Considering Evidence for the 'Supernormal': The Case of 'Patience Worth'

   

There have been three previous blog articles (1, 2, 3) about Pearl Lenore Curran (maiden name Pollard; 1883-1937).  An online edition is available of The Case of Patience Worth: A Critical Study of Certain Unusual Phenomena (1927) by Walter Franklin Prince, Ph.D. (1863-1934).  Metaphysical perspectives chronicled in the 'Patience Worth' case of transcendental communication correlate with many other cases, sometimes in subtle or obscure ways.  Similar to a myriad other reports categorized with such terms as 'mediumship' or 'channeling,' the author questioned:

. . . how literature displaying such knowledge, genius and versatility of literary expression, philosophic depth, piercing wit, spirituality, swiftness of thought, ability to carry on complex mental operations, and apparent divination of other minds, could have originated in Mrs. John H. (Pearl Lenore) Curran of St. Louis, who by her own testimony and by abundant other evidences, neither possesses or ever did possess the requisite knowledge, who never had shown literary talent nor had literary practice or ambitions, and who never had displayed the other mental qualities in any comparable degree.

 
One chapter concerning the "mechanism of delivery" is a description of how early in the case—beginning in July 1913—the Ouija Board was first used and several years later abandoned.

At first the delivery by Patience Worth was accomplished by the usual ouija board method, the letters of the alphabet being indicated by the pointer.  But little by little the letters began to come directly into Mrs. Curran's mind, so that the use of the pointer gradually became a mere automatism, and by 1918 the record shows that it simply circled aimlessly.  The development of the power to see vivid mental pictures while composition was going on kept pace with the increasing rapidity of the oral giving out of letters, which at length became so rapid that nobody not accustomed by long practice could possibly follow them and separate them into words, even in his mind.  On March 13, 1919, while a poem was coming, Mrs. Curran happened to look into the eyes of a sitter, and noticed that the letters kept coming into her mind just the same, and, although she still moved the pointer in circles, thereafter she cultivated the habit more and more of looking away from the board.  The next stage was when words began to come without the necessity of their being spelled, and on Nov. 24, 1919, for the first time an entire poem came by words only.  On Jan. 5, 1920, it was set down: "Mrs. Curran had not spelled out six words in this entire record, and the rate of speed was something awful.  A poem was secretly timed, and it came 110 words to a minute."  On Feb. 12th, 1920, Mrs. Curran was finally weaned from the ouija board.  After she for a long time "had been circling the board about with the pointer as usual and reciting the matter as Patience gave it to her," at Mr. Yost's suggestion the board was laid aside and the "pointer" was placed on a chair, with the hands of the two placed upon it.  A verse having been thus successfully produced, they discarded the pointer, and let their hands simply touch the chair.  At first Mrs. Curran felt "somewhat lost and confused" and Patience Worth dictated a sort of a sermon of broad application on the text "be not confused."  Then Mrs. Curran "sat back to try without the chair, but still felt lost with her hands idle, and asked for something to hold.  Mr. Yost offered his scarf-pin, and another poem was delivered."  The alterations did not affect the quality of the product noticeably.  It is recorded eleven days later that Mrs. Curran was continuing to get along without the board, though having a little difficulty when first beginning a session, which difficulty soon passed off.

The following excerpts are from the "Introduction" along with the concluding paragraphs of the "Summary" (with footnotes in parentheses).  These passages show no consideration of what has been expressed in previous blog articles as the 'Oneness' of a shared subconscious and Superconscious Mind among all living creatures.

