Last year I started writing about the Caledonian Mills Fire Spook, a case that happened in Antigonish County in 1922 that garnered a lot of attention from the spiritual and scientific communities. Due to my health issues I wasn't able to post the rest of what I wanted to cover in December, so let's continue with it now!
If you want to refresh your memory on the case, you can read Part 1 by clicking here, part two by clicking here and part 3 by clicking here.....
When we left the story, Dr. Prince of the American Society for Psychical Research was about to do his investigation of the case, and it turns out his report n this was published in full in the Evening Mail. Let's take a look at that......
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From The Evening Mail, dated Thursday March 16th, 1922
OFFICIAL REPORT OF THE PRINCIPAL RESEARCH OFFICER OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH, AFTER A SIX-DAYS STUDY ON THE SCENE OF THE PHENOMENA AT CALEDONIA MILLS
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WALTER FRANKLIN PRINCE PH.D. (YALE) FINDS THAT -
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Fires at MacDonald Homestead, Caledonia Mills, Were Caused By Human Hands, But Without Moral Guilt, in a State of Altered Consciousness, Perhaps From Intrusion of a Discarnate Intelligence.
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REPORT OF INVESTIGATION OF PHENOMENA OCCURING IN THE MACDONALD HOUSE
By WALTER FRANKLIN PRINCE
Ph. D. (Yale)
Principal Research Officer in the American Society of Psychical Research and Editor of its publications.
Introduction.- The occasion of my undertaking to investigate the case near Caledonia Mills, Nova Scotia, was this: An Associated Press item regarding it met my eye and I wrote to the man who reported the case for the Halifax Herald, to get, if possible, his first-hand statement, since the matter fell within the field in which we are accumulating data. This step led to my resolution to go without payment and investigate the stories thoroughly, on condition that the necessary facilities be furnished. W. H. Dennis, who showed from the fire a commendable desire to have the matter sifted to the bottom, was seen by me on my arrival in Halifax, Saturday morning, March 4th. I told him that whatever position or tentative judgement I reached would be rendered, with reasons, for the same irrespective of whatever opinions might prevail in the province or attach to any particular interest: and I was pleased to note that he, as head of the newspaper through which the report was to be made public, equally insisted that The Herald and The Mail wished exactly that, having no interest other than that light should be thrown upon the matter so much discussed.
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Any matter of the kind which rivets the attention of the people in a given region and which becomes noised abroad throughout the country, demands competent investigation. If it prove entirely explainable on normal grounds, and if the mystery can be resolved by setting forth the causes and manner of their operation, then a large number of people are set free from superstitions, or at least unfounded notions and apprehensions in that particular case, and are better fitted to deal intelligently with another if it arises. Or if it prove that some supernatural (or, to employ the favorite term of my friend, Dr. Henry Holt, superusual) cause has operated, some progress may be made toward understanding such causes and how they operate, while the distortions, exaggerations and naive theories which have become attached may be gotten rid of.
I have had much experience in such investigations, and in many instances have been able to solve puzzling problems in a manner which would be satisfactory to the man who believes that matter and force are the sole two factors in the universe. Yet there have been cases, I am bound to say, where the data was as complete, the search as exhaustive and my natural bent toward scepticism and my determination to reduce the phenomena to the common denominator of the hitherto known and acknowledged, as fully exercised, and yet I have not been able to do so fully, and no one else has ventured to review the facts set forth with the purpose of showing that the analysis was defective, Reference will be made to some of these cases further on.
The Purpose and Spirit Of Psychical Research.
The English Society for Psychical Research was founded by university professors and scholars of distinction, because it was thought the scandal of science that its methods had not hitherto been employed upon the phenomena persitently reported in all lands and going back to the dawn of history. With the same motives, a similar society was founded in the United States a few years later, similarly supported by the college professors and leading scholars. After a couple of years Richard Hodgson, LL. D., a lecturer of the University of Cambridge, was sent for and took charge of the work, until his death in 1905. Therafter, James H. Hyslop, Ph. D., LL. D., formerly a professor in Columbia University was the head, until he died in 1920.
