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THE WATSEKA WONDER
By Scaife, Hazel Lewis, 1872-1939
WHEN the biography of the late Richard
Hodgson is written one of its most
interesting chapters will be the story of his
investigation into the strange case of Lurancy
Vennum. Archinquisitor of the Society for
Psychical Research, the Sherlock Holmes of
professional detectives of the supernatural,
in this instance Hodgson was forced to con-
fess himself beaten and to acknowledge that
in his belief the only satisfactory solution of
the problem before him was to be had through
recourse to the hypothesis that the dead can
and do communicate with the living.
As is well known, subsequent inquiries, and
notably his experiences with the famous Mrs.
Piper, led him to the enthusiastic indorse-
ment of this hypothesis ; but at the time of the
Vennum affair, with the recollection of his
triumphs in Europe and Asia fresh in his
mind, he was still a thoroughgoing if open
minded skeptic; and to Lurancy Vennum must
accordingly be given the credit of having
brought him, so to speak, to the turning of
the ways. Oddly enough too, scarce an effort
has been made to assemble evidence in dis-
proof of his findings in that case and to develop
a purely naturalistic explanation of a mystery
which his verdict went far to establish in the
minds of many as a classic illustration of
supernatural action. Yet, while it must be
admitted that until recently such a task would
have been extremely difficult, it may safely be
declared that the phenomena manifested
through Lurancy Vennum were not a whit
more other-worldly than the phenomena pro-
duced by the tricksters whom Hodgson him-
self so skilfully and mercilessly exposed.
To refresh the reader's memory with regard
to the facts in the case, it will be recalled that
Lurancy Vennum was a young girl, between
thirteen and fourteen years old, the daughter
of respectable parents living at Watseka,
Illinois, a town about eighty-five miles south
of Chicago and boasting at the time a popu-
lation of perhaps fifteen hundred. On the
afternoon of July 11, 1877, while sitting sew-
ing with her mother, she suddenly complained
of feeling ill, and immediately afterward fell
to the floor unconscious, in which state she
remained for five hours. The next day the
same thing happened; but now, while still
apparently insensible to all about her, she
began to talk, affirming that she was in heaven
and in the company of numerous spirits,
whom she described, naming among others
the spirit of her brother who had died when
she was only three years old. Her parents,
deeply religious people of an orthodox de-
nomination, feared that she had become in-
sane, and their fears were increased when,
with the passage of time, her "fits," as they
called her trances, became more frequent and
of longer duration, lasting from one to eight
hours and occurring from three to twelve
times a day. Physicians could do nothing
for her, and by January, 1878, it was decided
that she was beyond all hope of cure and
that the proper place for her was an insane
asylum.
At this juncture her father was visited by
Mr. Asa B. Roff, also a resident of Watseka,
but having no more than a casual acquaint-
anceship with the Vennums. He had be-
come interested in the case, he explained,
through hearing reports of the intercourse
Lurancy claimed to have with the world of
the dead, the possibility of which, being a
devout spiritist, he did not in the slightest
doubt. Moreover, he himself had had a
daughter, Mary, long dead, who had been
subject to conditions exactly like Lurancy's
and had given incontrovertible evidence of
possessing supernatural powers of a clairvoy-
ant nature. In her time she too had been
deemed insane, but Mr. Roff was confident
that she had really been of entirely sound
mind, and equally confident that the present
victim of "spirit infestation," to use the singu-
lar term employed by a later spiritistic eulo-
gist of Lurancy, was also of sound mind. He
therefore begged Mr. Vennum not to immure
his daughter in an asylum; and Mrs. Roff
adding her entreaties, it was finally resolved
as a last resort to call in a physician from
Janes ville, Wisconsin, who was himself a
spiritist and would, the Roffs felt sure, be
able to treat the case with great success.
This physician, Dr. E. Winchester Stevens,
paid his first visit to Lurancy in Mr. Roff's
company on the afternoon of January 31. He
found the girl, as he afterward related, sitting
"near a stove, in a common chair, her elbows
on her knees, her hands under her chin, feet
curled up on the chair, eyes staring, looking
every way like an old hag." She was evi-
dently in an ugly mood, for she refused even
to shake hands, called her father "Old Black
Dick" and her mother "Old Granny," and at
first kept an obstinate silence. But presently,
brightening up, she announced that she had
discovered that Dr. Stevens was a "spiritual"
doctor and could help her, and that she was
ready to answer any questions he might put.
