The Equinox (Volume III, Number I)

THE TANK are “obsessing” the poor girl, and causing all the disturbance. Shades of witch- craft and the New Testament—here is a joyous revival, in the Twentieth Century! We have a girl, Doris Fischer, born in 1889 (of German parents), who de- veloped, in all, five distinct personalities, each of which received a special name. Besides the original “Doris,” we find “Sick Doris,” “Margaret,” and “Sleeping Margaret,” and “Sleeping Real Doris.” These five personalities are said to have shown varied characteristics (as is invariably the case) and to be essentially dif- ferent, from the psychological point-of-view. As usual, also, several of them developed as the result of emotional shock, and disappeared under hypnosis and psychological treatment; one by one they were eliminated, until only “Real Doris” survived,—with traces of “Sleeping Margaret” persisting, as a sort of undercurrent of reality. These names, of course, apply to the so-called varied personalities which appeared during their shufflings back and forth; that is, their alternate appearances. It must be admitted at once that Dr. Prince has made some interesting investi- gations in this curious case, and if we grant the reality of the facts, they have very considerable psychological interest. Of course, it is hard to prove that the whole thing is not a clever fraud. Girls of the kind have a habit of playing such parts, because of the attention they thereby attract; but let us grant their reality, for the sake of the argument. We have, then, an abnormal individual, who needs treatment and cure; and the sooner cured the better! Now, at this point, our friends begin messing-about with “mediums,” and as the result, obtain an extraordinary amount of rubbish, wholly disconnected from the case, by which they try to prove that the alternating personalities were really “spirits”! Most of these messages were obtained through a “Mrs. Chenoweth”— a medium who has figured largely in the Reports of the American Society,— though Heaven only knows why, as she gives us a constant flow of the most ter- rible drivel which it is possible to conceive. Looking through the so-called Re- ports on this medium, one is impressed with the idea that it is criminal to waste time, and the Society’s money, obtaining such stuff, and criminal to keep pouring money down such a sink of Nothingness. What is the hold which this medium seems to have over the venerable Secretary of the Society? Is it more than a mere scientific interest? Are there subtler motives which cause the Head of the Psychical Movement in America to bow solemnly before the crude “Teachings” obtained through this evident fraud of a medium? Any common sense man-of- the-world, reading this stuff, would form his own opinions,—for it is plain to see that,—by merely playing upon his vanity, and flattering him to the skies,— this ‘medium’ has managed to ingratiate herself so thoroughly with the noted Pro- fessor, that he has become blind to evidence, to facts, and to common sense. Here are a few typical “Nuggets of Wisdom” from the sittings :— “They are not so clear about the life here as they will be when they come but 287