Psychical Research is not for the purpose of proving preconceived theories, materialistic, spiritualistic, or other, but for that of determining facts, collecting and analyzing facts, and letting the facts gradually shape theories. Many of the phenomena studied are so complex and their causes so hidden, that its scholars have not all arrived at the same conclusions, and some have refrained from any conclusions on some issues. Psychical Research is not in any way connected with the spiritualist cult, and disregards every consideration but fact and logic.
Progress Achieved by Psychical Research.
At the time the societies were founded, hypnotism was generally regarded as fraud and delusion, and this was one of the subjects chosen for investigation. Now it is thoroughly established as authentic, and is employed for therapeutic and other purposes.
Telepathy, or the alleged passage of thoughts from one mind to another, was regarded by almost all learned men as a delusion. The English Society has done much investigation along this line, and demonstrated by careful series of experiments that coincidence between the thoughts of the selected "agents" and raely endowed "percipients" may take place to a degree that it would be folly to suppose accidental. Perhaps the most astonishing array of results was that achieved by the distinguished Professor Gilbert Murray, of Oxford, at one time president of the English S. P. R. Professor Murray, then, is one type of "psychic." "Dowsing," or the power of locating sources of water beneath the ground by psychical powers possessed by another type of psychic, if not absolutely proved by the researches of Professor Sir William F. Barrett, printed by the English S.P.R., were at least put upon an evidential footing, deserving respect. There is not space to mention certain other species of phenomena, once scouted, which have been given a respectable standing, warranting continued study. But finally, the evidence for the claim that the memories of dead persons are still active, and are able to transmit through the conciousness of another very rare type of psychic, though with difficulty, has, due largely to the studies printed by both the great societies, attained such strength that there is practically no rival explanation except that of a telepathy embracing the earth like a system of telegraph wires, a telepathy which has never been proved, but which is preferred as a theory by some psychical researchers to the simpler explanation. The man who rejects both theories, that of discarnate communication and telepathy, both "supernormal" ones, to account for the most extraordinary of the published series of experiments, is helpless to account for the facts. And in thirty years no such man, being one of reputation in science or the professions, has faced one good case and endeavored to explain it without resort to either. Frank Podmore and others among Psychical Researchers has adhered to the all-embracing telepathy theory. Dr. Hodgson, the man who exposed Blavatsky's frauds and many another; Dr. Hyslop, a man of extraordinary intellect; F. W. H. Myers, a brilliant psychologist; Sir William Crookes, the greatest authority in psychical science that England produced after Tyndall and Huxley, Sir Oliver Lodge, and many others of similar rank, were convinced that messages may be recieved from the so-called dead.
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On the other hand, as has recently been said by Prof. H. L. Stewart of Dalhousie University, in his very excellent articles, the Societies of Pyschical Research have done more for the downfall of fraud than any other agencies. The Journals and Proceedings of the two societies contain a great quantity of such work. If I may mention a few of my own contributions of this order, without question the exposure of a great mass of "spirit photographs" by the leading faker of this description in the United States - W. M. Keeler, is the most thorough and analytic demonstration of the kind, It was I who first proved the true nature of the "Great Amherst Mystery" of Nova Scotia; and my forthcoming lengthy study of the closed-slate spirit writing swindle, as performed by nineteen persons, will clear the air in that quarter for all intelligent readers.
And now we come to the milk in a particular cocoanut.
Classes of Asserted Phenomena at Caledonia Mills.
A. 1. Loosing of cattle in the barn, removal of clothes from the line, etc.
A. 2. Fires Mysteriously set in the house.
B. 1. Sounds and tactual sensations experienced by Harold Whidden and Detective Carroll one night in February, 1922.
B. 2. Automatic writing by Harold Whidden on the night of Friday, March 10, 1922.
Class A. is of the phenomena which are sometimes called Poltergeist. This term is applied to cases in which there is an outbreak of such occurences as stones and other objects flying into windows or about a room, objects descending "out of the atmosphere," furniture hopping and tumbling, dishes being broken, horses tails becoming mysteriously braided or cut, fires starting without visible excuse, and the like. Class B., stands in quite a different category, as will be seen.