Now followed a strange dialogue. In reply
to his queries she said that her name was not
Lurancy Vennum but Katrina Hogan, that
she was sixty-three years old, and had come
from Germany "through the air" three days
before. Changing her manner quickly, she
confessed that she had lied and was in reality
a boy, Willie Canning, who had died and
"now is here because he wants to be." More
than an hour passed in this "insane talk," as
her weeping parents accounted it, and then,
flinging up her hands, she fell headlong in a
state of cataleptic rigidity.
Dr. Stevens promptly renewed his question-
ing, at the same time taking both her hands
in his and endeavoring to " magnetize " her,
to quote his own expression. It soon devel-
oped, according to the replies she made, that
she was no longer on earth but in heaven and
surrounded by spirits of a far more beneficent
character than the so-called Katrina and Willie.
With all the earnestness of an ardent spiritist,
the doctor immediately suggested that she
allow herself to be controlled by a spirit who
would prevent those that were evil and insane
from returning to trouble her and her family,
and would assist her to regain health. To
which she answered that she would gladly do
so, and that among the spirits around her was
one that the angels strongly recommended for
this very purpose. It was, she said, the
spirit of a young girl who on earth had
been named Mary Roff.
"Why," cried Mr. Roff, "that is my daugh-
ter, who has been in heaven these twelve
years. Yes, let her come. We'll be glad to
have her come."
Come she did, as the greatly bewildered
Mr. Vennum testified next morning during a
hasty visit to Mr. Roff s office.
"My girl," said he, "had a sound night's
sleep after you and Dr. Stevens left us; but
to-day she asserts that she is Mary Roff, re-
fuses to recognize her mother or myself, and
demands to be taken to your house."
At this amazing information, Mrs. Roff and
her surviving daughter Minerva, who since
Mary's death had married a Mr. Alter,
promptly went to see Lurancy. From a seat
at the window she beheld them approaching
down the street, and with an exultant cry ex-
claimed, "Here comes my ma, and 'Nervie'!"
the name by which Mary Roff had been accus-
tomed to call her sister in girlhood. Running
to the door and throwing her arms about them
as they entered, she hugged and kissed them
with expressions of endearment and with
whispering allusions to past events of which
she as Lurancy could in their opinion have
had absolutely no knowledge.
Mr. Roff who came afterward, she greeted
in the same affectionate way, while treating
the members of her own family as though they
were entire strangers. To her father and
mother it seemed that this must be only a
new phase of her insanity, but to the Roffs
there remained no doubt that in her they be-
held an actual reincarnation of the girl whom
they had buried twelve years before that is
to say, when Lurancy herself was a puny,
wailing infant. Eagerly they seconded her
entreaties to be allowed to return with them;
and, Mrs. Vennum being completely pros-
trated by this unexpected development, it was
soon decided that the little girl should for the
time being take up her residence under the
Roff roof.
She removed there February 11, and on the
way an event occurred that vastly strength-
ened belief in the reality of her claims. The
Vennums and the Roffs lived at opposite ends
of Watseka; but the latter family, at the time
of Mary's death in 1865, had been occupying
a dwelling in a central section of the town.
Arrived at this house, Lurancy unhesitatingly
turned to enter it, and seemed much aston-
ished when told that her home was elsewhere.
"Why," said she, in a positive tone, "I know
that I live here." It was indeed with some
difficulty that she was persuaded to continue
her journey; but once at its end all signs of
disappointment vanished and she passed gaily
from room to room, identifying objects which
she had never seen before but which had been
well-known to Mary Roff. Her pseudo-parents
were in ecstacies of joy. "Truly," they said
to each other, "our daughter who was dead
has been restored to us," and anxiously they
inquired of her how long they might hope to
have her with them. "The angels," was her
response, "will let me stay till some time in
May and oh how happy I am!"
Happy and contented she proved herself
and, which was remarked by all who saw her,
entirely free from the maladies that had so
sorely beset both the living Lurancy and the
dead Mary. For her life as Lurancy she
appeared to have no remembrance; but she
readily and unfailingly recollected everything
connected with the career of Mary. She was
well aware also that she was masquerading, as
it were, in a borrowed body. "Do you re-
member," Dr. Stevens asked her one day,
"the time that you cut your arm?" "Yes,
indeed. And," slipping up her sleeve, "I
can show you the scar. It was She
paused, and quickly added, "Oh, this is not
the arm; that one is in the ground," and pro-
ceeded to describe the spot where Mary had
been buried and the circumstances attending
her funeral. Old acquaintances of Mary's
were greeted as though they had been seen only
the day before, although in one or two cases
there was lack of recognition, due, it was in-
ferred, to physical changes in the visitor's ap-
pearance since Mary had known her on earth.