From INTRODUCTION

When, in 1906, Dr. Morton Prince published his now well-known book entitled The Dissociation of a Personality, he intended it to be regarded what it is called in the supplementary title, A Biographical Study in Abnormal Psychology.  All the facts therein contained were supposed to be accounted for on known psychological principles.  Nevertheless, although it is hinted by Dr. Schiller, (See Proceedings S. P. R. Part 74, page 397, for Dr. Schiller's remarks.  The passage by Dr. Hyslop has not been located, but it exists.) and alleged by Dr. Hyslop, that certain curious facts in that case were not published, on the basis of the facts which were printed another eminent psychologist, Dr. William McDougall, was driven to the conclusion that the most logical way of explaining the "secondary personality Sally" would be by assuming her to be a spirit.  And although the Doris Case of Multiple Personality, in which all the facts were exhibited, was also written as a psychological study, yet the eminent scholar of Oxford, Dr. F. C. S. Schiller, found in it impressive evidence for the supernormal, largely connected with "the secondary personality Sleeping Margaret," and her claim to be also an invading, though benevolent intelligence.  (The reasons given by Drs. McDougall and Schiller will be quoted in the final section of this volume.)

Likewise, this study of "Patience Worth" is undertaken primarily as a psychological one, yet I shall not wait for the others to perceive and declare that "Patience Worth" may be, for reasons to a certain extent identical with those which existed in the Beauchamp and Doris cases, precisely what she, in common certainly with "Sleeping Margaret" and possibly with "Sally," said she was, an external intelligence somehow in contact with and able to use Mrs. Curran's brain . . .

At the same time, I shall not argue that this is the case, nor shall I argue strenuously against or for that third and mystical theory that "Patience Worth" represents the results of an unusual reception of knowledge and power from the "Cosmic Consciousness."

This is the thesis which I formulate after a ten months' study of the data: EITHER OUR CONCEPT OF WHAT WE CALL THE SUBCONSCIOUS MUST BE RADICALLY ALTERED, SO AS TO INCLUDE POTENCIES OF WHICH WE HITHERTO HAVE HAD NO KNOWLEDGE, OR ELSE SOME CAUSE OPERATING THROUGH BUT NOT ORIGINATING IN THE SUBCONSCIOUSNESS OF MRS. CURRAN MUST BE ACKNOWLEDGED.  In the former case we normalize what hitherto would have seemed "supernormal" (in the same manner as hypnosis, which a hundred years ago was thought to involve a supernormal claim, has been normalized); in the second case we admit the supernormal.

From SUMMARY

The eminent psychologist, Dr. William McDougall, in 1907, published a paper dealing with cases of divided personality, particularly that known as the Beaucamp case.  ("The Case of Sally Beauchamp," by William McDougall, M.Sc., M.B., in Proceedings of S. P. R., Part 52, pp. 400-431.)  He said: "If we are to discuss these strange cases with any hope of profit, we must give rein to speculation, and, as was said above, there are no established facts that set certain limits to hypothesis. . . ."

He points out the inconsistency between Dr. Morton Prince's interpretation of the case and his data: e. g., Dr. Prince shows that the "personality" Sally existed co-consciously side by side, as it were, with both personalities B I and B IV, and still continued after B I and B IV were consolidated, and yet holds, apparently with good reason, that B I and B IV, when synthetized, resulted in the original and complete Miss Beauchamp.  "Dr. Prince seems, in fact, to have set out with the conviction that every case of multiple personality is to be regarded as resulting from dissociation of a normal personality, and to have allowed this prejudice to limit the range of his search for hypotheses, and to blind him to the unmistakable implications of his own descriptions."  After giving the reasons from data furnished by Dr. Prince why Sally appears to have been superior to any normal individual, Dr. McDougall says: "In short, to assert, as Dr. Prince does, that Sally is a split-off fragment of Miss B. is to maintain that the part may be greater than the whole."

"If a number of cases of the type of Sally Beauchamp, as described by Dr. Prince, were to be described by other equally careful, and credible observers, I think the weight of their testimony would be irresistible.  (Nine years later appeared The Doris Case of Multiple Personality, the data in which, generally accepted by psychologists, emphatically support those of the Beauchamp Case.)  The conclusion would give very strong support to the spiritistic explanation of such cases as Mrs. Piper, and would go far to justify the belief in the survival of human personality after the death of the body.  It is for this reason that Sally Beauchamp seems to me of so great interest to this Society."