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I and my colleaugues stayed in the MacDonald house from Tuesday afternoon, March 7th, to Monday morning, March 13th, six nights and upwards of five days, except that the last night I alone, pursuant to my wishes, occupied it. During this period nothing of the A. class happened, as everyone interested was forewarned might very likely be the case, and as was the case when Messrs. Whidden and Carroll were there two nights, subsequent to the removal of the MacDonald family. Nor would the mere fact that the phenomena did not recur prove or disprove any particular theory of their causation at the time they did occur. Genuine psychical events are more or less sporadic.
During the six-nights period, nothing of the nature of Class B. (1) occurred, that is, there were no sounds or tactual sensations which were unusual. The one new experience is that marked B. (2.)
As regards A 1, A 2 and B 1, then, there could be no observation by me of the phenomena in operation. Nevertheless, I was able to come to one conclusion which is positive, and to others that are tentative.
The Evidental Standing of A. and B. Classes.
But first, let us take a glance backward and see how the two classes, Poltergeist and the other, compare in the repectability of their claims in previous cases.
Poltergeist claims, so far as they have been adequately examined, have an unpromising history. Some sound well on paper, but nearly all of these depend upon the testimony of laymen in this field. On the other hand, many such cases which caused local wonderment, have been exploded by psychical researchers and others. It is curious that generally they seem to revolve around some young person, more frequently a girl. In the famous Poltergeist antics in the household of John Wesley's father, it was a sister of John who seemed to be the centre. In the Elwyn March case, reported by the A. S. P. R., it was a boy. In the "Great Amherst Mystery," it was a girl. In some Poltergeistic incidents of the Salem witchcraft, where the girl, Ann Putnam, was the chief accuser, there is a question whether Ann herself was not the "witch" who caused the mischief. We simply note that there is a girl in the latest case and pass on. The Clarke Poltergeist case reported by the A. S. P. R., on the other hand, seemingly did not centre in a girl, but in a young man. The Windsor case, investigated by the same body, was connected casually with a number of persons, both boys and men.
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This is the third Nova Scotia Poltergeist case which the A. S. P. R. has dealt with. The first, "The Great Amherst Mystery," astonished the whole country and attracted attention over in England, more than 40 years ago. Our present knowledge of it depends mostly upon a book by Walter Hubbell, and actor, who was in the house during a portion of the period of activity. Objects flew about, but no one ever saw them start. Chairs fell over, but not when apparently in view. Objects were apparently thrown at Hubbell to his great alarm, but seemed to take pains not to quite hit him. Pins were found sticking in the girl's flesh, but such acts are of often self-inflicted by persons afflicted with that strange mental malady, hysteria. At last, only two years ago, the many biographical facts which Hubbell naively set down about Esther Cox were analyzed in the light of abnormal psychology, and left no room for doubt that here was a case of dual pesonality. I had the advantage of my first-hand study of the now classical "Doris Case of Multiple Personality," and my book sudy of the other recorded cases of the kind, and found an abundance of statements in the book, which, taken together, made a demonstration which I think no psychologist would dispute. It was Esther's hands which performed the acts with uncanny craftiness, in a state for which she was not responsible, and which she could not remember. At length she was caught burning a barn and sent to jail, because there was no one to convince the jury that she was not responsible.
The Windsor, Nova Scota case occured about 1907. An estimable gentleman reported to the A. S. P. R. that coins rained from the air upon him, furniture tumbled over at his approach, barrels hopped up, turned upon their sides and chased him. He testified that these facts could not possibly have been caused by human beings, but when the Society sent Mr. Carrington to the spot he caught the human beings in the act and got confessions from some of them. Even the worthy victim was unconvinced.