Tests were suggested and carried out by Dr.
Stevens and Mr. Roff only reinforced the
view that they were really dealing with a visi-
tant from the unseen world. For instance,
while the little girl was playing outdoors one
afternoon, Mr. Roff suggested to his wife that
she bring down-stairs a velvet hat that their
daughter had worn the last year of her life,
place it on the hat stand, and see if Lurancy
would recognize it. This was done, and the
recognition was instant. With a smile of de-
light Lurancy picked up the hat, mentioned
an incident connected with it, and asked,
"Have you my box of letters also?" The
box was found, and rummaging through it the
child presently cried, " Oh, ma, here is a collar
I tatted! Ma, why did you not show me my
letters and things before?" One by one she
picked out and identified relics dating back
to Mary's girlhood, long before Lurancy
Vennum had come into the world.
She displayed, too, not a little of the clairvoy-
ant ability ascribed to Mary. The story is
told that on one occasion she affirmed that
her supposed brother, Frank Roff, would be
taken seriously ill during the night; and when,
about two o'clock in the morning, he was
actually stricken with what is vaguely said to
have been "something like a spasm and con-
gestive chill," she directed Mr. Roff to hurry
next door where he would find Dr. Stevens.
"But," protested Mr. Roff, "Dr. Stevens is
in quite another part of the city to-night."
"No," she calmly said, "he has come back,
and you will find him where I say."
Quite incredulous, Mr. Roff gave his neigh-
bor's door-bell a lusty pull, and the next
moment was talking to the doctor, who, un-
known to the Roffs, was spending the night
there. With his aid, it is perhaps worth add-
ing, brother Frank was soon relieved of the
"spasm and congestive chill."
In this way, continually surprising but
constantly delighting the happy Roffs, Lu-
rancy Vennum remained with them for more
than three months, professing complete igno-
ance of her identity and enacting with the
greatest fidelity the role of the spirit who was
supposed to have taken possession of her.
Early in May, however, she called Mrs. Roff
to one side and informed her in a voice broken
by sobs that Lurancy was "coming back"
and that they would soon have to take another
farewell of their Mary. This said, a change
became apparent in her. She glared wildly
around, and in an agitated tone demanded,
"Where am I? I was never here before. I
want to go home." Mrs. Roff, heartbroken,
explained that she had been under the con-
trol of Mary's spirit for the purpose of "curing
her body," and told her that her parents
would be sent for. But within five minutes
she had again lost all knowledge of her true
identity, and seemingly was Mary Roff once
more, overjoyed that she had been permitted
to return.
For some days she continued in this state,
with only occasional lapses into her original
self; then, on the morning of May 21, she an-
nounced that the time for definite leave-taking
had at last arrived, and with evident grief
went about among the neighbors bidding them
good-by. It was arranged that "sister Ner-
vie" should take her to Mr. Roff' s office, and
that Mr. Roff should thence escort her home.
En route there were sharp interchanges of
personality, with the spirit control dominant;
but when the office was reached it became
evident that she had fully come into her own
again. The night before she had wept bitterly
at the thought of leaving her "father." Now
she addressed him calmly as "Mr. Roff,"
called herself Lurancy, and said that her one
wish was to see her parents as soon as pos-
sible. Nor, as the Vennums were quickly to
discover, did she return to torment and alarm
them by the weird actions of the preceding
months. On the contrary, they found her
healthy and normal in mind and body, com-
pletely cured, as a result, the Roffs emphat-
ically declared, of the intervention of the
spirit of their beloved daughter.
Needless to say, the people of Watseka and
the surrounding country had watched with
breathless interest the progress of this curious
affair; but it was not until three months after
the "possession" had ended that the public
at large obtained any knowledge of it. The
first intimation, outside of unnoticed reports
in local newspapers, came through the me-
dium of two articles contributed by Dr.
Stevens to the August 3 and 10, 1878, issues
of The Religio-Philosophical Journal, one of
the leading spiritist organs of the United States.
