world and made me do things to the
neighbors that I should never have done. My father and brother were good
people and were looked up to.

I am Pete Neidemeyer. I want to thank you for having helped me, and
now I want to ask you to send good thoughts to my mother. She has passed
out but I cannot reach her. She was obsessed by a very evil spirit; she sent
evil thoughts to me, and I was very sensitive to them.

You did a Christian act for me which no one else had ever done. I was
shunned by all. When you are in a large city, with all its temptations, and
have not learned anything about the higher things, you get in bad company.
You get so wrapped up with things that are bad that you think everything
belongs to you just as much as it does to the other fellow.

Jealousy, selfishness and ignorance are three things that we should all try
to conquer. When they get hold of you, they are the devil in you. You feel
jealous of everybody that has more than you. You are selfish. You don't want
to give anything away, you just want to keep it all for yourself. You want
everything that belongs to others. You feel that if there is a God he should
have given you a chance as well as the rest of them.

In that atmosphere I was brought up. Mother was selfish and jealous.
Nobody in, the neighborhood liked her; she did not have one friend. I was her
pet and I could have anything.

Father told me not to do bad things, but mother said not to mind what he
told me, but to go ahead and do as I pleased. I went out and stayed out nights
in bad company. We got a gang together. I did not mean to get into

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 the gang as I did, but I was forced into it by the club.

You understand, they have clubs, secret clubs, those fellows, and when
you join you have to do just what they say, because you are in their power.
If you try to withdraw you cannot because they will squeal on you. They
watch you and somebody follows you all the time. The new beginners are
the ones who do the dirty work. The leaders very seldom get caught.

There is a school and the new beginners learn to do bad things. Some of
the leaders are in the finest society in big cities, and they get to know where
we can find people to rob. You may sometimes wonder how we know where
to go to find jewelry and money. Our leaders know all- about it. They are in
fine society all the time. They have money so it wouldn't do any good to
squeal on them.

If I should tell you the names of some of our leaders who are in society
in Chicago, you would not believe me. You would say that it is not so. If you
would tell on them they would at once squeal on you and say you robbed
such a house. What could you do? You just have to keep still. That is what
the underworld is doing. The "upper world" uses the underworld when it
suits its purpose. What we steal in one city, they send off to another city.

Always you will find our leaders in the finest society, but we do not dare
say anything. When you once join their club-what I would call the Devil's
Club-you can't say anything. You are in their claws, and our leaders are
worse than devils, they are so mean. If we should kill, we are the ones who
suffer, but they get the money.

I came here tonight to thank you for having helped me. Nobody ever
gave me a helping hand before.

In that car barn murder I did not kill any one. I was with the gang, but the
one who did the work did not get hung; he got away. We four were hung,
because we were there. I was innocent. My work was to watch, which I did,
but I did not murder. I was hung for it.

If you have any influence at all, do not hang people. Let them have
another chance, because sometimes you will find they are innocent. Keep
them in the pen; give them another chance.

If they are hung, then where are they? All they have in their hearts is
hatred. They go back to earth life and do more mischief. They control people
and obsession steps in.

I had hatred when I was hung and said if there is life again I will get even
and fight for revenge.

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You remember Tillie, who lived next door to me? I told you about her
before. She used to come to your circles. I followed her once and through her
influence I came into your circle and was converted to the higher life.

Tillie always had a good influence over me and sometimes she wanted to
talk to me, but mother Was always jealous and didn't want her to talk.
Mother was very mean to Tillie's people. She got so mad at the time I was
hung that she tormented all her neighbors. She tore up all the fences and
closed up all the stable windows on their side. She tried to shoot every body
she could. If my father bad had the gun loaded, mother would have been in
great trouble.

Tillie was my guardian angel, and through your circle I got over my
hatred. Now I try to help others with the light you gave me. My mission is
to help the unfortunate ones, like this fellow who came before me.

I try to influence people to be more just. If you have a chance to hang
any one, don't do it, but give him another chance. You have no right to kill.
Nobody should kill another person. We are all God's children. We all make
mistakes, and the strong should help the weak.

When one person murders another, no justice is shown, no mercy. The
judge and the jury-what mercy do they show a fellow when he has murdered?
Why should they kill him instead of giving him another chance? Why don't
they give a good word to the poor ones? Why don't they go to the prisoners
and teach them of the higher life, and also have psychic circles and try to help them?

As soon as you stop capital punishment you will not have so much
killing. When persons are hanged, they have revenge and hatred in their
hearts, and all they want to do is kill, kill, kill. So they influence sensitive
mortals and make them commit all kinds of crime.

I want to say again, if you have any influence, stop capital punishment.
This is a Christian country and nobody has a right to kill another. As they
killed Christ, so they kill boys who have been murderers, instead of teaching
them while they are young. Isn't is right that they should be taught to do
better, and to live better lives?

The time will come when the world will have to understand that it must
overcome selfishness. There will be lots of trouble before that time comes.
There will be much destruction, but after that, things will be better.

I am now doing my work in the spirit world, and I thank

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you for bringing me to a realization and waking me up. I have little meetings
here and there. I give little thoughts of cheer to those in darkness.

I am up against a very hard condition, and that is, to get my mother to
understand. I wish you would all send good, kind thoughts to her, because
she only had hatred and selfishness and jealousy in her heart. She was so
wrapped up in herself that now she will not listen to any one. Help me to
wake her up and realize the true condition of life.

Oh, how I thank you for helping me! At heart I was not a murderer, yet I
was hung for murder. I was not with the gang that was doing the work; all I
did was to watch. I was there with them and that was enough for the jury--I
had the name.

Now I am trying to do my part, but I have much to learn. I was very
ignorant of the real life. My father wanted me to go to Sunday School.
Mother told me I didn't need to go, but I went, and I didn't find anything
there that appealed to me, so I quit going.

I know now that God is everywhere and that I am a part of God. I had a
hard time getting rid of selfishness, jealousy and ignorance; they are the root
of all evil. When they are gone, love, kindness and sympathy take their place.
Get an understanding of the higher life and you will be happy. All should be
brothers and sisters on earth, as we are in the higher life.

In the spirit world our real eyes are opened. You cannot progress until
you have learned the lessons of life. You know, a school boy cannot go to
University until after he gets through his school books. He must go to
Kindergarten before he can enter the University, and he has to get there step
by step.

So it is in the spirit world. It is the world of happiness. We cannot
appreciate it until we have it before us. Everybody should know these things
before they step over the Borderland. We cannot go to the spirit world until
we have an understanding of it. When we are one with God then we have
happiness.

I do not know much, and I cannot say much, because I have seen so little
of it. I have much work to do before I go on.

The spirit world is like going into a garden and seeing one beautiful flower
here and another there. The flowers all stand up so straight and look at you
and seem to say: "Please take me." This one has a certain odor, and that one
another, but all are beautiful and fragrant.

The spirit world is like a flower bed, all is beauty and harmony-I mean
there is no selfishness. One shines more than

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another because he has more understanding. We will all get there, but we
have to gain advancement for ourselves. No one needs to get discouraged; all
will get there, but it takes time.

Thank you for having helped me to an understanding and a home But for
that, I should have been an earthbound spirit, doing more harm than good, for I
had hatred in my heart.

I am very happy, but I want you all to send a good thought to my
mother, so that I can wake her up, and help her to overcome her selfishness,
jealousy and ignorance. Just give me a chance to wake her up.

I thank you all!

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