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But Class B. stands on a much higher level of evidentiality. First as to sounds, etc. It is strange how litle study has been made of rapping sounds not traceable to physical causes, considering how many have been the observed cases. I know one household in New York where they began a few days after the death of a dear friend who was a priviledged visitor; and soon after, when another in close relation died; another quality of rapping began. For two years these two distinguishable sorts of raps have gone on, seeming to display intelligence, and for two years a record has been made. In my own house I studied and recorded raps which were not referrible to creaking of furniture or boards, expansion or contraction of wood, rats or winds, or any other physical cause. They began suddenly one night, alarming a member of the household. For hours I sat and moved about, studying the phenomenon. I had lived in 26 houses and had never heard anything like it. The raps sounded in a desk, they sounded on a table by my bed where I lay alone, they sounded on my dressing table in the morning. They were never heard Saturday nights, so long as I had a Sunday lecture series. As soon as that stopped, they occurred on Saturday nights also. They were heard by two or three persons when together. About three weeks after they began in my house, they began in my office but almost always when none but myself were there. I have heard raps in a table, have asked them to go to the other end and they went tapping on the way and then a click was heard on glass of the book-case two feet farther in a straight line, apparently.
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Not only raps, but bangs were heard in my house, and sounds of coal running in the cellar. Shortly after we took the house my daughter heard what she described as footsteps coming down the stairs from the third floor, and said : "It is a lame man, papa; one leg is shorter than the other." We knew nothing about the persons who had died in the house, but when I next saw the lady who owned it and who lived in another town, and told her the incident jocularly, she said : "But it is true"; and it proved that her father had one leg shorter than the other. On one occasion, two persons heard footsteps at the same time - and I was the other. I never heard a human being walking in heavy shoes more distinctly. There was no other person but us two in the house, and it stood in the middle of a lawn back from a quiet street.
Personally, I doubt if there was actually vibration from the stairs, but consider it an effect upon consciousness, supernormally caused.
Another phenomenon was the actual shaking of the bed on which my daughter lay, at times when she was lying still. At such periods, if I exchanged rooms with her, I would feel it for one or two nights, beginning almost at once after lying down, increasing for say five minutes, and dying out in perhaps half an hour. Many other things happened in this particular house during an occupancy of three years. No one was scared; I studied the occurrences as coolly as I would study cockroaches and a good deal more persistently, but was not able to find any normal solution.
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As to automatic writing, I suppose that most people know that some persons have the power of writing without their conscious volition, and that while the most of such writing is supposed to be like dreams, from their own subconscious minds, there have been many cases where logic has to be defied in order to hold that there was no other source, since a string of facts pertinent to a person who died may be written, which proveably the psychic never could have known. Both societies have published much of such material and it has convinced many of the most competent and scientific intellects that it came from a discarnate intelligence. This is a mere fact of record. Whether or not conclusive, the B. class can show such evidence in favor of supernormal quality.
I have written at this length because the Caledonia Mills facts have a right to be viewed against their historical background. We now plunge into the medias res.
The Unfastening of Cows, Removal of Clothing from the Line, etc.
As these did not occur while I was on the spot, and left no visible trace, there is little new to be said. The occurences are probably to be judged in the light of what is said in the next section.
The Fires - There is, of course, no question that a large number of fires were set in the house from January 6th, 1922, to January 12, 1922. Nor is there any question in mind that the various witnesses to the facts have told the truth as they understood it. If there shall develop in this report any reasons for questioning the accuracy of these observations, or that these observations were as searching as they might have been no doubt of their honesty will be implied.
In my judgement. the fires were set by human hands; and yet, I hasten to add and shall afterward show, the person whose hands were employed was probably not morally guilty of and responsible for the acts. This person was the girl of the family who is sixteen years old, but very, very young mentally, a happy fun-loving child whom her foster mother says has always been a good child, as she appeared to be, and I have no reason, paradoxical as it may sound, to doubt has been. The explanation of the paradox will be made later in this report.