Traversing the case in the fullest detail, and
emphasizing the fact that up to the moment
of writing the principal actor had had no re-
turn of the ills from which she had previously
suffered, Dr. Stevens gave it as his unqualified
conviction that the spirit of Mary Roff had
actually revisited earth in the person of Lu-
rancy Vennum, and had been the instrument
of her cure. This view naturally commended
itself to spiritists, but by the unbelieving it
was vigorously combatted, not a few insinu-
ating or openly alleging that Dr. Stevens's
narrative was a work of fiction. The veracity
of the Roffs was also attacked. "Can the
truthfulness of the narrative," one skeptical
inquirer wrote Mr. Roff, "be substantiated
outside of yourself and those immediately in-
terested ? Can it be shown that there was no
collusion between the parties?" And an-
other asked him, "Is it a fact, or is it a story
made up to see how cunning a tale one can
tell?"
Waxing indignant, Mr. Roff wrote a long
letter to The Religio-Philosophical Journal de-
nouncing the imputation of fraud, giving the
names of a number of men who would vouch
for his integrity, and concluding with the
statement: "I am now sixty years old; have
resided in Iroquois county thirty years; and
would not now sacrifice what reputation I
may have by being party to the publication
of such a narrative, if it was not perfectly
true."
Following this there appeared in The Re-
ligio-Philosophical Journal several letters from
well-known Illinois professional men warmly
indorsing Mr. Roff's character, and an an-
nouncement to the effect that the editor,
Colonel J. C. Bundy, himself of undoubted
honesty, "has entire confidence in the truth-
fulness of the narrative and believes from his
knowledge of the witnesses that the account
is unimpeachable in every particular." As
for Dr. Stevens, Colonel Bundy declared that
he had been personally acquainted with the
physician for years, and had '.'implicit confi-
dence in his veracity." After all this, accusa-
tions of perjury and deception were obviously
futile, and, no adequate non-spiritistic inter-
pretation being forthcoming, there was an
increasing tendency to accept the view ad-
vanced by those who had participated in the
affair.
Such was the situation at the time of Rich-
ard Hodgson's advent. Primarily, as will be
remembered by all who have followed the
work of the Society for Psychical Research,
Dr. Hodgson had come to this country to in-
vestigate the trance mediumship of Mrs.
Leonora Piper. But his attention having been
called to the Vennum mystery, he visited
Watseka in April, 1890, and instituted a
rigorous cross-examination of the surviving
witnesses. Dr. Stevens was dead, and Lu-
rancy herself had married and moved with her
husband to Kansas, but Dr. Hodgson was
able to interview Mr. and Mrs. Roff, Mrs.
Alter, and half a dozen neighbors who had
personal knowledge of the "possession." All
answered his questions freely and fully, re-
iterating the facts as given in Dr. Stevens's
narrative, and adding some interesting in-
formation hitherto not made public. In the
main this bore on the question of identity and
tended to vindicate the reincarnation theory.
It also developed that while Lurancy had
grown to be a strong, healthy woman, she had
had occasional returns of Mary's spirit in the
years immediately following the chief visita-
tion; but that these had ceased with her
marriage to a man who, Roff regretfully ob-
served, had never made himself acquainted
with spiritism and therefore "furnished poor
conditions for further development in that
direction."
Appreciating the fact that Mr. Roff and his
family would furnish the best possible con-
ditions for such development, and that he
must be on his guard against unconscious
exaggeration and misstatement, Dr. Hodgson
nevertheless deemed the evidence presented to
him too strong to be explained away on
naturalistic grounds. Contributing to The
Religio-Philosophical Journal an account of
his inquiry and of the additional data it had
brought to light, he described the case as
"unique among the records of supernormal
occurrences," and frankly admitted that he
could not "find any satisfactory interpreta-
tion of it except the spiritistic."
Yet, as was said at the outset, it may now
be affirmed that another interpretation is pos-
sible, and one far more satisfactory than the
spiritistic ; this, too, without impeaching in any
way the truthfulness of the testimony given by
Dr. Stevens, the Roffs, and the numerous
other witnesses. To begin: apart from the
supernatural implications forced into it by the
appearance of the so-called spirit control, it
is clear that the affair bears a striking resem-
blance to the instances of "secondary" or
"multiple" personality which recent research
has discovered in such numbers, and which
are due to perfectly natural, if often obscure,
causes. In these, it has already been pointed
out, as the result of an illness, a blow, a shock,
or some other unusual stimulus, there is a
partial or complete effacement of the original
personality of the victim and its replacement
by a new personality, sometimes of radically
different characteristics from the normal self.
A sufficient example is the case of the Rev.