In 1918, Dr. F. C. S. Schiller, of Oxford University, one of the most brilliant thinkers in our age along lines of psychology and philosophy, wrote a review of The Doris Case of Multiple Personality.  (Proceedings of S. P. R., Part 74, pp. 386-403.)  He devotes considerable space to "Sleeping Margaret" who, after three personalities had been banished, "remained a great puzzle."  "With her mature intelligence, detached attitude and curiously restricted control of the body, she was obviously unlike the alternating personalities. . . . She alone was not amenable to suggestion," and she continued to manifest after the case was apparently cured.  Dr. Schiller treats with respect, though not expressed acceptance, Sleeping Margaret's claim that she was a guarding spirit.  And he says:

The Doris Fischer case suggests that in all such affairs there may be a good deal more than meets the ordinary doctor's eye.  It seems to point to a whole array of mysteries which are usually not explored because medical prejudice fights shy of them and medical attention is directed elsewhere.   We may take it that medical records are usually incomplete where they approach the supernormal. Incidents bordering upon this region are recorded, if at all, only apologetically and under protest.  Nevertheless, it is fairly well recognized that cases of "dissociation" exhibit hyperaesthesias as well as anaesthesias, though rarely in such abundance as in our case.  Supernormal knowledge was observed in other cases also, e. g., in "Alma Z.," "Lurancy Vennum," and "Mr. Hanna."  As for the Beauchamp case, it will be remembered that "Sally" seemed so supernormal to Mr. McDougall as to drive that great authority into an argument for sheer spiritism.  (Proceedings of S. P. R., Vol. XIX., p. 430.)  In the Doris Fischer case the supernormal, though still subordinate to the psychological interest, bulks large—perhaps only because it was fully and fairly recorded.  At any rate it is to be accounted a piece of good luck rather than an anomaly that the case fell into the hands of investigators who were not afraid to explore its supernormal side.  Nor can it be too strongly impressed on future investigators that scientific completeness and honesty require them not to omit what look like supernormal incidents merely because they do not understand them.  We know so very little about the intimate "nature" and structure of "souls," and about their disorders and potentialities, that we should not allow any a priori prejudice to impede the investigation of whatever facts we can observe.  Nor should we acquiesce too easily in terms like "dissociation" as the beginning and end of wisdom.

Drs. McDougall and Schiller are not content to settle down on mere formulas, nor will they blink difficulties, insufficiencies, inconsistencies.  Conscious of the ocean of ignorance that surrounds the little island of human knowledge and of the ease with which the new knowledge which caused nausea yesterday is digested today, they are not afraid to seek explanatory hypotheses and to look them in the face.  They do not shrink to utter the dread word "supernormal."  They call on investigators to produce their facts in full and to recognize all of the facts in any attempt at explanation, and to defer explanation rather than to adopt a theory which either ignores or is unjust to the facts.  As Dr. Schiller says: "Nothing is more likely to impede investigation than premature acceptance of 'explanations'."
 
The sentiments I have attributed to these eminent scholars are my own.  It is far better to gather, test, authenticate, analyze and synthetically set forth the facts to the extent of one's ability even though no explanation is even suggested, than to outline a magnificent theory with little examination and much ignoring of the facts.  For ten months my time has been mostly devoted to the study of this case by all the methods possible for me to employ.  No single discovered datum has been omitted, no clue or hint from any source neglected.  It is not possible for any fact that shall come to light to disconcert me, since I am not wedded to any theory.  Once again, in the closing words of this book I invoke the whole world to tell what it knows of Mrs. Curran.  If there should be reason I will retreat as cheerfully as I have advanced, but, after the arduous and unremitting labor now drawn to a close, am not sanguine of having the opportunity to retreat from or to modify this proposition: 

Either our concept of what we call the subconscious must be radically altered, so as to include potencies of which we hitherto have had no knowledge, or else some cause operating through but not originating in the subconsciousness of Mrs. Curran must be acknowledged.

The Patience Worth Collection is archived at the Missouri History Museum.  Below is shown one of the original documents offering a poem.