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The fires left their record except where paper has been stripped away and boards, etc. removed and there are many records yet left upon the house. It is upon these that I placed chief reliance to tell the inside story, and careful scrutiny of them makes the story pretty plain. I studied every mark of burning yet left, it's character, size and location, both as regards the part of the room and height from the floor, searched for collateral indication and recorded everything. It will be sufficient to summarize the results through diagrams and details could be given to the extent of a couple more columns. The first fire, in the timber near the stovepipe in the kitchen, I set aside, since it is impossible to say that it did not, as Mr. MacDonald first supposed get started spontaneously from the pipe. It was odd, in that case, that it died out, but if the wood was damp the fire may have eaten in slowly, fanned by a draft of which there is evidence in the location of the burned places, and, the wind dying down, the moisture may have overcome the fire. This first fire, with the excitement, may have stimulated the others which were otherwise set.
1. - In no place where wall paper or paper objects in proximity with the walls were set on fire, is there any existing mark of burning higher than the reach of a person 5ft. tall (with the exception of two corners of the small bedroom where it is evident from the appearance that the fire was set lower down and travelled up where the paper did not adhere tightly to the corners.) If a "ghost" was acting independanty, or if the fires were from unintelligent causes, why was there an upper rim of every wall in every room of the house, varying in perpindicular measurement from 1ft. 3 ins. in bedroom and parlor to 1ft. 11 ins. in the dining room which was immune, and it is it not odd that this rim began just where the reach of a person 5ft. tall leaves off?
2. - The cases where fire began higher than as above indicated, were all in or on unpapered wooden places, namely, a recess back of the upper casing of the door leading from the middle, or dining room to the kitchen, on the dining room side, and on the loose boards resting on beams in the kitchen, constituting the "loft". But in all these cases the fires started from pieces of cotton cloth which could easily have been tossed, as the heights are only a few inches above what has been indicated.
3. - There is no definite, satisfactory evidence that any fire broke out where the girl could not have been a few minutes earlier. To be sure, the witnesses were cetain that she could not, but I was not able to get reasons for the assurance which are satisfactory to one who has many times demonstrated the errors of observation and memory of people untrained in observation of species of facts which are new to them.
4. - There were never fires when the family, including the girl, were out of the house.
5. - The actual starting of the fires never took place where another than the agency which started them could be a witness. (Since my return to Halifax, I note in a newspaper one apparent exception, but that there should be one exception in a series of perhaps 50 instances, I strongly doubt. It may be that the error was the reporter's like that of saying that mysterious lights on a particular night were seen over the house (the reference is not to Mr. Whidden;s report), whereas the original witness stated that they were over the woods which are a long distance from the house. It may be that the piece of paper referred to was already burning unperceived and, reaching a drier part, the fire suddenly burst into a flame as the witness was looking.)
This point regarding the pains taken that the starting of the fires should avoid the presence of witnesses, is of weight in estimating the likelihood of occult origin. There is considerable evidence, whether conclusive or not, that physical events like the rising of the table without contact take place, and in such cases the presence of several persons appears to be necessary, as though force were borrowed from their bodies. In other words, the best authenticated cases seem to court inspection, while Poltergeist cases seem to avoid it.
6. - In particular (see picture) no fires occurred in or on these parts of the parlor of dining room visible from the kitchen stove, around which was the common meeting place on the night of the 38 fires and at other times. All those portions of the walls, floor (it will be remembered that a box, cushion, etc,. took fire in other parts of the room) and starting in the parlor, and all those portions of the dining room visible in the picture presented here are free from burns. This emphasizes the evidence of witnesses of the actual ignitions.