Thomas C. Hanna, for knowledge of which
the scientific world is indebted to Dr. Boris
Sidis.* Following a fall from his carriage,
Mr. Hanna, a Connecticut clergyman, lost all
consciousness of his identity, had no memory
for the events of his life prior to the accident,
recognized none of his friends, could not read
or write, nor so much as walk or talk, was,
in fact, like a child new born. On the other
hand, as soon as the rudiments of education
were acquired by him once more, he showed
himself the possessor of a vigorous, independ-
ent, self-reliant personality, lacking all knowl-
edge of the original personality, but still able
to adapt himself readily to his environment
and make headway in the world. Ultimately,
through methods which are distinctively mod-
ern, Dr. Sidis was able to recall the vanished
self, and, fusing the secondary self with it,
restore the clergyman to his former sphere of
usefulness.
This, of course, is an extreme example.
The usual procedure is for the secondary per-
sonality to retain some of the characteristics of
the original self as the ability to read, write,
etc. and give itself a name. In this way
Ansel Bourne, the Rhode Island itinerant
preacher, became metamorphosed into A. J.
Brown, and, without any recollection of his
former career or relationships, drifted to Penn-
sylvania and began an entirely new existence
as a shopkeeper in a small country town.
Similarly with Dr. R. Osgood Mason's patient,
Alma Z., in whom the secondary personality
assumed the odd name of "Twoey," spoke,
as Dr. Mason phrased it, "in a peculiar child-
like and Indianlike dialect," and announced
that her mission was to cure the broken down
physical organism of the original self, which
remained completely in abeyance so long as
"Twoey" was in evidence. Here, as is appar-
ent, we have a case almost identical with that
of Lurancy Vennuni, the sole difference being
that "Twoey" - who, by the way, is credited
with having exercised seemingly supernormal
powers did not pose as a returned visitant
from the world of spirits.
Thus far, then, depending on the argument
from analogy, the presumption is strong that
Lurancy 's case belongs to the same category
as the cases just mentioned. In the one, as in
the others, we have loss of the original self,
development of a new self, and the enactment
by the latter of a role conspicuously alien from
that played by the former. The one diffi-
culty in the way of unreserved acceptance of
this view is the character of the secondary
personality which replaced Lurancy's original
personality. Here the positive claim was made
that the secondary personality was in reality
the personality of a girl long dead, and by
way of proof vivid knowledge of the life, cir-
cumstances, and conduct of that girl was
offered. But on this point considerable light
is shed by the discovery that in a number of
instances of secondary personality in which no
supernatural pretensions are advanced there
is a notable sharpening of the faculties, knowl-
edge being obtained telepathically or clairvoy-
antly; and by the further discovery that it is
quite possible to create experimentally second-
ary selves assuming the characteristics of real
persons who have died.
In this the creative force is nothing more or
less than suggestion. There is on record, in-
deed, an instance of mediumship in which the
medium, an amateur investigator of the phe-
nomena of spiritism, clearly recognized that
his various impersonations were suggested to
him by the spectators. This gentleman, Mr.
Charles H. Tout, of Vancouver, records
that after attending a few seances with some
friends he felt a strong impulse to turn me-
dium himself, and assume a foreign person-
ality. Yielding to the impulse, he discovered,
much to his amazement, that without losing
complete control of his consciousness, he could
develop a secondary self that would impose
on the beholders as a discarnate spirit. On
one occasion he thus acted in a semi-con-
scious way the part of a dead woman, the
mother of a friend present, and the impersona-
tion was accepted as a genuine case of spirit
control. On another, having given several
successful impersonations, he suddenly felt
weak and ill, and almost fell to the floor.
At this point, he stated, one of the sitters
"made the remark, which I remember to have
overheard, 'It is father controlling him,' and
I then seemed to realize who I was and whom
I was seeking. I began to be distressed in
my lungs, and should have fallen if they had
not held me by the hands and let me back
gently upon the floor. ... I was in a measure
still conscious of my actions, though not of
my surroundings, and I have a clear memory
of seeing myself in the character of my dying
father lying in the bed and in the room in
which he died. It was a most curious sensa-
tion. I saw his shrunken hands and face, and
lived again through his dying moments; only
now I was both myself, in an indistinct sort
of way, and my father, with his feelings and
appearance."
All of this Tout explained correctly as "the
dramatic working out, by some half conscious
stratum of his personality, of suggestions made
at the time by other members of the circle, or
received in prior experiences of the kind."
