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CHAPTER X

SEQUELS OF PSYCHIC RESEARCH

is exceedingly improbable that the phenomena of psychic research should stop with the mere proof of spiritual existence. The processes involved in communication or the transmission of evidence of identity could easily be used for any other purpose, and we might expect any type of invasion imaginable after finding that a discarnate world impinged at all upon the physical. There is a whole field of phenomena that has not been as yet resolved except in the most perfunctory way by scientific men. They have been content with description instead of explanation and hence have neglected the plainest dictates of prudence in regard to the implication of such phenomena as telepathy and spiritistic communications, which imply some sort of causal influence on the mind independently of normal sense perception and motor action. Secondary personality is the doctor's Irish stew. He does not know what it is. In antiquity it was "demoniac obsession." At a later period it was "witchcraft." Today we call it such things as "split consciousness" and think we have solved the problem, when, in fact, we have only thrown dust in people's eyes. We have become so accustomed to paradoxes in human knowledge that almost any impossible combination of terms will receive respectful attention, the more impossible the better. What is split consciousness? We can split wood, iron, pumpkins, political parties; but split consciousness, however convenient a term for describing

an apparent situation, is a term for our ignorancea most happy term, to confound a group of people who refer every anomalous thing in the universe to spirits, and to make it unnecessary to inquire minutely into the anomalies of personality.

Since the rise of modern science, the one thing that has saved the thinking of most people from the hasty interpretation of mental anomalies, has been the general belief that science has exorcised the "supernatural" from the order of the world, though scarcely anybody knew what the supernatural meant. During all this period secondary personality was unknown, or its apparent significance not appreciated, as a means of reducing the claims of the supernatural. The echoes of witchcraft still remained in the popular consciousness. But the words secondary personality, and their associates, "subliminal," "subconscious," and "hysteria," redeemed the situation, and became an open sesame for the scientific conjurer. Spirits disappeared into the limbo of illusion and mythology.

Ansel Bourne disappeared from home in Providence, R. I., and was given up as lost or the victim of an unknown death; but he suddenly awakened to his normal condition eight weeks afterward in Norristown, Pa., with no memory of the eight weeks interval. Professor James and Dr. Richard Hodgson hypnotized him and traced the events of this period, which he told under hypnosis, and found them true.

Charles Brewin disappeared from his home in Burlington, N. J., and between New York City and Plainfield, N. J., he spent four years in a secondary state, undiscovered by his friends, and ignorant of his own identity; but at last he awakened from his Rip Van Winkle sleep to know nothing about it, and was restored to his family.

Dr. Morton Prince had a case, which he calls Sally Beauchamp, who appeared to be four different per

sons. One of them was a mischievous imp and played all sorts of tricks on the other personalities. She would entice one of them to ride out into the country on the last car, and then awaken her. The poor victim had to walk home exhausted from the trip. Sally would put toads and spiders into a box and leave them on the bureau so that the normal self would go into hysterics when she opened the box. These and similar tricks and escapades it required a volume to tell and explain. Split consciousness, or multiple personality, was the charmed word that was supposed to clear up the mystery. The supernaturalist's theory of spirits was waved aside, and justly enough, for lack of evidence. There were no credentials in the phenomena for such an explanation.

But some years ago I happened upon a case which offered the opportunity for proper investigation and experiment. It was one that had fallen into the hands of a clergyman, also by the name of Dr. Walter F. Prince, for care and cure. After visiting it, I resolved to try an experiment as soon as the condition of the patient permitted. This resolution could not be put into effect for several years.

A child, whom we shall call Doris, when three and a half years of age, was picked up by her drunken father and thrown violently upon the floor. The shock stunned the child, but at the time no more serious effects followed; the next day or so, however, it was found that something had happened. The mother did not understand it, though informed that it was the consequence of a contusion at the base of the brain. From that time on, the case was one of alternating personalities. The chief of these was called Margaret, and events proved that there was another which manifested itself only in the girl's sleep, and was called Sleeping Margaret. But this one was after the mother's death. The normal and primary state was called Real

Doris. All that the mother knew anything about was Real Doris and Margaret. The death of the mother, however, when the child was 17 years of age, caused the appearance of another personality, which was called Sick Doris, because in this condition or personality the girl was always ill, though she would seem to recover a perfectly healthy condition in an instant upon the return of Margaret or Real Doris.

From the time that her father had so brutally thrown her down, she had imbibed a mortal fear of him, made more intense by his constantly brutal treatment of her. The pastor of the family had accused the child of lying, because he did not understand her changes, and the result was that ever afterward she refused to attend his Sunday school. One Sunday she casually went into Dr. Prince's church, and Mrs. Prince became interested in her, without knowing anything about the real condition of things, except that she was something of an invalid. Finally Dr. Prince's attention was aroused by the psychological interest of the case, as well as its need of charity and care. He found that Doris could probably never get well as long as she stayed with her father, who still brutally abused her. He then resolved to adopt her into his family, and proceeded to study her and to attempt a cure. First he began to dissolve the personality of Sick Doris, and after his success with her, he eliminated Margaret; but he did not undertake to remove Sleeping Margaret, as this personality had been helpful in the dissipation of the other personalities, and claimed to be a "spirit," as did Sally in the Beauchamp case.

The primary personality, Real Doris, was apparently a well-behaved and normal person, and at no time were there any signs of physical lesion or degeneration, except in the personality of Sick Doris, when nausea and other abnormal symptoms manifested themselves. But Margaret was a perfect imp and personi

fication of mischief. She would take horses from a livery stable and ride about the city or country to her heart's content, much to the annoyance of the owners, though she always returned the horses. She would go down to the ferries and try to ride across the river, sitting on the edge of the boat; but if the men would try to put her off, she would kick up her heels and throw herself backward into the water, frightening everybody. But she was an expert swimmer, and never suffered any real danger. She would take objects from places where she worked, and hide them in a drawer. When the normal self was accused of stealing, she naturally and honestly enough denied the accusation. She would write notes to the normal self, as the only way of reaching it.

Sick Doris, the result of the mother's death, was a very stupid personality. She did not know what death was, and did not understand the funeral or the mourning of friends, though Real Doris had prepared the mother's body for burial. Sick Doris did not know the names for the objects about her, and could not speak a word. Margaret had to set about teaching her the names of things, and how to talk intelligently. In the course of this, Margaret imbibed a bitter hostility to Sick Doris, and used to play every imaginable trick on her, as bad as those played by Sally on the other personalities in the Beauchamp case.

The death of the mother threw the household work on Doris, and this made matters worse, especially when the cruelties of the father were added. Let me quote from the account of Dr. Walter F. Prince.

"Overwork, together with the baleful influences of the home, chiefly militated against the primary personality. Upon the girl fell the major expenses of the household. Margaret knew that something must be done, and dinned it into the mind of Sick Doris that she must earn more money, by working at night. Sick Doris learned the lesson all too well. As Margaret afterwards ruefully expressed it, 'She began to work like fury and then

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