7. - Over and back of the bed in the little bedroom off the dining room are the marks of a number of seperate fires on the wall paper, generally following its torn and projecting parts along a particular crack. The remarkable and significant thing is that this is at the height that a person five feet tall, kneeling on the bed could easily reach, and such a person in that position could not reach to the next higher crack line with its projecting bits of wall paper, as I, who am 5ft. 7ins. tall can easily do. The reason for kneeling is obvious when one sees the snow and dirt that one running in and out of the house would collect on her shoes. that whole side of the little room which the bed frame entirely fills is governed by the law pointed out, but when the eye turns to the right of the bed area, he sees at the point where the person could again stand upright, a burn just above the door-frame, at a point which a person 5 ft. tall could reach.
8. - In the recess back of the upper casing of the door in the dining room, leading to the kitchen, a fire broke from cloth. It was extinguished by throwing water upon it. Otherwise, the contents were undisturbed, else the stirring about of the bits of crockery, iron, etc., would have mixed up the remnants of burnt cotton glove which I found lying naturally with the black ashes in one spot. The fact that these had been undisturbed is further evidenced by the circumstance that the deepest and most extensive burns in the wool were immediately above the remnants. Beneath the unburned fragments of the glove, but lying on the ashes, I found a match, with little burned but the head. That is, the match had evidently been used to ignite the glove (and whatever other cloth might have been with it, for the girl says that a piece was taken out) was quickly extinguished by enveloping it with the glove, and together with the glove was tossed into the recess where they were found and taken out by me in the presence of witnesses. No other match was in the box-like recess of perhaps 2 1-2ft . length, and the match found was among the remains of the half-burned glove. Hence, whoever set this fire did it with a match.
9. - I found old bottles on beams in the kitchen which contained three inflammable fluids, kerosene, turentine and separator oil. The last is practically odorless, burns readily on wet paper, is capable of going out or continuing if the paper dries before the oil put on it is exhausted, and burns slowly or rapidly according to the circumstances. I do not say that this oil was used in some of the fires; I only say that it was apparently available and would account for some of the effects. For example, if placed on wood or wet paper at the foot of the curtain it would bun slowly for a time and afterwards when all were assembled in the kitchen would, on reaching the curtain tself, suddenly flame up, as was the case.
10. - While there was pains taken by someone to prevent the actual lightings of the fires from being observed, they were also designed to attract attention, not of the girl, but of the old couple. Most of the fires were in the bedroom of the latter. The most of the fires at night, when everyone was supposedly abed, were in the kitchen adjoining the room of Mr. and Mrs. MacDonald, but not in the dining room where the light might at once attract attention. In the unfinished chamber above the parlor, where the girl slept, there were but two fires, one by the stairs, the other in the casing dirctly above the room of the elder MacDonald, where the smoke would soon attract attention. The vicinity of the girl's bed was avoided.
11. - The house, though old and rude, is remarkably firm. It is almost impossible for a 200-pound man to make the stairs creak when stealing softly up and down, (I had Mr. McRitchie try it). There is hardly a creak in the whole flooring. It would be quite feasible, it appears to me, for one to come downstairs and steal past the door of the old couple, either closed or only slightly ajar (as was the custom) without anyone being the wiser.
Leo McGillivray, naturally, could not remember the order of all the fires when 38 occurred, but he remembered, he testified, the order of the first six.
1. In parlor, the window curtain.
2. In dining room, wall paper.
3. In parlor, carboard over stove-hole.
4. In dining room, wall paper.
5. Upstairs, rags.
6. In parlor, cushion on slats of bed.
This order seems suggestive when we consider that persons were at times moving about looking for fires, and at times sitting more or less together around the stove in the kitchen. Naturally, attention after a particular fire would be particularly upon the room where it occurred and it never occurred, so far as was testified, in the same room twice in succession. Then note, that the sixth fire was in a cushion on the slats of the bedstead in the parlor, a cushion which had been upstairs "sometime before." Note particularly the "sometime," that it was not immediately before. And note also that the last preceeding fire was upstairs so that a person could, by coming down last, have brought that cushion down unperceived.