In most instances, however, the original self
is completely effaced, and no consciousness is
retained of the performances of the secondary
self; but that an avenue of sense is still open
is sufficiently demonstrated by the readiness
with which, in hypnotic experiments, seem-
ingly insensible subjects respond to the sug-
gestions of the operator. Here, therefore, we
find our clue to the solution of the mystery
of Lurancy Vennum. A victim of a psychic
catastrophe, the cause of which must be left
to conjecture in the absence of knowledge of
her previous history, she was placed in pre-
cisely the position of the adventurous Mr.
Tout and of the inert subjects of the hypno-
tist's art. That is to say, having lost momen-
tarily all knowledge and control of her own
personality, the character her new personality
would assume depended on the suggestions
received from those about her.
Yet not altogether. Dr. Stevens's detailed
record contains a reference which indicates
strongly that the spiritistic tendency manifest
from the onset of her trouble was to some
extent predetermined. A few days before the
first attack she informed the family that "there
were persons in my room last night, and they
called 'Rancy, Rancy!' and I felt their breath
on my face"; and the next night, repeating
the same story, she sought refuge in her
mother's bed. These fanciful notions, symp-
tomatic of the coming trouble and possibly
provocative of it, would act in the way of a
powerful autosuggestion, and would of them-
selves explain why there resulted an inchoate,
tentative, vague personality, instead of the
robust, definite personality that assumes con-
trol in most cases.
At first, the reader will remember, she
sought vainly and wildly and wholly subcon-
sciously it cannot be made too clear that
she was no longer consciously responsible for
her acts for a satisfactory self of ghostly
origin. The aged Katrina, the masculine
Willie, and other imaginary beings were tried
and rejected; principally, no doubt, because
her thirteen-year-old imagination was unequal
to the task of investing them with satisfactory
attributes. From her relatives she obtained
no assistance in the strange quest. They,
disbelieving in "spirits," persisted in calling
her insane a comfortless and far from
beneficial suggestion. But with the interven-
tion of the Roffs and Dr. Stevens every-
thing changed. Not questioning the truth of
her assertions, they confirmed her in them,
and offered her into the bargain a ready-
made personality.
Here at last was something tangible, a
starting-point, a foundation-stone. Mary
Roff had had a real existence, had had
thoughts, feelings, desires, a life of flesh and
blood. And Mary, they assured the poor,
perturbed, disintegrated self, could help her
regain all that she had lost. Very well, let
Mary come, and the sooner she came the
better. For knowledge of Mary, of her char-
acteristics, her relationships, her friends, her
earthly career, it was necessary only to tap
telepathically the reservoir of information pos-
sessed by Mary's family; and there would be
available besides a wealth of data in chance
remarks, unconscious hints, unnoticed prompt-
ings. She had been too long in search of a
personality not to grasp at the opening now
afforded. Focused thus by suggestion, that
subtle, all-pervasive influence which man is
only now beginning to appreciate, the basic
delusional idea promptly took root, blossomed,
and burst into an amazing fruition. Banished
were the spurious Katrinas and Willies. In
their stead reigned Mary, no less spurious in
point of fact, but so cunningly counterfeiting
the true Mary that the deception was not once
detected.
Mark too how suggestion sufficed not only
to create the Mary personality but to expel it
and restore the hapless Lurancy to perfect
health. If the responsibility for the creation
rests on Dr. Stevens and the Roffs, to them
likewise belongs the credit for the cure. Their
insistence on the fact that Mary's spirit could
and would be of assistance, was itself as power-
ful a suggestion as could be hit upon by the
most expert of modern practitioners of psy-
chotherapeutics ; and in unconsciously per-
suading the spirit to set a limit to its time of
"possession" they made another suggestion of
rare curative value. To the suggestionally in-
spired fixed idea that she was not Lurancy
Vennum but Mary Roff was thus added the
fixed idea, derived from the same source, that
in May she would become Lurancy Vennum
again, and a perfectly well Lurancy. It was
as though the Roffs had actually hypnotized
her and given her commands that were to be
obeyed with the fidelity characteristic of the
obedience hypnotized subjects render to the
operator.
When the time came the transformation was
duly effected, though, as has been seen, not
without a struggle, a period of alternating per-
sonality, with Mary at one moment supreme
and Lurancy at another. But this is a phe-
nomenon that need give us no concern. Ex-
actly the same thing happened in the last
stages of the Hanna case. Nor do the fugitive
recurrences of the Mary personality signify
aught than that Lurancy was still unduly sug-
gestionable. Note that these recurrences, ac-
cording to the available evidence, developed
only when the Roffs paid her visits ; and that
they ceased entirely upon her marriage to a
man not interested in spiritism, and her re-
moval to a distant part of the country.
Finish