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Such, in outlne, is the case for the causation of the fires. I am aware that I am disregarding the statement of one honest witness that he suspected the girl and watched her. I know too much about the observational errors of persons under emotional stress, strong prepossessions, and fixation of attention. I have sat in a room with thirteen other persons of good intelligence, only one of whom beside myself had training in the matters which we were to see. Two of us independantly made reports in perfect agreement of all sorts of queer stunts performed in the near darkness with a simple phosphorescent cloth; the rest thought they saw spirit faces and forms, even though there was nothing to district their attention. Dr. Hodgson and Mr. S. J. Davey long ago demonstrated the errors of observation and confusion of memory of persons of even high intelligence when the details of what they have to observe are many and complex, and the matter is new and strange.
The Mental Causation Back of the Physical.
The layman thinks that if a sane person does a thing he knows it and is responsible for it, that if a girl's hands sets fires she is doing it for mischief and "is now laughing about it," as a letter just received states. But this does not necessarily follow. Two possibilities remain, the first recognized by psychology, the second supported by some evidence in psychical research.
1. - The girl had a form of hysteria and was in an altered state of consciousness, which she afterwards imperfectly, or not at all, remembered. Such was the case of Esther Cox of Amherst. I have known other cases of setting fires in such a state. It is not insanity, and it frquently passes away forever. The girl's age in this case somewhat favors the theory, and the fact that within a year she has had strange "dream states", from which Mrs. MacDonald says it is hard to rouse her. Of course, there is no blame attainable in such case. The frequent tellings of stories in the neighborhood about queer happenings, such as the loosing of cows, the disappearance of objects etc,. which are standard old beliefs, may have been an inciting cause and one accidental fire and the resulting excitement, another.
2. - The other theory would be that a discarnate intelligence incited the childish consciousness of the girl - that it was a case of obsession. This will be scouted, but in the light of many cases observed by psychical researchers, it is not to be put entirely out of court. Spirit possession is familiar to us from the New Testament and those who accept it as a fact there, cannot be certain that it is never existant now. Has not the Catholic Church, in days past, carried out exorcisms? Some modern cases tend to support the New Testament affirmations about obsessing spirits. And if there are such cases, the priestly exorcisms might reasonably succeed, whether by erecting barriers in the minds of the victims or be actually awing the obtruding personalities. Nor need the latter necessarily only be evil. Interested persons would do well to study the Thompson case reported by the A. S. P. R., where a man of no known artistic gifts began to paint pictures after the manner of an artist whom he did not know to be dead, which experts afterwards spontaneously said resembled that artist's work, and which they showed the technique of at least ten years painting, when the man had actually painted but a few months. He drew a charcoal sketch which afterward was found duplicated in finished form in the artist's studio, and the testimony of the artist's wife was that it could never have been seen by the man. If - I only say IF - the deceased artist was able to establish a mental contact with Thompson and so use his hand to paint, it follows that a deceased person might have used the girl's hand for purposes apparently, but if I consume enough space I might show ere not necessarily, malicious.
Now we turn to the phenomena of January, which are classified as B 1 :
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Except, no, we don't…. I'll save that for another post later, as this one is already becoming massive!
So what do we think of the case now? Is it just a teenage girl looking for attention? Is she 'obsessed?' (I saw this keeping popping up in the article instead of 'possessed' and thought it might be an error, but then dicovered that people have actually been getting it wrong for years, and 'obsession' is the correct term, coming from the Latin 'obsidere' (to besiege), and which is a form of insanity caused, according to traditional belief, by the persistent attack of an invading spirit from outside the individual. Obsession is the opposite of the more widely used term of 'possession', control by an invading spirit from within.)
Is someone else actually faking the fires? Or is it actually a supernatural occurrence? Why would the fires all being able to be started by someone 5ft tall necessarily rule out a 5ft tall spook?
Anyway, we're now four parts in to this case and things are about to get even weirder, as this panel from the newspaper below should tell you...we'll catch up with whatever the hell is going on here next time....
Be sure in the meantime, though, to head on over to the Countdown hub, where you can find links to all the other paticipants in this year's Countdown! Just click this badge below!
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